lou_fine

I got the impression that most likely all of the books that were listed and pictured in the pamphlet along with all of the boxes that were carted out during the Saturday feeding frenzy came from Bob's split of the collection. If so, Martha clearly did not know much about the guide even though she had been listed in the Acknowledgements Section and the collection was split more along the lines of quantity (i.e. count) as opposed to quality (i.e. value). Since I was staying over the weekend until Monday night, Snyder asked me to come back on Monday to go into the actual vault where all of the books were kept since they apparently did not get a chance to cart out Martha's portion of the collection and I could take whatever I wanted. When I first walked in there it seem like the final scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark with shelves upon shelves of boxes filled with vintage collectible comic books, but clearly the best books had already come out over the weekend.

Yeah, totally can't figure why this buyer would try to sell this book on the eBay flea market website where the buyers with no moolah hang out. With a CGC highest graded copy of a book like this and with only 145 total copies graded to date, they should throw it into a CL auction and hope that some deep pocketed sucker astute buyer suffering from a severe case of FOMO like the bidder who paid $44K for this copy of Transformers 1 with some 3,300 slabbed copies to date will snap it up for a mere $50K: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dtransformers%2B1%26ItemType%3DCB%26CGC%3DYES%26CBCS%3DYES%23Item_1452303&id=1452303&itemType=0

Although we are certainly seeing prices increase at an alarning pace for certain genres within GA, it is definitely not like what we see taking place in terms of key SA Marvels, HG BA keys, and even HG CA first appearances. As clearly evident with sales of Transformers 1, NM 98, GS X-Men 1, Silver Surfer 9, etc all in the $40K+ range in the recent CL Featured Auction last month. Kind of reminds me of the early to mid 90's when the GA lagged behind the prices increases that took place in books from the more recent ages before they themselves took a catch up rocket like shot to the moon in the '94 to '95 time period when even dealers were offering outrageous multiples to top of guide for GA books.

I won an restored copy of an early key Fox book on Heritage back about 13 or 14 years ago and was not aware that offers were being accepted on the book until after I received an actual email notification from Heritage last year that an offer had been made on my book. Needless to say, I turned down the offer immediately and yet their system is still showing the Make Offer to Owner feature for this book. Looks like this Make Offer to Owner program of theirs breaks it down into 4 different categories: 1) Buy Now From Owner; 2) Make Offer to Active Owner; 3) Make Offer to Inactive Owner; and 4) Make Offer to Unverified Owner. I assume I must then fall into one of the latter 3 categories, but don't want to try to figure out all of their definitions here.

Well, there's a very simple and logical reason for this. If you check their Home Page, it states that they started up their business in 1996 and they have had absolutely no reason at all to update their website. Especially with all of the ongoing complaints from everybody about the ComicConnect website after their massive website upgrade last year and which has most likely resulted in far fewer potential customers going to their website since they probably just hate change of any kind.

Well, I believe if you've been around long enough like some of us old timers here, you would know the story about Anthony Chiofalo, the former in-house counsel for the Tandano Corporation who embezzled millions of dollars and then used the proceeds to purchase comic books for outlandish prices at the time: https://www.theverge.com/2015/7/22/8870089/texas-comic-book-heist-anthony-chiofalo-tadano I am not sure if GoCollect would collect data going back to 2012 as I am not even sure if they were around at that point in time.

I totally agree with you 110%. Since I love to go through old price catalogues, I want all of those dealers to be forced to sell me those books they have listed at the exact price point that they have them listed for. Seriously though, I believe the way Heritage has their BIN and Make an Offer features set up, it's rather easy for any listed price in this kind of heated marketplace to become out of date after a few months, let alone several years. Especially since you really can't expect the auction winners to keep going back into the system to update their price points on a HA feature that they are probably not even aware off.

You know I'm not completely sure but that question is "Highly Significant" . Highly Significant is indeed correct here, because if it is truly a Buy It Now, then it means that the owner of the book has set their Offer Price and you are in effect accepting their offer price. If it is a Make Offer to Owner, YOU are in effect making an offer to the owner and it's then up to them whether THEY accept it or not. For example, I am 100% sure that the winner of this book here on HA had absolutely no problems accepting this offer less than a short week after winning the book: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/all-star-comics-3-billy-wright-pedigree-dc-1940-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7054-91043.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 After all, who wouldn't in their right mind accept an offer of $200,000 less than a week after winning the book for only $49,293.75!!!

It could be. I'd be curious to know how many bidders there were (not counting the low-ball bidders). There could be just two guys competing for high-grade copies. Don't think it would be the Space Jam sequel as Pepe Le Pew has been left on the cutting room floor of that movie, and apparently Pepe will also not be showing up in any other media platforms going forward due to its political incorrectness when it comes to so-called rape culture and the like: https://deadline.com/2021/03/pepe-le-pew-space-jam-2-new-york-times-rape-culture-controversy-1234708688/ Even if Pepe was still in the movie sequel, I believe his first comic book appearance was right near the end of the Looney Tunes run in the SA and hence shouldn't have a direct link to the GA issues of Looney Tunes where these high auction results were taking place. Nonetheless, it's always good to see some of these long undervalued and seeningly much under appreciated books finally receive their long overdue day in the sun.

I have been waiting sometime for certain books and i'm running out of time Another observation here: And yet it's amazing the number of more recent hot books (eg. Spidey 300, NM 98, MOKF 15, etc.) that continues to show up in multiple quamtities in every single one of these auctions and buyers continue to pay escalating prices on these seemingly "common as dirt" books.

Just a question here.............is this a Buy It Now price that the owner has knowingly set on the book themselves or is this the automated Make Offer to Owner feature that Heritage has on all of their completed auction lots? If it's the latter, this is just a system generated figure now set at 50% (used to be 30% until several months ago) above the winner's purchase price. Most winning purchasers are not even aware of this feature and only find out about it after the fact (sometimes years later) when a prospective buyer hits the button and then it's up to them whether they want to accept this offer or not. Can't remember if they allow you to counter offer or not, but I assume it would only make sense for them to allow you to do this.

I now put on three Depends during auctions just to be safe. Well, in this case it's best for you to check your weekly flyers for the big sales because you just might have to buy them in bulk quantities then.

+1. Certain books not showing up and when they do, you need to be prepared to pay out the nose (and other places) if you have any hope of acquiring them. Is this the part where you have to go and change your diapers and prep yourself way in advance by buying a big box of Depends prior to their Signature Auctions?

With how hot the comic book marketplace has been for the past couple of years, it would appear that some of the heat has finally even managed to find its way over to the once seemingly slower Dell titles, including this Crackajack Funnies run. I remember an early issue of this run selling for a huge premium to guide in a Heritage Auction just last year, and lo and behold, it came back to market in the just completed CL Featured Auction and managed to sell for an even higher dollar amount than what it fetched at Heritage last year. Another example was this copy of Crackajack Funnies 39 which was also in the same CL Featured Auction and managed to sell for $2,500 or something like 3X condition guide: Love the strong bold colors on this gorgeous copy and it's good at long last to see some of these overlooked Dell's including this much under appreciated and undervalued Crackajack Funnies run finally get their much deserved and long overwaited day in the sun.

@lou_fine you've been around this hobby for a long long time. Have you ever seen anything similar to this market? I can think of individual books going crazy for a stretch. AF15 and Hulk1 experienced massive growth very quickly years ago. When it happened to Hulk 1, I remember saying to my brother it had experienced 40 years of growth in less than 1 year. I really wanted that book and kept waiting for prices to return... I'm still waiting. I can't personally remember a time when so many big books have moved at this pace, as the same time. Can you speculate on where we go from here? The bubble bursts and we see a 10% to 30% correction? The movement maintains and these prices become the new norm? Well, based upon my collecting experience, I strongly believe that the comic book market tends to move in cycles as the heat in the marketplace will move from one part of the market to another part as time goes by which then results in a general increase across the majority of the comic book marketplace before it cycles back and repeats itself all over again. Of course, there's a whole lot of moving and overlapping parts all taking place at the same time. For example, I remember how hot the new book market was back in the early 90's with the Wizard driven craze for the Valiant and Image hot books of the day. By the time this craze fizzled out, the heat was already well onto the early SA books by then which had just gone through an almost decades long pause in the marketplace prior to the turn of the late 80's/early 90's. Not surprisingly, GA was not really invited to this party in the early 90's, but definitely more than made up for it in the mid-90's for a couple of short years there when they were seemingly the belle of the ball with dealers offering unheard of multiples of guide for GA books back then. No idea where we go from here as I am certainly seeing bubbles in various parts of the comic book marketplace. What else can you really call it when you see relatively common BA and CA books like GS X-Men 1, NM 98, and even Transformers 1 selling into the $40K+ range. Probably a big correction here for these types of books that are really up there due primarily to either short term movie related hype or transitory factors such as CGC's highest graded copies. I have never really understood the strategy behind paying a ridiculous record multiple for a highest graded copy of what is otherwise a relatively common book (except for grade) and then living in fear that another copy in equivalent grade or even higher grade would come to market and thereby destroying the value of your book. As a long time collector, I would nuch rather be holding onto a vintage collectible comic book whereby I am looking forward to hopefully more copies coming into the marketplace so that they will not only reinforce the price which I had paid for the book, but also serve to push the price of my copy further up in valuation. Why in the world would you want to be stuck holding onto a book at a record setting price and then hoping no other equivalent graded copy would come around because in more cases than not, MANY MORE copies will indeed come along over time. Those short term movie related hype books and highest graded copies brought at ridiculous prices are the one main place where I would expect to see a huge price correction over the short term. For pretty much everything else, I would expect the standard ebbs and flows with the usual pauses in between as we have seen even with books like AF 15, Spidey 129, Hulk 181, etc. over time I guess it really just depends on how long some of these pauses or slight down drafts are before they catch the next wave.

They would definitely have to have a few sales of this before it became fair market value, but I can see a trend, people thought 3k was crazy. This definitely has to be a record Don't think so, as I assume you must have missed the following 2 posts from Page 31 of this thread here talking about this supposedly $15K sale if we can actually believe it: Then again, if a copy of Transformer #1 can sell for $44K, then I guess a measly $15K for a signed copy of Spidey 300 must look like an undervalued steal in comparison. , the big big pile of money that is!!!

Exactly! Have you got any graded? Ummm...................................did you missed the part where I said that I was a long time comic book collector. Hence, can't think of a reason why I would want to have any of my books graded unless it came time to sell them. Especially with how much more storage space they would be taking up plus the fact that CGC would be making so many ongoing changes to their grading and labeling system that there's not much point to grading them if you are planning to simply hold onto your books in the interim. Most of all, if they are imprisoned in a slab, you would not be able to fully enjoy them the way they were meant to be enjoyed.

That's a good question. When the auction was amended, I assumed they meant it's now a Qualified FN-. It's probably more likely that the FN- was their original grade estimate factoring in the chunks, and that it's more like a Qualified VF or thereabouts, which makes the finishing price somewhat less zany. Not sure about Heritage's accuracy in terms of their own raw grading, but it sure seems like there was a lot of strength on the final prices for many of their raw books. From the comments that I have seen on the boards here and the same book being posted on other auction sitrs, I think it's best for bidders to assume that the real book when received in hand will most certainly NOT have the same eye appeal as what you are seeing from their scans.

.......just not sure if all the recent exuberance has spilled over into GA books, seems to mostly be Silver, some bronze and 9.8 moderns. Yes, this is clearly the case as we have seen with sports cards and the total irrationality that has taken hold on the non-fungible tokens marketplace. Although there is probably some spillover into the GA comic book marketplace, it would not appear to be what's taking place with the BA and CA high grade books because these kinds of books are readily available for speculators to buy and resell back out. This kind of turnover and dynamics are simply not there with the GA books due to their lack of supply and hence the current generation of CGC flippers and day traders are simply not as interested in the GA books because to hold onto a book for even a few months is probably like a lifetime prison term to them.

Yes indeed as I was rather surprised that one would go for that amount of money at almost 6X condition guide, especially considering that it was not only a raw copy, but also noted as having LARGE chunks out of the first few pages. With a major defect like that, I am not sure if it has been fully factored into their raw grade of F- and if the book was ever certified, whether the CGC grade would come in much lower than that?

Probably looks more like the earlier scan than the latest one. Well, clearly they've upped their game when it comes to the scanning of their books, especially with respect to the brightness of their colors.

Now even I am starting to get interested in watching this version of the Justice League movie. Makes it sound a though the powers that be at Warners made a real big boo and an totally unnecessary fatal mistake when they took Snyder off the movie and installed Whedon instead.

Well, I guess Fox books must still be pretty hot in the marketplace right now if even restored raw copies like this one here are going for more than double condition guide, as this gorgeous looking VG+ restored copy sold earlier tonight at HA for $504: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/blue-beetle-11-fox-features-syndicate-1942-condition-apparent-vg-/a/122112-17144.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115

Well, if you are talking about books selling for $4K, then times must be really looney tune when even Funny Animal books like this one here fetching $4,080: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/cartoon-character/looney-tunes-and-merrie-melodies-comics-45-file-copy-dell-1945-cgc-nm-94-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122112-17350.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 Looks like they had about 7 of these Dell Bugs Bunny Looney Tunes books in tonight's auction with all of the other 6 books selling for between $1,320 to $2,640 save for one of them which sold for only $840.

Man, I can’t imagine how bad he wanted that woman out his life to sell all these... Or probably a more accurate assessment with these types of situations, I can't imagine how much he wanted that other woman into his life to sell all these. Being in a nostalgic mood this past weekend and a fan of the 60's and 70's music sounds, I remember being in London a few years ago and heard Agnetha with her beautiful angelic voice singing a foreign live concert version of this song with her band, while tears were coming out of her eyes. How sad and ironic that Bjorn would write this song about their broken marriage for her to sing as one of their last big hits before the band would inevitably break up a couple of years later: It was clear who the winner was as Bjorn had his new girlfriend with him before the week was out while Agnetha was left brokenhearted and needed pyschiatric counselling just to try to figure out what had happened to their mangled relationship. Especially poignant is the part where she sings "Tell me does she kiss like I used to kiss you" and "Does it feel the same when she calls your name". Too bad I couldn't find a copy of the foreign version as I always think that songs sound a lot more exotic in another language, like their Spanish versions of both Fernando and Chiquitita.