Also speaking of my wife I must mention we had a trajedy very close to my family happen and my wife isn't sleeping and is pretty torn up about it and out of commision. I am doing my best to keep my family running smoothly but I am not doing so well.... My son has fallen out of his crib and hit his head, my daughter is super pissed cuz of some tweenager thing, and I just sent my wife to bed to get some rest for lack of sleep. I am having a hard time finding time to use the restroom much less get on the internet. Please do not take my sluggishness to respond to you guys as me being dismissive or negative.... I just cant keep up! Thanks for understanding! Please keep the thread going even without me at times!

About a year ago I decided I wanted to seek out the Italian 129.. Sure enough I found one on Italian ebay, it was beat up pretty bad!
It had chunks taken out of the cover and was generally in a very poor state. I decided to pass… I think it was like 4 euros…. Cheap and the guy would even ship to America! I thought about it and decided against it. Much of the L' UOMO RAGNO run is on Italian ebay….. key books too. So I decided to wait figuring another one would pop up soon. Guess what? I have a spent the past year actively seeking this book in any grade. No dice….. Can’t find one for sale anywhere. Maybe if I could trawl the comic shops of Italy daily it wouldn’t be a problem? But, for me an American collector…. Its just not available to me…. Some of these foreigns seem to be soooo freakin rare in the marketplace.

@Define999: I confirm you that the overwhelming majority of italian comic book readers don’t care at all about the originals, while they are currently craving to have the italian Corno editions in NM-M state including stickers and posters (yes, we used to have a lot of stickers and posters in the first years, mostly coinciding with key issues, like #1, #25, #50, etc.)

I remember your wife, and your family, in my prayers.

I just leave a reply for this now, later on I will be glad to reply to any other questions concerning the italian editions. Maybe it’s better to keep one or a few for each post.

Now, spaeking of the first, "original" Editoriale Corno runs, there are no true "rare" issues in the whole runs. The most costly – and sought after – are the first issues. As for the Punisher first appearance, it's a "non issue": 90% of italians care little to nothing about the Punisher.
Probably, the titles which are more difficult to find in high-grade are "Gli Albi dei Super-eroi" (or "A.S.E.") which was an antologic title publishing, in rotation, Warlock, the Defenders, Werewolf by Night, Dracula, Conan and Luke Cage (the famous "Avengers vs. Defenders" storyline came out here first, and not in the pages of "Thor" where the Avengers were published).

Now, a general consideration about the italian Corno editions: I assure you that, while it may be not so easy to find "perfect conditions" as an american intends them, it’s relatively easy to find NM copies of various degrees, because the paper and the overall production process was qualitatively superior to newsstand original comic books. There is a drawback, however: early issues alternate color pages to b/w pages (for saving money), and often the image quality is not good, as they did not work from film, but Marvel Comics provided them paper printouts, from where the black & white was sourced, then lettered and recolored. Coloring is often pretty good, since it generally follows faithfully the original color scheme, but translations and line art are often lousy. I can go more in detail, for those interested.

The more rare items are the second series of Spider-Man, since it came out as the publisher was losing ground, and he decided to close all titles, concentrating all the Marvel Universe in a single title "Il Settimanale dell’Uomo Ragno" (Spider-Man's weekly). That’s where I read many stories which I hold dear, including the Skrulls aging-ray one, which endangers the lives of Reed, Sue and Ben, and Johnny believes them dead. Or the Carrion storyline, from Spier-Man.
This run is 43 issues, pocket size, 48 pages, and is very difficult to find in its entirety and in high-grade (I have mine, bought back then when I was 13).
The rarest, however, is the third Spider-Man series (titled "L’Uomo Ragno" as the first, commonly referred to as "Uomo Ragno seconda serie" (you can Google that).
The series is, once again, an anthology, always featuring Spidey as the main character, with all the others in rotation, and it ran for 58 issues (rumours of a mythical 59th issue used to spread, but I suspect they aren’t founded at all).
Of course, here, the rarest issues are the last ones: 50 to 58, as the publisher was about to go bankrupt. Some of these have also stickers, so it’s even more difficult to find them in high-grade and with stickers.
An example is this classified ad:
http://Support-the-Collectors-Society.com/annunci/collezionismo/asti-annunci-canelli/uomo-ragno-corno-ii-seconda-serie-n-56/11148004
where two of them are listed, 50 and 56, respectively at 100 and 300 Euro.

However, I strongly recommend you not to buy anything costly on eBay: for the average italian seller, especially if amateur/collector, there is no true difference between a VG and a VF+. Plus, I think I have somewhere two copies of either #57 or #58, and I will be more than glad to sell them at a reasonable price, since they are so difficult to obtain for you americans.

Generally speaking, it’s better to have someone in Italy buying them for you. In May there will be a convention which we may say it’s the "Golden Age" specialized event in Italy, but there is any kind of comic. It’s very close to my city, and I always attend, so if anyone of you is looking for certain issues in higher grades, I will be glad to look on your behalf,.

All the best again for your family, God bless,
Claudio

Now, a general consideration about the italian Corno editions: I assure you that, while it may be not so easy to find "perfect conditions" as an american intends them, it’s relatively easy to find NM copies of various degrees, because the paper and the overall production process was qualitatively superior to newsstand original comic books. There is a drawback, however: early issues alternate color pages to b/w pages (for saving money), and often the image quality is not good, as they did not work from film, but Marvel Comics provided them paper printouts, from where the black & white was sourced, then lettered and recolored. Coloring is often pretty good, since it generally follows faithfully the original color scheme, but translations and line art are often lousy. I can go more in detail, for those interested.

On this point I diagree.
Based on my personal experience, copies in strict Nm or better, which means 9.4 or better, are very very hard to find (9.4) or almost impossible (9.6-9.8) and I use the term "almost" because you never say never, but I belive that 9.8 copies are virtually non existant.