lou_fine

Yes, if I compare the CVA sticker to the QES sticker, I would prefer the latter since the CVA sticker is pretty much generic while the QES sticker at least makes some sort of an attempt to list the specific factors as to why the book in question qualified for the sticker. If I may ask, as a potential bidder on a particular book, why would the presence of a sticker on the slab tend to bother you since you are not paying directly for the sticker itself? Especially since it's really there to impart a bit more information to you as a potential bidder that the assigned technical CGC grade itself might not be taking into account.

$1650; $2750 I guess the moral of that story is, if you find them for guide, you should be handing the money to the seller already. Isn't it simply amazing how the comic book marketplace has changed from way back in the old days. I remember when I first started collecting comic books and I used to hopelessly fantasize that I would be able to sell my book for guide. Nowadays, it would be a dream come true if you can buy any of these in-demand books, especially when it comes to GA books, in any condition level for anywhere even close to guide.

I'm talking about the big spiral bound version. I want to see that in a slab. Oh, my bad as I didn't realize that you were talking about the big wide version of the guide here. No problem as I'll just check with Danny Dupchak to see if he can do one of his usual macro trim jobs on the book so that it'll fit nice and snug into one of those CGC slabs.

Yeah, may be poor planning by the seller Yes, every time the Super Bowl comes along, I think back to the 1995 Super Bowl weekend held down in Miami that year and Geppi had his big grand opening for his Diamond International Galleries in Timonium that same weekend with the surprise unveiling of all of the books from the Overstreet Collection. Although all of the old time big players like Fishler, Anderson, Rozanski, and the likes were down there for the grand opening, it seem like a lot of the newer players with deep pockets like Cramer and the gang decided to go down to Florida instead. Good thing for the old time collectors because the new investor guys like Cramer probably would have scooped everything up before anybody even got a look at the books.

Is this a serious question? Yes in deed, why in the world would you even think of selling it for a measly $5K when you can get at least $15K or possibly even more for the book now: And for any fool willing to pay that kind of money for this seemingly almost "common as dirt" book ..............the money, that is.

Yes, I remember back in the 90's when almost all of the interest were focused primarily on the early Fox books with their noted classic covers. Clearly not as much interest were on the later issues, but as time has gone on and with the CGC Census Population Report, it has become quite apparent that some of these later issues are actually the rarest and toughest of the lot to find. Not only are they truly rare, but they are also generally devoid of any in high grade save for the ones that have come out from the Edgar Church Collection. Unlike the earlier Fox issues, virtually all of these later issues were also absent from both the Allenntown and Larson pedigree collections. From my own personal point of view, the really truly rare and virtually impossible ones to find are the handful that were also absent from the Church pedigree collection itself. This would include the Mystery Men run from #21 to #23 and also the Wonderworld #24 & #25 as these particular issues have generally been absent from the marketplace save for the Jon Berk auction a few years back. A perfect example here being this still highest graded copy of Wonderworld 24 at only CGC 5.5 with a total of only 6 copies graded to date including one in restored condition: So, my advice to you if you are trying to complete a run of these later issues, you better grab them if one does come along because if you don't, you might not see another one for another decade or more.

When it comes to More Fun 73, I've always thought that it had been one of the most undervalued GA DC keys for the longest while and then it all of a sudden spiked up so quickly that it seem to be overvalued. I still remember when More Fun was considered to be one of the must have and in-demand GA DC titles to have and then it seem to lose some of its desire for quite a few years there. From looking at recent auction results though, it definitely seems that collector or is it speculator/investor interest seems to be picking up on this title once again. Not sure if it's too late or not, but probably not the worst idea to go after some of these More Fun's before they become too expensive, especially if they are in grade, while their prices are still within the realm of reasonability.

Pretty significantly down. I guess having a pretty decent movie followed by a steamy creamy movie can hurt demand. Being a long time collector myself, I've always had the impression that Wonder Woman (like a lot of other 2nd & 3rd tier DC GA books) has suffered from relatively low demand for a couple of decades there until all of the hype started to build about 5 years ago for her first movie. So, maybe it's just a return back to normal for Wonder Woman after a short lived spike due to all of the hype and euphoria over her movie appearance. Also not sure how much of an impact movies would have on books right now, especially considering that nobody's really rushing out to the theatres in the midst of this pandemic and streaming it at home is just not quite the same thing.

Does this mean that your Cerebus 1 is still a keeper and that you are planning to hang onto it for now?

Due to the crappy poor printing production suffered by Cerebus 1, that book is truly virtually impossible to find in anything even approaching NM condition.

Yes, in full agreement with you that considering how the red hot Bat trio of Bat 227, 232,and 251 have shot up the pricing hit parade like a bullet during the past few years, I would definitely lean more in the direction of Bat 234 and 237 and pick these two books up before their prices also go through the roof.

Well, since it's really nothing more than a cover swipe or homage cover as stated on the CGC label, why not go after the original itself if you are willing to dish out that kind of dough for a book: Then again, maybe not considering that even an entry level copy like the above CGC 1.0 graded copy will still cost you a pretty penny as it sold for something like $44K back a few years ago.

No. It is general business practices everywhere. No company is going to feature a competitor's product or service on their own website. Why should CGC be any different? These are their message boards, not ours. And yet, according to Randall in his post up above, the other company apparently has no issues with members posting scans of CGC slabed books:

Well, I hope you are referring to the softcover edition of the book and not the hardcover edition. Especially since the boys at CCS are already still having a bugger of a time squish squashing the softcover edition of the guide so that it'll fit into one of their CGC slabs.

If you are referring to our rather insecure hosts of these very boards here who seems almost ready to pee their pants at the mere mention of the gang across the street from them, the answer is a very obvious and definite YES, YES, YES!!!

I believe you just might have to look for nicer "friends" who won't try to take advantage of you.

Wonder what the artist had in mind here as it looks like they both clearly had bedroom eyes for each other in this cover image here.

Not sure how eBay works, but if the seller really wanted to sell the book and there was such a minor difference between the final bid and their reserve price, could they simply reach out to the bidder to negotiate something that would make both sides happy?

Do you have a link for this particular AS 8 sales result here?

Woo Woo Woo How soon we forget...............who was one of Heritage Comics Division's last major hire? Now, let me think real real hard here..............ummmmm........does the name Mark Wilson ring a bell to you?

Not knowing anything at all about the antiques market, I've got absolutely no idea who this Joseph Maddalena guy is, but reading the link seems to be a top notch catch for Heritage. Actually, I opened up this thread here almost expecting them to have a huge announcement on the hiring of Jason Ewert here, which would have led me to take a much closer look at the recent offerrings from Heritage. Oh well, I guess maybe it's just a matter of time then.

Yes, we don't need to have more opportunities to be banished to the CGC sin bin by Mod1 who seems to read almost every single post in these kinds of threads to be some kind of political statement even when they are clearly not meant as such.

Well, like the MM 9 which you managed to pick up, the Mystery Men 2 is another very bright and beautiful sifi cover and also hard to beat as it is the second robot cover in the comics. BTW: Big congrats on your Mystery Men 9 as that is just one tough book to track down, especially in grade since there's only 1 copy graded to date above a CGC 5.5 after all these long years of comic book certification.

Wow! Wowza is definitely right as it looks like yesterday's Heritage Sunday Auction had 7 of the early Mystery Men run from MM 2 through MM 12 in similar grade range and it looks like they all sold for huge multiples to their condition guide valuation: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+1060+790+231+4294944811&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=mystery+men+comics&limitTo=4294944811

Being a long time collector myself, I would tend to agree with your first point here. On your second point though, although there are always other ways to sell antiques and/or collectibles, it might not necessarily mean that those ways will be getting you top dollar for your item. Especially, if you are looking for cheapo buyers who also want to avoid paying fees, they are probably also the ones that wil be hoping to pay you only "scrape the barrel" bottom dollar for your item.