lou_fine

Now, some of these later Wonderworld's are truly real toughies to find in any condition, let alone in high grade.

Are you talking about artistic wise which I would agree with or valuation wise which I would clearly disagree with? Now, now, now....................pretty soon we'll have every Tom, Dicck, and Harry outperforming MM 3 before you know it.

Boy, are we ever trying to get @tth2's mood into a dander for even having such sacrilegious thoughts about Mystery Men 3. Seriously though, I guess it's pretty much a no-brainer that MM 2 has now clearly overtaken MM 3 and possibly even MM 7 doing it, but never really gave much thought to MM 8. From a strict artistic POV though setting aside the rarity factor, I much prefer MM 8 over MM 7 myself and clearly both of these issues have been climbling up strongly in value in the past few years. From your collecting experience and personal POV, do you think MM 7 is close to MM 2 in value due to its extreme rarity in grade or still a long ways off?

Why Dear Sir.....................who cares about the artistic merits of the cover when you've got the historic merits of flashy little Adolf and old chubby Winston gracing the front cover of your book!!

Which one are you referring to.......the CGC 3.0 copy that sold for $22.2K earlier today or the CGC 1.5 copy that sold for $16.2K last December? What do you mean it's not a great cover................why, you've got little Adolf in his fashionably made Hugo Boss outfit punched right in the kisser and then you've got chubby but lovable cigar chomping Winston not showing any fear at all while tied up in typical bondage mode.

I was actually a bit surprised with the result as I thought this copy here mght even have problems hitting the $16.5K price point of the 1.5 copy: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/weird-comics-20-fox-features-syndicate-1942-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-pages/a/40239-82121.s Lotta of Adolf covers out there for collectors to chase after, so it MUST be this rare as hen's tooth Churchill cover that's got collectors going gaga and opening up their wallets nice and wide with all the love that they clearly feel for good old Winston here.

Methinks you need to have a little chat with the originator of the post who gave us the picture here for all of us to enjoy so much. BTW: I also try to find the word "Rebubmitted" in my dictionary here, but sadly to no avail.

Yes, I was absolutely shocked when I noticed this at the end of last year, but then it seems to be pretty locked in with multiple copies in the CGC 3.0 to CGC 3.5 condition range now consistently fetching in the $5K to $7K price range at both Heritage and CC during the past couple of years. This was definitely not the case back in 2017 when the Jon Berk Church copy of MM 3 in CGC 9.6 sold for $57K while the Berk/Church copy of MM 2 in equivalent CGC 9.6 condition grade managed to fetch only $38,500. The question now is whether the HTF Mystery Men 7 has also overtaken Mystery Men 3 due to its sheer rarity in grade with only the Church copy in CGC 8.0 being the only copy to grade above CGC 4.0 out of a meagre total of only 12 unrestored Universal copies in the census to date? Especially considering that even raw restored lower grade Good copies or even certified restored 2.5 graded copies have been selling into the $3K price range during the past year or so: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-condition-apparent-gd/a/122224-13617.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Raw restored Good copy for $3,120 back in June of 2022 and then this certified restored 2.5 graded PLOD copy for $3,360 in February of 2023: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-cgc-apparent-gd-25-slight-c-1-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122309-17635.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Heck, it even looks like real low grade beater Fair copies even with the much dreaded Slightly Brittle PQ desigantion are still approaching 4-figures: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-cgc-apparent-fr-10-slight-c-1-slightly-brittle-pages/a/122333-13134.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Hate these fugly looking oversized magazine holders and yet sold for some $840 last month with another Fair CGC 1.0 graded restored PLOD copy (albeit with much better OW/W pages) selling for $990 back in February of 2021. So, hopefully you are also not looking for a #7 then.

NO Seriously though, do you mean right now or during the Live Auction earlier this afternoon?

With such a large difference in price between the two copies, you actually made me go in and take a closer look: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/wonderworld-comics-3-fox-1939-cgc-vg-40-slightly-brittle-pages/a/40239-82123.s Needless to say, the PQ designation of Slightly Brittle pages has always been pretty much a death knell to most books in the comic book marketplace, but with those deep and eye cringing dust shadows at the top, that's sure to guarantee a lower price regardless of the assigned grade in the top left hand corner of the slab.

Since I was busy driving during the auction, greatly appreciate you doing this as I am just too lazy to go through everything. You actually made me go back and look at these two copies of Science 1 with your post here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/966227 Have always absolutely love the deep strong blue colors on the Science 1 and thought they presented better on the CC copy above as compared to the HA copy below. Then again, that could also just be due to scanning issues more than anything else. Although the CC copy appears to have less wear on the front cover spine, it's probably a wash with the big long obtrusive looking tape on the back cover and the qualifying label note for the "minor amount of glue on spine of cover". https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/science-fiction/science-comics-1-fox-1940-cgc-vg-40-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/40239-82101.s# Any bets that the consignor of the CC copy must be pretty stoked with this result, considering that he's probably got a couple thousand more in his pocket given the lower auction fees with CC as compared to the consignment fees with Heritage.

Yes, like I had said, from a strict front cover visual appearance only, the CGC 2.5 from last week clearly presented nicer than today's CGC 3.0: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-2-fox-1939-cgc-gd-25-off-white-pages/a/122338-15216.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 As compared to the less visually appealing CGC 3.0 graded copy in that fugly oversized magazine holder: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-2-fox-1939-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40239-82071.s I actually thought the final price for the CGC 2.5 copy from last week might have been held back a bit by the presence of the CGC 3.0 copy, but nevertheless, both are still clear evidence of the continuing strong prices for Mystery Men 2 in today's marketplace.

With only a few more hours to go, looks like it's still a neck and neck race between these two books to see who takes the silver medal behind Mystery Men 1 as the second most valuable book in the MM run, unless there's a dark horse in the form of one of the later hot issues that comes up from behind to nose them out: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-2-fox-1939-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40239-82071.s?type=lotlink--bidnotice-dailystatus Mystery Men 2 in that fugly oversized holder with a slight lead for now at a hammer bid of $1,550 while Mystery Men 3 sniffing right behind with a current hammer bid of $1,500: cc https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-3-fox-1939-cgc-gd-vg-30-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/40239-82072.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-ThisAuction-120115 This second run at a Fox Showcase Auction doesn't seem to have the same depth as the first one they had back in December of 2022, but should still be very interesting to watch for all of the Fox aficionados.

I would most definitely NOT pass on ones with the signature Edgar Church mothballs smell that some long time experienced collectors can apparently detect.

Any clear examples here since I believe we need some good news and a ray of sunshine here amongst all of this doom and gloom we seem to be seeing from most other boardies here?

When it comes to the Fox books, although I having always tended to focused much of my collecting interest in the earlier issues of the various Fox titles, it looks like there are actually quite a few diamonds in the rough when it comes to some of the later issues which are often rare as hen's teeth, with this apparently being one of them: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/weird-comics-20-fox-features-syndicate-1942-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-pages/a/40239-82121.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Currently the second highest bid behind Mystery Men 1 in the Fox Showcase Auction that's ending tomorrow evening at a hammer bid of $4,200 with just one more day. I guess not only does it have of those much in-demand Hitler covers, but also a much rarer cover appearance of Winston Churchill himself who you don't see on very many covers with one of the other ones being of course Subby 3 featuring the Churchill assassination cover. Not sure where this copy of Weird 20 is going to finish up at, but thought this was a pretty strong price until I noticed this copy going for a rather astounding out of this world price of $16,200 back in December of 2022, considering its assigned grade of only CGC 1.5 Fair/Good: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/weird-comics-20-fox-features-syndicate-1942-cgc-fr-gd-15-off-white-pages/a/40214-81144.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Big congrats to you on having the smarts to acquire these bound volumes in the first place since they certainly do make it a lot more affordable. How many issues were in one of bound volume and my bet is that somebody snatch up the bound volume(s) for the Master 22-34 run since that portion there is recognized by collectors to have some of the best Rayboy covers in the entire run. If so, surprised that they didn't also snatch up the oversized issues at the start of the run from Master 1-6 since those are impossible to find in grade due to possible storage issues because of their larger size. With these bound volumes and the larger oversized issues, it would appear that the binders were made to fit the size of the comic books themselves. If so, this definitely goes contra to most bound volumes where the books were trimmed to fit the standard sized binders which never really made much sense to me.

I guess this must have been the only recent sale in CGC 6.0 becasue GoCollect is now showing both the 30-day and 90-day average at this exact same $4,560 price point, with the 1-year average at $3,505 and the current FMV set at $4,200.

Do you have a link for this sale and is this considered to be a strong price or just the current going rate for a copy in this condition grade?

Looks like Subby 13 with Schomburg's classic hungry as a snake bondage cover is still pretty delectable and continues to whet collectors' appetite: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/sub-mariner-comics-13-timely-1944-cgc-vg-45-slightly-brittle-pages/a/122339-17355.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Especially since a mid-grade 4.5 copy with the much dreaded Slightly Brittle pages can still fetch $3,120 in Heritage Sunday's auction.

In advance of this coming Thursday's Fox Showcase Auction on Heritage, I came across this article that I found rather interesting: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/what-does-the-fox-say-about-some-very-rare-early-fox-comics/ Believe this article was authored by our very own @markseifert, and no doubt that Mystery Men 7 is indeed a rare early book in the MM run, especially in grade which is non-existent with even low grade beater restored copies now selling for thousands of dollars. Found it rather interesting though that the article goes on to list Worldworld 22 as a contender for the toughest issue in the entire Wonderworld run. Especially since I always thought a stronger contender would have been Wonerworld 24 as it has only come to market 3 times (2 at HA and 1 at CC) while Wonderworld 22 has come to market a total of 10 times (8 at HA and 2 at CC) to date. Looks like Wonderworld 24 is also the only issue in the run that doesn't have a Church copy or any other listed pedigree copy, with a CGC 5.5 being the highest graded copy to date. So, from my personal POV, I'll take Wonderworld 24 to be a stronger contender for one of the toughest issues in the WW run along with Wonderworld 31, and not so surprsingly I guess, no copy of either one of these two books at all in this week's coming Fox Showcase Auction.

Well, as another boardie had posted this book earlier, I guess this is proof positive that not all books are taking a turn southwards post-Covid: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/silver-streak-comics-14-lev-gleason-1941-condition-apparent-gd/a/122339-17331.s?ic16=ViewItem-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-OtherAvailable-081514 Definitely saying something when a low grade RAW RESTORED copy of a book can sell for $4,560 or some 17X times its unrestored Universal condition guide value and also more than triple the $1,440 that it had sold for during the crypto hyper accelerated marketplace of 2021.

Let me add a bit more color to your description here.............low grade raw with restoration sold at an astoundingly and stunningly high price. Then again, I just checked and an even lower grade raw Fair copy had sold for $3K last summer, but still some 17X times unrestored condition guide value for a raw restored copy is definitely saying something.

I don't believe any of the Big 3 regular comic book auction houses charge any kind of handling fee at all to send your books in grading.

I actually thought this copy here would have had a shot at getting closer to the $5K price point considering how nicely it presents relative to its assigned grade, but on a price per point basis, seems to be pretty much in line with what copies in this condition range have been selling for since the summer of 2021. Then again, it just might have been negatively impacted by this CGC 3.0 graded copy that's coming up in the Fox Showcase Auction next week, even though I thought the above 2.5 copy presented nicer: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/mystery-men-comics-2-fox-1939-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40239-82071.s Hate that fugly oversized magazine holder, but it still looks like a neck and neck tussle for second place (i.e. behind Mystery Men 1) between Mystery Men 2 above with a current hammer bid of $1,150 and the long acknowledged collector favorite, namely Mystery Men 3, right behind with a current hammer bid of $1,100. Will definitely be interesting to watch who wins Silver in this race, although my leaning is still towards MM 3 right now. Ten