{"id":80,"date":"2013-10-22T22:26:34","date_gmt":"2013-10-23T05:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/?p=80"},"modified":"2013-10-24T23:49:51","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T06:49:51","slug":"gerber-scarcity-in-the-internet-age","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/?p=80","title":{"rendered":"Gerber Scarcity in the Internet Age"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Gerber\"<\/a>My thanks to Poverty_Row on the Collector’s Society <\/a>boards for essentially acting as my editor on this post<\/em><\/p>\n

When a collector buys a given comic book, what drives that decision? \u00a0In my experience it can be a lot of things. \u00a0I am putting a run of that title together, it’s a cool cover, it has art from an artist that I like, it’s a quirky book I’ve not seen before, etc. \u00a0All of these things, and more, have influenced my buying decisions at one time or another.<\/p>\n

Often though, I will buy a comic just because I know it is rare. \u00a0It may not be a very interesting book, but if it is pre-1954 and it has managed to make it to 2013, I almost feel an obligation to protect it. \u00a0How do we define rare in this hobby? \u00a0Ernst and Mary Gerber, in their fantastic reference, The Photo-Journal Guide to Comic Books<\/em>, say a comic book is “Rare” when between 11 and 20 copies are in existence.<\/p>\n

\"Gerber_Scale\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This scale was created pre-internet when locating collectibles was much harder than it is today. \u00a0So what do we, or should we, call “Rare” today?<\/p>\n

A brief look at a few key Golden Age books gives a hint. \u00a0Take a look at the table below showing these milestone books with their Gerber scarcity number and the current number of CGC graded books.<\/p>\n

\"Gerber\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I could have picked other books here, especially books in and around these milestone issues. \u00a0From Detective 1-30 for example, there are a few issues with less than 15 graded copies. \u00a0I chose the issues above because I suspect that most, if not all, copies in existence are slabbed. \u00a0If someone has a Detective 19 though, it might reside in their collection as a “raw” book.<\/p>\n

\"Action_Comics_1\"<\/a>So what do all these numbers say? \u00a0For starters, they say that Gerber was pretty accurate in his estimate for Action 1, and maybe a little less so with Detective 27. \u00a0One could probably make an argument for Gerber 7 on that book. \u00a0As for All Star 8 (a book that lists for $80K in the guide in NM- 9.2) it probably should be considered a Gerber 6. \u00a0For a book like Walt Disney Comics & Stories 31 (~$8,000 in NM- 9.2) it’s likely that a lot more “raw” copies of this book exist than do copies of Action 1 or Detective 27. \u00a0However, I suspect a Gerber 5 rating is still too low.<\/p>\n

In addition to the specifics on these books, I think we can draw a more general conclusion about the Gerber scale and its application today. \u00a0Is there any doubt that Action 1 or Detective 27 are “Very Rare” books? \u00a0I don’t think so. \u00a0I suggest that it might be time to reevaluate this scale to more accurately represent the data that has been gathered as part of the CGC database. \u00a0What do you think?<\/p>\n

Until next time…<\/p>\n

P.S. \u00a0As an aside…2018 copies of Amazing Fantasy 15 have been graded by CGC. \u00a0Even taking into account multiple submissions of the same book, it is clear that this is not a “Rare” book. \u00a0A book in demand? \u00a0Sure. \u00a0A rare book? \u00a0No.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My thanks to Poverty_Row on the Collector’s Society boards for essentially acting as my editor on this post When a collector buys a given comic book, what drives that decision? \u00a0In my experience it can be a lot of things. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-action","category-gerber"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sundrycollectibles.net\/comics\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}