lou_fine

Don't think it was very many at all, as I believe it was just one huge outlier of a sale that some other boardie had highlighted here for us. Maybe the purchaser thought they were bidding on a copy of Eternals 1, and not Eternals 13 with the introduction and first appearance of Gilgamesh, whoever the f*** that is. I am quite sure the CCG ownership must have loved it as there must have been a ton of Eternals 13 submitted after that hoping for the eternal and magical 9.8 grade to come back to them, as they are the ones who probably made the biggest bank going forward after that outlier of a sale.

Totally agree with you here as it reminds me of the CGC 9.8 graded copy of Eternals 13 that sold for something like north of $4K when there was only a handful in that highest grade. Fast forward a couple years later to today and now that book in the same CGC 9.8 copy of Eternals 13 can barely fetch $100 with something like almost 50 copies now in that top CGC 9.8 grade.

I think the low census is probably because it has only became worth grading in the last few years. Those Spectacular Spider-Mans are pretty sparse on the census because no one will pay to slab them. Not sure what you mean here by a low census count because this chart that I am looking at indicates over 200 copies already in CGC 9.8 highest grade, with another 261 copies knocking right on it doorstep just waiting to have its potential maximized in order to enter the highest graded club. Then again, it is super high when compared to the thousands of copies of Spidey 252 in uber HG's becasue that one was definitely hoarded by collectors when it first came out. I remember speaking to a comic book broker who had started out as a coin dealer and he told me that he had acquire 50 copies of the book in absolute mint condtion when it first came out because coin collectors used to collect coins in rolls of 50. I found it rather funny because he sure sounded totally peeved off as the book went absolutely nowhere valuation wise due to the absolute huge number of copies in grade that were always available for the longest while back then. I believe that was probably the first and last time that he had ever speculated on a new book just hitting the shelves of the LCS and decided it was much wiser to go back to his GA books instead.

Well, let's not forget how big Carol Danvers was in the MCU, even much more so than this Felicia Hardy. Especially she was big enogh to headline her own movie, with another one on the way and her character, Captain Marvel, deemed to be a key central figure in the MCU going forward. And yet her first appearance in MSH which used to sell for multiples to condition guide, with a second highest CGC 9.6 even selling into the $30K's, can now generally be had at a discount to condition guide. So, not sure how things are going to turn out for Spidey 194 when there are so many hundreds of copies in uber HG already, especially in comparison to MSH 13 with single digit copies in uber HG and yet they still couldn't maintain their prices longer term. Actually, the book which I see heading for a big big fall is the supposedly HTF, but in actual fact readily available variant edition of Ultimate Fallout 4, with CGC 9.8 graded copies selling for $30K+. As I had alluded to in another post a few weeks ago:

Being the host of these very boards here, it should be noted that CGC does not appreciate your very obvious sarcasm here because absolutely nobody in either their right or wrong mind would ever think of using the words "faster" or "quickly" when speaking about CGC.

I believe that CGC is completely disingeneuous and must think we are complete fools if they actually expect us to believe that they want submittors to cut back on Modern submissions. Just as disingenuous as saying they are concerned about TAT's and then we get an email every other day with another in-house Unverified Private Signature Signing Event which serves only to further delay TAT's. If they really wanted to cut down on the number of Modern submissions, it would really be a very simple solution by simply increasing the grading fees for Moderns up to $100 and you'll see the submissions drop like a boulder tossed into the water. Of course, they would never ever do this because the Modern subs is really the bread and butter of their whole operations, so the best strategy is all talk and no action except to squeeze and press (pun fully intended ) as much out of the submittors as possible.

Right?! My last batch got there before the last price increase. So prices will have increased twice before they could even press my current batch at CGC. Ummmmm..........................wasn't you taught not to count your chickens before they hatched, because who knows, it might actually be more than 2 price increases before you get your books back from them.

If you really think it's only going to be an annual increase from these guys here, I guess you must also believe in the Tooth Fairy, the Easter Bunny, and Santa Claus then. Well, I guess this goes to show that Jim Cramer is dead wrong when he says, "bulls make money, bears make money, but pigs get slaughtered", as these pigs keep going back to the trough for more because they, along with the submittors, just can't help themselves.

Are you referring to books like Eternals 1 with a CGC 9.6 graded copy being able to fetch $1,200 back in September, but now only able to fetch $288 a few short months later. Not to be left out of course, the CGC 9.8 highest graded copies which were selling into the low $3K's earlier this year can barely fetch $1K in today's red hot marketplace. Or how about former red hot books like Marvel Super Heores 13 which were selling for multiples of guide, but now only able to sell for a discount to condition guide value.

Steve Borock is their head grader and West Stephan is their Resto expert. I think you recognize the names. People loved them when they worked for CGC :shrug: Like I have said here many times before, they were seen by many boardies as God's gift to grading when working at CGC, but now that they've moved across the street, those same nutso boardies are now saying they couldn't tell the difference berween a 1.8 condition book from a 9.8 condition book even if their life depended upon it.

You do realize that this is 2022 and not 2022. As such, in the time that it takes to get some of the then hot books of the day back from these jokers here, the market place on them has taken almost a complete round trip from what they were selling for in the Spring of 2021 with price drops of 50% to 80% on some of them. If they are really keeping on top of the marketplace, then they should be decreasing their grading fees by 50% to 80% for some of these former red hot books, but now have turned stone cold dead while sitting in CGC's newly expanded 100,000+ square foot holding cell still awaiting grading.

And no doubt once they make another big big announcement that they've opened and cleared their backlog of mail on this next go round of submissions, it just means another wave of service fee increases is going to be around the corner.

Hey Richard; Now that the truth is finally out about these nasty dirty off-color Allentown books, I guess you must be looking for the fastest possible way to cast them out from your personal collection. Being the nice guy that you are, I will willing to take the hit and will grudgingly trade my copies of Wonderworld 8 and 10 for your Allentown copies before they denigrate your collection any further. No doubt you'll win out on this trade here since my copies comes with that classic greased pencilled black "S" mark on the front cover which gives the books some real true character.

Well...yikes. (Fwiw, I don't think <$300 for a 9.6 is a terrible deal, except that trends suggest it'll go lower so one could reasonably afford to wait.) Well, like the stock market, when a stock or a comic book goes on a upwards run or a downward crash dive, they both seem to over exaggerate in either direction before they settle down and find out a medium where it tends to consolidate for awhile. The biggest difference being that equity stocks are very liquid and you can sell most of them at current market price in an instant, while comic books (especially raw ones) are definitely very illiquid from a market timing point of view because by the time you get them back from CCS/CGC and then sell them through the auction houses, you are probably looking at a good full year later and who knows where the market for that particular book will be by then. Looks like the CGC label chasers also got hit with a similar drop since the CGC 9.8 highest graded copies were selling in the low $3K's back in the summer before falling back into the $2K's in the Fall and now they seem to have dropped down into the very low teens as of December. Not sure where this book is going to stop and start to consolidate as it's still dropping with each succeeding auction result. Which makes me wonder how the buyer of the highest graded copy of Eternals 13 (one of about 5 or 6 at the time although why in the world somebody would slab that book is rather puzzling) feels about paying $4,300 or thereabouts at the time. Especially when it's probably currently selling for barely $100 now that there's almost 50 copies in this same highest grade for his copy to buddy around with, but then CL auctions are usually the home domain of the rather short-sighted CGC label chasers.

Book still belongs in the quarter box Wouldn't this actually apply to a lot of the movie and TV related hyped books and also all of the other current hot books of the day that the CGC label chasers are going after since they are readily available in both grade and quantity, and yet are still selling for thousands or dollars?

Yeah, at $44K for the Transformers 1, I guess the buyer of the Shadow 1 for a piddly $2,500 did alright and got off lightly in comparison. Especailly since there's now another 160 copies of the Shadow 1 in this equivalent highest CGC 9.8 grade to keep his copy nice and warm and to buddy around with.

Was reminded of this thread here when I was doing a post-Christmas and New Years clean up in terms of at long last finally getting around to turping some of my remaining CBG newspapers from the late 90's and early 2000's. Took a quick look at some of the CBG Price Guide sections in there and definitely a good reminder that if you are here for the long run, it's best to go after vintage collectible comic books, as opposed to the current readily available in quantity hot flavor book of the day. I can't believe how many columns they had on how super hot Wolverine: The Origin was and how they were selling for around $1K or more with no problems at all. Even though I am a fan of the Miller Daredevil run, looking backwards, it's still rather amazing that the first Miller Daredevil (i.e. DD 158) had sold at auction for more than a CGC 9.4 graded copy of Fantastic Four 48 back then. Or for the CGC label chasers, looking at a copy of an Overstreet Update when CGC first came out and noting how a highest graded CGC 9.8 copy of DC's The Shadow had sold for something silly like $2,500 at the time. Fast forward to today or even to 10 years ago and would anybody really be willing to pay $1K for a HG copy of Wolverine: The Origin, $2,500 for a CGC 9.8 graded copy of The Shadow from DC, or if I am lucky be willing to not only trade me a CGC 9.4 graded copy of FF48 for a slabbed copy of DD 158, but also to throw in a few hundred dollars on top of that.

Needless to say, in 110% agreeement with all of the boardies above since I have stated before that Police Comics 1 was surprisingly a highly under appreciated and undervalued key GA book. Maybe this is a sign that it's finally going to have its day in the sun after being in the shadows for the longest while relative to virtually all of the other GA keys. Although this book is most well-known and deservedly so for the origin and first appearance of Plastic Man, for the GA purists here, it's also the first appearance of Phantom Lady who would go on in the later 40's to gain much more fame with Fox Publications in terms of Baker's classic GGA version of the femme fatale heroine. Absolutely love this book and lots of runway left to go on Police Comics 1 here, as I feel that it is the go to flagship book of the entire Quality Comics Group publishing line. Although there are indeed 44 copies of this book in Universal unrestored condition, it should be pointed out that this book is extremely tough to find in grade with only 2 copies in CGC 9.0 and above and only another 2 copies into the CGC 8's. My bet is that if the Church CGC 9.4 single highest graded copy which had a few wishy washy sales in the $30K's price range from 2006 through to 2014 came back into this crypto like marketplace today would probably have no problem approaching or possibly even hitting 6-figures today.

To go back even further, I still remember the days when the BA Spidey books that was an absolute must have for all true blue Spidey collectors were the matching duo of Spidey 121 and 122, with nobody even giving a seceond thought to Spidey 129. Of course, the big big Marvel BA book that was sitting at the top of the collecting hill at the time with no real serious challengers was the big squarebound Avengers 93 with the full Neal Adams classic cover and interiors. As for it being manufactured, highly doubt it as its really all about movie related hype and the FB and IG talking heads adding fuel to the fire and whatever book like Spidey 194 is readily available in large quantity making it easy for the flippers to speculate and make money on before everybody finds out the emperor really has no clothes and the last one out is left holding the empty bag.

Yeah, looks pretty much like the stock market to a certain extent. If you take out overriding influence of the big boys, you've probably got pretty much a bear market in a lot of the other stocks, or possibly even in the books in this case here.

Yes, not sure why it took them so long, but I just received their email notification on this private sales transaction on Thursday for this Hulk 1 at $490K: I noticed it gave them a chance to emphsize that although CC is well known for their auctions, they also have a "robust private sales business" with their long and deep connections, which is clearly evident as several of their big record setting sales results on key books have been transacted through this method.

Sounds as though you need to go back to remedial school for more mind numbing readjustment in order to see the light here, as you should know by now that it's ALL about buying the label and absolutely nothing at all to do with buying the book, whether visible or invisible.

Greatly appreciate your response here, but I find that kind of hard to believe because some of the missing sales (at least on the other guy's site) are their record setting ones which they have hyped up afterwards and also shows up in their summary to Overstreet the following year. In addition, if the sales did not complete, you would expect to see at least some of them to come back in the following auction or on a competing auction website. Is it possible that it's due to their crapola revamp they did resulting in possible communications interface problems?

Most definitely agree with you here as this is a very early Marvel magazine (after the 2-issue Spectacular Spider-Man attempt) and the one that started their run of Marvel/Curtis magazines in the 70's. Considering its place in the Marvel magazine timeline, definitely very much an underappreciated and undervalued book with still lots of runway left to go.

Greatly appreciate your prompt response here and fantastic to see that you are keeping on top of these things for us. Anyways, just wondering about some of these auction results that are sometimes nnot being captured. Although we all know about CL not providing their results to both you and your competitor, I thought this was not the case with CC. Especially when we can go onto the CC website and see all of their historical auction results in their archives as they are loaded virtually immediately when an auction ends, yet they do not seem to show up consistently in the auction tracking websites like yours. Just wondering why since they all seem to be their for public consumption right in their auction archives?