lou_fine

The circle of life...... Yes, it all begins with Steve and ends with Steve.

Although it was 10 years later, still interesting to note that it had sold for more (i.e. $1,673) as a CGC 7.5 graded copy in February of 2013 at a bigger multiple of 3.35X condition guide, as compared to a price of only $1,322.50 back in the Fall of 2022 or at a slightly lower multiple of under 2.8X top of Overstreet guide when it was a CGC 9.2 graded copy. Looks like John didn't end up losing any money on the book even with the damage incurred to it.

GPA shows a $69 sale this month for a 9.8 Hope the buyer of the copy above doesn't see that. Well, that definitely seems like a much more reasonable price for what is basically a non-key mid-run issue of a title that has come out of the quarter box only because of short term speculative movie hype. Any idea where and when this sale for $69 took place as it sure seems to currently be as much of an outlier the other way as the sale for $4,150? If it was for my personal collection, I still can't see myself spending that kind of money for this BA book. For a equivalent graded copy of Eternals 1 or 3? Now, if I have a 100% guaranteed locked in sucker lucky buyer at 4-figures that I could flip the book to, that would be a completely different story then.

Why, are you trying to corner the market on the 'Tec 180 books?

Congrats on the nice Xmas present. Now, that is definitely a very Unusual comic book indeed. Almost looks a bit like Aquaman dressed with a bubble glass helment.

I’m familiar with that copy. John Verzyl brought it to me for my consideration at one point four or five years ago, but I noticed the spine tear immediately, and even though it was in a 9.2 holder I realized it would take a precipitous drop from the damage. Poor John was hoping for a sale as I was in the market for high grade Cat-Man, but this copy lost my interest immediately. Truly sad what happened here. It used to be in one of CGCs earliest holders and the innerwell apparently lacked sufficient protection from loose books sliding around within the holder. Apparently the cover gripped the outer shell and the interior contents slid pulling the staple loose from the cover. Extremely sad to hear stories like this, especially when it's on a truly HTF GA book like this Catman #26 here, let alone one that is a Church pedigree highest graded copy. Reminds me a bit about the much rumoured and yet to be confirmed CGC 9.9 graded copy of Hulk 181 that apparently ended up with a rather severe case of SCS damage and would supposedly be lucky to grade in the 9's if ever sent back in for grading again. Definitely not in the same league as a Catman in terms of scarcity, but at something like $150K paid for the book, that is a whole ton of serious financial damage if true. I assume Verzyl or whoever the owner was at the time must have decided that leaving it in that holder would just end up causing more damage to the book over time.

Are you being serious or just trying to pull our leg here? How in the world did you managed this.........have a book shipped out and graded in less than a week with both a weekend and Christmas break in there to boot? I thought the standard was months in order for CGC to get this type of book graded.

+1 Indeed, congrats on putting the entire run together in CGC 9.8 condition and it shows you definitely have intestinal fortitude here.

Here you go! Last one in this box and definitely a great cover. The hype on this Starlin book was so great at the time that I actually went out and picked up multiple (i.e. 3 or 4) copies of this when it first came out. Not sure if I will ever be able to recoup my money on this one here, as there must be an absolute ton of copies out there.

Any idea if this was done by the husband and wife team at IGB, as this looks to be an extremely extensive restored PLOD job where you can't tell what's original from what's been recreated when you compare the two pictures?

All i can say is if that's Marilyn there, I just don't see it as she sure looks quite different from the classic Marilyn which I am use to.

Anequally tough book to find as the Wolverton Target 7, but the one that appears even rarer (well, at least according to the CGC Census Population Report) than both of these is the Target 8 with the bright beautiful motorcycle cover.

Yes, does any boardies have nice copies of their Target 7 with the classic Wolverton Spacehawk cover? According to the HA archives, it looks like it has now been well over 15 years since a nice copy of this book has come out into the marketplace. Makes me wonder how a relatively HG (i.e. 7.0 grade or higher) copy would do in today's much hotter classic cover GA marketplace.

I think you've discovered the true rarities in grade for this particular book here. Who cares abut HG copies when there's well over 300 copies of this book in CGC 9.0 graded condition or higher, and yet only an impossible to find measly 3 copies in CGC 3.0 graded condition or lower.

Well, considering the fact that there's already 27 copies of this book graded in the same CGC 9.8 equivalent condition, this sounds like a totally insane amount of money to be payoing for this otherwise relatively common book. Especially when the census population starts to explode on this book as uber HG holders eventually gets around to having their copies graded and slabbed once they see the ridiculous prices which some speculators are willing to pay for this non-key mid-run common BA book.

Refresh me with the story. I don't believe I've heard of it before Ask and ye shall receive: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Thursday

I just brought together a horde simply because I love the cover Well, I don't think you'll have anything to worry abount unless you get to something like 1,500 copies of this book here.

So far Just remember what happened to Nelson Bunker Hunt and his brothers on Silver Thursday after they tried to corner the silver market back in 1979/80. Hopefully, they won't have a special day set aside for Albedo 2 Day in the historical annals of the comic book marketplace.

Well, all I'll say is that you can certainly never go wrong with any book that has an absolutely gorgeous and stunning cover image like this one here!!!

Is this another case when the OPG catches up with a long undervalued book and then we are shocked when that book can no longer command multiples of Guide? I often think back to the example of Mystery Men 1. NO, I personally don't believe this is the case here because as far as I am aware, this is the single one and only public sale of an Action 13 which has gone for below condition guide. Based upon results by more affordable lower graded copies from auctions over the past several years, it would appear that the book has no problems fetching big premiums and even multiples to condition guide. Sometimes even in restored condition which is a clear signal of a real strong and in-demand book. One important thing to note is that the air definitely gets a lot thinner and more rarified when you are talking about paying 6-figures or more for a comic book, especially when it is not a first appearance issue of a major ongoing character. Which then makes me wonder if other non-first appearance books like Action 7, Action 10, 'Tec 29, or even the seemingly always hot 'Tec 31 would be able to fetch at least huge premiums to top of guide should I high grade copy ever come to market, similar to how lower grade copies are able to sell at multiples to guide with seeming ease. I would think they should be able to since it's been years, if not decades since a true HG copy of any of these early key GA books have made it to market. With respect to the result for this copy of Action 13, it's quite clear that a short year is just simply not long enough for it to come back to market so soon and be guaranteed to make money for the consignor. Especially for such a high profile book which is probably still relatively fresh in the minds of the serious bidders from the last go round. Although it did sell for slightly less last year, it still represented a premium to condition guide at the time though, with most bidders probably still remembering they could have gotten it for less than the $166K it took this time. Instead of a recycled copy of Action 13 coming to market again, I personally believe if it was a new and fresh to market (i.e. first time) CGC 9.2 graded copy of Action 13, it probably would have come a lot closer to the quarter million dollar mark. As for your example of Mystery Men #1, that was a completely different situation back then in the mid-90's. After all, after a couple of big sales of MM1, Overstreet took the unprecedented and very un-Overstreet-like tactic of jacking the price up from $2,100 all the way to $8,500 in just one year. Definitely one of the reasons why the sentiment on not only MM1, but also on most of the other Fox books cooled off almost immediately. Especially since buyers or investors in anything always prefer to go after something that is perceived to be undervalued, as opposed to going after something that is seen to be fairly valued of possibly even overvalued relative to the valuations of other similar assets. This was definitely not the case with Action 13 as that record sale for $185K back in 2011 saw Overstreet gradually raise the guide valuation over a long 8-year time period until its current $190K valuation in this year's edition of the guide. Needless to say, with this gradual increase in valuation over an extended period of time, Action 13 has always been seen to be an undervalued book relative to guide and possibly one of the reasons it has been such a high demand book over the ensuring years.

Wow, that's absolutely amazing and it sounds like a ton of of books that you have there. Just wondering, do you generally have multiples of some issues or was you mainly just one copy per issue type of collector? Surprised that you haven't been tempted to sell some of them yet, as from the sounds of it, there must be a lot of in-demand high dollar value books included in there. Especially since you seem to have really prided yourself on storage in order to preserve them in as perfect a condition as possible.

Like you, I would tend to think that this would be a no-brainer here with a 1st appearance from the late 50's, as opposed to only a 1st issue from the late 60's. Yet, if you take a look at the CGC population census report, there's another 75 copies of SC 22 in higher grade plus another 33 copies in equivalent CGC 6.5 grade. The Silver Surfer 1, on the other hand, has only another 11 copies graded higher, plus another 41 copies in equivalent CGC 9.6 graded condition. Depending upon how the 2 particular copies present relative to grade, I would probably still most likely opt for the SC 22 myself.

I was actually thinking of them, but being aware of their well-known reputation for drastically undergrading their books, I am not fully confident about being able to receive top dollar for large batches of books. If it was something significant enough that they would be able to sell as a standalone book in an individual lot by itself so that potential bidders can actually view it, but yet not significant enough for a major auction house, I would then definitely give them some consideration.

I would venture to dare say that any of the major auction houses, and HA in particular, would definitely not be my go to places to sell runs of mid-grade mid-run SA/BA books. This is where I think I would probably get a bigger ban for my buck if I go to dealers such as Harley here. Probably a good idea to leave a little meat on the bones here in terms of not pulling out every key or seim-key from the run also.

Page 1 and still here. And BZ posts on Facebook every so often , so he’s still kicking it large! Looks like I am a step behind you guys as mines was Page 3 and still here. I imagine this is going to be the first thread on these boards to eventually hit the 1,000 millennium page mark. Definitely good news to hear that BZ is still keeping himself active.