[reposted from the old site- originally posted July 11, 2003]
I got involved in a discussion last night on the topic of the relative scarcity of Silver Age Marvels and DCs. I've since given up on the discussion, since I don't really get much out of arguing in circles, but it did serve as an inspiration for today's post.
Overstreet used to publish an "estimated numbers of copies" for certain high end books. The data was obviously just an educated guess and I never really paid attention to it until I figured out that the actual number isn't really what's interesting, it's the relationship between the numbers. The relationship is something that anyone that looks at the overall market experiences every time they look at an auction Catalogue or Dealer's wall at a major show. It's embodied in thoughts like "Wow. There are a lot of Amazing Spider-Man #1s out there" or "Will I ever see a nice Showcase #22?" Based on my experience, Overstreet captured that relationship pretty well.
So, for my own amusement, I took that OS data, did CGC census lookups for all the books and posted the results below. I don't have time to analyze it right now, but it makes for very interesting reading even without comments from the peanut gallery. I will say I don't think there are a lot of surprises.
The title/ issue #s link to the CGC census by the way…
| Title/ Issue # | # Est. in OS 21 | # in "Mint" | Total # in CGC Census | # 8.0 or Better* | High CGC | OS Ratio** | CGC Ratio** |
| Adventure 247 |
500 | 9 | 52 | 4 | 9.6 | 1.06 | .73 |
| Amazing Fantasy 15 |
1400 | 45 | 434 | 22 | 9.6 | 2.98 | 6.11 |
| Amazing Spider-Man #1 |
1700 | 70 | 611 | 54 | 9.8 | 3.61 | 8.60 |
| Brave and the Bold # 28 |
530 | 23 | 109 | 7*** | 9.4 | 1.12 | 1.53 |
| Detective #225**** |
400 | 21 | 34 | 0 | 7.5 | .85 | .47 |
| Fantastic Four #1 |
1400 | 65 | 292 | 15 | 9.6 | 2.98 | 4.11 |
| Flash 105 |
800 | 21 | 70 | 4 | 9.2 | 1.70 | .98 |
| Incredible Hulk #1 |
1200 | 32 | 225 | 16 | 9.4 | 2.55 | 3.16 |
| Journey Into Mystery #83 |
1500 | 45 | 165 | 23 | 9.6 | 3.19 | 2.32 |
| Justice League of America #1 |
1350 | 60 | 125 | 12 | 9.4 | 2.87 | 1.76|
| Showcase #4 |
470 | 9 | 71 | 6 | 9.4 | 1 | 1 |
| Showcase #8 |
790 | 20 | 38 | 2 | 8.0 | 1.68 | 0.53 |
| Showcase #22 |
650 | 25 | 86 | 3 | 9.0 | 1.38 | 1.21 |
| Tales of Suspense #39 |
2100 | 55 | 241 | 37 | 9.6 | 4.46 | 3.39 |
| Tales To Astonish #27 |
1600 | 50 | 97 | 12 | 9.4 | 3.40 | 1.36 |
| X-Men #1 |
1900 | 60 | 559 | 57 | 9.8 | 4.04 | 7.87 |
|
*Only unrestored copies. ** Number of Copies per One Copy of Showcase #4 *** Six 8.0s and one 9.4 ****Technically not a Silver Age book. It's pretty close though. |
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