What will be the next Gerber for GA collecting? 2 2

[Knightsofold]

I'm not sure anything has had more impact on Golden age comic book collecting than the Gerber photo journals.

The internet and professional grading brought awareness, availability, and buyer confidence.   

But what will have the power to captivate and turn the curious to enthusiast the way the Gerber books did?

 

[Knightsofold]

I would love to buy a new Gerber book series, one that started at 1937 chronological, each volume was as thin as the marvel Gerbers, and had larger pictures on each page.  Pricing data replaced with interesting history etc about the books.

Or maybe a long instead of tall format?

 

 

[Robot Man]

I would love to see the pedigree book finished...

[MrBedrock]

Mmehdy's "year in review" threads are pretty captivating. 

[MrBedrock]

The "ask gator" thread is also powerful stuff that potentially could change the hobby...though for better or worse remains to be seen.

[Silver Surfer]

29 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

Mmehdy's "year in review" threads are pretty captivating. 

Didn't he fail to deliver last years state of the union? 

Edited November 27, 2017 by Silver Surfer

[Mmehdy]

At the time, this book which I bought, blew me away and exposed me to material that I had never seen and began to appreciate. There are some interesting month by month cover threads for 1939..so the same approach, that start from the beginning and go from there. It will most likely be on the internet rather than print form. Interesting back story on how Gerber got the money to publish it.

[N e r V]

3 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

The "ask gator" thread is also powerful stuff that potentially could change the hobby...though for better or worse remains to be seen.

How about a Mr.Bedrock’s Bedtime Stories thread to balance the scales?

[jhm]

I think digital will win here, but it's so tough to capture the same feeling as you get flipping through those beautiful pages in a that amazing oversized book 

Some of my own favorite pieces of the book are the SI and RVI numbers. Unfortunately, they're a bit out of date though. There so much more data in today's marketplace that will eventually lead to more fun around buying and selling (for this geek anyhow).

Sprinkle in census data, sales data and interactive modeling that can occur between issues within the same (or similar) series and our hobby will attract new investors (for better or worse).

Some of my own experiments (forgive the works in progress):

[Readcomix]

6 hours ago, Knightsofold said:

I would love to buy a new Gerber book series, one that started at 1937 chronological, each volume was as thin as the marvel Gerbers, and had larger pictures on each page.  Pricing data replaced with interesting history etc about the books.

Or maybe a long instead of tall format?

 

 

This reimagining would be both encyclopedic and entertaining. They could be released serially and would be both enjoyable and useful. Whether there's a big enough market to justify it I don't know.

[MrBedrock]

2 hours ago, N e r V said:

Mr.Bedrock’s Bedtime Stories

[tth2]

In all seriousness, I think this GA forum has taken that role.  So many great but relatively unknown books get shown here and end up firing up various boardies' acquisition gene, particularly when they're shown in grades that many might not have believed existed.

I think it's no coincidence that GGA and pre-code Horror, which have been featured prominently in this forum, have been skyrocketing in price.   

[BarristerBaker]

I’ve told others this, but I think a traveling museum exhibit would be tremendous. Hit 10 cities in North America and 15 others around the globe. Show some of the best and coolest from a number of collectors and let people see the books in person. Provide a few themes - super hero, PCH, sci-fi, romance, etc. Lots of “mainstream” keys - but even more oddities with cool stories. I think you could “wow” some new folk and help inspire another set of collectors. 

Make it happen. 

[RareHighGrade]

45 minutes ago, tth2 said:

In all seriousness, I think this GA forum has taken that role.  So many great but relatively unknown books get shown here and end up firing up various boardies' acquisition gene, particularly when they're shown in grades that many might not have believed existed.

I think it's no coincidence that GGA and pre-code Horror, which have been featured prominently in this forum, have been skyrocketing in price.   

I was getting ready to post, and then saw that Tim had already perfectly presented my view.  This forum is the modern version of the Gerber Guide.

[telerites]

Along the lines of digital as mentioned earlier, I would certainly give a nod to the Grand Comic Database.  A massive resource that I go to continuously and have contributed to.  For page counts, credits, covers, etc., GCD is wonderful and I realize it covers more than GA and more than US-based series.  Before I would use Keltner's Guide for page counts and still keep it handy.  

Even with all that, I still spend time leafing through my Gerbers - each time finding a cover or two or more that I add to my want list.  And I cannot tell you how times, I have gone through those two volumes.  

[Sqeggs]

23 hours ago, Silver Surfer said:

On 11/27/2017 at 1:25 PM, MrBedrock said:

Mmehdy's "year in review" threads are pretty captivating. 

Didn't he fail to deliver last years state of the union? 

Maybe this year's will be twice as long. 

[Sqeggs]

16 hours ago, RareHighGrade said:

17 hours ago, tth2 said:

In all seriousness, I think this GA forum has taken that role.  So many great but relatively unknown books get shown here and end up firing up various boardies' acquisition gene, particularly when they're shown in grades that many might not have believed existed.

I think it's no coincidence that GGA and pre-code Horror, which have been featured prominently in this forum, have been skyrocketing in price.   

I was getting ready to post, and then saw that Tim had already perfectly presented my view.  This forum is the modern version of the Gerber Guide.

Certainly worked that way for me.  I've ended up going after a lot of books I didn't know existed -- or hadn't paid much attention to -- after seeing them posted to the boards. 

[Mijael.Levy]

This GA section has motivated me to focus on GA books 

Edited November 29, 2017 by Mijael.Levy

[Zolnerowich]

On 11/28/2017 at 12:46 PM, Sqeggs said:

Certainly worked that way for me.  I've ended up going after a lot of books I didn't know existed -- or hadn't paid much attention to -- after seeing them posted to the boards. 

 

On 11/29/2017 at 9:31 AM, Mijael.Levy said:

This GA section has motivated me to focus on GA books 

 

Ditto. The GA boards have led me to books I would never have discovered otherwise. 

In fact, I blame the GA boards for ALL of my bad habits. 

[Robot Man]

As much as I love these boards, sadly, they have pushed a lot of stuff well beyond my means. Very hard to find cool "un-discovered" stuff anymore. Good for the hobby but not so good for us collectors on a limited budget. Good thing I started collecting the off the radar stuff long ago. On the bright side, when I finally decide to sell...