COMIC DETAILS
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Comic Description:
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Adventures of Superman 497 Modern
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Grade:
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9.9
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Page Quality:
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WHITE
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Certification #:
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0604771004
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Owner:
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Iconic1s
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SET DETAILS
Owner's Description
Many thanks to my big brother for helping me add this book to my collection! Thanks also to the previous owner for making a deal!
"silver bullet - noun - something that acts as a magical weapon, especially one that instantly solves a long-standing problem." Dictionary
This is the third 9.9 from this set to join my collection! It is the ONLY 9.9 copy of this book and it was graded on 17 May 2005!
When I added this book there were a total of 451 graded; 277 were 9.8's, and this was the lone 9.9.
If you look through the census for every book in this set there are only *three that have 9.9 copies; Superman: The Man of Steel 18 first printing (five copies), Adventures of Superman 500 Regular Edition (two copies), and this book... ONE copy.
*In October 2023 a fourth 9.9 book entered the census! Check out Superman: The Man of Steel 19 first printing’s slot for details!
When I started this set the first 9.9 I ever became aware of was The Man of Steel 18 because it was in someone’s set… I was amazed and doubted that I would ever be able to have a copy like that. At the end of 2019, the owner of that set ended up selling me the books from the ‘NO ONE CAN KILL SUPERMAN!’ collection including that 9.9… I was (and still am) very grateful.
Not long after that I ran across the copy you see here while looking through Registry Award winning sets from years past. I can’t remember now which set I spotted it in but I bookmarked the book so I could keep an eye on it in the Registry.
Meanwhile I put up a WTB post that included this book as well as the Adventures of Superman 500 9.9, which at the time there was also only one. In July 2020 I reached out to the owner of this book for the first time, I then messaged him about every 3 months or so just to make sure that if he ever did want to let the book go that he knew that I really wanted it.
In May 2021 a second 9.9 copy of the Adventures of Superman 500 popped up in the census and, luckily, a CGC Forum member had submitted it and posted a pic of it… a friend of mine tagged me and I was able add it. This put two out of three of the books with 9.9 copies in my set, leaving just this 497 9.9 out there…
…I continued to message the owner of this book every few months… I removed it from my WTB post because I knew where it was and by this time I realized that the owner wasn’t a CGC Forum user… I saw no good reason to draw extra attention to this book.
In March 2022, after almost two years I got a reply from the owner that he was thinking about letting this book go as he was downsizing his DC collection. We talked a bit, and I made an offer. I thought my offer was fair (it was exactly what I paid for the 500 9.9) but I think that the fact that this book is a newsstand (which doesn’t matter to me, but does to a lot of collectors) made my offer appear low... OR maybe he just wasn't really ready to let this book go, in which case I completely understand. Unable/unwilling to offer more, I decided to just move on hoping that someday I would receive a counter-offer and then go from there… at the very least I felt good knowing that he knew I was really interested!
Years ago I had picked up an Avengers 4 CGC 7.0 OWP… at the time I was also collecting Captain America. Over time, that book became less significant to me; maybe it was time to let someone else enjoy it. I had toyed around with the idea of putting it up for a trade for the last 9.8 I needed, Adventures of Superman 499 third printing. I started to think that it would take something crazy like that to get that book out of the woodwork.
In July 2022 I was thinking seriously about throwing that Avengers 4 up for trade on my WTB post. Before doing that though I decided to reach out to the owner of this book and offer him the trade first. The Avengers book was worth far more than I could offer in cash, and remembering that he was downsizing his DC collection, I figured the Marvel book may do the trick. In the hierarchy of books I also consider this 9.9 way... waay... WAAAY more important for this set than my last 9.8. This is because I think it is much more likely that additional 9.8's of my last 9.8 will eventually be added to the census, long before another 9.9 of this book ever will be...
This book may truly be a once in a lifetime Death of Superman collector's book, that is why I decided to try my magical Silver Age SILVER BULLET on this book first...
So, I reached back out to the owner of this book in July 2022 and proposed the trade… he replied pretty quickly and after a few days of conversing we made a deal. Only thing we had to work out was how to do the trade in person, which was best from both of our perspectives! He proposed meeting at C2E2 but I had no plans to be there. Finding out that he was in the Chicago area made this easier. I ended up sending the Avengers book to my most awesome big brother in Sandwich Illinois, and the owner of this book drove to Sandwich where the exchange was made on a Saturday afternoon at the Police Department parking lot. The owner also threw in a couple very cool pieces of original comic art of Bane and Doomsday, which I wasn't expecting but greatly appreciated! My Brother then sent this book and the art back to me.
And here it finally is!!!
I don't collect these books to sell later, so I don't really view them in those terms (although it is still good to know a book you have is appreciating). I am working on THIS set for other reasons. For me to give up a Silver Age key that, at the time I think I could have easily gotten $4-5K for, in order to put the only 9.9 copy of this book in this set was worth it! I am very happy for the new owner of the Avengers 4... I really hope he loves it as much as I love this book... this one is a dream for me to finally own. If we're both happy that's pretty cool! And, who really knows what this 9.9 might be worth if it had one day went to auction (that thought kept me awake more than a few nights while I was pursuing this book!).
This cover really shows how difficult this battle is going to be for Superman. The fact that Superman has to put all his effort into it shows that Doomsday is unlike anything Superman has faced before. Much like trading a Silver Age key to add THIS 9.9 to THIS set… difficult, but definitely worth it!
This is the third book to occupy this slot. The first was one of the original Universal 9.8's that I had when I started the work on this set. That copy stayed in this set until I got it to 100 percent completion and was just short two 9.8’s. I love this cover and jumped at the chance to upgrade this slot to a Jerry Ordway Signature Series 9.8 when the opportunity arose. I reholdered that book in December 2020. As much as I loved that book, I was obviously super thrilled to finally replace it with this 9.9!
So happy to have three of three 9.9 books in this set… lots of work but feels incredible to finally have done it!
I included a picture of the Avengers 4 I traded for this book in the second image slot. It’s definitely a beauty which I always felt had great potential to upgrade with a clean and press! I obscured the certification number because this book no longer belongs to me but I think including this image here is important to document my journey assembling this set, much like I have included pictures of collector's sets, two packs, etc. with other books.
Fun Fact #1 - This trade took place on Saturday 23 July 2022 while SDCC 2022 was also taking place!
Fun Fact #2 - Sandwich Illinois's neighboring town is Plano Illinois. Plano was used as Smallville in Man of Steel and is where Henry Cavill's Superman fought off Zod and Faora!
Such cool coincidences associated with the addition of this book!
After adding this book I still need one last 9.8 for this set but am now a lot less worried about that.
Note #1 - I had REALLY wanted to get this book reholdered! Unfortunately, some scammer apparently used the reholder process to swap lower grade books into higher grade labels/holders. This came to light in December 2023. I was already nervous about sending this book in for reholder but after this incident I don't think I'll ever let this book out of my sight... I'd hate to have it get caught up in a new policy like regrading every reholder as some people are screaming for! I'd rather not risk this 9.9 for a new holder, especially when this slab is super clean, and the only reason I'd reholder it is to have it in the latest generation slab for presentation purposes. At this point I doubt I will ever reholder another book that is really important to me. It is unfortunate when a few greedy people ruin something like this for so many others! I worked so hard to add this book to my collection, and now I won't be able to present it as awesomely as it should be, all thanks to some crook.
Note #2 - In 2024 there was chatter about CGC revisiting its grading philosophy and giving more 9.9's. This started with a Giant Sized X-Men 1 9.9 that loudly hit the market, as well as statements made my Matt Nelson about how he believed there should be more 9.9's. Then a ton of Wolverine 1 9.9's showed up! I don't mind if books earn 9.9 or 10, but I think it wrong that after all this time the scale might be intentionally slid. As you can tell from the above, I really LOVE this book and worked really hard to add it! It was graded 9.9 in 2005 and I would hate to think that it is made less important, not because other books earned the 9.9 grade based on the same standards, but because of a policy change.
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