lou_fine

All I can say is that this particular book has been on fire and buring red hot for the past year or so after being in the doldrums for a long long time: It's about time this key book woke up from its decades long slumber, as clearly evident with this relatively low grade copy going for over 4X condition guide. Definitely something which we would not have seen a couple of years ago.

Well, looks like that complete GGA cover run of Junior Comics must have finished in record price territory with all of them in the $3K+ range. Surprisingly, this recently particular hot issue finished up with the lowest price out of the entire run at only $3,120:

Well, it looks like the Cindy 37's are continuing their march upwards with this copy finishing up at $4,200 even withut any additional live bids: At this elevated price point, I would probably go much more for a book like this at a fraction of the price:

Absolutely love this Flessel cover and a truly HTF book that rarely comes to market in this condition: Sadly, it just blew right past what I was willing to pay for it as it just finished up at almost $4K.

And yet it sold for over $25K...........go figure that!!!

Just wondering something........what was everybody's expectation here as to where this copy of Batman 1 should have finished up at? I didn't think it did quite as bad as everybody is making it out to be. Especially since the Heritage archives indicates the last CGC 4.0 graded copy going for about only $131K last year while the 2 copies in CGC 5.0 and CGC 5.5 sold for just a tad over $200K earlier this year. Probably a bit of a slide from last year or is it just plateauing and consolidation of the prices before it goes to the next level. As for that horrid looking so-called CGC 1.8 Conserved copy going for over $25K sure seems like a pretty strong price for that butt ugly looking copy. I am actually surprsied it's only considered to be Conserved with all of that work done to it (i.e. tear seals to cover & interior, cover cleaned, leaf casting to cover, and married back cover). And what is all that along the entire spine of the front cover and bottom portion of the back cover:

Don't know anything at all about collectible video games, but it looks like this one here sold for a pretty hefty price: Managed to hit $75K which seems like quite a bit, but if I remember correctly, the consignor was apparently saying they wouldn't be happy if this one failed to hit 6-figures at the minimum. If so, I imagine somebody's not totally happy, although I am not sure how the rest of his Carolina Collection fared in the end.

True, but which story, ...the first Red Skull cover or first Alex Schomburg Cap cover? Well, that's only a double then..........maybe it's also all about the first Stan Lee story in the comics which would then account for the triple.

I too was surprised at the strong price for a restored Cap 3. The book was in the doldrums at $5k until the very end when it jumped to $25k(or thereabouts) Well, I believe that Cap 3 even in restored condition have historically sold for over condition guide, but a multiple of more than 3 times condition guide is most defnitely a completely different story.

Yeah that 6.0 Cap 1 result was horrific. But.... the copy itself did look over graded, and had terrible eye appeal, what with the rat chews and burned looking edges. -J. Even with the Slightly Brittle pages, I thought the Action 7 came in at a much more surprisingly horrifically low price in comparison to the Cap 1. Especailly when an Action 7 hardly ever comes to market and when they do, generally sell for huge premiums if not multiples to guide. And yet this copy here even with the bad PQ and tape should still have gone for more than this exceedingly huge discount to condition guide price. maybe it's related to the general malaise which seems to be in place on the DC super hero books, as evident from many of the results seen in this auction here. Heck, even the mid-grade restored copy of Cap 3 managed to sell for over 3 times condition guide and came within breathing space of the final price for the Action 7.

Not sure what you mean by your statement that they all use proxy's?

Don't get it. What at CL is forcing people to "throw out a high bid and just hoping for the best" more so than HA/CC? Besides HA's live bidding portion, and CC's extended bidding...I'm not tracking a diff, and I don't see how either of those features impact an auction in the way you're saying? Not a rhetorical question btw...legitimately curious what I'm missing.. The difference is that with the HA and CC auction formats, you know exactly what the high bid is at any given time and as a result, you can then make a rational and informed decision as to whether you want to go up to the next bid incerment or not. With the CL auction format, it's all about the auction having a fixed end time and you having to put in a high bid without knowing what the high bids are from the other competing bidders. As a result, in this kind of setting, bidders that really want to win a particular book are tempted sometimes to throw in a substantially higher bid since they do not know what the other bidders are thinking and where their high bids will be landing. With the HA and CC format, I viewed it as you being in full control of the process since you are fully informed of thebids, as opposed to the CL format where you don't have all of the information at the critical end time in order to make a fully informed bid.

From a collector's point of view, there's absolutely no reason at all to get a vintage collectible book graded unless it comes time to sell it.

Bob; Actually, I believe Steve's original proposal that he made at first was for a 15-point Restoration Rating System up to R-15 which was to be either no resto or the lowest form of resto since his thought was that it was always good to have a higher number, similar to the grading levels. If I remember correcrtly, that idea was quickly pushed aside as everybody here said it made much more sense to go the other way since although it was indeed good to have the highest grade possible, it was also good to have the lowest amount (or preferably none at all) of restoration on a book as possible. The 10-point Restoration Rating system would also be in synch numerically since we already had a 10-point condition grading system in place. Plus the fact that this idea was already previously proposed and detailed in an excellent article written by Jon Berk in an earlier edition of the Comic Book Marketplace magazine. Unfortunately for the hobby place, like any other good idea that is thrown open to the masses for their input and design, it resulted in nothing but controversy and ended up never being implemented. As expected, there was a whole ton of talk on the baords here about the various types and extent of restoration and their resulting impact on the final determination of the restoration rate. Likewise, I am sure that if CGC had used the same approach and had opened up the entire 10-point grading system to the collecting base for input and feedback prior to coming up with the final determination or design of the 10-point condition grading system, it also would have had resulted in nothing but controversy. No doubt, everybody here would have been arguing endlessly about each type of defect and its extent as to its impact on the final grade and nothing would have been achieved in the end. I am quite sure the reason CGC took this "open" approach at the time was that this came right on the heels of the whole Jason Ewert micro-trimming debacle. No doubt, also still chafing quite badly from the fact that they had also just been absolutely raked over the coals here after having to admit that the whole manipulation of books through undisclosed pressing to obtain higher grades was actually not considered to be restoration from their point of view (which it had always generally been recognized as such prior to that time), but instead now deemed to be something called "maximization of potential". Especially when it was also discovered that this was in fact a nefarious and hidden practice which had been employed by only certain people in the know during the prior few years to launder these books through CGC and make bags of money off an unsuspecting marketplace. Needless to say, in this rather toxic and negative environment which the hobby found itself in at the time, any change or idea (whether good or bad) would be doomed to failure as nobody was willing to believe much of anything that CGC was saying at the time. Especially after they were seen as knowingly facilitating the the manipulation of books without even bothering to disclosed to the marketplace about their subtle, but highly significant change to the long held generally accepted definition of restoration at the time within the hobby. Coupled with fact that they were also unknowingly letting micro-trimmed books from one of their biggest customers slipped through as unrestored books. As a result of all this controversy, the marketplace saw this feeble attempt as nothing more than possibly another money making scam for CGC to help unscrupulous dealers and scam artists to foist even more restored books as unrestored books onto an unsuspecting marketplace. Okay, enough of this history lesson and back to either the falling or plateauing of prices for AF 15's.

And at the same time, where there is an AF 15, there is also always a seller....

What was your expected price target on this book here, as many of the board members here thought this was actually a pretty strong price for the book? Especially considering the fact that there's already another 26 copies of this book graded in the same equivalent CGC 9.8 condition plus another 45 copies just one notch lower at CGC 9.6 which are probably getting the living daylights squashed out of them in hopes of attaining the much vaulted 9.8 grade. Definitely no shortage of HG copies of this book here as there are already over 300 copies graded in CGC 9.0 condition or higher. Plus the fact that there are probably still quite a few uber HG copies sitting out there in private collections that hasn't come close to a grading table yet. Many board members are thinking more along the line of this since these are now starting to show up in virtually every single auction: That's what I'm saying, the fella that bought it for 90K last auction I'm guessing isn't too happy right now. And then on the other hand, we have the opposing viewpoint: I guess only time will tell as to which side is correct in terms of what direction this book will be heading longer term.

That's what I thought too but this one says "sold for...". Then down below it says the 21st-24th auction dates. So I'm lost too. Well, it's all rather quite simple if you take a look at one of their auction catalogues. Like all of the other previous Heritage Auctions in the past, they are broken up in various sessions which are spread over a multi-day time period. The big Platinum session and higher dollar value comic book sessions goes on the first day (i.e. Thursday) and this one here already accounted for something like well over $7M in sales by the end of the first day. The auction wraps up with Session 7 on Sunday which I imagine must be the one for the online only (i.e. no live Floor auction) auction for the video games. Looks like the CGC 9.8 graded copy of TMNT 1 must have been considered to be a primo book since it was included as part of the Platinum Session and sold for a relatively high $52,800.

Raw VF/NM - $22,000 8.5 $120,000 9.0 $160,000 Round numbers. Glad to see that you've been keeping close track of your former book here. Do you have the years that these sales occurred so that we can have some kind of perspective in relation to the rest of the comic book market at the time of these sales?

Wait, wasn't the last sale on this like $80K?! EDIT - duh, it was on HA. $90K! Oofta to that buyer. Yes, and the exact reason why I don't really bother to waste my time looking at the CL auctions, let alone to even bid on them. Probably another case of 2 bidders deciding to throw out atomic bomb style bids at the end thinking that nobody else in their right mind would be doing the same thing. The actual winner probably expected to win it at a much lower price point than the $90K which it blew up to, probably at just the last second. Although it's definitely a case of to each their own, but I much prefer auction formats like HA or CC whereby I have full control in terms of knowing exactly what I will be paying if I am going to be winning a book, as opposed to having to throw out a high bid and just hoping for the best.

Yes, chased after the CGC 5.0 PLOD copy in the last CC auction, but it went a bit too high for me as it finished up at over $2,200 for a mid-grade restored copy. At least this HA copy here was a high grade CGC 9.2 unrestored copy, although I am quite sure the one in the CC auction could be easily "unrestored" since it had only a tear seal on the cover.

Historically, can’t beat Marvel 1. Easily has trumped Cap 1 in all my years of collecting. You two should definitely be careful of what you post on public boards. Especially if Mitch comes on here and see your words of sacrilege and you two end up being cursed for the rest of your living days.

Yeah, but the $59k also had white pages... Yeah, and as we all know what Jay would say.............if only it didn't have the dreaded white pages, it would have hit $70K without any problems at all.

Well, I guess the lack of the CVA Exceptional sticker must have really hurt this copy here as it sold for about $27,500 less than the one with the sticker that managed to fetched $59K on CL back in January of this year.

I need to get in touch with Doc and Marty and get me back to the future Amazing, $3 for a Hulk 181 back in 79 WTF..........now I know I definitely got hosed when I had to forked over $5 big ones for my wall copy back then.

Well, looks like I might have been a bit premature here as it appears somebody must have thrown a couple extra logs into the Mask fire to get it to burn twice as hot as before. Especially since the CGC 6.0 graded Ohio Copy was able to fetched $13,966 in a CC Auction this past March which was deemed to be an already extraordinary price at the time. Looks like it's definitely not as mindblowing as this slightly lower graded non-pedigree copy going for almost double the price!!! In comparison, it would appear that the fire on the Suspense 8 is still barely starting since it finished only a few bid increments higher from where it was 5 days ago. Definitely also still a long ways away from hitting 5-figures and looks like it still needs some time to push it over that mark. Well, either that or a new to market HG copy to hit the auction blocks.