lou_fine

Most definitely as the other one on the CC Event Auction website is a fugly one with all of that Marvel chipping which is a real eyesore and the first thing that your eyes are drawn to when you look at that obviously overgraded copy here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/929451?tzf=1 It's totally asinine that CGC doesn't really take Marvel chipping into account when grading a book, but yet apply a very heavy handed sledgehammer to the grade on a book with a few barely visible NCB spine ticks that can only be seen when the book is held up at a certain angle to the light.

Are you serious or simply trying to be sarcastic here in terms of the Wizard hyped and driven marketplace place back in the early 90's and those so-called super hot Image and Valiant books came crashing down in value on the speculators like a ton of bricks back then. Found it especially hilarious when Wizard would sometimes value an upcoming expected hot book at something like $30 or $50 in their so-called monthly price guide, only to have the book delayed due to creators not meeting their deadlines, with the book not even being on the shelves of the LCS by the time their monthly price guide came out.

The other point to note is that grading standards have changed quite dramatically from the time of the original old school labels as CGC is now targeting certain additional revenue generating defects much more so than before and have move them right up to the top of their hit parade chart with a bullet. As a result, you can't be sure if that old label slabbed book will come back as a CGC 9.9 copy if graded today without some additional work being done to the book first in order to keep the money hungry CCG ownership happy. Yes, totally agree with your last point as the real indicator of market value for a book should be based upon the underlying book itself, as opposed to just the CGC label. As such, from my own personal POV being more of a long time collector, a book doesn't really have true market value if it can only carry a big price tag when it's the highest graded copy, but pretty much worthless below an arbitrary HG level such as CGC 9.4 for example. Persoanlly, I feel that a true vintage collectible book should have value across the entire condition spectrum, and as such, the Blue Bolt 105 posted up above would be the perfect example with a non-HG CGC 4.0 graded copy still being able to fetch $7,880 or something like 17.5X its condition guide value.

I’m sure CGC would have seen the spine ticks on it even with the sketch. The submitting party can’t tell Eastman where to start drawing to hide imperfections Yes, although this type of "artful signature" on Kevin's part certainly cannot hide spine ticks, this scattergun approach to signing should be good enough to hide color touch from the graders, since the entire front and back covers are already pretty much color touched.

Well, not only you, but probably also every other long time GA collector, and in particular the L.B. Cole collector, would just love to be able to acquire any copy of this classic cover book here. Unfortunately, unlike most of the other so-called more recent keys listed in the chart here with hundreds, if not thousands of certified HG copies already graded and slabbed out there, it looks like this book here is most likely highly coveted by collectors with copies probably locked away in long held private collections and not destined to see the light of day anytime soon. Especially when the CGC Census Population Report indicates a total of only 35 graded Universal copies, with only 3 of these being in higher than CGC 8.0 VF graded condition. A real hen's tooth in terms of being able to find this book in grade and my bet is the buyer of the CL CGC 9.8 graded copy back in 2018 for $37,500 which some boardies here thought he had over paid for must be absolutely ecstatic now. Especially considering how much paper profit must have accrued to his copy with the out of this world prices now being realized for highest graded copies of GA classic cover books with Covid in place and also after some of the rather insane crypto like prices being paid in today's marketplace.

Wow oh wowza.......................10 copies of TMNT 1 First Print and all for cover price only!!! Have you ever considered contacting your friends to see what they ended up doing with their copies of the book? Just imagine if you still had all 10 copies of this book here, as it could probably buy you a nice place to live or at least serve as down payment on a house depending upon where you live. What did it end up costing you to grade and slab the book and don't you hate it when the cost of certification is probably pretty much close to equivalent to what the entire print run would have cost you to buy when the book first came out.

This is actually incorrect as CC had another private sales transaction that went through a month after their big $245K sale, as per a post which I had made in the TMNT 1 thread on the CA Forum here, as seen below:

Wasn't the last high 9.8 sale $245,000? That was a few months ago at Comic Connect. No, the $245K sale that took place in a private sale at CC back in September was followed a short month later by this private sale for $250K: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/929799 Like I said in a previous post, it would appear that CC is really the market maker when it comes to these high grade copies (i.e. CGC 9.8 and CGC 9.6) of TMNT 1. Although it has made me kind of wonder just how many HG copies of this key classic, but relatively recent and relatively high population count CA book does Metro and CC either have access to or within their personal inventory, as based upon the number of continuin record setting sales they've been able to achieve over the past couple of years.

Yeah, looks a little bit similar to Cathie Wood's very highly popular Ark Innovation ETF fund. Something like an almost 40% return in 2019 and then a rocket like massive 150%+ return last year, but definitely no such luck this year. In fact, I believe that almost every single one of the stocks in their portfolio, all high spec growth stocks, are all in bear market territory at more than 20% off from their recent highs even while the major indicies are either all at or near record highs.

Yes, nothing but a sea of red from what we are seeing here in this chart. Then again, not really that surprising at all and totally expected since the majority of the books listed here are relatively recent common books to the point that they not only show up in every single auction, but also with multiple copies in each auction. As such, like speculative growth stocks, these are really more like speculative books which tends to over accentuate both the positive when they are rising and also the negative when they are falling, as speculators chase these books by buying when they are rising and selling when they are falling. Absolutely no surprise here as I have always found the CL auctions to be much more the home of the speculative CGC label chasers or fippers, and these kinds of books tend to swing the most when they are either rising or falling. As for the December CL offerings to be of higher quality than their November offerings, again no surprise here as the December auction is a Feature Auction featuring their more expensive higher end books, while the November auction was just another one of their regular Focused Auction focusing on so-called lower quality books. Of course, you will get the same highly speculative books like Spidey 300, Eternals 1, Special Marvel Edition 15, etc. and the likes because they are just so common they have to place them into every single one of their auctions. As a result, you will clearly get more of what you call "refined" eyeballs looking at CL's Featured Auctions as opposed to their Focused Auctions, similar to how bidders with much deeper pockets tend to watch the HA Signature Auctions, but not so much their weekly Sunday auctions. Same with CC in terms of their quarterly Event Auctions as opposed to their Monthly Auctions which most sophisicated bidders tend to ignore.

Agreed. Signature placement would be critical deal breaker for me, along with the presentation of the signature if I were a collector of such things. Some sigs look Really nice, while others look like a doctor's signature one gets on an order for a prescription You mean like this fugly looking book with scrawled artwork all over it, where I am sure the unsigned one will sell for a lot more next Tuesday:

Well, since this copy here is already sitting at over $185K with another 5 days to go, I don't think it's going to have any problems at all passing the near $199K mark which the signed copy on today's CL Auction sold for. Especially since CC seems to the market maker right now when it comes to HG copies of TMNT 1, as evident by some of their sales of this book during the past couple of years.

I would tend to agree with you here as I am definitely not a fan of horrid looking scrawl artwork or signatures on covers myself, and I guess this is the reason why this copy here will most probably pass the quarter million mark in CC's big Event Auction next Tuesday: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/928850

Speaking about TMNT 1, any guesses as to whether this copy here on the CC Event Auction website is going to past a quarter million dollars or not next Tuesday, and if so, by how much above the $250K mark: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/928850

Well, you do realize that this book here is often acknowledged by many long time collectors as one of L.B. Cole's finest si-fi covers and extremely tough to find in grade: Not sure about the defects without having the actual book in hand, but this copy here sure presents very nicely relative to its assigned grade of only a CGC 4.0 copy and clearly has not been graded according to the much softer Promise Collection grading standards. In addition, it should also be pointed out that the entire collectibles marketplace, including vintage comic books, was just so much different back in May 2020 near the beginning of Covid, as compared to the entire collectible marketplace (along with some others) just took off like a rocket during the latter part of 2020 and throughout much of 2021.

Big kudos to you as it looks like you was able to not only make an astute and fantastic pickup here, but also wise enough to keep the book in pristine condition over the long decades. Did you have to pay just cover price for your copy since it was pirchased directly from Mirage back in 1984 when the book first came out? Just wondering since a LCS owner asked me if I was interested in obtaining a copy direct from Mirage sometime in '86 or '87, but flatly turned him down when he quoted me an outrageous price of some $300 for that POS looking book. Instead, being a mainstream type of collector, I went and took him up on his offer of $40 for the signed and numbered limited hardcover edition of the Dark Knight Returns which I would probably be lucky if I could get back my $40 for it today.

During J Michael Straczynski's run in the 2000s. Although I never read this particular storyline as it was past my prime collecting time period, the mere thought of sweet innocent Gwen doing it with old man Norman was totally sacrilegious and beyond believable from my own personal point of view. Totally shocked that it would be JMS who had written this into the Spidey canon, as I consider him to be a great writer and storyteller based upon his epic Babylon 5 TV series and books which he had created and written. Si-fi at its best in terms of one consistent storyline spanning 5 years that centered on interglactic wars and the interlude between them. Definitely much more riveting than Star Wars which was seemingly written more from a merchandising POV or Star Trek which was basically following the old style episodic TV storytelling format, as opposed to the game changing continuous storytelling format which many of today's TV shows have now adopted. From my POV, this Gwen and Norman Sins Past storyline would be tantamount to another writer taking JMS's Babylon 5 characters and inserting a storyline in there about Ambassador Delenn having an ongoing threesome with herself and both Ambassador Londo and Ambassador G'Kar, and seeing how JMS feels about this.

Who's to say that Vinnie isn't involved in some way already, whether directly or indirectly. Especially since if I remember correctly, wasn't it Vinnie's name and signature at the bottom of some of those documents as the seller of those books to Rally Road. At least it was for the TMNT 1 along with at least a couple of the other books as per the posts from the Rally Road thread here on the boards.

Yes, tends to happen in all collecting eras of our hobby here. If I remember correct, wasn't Spidey 129 a super hot book way back a few decades ago before suffering through a big rundown in prices, and now have gone through a long extended runup in prices over the past several years. From a GA point of view, I remember this exact same scenario playing out with the early Fox books when they were super hot through the first big GA rush in the mid-90's and then not so much after that. So, oftentimes I guess it's just a matter of being patient and being willing to hold onto these books for their next up period.

Yes, just recycle and reuse all of those old poly bags that comic shops used to put their books into way back in the day and you'll have no need to worry about ordering comic book supplies.

Makes me wonder what the minimum grade it would take now for a Bat 1 to cross the $1M threshold in today's marketplace? My own personal guess is that a CGC 7.5 graded copy might just do it if it presents nicely, wich is certainly a far cry from just a few years ago.

You do realize that looking at only the S&P or any of the other major stock indicies only works if you own something like mutual funds linked directly to the index themselves. Especially since the indicies are heavily influenced by some of the bigger stocks and hides the fact that the advance/decline line in terms of both stock issues and volumes have generally been running on the negative side for the past few months. In fact, if you look below the index numbers themselves, you'll find that a significant portion off the companies listed on these indicies, including some of the big boys, are actually already in bear market territory with some at prices running at some 20% to 50% below their recent highs. For long time comic book collectors, I imagine on some of those big negative days on the market, they are probably glad that they have some of their money tied up in the steady, but seemingly ever increasing vintage collectible comic book marketplace.

It most definitely is if it's a book that's been submitted for grading by either you, me, and most all other regular collectors on the boards here. But if its a book from the Promise Collection submitted by HA for grading, not only is the entire spine NOT fundamental to the grade of the book, but this also extends to the top, bottom, and right eges of the comic book along with all four corners of the book.

Oh, come on you old fogies..................you gotta get with this new generation of buyers and sellers for these uber classic GA key books. Breaking up copies into separate pages is only the first step because you can get only 34 individual sales out of these early GA books this way. You gotta think a bit further outside the box if you wanna be ahead of everybody else and go right to selling individual panels out of these GA classic keys because you can make a whole lot more individual sales from just one book using this strategy.

To tell you the honest truth, I would already be totally pissed off and upset well before I even got anywhere close to the final price realized stage. From talking to other fellow collectors, I just can't see myself forking over something like 3 figures to get any of my copies squashed and graded for a book that I paid less than cover price for. Unfortunately, this egregious over the board cost sounds like a necessary evil if you want to get what the book is really worth in today's slab crazed marketplace. And to top it off, what makes it even worse is the money hungry CGC that won't even recognize my copy with the beautiful classic mettalic silver penned signature that McFarlane used to signed all of his copies of Spidey 300 with, just because they aren't able to squeeze an extra dime out of it. Well okay, at least until it actually comes time for me to sell a couple of my copies.