lou_fine

that would be my guess Any guesses as to where this copy would have been transacted for? My guess is that it is probably pretty close to halfway from the last Heritage sale price of $156K and the buyer's ask price of $225K, with more of a leaning towards the Heritage price point.

Yes, it states as "This listing was ended by the seller because the item is no longer available". Is this the scenario whereby a potential buyer for the item contacts the seller and they then decide to do a win-win deal off eBay that works out better for both parties, in terms of avoiding the hefty fees associated with a completed transaction?

Hadn’t seen that but if I had, I’d have thought it was a shill bid. Guess it probably was not, and it was a good, and easy to make, decision setting that reserve. Well, that's definitely a smart tactic on the part of the consignor to take before placing your book up for auction. Place an absolutely ridiculous high sale price on the book and see how ridiculously high the offers will go and then use that high water mark to set as your reserve price in the auction, hoping that the high bidder will see it in the auction. Of course, if Josh is doing his job and providing customer service both ways as he should be, he should really then be alerting the high bidder that the book is now available at auction for much lower than the consignor's original "asking" price.

Most definitely because it was a big centennial anniversary issue for sure and also McFarlane was definitely starting to be the latest new hot artist of the day.

According to a previous board member who was folling the action on this book, the lot always had a reserve set on it from the get go. When auction lots do not hit their reserve price on CL, the auction house will then bump the bid up to 1 increment just below the reserve price just before (one day I believe) the end of the auction. They note this with an asterick on the auction bid when it has been set at the 1 increment below the reserve price, but will remove it when the reserve is met. I clearly noticed this on the first book in the auction here which was an Action 16 and clicked onto the asterick to see what it meant. I was not following the book myself, but this is what I saw from a post by another board member here. The auction price history would tend to confirm that there must have been some kind of reserve in there for the book to jump like that.

If you are talking about collectors as being active board members here, I suspect the percentage would be in the very low single digits and not even approaching 5%. If you are talking about collectors who are also quasi dealers and sets up at the local cons, I suspect that percentage might be slightly higher, but probably not by a large margin. After all, board members are generally all about slabbed books and the graded comic book market, although a significant part of the comic book market from a dollars point of view, is still a very small portion of the overall comic book market from the pont of view of actual number of collectors.

You mean after he was booted off the pages of CBG and not allowed to run his scams on there anymore? I clearly remember him crying like a little school girl and wishing and hoping to no avail that he could get his advertising privileges back. Brings a smile to my face every time I think about poor little Danny boy twisting in the wind for all those long months on end. Customers started complaining about the undisclosed resto so it was only a matter of time before CBG dropped his ads. I think Overstreet pulled his advertising around the same time. Then he moved on to forged sports memorabilia, for which he was eventually busted. Well, in answer to you question about whatever happened to him in the end and how did this all unravel for him, Masterchief being the absolute master that he is at going through old posts and digging out invaluable information for us was able to find this link to an old post that I had written up not too long after I first got on the boards here. Looking back on my diatribe about Danny Boy after all these years makes for a rather long and boring read. Now that I have more of a sense of humour about the whole thing, there were actually a lot of rather outlandish and humourous aspects to some of Danny's story that really did him in with Maggie and CBG at the time. I guess Maggie and the editorial powers that be at CBG finally decided that they had had enough with Danny and must have overruled the advertising and marketing department which was probably making a fortune off Danny and his gang at the time with all of their huge full page weekly ads. Anyways, the link to my blast from the past story with Danny Boy (if it works ), courtesy of Masterchief himself:

My memory is that ASM 252 was commanding a pretty big premium ( for the time ) right from the start. I started collecting on issue 260, and I remember having to pay $4.50 for my copy of 252. I don’t think anyone did badly speculating on ASM 252. Well, since this particular comic book broker was used to dealing in high dollar Church pedigree books as he was one of the lucky 10 who could buy directly from Chuck every year, I kind of doubt that $4.50 was anything for him to get too excited about. I somehow think that this was most likely his first and last foray into what for him would have been the MA comic book market at the time.

Most of the boardies won’t be around in 50 years If you look at the posting history of many one time prominent and frequent boardies here, I would have to say that many of the current boardies won't be around in even 5 years from now.

Wasn't this offered at a fixed price of somewhere in the $100-150K range not that long ago? Anyone able to confirm that? If so, maybe the seller was disappointed by the result. This might actually be the case as apparently the consignor had a big reserve set on the book and possibly the only reason why the book even got up to such lofty levels in the end. Nevertheless, it appears to have been a very astute move on the part of the consignor as the book was apparently only sitting at $25K before CL had to kick in the reserve at the one bid increment lower than the $70K reserve price one day prior to the end of the auction. If they hadn't done that, I somehow suspect there would not have been 2 bidders out there who would have thrown in atomic bomb style bids at the end which would have taken the book to such astronomical levels in the end.

That's because there's been far too many copies out in the marketplace as it's a relatively easy book to find if you wanted to buy one. Just take a look at the CL Auction from last week which had a total of 8 copies ranging from CGC 6.5 up to CGC 9.6, all trying to cannibalize one another.

So, since the CGC census count for ASM 300 is starting to approach 20,000 graded copies out there, this means either: 1) We've now slabbed about 40% of the copies in existence if the total number of extant copies is roughly 100,000; or 2) We've now slabbed about 20% of the copies in existence if 50% of the total number of extant copies is roughly 100,000. Either way, it makes it sound almost silly that collectors would be paying ridiculous multiples for current highest graded copies of a particular book when the premiums being paid would have only short term transitory value as only a relatively small fraction of the extant copies of any book has been graded so far. RMA; I was just applying my math to the original 100,000 extant copies that you was mentioning in your earlier post up above. In any case, this would make it even more absurb for collectors to be paying multiples more for a book that is only 1 grade increment higher since there are still so many more raw copies sitting out there in private collections. I was always under the impression that ASM 300 was a hoarded book. Maybe just in my city since Todd was the local boy and was generally always at the local comic cons and available to sign his books for free for all of his fans. I am sure that I have quite a few of the Spidey 300 book because that was a favorite for the fans to get him to sign with his glossy silver ink sprinkly pen. As for ASM 252, I remember one comic book broker who also dealt in coins before that. Since coin collectors are used to dealing in rolls of 50 coins, he said that he brough a whole roll (i.e. 50 copies) of ASM 52 on the speculation that they would go up in value. Unfortunately for him, I don't think they ever really did for years, if not for decades after that.

So, since the CGC census count for ASM 300 is starting to approach 20,000 graded copies out there, this means either: 1) We've now slabbed about 40% of the copies in existence if the total number of extant copies is roughly 100,000; or 2) We've now slabbed about 20% of the copies in existence if 50% of the total number of extant copies is roughly 100,000. Either way, it makes it sound almost silly that collectors would be paying ridiculous multiples for current highest graded copies of a particular book when the premiums being paid would have only short term transitory value as only a relatively small fraction of the extant copies of any book has been graded so far.

It was at 25k. I thought for sure it wouldn’t sell after that reserve at nearly 3 times the current bid kicked in. Shows what I know. Well, if it was at only $25K, I highly doubt it would have reached such astronomical heights as $85K since I don't think 2 bidders would have putten in atomic bomb style bids on their own without a big nudge from the consignor. Definitely one of the few times that a high reserve price actually worked out so perfectly.

The consignor had set reserve at 70K a few days ago. Well, it appears that the consignor definitely made the right and astute move here by putting in a high reserve price on the book. Any idea where the bidding was at prior to CL having to come in and placing the bid just one increment below the reserve price of $70K with one day left in the auction? Makes me kind of wonder if the book ever would have gotten up there on its own without that little push from CL to push it up close to the reserve amount near the end of the auction?

I would contact Josh at CLink and see if he can ask if the buyer is willing to make a quick flip. Now, this definitely sounds like a plan and probably the best move to make at this point in time. Jim; Was you already aware of this auction and planning to bid at the end, but something came up which made you forget all about the end of the auction? Just asking because that seems to be a common occurrence with bidders that wait unti the end of the auction to bid. I imagine you must have a copy of MF 72 in your collection already as that is clearly also a WWII cover, but managed to fetch only a bit over guide for a much higher graded pedigree copy to boot.

I would definitely agree with you here as I have seen some books sitting at something like $250 on the final morning of the CC auction and yet they finished up at over $2K by the time it's all said and done. Yet, on the other hand, I've seen others that were already over $2K on the final morning of the CC auction and then proceed to move up only 1 or 2 increments by the time the 3-minute bell stops ringing. All I'll say here is that I bet you that the consignor for the Startling 10 sitting at $16,250 and the consignor for the TOD 10 sitting at $74K with both of them having only 1 day left were most likely giddy with excitement and anticipation, but for completely opposite reasons. I can also tell you which one of the consignor's shoes I would much rather be in, with just the one day left to go.

I guess you are definitely not alone here since I notice that the Chuch copy of CMJr is noticeably absent from this Church CMJr run that is up for auction here. Reminds me of the time that Fishler specifically went and pulled the Church copy of CMJr 4 out from the Church run right after Geppi annouced that none of the Church runs were to be broken up. I guess it didn't work in the end though as both Geppi and Overstreet apparently caught it when it was time to ring up the books.

No idea who the winner of this lot is, but all I can say without further analysis is that $1,900 for this book sure seems like a very surprisingly strong price for this copy here. Especially since the other higher graded copies of the More Fun books did not do as well relative to their grades as this MF 63 was able to achieve.

Good to know Dean, thanks - I have Larson on both those books. Steve; Well, I can certainly tell you with 110% full confidence that your Larson copies would go for multiples of what these 2 copies sold for. Especially with the Larson pedigree designation plus we also know that you definitely have the eyes for picking out exceptional looking copies with vibrant eye popping colors that are hard to beat!!!

With books that are truly more of a vintage collectible, I believe you might get a plateau in prices or a moderate slight drop, but I certainly wouldn't hold my breath expecting to see a big collapse like what you would expect when somebody pays an irrational exorbitant out of this world price on a book based upon short term temporary hype. I believe Domo here has the right answer to your question here: Correct......but that's also where the problem lies. Suppose the underbidder is the second biggest Blade fan in the world. But then suppose that the third biggest Blade fan in the world is only willing to spend $20,000 on a book like this. What happens the next time one comes up for auction? Obviously, we don't really know......but one can see the very real possibility that the next copy might not sell for anywhere close to $80,000. As opposed to books like an Amazing Fantasy #15 in CGC 7.0 or a Tales of Suspense #39 in CGC 9.4.........these books will likely be much more stable in their prices.....and when they see increases, they are more likely to be consistent across the board as additional copies come up for sale.

Probably not as much as the consignor of the CGC 9.6 graded copy of Startling Comics #49.

Yes, when the boardie who started this thread mentioned the Supes 199 sale for $13,750; this was the first thing that also came to my mind. Especially since I clearly remembered the near $20K sale as I thought it was right out there at the time and that the purchaser was just asking for a beating going forward. Any bets the winner of this book here will also be suffering the same fate as this one also appears to be clearly right out there: Especially since it's hard to imagine anybody else in their right mind willing to pay more than $85,000 for a book like this once all of the movie hype dies down for what will most likely be a second or third tier movie. This one here is really big time, especially considering there are already another 38 of them in CGC 9.8 graded condition which the owners will now be giving serious though to squish squash them in the hopes of getting the much higher valued 9.9 out of them. Even much more so than the $31,111 that was paid for the then NOT highest graded copy of Marvel Super-Heroes 13 since captain marvel will have a much bigger impact and longer movie shelf life as compared to Blade. While we are at it, let's not forget the $15K that was paid for the then (but now no longer) CGC 9.8 single highest graded copy of Iron man 30 a few years ago.

Yes, I remember buying books off the shelves of the LCS back in the 70's and 80's and dreaming that I might be able to hopefully sell them one day in the future at something close to guide. Nowadays, I go onto some of the auction sites and dream that I might be able to find a book that I want and hopefully be able to buy it at something close to guide.

Would you happen to have a link to either one of these 2 CGC 9.9 sales that went for around $20K's? Hard to believe unless we can actually see it since it seems the price is definitely way out there. But then again, it's been 10 long years so Boston might finally be given his due if he decided to hold on for this extended period of time.