My golden age adventure 4 4

[Lukesaurus]

As i said im not hunting for keys , all i want are cool covers and stories . I guess i should invest in a copy of The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books , some great covers posted here i had no idea existed .

Also thank you all for all the advice , the Golden Age comunity here rocks .

 

 

[Cat-Man_America]

19 minutes ago, Lukesaurus said:

As i said im not hunting for keys , all i want are cool covers and stories . I guess i should invest in a copy of The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books , some great covers posted here i had no idea existed .

Also thank you all for all the advice , the Golden Age comunity here rocks .

 

 

Absolutely, that two-volume set is the best eye-candy on the planet.  Captures around 99.9% of all the GA comic covers, mostly sourced from high grade copies (Edgar Church) and only missing a small number of books that at the time were thought not to exist (often referred to as Gerber "no shows").  Here's one of those rarities (in spoiler)...  

Spoiler

 

[AnkurJ]

20 hours ago, SuperBird said:

Speaking as primarily a collector of DC golden age, which you said you're interested in, non-Batman/ Detective books have been lagging the overall comic market and are definitely still relatively affordable. 

 

Yup. Other than joker covers, most others are very affordable.

[SuperBird]

That too. 

[miraclemet]

Yes. It's too late. Collect something else. 

(is this working? I dont need more competition for books!) 

KIDDING. GA is still an accessible market if you aren't dead set on collecting keys or top tier stuff. 

Find an artist you like and collect his other stuff. 

Even Baker has affordable books out there (non-romance books are still affordable, also books where he did interiors but not covers are very affordable by comparison).

Like a title but it's too pricey? Torchy comics costing too much? There are Torchy stories in far cheaper titles where she was the 2nd or 3rd story. 

As someone said. Like Bats & Supes? Go after Worlds Finest issues. 

And yes raw is key, but that also means you have to be good at detecting restoration and being able to determine lower grades (is that a 5.0 or a 3.5?)

[Ryan.]

12 minutes ago, miraclemet said:

you have to be good at detecting restoration 

I have been more and more willing to buy restored books lately (provided everyone is aware and forthcoming about the restoration), particularly when keeping books raw since there is no concern with seeing that horrific purple label. I'm finding that small amounts of color touch are a great market inefficiency right now. 

[SuperBird]

59 minutes ago, Ryan. said:

I have been more and more willing to buy restored books lately (provided everyone is aware and forthcoming about the restoration), particularly when keeping books raw since there is no concern with seeing that horrific purple label. I'm finding that small amounts of color touch are a great market inefficiency right now. 

I am kind of thinking the same thing. The market seems to have caught up to "conservation" not being a deal-killer, so perhaps minor color touch is next. 

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/6/2019 at 8:35 AM, Lukesaurus said:

So am I late ?

Yes

[fifties]

3 hours ago, miraclemet said:

Yes. It's too late. Collect something else. 

(is this working? I dont need more competition for books!) 

KIDDING. GA is still an accessible market if you aren't dead set on collecting keys or top tier stuff. 

Find an artist you like and collect his other stuff. 

Even Baker has affordable books out there (non-romance books are still affordable, also books where he did interiors but not covers are very affordable by comparison).

Like a title but it's too pricey? Torchy comics costing too much? There are Torchy stories in far cheaper titles where she was the 2nd or 3rd story. 

As someone said. Like Bats & Supes? Go after Worlds Finest issues. 

And yes raw is key, but that also means you have to be good at detecting restoration and being able to determine lower grades (is that a 5.0 or a 3.5?)

It seems that since his death, L.B. Cole cover illustrations, esp on horror titles, have been absolutely on fire.  I guess it's true that an artist's work  isn't recognized until he's gone.  That said, crime books that he did (Star Publications) are still very reasonable.

[Tri-Color Brian]

36 minutes ago, fifties said:

It seems that since his death, L.B. Cole cover illustrations, esp on horror titles, have been absolutely on fire.  I guess it's true that an artist's work  isn't recognized until he's gone.  That said, crime books that he did (Star Publications) are still very reasonable.

SOME of his crime books are reasonable...and some are getting astronomical in value.  It's the old rule:  Cover, cover, cover...

Reasonable L.B. Cole crime comic:

Unreasonable L.B. Cole crime comic:

[lou_fine]

6 hours ago, miraclemet said:

As someone said. Like Bats & Supes? Go after Worlds Finest issues. 

Yes, if you are looking for DC super hero books that are deader than a door nail, you can't go wrong with the World's Finest issues.  

And if you are a fan of the Flash, Green lantern, or Wonder Woman, you can go after the no-demand Comic Cavalcade run.

Never could figure out why collectors never took a fancy to these titles, especially the early ones which were the huge 100-pager ones with the beautiful cardboard covers.  

[lou_fine]

On 3/6/2019 at 12:35 AM, Lukesaurus said:

I have only recently started getting into Golden Age books , don't have a really big disposable income to spend on them and after reading several threads on the Golden age board it seems I am a bit late to the party .

So am I late ? 

    Just thought of something here.

If you want, you could go to the current CC auction and do a sort from Lowest Price to Highest Price to see what comes up.

For example, it looks like this perfectly beautiful book is still sitting there with a high bid of only a dollar for now:

 

Or if you are more into the GA super hero type of books, this one here currently has a high bid of only $8 for now:

Looks like this last one here with the grey-tone cover could also be easily upgraded if you wanted to press out that bottom left corner, assuming you are into that sort of thing.  

 

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by lou_fine

[SuperBird]

11 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, if you are looking for DC super hero books that are deader than a door nail, you can't go wrong with the World's Finest issues.  

Never could figure out why collectors never took a fancy to these titles, especially the early ones which were the huge 100-pager ones with the beautiful cardboard covers.  

The covers are all goofy. :P

[Bookery]

Most collectors are chasing the same books/genres, which of course forever escalates the prices for those items.  The vast majority of golden-age comics have actually dropped in price over the years, and there are thousands of issues that can be had cheaply.  Some have been mentioned here already.  Most people avoid funny animal or other humor... but there's a lot of interesting and weird stuff out there ("Babe- Darling of the Hills" has to be one of the most surreal comics ever published).  The early Looney Tunes with full-background art have some spectacular covers... especially if found in higher grade.  Photo-cover comics often don't look like much in low grade... but it's amazing how they glow in higher grades.  But if you're into the more popular cover themes... good-girl, horror, over-the-top crime covers... there are still the pulps which blow away anything found in comics (it's not even close) and yet can be had for a fraction of the price (though values on these are starting to climb quickly).  As has been mentioned before... whole publishers are comparatively inexpensive... Fawcett, Lev Gleason, Quality (great covers and art on Blackhawk, for instance, and still pretty cheap), ACG (I actually in some ways prefer ACG to some of the "harder" horror titles... they often had a whimsical fantasy feel to them, and the Whitney covers among others are pretty neat).  There's a lot of great art in '50s war comics as well, and even the Atlas issues are generally not too cost-prohibitive.

[Lukesaurus]

18 hours ago, SuperBird said:

I am kind of thinking the same thing. The market seems to have caught up to "conservation" not being a deal-killer, so perhaps minor color touch is next. 

I'm also starting to look at restored books. I've seen some pretty good deals on books with minor color touch , as long as the restauration is minimal I don't mind . I buy them for me not for profit .

12 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, if you are looking for DC super hero books that are deader than a door nail, you can't go wrong with the World's Finest issues.  

And if you are a fan of the Flash, Green lantern, or Wonder Woman, you can go after the no-demand Comic Cavalcade run.

Never could figure out why collectors never took a fancy to these titles, especially the early ones which were the huge 100-pager ones with the beautiful cardboard covers.  

Thanks i'll take a look at them as well , are the stories as goofy as the covers ? 

 

On another note , in April I will receive a tax return of about $1500 , I was thinking about buying a bigger and nicer book . Right now i'm thinking of a Showcase 22 in2.0 - 2.5. I haven't looked at any GA books as I'm not so familiar with them . What cool GA books could I get ? Perhaps some mid grade EC ? or Planet Comics ? Low grade Batman 2-9 ? 

[badback83]

I started really not giving two flips about restoration as long as it’s clear what has been done and is minimal like @Ryan. and @SuperBird have said.  Of course I’d like to be able to buy unrestored all the time, who wouldn’t?  But buying restored/conserved has allowed me to buy books I really enjoy at a price my wallet will accept.  

 

[SuperBird]

36 minutes ago, Lukesaurus said:

I'm also starting to look at restored books. I've seen some pretty good deals on books with minor color touch , as long as the restauration is minimal I don't mind . I buy them for me not for profit .

Thanks i'll take a look at them as well , are the stories as goofy as the covers ? 

 

On another note , in April I will receive a tax return of about $1500 , I was thinking about buying a bigger and nicer book . Right now i'm thinking of a Showcase 22 in2.0 - 2.5. I haven't looked at any GA books as I'm not so familiar with them . What cool GA books could I get ? Perhaps some mid grade EC ? or Planet Comics ? Low grade Batman 2-9 ? 

I assume the stories in World's Finest are as goofy as the covers, as any post 1945 Superman story would be. 

re: how to spend $1500, if you ask 100 people, you'll get 100 different answers. I just spent that on a Catman 30...

That much could get you any number of WW2 Action comics or Superman books in VG to fine. 

Edited March 8, 2019 by SuperBird

[Marty Mann]

One of my favorite splash pages comes from WORLD'S FINEST #34.

[szav]

2 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

One of my favorite splash pages comes from WORLD'S FINEST #34.

Dang... that is really cool.

[Tri-Color Brian]

6 hours ago, SuperBird said:

The covers are all goofy. :P

Goofy?  I don't know what you're talkin' about bud...this looks pretty serious to me.  Somebody could get into a nasty accident in this situation...

and what if they all fell down on this cover?  Someone could get hurt...that's pretty scary. 

But, seriously, I do like some of those simple, goofy covers...