Set Description
Synopsis: This is a complete set of of all 44 books with a minimum grade of 9.2. The set consist of 13 9.8s, 26 9.6s, 4 9.4s and a single 9.2. 28 of our books are highest graded examples with five single highest graded examples and five more that are 1/2 topping the census. It’s a solid set, as all of our books are unrestored. We do have a few books that are third highest graded, which we would like to upgrade, but many of these books are impossible to find in high grade, as the best examples of some issues have been locked away forever. Highlights of this set are five single highest graded issues, #91, #92, #116, #117 and #118. Other early highest graded issues include #84, #85, #88, #89 and #90.
Background: JIM was one of my favorites as a little kid, I really liked those Marvel panels in the top left-hand corner with the blond Thor-hey, I was a kid LOL. It is, however, one of the tougher Marvel sets to assemble in high grades. With Spidey, FF and X-Men, the books are generally available, just expensive. For example, we had the money, we could upgrade almost every second or third highest graded book in our Spidey set. But we have been collecting JIM for 20 years and have never even seen some of the books topping the census. We have been looking for years for upgrades of #95, #97 and #102. We would also ideally like to obtain a #83 9.4, but the cost is pretty much prohibitive.
2021 Update: One mission accomplished, as we finally found a #102 9.6. Now if we could just find a 9.6 or 9.8 #95 and #97. Once again, this is a set where the #1 registry set has already been sold, but many buyers never registered their books leaving this set 43 points out of the top spot, which it occupied until the registry value of a #83 9.4 was pushed up in May 2021. Oh well....
2022 Update: Well, we resumed the top spot in the Census without adding a book, as someone registered one of KingFisher’s books from his sold set. This remains a set we would like to upgrade, but have not seen any books that would improve our collection over the last year, except for a #83 9.4, which was priced well beyond our means. Oh well….