lou_fine

I believe this is a perfect example of "the chicken or the egg paradox" which you seem to find yourself now stuck in: In other words, in order to get the book graded, you first have to come up with an estimated value, but in order to do that, you have to come up with an estimated grade on your own which makes me wonder why I have to pay them for ME to do THEIR job for them? This is exactly why you need to estimate the value based upon the LOWEST grade possible, and also assume that the book has been restored in coming up with your estimated value. After all, do they really expect ME to also be a restoration detection expect since I thought that is what I was paying them to do.

Yes INDEED..............now that certainly sold for a very very strong price of $45,138.65: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/1006340 Especially considering that Heritage was able to fetch only $9,600 for their 3.0 graded copy (albeit with Slightly Brittle PQ) back in October of 2022. Maybe it was Vinnie's video where he mentioned that "it's in a 4.5 grade, the COLORS are 9.4" and that just might have been good enough to pull in deep pocketed bidders like our very own @tth2 who's into the 9.4's and above.

Well, looks like you and Cat were both bang on as it sold for $16,675 or almost 60% more than its initial go round of only $10,500 back in 2021:

You can see 3 copies graded higher in the image of the census that you posted. Are we all seeing something different here because I see 8 copies (i.e. 2 Universal and 6 Restored) that grade higher than this CGC 7.0 graded restored White Rose copy of AA 16 in this image here:

Totally agree with all of your points here since it's usually never kind to your wallet to try to do a fast flip regardless if it's a Promise book or not, especially if you had possibly overpaid for the book in the first place. Speaking of Promise resales, it appears the consignor of this one here lost money after having it slabbed and resold on HA this past Sunday: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/crime/murder-incorporated-14-the-promise-collection-pedigree-fox-features-syndicate-1949-cgc-fn-vf-70-white-pages/a/122334-15096.s?type=bidnotice-tracked-endofauction Sold for only $960 after initially purchasing it as a raw VF- copy back in December of 2021 for $1,140 and then having to pay even more money to have it graded and slabbed for this auction here.

Well, once you do get it working again, can you show the listing description for the Funny Pages V2 #10 as I've always loved that book and a real toughie to find in the marketplace?

Here's an example of a lower graded raw restored copy selling for significantly more money than a higher graded raw copy of the exact same book which I found rather interesting, albeit not in the same auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/adventure-comics-33-dc-1938-condition-apparent-gd-vg/a/122207-13007.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 The above restored raw graded G/VG copy sold for $5,040 or just over 9X unrestored condition guide value in a Sunday weekend Heritage auction back in February of 2022 while the below CGC 4.0 graded copy sold for a mere $2,040 or only 2.6X condition guide value in a Heritage Signature Auction a few short months later: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/adventure-comics-33-dc-1938-cgc-vg-40-off-white-pages/a/7279-94063.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 I guess one possible explanation for this seeming anomaly is the possible different clientale as the Heritage weekend auctions probably attracts the more "frugal" bidders who are "bargain hunting" for the lower end books in this grade range while their Signature Auctions tends to attract the eyeballs of the more deep pocketed bidders who are looking for the higher end certified books. Of course, with the restoration, the first copy does seem to be present nicer in terms of being cleaner and brighter although I don't really care much for the obvious miscut on the top edge.

Not exactly sure what you are asking here because I believe you answered your own question as both copies had the exact same equivalent grade, but the one with better eye appeal sold for more slighly more money? Do you really expect bidders to bid more for an equivalent graded copy that does not present as nicely from a strict visual point of view? Now, if it was a significantly lower graded or restored raw copy that sold for significantly more money than a higher graded CGC Universal copy of the exact same book, then I would find that to be more surprising. Then again, we've seen this scenario before and certainly on more than just one occasion.

Not sure if this is just a typo on your part here or if you are working on the incorrect assumption that many boardies seem to have here with regards to this Blackstone purchase? What Blackstone purchased at a value of some $500M was CCG which is made up of seven subsidary companies under their ownership umbrella, of which CGC is only one of these seven companies. Anything to do with the CGC portion and the comic book market was probably nothing more than an afterthought to Blackstone as the CGC side of their operations is only a small fractional part of the whole CCG group operations. Especially since the biggest part of their entire operations by far is really about the dreary and boring coins and numismatic side of their business. If anything, with the entertainers like Jay Z and the sports personality linkages that were also invloved in the purchase, my bet is that they were more interested in the then still untapped potential for them of the card grading business. Especially with all of the flashy buzz and hype at the time about NFT's and million dollar sports cards and as such, the purchase probably didn't really focus that much on the comic books per se. For us boardies here, we always think that it's always all about the comic books, but for big investment companies like Blackstone and their partners, probably not so much since the CGC comic book side was really only a fractional portion of the entire CCG purchase. Heck, for comparison purposesand in perspective, although they brought a majority control of CCG which valued the company at over $500M, they followed this up a few short weeks later with a similar type of majority purchase in Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine media and production company which valued her company at about $900M or almost double the value of CCG.

Congrats on having a copy of this clearly much in demand Matt Baker cover book in your personal collection? From looking at this cover image though, can somebody explain why this book here has been burning red hot lately since the Heritage archives indicates that an equivalent CGC 5.0 graded copy to the CBCS 5.0 graded copy that sold for $7,800 managed to fetched only $403.91 back in 2014. It's not like there's some scantily clad half naked femme fatale or some salicious innuendo undertones to this cover image? Or since there's no words on this cover image, are we supposed to tell from their eyes and where they appear to be looking that we can read their minds and the sinful salicious thoughts that they must be thinking about?

Well, since he had both the Larson and Church copy of his very favorite book, I am quite sure that he kept the Larson copy with his special affinity to the Larson books and the fact that the complete Church run of Mystery Men in an auction makes for a much better selling feature. Since he had the complete collection of Centaur books intact which he absolutely loved, I suspect he probably kept a few of these truly rare early nuggets and if you have the time, merely a matter of going through the Berk Auction catalogue to see which of the Centaurs are not in there.

An absolutely gorgeous pickup on your part here and you can never beat the strong deep blues when it comes to the Science 1 cover.

Not so sure about that from an pure absolutel dollars point of view, but definitely the case in terms of market liquidity. If what Dave mentioned to me is actually true, it took courage for a newbie just leaving university and starting out in life to make these purchases with the use of all the creidt cards which these companies were throwing hand over fists at him as a new and upcoming professional. Especially at a time when the country was just exiting a record high double digit interest rate time period back in the early 80's.

Well, you really shouldn't have been THAT surprised by the Cinderella Love 29 going so high since it was the one and only featured promo cover book for this latest Matt Baker Showcase Auction.

Hmmmmm.............this upcoming Showcase Auction appears to be rather intriguing from the POV of who the consignor potentially might be: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+794+793+792+4294935913&limitTo=4294935913&ic=homepage-search-A-Y-071316 From the Spectacular Collection of Dr. Dave Anderson and is this the same Dave Anderson that we all seem to know or NOT know so well here?

That's because you are tuning in about a hour too late for the beginning of the auction as both the Sunday-Tuesday weekly and Thursday Showcase auctions start at 7 PM EST or 4 PM PST. I believe the Matt Baker Showcase went quickly this time becasue it had something like only 168 individual lots. The one which I am looking forward to is the upcoming Fox Showcase Auction since it seems to feature a relatively deep run of both the Mystery Men and Wonderworld runs, albeit not in the type of condition which would attract the more deep pocketed bidders like our very own @tth2 which means we might just have a shot here: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+794+793+792+4294936607&limitTo=4294936607&ic=homepage-search-A-Y-071316

A bit surprised that this point has not been brought up more often in this day and age of seemingly always striving to maximize your potential profits, as I personally believe Jon knew exactly what he was doing when it came to the dissemination of his collection. Based upon his interviews and a couple of PM's I had with him during the frenetic auction time, I got the distinct impression that he wanted to pass his books to as many of the next generation of comic book COLLECTORS as possible so that they could become the custodians and caretakers of the books while maintaining stewardship over them. Jon was the best of us and indeed will sorely be missed.

Clearly NOT one of the go to covers from a strict artistic POV in that pantheon of stunning covers in the early Mystery Men 1-10 run. And I imagine it's the strict rarity in grade for this particular issue that has resulted in Mystery Men 7 still being able to fetch thousands of dollars or huge multiples to unrestored condition guide even in low grade beater or restored condition during the past few years. Personally, being more of a si-fi fan myself, I've always loved the action packed cover for Mystery Men 2 with its bright colors and I must not be alone in this assessment as this book lately seems to have caught up or possibly even surpassed the highly popular Mystery Men 3 in value with lower grade copies in the CGC 3.0 to 3.5 grade range selling in the $5K to $7K price range during the past couple of years. I imagine the winner of this Jon Berk copy of Mystery Men 2 for a "mere" $38.5K must be feeling pretty ecstatic about his astute purchase of this little beauty here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/713137

I guess it should be no real surprise to us by now, but looks like this GGA classic cover book here is continuing to do swimingly well: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/seven-seas-comics-4-universal-phoenix-feature-1947-cgc-fn-55-off-white-pages/a/40233-81100.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514 Sold for what I believe is a record $19,200 for this condition grade in today's earlier Matt Baker auction.

Well, if it's the Allentown copy you are referring to, no doubt it's an exceptional copy but unfortunately locked away somewhere in a private collection and not likely to see the light of day anytime soon. One of the other possible still raw HG copies of Mystery Men 8 might just be the Larson copy as that was graded as a VF/NM copy with lite stains at the spine, but no doubt another copy that we will most likely not be seeing any time soon. Speaking about HG copies and being the early Fox expert that you are, are you aware of the existence of any HG copies of Mystery Men 7 as this particular issue seems to be dearth of any HG copies? Especially since the highest graded copy to date is the Church copy at CGC 8.0, with the next highest graded at only a mere CGC 4.0. Doubt we would have much luck with the Larson copy here since that issue is listed as having a clipped coupon which would take it right out of the Universal category.

Well, if that doesn't work, then you could always try "From the Collection of Joe Smejkal" because I believe he also had a killer GA collection, especially when it came to the Hawkeye's along with many of the other Church pedigree runs he had. Sadly, another long term collector who left us too early back about some 10 odd years ago.

Well, now that you've opened that box to show us the front and back covers of your supposed Mask 2, you have to take out your sledgehammer and crowbar to pry that sucker open so that we can take a look at the indicia, otherwise it didn't happen.

Possibly 11-23 based on info in this old thread. In talking with Dave back in the day, it indeed was Action 1 - 23 by the time it was all said and done, but apparently not all at the same time. I remember he did saying that it was $25K for just the Action 1 which he considered to be "up there" at the time because it was at a healthy premium to top of guide. Compared to today's marketplace though where so many books tend sell for multiples to condition guide, not really so expensive at all.

Confirmation. Thank you sir. So, are you telling us that you have a copy of the earlier April/May version and therefore confirming the existence of two different versions?

Definitely sold for a pretty penny, but then so did all of the early Fox books including all of the Church copies from the Mystery Men run. Clearly a collector with impeccable taste as evident by this stunning close up Blue Beetle cover with the dripping blood red and blue cover colors plus the highest graded copy by a long shot. If it's just down to only one comic book, you really didn't go wrong with your fantastic selection here, and we owe it all to Jon.