lou_fine

Well, if you think that Silver Surfer 4 is a non-key book that has no right to be sitting up there at $56K with still days to go, then I can't imagine what you must think about this truly even more non-key mid-run even later Silver Surfer 9 with an absolutely terrible non-classic cover that still managed to fetched an astounding $42K in the February CL Featured Auction: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?id=1461387#detail At least the Surfer 4 has ALWAYS been acknowledged as having one of the absolute best and most classic SA covers out there, and hence Iwould tend to agree with @tth2 post here: BTW: Since you know him, any idea what our resident Wall Street whiz kid ( i.e. @delekkerste ) thinks about all of this apparent FOMO driven and crypto-like craziness that's taken hold of our comic book marketplace, especially in terms of his former beloved BA and CA books which he used to be really into before getting into his boring and much more niche original art?

I held both side by side. I owned the PC copy that was upgraded, there is a second. The Curator is a much better 9.8 copy, IMHO! Since both of you are clearly two of the biggest uber HG SA collectors on these boards here and tend to follow the grading market quite closely, would you say that both of these copies here would grade back out as CGC 9.8 if resubbed today with its seemingly much more technically focused grading standards? Especially in light of the fact that I believe Schmell had to resub the CGC 9.6 graded Pacific Coast copy of X-Men 1 quite a few times before it finally managed to get that much coveted CGC 9.8 in 2004 that he had been trying to obtain. Like others have said here, the colors on the Pacific Coast copy are clearly not as bold as on the current 9.6 copy up in the CC Event Auction, but would appear to have better alignment and no slight dust shadow on the back at least. As for the Curator copy, since it appears to have been slabbed very early on in the first year or thereabouts when CGC first opened their doors, my thinking is that it was most likely still graded according to the old school grading standards prior to CGC "fine-tuning" their undisclosed grading standards. No doubt the book would look absolutely gorgeous since it was graded as a CGC 9.8 copy right from the get go. Any idea if there is a picture or scan of this Curator copy or is this hopefully not the same situation as the famed Church copy of Action 1 which is not available for public viewing save for the lucky few who have been blessed to see and handle the book? Hopefully, the Curator copy was brought by the current owner himself and not in conjunction with his former "cutting edge" partner or through his Via corporate partnership.

Like I said in my previous post up above, if I was going to spend that kind of money on a L.B. Cole book, I would be a little patient and go for the sole highest graded copy (either restored or unrestored) by a long shot in terms of Suspense 8 with the all-time classic L.B. Cole spider cover, and a Promise Collection pedigree copy to boot. Especially since the Suspense 8 seems to be much tougher to find in decent grade, whereas copies of Mask 1 certainly seems to be out there and seemingly now showing up in almost every single auction for the past couple of years.

Yes, totally shocked that the Mask 1 would already be up so high and possibly even challenging to hit 6-figures here by the time it's all said and done here, considering that it is only a CGC 8.5 grade copy, albeit the current highest graded unrestored copy slabbed to date so far. Especially when you take into consideration the fact that there are already 2 much higher gradeded copies (albeit Slight Restored copies) slabbed out there in CGC 9.6 (ignore the CGC 9.4 since they need to remove it from the census), including the Edgar Church Mile High CGC 9.6 graded Restored copy. Now, if I had any patience and was on any type of high 5-figures budget (which I clearly sadly am not ) and looking for a true blue L.B. Cole unicorn to spend my Promise Collection money on, it would be this gorgeous stunning beauty here: Absolute and uncontested highest graded copy by a long shot in CGC 9.2 graded condition with the next closest ones (either unrestored or Restored) being in CGC 7.5 condition. The all-time classic L.B. Cole spider cover and a true rarity in decent grade and a cover which would go on to spawn several other copycat cover versions going forward.

Definitely not rare or scarce or even HTF, especially in the case of Hulk 181 or GSXM 1, since we've clearly seen several copies of each book in every single auction over the past several years. No surprise here when you have almost 15,000 slabbed copies of Hulk 181 already, with over 500 of them in CGC 9.6 or higher and then also already over 10,000 copies of GSXM 1, with over 600 of them in CGC 9.6 or higher. Of course, the oft mentioned counterpoint to this sentiment is that the demand side is clearly even higher than the supply side since prices continue to move ever upwards on a steady basis. As to your other point here, there very clearly is still a whole ton of HG copies of these books still sitting out there in the private collections of long time comic book collectors. Just think about this, if I had paid a quarter to cherry picked a book off the shelves of the LCS back in the day or even if I had to pay 75 cents or possibly a buck and a half for a HG back issue copy of it back then, there is absolutely no way in heck that I would be willing to fork over $35 or more than 100X the cost of the underlying book itself just to get it graded and slabbed, UNTIL it actually came time to sell the darned thing.

Totally agree with you 110% that TMNT is definitely more culturally popular with much broader appeal than Ghost Rider. Also agree with you that a CGC 9.8 copy of TMNT 1 might just fetch over $150K in today's crypto crazed FOMO driven marketplace and should finish on top of a CGC 9.8 copy of Marvel Spotlight 5, even though the Ghost Rider book is definitely much rarer and seldom comes into the marketplace in that condition level. Well, since the last CGC 9.8 graded copy of FF 48 just sold for $93,888 and even though there's some 45 slabbed copies in this equivalent grade, I imagine there's a pretty strong chance that this copy here in this current Heritage Auction could end up hitting 6-figures. I guess it's only a matter of a few more sleeps before we find out where this copy of FF 48 finishes up at.

Yes, that was definitely a game changer of a sale for TMNT 1 back in the lazy hazy (but not yet 2021 style crazy) days of summer in 2019 and most assuredly, a very very "interesting" sale to say the least and it's resulting overall impact on the entire early TMNT marketplace. Now, if I remember correctly, the 2 previous sales for TMNT 1 prior to this $90K sale at Heritage in 2019 were only in the mid to high $30K's back in 2018, after CC had completed one in the high $20K's the year before. Definitely a shocker to the marketplace to have this next one go straight from the $30K+ price range right up into $90K. Not surprisingly, this was then followed by 2 subsequent sales a few short months later for a copy in the low $50K's and then one for $50K by CL in December of 2019. This is where it gets a bit interesting as the next one to sell a few months later in April 2020 is a very low profile non-auction BIN sale of the exact same copy that sold for $90K at HA, but this time at a price point of only $59K. Being the skeptic that I tend to be, if I was a dealer sitting on a few copies of TMNT 1 or a bunch of early TMNT's, wouldn't this be the perfect play to make in order to spike up the market on a supposedly rare and HTF book if you can truly call it that when you have almost 200 copies already slabbed in CGC 9.4 and above, and copies which you can now hopefully push out at substantially higher prices. If this was indeed the actual intent, all I can say is, well played and perfectly executed!!! Interesting to note that the next CGC 9.8 graded copy to sell was the one for Rally Road which sold for somewhere in the mid $60K's or thereabouts, and although many boardies here laughed at the people who would buy into this scam scheme, I guess based upon current expected valuations, the so-called investors would be the ones who got the last laugh here. Especially now that we have even lower graded CGC 9.6 copies of TMNT 1 selling for even higher amounts than what the last few CGC 9.8 copies have sold for.

It's all about the facial expressions and especially the eyes on this cover here. It clearly looks like he's got the salicious hunger for her, and in return, it looks like she's really into it and he's about to have his wanton desires satisfied.

That makes sense then if you still have to add in the 20% BP on top of your original numbers there. For me, I see the 'Tec 140 around $250K all in, the PL 17 at $150K to $175K since it's been an all-time classic cover ever since the Overstreet's been around, about $125K to $150K for the AA 61 since it's a more recent classic cover for the past 20 years (probably closer to $125K because of the Church 9.8 graded copy out there), and who knows with the MS 5 but I would say maybe $125K. And then yet, all 4 of these combined will still not be able to beat the X-Men 1 in CGC 9.6 graded condtion that CC has in their currrent Event Auction which might end up in the $800K range or thereabouts by the time it's all said and done: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/919592 Definitely not so sure about this myself, but I would probably take those 4 books for my own personal collection, as opposed to just this one single copy of XM 1 here. What say the rest of you here on this lazy hazy crazy day of summer?

Is this before the BP juice has been added in, because if your figures are alreading including the 20% BP, then it looks like both the AA 61 and MS 5 are pretty much close to being done for the count (which I would personally doubt) with about a week still to go?

Steve is basically one of the primary architects behind this whole comic book certification business and was the one who started CGC way back in 2000 when he was in charge of the company and its go to guy and spokesperson for several long years back then. When he was here with the good guys at CGC and on the boards with all of us here back in the day, he was viewed by most boardies as God's gift to grading and could do absolutely no wrong. Of course, now that he's founded the OTHER company with the OTHER guys across the street, he's now seen by many of the same boardies here as almost like the Devil Incarnate who seemingly probably couldn't tell the difference between a 9.8 book from a 1.8 book if his life depended upon it, as based upon some of the comments here now. In actual fact, as we all know here, Steve is most definitely one of the absolute good guys here no matter where he works and have always loved this comic book HOBBY of ours right from the get go and helping it to grow in the MARKETPLACE and has no problems at all meeting up with everybody at cons and just talking about the funny books.

Well, she was in the process of cleaning up and it was based upon the condition of the book, as she did not even noticed the content or the covers. Now, if the front cover of the catalog was a full frontal shot of either PL 17 or PL 23, I am sure she would have noticed. Well, at least she hasn't done that with any of my other comic book auction catalogues yet and I have them all packed in boxes (hoarder style ) dating back to the first Sotheby's one in the early 90's.

Since so much of our attention here has been so focused (and deservedly so may I add) on the Promise Collection of book in this round of the Heritage auction here, we should not forget that there are are also some non-Promise Fox pedigree books also available for all of us Fox aficionandos here. Especially in the case of their headline grabbing Mystery Men run with 6 different pedigree issues available, including these two gorgeous former Berk Church beauties ranging from top to bottom for now: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-3-mile-high-pedigree-fox-1939-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7244-94053.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-SearchResults-120115&lotPosition=0|0 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-19-mile-high-pedigree-fox-1941-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7244-94058.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-SearchResults-120115&lotPosition=5|0#

And still stored in a fashion where they are not only able to be presented so beautifully, but also easily enjoyed in the way they were meant to be.

Well, how about the short term going into next week as this is now the last weekend before the big big auction here? Looks like at this current point in time bertween these 3 big books here (i.e. excluding 'Tec 140 since it looks like the runaway winner for now), we still have Marvel Spotlight 5 in lead at $80K before the BP and now coming fast in behind is All-American 61 at $75K before the BP, leaving PL 17 behind in the dust for now as she's still stuck at only $62.5K before BP. Any updated guesses as to the price range where these 3 big books will finish up at by the time it's all said and done here at the same time next week, or on which one of these 3 will finish up on top at least?

Well, I hope everybody here has a copy of their Promise Collection auction catalog by now. I hope they didn't have to pay any money to the printer or shipper who was responsible for shipping their catlogs out to them. Certainly nowhere close to being in 9.8 condition as this is by far the absolute worst shape any of my auction catalogs have arrived at my place in the past 20 years. From the pictures of the catalogs posted here so far, it looks like probably most of them arrived in this terrible shape. Especially since even my better half thought it was meant for the recycle box and started to head that way with it after seeing it on our sofa.

Oh boy. I'm almost afraid to ask. Who is Borock and why should he/she/they/it be the ones for the job? Are you serious or are you just trying to make a funny joke here?

Yes, definitely noticed this book right away and a bit surprised to finally see a copy in a CGC 9.8 graded and slabbbed holder. Wonder how it's going to stack up visually against all of the other HG slabbed copies as this robot cover must have been a favorite for collectors to keep back in the day as there's now already 17 copies of this issue in CGC 9.0 and above, which is rather surprisingly high for a GA book.

Well, I PROMISE to offer Heritage my own personal copy of Seven Seas 4 for auction if they PROMISE me to include it as part of the Promise Collection books up for auction.

Well, it's quite possible that they might be part of the other 4,700+ books that's going to be coming out in future auctions. Especially since they just might want to leave some quality in-demand books like the Suspense run as highlights for some of their upcoming auctions.

Although I would definitely agree wholeheartedly with you about the long term ongoing appeal for pedigree books like this Promise Collection, Edgar Church, Allentown books, etc. which you keep emphasizing, you seem to be forgetting about the other side of the equation here. This other side being in terms of picking up some of these books here at a reasonable price instead of going totally blue sky and paying outrageous astronomical prices just to acquire a particular copy from this collection. Especially since as history has clearly shown us here, even books from the Edgar Church Mile High collection has ended up selling for only a small fraction of their initial sale price if the original buyer had over paid for their copy in the first place. Take for example the 'Tec 140 which Ed himself thought it would only go for something like $150K and like he said in the video, it's already sitting there at $162K with another week to go. Now, some of the boardies here are talking about a $250K end price, with some going even as far as $500K for this book here. How much profit will the buyer really be reaping if they end up paying $500K for the book next week, instead of the original estimate of only $150K or thereabouts?

How sure are you that these 3 much earlier books would be from the Promise Collection since I believe they said the earliest books were probably from 1940 and mostly in lower graded condition as compared to the prime HG time period of 1944 going forward? I somehow highly doubt the 2 pre-Robin 'Tec books you mentioned would be part of the Promise Collection. Although Ed and Lon did mentioned a Batman 1, they were certainly not jumping up and down which they certainly would have been doing if it was anywhere close to coming in at a CGC 9.2 grade.

Especially in terms of some of the rather lower than normal prices at this point in time as compared to past auctions that we are seeing on some of the non-Promise Collection GA books. Not sure if some of those consignors would be a bit worried at this point and wondering if their books are hitting the auction block at an inopportune time, given the unexpected but concurrent release of the Promise Collection books into the same auction.

I can definitely see this happening, but wouldn't this also kind of depends upon when they were originally graded and slabbed? I believe this whole pressing and CPR game didn't really started to take hold in terms of grading until Heritage arrived on the scene back in 2002 and then really started to ramp up after this so-called "maximization of potential" was outed on these very boards here back in 2005 or thereabouts. Needless to say, it has now not surprisingly gone absolutely ballistics with the current grading team in place and the former "king of pressing" now in charge of CGC grading. I remember getting about a dozen or more of my GA books graded and slabbed back in the late spring or summer of 2000 when CGC first opened their doors to check out this new service at the time. No doubt they were still grading based upon the standards that were in place at the time before they got a chance to "fine tune" them because every single one of the books came back in CGC 9.2 through CGC 9.6, with the only exception being a restored Cap in CGC 8.5. Clearly they not only gave the PLOD to restored books, but also knocked the grades down for the restoration because visually the Cap was just as nice as all of the other dozen books which I had submitted. Possibly explains why we see so many nice looking PLODS relative to their assigned grades as CGC has given them a double whammy in terms of not only the dreaded PLOD label, but also a lower grade at the same time. Anyways, my bet and I am pretty much 99% sure that if I go to submit those same dozen or so books into CGC for straight grading today, with nothing at all being done to the books, they will sadly come back as only CGC 8.0 to CGC 9.2 graded and slabbed books only.

Well, from this picture here, it would appear that the 5-year time period from 1990 through to 1994 were very active years for you. As for the 2nd and 3rd issues, have you tried to get any of the hardcover versions or are you only interested in the softcover versions?