Save money if you want to buy this three year old guide and buy it direct from the publisher in the Amazon auction section where he offers it for only 12.00 which is fair since it is out of date material..for the up to date prices try the Official Price Guide that is published by the Autograph Collector magazine..who better to know the real skinny on prices then the top magazine in the field.

This book is a must for autograph collectors. Seems like everyone (non-sports) who is collectable is in this book. I don't purchase an autograph (or bid on one) until I check this book. Don't pay too much for an autograph -- this book pays for itself.

Bottom line: Comic book grading is THE most difficult component of the comics collecting business side of the equation. Subjective interpretation lends disparity between any 2 people's grades, but the more experience that you have, the better equiped that you are to make qualified decisions about a book's grade. This book was much-updated from its previous version, so is an improvement. Bashing the book for not giving a "Cliff-notes" version of how to wave a magic wand, and "poof!" get a grade is a poor position to take. Yes, the book needs work in terms of pictures of defects and corresponding adjustments. One should also keep in mind that there is a functional aspect of grading that allows for a given defect to be (somewhat) offset by a strong characteristic in another are (e.g. stress marks bring book to FN, but stunning colors and/or supple white pages might boost it back to VF-, as a potential example). Given that there is NOT a lot of documented information on this subject, this book is helpful as a reference ONLY, and should be used in conjunction with other references (ComicBase, Wizard, Overstreet Guide), to make a good determination of a grade. Certainly times are better now than they were, say, 10 years ago, when only pros in the business for years could make an accurate estimate. Be thankful for that. CGC info, by design, is not going to be released - it's a Trade Secret for their business model, and if they gave it all away, they would not be in business. Does Proctor and Gamble give away its recipe for its products, or DuPont? - of course not. The discerning investigative researcher uses multiple sources. One such source (if you had bothered to read the Overstreet 33rd Edition) is that Metropolis Comics helped CGC develop the standards that they use. Also, many of the MAJOR comic dealers contribute heavily to the Advisory Board for CGC, so if you look at the sources, you could glean more information as well. Stop whining, and start learning ! This book is a valuable tool to be used with the other resources available to comics collectors, but it is not the de facto "guide" for grading. There will never be such a guide, so get over it.

This 2nd edition is an improvement over the 1992 edition and bolsters the viewpoint that Overstreet standards must be recognized as the primary source for grading decisions. While this guide does not provide specific CGC guidelines - which CGC refuses to publish - there is an overview of CGC by CGC Primary Grader Steve Borock and there are several examples of CGC-graded comics in various grades pictured. This, of course, merely provides examples of CGC grading and does not address the issue of CGC's well-documented inconsistencies.

In this guide, you will find advertising by some of the largest retailers in the nation, several interesting articles with topics ranging from comics history to restoration to shipping comics. Each grade has a fairly comprehensive one-page description of necessary qualities inherent to the grade, along with a full checklist of 21 grading considerations like spine roll, cover creases and staples. The pages following are filled with clear and illustrative examples of covers of books fitting the grade, with appropriate annotation of defects.

While there is still room for improvement in future editions, such as addressing the topic of grade "qualifiers" - a defect impacting the grade of an otherwise NM comic, it is the premier guide to comic book grading and is a must-have for any serious collector or dealer.

If you sell on EBAY or just want to track the condition/current value of your personal collection, this is the quintisential book to have.Every major player in the world of comics bases their grading on this book.A wonderful guide with picture representation to ensure accurate grading of individual comics.From the beginners to the experts,a true comic collectors "Must Have!"

Although there were many black and white photos there were no 'high quality' color photos. I found the section on my part of the country, the midwest, painfully lacking. I have yet to positively identify any of my twenty or so arrowheads using this book.

I have enjoyed my copy of this book, finding it particularly helpful in typing points, though not as much so in valuing. In response to the kind reader from Mass., all the point hunters I know, myself included, only hunt sites that are already culturally & historically ruined (i.e. plowed fields), with express permission of the private landowner. We don't go looking for burial mounds,etc. With regards to points being a non-renewable resource, true. BUT, I know of several fields that have been hunted for easily 100 years, and still produce points with each plowing. Many sites were in use as camp or village sites for literally thousands of years. I respectfully suggest that the kind reader turn attention more to construction sites and new road projects when looking for where true historical sites are being desecrated and ignored. Often, these sites are "overlooked" to avoid having projects put on extended (read here, expensive years) hold while the site is thoroughly researched. Happy Hunting!

Great book! Many, many pictures from all regions including the NE. The best book I've found for a vast array of artifacts, many styles, examples etc. A great help for the novice collector! Many great ads for arrowhead sites on the web as well. Finally a visual guide to "see" actual pieces not just sketches!

This is the worst business book I have ever read. The connection between his hypothesis on pricing and his discourse on science and mathematics is lacking or at best weak. This is truly voodoo-finance at its worst.

Managers that have been out of school for two years will benefit more from theor own experiences.

Good text for MBAs to chew on.

This is the most detailed monography on nonlinear pricing that one can get nowadays. Written by one of the most active and innovative theorist the book is filled with the masterly blend of both applications and theoretical models. Accessible to anyone who has a solid grasp on the fundamentals of microeconomic theory. It was written in the beginning of the 90s and since then significant research has been done - including the mechanism design aspect of nonlinear pricing theory. Thus a new, revised edition would be welcome both for researchers and students.

This is really the best and thorough book on the subject. The only wish I could have is the too light and concise treatment of nonlinear pricing in noncompetitive markets that are far from both extrema of monopoly and perfect competition. Nevertheless, an excellent read.

I was an English Lit major at Brown when Providence's H.P. Lovecraft was rediscovered by the literary community. His elaborate fiction deals with cruel monsters inhabiting weird mental universes and who would soon reduce the world to chaos. Others, including Stephen King, have developed this myth. The present book of stories is about the antichrist (Nyarlathotep, "the crawling chaos") whose appearance will herald the end times. The book is most interesting for Price's essays. Price actually styles himself "Heirophant of the Crawling Chaos". He equates Nyarlathotep's return with the familiar postmodernist stuff. The white-Western-male paradigm of rational science is about to collapse and be replaced with something finer (doesn't say what, he likes to cite Thomas Kuhn's stuff), Nyarlathotep is the tantric Siva expanding your consciousness beyond rational categories, and so forth. Except for Price's ridicule of today's Wiccans (competitors?), it's the current Left Wing campus ideology. But in contrast to postmodernist make-believe, tales like "The Snout in the Alcove" hardly present a vision of a better world. Lovecraft created his "mythos" as an extended joke. After reading Price's essays, I cannot decide whether Price, too, is kidding.

As stories go, these 'cycles' collections are not so bad, but the ramblings of Robert M. Price need badly to be divided off from Lovecraft's beliefs. Were these tales presented in a manner utterly unconnected with Lovecraft, the danger would not be so great, but the danger is rearing its head again, of the pollution of Lovecraft's thought, first by Derleth and now by others, leading to readers who have conceptions of Lovecraft that are entirely false. Lovecraft's pseudo-mythology was intended as plot devices that helped evoke and serve as stand-ins for his philosophy of cosmicism. There is no good and evil, no Hindu connections, or anything of that sort. Read these stories for the stories themselves. If you want to know about Lovecraft and his pseudo-mythology, read S.T. Joshi's masterful biography of HPL.

This book will teach you all you need to know about Nyarlathotep, from his creation to his role as Messenger of the Outer Gods. Robert M Price's introduction is full of information relating Nyarlathotep with various dieties around the world. A must have for anyone interested in the God of a Thousand Forms.

I waited a long time for this new edition to come out and it is a whopping 700 pages but, it spends half of its content lamenting the loss of the original author who died last year and reprinting articles I have from earlier editions. The names were updated abit but the prices still seem inacurate. A disapointing end to a once prolific career for the author.

Sanders are THE experts in autograph pricing and have been for years, this edition had chapters on matting and framing your collection, with web sites to get tools and materials, also a chapter on internet auctions and watching out for forgeries which are prolific on the web. If you collect autographs, this book is a must!

Mr. Daigler's work, Advanced Options Trading, provides a sound overview of option pricing models and the variables that influence pricing for stocks, futures, and exotics. The model of focus is Black-Scholes, though I give Mr. Daigler credit for a renewed look at works by Cox, Rubenstein, and Ross. In addition to the sometimes-tedious theoretics of options, Daigler examines hedging techniques and arbitrage. Overall, a rigid yet unimaginative examination of derivatives, nothing surprising just reaffirming. Floor trading and market makers may find its presentation a pleasant refresher, otherwise look to McMillian or Sheldon Natenburg's works.

BOOK WAS OK. NOT AS MUCH IMFORMATION AS I WOULD HAVE LIKED

this book opens with blackwood's great story: the wendigo. B is the master of the setting, noone can create the background and atmosphere like him. a very well written story from Brennan here. and Meloff's story is also an interesting read. derleth is at his best here. i don''t care that much for the guy, have never considered him to be HPL's great successor or anything, but he knows how to write, and i have always considered his story about Ithaqua to be his best contribution. the rest of the stories are well written. i don't think any of chaosium's anthologies contains of so much good writing than this. but good is not great. and the rest of the stories never turns out to be really good. the suspence killed by irrelevant writing going on for too long, mostly. sad. but the book is still wort reading

James P. Johnson (1894 - 1955) is one of the great neglected figures of 20th century American music. He composed the "Charleston", accompanied Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters, was the acknowledged champion of the Harlem stride school of jazz piano, taught piano to Fats Waller, influenced Duke Ellington, Count Basie and Thelonious Monk, and wrote some of the first symphonic music by an African-American that sought to fuse European and American music into a coherent whole.

This book is the only full scale biography of Johnson to be written so far. As such it is a valuable addition to our knowledge. It was originally written as a senior honors project at Yale, and although expanded, still bears signs of its origins. It is strong on the development of the Harlem stride piano style and has a good chapter on Johnson's pianistic approach.

However, it also has some flaws: it is based largely on secondary sources, has little to say about Johnson's "serious" music (most of which was not rediscovered until after 1986), is unbalanced in its emphasis on the 1920s while neglecting Johnson's jazz revival in the 1940s, and offers only limited analysis of his recordings.

Bob Hilbert's discography is a very useful addition, although it is now 15 years out of date and therefore omits both CD releases and some recent discoveries.

For Johnson fans or those interested in the history of stride piano or in the New York jazz scene of the 1920s, this is well worth getting. However, it is not the definitive scholarly biography that Johnson's stature ultimately deserves.