My golden age adventure 4 4

[Tri-Color Brian]

54 minutes ago, szav said:

Dang... that is really cool.

See my post above this one.  It has a great goofy cover too...

[fifties]

4 hours 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 ? 

You had stated earlier about considering the purchase of a Gerber Photo Journal.  I would highly recommend that.  Pore over it, see what appeals to you, and then blow your $1500 wad, lol.  Personally, I would go for quantity when just starting out, to build a collection.  Later, one can always upgrade, and sell the under copies.

[Tri-Color Brian]

1 hour ago, fifties said:

You had stated earlier about considering the purchase of a Gerber Photo Journal.  I would highly recommend that.  Pore over it, see what appeals to you, and then blow your $1500 wad, lol.  Personally, I would go for quantity when just starting out, to build a collection.  Later, one can always upgrade, and sell the under copies.

The photo journals are what dragged me back into GA collecting in 1993...damn them...

[Cat-Man_America]

2 hours ago, Tri-ColorBrian said:

See my post above this one.  It has a great goofy cover too...

Be advised, Goofy is a trademarked character of Walt Disney Studios, Inc. who controls and distributes films produced by Marvel Studios Entertainment.  Any unapproved use of the term "goofy" in conjunction with D.C. product is therefor forbidden! Further transgression will be diligently pursued by Disney Entertainment solicitors!  

[Tri-Color Brian]

13 minutes ago, Cat-Man_America said:

Be advised, Goofy is a trademarked character of Walt Disney Studios, Inc. who controls and distributes films produced by Marvel Studios Entertainment.  Any unapproved use of the term "goofy" in conjunction with D.C. product is therefor forbidden! Further transgression will be diligently pursued by Disney Entertainment solicitors!  

 

Edited March 8, 2019 by Tri-ColorBrian

[Cat-Man_America]

 

3 hours ago, fifties said:

You had stated earlier about considering the purchase of a Gerber Photo Journal.  I would highly recommend that.  Pore over it, see what appeals to you, and then blow your $1500 wad, lol.  Personally, I would go for quantity when just starting out, to build a collection.  Later, one can always upgrade, and sell the under copies.

Agree with everything you've stated with a caveat on the personal collecting advice.  Your approach is quite logical for some collectors, but everyone's mileage varies.  Focusing on quantity over quality is not the route that I'd take and isn't always a panacea for GA collecting.

Lukesaurus kinda hinted that he pefers quality over quantity, which is more in keeping with how I view GA collecting! IMO, if he sets his goals reasonably he can build a smaller high grade collection that'll be easier to maintain and enjoy.  The idea of upgrading is a good suggestion, but that's always a dice roll with trending books.  The downside to this approach is that the more desirable GA books only continue to rise in cost.  IOW, trying to upgrade later will likely be a much steeper climb.

He mentioned EC, and in my estimation that's a great doorway into GA as EC represents the pinnacle of comic book art & storytelling in the final freewheeling days of pre-code comic creativity.  Due to GFC the quality of available EC comics in grade tends to be top heavy. With a $1500 budget, he could still potentially snag one or more high grade (8.5 up) EC horror/SF books that aren't designated as Gaines File Copies.  My only caution is that EC collecting can become very addictive in it's own rite.

[fifties]

1 hour ago, Cat-Man_America said:

 

Agree with everything you've stated with a caveat on the personal collecting advice.  Your approach is quite logical for some collectors, but everyone's mileage varies.  Focusing on quantity over quality is not the route that I'd take and isn't always a panacea for GA collecting.

Lukesaurus kinda hinted that he pefers quality over quantity, which is more in keeping with how I view GA collecting! IMO, if he sets his goals reasonably he can build a smaller high grade collection that'll be easier to maintain and enjoy.  The idea of upgrading is a good suggestion, but that's always a dice roll with trending books.  The downside to this approach is that the more desirable GA books only continue to rise in cost.  IOW, trying to upgrade later will likely be a much steeper climb.

He mentioned EC, and in my estimation that's a great doorway into GA as EC represents the pinnacle of comic book art & storytelling in the final freewheeling days of pre-code comic creativity.  Due to GFC the quality of available EC comics in grade tends to be top heavy. With a $1500 budget, he could still potentially snag one or more high grade (8.5 up) EC horror/SF books that aren't designated as Gaines File Copies.  My only caution is that EC collecting can become very addictive in it's own rite.

Always good to have a discussion  from different points of view.  The OP stated that he was interested in covers and stories.  Based on that, my thinking was to have him expose himself to as wide a variety as possible, so he could zero in on whatever specifically attracted him.  Of course that approach would necessitate going after lower grade reading copies to start with, and then perhaps upgrading (sooner rather than later), which is how I myself have done things.  Frankly, when I bought low-graders, it was all that was in budget, and now they aren't available almost regardless of grade, so I'm very glad to have grabbed what I could at the time.

[lou_fine]

7 hours ago, Bookery said:

Most collectors are chasing the same books/genres, which of course forever escalates the prices for those items. 

Definitely too late if you are thinking of chasing after the latest hot GA books like this one here:

I guess this book is definitely still smoking red hot as this copy just sold in the recently completed CL Auction for $5,526 as compared to a condition guide value of only $850.  Another case of the stratospheric prices for hot GA books filtering from the higher grades down to the lower grades, although this particular copy certainly does appear nice relative to its assigned CGC grade.  

I guess if they had stuck one of those CVA Exceptional stickers on the slab, the book might have gone for even more money than this.  

[jimbo_7071]

On 3/6/2019 at 3:35 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 .

Couple years you could get a nice mid grade copy for a couple of hundred $ , now I can only get 1.0 - 2.0 . PCH horror has shot way up , DC superheroes as well (this is what I am mainly interested right now ).

Mind you my observations are based on online sales as I am not a US resident , Golden Age in Europe is almost non existent .

So am I late ? I enjoy the stories and covers , being from an ex communist country gives me a glimpse to a different world and time , but sometimes it's really hard to justify prices of  $200-$300 on a 0.5 Batman 36 for example .

You may be late and/or early. You're late in terms of keys, but some of the non-key stuff that's been hot lately will probably come back down. GA is a small segment of the hobby; one collector can influences prices significantly for a particular title if he is trying to put together a run. It happened with Mystery Tales a few years ago, but then the collector who was buying that title died and prices started coming back down to earth. If you avoid whatever's hot right now, you'll be fine.

[OtherEric]

Others have mentioned the Gerber guides, which are amazing, and were even more so at the time.  For some books (the ones in the public domain), you can see not even the covers but the whole issues:

https://digitalcomicmuseum.com/

[Bookery]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Definitely too late if you are thinking of chasing after the latest hot GA books like this one here:

I guess this book is definitely still smoking red hot as this copy just sold in the recently completed CL Auction for $5,526 as compared to a condition guide value of only $850.  Another case of the stratospheric prices for hot GA books filtering from the higher grades down to the lower grades, although this particular copy certainly does appear nice relative to its assigned CGC grade.  

I guess if they had stuck one of those CVA Exceptional stickers on the slab, the book might have gone for even more money than this.  

Here's a similar theme in the pulps.  This is a copy I had a couple of months back.  Can be had for around $600... if you can find one.

 

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Definitely too late if you are thinking of chasing after the latest hot GA books like this one here:

I guess this book is definitely still smoking red hot as this copy just sold in the recently completed CL Auction for $5,526 as compared to a condition guide value of only $850.  Another case of the stratospheric prices for hot GA books filtering from the higher grades down to the lower grades, although this particular copy certainly does appear nice relative to its assigned CGC grade.  

I guess if they had stuck one of those CVA Exceptional stickers on the slab, the book might have gone for even more money than this.  

That ship has sailed for pretty much everybody. I'm so glad I picked up most of that stuff while most people were chasing "men in tights".

[Robot Man]

9 minutes ago, Bookery said:

Here's a similar theme in the pulps.  This is a copy I had a couple of months back.  Can be had for around $600... if you can find one.

 

Lordy that is pretty!  I've wanted one of those for years and would be more than happy to pay $600 for one that nice. I like it even better than the Seven Seas! Please Bookery, don't post any more of those Saucy Movie Tales for a while so I can hopefully grab some more...

[cheetah]

I totally agree with getting the Gerber books and seeing what ignites your passions.  Alex Schomberg got me started in GA with his Xela airbrush covers.  That lead to an assortment of Fiction House books and GGA titles.  You can still get high wuality FH books for less than $300.

[Point Five]

13 hours ago, SuperBird said:

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

No, #31! 

You Catman newbs. So much to learn.

 

[Cat-Man_America]

4 hours ago, Point Five said:

No, #31! 

You Catman newbs. So much to learn.

 

Here, let me help... 

[Cat-Man_America]

8 hours ago, fifties said:

Always good to have a discussion  from different points of view.  The OP stated that he was interested in covers and stories.  Based on that, my thinking was to have him expose himself to as wide a variety as possible, so he could zero in on whatever specifically attracted him.  Of course that approach would necessitate going after lower grade reading copies to start with, and then perhaps upgrading (sooner rather than later), which is how I myself have done things.  Frankly, when I bought low-graders, it was all that was in budget, and now they aren't available almost regardless of grade, so I'm very glad to have grabbed what I could at the time.

You make several excellent points.  You're probably right steering him towards more variety given that he's just taking initial steps into deeper water, and on a budget it's better to take one's time and spend wisely.  Fortunately, GA books do tend to be more growth than speculative (using stock market jargon), so they're usually less risky investment-wise.

For some reason or other I was under the impression he wanted graded (encapsulated) books perhaps because of his earlier interest in Ernie Gerber's two volume Photo-Journal which focuses on cover art.   One thing for sure, books with Schomburg, Kirby, LB Cole or Fine covers are trending pretty high.

Raw is a 'nother kettle of fish (hopefully fresh fish, especially in a market where chumminess isn't always an attribute), but his money will go farther with raw books.     

[Lukesaurus]

My interest in the photo journal is because as you said im just getting into the golden age . Besides DC superheroes and EC horror i have no idea what is out there . Already because of this thread i started looking at a lot more titles. It’s like a whole new world has opened up from obscure superheroes to great sci fi covers .

[tabcom]

On 3/6/2019 at 9:03 AM, Lukesaurus said:

. . .

I've been looking at Baffling  Mysteries . . .

Now an encapsulated 9.4.

[tabcom]

11 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Definitely too late if you are thinking of chasing after the latest hot GA books like this one here:

I guess this book is definitely still smoking red hot as this copy just sold in the recently completed CL Auction for $5,526 as compared to a condition guide value of only $850.  Another case of the stratospheric prices for hot GA books filtering from the higher grades down to the lower grades, although this particular copy certainly does appear nice relative to its assigned CGC grade.  

I guess if they had stuck one of those CVA Exceptional stickers on the slab, the book might have gone for even more money than this.  

Underbidder 😭