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Is Pre-Code Horror undervalued?
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65 posts in this topic

I would say that in general, PCH is valued correctly.  However, that does not mean that PCH is priced correctly by many dealer and venues.  There is a huge gap between the truly iconic PCH covers and the relatively run of the mill PCH.  Asking $250 for a standard bland low-grade Ace PCH is grossly overpriced as an example.  

But I still think there are a few PCH sectors that remain undervalued but likely not for long.  

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1 minute ago, Robot Man said:

And that was considered crazy for a 10 year old book. 

5 years later prices had gone way up. i remember my dad took us to a convention in 1977, he came back with a few things. unfortunately, he didn't know the difference between ASM 1 and ASM Annual 1, so he would up buying 2 mid-grade annuals for $10 each. Not terrible, but my guess is that the $20 could have gotten something more substantial.

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1 minute ago, the blob said:

No. It is pretty expensive. It is often hard to get even a beater of a third tier title for $50. Some of the pre-hero, but post-code Marvel monster books are not too bad, but many are surprisingly "common," as an there always seem to be 5-10 copies of a given issue for sale.

Odd because as a little kid buying off the rack in 1960-1962, I never saw any of those. Rarely did I see them in my neighborhood friends collections either. I’m sure I would have bought them if I had. 

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7 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

EC prices are getting real aggressive these days. Was looking at a common sci-fi issue on the bay recently. A year ago would have gone for $175-200. It went for $560. In spite of most of them being pretty common.

Back in the early 1970’s, Weird Tales of the Future and Weird Mysteries were $1-3 but Crypt, Haunt and Vault were $5-7...

Unfortunately, I could not take advantage of the 70s but I was very active in PCH, Romance, Good Girl, LB Cole in the 90s and prices were not much higher.  The Gerber guides helped tremendously in providing visibility and exposure to the iconic covers.  Although the classic covers seemed a little more plentiful back then, there were still many that were quite rare even when demand was pretty limited.  

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2 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Odd because as a little kid buying off the rack in 1960-1962, I never saw any of those. Rarely did I see them in my neighborhood friends collections either. I’m sure I would have bought them if I had. 

I knw when I see them I price them out and there are always a bunch for sale of any given issue. That's all.

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2 minutes ago, BakerFanOne said:

Unfortunately, I could not take advantage of the 70s but I was very active in PCH, Romance, Good Girl, LB Cole in the 90s and prices were not much higher.  The Gerber guides helped tremendously in providing visibility and exposure to the iconic covers.  Although the classic covers seemed a little more plentiful back then, there were still many that were quite rare even when demand was pretty limited.  

I would agree with that. In that genre, I think Matt Baker has appreciated the most. His stuff was dirt cheap back in the day. I remember legendary dealer Redbeard turning me on to LB Cole. I was grabbing anything with a great cover even the funny animal books. Problem was I really didn’t like the contents. Then the prices started surging so I backed off until the wave passed and started buying again. Now, most are out of my comfort zone again. 

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1 minute ago, Robot Man said:

True. Pretty much all of them are readily available and affordable in lower grades now. 

yes, not high grade.. i am usually looking at a $20-25 reader and trying to figure out if the price is good. i usually decide to pass or get outbid. they're cheap, but there's enough demand that they never go THAT cheap, I just don't see bidding wars on these lower grade ones like you see on some of the PCH. 

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3 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

I would agree with that. In that genre, I think Matt Baker has appreciated the most. His stuff was dirt cheap back in the day. I remember legendary dealer Redbeard turning me on to LB Cole. I was grabbing anything with a great cover even the funny animal books. Problem was I really didn’t like the contents. Then the prices started surging so I backed off until the wave passed and started buying again. Now, most are out of my comfort zone again. 

There is no doubt that Matt Baker has received the recognition he so richly deserves.  I was turned onto Baker by a dealer friend in Philly back in the early 90s.  He loved his St. John work as well as Phantom Lady.  I still will never forget when he excitedly called me into the shop as he had just purchased a small 50s collection that had a Weird Mysteries 5 ($25) and 12 ($15), Catman 32 ($20), and Guns Against Gangsters 6 ($10).  There were also many ECs, and other cool horror like Chilling Tales, Mr. Mystery (16, 18) Weird Horrors and Weird Chills.  Those were the days!  LB Cole jungle covers were pretty common back then as was Captain Aero 26 (I knew one dealer who had about 15 low grade copies as his shop was close to where the comic was printed).  But the early Suspense comics (1-4) were always rare as well as Terrific 5.

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PCH undervalued?  Nope, just look at EC pre-code offering.  Atlas PCH and some others like Harvey's Black Cat Mystery are in the top tier and garner a premium.  Second rate PCH being undervalued is slightly more debatable, but let's face it, it's second rate. 

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Speaking of ECs, I'd have to say no, and this is part of the reason I sold the handful of EC books (except for Weird Science-Fantasy #29) I had last year.

When I got back into collecting in 2000, getting a few nicer issues of each EC crime, horror and sci-fi title was one of my collecting goals.

Once books featured in SOTI (CSS #22 comes to mind) started blowing up like crazy I decided to step away from ECs and narrow my focus down to my other two interests, Silver Age Marvels and DCs.

It basically got to the point where collecting ECs was going to eat up more of my comic collecting budget than I was willing to allocate to it.

I did get to read and enjoy each of my EC books before slabbing them to sell, and have to say there's nothing else like them. :cloud9:

Edited by silverseeker
Minor tweak.
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10 hours ago, dylanthekid said:

That's a full circle of events though: Prices go up, you buy BECAUSE prices are gonna go up. Why does this market keep going up? there's most of the the non-comic investment factors but these seem to accelerate faster

I heard the same point 40 years ago when Overstreet was the only pricing guide available and only in print format.  Overstreet raises prices every year and people accept the new prices and then Overstreet raises prices again the following year.  Prices have gone up as long as I can remember and that's a pretty long time. 

What's this worth and books like this and can  they go up?  I think so

P1010293.jpg.6dab00b0062a9d0574ce9c124fc134e9.jpg

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10 hours ago, Funnybooks said:

If we only had a crystal ball or a DeLorean...I look at collectibles like any non-essential expense...cup of cofee, pack of smokes, a daily donut or a vacation...you'll spend money on some consumable that gives you a moment of pleasure but what's left is gone but an instant form of gratification or a memory...you spend the money nonetheless, knowing that it's a "cost" that you can never recoup...I'll buy a comic book for the same type of gratification and regardless if it goes up or down, I still get the enjoyment of collecting/owning the books until the day comes that I sell/trade the book for some other form of enjoyment...spend within your means and you'll have more enjoyment in the hobby...

Absolutely.  I own comics because I enjoy them and I love to look at them and flip through them.  While I'm aware the value of my collection that's not why I collect and I believe a lot of the problems we have in the hobby today are related to dollar signs and greed rather than an appreciation of the art form.  

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10 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Sometimes it pays to be a geezer. I bought 80% of mine in the early to mid 1970’s. PCH (other than ECs), were under tables unbagged for a buck apiece. Maybe $4-5 bucks top on the table. $10-20 were WAY over priced. 

In those days, Timelys were hot. I bought Nedors cheap. DCs were hot so I bought MLJ, Ace, Chessler and other odd ball publishers cheap. 

Prices now are crazy! 

We are looking at current prices using the past as a reference.  It's like our parents complaining that a gallon of gas costs 30 cents.  Prices do indeed seem crazy but perhaps we're just too old :facepalm:

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