Please STOP slabbing the REPRINTS!

Its a weakness of Marvel during the late 1970s that the Dreaded Deadline Doom caused so many interruptions in the publishing of their regular books. 

These books always came with an apology from the writer or editor on the letters page. This is one of those issues where a reprint story had to be hastily pushed out to get the book out on schedule. The reprints were usually more welcome than the badly crafted fill in stories that someone thought was a better alternative. So whats a reprint worth? 
In fair condition, about a buck. In near mint? About 5 or 6 bucks, but because its a reprint, but usually you can pick it for a lot less if you look around. Don't believe the inflated hype about what the guide says its worth; the guide was and is, a tool for comic book dealers and speculators to inflate the price of a comic book. 

Some reprints have a framework story of a page or two while presenting a reprint somehow revelant to the current storyline, such as the case with Avengers 150. 
there is a partial reprint of Avengers 16, the first time the roster changed for the book. Fantastic Four 154 is another such example, reprinting an old Strange Tales story, with a framework added.

If you really want or need this issue, find a medium grade that looks good, buy it, read it, bag it, and forget it. Its a reprint, so try to get a good price. 
And for God's sake, do not slab a reprint book, even if its a part of a comic's regular run! Save the slabbing cost for something that is rare!

Please consider that Marvel already had several reprint titles that churned out some great reading matter during the 1970s, so slabbing a reprint should only happen to the 1960s run of Marvel Tales and Marvel Collector's Item Classics. The reprints of the 1970s were generally thinner than these books and, were and are, not particularly rare.

THE STRANGE TALE OF CAPTAIN AMERICA 216 ....

The comic book pictured above, Captain America 216, 
is was not a new comic, even when it first came out. 
Oh, the cover was new, and very exciting and it sold the book to me, even though i soon discovered it was actually a reprint.  Marvel did this a lot in the 70's, whenever they did not meet the deadline for the regular book, they found a decent or obscure reprint to pop in there.

 The reprint in question is from a Silver Age Strange Tales starring The Human Torch. Since I had not read the original, I was not too disappointed with the reprinted story, even if the Captain America was not the real Cap. Turns out, it was the Torch's old nemesis, the Acrobat.

This appearance, or non-appearance of Cap pre-dates his return in the Avenger's fourth issue. Apparently Stan and Jack were selling people on the idea, before actually bringing the real one back. A pretty good idea, but somewhat confusing to people wanting to collect old Captain America books. Cap also showed up again, fighting Iron Man in Tales of Suspense, only this time it was not the Torch's whats his name nobody criminal. This time, it was The Chameleon, Spidey's old nemesis in the red, white, and blues.

All of this is good and well, as it helped reignite interest in Cap. Strangely enough, Captain America debuted in the very next issue of Tales of Suspense, and yes, its the real one, the one The Avengers fished out of the frozen waters of the north. If you are looking to buy Cap's first re-appearance start with Avengers 4. If you are looking for Cap's first new solo strip since the Golden Age, that starts in Tales of Suspense 59.

For those who read or collect comics from the Silver Age, you really won't be disappointed with Marvel's cliffhanger superhero serials Strange Tales, Tales of Suspense, or Tale to Astonish.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Strange Tales:
Doctor Strange starts out in this book, ends up sharing space with the Torch for a while, until Nick Fury starts in issue 135. Torch had a good run, and his appearance in Strange Tales could be really called Fantastic Four 2.0, as the Sue, The Thing, and Reed are frequent guest-stars.

Tales of Suspense:
Iron Man started in this book, and gets some real company when Captain America shows up in issue 59. Now the book gets really cool, as Jack Kirby does most of the artwork on the Cap series, including several issues past the title's name change with issue 100.

Tales to Astonish:
The title says it all. Ant-man starts out in this book, ends up becoming Giant-Man, and is later joined in issue 60 by The Incredible Hulk and is replaced by the Sub-mariner in issue 70. This book runs up to issue 100, changing its name in the next issue to The Incredible Hulk in issue 101.

All of these books are highly entertaining and very collectible, both in the original form, and in bound volumes offered by Marvel in their Masterworks series.

ROCKING WITH THE AVENGERS IN THE 1970s

This is the first Avengers book I read. Turns out, its a good one.....

Written by Steve Englehart, this issue with the slam-bang cover was a great introduction to these myriad Iron Man villains, and big vacuum pull into the second Kang war at the end of the story. Turns out,  Kang is probably the best Avenger's bad guy. He does not just cause a skirmish or a fight, he goes to a war over multiple issues every
time he comes around.

Issue 130 is a good jumping on point for the Avengers, but not a great one. There are so many good Avengers storylines after Englehart took over around issue 100. This is including three Kang Wars, a Thanos story, a multi-issue crossover with The Defenders, a couple of major weddings, a trip to counter earth, a new origin for The Vision, the return of Captain America, and the addition of several new Avengers.

 Issues 101 through 151 would be ideal to collect from this period, if you want to get the most out of this run. The art is done by several hands, but artists during this period include Dave Cockrum, Sal Buscema, and George Perez, among others.

One of the coolest things about Avengers 130 is that the Dave Cockrum cover is a kind of homage to a Mike Seikowsky JLA cover done in the 1960s.