lou_fine

Well, that's certainly not of very much help to the prognosticators here, since the overwhelming majority of the Allentown Collection is older than Cap 1. Now if I have to fathom a guess here, since you already own the Mystery Men 1 and the MM 3, WW's 7 & 8 appears to be locked up with their keys thrown away for now, how about the Allentown copy of Wonderworld 3 since it seems to be unaccounted for and still out there somewhere?

what the They're consenting adults. Maybe this is what all the ladies say to him.

By far the greatest Everett cover of the Centaurs Yes, I still remember Kochanek running around one of the SD Con's back in the day with the Church copy of this book in hand and boasting how eye-popping the colors were on this book here.

It's good to finally see this Allentown copy of WW 14 back in a properly graded slab after all this time. I still remember going through both this copy and the Allentown copy of WW 13 at Harley's table down in a Seattle Comic Con back around '96 or thereabouts. Couldn't make up my mind between the 2 of them since they both looked just as nice and almost went for the WW 14 as I thought the colors were a bit stronger and the pages just a shade whiter and supple. Looking back at the Master Allentown Collection List now, it looks like Payette had both copies graded out as NM copies. When I passed on the WW 14 and Harley then flipped it out to Fisher, it looks like the book was graded as a NM- copy in their 1997 catalogue. Not sure if it had incurred some damage in the interim or if CGC simply got it wrong since it was graded as only a CGC 8.0 VF copy back in 2005. Especially since the WW 13 had been graded out as a CGC 9.6 NM+ copy. Then again, this was way back in 2000 when CGC first opened their doors and they might still have been grading according to the old traditional standards back then, before they became more *ahem* shall we say "refined and developed" to their full potential.

What is the latest date on the list you have? I believe the book with the latest date on the list would be the Payette graded VG copy of Star Spangled 76 which had a cover date of January 1948. Looks like the 4 big Fox and DC runs were ones that had started back in 1939 or 1940. According to the yearly breakout for the Allentown books, it looks like the majority of them were from 1939 through 1943, with the biggest concentration being in the early years. The collection then petered out with only 7 odd copies scattered from 1944 through 1948 with all of these later issues in a very un-Allentown like lower graded condition. Unlike most other collections, it would appear that for the Allentown books, it was almost like a case of the earlier the books, the nicer the condition.

That one isn't on the list I have, and is much later than any other books in the collection. +1 Based upon my list of the 135 books, it definitely looks like this late issue of Jumbo Comics is not on the Master Allentown Collection List. Then again, it's quite possible the list might not have been 100% accurate (or a possible simple typo) since I saw another book posted here already that's been slabbed by CGC as an Allentown Copy, but yet does not show up on their Master List. I believe the Allentown Collection is only supposed to have 10 Fiction House books in there, but if you include this one here, it would bring it to a total of 12 Fiction House books.

Large print variant as well. Yes, but the real question is................is it the one with the dot or the HTF variant edition one without the dot?

Of course it's real...........can't you see from the botton that it is the 1940 copy and not some worthless reprint?

I think it's pretty obvious that MM #3 has the best cover. By far. How far up..............by a Mile High? From this picture here, there sure are a lot of nice covers here to select a favorite from: Okay, never did care much for the Wonderworld 6 cover which is probably why I turfed out the Allentown Copy in the Greg Manning Auction when I figure I would never be able to complete a HG set of Wonderworld 3 - 12. I would have to say that Mystery Men 6 must be one of the absolute nicest George Tuska cover out there with all of the beautiful color variations in there. I still remember it was so nice that Overstreet and his gang had considered it to be a Lou Fine cover for the first few decades of the guide. As for the MM 3, if I had deep pockets like some of the other board members here, I probably would have given some serious thought to tossing in a few more thousands and possibly going after the Wonderworld 7 myself. Of course, that's probably because the grass always looks greener on the other side as I have yet to own a copy of WW 7, and sadly will never ever do given the current price point at which it sells for in today's marketplace.

Realistically, I don't expect the Calgary comic vendor to make the long and $$ journey back to FEV. Harley will return to FEV in Feb, 2021, as long as he is not relaxing at HNL, Hawaii con that same weekend which was the conflict he had re: FEV in Feb, 2019. Yes, but I also believe that Harley showed up with his wares at the last Vancouver Comic Con when it was held here last Fall. Don't think he'll show up for this one on March 1 though, since it's way too close to this FEV one. So, from what you are saying, there are probably a lot fewer true comic book vendors at FEV as compared to the Vancouver Comic Con since both of them are mostly comprised of just local comic book dealers with the same usual common "hot" flavor of the month books?

Yes, I guess Overstreet must have read your mind as he did indeed finally make this change in this year's edition of the guide. Not only did he desigante Action 27 as the first Lois Lane cover, but also broke it out from the Action 26-28,30 grouping and bumped the valuation for the book from $8,400 all the way up to $9,500 in this year's guide. Action 29 now desiganted as Lois Lane's second cover with the same valuation of $9,200 which is the same as last year's guide guide valuation.

Not that I can recall, no. For "many years"? I'm pretty sure this didn't happen. Maybe in the early days of CGC when there were 2-3 copies in high grade for a Silver book and people just wanted a copy. But that didn't last "many years" and we are talking about the realities of today's market, not a small sample of a few years when CGC first started out. I did look up a couple of key Spidey's as that title sells a bunch and there are lots of data points. For ASM 14 and 50, pedigree copies were selling for more than same grade non-ped copies even in the early 2000's. I know that doesn't mean that much and I just don't care enough to look up a lot of other books, I'm sure some can be found where a ped copy sold for less but in general, my perception is that ped copies have always sold for a premium. Based upon my recollection, I would tend to agree with Aman's point of view that the "CGC pedigree" did indeed appear to be a pre-dominant factor in the pricing of books for a few years back then. Of course, I am thinking more from a GA point of view and I clearly remember that the multiples for the Church books even seem to drop as the pedigree was no longer good enough since it also had to have the grade associated with it to pull in the real big dollars. Certainly not the case anymore as the long established and big pedigrees like the Church books definitely came storming back after that temporary CGC pedigree lull. As both of you have stated, the CGC pedigree phenomenon seems to have faded to a large extent due to the sheer number of copies in grade showing up in the census over the years. I imagine it certainly also didn't help when the whole artificial maniipulation of books fiasco came to light and all of a sudden, maximization of potential became a full blown reality to the point of virtually taking over the marketplace. In terms of the GA keys and HTF classic cover books, it is quite clear that the marketplace has changed radically from when CGC first started up, with huge prices now being paid for books in all grades across the entire condition spectrum, as opposed to just the copies in high grade only.

Well, it sounds as though this collector must have acquire and sold off most of his Allentown books through private transactions, as opposed to public auction, based upon where the Allentown copies of WW 8 and MM3 ended up at. Definitely another case that shows who you know is still quite important in this hobby place if you want to acquire certain books.

My guess is that this absolutely gorgeous to die for set of books is residing somewhere in the sunny left coast state of California. Man, just look at those stunning eye popping colors on those covers there.

The Butt-man was close walking by me while I was chatting with my friends. Saw that guy in his yellow uniform with his buns shining glowing in the flesh. I thought WTF? On Family Day really? I remarked to my friend that I was surprised the security didn’t stop him at the gates but allowed him into the show!? Well, if he had the revealing hole in the front instead of in the back and tried to call himself something else, I am 100% sure he would have been stopped by Security then. In the interest of gender equality, would the attendees have been as offended if it had been a beautiful young woman wearing a Butt-woman costume?

Well, you are in luck then because their main focus seems to be on their guest lists as you can see from the previous pages in this thread. To each their own, as I probably wouldn't buy a ticket until they announce their comic book vendor list first. Strangely enough, for a comic book convention, there never seems to be any mention at all on the comic book vendors themselves, especially for the out of province ones who generally don't show up at the local cons.

Certainly glad to hear that the show went well and much better than last year from a pure attendance point of view. Especially when I saw the late night news clip they had on it and the aisles looked far from crowded and rather similar to the photos posted here: From the news clip which they had on the late night news, it appears that the aisles for the local Vancouver Comic Show at the PNE are a lot more crowded. Then again, that is probably due to the fact that their aisle ways are probably also a lot more narrow.

Any idea if poor Harley was ever able to get his books offloaded and into the convention site or are they still part of the National News stuck on one of the train cars somewhere in the boondocks of Canada?

Very cool! Just a little jealous, that's a piece of solid history. Yes indeed, a book of true historical importance and very much underappreciated in this market that seems to be so focused on characters who wear their undies on the outside. Congrats to Ryan who was astute and lucky enough to snap up this all-important key of a book for what is really a bargain basement price.

I owned the Church copy in the mid 80s. Sold it to pay for a move. We all saw it sell in the Berk auction. I wish I had more money. Yes, starting to look like a mighty expensive move since it was a CGC 9.6 graded copy that sold for something like $66K in the Berk auction. Well, looks like whoever you bought the Allentown Copy of Wonderworld 7 must have made out like a bandit then, since it was brought for only $1,400 during the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening way back in '95. I guess it was still not yet officially recognized as a classic cover at the time since it sold for the exact same price point of $1,400 as the rest of the Allentown run of Wonderworld 6 to 10 did (no copy of Wonderworld 8 listed in there for some odd reason ). Guess the buyer must had known it was a special cover as it was apparently set aside by Snyder in advance of the opening and hence was not available when the rest of the Allentown Wonderworld books came out during that wild and crazy feeding frenzy on that Saturday morning after the opening. Well, if it's in the early 90's, then I guess there is no truth then to the rumours that these "grease pencilled black S" books were one of the original pedigrees released into the marketplace even before the concept of pedigrees were introduced into the hobby? Can't remember who now, but if I remember correctly, a long established board member here thought these "S" copies might have initially found their way into the marketplace even before the Reilly and Church pedigrees did. I remember seeing one of these "Black S" copies of a Wonderworld book on Veryzl's table at one of the SD Con's in the mid to latter part of the 90's. It was definitely an absolutely stunner of a copy, but John was asking huge multiples to top of guide for it and refused to budge down on it by even a single dollar. With respect to your copy of Wonderworld 7, any idea what the grade on it would be if you did not have to factor in the greased S mark which CGC would probably see as a defect and downgrade accordingly for it?

Greatly appreciate the correction here and have now gone back in to edit my original post.

So, which pedigree copy of Wonderworld 7 would you have in your personal collection then? As for me, there's just so many beautiful and classic Lou Fine covers that it's simply too hard for me to choose just one of them. Although there still does appear to be some underappreciated ones like Hit Comics #1, and in particular, still buried and waiting to be broken out ones like the absolutely stunning all-red Jumbo Comics 11 cover.

Along with Wonderworld 7, I have personally always considered these 2 classic covers to be head and shoulders above the rest of the covers in the Wonderworld run. Much more difficult to choose when it came to the early Mystery Men #1 through #11 run though, since they just had so many absolutely gorgeous and colorful covers in there.

Well, lookie, lookie..........we might just get some answers to your question here as Richard just startted this Allentown thread here:

Strawman owns it now. Hey Richard; Didn't realize you had sold the book, but definite congrats on the sale and also to Strawman for picking it up. Especially since it seems that you have been the longest holder of this book here, with the sole exception of the original owner. Hopefully, it ended up selling for more that what it sold for when Manning auctioned it off for me some 20 long years ago. Kudos to you for also being patient and smart enough to pick it up at a lower price point after the initial excitement and looney bin prices for slabbed books had died back down.