1st Smurfs 1958 (yes 1958) Spirou 1071/1072 Club 1 1

[Ryan.]

I grew up with the Smurfs cartoon and was a big fan as a kid. When I became aware of these books a few years back I started collecting them. I've owned each in grades ranging from incomplete to slabbed 7.0. I've also sold copies to prominent national dealers who are well aware of what these are. I agree with the sentiments above that these are legitimate keys, or at the very least, issue 1071 is a key.

With that said, I suffer under no delusion that these books are rare, as that term is generally accepted. Relative to lots of Golden Age books, surviving copies of which may not exceed a few dozen, thousands of surviving copies seems like plenty to fulfill demand. 

Regarding the census, low numbers may simply reflect demand rather than actual scarcity. See, again, many Golden Age books with as few as zero copies on the census. 

[Spiderturtle]

3 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

I grew up with the Smurfs cartoon and was a big fan as a kid. When I became aware of these books a few years back I started collecting them. I've owned each in grades ranging from incomplete to slabbed 7.0. I've also sold copies to prominent national dealers who are well aware of what these are. I agree with the sentiments above that these are legitimate keys, or at the very least, issue 1071 is a key.

With that said, I suffer under no delusion that these books are rare, as that term is generally accepted. Relative to lots of Golden Age books, surviving copies of which may not exceed a few dozen, thousands of surviving copies seems like plenty to fulfill demand. 

Regarding the census, low numbers may simply reflect demand rather than actual scarcity. See, again, many Golden Age books with as few as zero copies on the census. 

Sounds reasonable to me.  Yeah this book would be classified as a silver age book

[Frederic9494]

2 minutes ago, Spiderturtle said:

Sounds reasonable to me.  Yeah this book would be classified as a silver age book

It is Silver Age and a such it's unfair to draw comparison with some scarce Golden age books...

My point is that it's difficult to find those in high grades (8.5 and above). In low grade it's fairly easy, as reflected by the vast majority of CGCed Spirou that are in low to mid grade.

Trust me, French is my first language and I have proactively scouted Belgium and France to get nice copies (understatement of the day!). And very few have surfaced in the last two years... it's frustrating!

[Spiderturtle]

1 minute ago, Frederic9494 said:

It is Silver Age and a such it's unfair to draw comparison with some scarce Golden age books...

My point is that it's difficult to find those in high grades (8.5 and above). In low grade it's fairly easy, as reflected by the vast majority of CGCed Spirou that are in low to mid grade.

Trust me, French is my first language and I have proactively scouted Belgium and France to get nice copies (understatement of the day!). And very few have surfaced in the last two years... it's frustrating!

There’s a couple of other board members That I’ve interacted with that will agree with you.  

[Ryan.]

6 minutes ago, Spiderturtle said:

There’s a couple of other board members That I’ve interacted with that will agree with you.  

Do they also have copies for sale? 

[Spiderturtle]

6 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

Do they also have copies for sale? 

Both of the boardies sold them to me already.  Part of the sales pitch was “I’m gonna regret selling these since it’ll be hard for me to find in the same grade again”   I fell for the sales pitch and took the bite 

Edited May 31, 2020 by Spiderturtle

[Frederic9494]

New Spirou 1071 on its way... Anxious to get my hands on this one given postal services reliability these days 

Edited June 2, 2020 by Frederic9494

[Spiderturtle]

34 minutes ago, Frederic9494 said:

New Spirou 1071 on its way... Anxious to get my hands on this one given postal services reliability these days 

Sharp looking copy

[Frederic9494]

Thank you! It took me 14 months to get it... was hidden in a remote crate unaccessible to the owner (his house was being renovated) - no joke!

Edited June 2, 2020 by Frederic9494

[gnoe]

On 6/2/2020 at 2:40 AM, Frederic9494 said:

Anxious to get my hands on this one given postal services reliability these days 

 

USPS lost my package in March. It contained 6 of the best Spirou's I'd ever seen, all over 9.2
One copy was a 9,6 or 9,8.
My life is ruined. Pretty sure they are stolen.

[Frederic9494]

28 minutes ago, gnoe said:

USPS lost my package in March. It contained 6 of the best Spirou's I'd ever seen, all over 9.2
One copy was a 9,6 or 9,8.
My life is ruined. Pretty sure they are stolen.

That's bad! Also lost a package from French postal service earlier this year... never reached Canada.

[Spiderturtle]

1 hour ago, gnoe said:

USPS lost my package in March. It contained 6 of the best Spirou's I'd ever seen, all over 9.2
One copy was a 9,6 or 9,8.
My life is ruined. Pretty sure they are stolen.

Very sorry to hear this.  Maybe you can post the scan of the books so that we can all be on the lookout 

[Spiderturtle]

Looks like a 3-d smurfs series will be out in 2021.  They’ll base it more on the comics

https://mcusercontent.com/ad266d3fd73f22e8665c18f84/files/b830c296-830c-4bcf-9506-ccebb2172361/new_tv_series_styleguide_lr_72_medium.pdf

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 14, 2020 by Spiderturtle

[Frederic9494]

Will it be on Disney+?

[Spiderturtle]

1 hour ago, Frederic9494 said:

Will it be on Disney+?

Ketnet-belgium

Tf1-french

kika-german

La Trois-Belgian 

City-British 

??= USA??

[Frederic9494]

Gargamel is in the house! (or at least will be very soon)

After 2.5 years of active search, I just got my hands on a Spirou 1130 in high grade with its uncut  "Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs" (the Smurf Catcher) supplement.

This is the first appearance of Gargamel from 1959. Finding copies of Spirou 1130 with its supplement is excessively difficult. 

Those were not stapled to the magazine and buyers were instructed to cut and staple them to create a mini comic book (!) Very few were left intact.

Here's a pic of the supplement.

Edited June 15, 2020 by Frederic9494

[Spiderturtle]

Gargamel must be one of the all time villain.  I sure thought so as a 1st grader 

[Frederic9494]

 

2 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:

Gargamel must be one of the all time villain.  I sure thought so as a 1st grader 

Well, with this high grade copy I will probably be the first "graded" once I send it to CGC.

[Spiderturtle]

16 minutes ago, Frederic9494 said:

 

Well, with this high grade copy I will probably be the first "graded" once I send it to CGC.

Are you going to inform Cgc customer service that it’s gargamel’s 1st appearance?

[Frederic9494]

2 hours ago, Spiderturtle said:

Are you going to inform Cgc customer service that it’s gargamel’s 1st appearance?

Yes and I will also mention that this first appearance is in the  "Le Voleur de Schtroumpfs" supplement.

Don't want CGC to start grading other Spirou 1130 as "First appearance of Gargamel" if the Smurfs supplement is not included!

Edited June 15, 2020 by Frederic9494