Man. To be able to go back in time...

Wow, fascinating ads from a very early era of comics collecting. I wonder what the going rates for golden age books like Marvel Comics #1, Action #1 and Detective #27 were at that point?

Most valuable issue listed there is probably Amazing Fantasy #15, which is being sold for $23.Went down kind of a rabbit hole looking up its current worth, over 4000 copies have been graded. While a top grade will set you back millions, you can apparently find 8.0 copies for around $300,000. Less than I anticipated.

Yeah, I looked up prices for CGCed Amazing Fantasy 15, and found these numbers:

9.6 (NM+) 4 $3,600,000
9.2 (NM-) 4 $800,000
9.0 (VF/NM) 11 $550,000
8.0 (VF) 27 $310,000
6.0 (FN) 89 $72,000
4.0 (VG) 243 $31,000

CGC has really messed with the perceived value of collectibles. I suspect that, to the eye, there's very little difference between a 9.6 and a 9.2, but, apparently, that 0.4 higher grade is worth nearly $3,000,000. Kind of crazy because, when you get down to it, grading is subjective. Could not, in theory, one grader look at a book and give it a 9.6 while another would give it a 9.4? But that number at the top of the slab is worth three million dollars.

I'm not sure what the Overstreet/raw value is for the book. I haven't looked at an Overstreet in ages.

A while back I found some pdf files of Overstreet Guides from the 1970s and it was interesting to see the prices for old comic books.

For example, in 1976 you could have bought X-Men #1-66, Giant-Size X-Men #1, and #94-100, all in NM condition, for just under $150.

An X-Men #1 in NM would have sold for $25 in 1976, $36 in 1977, $60 in 1978, and $120 in 1980. And that same run of X-Men comics above would have been about $600.

Even in 1980, an Incredible Hulk #181 in NM would have only set you back $3.75! And Amazing Spider-Man #129 was a bargain at only $1.50!

Obviously fake yet found it funny.

Never owned any of those Mego figures, but it always bugged that the Hulk is not only not bigger than the other heroes, but he actually looks smaller.

I mean, jeez, he looks shorter than Robin in that photo.

Spidey on Electric Company. Amazing Spider-Man 142 from May 1974

What seems to have happened is issues with scarcer high grades command multiples of lower grades, even if the difference is as little as a 9.6 and 9.0. If I was investing in CGC books, I'd never look at anything below a 9.6 with 9.8/9.9 preferred. The top grades are always in demand, while I've seen lower grades just sit forever.

I have toyed with the idea aiming for a complete 9.8 CGC set of DC Comics Presents, which ran 97 issues and 4 annuals. Mostly feasible even if I don't think I'd make my money back.

Hulk was definitely smaller. I think each figure probably all used the same amount of plastic in the manufacturing process, but Hulk ended up shorter because his parts were bulkier/more muscular than the other characters.

Yeah, the MINT aspect of it creates a certain kind of scarcity. There are probably tens of thousands of NEAR MINT copies of a common book like Spawn #1, but once you start breaking those down into MINT (9.9) and GEM MINT (10.0) those books then become scarce and turn common books into high demand collectibles.

And I'm not really sure what the difference is between MINT and GEM MINT. Isn't MINT essentially perfect in every way, and was once considered an unattainable grade? Hence prior to CGC, the highest most retailers and guides would go is NM/M.

I suspect the difference usually between a 9.8 and 10 would be the printing process. I see a lot more 9.9/10s on cardstock covers than regular issues which almost never go above 9.8. Die-cutting seems to produce a more uniform product. At least that is what I think is going on there.

I also wonder if CGC is cutting deals on the side with small boutique labels. I see far more 9.9s on 50, 100-unit runs than any Marvel or DC book.

Neal Adams

I think that is the reason as well. This was during the early to mid 1970s, and due to the oil crisis, plastic prices were getting much higher. Mego didn't want to use more plastic on a figure that was sold at the same price point as the others, so Hulk was made smaller (The Thing too). Same reason why Hasbro's 12" GI Joe line was cancelled in 1976 and replaced with the smaller, 8 1/2" tall Super Joe line in 1977, plastic prices were just getting too expensive.