Superman Through the Ages! Forum

(http://i21.ebayimg.com/04/i/06/c6/56/94_1.JPG)

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=6620675142&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

 :shock:  :shock:  :shock:

According to the seller, this came from her mother's estate.

See below...

whatever itwas the buyer got it for $87...so either SCORE!!!!

or sucker..... :roll:

see below....

Yes, the Famous First Edition reprint had that cover you show (second image), but inside that (more or less cardboard) cover was a slick-paper recreation of the original cover, as shown in the first image.

The outer cover is removed all the time and the rest of the book sold to unsuspecting mom's, grandmas' etc in flea markets across America.  This scam's been going on almost since the FFE book first came out.

The tip-off is the size.  The FFE volumes, like the Limited Collector Editions, were "tabloid"-size books while the Golden Age original is smaller...bigger than a modern comic, yes, but smaller than the tabloids.  The listing gives the size as 13x10 inches, which fits the tabloids, or near enough, and is much bigger than a GA book.  Sure looks like you're the proud owner of a 1978 reprint.  A bent one with a hole in it.  And from the point of view of serious collectors, a coverless one at that.  :shock:

And to answer the question in your subject line, if I had a copy of Superman #1, I would sell it.  I'd rather have the money than the headache of caring for a super-valuable pile of rotting pulp paper.

With the money I could always buy some vintage Superman toy or other most likely.

Well, I had to take the chance...I should have no trouble getting my money back, either, via eBay security...

Or, I could frame it with my Superman collection and perpetuate the same scam...if I am its victim!

 :D

In the meantime, I might as well scan it and donate it to the site. We already have a copy of Action #1...

Be careful, since there was another reprint that was just like the real one, which I have and came in that box set with the history book and the Alex Ross figure which was in 1999.

On the inside cover it states:

"This publication , an exact reprint of Superman #1 (1939), faithfully reproduces all advertising contained in the original."

Last line states:

"Reprinted by Cronicle Books,.... Printed in China"

I'm pretty sure that it's the 1978 reprint. Another eBay user tipped me off before Nightwing posted his info as well, and it seems to make sense.

Yet I went ahead and paid for it anyway...I want to catch this sucker and rain down justice! What better way to do this than to personally inspect the comic, and get the seller's name and address...at least I hope so! I'm risking about 90 bucks on this...

I'd keep it in my "comics bin", so the Beagle Boys couldn't steal it!

I seem to remember the same thing happening to Joe Matt in his autobiographical comic book Peep Show; as a boy, he bought a copy of "Action Comics #1" which turned out to be a reprint.

I'm not sure how much luck you'll have "raining down justice" on the seller.  You'd have to prove they misrepresented the nature of the book, and it could go either way.  Yes, they say it's a "1939 Superman comic" but a quick scan of the contents show's that is indeed what it claims to be (since DC chose to reprint the book exactly).  There's always the possibility, though in my opinion a slim one, that the seller didn't know what he/she had.  This is why this kind of thing is often sold with a description like, "I don't know much about comic books, but this appears to be...."  That's a disclaimer that lets the seller off the hook, while luring in the buyers who know just enough to be a danger to themselves ("heh, heh, that thing's worth a fortune!  I'll rob him blind!").

Now if they'd claimed to have some certificate of authenticity, or faked a "slab"-type presentation with a bogus grade rating, then they'd be obvious scam artists.

Back to that repro in the "Masterpiece" edition, I may be mistaken, but I don't think that was a complete reprint.  It sure didn't seem 64 pages long.

On a related note: beware of people seelling anything autographed byfilm director Stanley Kubrick.  I had bid on a 2001 album allegedly signed by SK and the auction was abruptly cancelled.  Kubrick rarely signed anything and I guess someone involved with his estate got wind of it.
Lucky for me......

I decided against the "rain down justice" option and instead decided to be nice to the seller. She really didn't know what she had, and offered a refund.

This whole thing is overshadowed by a package I got in the mail yesterday, which I had forgotten about. Inside was a 1942 first edition copy of "The Adventures of Superman," dust jacket intact, autographed by Kirk Alyn.

The previous owner had it for 30 years and had no clue whose signature was it in the book. It happened like this:

I was thinking about getting the Adventures of Superman for some time now. I looked on Amazon.com at the originals, but they are usually around 200 or 300 dollars.

I looked back a couple of days later, and a guy had listed his for $99. He'd had it for 30 years and just wanted to get rid of it. There was a signature in it, but he didn't know exactly whose it was.


So there you have it. When you are collecting Memorabilia Supreme, you win some and lose some. I still came out a winner this week. Even though the $1 copy of "Victory by Computer" that I got is kind of ambigious.

A happy ending :)

I would use the copy of Superman #1 to find a cure for cancer!

(Do you think that it would have healing properties if you allowed people to touch it?)

I don't know, but I have a stain in my shower that looks like the cover of Superman #1.

And I once had a potato shaped just like Lex Luthor's head.  It looked good in my memorabilia display until it started growing shoots.

I once had a potato chip shaped like a potato chip.

Wasn't there a story where Superman cultivated non-living crystalline structures resembling his friends or was that My Blue Heaven starring Swamp Thing?

What would I do with a copy of 'Superman #1?' Easy, same thing I did back in the 70s with 'Spider-man' 3-10, all 10 first Avengers, first 3 'X-Men" etc. I'd sell it at a painfull loss so that it wouldnt end up being ruined by me!
  If you knew how many CLASSIC comics I had de-faced as a kid, cut out characters from the covers to make colladges & stuff, you would be sick! you would , deservedly, ban me from the site! All I can do is plea extreme youth, I had no idea what I was doing