lou_fine

Why, as I don't believe the neighboring FF annual issues around it are going for anywhere close to that kind of money? And rather surprising for that copy there, because it would appear to be rather loosely graded with more wear than I would expect for a CGC 8.5 graded book. Not that I am complaining about it in any way though.

Was scrolling through the HA Sunday auction llistings earlier and was wondering if anybody can explain why this book is priced so high: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/fantastic-four-annual-6-marvel-1968-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122122-19296.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 When I saw it earlier today, the price was already at $1,100 which then made me go back to check the Overstreet Guide which had it listed for an insane $950 at top of guide. Last that I remember, I thought this book was guiding at opnly something like $20 or $25 and now it's in the same league (price guide wise at least) as Batman 232, 251, Flash Annual 1, and even starting to approach the classic FF Annual #2 with the origin of Doctor Doom. Looks like it finished up at an astronomical (at least to me) $1,800 and this is for only a CGC 8.5 graded copy, which then makes me wonder what a copy in say CGC 9.6 or CGC 9.8 would fetch in today's rather crazed marketplace, considering that there's over 180+ copies already slabbed in higher grade than this copy here?

I was meaning what Lou paid for it, way back when. I've no doubt about the current sale, I'd be very happy to of picked that book up. Sad to say, but that's definitely not my copy there that sold for some $55K and change. I do have a copy of Spidey 129 though and I guess I must have picked it up either in the late 70's or very early 80's for multiples of cover price, at something like $1.50 or thereabouts I would suspect. Most likely even before it was broken out in the Overstreet Guide at the time. I remember the go to Spidey books to get back in the mid 70's were the pair of Spidey 121 and 122 as both of those were going for a pretty good price long before anybody even got interested in Spidey 129. I am quite sure I must have paid a bit more money for the Spidey 121 and 122 (i.e. probably $2 or $3 each) as I probably brought those back in the mid-70's before they really took off. Yeah, pretty much the only Spidey books I have in the entire 100 series along with if I remember correctly issues #100, #101, #135, #161, & #162 as I certainly didn't want to waste big money chasing down Spidey books at the time.

No idea although I did get the feeling from him that this was an opportunity that he didn't want to pass up, especially since companies were offering him money at the time which enabled him to acquire these books for his personal collection. I believe he also felt lucky to have hooked up with a comic book broker who was one of the very few guys to have first right of purchase from Chuck's annual allotment of books that he would release from his Mile High Collection. Especially since being a relatively new player at the time, he certainly wouldn't have received this treasured privilege from Chuck by then.

Maybe—I guess it depends who owns them. Yes, I guess it really depends on the collector as quite a few of the boardies here have clearly stated that they would like to retain that #1 top position. Although I would certainly also prefer to retain that top position if it came to a book of mine's, I wouldn't mind too much if the Promise Collection copy came in at the equivalent grade or preferably one tiny notch lower. After all, I wouldn't really want to be seen as the only fool to pay such a ridiculous record setting price and it would certainly be nice to say that there's an even bigger fool out that that's willing to pay even much more money for a similar copy of the book that you have in your personal collection. At least, it'll not only reinforce the original price you had paid to obtain your copy, but also to help push the market upwards on this book with an actual definitive sale after all of these long years (or possibly even decades) while you've been holding it.

Collection starts with Suspense #5. So, looks like that's why we didn't see an increase in the higher end of the Census Population Report for any of the early Suspense Comics. Sometimes, you just end up missing out, similar to Pat's Chinatown Collection which started the All-American run with issue #62. And then sometimes, you just managed to squeak in under the wire as the last issue in the Flash run for the Chinatown Collection was Flash #86. It's too bad the promise Collection didn't have any of the earlier Suspense cooks in there as I would have love to see what a HG Suspense 4 or even a Suspense 1 would fetch in today's marketplace. Especially in terms of the Suspense 4 where the highest graded copy is still only a single CGC 7.5 graded copy (similar to the classic Suspense 8 with 3 copies in CGC 7.5 prior to this Promise Collection copy) since the Church copy has yet to come back into the marketplace after all these long years. And for those who thinks that pedigree books can only go up over time, just take a look at the Church copy of Suspense Comics 1. Sold as a CGC 8.5 graded copy on 3 separate occasions at Heritage, with each succeeding sale going for a lower result. First time sold in August of 2007 for $9,560 which was then followed by a subsequent sale in November of 2009 for $5,078.75; before finishing up at just under condition guide in November of 2012 at a price point of $4,331.88. Without a doubt though, this Church copy of Suspense Comics 1 would finish a whole lot higher in today's red hot marketplace, as evident by the fact that a CGC 5.5 graded copy was able to fetch $6,200 or something like 3.5X condition guide in a CC Event Auction last year in the Spring of 2020.

Yes, pretty much perfect centering and alignment on the spine which you don't tend to see all the time on a lot of these BA books, especially when it comes to SME 15.

Well, that's rather simple as this current craze that's taking place with the readily available books are on only key issues and first appearances and not much else after that, esecially in terms of your run of the mill mid run issues. Perfect case in point being this readily available ASM 129 with multiple HG copies showing up in every single auction, and yet this highest graded copy here was still able to garnered an astoiunding and astronomical $55,111 for the lucky CL consignor here: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Damazing%2Bspider-man%2B129%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1476185&id=1476185&itemType=0#detail

Definitely a bang up smart move on his part as he must have had his crystal ball all shiny and working at that time. I remember buying my first house in 1982 or thereabouts and the mortgage interest rate was at just a tad over 20% and seemingly going up on an almost weekly basis. My much older brother-in-law who owned quite a few houses by that time told us that we better lock in the rate before it moved further up into the 20's or possibly even into the 30's. Went against his advice and decided to go with a flexible rate figuring that rates wouldn't go much higher and they didn't, as they dropped on pretty much a continual basis after that.

So do Mylar sleeves. I figured that out back in the 80s by buying books from dealers racks without pulling the books out first. Unfortunately, the type of defects that don't show through a Mylar sleeve also don't show in scans, so I've had similar disappointments buying books online. Yes, for sure with those beautiful mylar sleeves as they always make the books look so glossy and bright when you look at them. Not so much with those cheapo comic sleeve bags they had from the old days back in the 70's and 80's. Although the good thing is that when you do take the comic book out from them, they still look as beautiful and glossy as if you just took them off the shelves of the LCS some 40+ years ago.

If you are referring to this copy here here that sold for a rather astounding $16,916, you are dfinitely not kidding here: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dspecial%2Bmarvel%2Bedition%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1479606&id=1479606&itemType=0#detail It even managed to beat the one that sold in a Heritage Sunday Auction at the end of last month for $14,400 even though it had that big fugly looking white strip running down the entire length of the spine which seems to be common with this book here. Makes me wonder what a truly perefectly centered copy would go for since even this one here is slightly off-centered.

I have to agree. At that point collecting is an addiction rather than a hobby. There's always another comic book. In fact, there's always another copy of the same comic book, as the purchaser of this comic has indubitably learned by now. Try telling that to the Dentist as I remember talking to Dave back in the day and he told me that after he had graduated from Dental School, the credit card companies must have targeted him as an up and coming spender as he was getting all sorts of CC applications being sent to him. According to what he told me, he took advantage of that money being offered to him at the time to acquire many of his early Church purchases.

Not the Manhunt book, as I thought you link was going to take us to this book here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/689571 Sold for something silly like $15K on CC back in 2016 when it was "the only CGC 9.8 graded copy in the entire universe", and definitely nowhere even close now that it has other CGC 9.8 copies out there to keep it company.

To be fair, this collection is pretty interesting. Tom covering it isn’t a surprise to me, It basically came out of no where and no one expected it. 5000+ GA books in high grade (some probably over graded) but still, it amazes me. I think it’s cool to see him use his platform and talk about this. Yes, definitely nice to see the younger generation at least talking about some of the GA books, and in particular, with the Promise Collection of book here. Although the title of this video is definitely incorrect here (i.e. The Best Comic Book Collection Ever Found) as that tile really belongs to the Church Collection, nothing at all wrong with his subtitle "Historic Golden-Age Collection Discovered". Not sure who this Golden Age Guru guy is here, but I found it rather interesting that the #4 book he listed and raved on about was Cap's Weird Tales #74. I thought if it was a Cap book, they would have gone with a more obvious and popular choice like the Cap 46 with the classic Holocaust cover. I guess the fact that the Cap 74 was head and shoulds the highest graded copy while the Cap 46 was only the second higheest graded in a very tight field made all the difference in the world. Personally, if I had the money and deciding between these two books here, I would go for the Cap 46 myself.

Your comments make me wonder whether my books with CVA stickers were worth the crazy multiples that I paid for them .... Depending upon the Grader's Notes, I would much rather pay less to acquire a book that presents nicely relative to it's assigned lower grade, as compared to paying more for a book that doesn't appear to present as nicely relative to its assigned higher grade. Now, after everybody's comments here that the notes don't actually list all of the defects, especially the major hidden ones bringing the actual grade down, probably the wrong strategy to be taking here.

I'm sure the seller is finding that figure... interesting. Well, looks like the both of you was correct here since the book finished at only $57,111 as compared to $64,111 on the last go round at CC: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FPreviewCode%3D2021may%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3DWonderworld%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1467075&id=1467075&itemType=0#detail With the CL consignment fee, I guess it amounts to a loss of over $12K on this book here and I personally believe this loss might have a lot to do with the money being redirected towards the Promise Collection books that's sitting on deck right now waiting for their turn at the bat.

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3DFantastic%2Bfour%2B48%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1479746&id=1479746&itemType=0 sometimes their links don't work... Looks like your link takes you to a CGC 9.8 graded copy of FF 48 that sold for $93,888 and not the the non-existent CGC 9.8 Hulk 181 which the original poster was asking about.

9.6. If that sells for $63,500 yikes yikes yikes yikes. If you are talking about the CGC 9.6 graded copy of Hulk 181 here, looks like is sold for $29,052: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FPreviewCode%3D2021may%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dhulk%2B181%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1472798&id=1472798&itemType=0

A nice chart comparison here and a much better reflection of the real comic book marketplace out there as it focuses in on the much more realistic CGC 6.0, CGC 8.5, and tops out at CGC 9.4. Especially when you compared this to all of the other dreamers out there who talks only about CGC 9.8 graded copies of books, as though that's the condition level that is much more reflective of the marketplace out there.

Well, not sure if it should be a 9.4 from a strict structural point of view, regardless of the large fugly dust shadow. From a structural point of view, I don't really care too much for the off-center wrap as evident by the bottom portion of the spine. Then again, I don't believe that CGC hits the grade of a book too hard for this type of clear visual defect since I assume they probably view it more as a production related issue.

Well, I guess the owners of both the Penn and Church copy of Suspense 3 are probably breathing a sigh of relief after hearing this. Any idea if this was just for Suspense 3 only , or were the other early Suspense Comics also missing from the collection as I believe the only ones graded so far has been from either Suspense 5 or 6 and then the later issues after that? Also, did you get a chance to ask about Punch 12 since quite a few boardies was wondering about this classic cover issue here?

Well, any reports back from your end on the AA 61?

Did you get a chance to ask about the Suspense run since I noticed that they already got the last half of the run graded and slabbed quite early on? Interested in where the classic cover Suspense 3 will end up in comparison to both the Penn and Church copies from a few years ago. Also the Suspense 4 which is apparently the toughest of the lot to find in grade, along with the Suspense 1 which I consider to be the poor man’s version of Suspense 3.

Not sure where my run of Claremont and Bryne X-Men books are, but is that a Newsstand Edition of X-Men 120, or did all of the editions have the standard barcode since it's from early '79? Absolutely surprised these Bryne XMen books are going for this kind of money since everybody back in the day were cherry picking these off the shelves of the LCS's as they first came in. Hoped that I picked up an extra copy of this book here, but probably not as I think I picked up duplicates of only X-Men 94 (lost one of them ), X-Men 108, the death of Phoenix double issue, and the Days of Future past duet. Also hope that my copy of X-Men 120 is not as off-center as that one up there as I was quite fussy about these things, but sometimes you didn't have much of a choice.

From the way that I read his post, the current owner (i.e. sfcityduck) was the submittor of the book and had intended to sell it, but probably had a change of heart after the book came back from grading. Wow, learn something new all the time here as I never realized this, but definitely good to hear. I just hope this process doesn't have a negative impact on their turnaround times here.