lou_fine

Yes, was trying to finished off reading all of the market reports reports in the current Overstreet guide before the new editoin comes out next month. It's like night and day when you see what's happening in the post-GA marketplace today as compared to what was being reported for 2021 and early 2022. Although a few advisors made it sound like AF 15 was such a rock solid investment that you would never ever see it go down in value, most of the advisors did acknowledged that the wild and crazy party of 2021/22 could not be sustain longer term and was bound to end eventually.

Well, I guess this shows you that he indeed must have had some of the rarest early books in his personal collection since no other copies have made their way into the marketplace in the interim.

Probably all in low grade condition though as the census indicates a total of 63 Universal copies for Suspense 8, with 31 or about half of these being in CGC 4.0 or lower. As compared to Suspense 11 with a total of 69 Universal copies and only 17 or about a quarter of them in CGC 4.0 or lower. At the other end of the condition scale, you have only the one single CGC 9.2 graded Promise copy of Suspense 8 sitting there above CGC 7.5 and yet you have a much higher dozen copies of Suspense 11 sitting above CGC 7.5. Hence, it's pretty much safe to say that Suspense 8 is definitely much scarcer in high grade when compared to the Suspense 11.

My thinking is that if the Promise copy of Suspense 11 can go for more money in its second go round when there's already 6 graded copies in CGC 9.0 and above, then this Promise copy of Suspense 8 with the classic Cole spider cover should be a "real" winner for the lucky buyer who paid only a "piddly" $60K for it in its first go round: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/horror/suspense-comics-8-the-promise-collection-pedigree-continental-magazines-1945-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7246-92162.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Especially considering that its the single highest graded copy by a long shot with the next being 3 copies way back at CGC 7.5 with the last one in this grade being certified back in 2015.

Well, looks like it's going to be a god good day for all you Vampi aficionados out there with some 100 HG issues closing later today: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/1002853 https://www.comicconnect.com/item/1002978 Hard to beat when there's so many issues all at one time from Vampi 1 right through to 113 , including all of the early desirable issues.

WOW, Wow, wow, you certainly don't see these magazines showing up in the marketplace everyday: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/988044 https://www.comicconnect.com/item/988089 https://www.comicconnect.com/item/988088 The last time being the Jon Berk Auction back in the summer of 2017 with respect to Wow 3 and 4, and even further back for the Wow 1.

Well, not so surprisingly, it appears that the Promise copy of Suspense 11 sold for quite a bit more than $35K according to this post from Tim: What is rather surprising though is that the seller actually looks to be ahead by a few hundred dollars after taking the 10% auction fee into account since the book sold for $132K on the first go round at Heritage.

Although some are saying that it appears t\even the GA marketplace might be sofening a tad, still no signs of it on this book here: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/1001256 Not sure where it will finish up at later this evening, but already at a very strong $7,200 for what would otherwise be a nicely presenting CGC 3.0 graded copy save for that big piece out of the front cover which unlike a NCB crease is a defect that is clearly not fixable.

Ahh...................................learn something new every day.

Well, the only problem is that as far as I can tell, your Watch List items are gone once the auction for each of your Watch List item has ended.

Yes, definitely not ideal for short term comparison purposes that they move the results over to their archive section right immediately after the auction for each individual lot has ended which does indeed make it difficult to track. Then again, it's in their auction archives for longer term historical tracking purposes for each individual book similar to the Heritage archives, whereas the history is basically lost for CL books once the entire auction is over.

Yeah, probably a bit of a hyperbole to try to make my point, but definitely not meant as a personal attack on you. Esepcially since I have enough of these penetrating off-centered miswrapped eyesores in my own personal collection. Perfect case in point being SME 15 with the first appearance of Shang-Chi which seemingly must have been one of the absolutely worst printed books out there with that horrid fugly looking white line running down the spine of most copies. You seemingly couldn't get out the door of your LCS back in the day without running across one of them, but they always seem to have that horrid looking spine. Being a fan of the later Gulacy art, even though I was picky, just never could find that visually perfect looking copy and stopped after 4 or 5 copies since it got well beyond my purchase price point after that. So, not meant as a negative comment on your copy here, especially since as you have correctly stated, much more difficult when it comes to pre-BA DC books. Really meant more as a comment on how the undislosed CGC grading standards for the top end grades from my POV have not necessarily changed for the better as it has definitely shifted more towards targeting the money generating so-called "technical" defects and less so on the clearly visual defects which so many long time collectors back in the day hated so much. A point which was also alluded to by @whomerjay from his post below: Looks like the smartest submittor here was the guy who we all know that submitted all of his Marvel SA key first appearances pretty much right when CGC first opened their doors or soon afterwards. Not only saving on the constantly rising grading fees which we have seen recently, but also managed to get the still highest graded copies to date which have yet to be surpassed (save for only a couple of them) after some 20+ plus years of certification. Any bets that there was still a lot of "old school" grading in there when CGC first opened their doors and relatively much less emphasis on the so-called "technical" defects that would eventually surge to the top of CGC's "hit" parade when it came to grading at the top end.

Clearly a lot of truth to this, but what's probably even more true is that people may be putting too much faith in the accuracy of the CGC grade.

I also didn't see it when I took the short cut within their current listing and had to go all the way back out and then into their archive to see it: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/plastic-man-16-the-promise-collection-pedigree-bell-features-1949-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122223-11692.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Yes, nothing more than just pocket change that can be cover by what's sitting in the petty cash drawer.

Then again not really that surprising, since beauty is always in the eye of the beholder, so is ugliness also in the eye of the beholder. As such, what most of us here (i.e. collectors) would see as a defect, others (i.e. CGC graders) would see as a positive benefit because it's evidence or proof that the submittor has paid their just dues to the CCG ownership group and therefore should be rewarded accordingly.

Yes let's just keep moseying along, nothing to see at all herewhen it comes to the Promise books.............just your usual typical everyday pocket change loss of only $43,200 or a mere 72% after just one year with the book going from $60K down to $16,800.

Well, I guess this goes a long way to prove that the Promise books were clearly undergraded on their first go round as rumours would have it. I think Halperin should take this 9.6 copy here and march himself right down to the CGC grading office with his whip and show those no good insubordinate graders who's the real boss of this whole operations here.

Don't you absolutely love the CGC grading when a fugly looking completely miswrapped off-center copy like this book here can get a 9.8 grade. Being a long time collector, I still remember the days when collectors would shoved fugly looking books like this one here right back onto the shelves of the LCS as fast as they could before they do permanent damage to their eyeballs. Especially when even a blind collector like Mr. Magoo would even be able to see books with this kind of clear visual defect from way across the entire convention hall. And yet CGC has shall we say "improve" and fine-tuned their grading standards over time so that it clearly does not reflect the grading standards of the collecting base prior to the arrival of CGC. I guess it really shouldn't be much of a surprise that if you look at the Graders Notes for HG books nowadays, it's almost all entirely about those additional revenue generating defects such as small spine ticks, creases, bends, etc. that oftentimes you can only see when the book is held up at just the correct angle to the light. And yet they turn a blind eye to eye wrenching defects such as the one that's clearly visible on the WW 180 above.

The question is whether your copy of UF 4 that you paid a whopping $365 for is a variant edition or just one of those regular edition copies? Especially since it's only the variant edition of this book that is selling for this rather ridiculous 5-figure amount.

Absolutely love the adventure covers like NA 26 a whole lot more than the earlier "humour" style covers on the earlier pre-hero DC books. From reading Gary Carter's pre-hero DC article in either Overstreet 12 or 13, I still remember him pointing out early pre-hero books like New Comics 2, New Fun 2, and the Big Book of Fun comics as possibly being the rarest DC books. Not sure about the latter two since CGC doesn't grade them but it would appear that New Comcs 2 is tough to find in grade at only 5 Universal copies to date, with the highest being the Billy Wright copy coming in at CGC 2.0. BTW: Big time congrats to you on your stupendous "to die for" Church copy of New Adventure Comics 26.

Good to know and very interesting to see what really goes on behind the scene when the big decisions are being made that affects us all here. Rather ironic that they would come up with a grading system convoluted and arbitrary enough so that not only would the average collector not be able to easily follow and understand it, but seemingly also their own graders on a consistent basis. Then again, I imagine that just might have been their plan all along as it allows them to never be wrong and also help to ensure that books are resumbitted on a consistent basis by collectors who hope that they can have the CGC grading hammer fall in their favor when it comes to their turn at the grading roulette wheel.

Yes, working PERFECTLY now with the horizontal scroll bar just like before you attempted to make the site more accessible to mobile users.

If you really want to improve accuracy and have more science and less art when it comes to grading, maybe what you need to do is to get it back to the way it all started with Overstreet's 3 basic condition grades of only Good, Fine, and Mint.

Exactly how confident can you be in CGC's grading when you see examples like this one here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/western/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-vf-nm-90-off-white-pages/a/830-91039.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Grader Notes Front Cover Writing Top Back Cover Lite Shadow Especially when the Grader Notes would make it appear that any kind of CPR work should not have been the reason for this book getting this big bump in grade after making an interim pit stop at 9.6: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/western/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40208-81046.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Or even better yet, how about this Church copy of Boy Comics 17 which went from CGC 4.0 all the way up to CGC 9.0 after making an interim pit stop at CGC 7.5: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/boy-comics-17-mile-high-pedigree-lev-gleason-1944-cgc-vg-40-white-pages-patriotic-flag-cover-by-charles-biro-rudy-pal/a/12081-31229.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/boy-comics-17-mile-high-pedigree-lev-gleason-1944-cgc-vf-nm-90-white-pages/a/7187-94060.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515