lou_fine

Somehow, I suspect this might be the reason also since it definitely does not encourage bidders to place higher bids when previous stratospheric auction results have fallen out of your auction archives. If it's really the software engineers who updated their website, they really need to hold them accountable as they have certainly done the absolute worst website upgrade job ever. A week ago, they didn't have the Atlantic City copy of Action 13 that sold for $185,000 back in 2011 and then they had it as of a few days ago. On the weekend, they didn't have the Atlantic City City copy of Action 10 that sold for $258,000 and now they have it back in their archives today. Same thing with some of the record pre-Robin 'Tec's as they now have the CGC 3.0 graded copy of 'Tec 38 that sold for $54,010 back in 2017, and yet the 3.0 copy of 'Tec 29 that sold for $66,010 in the exact same auction is not in their archives.

Was actually looking at another book that was about to come up in the Heritage Auction tonight, when I notice this book go by and all I can say is that Hitler covers must be super red hot: Especially sonce this relatively low grade copy with a detached cover and 7 higher graded copies than this one here still managed to fetch $5,040 or something like over 12X condition guide valuation.

Well, here's a copy of a book (unfortunately not mine's) that would certainly qualify: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/562988 From my point of view, still a highly under appreciated book as it features the first comic book appearance of the Phantom and came out a few months even before Action 1 hit the stands. No doubt this book would be a lot more sought after by collectors if it had also featured a cover appearance of the Phantom, as opposed to this nondescript humor cover above. This copy here sold for $4,656 or over 8X condition guide way back in 2014 as being the highest graded copy. Looks like it is still the highest graded copy after all these long years of certification which confirms the rarity of this book as there has only been 12 Universal copies slabbed to date so far. Clearly the highlight book of the entire Ace run as the Phantom would continue on in this rather long running title until its final issue in Ace Comics 151.

How about the Allentown? Does anyone know the condition of that copy? FWIW, according to the Master Allentown List, the Mystery Men 7 was graded as being a Fine copy by Payette at the time. Looks like all of the Allentown Mystery Men issues after MM 4 had some variation of the "VF" grade designation in there. Of course, Payette was always known as a strict grader and I believe all of those books that have been graded to date have been into the 9's. Perfect example being the Mystery Men 13 which was graded by Payette as being only a VF+ copy and yet slabbed as a 9.6 NM+ copy when graded by CGC when they first opened their doors way back in 2000. Based upon the grade date of July 13, 2000 my bet is that books at that early point in time were still being graded using the old school grading standards before they saw that pot of gold (i.e. maximization of potential) sitting at the end of their grading rainbow. So, not sure if the Allentown copy of Mystery Men 7 will be able to beat the CGC 8.0 graded Church copy or not, but I guess only time will tell.

$18,755. Wow. Wowza is exactly right as this is indeed a big step up from its last sale for only $6,200. I guess this is another perfect and classic example of not necessarily maximizing your dollars when you dump your entire kit and kaboodle all out in one big massive auction. Being a life long collector though, I imagine Jon probably found it a lot easier to let it all go in one fell swoop to the next generation of collectors, as opposed to slowly dragging it out over a few long and excruciating years. Then again, it might also have something to do with the buyer either being astute or lucky enough to snag a book at the optimum time just before it gets broken out in the guide. At the time of the big Jon Berk auction back in June of 2017, this book was still lumped in with Wonderworld 29 & 31 at a top of guide price of only $1,200 which meant the $6,200 result was at 5.2X top of guide. Perfect timing as the book was then broken out in guide the following year, with this current sale for $18,755 being at a multiple of 4.35X top of this year's guide valuation.

A very astute and perfect selection here out of the early Mystery Men run as this is one of the rarest of the early MM books with only 11 Universal copies graded to date. Only the Mystery Men 10 and 11 comes close to this copy here in terms of rarity with 12 and 11 Universal copies graded respectively. What makes this book even more special is that it doesn't seem to exist in high grade as the Church copy of this book here sits as the highest graded copy, but at only a CGC 8.0 VF condition grade with the next highest graded being only a VG 4.0 copy. Yet all of the other early and more available Church MM books have been graded into the 9's with the only other 2 exceptions being the much later Mystery Men 20 in CGC 8.5 and Mystery Men 27 in CGC 8.0. I guess only time will tell, but it will be interesting to see if a true HG copy of this book ever makes its way into the marketplace. Especially since the other contender for this early time period would have been the Larson, but that copy of MM7 would only be a Qualified as it is apparently listed with having the coupon clipped out of the back cover.

A solid pick from you here as I feel the early portion of the Hit run featured some absolutely gorgeous covers that seems to be a bit overlooked and undervalued as compared to some of the more recent hot covers that have hit the marketplace. Hit 1 is definitely no exception as it features the usual well detailed artwork that Fine is so well known for, along with some nice bright covers that makes the book really stand out if you are ever lucky enough to be able hit upon a HG copy of this relatively HTF book.

Boy oh boy, you sure take all the fun out of it since I thought for sure you was talking about this Big Boy book here:

Okay, looks like Kevin was pretty much bang on with his estimate as this copy here finished up at $310,111: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/890586 What's everybody's opinion on the final price for this copy here given some rather lackluster results here for some books and yet some seemingly outstanding results on other books. I guess this is generally par for the course though when it comes to comic book auctions.

Yes. At first I thought it was a bug but then I starting having same thinking as you Peter I ran searches on all preRobins and only came up with hits on issues that were NOT being auctioned (ie 30,32 and 34) FWIW, I am not sure if this is actually being done intentionally by CC or simply the fault of their lousy IT guys who came up with their so-called website improvement. Especially since it appears to be pretty random with books like Action 13 which had only a couple of auction results yesterday and yet if you check today, seems to have everything in there. Then you check Action 10 and it's clearly missing some of their big sales results which makes it kind of strange that an auction site would want to hide there blowout sales results. Same with books like Detective 38 which seems to have possibly everything in there, while 'Tec 29 seems to be missing a few of their bigger sales results.

I am sure that these QES and CVA Exceptional stickers are really targeted towards the CGC label collectors who have overdosed themselves on the CGC Kool-Aid and are more than ecstatic to pay multiples more for a CGC 9.8 graded copy of a book, as opposed to a CGC 9.6 graded copy of the exact same book. Especially since the overwhelming majority of them couldn't tell the difference between the 2 books without the label, even if their lives depended upon it.

Well, the one advantage of the QES sticker over the CVA Exceptional sticker is that it specifies the exact criteria that made the book qualified for the sticker in the first place. It's almost like getting the CGC grading notes for free when you see a slabbed book certified by CGC. Based upon this one here, I would most definitely disagree with their assessment as to the "beautiful spine" as I see it more as a fugly spine from my own point of view. To each their own, I would imagine, but to me this one here is more like: Whereas the CVA Exceptional sticker is just a generic sticker, at least the QES sticker gives you a list of the criteria met and hence always good to go for the ones with the deep colors and perfect edging from my own point of view. Especially since these books that meet certain of the QES criteria might just be the best candidate for a potential upgrade.

Well, the one for marking "the entire site read" is still there. The easy solution to your dilemma is to simply read everything in the Forum and your problem is solved for you. Much better than what it used to be before their update several years ago when it would marked everything as being read every time you signed onto the site. Now that was really bad as it was impossible to keep track of what you read and what you did not read if you signed off the site or turned off your computer.

Wow, I guess the answer to the question posed in the title of this thread here is that it must be pretty cold since it's been almost 3 whole long months since the last post in this thread. Nevertheless, any thoughts on this sale of Hulk 181 for $47,500 in Wednesday's CC auction: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/897304 Personally, I thought it was a pretty strong price for a CGC 9.8 graded copy, especially considering the rather clearly visible off-center white line at the spine which is kind of a visible eye sore to me.

Most Marvels are a different subject altogether. Well, that's probably because virtually all Marvels are way too common and pretty easy to find as long as you are willing to open up your wallet. Pretty much the same with all of the DC books also. Makes it a lot easier to go through the auction listings when you can simply skip all of the near countless pages with all of the Marvel and DC superhero books. Always did like the first 6 bigger issues of the Surfer though before they became just like rest of the smaller 12 cent issues.

Well, since we are talking about the letter "S", were those Neal Adams Deadman Strange Adventures also yours? If so, how did those do in the end because you don't often see an entire run of these show up in high grade?

Hey Kevin; Okay, I checked into this and the $5.99 which you are paying for your GoCollect subscription might just be good to go. It appears that the problem night be due more to the fact that CC's auction archives appears to be somewhat spotty in that they seem to be missing the odd book here and there for some reason. I took a look at the Scoop article for that particular CC Auction and it clearly mentions the Church MF 55 selling for $124,222 as being one of the highlights of the auction: https://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1014?ArticleID=183887 Same thing with the link to the QualityComix website which you provided to me in your PM: https://www.qualitycomix.com/comic-price-guide/more-fun-comics/issue-55 So, it looks like this Church copy of MF 55 did indeed sell publicly on 3 separate occasions in the past 7+ years: 1) For $47,800 on August 1st of 2013 at Heritage Auctions; 2) For $124,222 on August 31st of 2016 in a CC Event Auction; and 3) For $88,000 on December 17th of 2020. Looks like the first 2 have been captured on GoCollect so far to date with I expect the current sale to show up on their next update. Not sure why GoCollect is missing the Nova Scotia sale of MF 55 that took place for $60K back in February of 2016, but I guess that's then offset by the fact that the CC auction archives is missing the Nova Scotia sale for $51,007 that took place the following year in March of 2017. Go figure that!!!

Just wondering if you would have links for these 2 previous More Fun 55 sales results. Asking since the only other CGC 9.4 graded copy of MF 55 selling on CC was the Nova Scotia copy for something like $60K back on February 29th of 2016: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/138237 As for this Church Mile High copy of MF 55 which sold for $88K today, the sale that I saw for this exact same Church copy was back in August of 2013 when it sold for $47,800 at Heritage Auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/more-fun-comics-55-mile-high-pedigree-dc-1940-cgc-nm-94-white-pages/a/7079-91065.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Is it possible that you was possibly looking at another book when you noted the $124K auction sales result?

Well, were there a lot of squares here tonight or were there a lot of full body and deep pocketed bidders for these USA's tonight?

Wonder what in the world this Church copy of Wonderworld 33 will finish up at since it's already sitting at $14,311 with 15 more minutes still to go: Unlike the pre-Robin 'Tec books where the consignors did not do so well, I imagine the consignor of this book here must be rather ecstatic since they picked it up for only a paltry $6,200 in the big Jon Berk auction a few summers ago: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/714960

I actually can get these 2 auction results anytime I want since they are available through Google if you do a search for them.

Definitely like the fact that their auction archives updates almost on a real time basis now as it includes all of their current auctions within minutes of them finishing up. The only problem is that you have to input the title exactly correctly if you want to pull up the data for a particular book. This means leaving out hyphens and what not sometimes which can definitely be somewhat frustrating at times. The other thing is that they appear to have lost some of their historical data from their earlier auctions since I no longer see the Atlantic City copies of Action 10 and Action 13 which used to show up as part of their auction archives prior to their upgrade last year.

Not sure why all of you tend to get away with what a certain Mod would call a political statement if I had posted it and then been banished accordingly to the CGC sin bin for at least a couple of weeks. The mere mention of looking for a bottle of Lysol at the store or Post Office delays in a hilarious joking format when they were the hot and juicy news of the day were more enough to send me away for a few weeks to wipe these evil and sinful thoughts from my mind.

Didn't Jason and Via proved the same thing with comic books as they managed to get CGC label collectors to pay ridiculous and unheard of multiples for those so-called "perfect" looking books before Borock came down with the hammer on them for their nefarious deeds.

Yes, and managed to get away with it in the end.