lou_fine

I believe you've already answered your own question here as I personally think the AA 61 with the origin and first appearance of Solomon Grundy is head and shoulders above the other 3 books you are talking about here. Especially when you add in the classic Solomon Grundy cover for AA 61 which was listed in the Heritage voting poll as one of the top GA covers of all time.

Depends if I am approaching it from a collector's point of view or an investor's point of view. From a pure collector's point of view, I would tend to go with the WF 3 as I've always loved the 100 pager squarebound books with the cardboard covers. As an investor though or buying for eventual resale, I would have to say the 'Tec 73 as the pure Bat books tend to have much more upside and in today's slabbed market, it's also really about the cover. It's also pretty obvious which one of the 2 books here has the much better cover, although I will admit the 'Tec 73 is already priced right up there in the stratosphere.

Throw some dirt on it? Although most of you would tend to see this as nothing more than just a humorous comment, there's probably some degree of truth to it if you really think about it. A grader is supposed to only grade the book that is in front of them, as opposed to conducting historic research on a particular book which we have the luxury and time time to do. As such, would most graders simply make the assumption that the book has not been cleaned if it exhibits some slight, but not too intrusive defects that indicates the book would benefit from a simple and basic clean and press? Especially since nobody would ever clean a book without also having it pressed. If this is the case, would it not be relatively easy for somebody in the know to add in some very insignificant, but visible defects to either "unclean" or "unpress" a book in order to achieve the more desirable Universal label?

Man I love this hobby so freaking much! Tim; Maybe it's not all bad and you could try to bid on this book here since Masterchief didn't include this in his chart: Or are you risk averse and don't want to take the chance since it's all part of the same submission from the same consignor?

Your page (i.e. wrap) count doesn't appear to add up here since this would amount to 29 interior wraps for 58 pages plus the 4 cover pages for a total page count of 62 pages. Based upon a post in the other Suspense 3 thread, the complete book should have 16 wraps before the centerfold and then 12 wraps after that. This would add up to 28 wraps or 56 interior pages plus the 4 exterior pages for a total count of 60 pages. This would then line up with the stats from the GCD which lists a total of 60 pages including only 6 pages for the 83 Days on A Life-Raft story. Does this mean that your copy that "pathetically slinked" its way into your store will receive only a Green Qualified label if graded since it is considered to be Incomplete?

Well, since both copies have the exact same CGC 9.8 grade and yet the CVA copy sold for $59K while the non-CVA copy sold for only $37K+, I guess this answers the concern that most boardies have here with regards to the questionable value of the CVA label.

Yes, looks like I definitely overpaid for my copy then as I remember having to pay $5 for a nice HG wall copy at a local comic con here back in the latter part of the 70's. The dealer I brought it from said the other year that it's impossible since he would never have priced it so low because Hulk 181 was a hot pricey book right from the get go. With the sky high prices that Mile High is generally known for, I guess this ad from them proves that my memory is clearly better than the dealer that I brought the book from.

Well, based upon the discussion in the other Suspense 3 thread, did you do a page count to ensure that it is a complete book?

The only problem with Harley is that his hot books seems more geared towards the deep pocketed American buyers since they can be priced right up to the hilt sometimes. The perfect example being the CGC 9.0 graded copy of Special Marvel Edition 15 which he had priced at $950 USD. Again, that was for only a CGC 9.0 graded copy of the book. It would be good if Ferd from Winnipeg comes out for the summer show again, as he usually has a couple of goodies hidden away and his prices are usually much more reasonable.

Would there be graders notes that would confirm page counts? It actually shouldn't be necessary since the page count is apparently one of the first procedure that the grading companies do upon receipt of the book and well before they even get to actual grading process.

Maybe we need to check out the Penn and Church copies of this book to verify this since they should have the full 60 pages (including covers) as they both were encased in the blue labelled slabs and sold for nice 6-figure amounts.

+1 Danny Dupchak style trimming is most definitely DESTRUCTION of a comic book, but undetectable or near invisible micro-trimming of a book when properly done, is a completely different animal from easily detectable trimming.

You are missing the basic equation comic - restoration = $$$ Masterchief; During your leave of absence, CCG like any other successful business enterprise seeks to maximize both their top and bottom lines by adding in as manay additional streams of revenue as possible. One of these additional streams of revenue would just happen to be restoration removal which falls under the business umbrella of CCS. How nice that they can make money by offering restoration services and then double down again by offering restoration removal services on the exact same book. The sign of a good business model is one where you can make money on the same product (i.e. comic book) not just once, but as many times as possible. Especially when you have happy customers lining up with their wallets wide open to give you books for all of your services which you are providing, whether it be for pressing, pre-screen for pressing, grading, pre-screen for grading, restoration, pre-screen for restoration removal, restoration removal, reholdering, special publisher labels, signature labels, pedigree labels, estimated grading range and restoration levels based upon eBay scans, etc., etc.......... I am sure that I must be missing a whole bunch as this is definitely not just a simple once and done grading process.

Conservation is more acceptable to who? Well, based upon realized prices in the comic book marketplace, I would have to say that it must be more acceptable to buyers as they are consistently paying noticeably higher prices for Conserved slabs as compared to the same book in equivalent condition when it comes with the PLOD label. Of course, not fully acceptable like the universal "unrestored" books as these books still go for a significantly higher price as compared to their Conserved counterparts in the same grade.

Looking at the above list, isn't it simply amazing the number of procedures they've removed from the old Restoration bucket and moved over into the much more acceptable Conservation bucket with their quasi blue/grey label?

Having been away for awhile, I guess I missed this too. Mark Wilson employs solvent cleaning and it's not considered restoration? Yes, I believe they made this change back somewhere around 2014 when they came out with the updated Restoration Grading Scale, as it's now considered to be only Conservation as opposed to the much dreaded PLOD restoration: Conservation Repairs Conservation repairs are performed with the intent of preserving the structural or chemical integrity of a comic book using professional techniques and materials. It excludes aesthetic repairs such as color touch and piece fill. All conserved grades must satisfy the CGC quality scale of "A" and quantity scale of "1". Tear seals Spine split seals Reinforcement Piece reattachment Some cover or interior cleaning (water or solvent) Staples cleaned or replaced Some leaf casting De-acidification

Yes, I still remember my last auction win at HA and was wondering why I did not receive my book after a few months. Gave them a phone call and they told me that my standing order was for them to hold onto my books for me until I give them the approval to ship them out. They asked me if I wanted to change my standing shipping order and I simply said "nope" and to keep it as is. Well, it's been a couple of years now and I am still waiting to win another one of their books. Unfortunately, I don't think this strategy will work for the speculators or flippers who wants to play the CPR game.

amazing book... +1 Yes, most definitely an amazing book in terms of this classic L.B. Cole spider cover. But not quite as amazing as the absolutely stunning and flawless looking Church copy which I saw through Geppi's mahogany bookcase window during the Diamond Galleries Grand Opening way back in early '95.

The Wilson Cabal...they'll never work in this industry again! Looks like you are are absolutely dead wrong with your statment here. Well, I think everybody here should have seen this coming when the whole insider manipulation of comic books was first brought to light 15 years ago. Sad to say, but definitely no surprise to me that the master manipulators and comic book doctors have now risen to the top of the comic book collecting world. Especially when CCG has such a huge influence in the entire collectibles market with their cross ownership of various companies in this entire field. After buying out CCS and putting their master craftsman in charge of CGC grading a few years ago, we now have Mark Wilson installed as one of the Consignment Directors for Heritage at the beginning of this year. It actually wouldn't surprise me at all if they already have Jason lined up in the on-deck circle or possibly even already working secretly behind the scenes in one of their myriad of companies.

Any chance they might have really wanted your research so that they could hopefully gain some insight on how the whole process is done so that they could pass this information off to their partner CCS company? Companies absolutely hate it when their competitors can do a much better job than they themselves can.

Instagram is my guess. Yeah I would think it is only part of the equation but in conjunction with the slabbing of books making the covers more important and the focus of instagram on likeable content which Cole has in spades by being so bold and bright I think that is probably a big reason for the price rises. But I have nothing concrete to go on. That is just wild speculation. I personally believe it has a lot more to do with the cycling pattern of price increases that have historically taken place in the comic book marketplace. On a more macro level for example, SA books will get hot for a certain time period which then makes the GA books look relatively cheaper in comparison, which then turns up the heat in the GA market. On a smaller level, you usually see sharp increases in the big publishers such as DC and Timely first, and then this is usually followed by sharp increases in the 2nd and 3rd tier publishers like the Fox and Centaur books during the past few years. On a even smaller level, the rave last year seem to be all bout Baker art and now this year, it seems to be all about L.B. Cole art. Maybe next year, it might cycle through to Raboy cover art or whoever or whatever the next hot phase is. If you look at the more recent collecting time periods, the previous 2 years seem to have been all about AF 15 which is definitely not the case this year. Now the heat has moved onto books such as Fantastic Four and Hulk 181,although the IH 181 might have hit a top by now already. So to me, it all appears to be part of an ongoing cycle that ends up lifting the entire market on a sector by sector basis over an extended period of time.

I thought someone would hit me and I'd go to about $150 (top GPA was $115). The $500 was because I wasn't watching and never ever thought it would go that high. Had I bought it for $500 I would have been quite annoyed with myself. I think it's quite possible that the winning bidder is very very with himself right now for throwing in such a high bid on the incorrect assumption that nobody else would. That's why I generally don't even bother to bid in CL auctions because you usually end up having to throw in one of these insane atomic bomb style bids if you really want to win something. I much prefer the CC or Heritage format where I know exactly what I have to bid in order to win a book.

So, are you sincerely trying to convince us that $526 is an insane amount, but yet your $500 bid is a totally rational amount because it is (roughly) only 4.4 times GPA and only 24 times GPA for a 9.6 graded copy?

Wasn't this particular copy from a recent CL auction earlier this year? If so, you are going to have an awfully tough time finding a scan unless somebody here saved the listing or had bidded on the book, since CL has no historical archives of any kind at all.

You do realize that this is now 2019 and the post you are referencing is from way back in 2013. Any bets that if you ask Matt the same question today, his answer would be completely different since CGC's implementation of their current Restoration Grading Scale now no longer slots the type of chemical cleaning that Mark used to do as falling under the Restoration umbrella. It is now considered to be Conservation which I guess is not as bad as the old PLOD designation. So, maybe Mark was partially right when he said at the time way back then that what he was doing was not actually Restoration. Like I've said before, when we see Ewert working for Heritage or become head of grading at CGC, that'll be the tell tale sign that invisible or properly done micro-trimming has moved out of the list of activities and has now been given the green light and considered to be good to go.