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Rarest High Grade Silver Age Comic
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33 posts in this topic

I recently came across this, primarily because I have one of these in great condition myself, if I can find it lol, but looking at the census is literally gobsmacking, as there is only 1 known example of this particular comic in the world that has a grade of 9.2 or above.

(the black cover makes this incredibly, almost non existently scarce imo)

Anyone know of any other examples of SA comics having just one example of 9.2 or above left ?

https://comics.gocollect.com/guide/view/122870

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37 minutes ago, namisgr said:

There are quite a few

Very true! Especially with 1950s DCs

Here's some examples of #1 DC issues and top of census:

Lois Lane 1 - only one 9.0 copy

Jimmy Olsen 1 - only one 8.5 copy

Brave And The Bold 1 - only one 8.0 copy

Showcase 1 - only one 9.0 copy

Tales Of The Unexpected 1 - only one 7.5 copy

 

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There are lots of very-early SA books that do not appear to exist in grades higher than 7.5/8.0 (let alone 9.2!).  Yes the census is obviously not complete because many people haven’t slabbed their books, BUT for many of these very-early SA books, it is a pretty safe bet that grades higher than 7.5/8.0 will never be seen, graded or raw.

Edited by MusterMark
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On 6/29/2020 at 9:35 PM, DanCooper said:

NOT mine....I wish it was!

From the famous Newsboy collection (bought by Mike Goldman Motor City Comics and auctioned off by Heritage in 2009)

image.png.c12a7ff6b36de02ea12fee5759784132.png

omg that is nice

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On 6/29/2020 at 2:06 PM, bc said:

Don't confuse what you currently see in the census of graded books versus the potential copies left in private collections that haven't been slabbed yet.

 

On 6/29/2020 at 2:24 PM, Keys_Collector said:

I don't know how often I see non-rare books for sale stating "only xx amount on the census" as if it is because of its perceived rarity as opposed to not many people slabbing the book.

This 100%.

It can sometimes be really hard to tell how much the census numbers for a particular book have to do with legitimate scarcity and how much it's about lack of interest / demand from collectors and speculators.

Speaking purely from my own experience assembling runs of Marvel comics, I can say that plenty of the books I've struggled to track down aren't scarce at all in terms of number of surviving copies -- but they might be "rare" in terms of the census (or more importantly to me, the market) because very few people care enough to slab them, and those that do are often run collectors who hold on to them.  My WTB thread is loaded with Bronze Age stragglers (Marvel Team-Up #7, anyone??) that I'm pretty sure nobody cares about.

I'm the wrong guy to ask about DC books because they hold no appeal for me, but is there much collector interest in the specific issues being mentioned in this thread?  I've never bought a Silver Age DC book but I do recognize certain covers for books that tend to have some buzz around them.  I can't say that I've ever seen any of these covers before.  (Apologies in advance for my ignorance.)

Edited by Sweet Lou 14
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I'm also looking into finding a method to come up with values for books in rare grades that don't come to market very often. I've been looking at GoCollect's FMV Modeler to predict values. Seems as good as anything out there. For example, I have a Captain America 117 9.6 WP that I'm looking to sell in the future. Last one sold was 2018 for $2750, and I've had offers based on that value, which I totally understand. 

But the Modeler says its worth 4200 now, which makes sense to me too.

I guess I'll just put it out there when I'm ready and see what happens.

 

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On 6/29/2020 at 9:08 PM, pickycollector said:

Showcase #17, never seen a copy better than 6.5 (and still waiting)

I was happy to have found a decent looking copy in that grade for my Adam Strange collection.  That Newsboy top census copy is insanely nice:

Showcase17cgc.thumb.jpg.a83d163a826ac0aefd53508c22e39a21.jpg

Edited by namisgr
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On 7/10/2020 at 9:22 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

 

This 100%.

It can sometimes be really hard to tell how much the census numbers for a particular book have to do with legitimate scarcity and how much it's about lack of interest / demand from collectors and speculators.

Speaking purely from my own experience assembling runs of Marvel comics, I can say that plenty of the books I've struggled to track down aren't scarce at all in terms of number of surviving copies -- but they might be "rare" in terms of the census (or more importantly to me, the market) because very few people care enough to slab them, and those that do are often run collectors who hold on to them.  My WTB thread is loaded with Bronze Age stragglers (Marvel Team-Up #7, anyone??) that I'm pretty sure nobody cares about.

I'm the wrong guy to ask about DC books because they hold no appeal for me, but is there much collector interest in the specific issues being mentioned in this thread?  I've never bought a Silver Age DC book but I do recognize certain covers for books that tend to have some buzz around them.  I can't say that I've ever seen any of these covers before.  (Apologies in advance for my ignorance.)

This.

Here's an example: Secret Hearts, a DC romance title that ran from 1949 - 1971, with more than 150 issues total.

Half of the first 50 issues haven't been slabbed at all.

Granted, that's mostly Golden Age (1949-1958), but still.

But then only 21 of the the next 50 issues have any slabs -- that's issues 51-100, running Dec. 1958 - Dec. 1964. And more than half just aren't on the census.

The census shows 12 copies total above CGC 8.0 from that six-year period, spread over just 10 of the 50 issues.

The run's not hard to put together in 4.0, but in 6.0, it's fairly difficult.

Legit 8.0+ (even raw)? Good luck.

But I still wouldn't wager the books aren't out there -- there's just so little demand for a 50+ year-old romance titles, that why would you bother slabbing them?

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3 hours ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

I haven’t looked it up in the census, but this has to be up there in rarity.  An argument can be made that this is the first Marvel Silver Age comic.

67 copies on census, 4 copies sold this year including the CGC 8.0 (5 higher and 4 in that grade) dont know how rare that makes it...

A short lived title that ran out of steam by August of 1959. Reads like Stan Lee dug back in his "hold" file of sci-fi and post code "horror" and put together a few issues.  What about that can be argued as "the first Marvel silver age comic"? Marvel hadn't even changed it's name to Marvel yet!

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On 6/29/2020 at 8:35 PM, DanCooper said:

NOT mine....I wish it was!

From the famous Newsboy collection (bought by Mike Goldman Motor City Comics and auctioned off by Heritage in 2009)

image.png.c12a7ff6b36de02ea12fee5759784132.png

Damn.

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7 hours ago, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

I haven’t looked it up in the census, but this has to be up there in rarity.  An argument can be made that this is the first Marvel Silver Age comic.

WOW great book and great condition cong

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