Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinThe reason cows are out of season since 1969

Wanted: more collections like this.

§ December 27th, 2021 § Filed under retailing § 6 Comments

Okay, sorry, the Variant Cover-Age post you’ve come to expect purt’near every Monday ain’t happening today, as I was surprised Sunday afternoon at the shop with quite the sizeable collection of 1960s/1970s comics…heavy on the Marvels.

After shucking the yellowing plastic cling-wrap bags that surrounded each comic (terrible, but better than no bags) and getting them halfway organized, the collection looked a little something…like this:

Two and a half short boxes of comics may not seem like a lot of work to buy or process, but when they’re all older comics, and many of them are specifically premium comics with quite a bit of demand, well, the processing time increases a bit. More thorough checking of conditions, more researching prices beyond just using the price guide, etc.

Anyway, the need to get these processed relatively quickly had me actually bring the boxes home with me to start that particular job, even if it’s just to get comic bags and price stickers on everything. Which, okay, I mostly did but at least it’s a head start. And it definitely bit into my writing/research time for another variant cover post. Hence, what you’re reading now.

I did already sell a couple items, which I’ll show you here and will give you an idea of what I’ve working with. Like, for example, a Giant-Size X-Men #1:

…in a pic that’s a tad glare-y on purpose, as to show that long crease down the right hand side of the front cover. Thus continues my streak of not having a copy of this comic available for sale longer than about a few hours.

The other surprise was a beat-to-the-dickens copy of Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #1:

…that still has an amazing cover image, despite the wear. And alas, the centerspread of the comic is missing, but I still managed to find a buyer for the comic anyway!

The dominant feature of the rest of the collection is the majority of Amazing Spider-Man issues from 10 to about 160 or around there. Missing issues around the 100 mark, but still has the first Punisher, the whole original Spider-Clone thing, first appearances of many of the Spider-Man rogues gallery (Green Goblin, Rhino, Kingpin, Scorpion, like that) and, of course, the first Spider-Mobile.

Other highlights of the collection include more ’60s X-Men, a bunch of late ’60s/early ’70s Avengers (including a #100 signed by Roy Thomas!), a bunch of ’70s Captain America (with what seems to be almost all the Cap/Falcon stories, including the first Falcon), about 2/3rds of the Silver Surfer run, and other scattered books (such as the Neal Adams Green Lantern/Green Arrow with the first John Stewart and, yes, that one).

I already have a buyer interested in most of this stuff, so we’ll see what’s left over. But I gotta get the darned things priced first. One thing I’ll say is that this is the most I’ve ever paid for a collection, and I was willing to pay that price because I knew nearly everything here would sell quickly. I mean, ’60s Spider-Man, duh. This was not a risky purchase.

I’ll try to get more pictures taken of what’s come in as I find the time, even if just for posterity and not, like, a “for sale” listing as the time could very well already be spoken for.

And here’s the thing: the fella that sold me the comics says he still needs to bring in the really good stuff. Egads. I’ll let you know if that happens.

In the meantime, don’t forget to give me your 2022 comic industry predictions! Thanks for reading, pals, and I’ll try to be back on schedule next week with another variant cover we can gaze upon.