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lou_fine

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Everything posted by lou_fine

  1. lou_fine
    Seriously though, if you are referring to the Promise Collection of books which I believe you might be, if you check back on my previous posts, I believe virtually every single one of the books which I questioned was actually in response to a book identified and flagged by another board member here. I was basically just reiterating the same question that others had already pointed out here with respect to particular books, as I actually haven't had much time or interest yet in proactively checking out these books in detail at this current point in time. I am sure you must know that you are genralizing here, whereas you should really be talking on an individual book by book basis. Especially since only a very small fraction of the Promise Collection books have been slabbed to date so far, and I don't think anybody save the graders have seen enough of these books to even be generalizing about the PQ on the collection as a whole.
  2. lou_fine
    You seem to trust CGC's page quality designation on "these here" books, but you question their grading on almost every book. Just curious why? No, just speaking from a relative point of view in terms of the PQ, but really more specifically I would prefer a Vancouver pedigree over a Promise Collection pedigree book at this current point in time if given the same grade, PQ, and pricing range. My opinion here (FWIW which is probably zero ) might change over time since it's still too early in the game for the Promise Collection books to see their true acceptance in the marketplace, and especially with all of the over blown hype that's currently being thrown around with this pedigree right now.
  3. lou_fine
    Big congrats on your Promise Collection pick up here with respect to this Western True Crime 16. Especially since it looks like you was able to scoop up your copy at a relatively attractive price of only $660, considering that this equivalent CGC 9.4 graded Vancouver peidgree copy sold for $900 at HA only about 6 short weeks earlier: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/western-true-crime-16-2-vancouver-pedigree-fox-features-syndicate-1948-cgc-nm-94-white-pages/a/7244-97123.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 For an equivalent graded copy of both pedigrees, I would definitely take the Vancouver copy with their better PQ over the Promise Collection copy although I am not sure if the higher price differential would be worth it. I guess a better deal would have been the Church highest graded CGC 9.6 WP copy that also sold for only $660 at HA back in 2018, but then that would be like several lifetimes ago in this fast moving robust marketplace of ours.
  4. lou_fine
    Well, if you are talking about the so-called big Mound City comic book auction from about 10 years ago, wasn't that one also pretty also their LAST auction when it came to comic books focused auctions?
  5. lou_fine
    This $900M investment must have been pretty newsworthy as I saw it featured on the CNBC Business News along with stories about it on some of the other networks and streaming news. Unless I missed it, I certainly didn't see the same media hype when Blackstone did their $500M investment to take over CCG.
  6. lou_fine
    No worries.........................being long time GA collectors, we'll still be here when you get them back in 2023.
  7. lou_fine
    Oh come on, now.......................don't we have enough threads going on the Promise Collection already, that we now need it to infiltrate other threads like this one here.
  8. lou_fine
    I saw this too, and as someone needing a copy, I was not happy. Why is this issue so valued compared to others around it, also by Everett and featuring great art and stories? Maybe buyers are finally catching on to how cool and rare these books are... Well, your question here actually got me curious and made me go to check this up in the Overstreet guide. According to Overstreet, the Magician from Mars story (whatever that is ) was swiped into the Specte story for More Fun 54 & 55. The real reason though, besides its rarity, is probably due to the fact that Overtstreet states that this issue of Amazing-Man 9 is tied with Marvel Mystery 4 as the first Nazi war cover on a comic book.
  9. lou_fine
    For all those who were worried about Blackstone coming in and making all sorts of changes to CGC, they probably got much bigger fish to fry. Especially when the CGC/CCS portion of the CCG operations they spent $500M on is just a very small slice of the whole CCG pie. Especially since they now gone into a strategic partnership with AIG after that and apparently they just threw another $900M into a media-backed company to purchase the Hello Sunshine operations from Reese Witherspoon. So, for all you worry warts here, I am sure that CGC/CCS is as much on their operational radar screen as another grain of sand on the bench.
  10. lou_fine
    Well, can we really truly complain that much when he's gone across all of the comic book ages and did do more than a double for both TMNT 1 and GSXM 1, and almost a full double on the Silver Surfer 1, let alone the one on the Amazing Mystery Funnies V2#2 as already noted in one of my previous posts up above. Why, these types of increases alone might have been enough to give the poor guy a coronary at his age.
  11. lou_fine
    Totally agree with both of you about AA 16, and rather surprising since he had actually knocked it down into the #5 spot behind Bat 1 a couple years ago. Yeah, looks like this current Gold Rush hasn't really been taken into account in the Overstreet, unlike the first big Gold Rush back in the mid-90's after the crash of the new book market, whereby he had increased prices on average by a very un-Overstreet like high 20%'s and mid 30%'s in his Top 100 charts for a couple of years back then.
  12. lou_fine
    You are most definitely correct when you say at a "glacially slow pace", but then every now and then a small piece can break off and get caught up in the speeding currents of the rushing river. Case in point here, being Amazing Mystery Funnies Vol 2 #2, whereby it appears he jacked up the top of guide for this book from a mere $4,300 in last year's guide to an rather astounding (for him at least ) $8,000 in this year's edition of the guide, while all other issues in the run went up their customary $100 in top of guide. I guess he must have finally factored in the sale of this copy of the book here that took place at CC back in the spring of 2019: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/810169 Since it sold for $13,200 back then, I guess this convinced him to finally make the big move and bump up his valuation in VF 8.0 condition guide from a mere $831 all the way up to $1,296 or to only 9.8% of what it actually sold for back then.
  13. lou_fine
    I remember when I first started collecting way back in the day and I used to dream that I could one day sell my books for the prices listed in there. Now, I look at the price guide and simply just wish that I could buy books for the vlauations that's listed in there.
  14. lou_fine
    Well, here's one for you that I noticed almost right off the bat. Although we can definitely question a lot of the prices he has in there, especially for the in-demand key books, at least he very rarely ever makes a typo or mathematical caluculation error in his guide. Yet, if you take a look at his valuation for Wonderworld Comics 3, it has gone up by almost 9% in all of the listed condition grades excpet for his top of guide listing which actually went down from $23K in last year's guide toonly $21,125 in this year's guide. The only problem with Overstreet making an error of this kind, is that unless somebody notifies him about it, the error often tends to carry forward in future guides and compound since he assumes that everything is correct in the guide.
  15. lou_fine
    Seriously, do you really think so? I just took a look at the gap between Cap 2 and the much more in demand Cap 3, and it looks like Overstreet actually increased the gap here, with the top of guide prices for Cap 2 coming in at $70K and the Cap 3 coming in at only $65K.
  16. lou_fine
    Oh, come on now, Tim..........................................................how much longer are you going to keep holding onto this book for?
  17. lou_fine
    Yeah, that's why I call them "additional revenue generating" defects which are meant only to increase both the top and bottom lines for the CCG (and now Blackstone) ownership group. Sadly, I believe this whole game started when Heritage first arrived on the scene back in 2002 and then picked up steam from that point onwards, before going fully ballistics starting in 2016 when the current grading regime at CGC came into place. And as I have stated here many times before, that's why there's no point to even get your book graded now unless you are at least willing to pay for a pre-screen for pressing at a minimum, because if you don't, you will end up "paying" anyways when you receive your graded book back in the mail from CGC.
  18. lou_fine
    Yeah, before the internet and socila media forums like this very board here, the market reports back in teh day was definitely a must read and one of the most enjoyable parts of the guide. I guess not so much anymore since I still have another 6 pages to go befoe I am done reading market reports from last year's edition of the guide that were written up back in December of 2019. Neveretheless, I am definitely still looking forward to the new edition of the guide that's now due to hit the shelves of the LCS's tomorrow.
  19. lou_fine
    Ummm......................I believe the consignors of the Promise Collection pedigree books, whether they be the familly or Heritage themselves, would respectfully tend to disagree with your viewpoint here.
  20. lou_fine
    Just checked on their website and it's NOT a $3K maximum cap. Looks like their website indicates the 1-day service for members is based upon 2.6% of the market value with a max cap of $2,600 per book. The fee for non-members is based upon 2.75% of the market value with a max cap of $2,750 per book. Of course, if you really want to have the boys here at CCS and CGC to press and grade your book for you, there's a loophole for you to avoid paying the additional $100K more in fees for your $2M book. All you have to do is send it in as part of the Gal Gadot private signing and CCS/CGC will press and grade the book for you for only $420. Now, if you want her to add in her character name such as Wonder Woman or Diana Price, the price tag goes up to $630 for the additional name that she's going to have to sign. Of course, since it's a PRIVATE signing, how in the world do we know who's really signing these books here as it could really be the janitor for all we know.
  21. lou_fine
    Well, it's probably going to be more like $100K+ more once you account for BOTH the pressing and grading fees. Like you are alluding to, exactly how much more additional work are they doing in order to rationalize this additional $100K+ that they are charging.
  22. lou_fine
    This is EXACTLY why this entire submission process that CGC has in place doesn't make any sense at all. Now, if I understand this correctly, the tier that we submit the books under is based upon the value of the book. Of course, as we all know, the value of any book is based upon both the grade of the book and whether it is Universal or restored. But isn't this the exact reason why we are sending the books into CGC in the first place in terms of getting them graded and also for the restoration check. So, is CGC saying that we are supposed to be able to know in advance if the book is going to be a CGC 9.8 graded copy or whether it's going to be a CGC 9.6 graded copy or dare we say even lower. Then, on top of that, we are also supposed to know in advance if the book has been restored or not in order to come up with an estimated value to place it in the correct tier for pricing. Especially when there's a big huge difference in the valuation of a book if it's a CGC 9.8 graded copy as opposed to a CGC 9.4 copy, and the same for a restored book versus an unrestored copy of the same book. Oh heck, if CGC wants the submittor to grade and conduct a restoration check on the book prior to submitting it, shouldn't they be paying us for the preliminary advanced work that we are doing for them.
  23. lou_fine
    Makes sense. That’s a big savings if they were graded before the price increase. Yep, just went back to check on the other thread and it looks like they removed this $5K cap for any online submissions received into their system after April 28, as confirmed by these 2 upstanding board members here: The question which I have is what kind of additional work does CGC have to do for a HG GA book that's worth say $2M, as compared to a lower grade GA book that's worth say only $2K. Especially when I imagine there's a lot more work involved with trying to identify all of the defects when it comes to the lower graded copy, as compared to the HG copy. Sounds like nothing more than an absolute cash grab on the part of CGC if you ask me.
  24. lou_fine
    Something for you to ponder while you are waiting for your press and regrade: Have you ever sent your food order back to the kitchen at a restaurant and then after getting it back, wonder if they added an little "extra something special" into your plate of food?
  25. lou_fine
    Probably for this reason here alone: Since I haven't sent in any of my books for slabbing yet, wasn't this cap just removed with their last price increase that took effect just the other month. If so, this might explain why the books might have been graded and slabbed, but still NOT YET coming to market? Sad to say, but I don't believe any of my books would be affected by this cap removal anyways.