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And I retired banking on this one from my collection Well, so much for those who were thinking of using their comic book collection to fund their retirement. Hope you didn't trade a copy of Bat 1 or Cap 1 for this book which were both valued about the same as this Four Color 10 in Good condition back in 1970. Seriously though, from the way some of these comic books have appreciated over the years, they can most definitely be used to fund a part of your retirement or as a nice little cherry to top it off. Of course, you would also have to have other things on the go such as a government pension, corporate pension, or your own more liquid investments other than your comic books.

My books, every one of them a key or a classic cover, are at 60% of where they need to be Well, I believe they should be at more than 60% now as I am currently the high bidder on a couple of them. Unfortunately, I strongly doubt I'll be anywhere close to the 100% point by the time it;s all done on Monday evening though.

You mean like this little beauty here: Even in only Good condition, I imagine this one should still be worth more than $86 though. Looks like this Church copy sold for over $6,500 last year when top of guide on the book was only at $2,400. I guess this is actually a low multiple considering that it's a Church copy and the CGC highest graded copy to boot.

I guess this is the reason why the initial Overstreet price guide was apparently laughingly referred to as the Overprice Comic Book Price Guide, as many people thought that nobody would ever pay those kind of monies for a comic book. In actuality, although those books were probably around, I am quite sure that they were not around in true Mint condition and the valuations which everybody was supposedly ridiculing Overstreet for at the time. Yes, as I had alluded to in my initial post up above, it looks like the early strip reprint books such as Flash Gordon Four 10 has not only fallen off Overstreet's Top 10 list, but probably even right off his Top One Million list from a Good valuation point of view.

You are most welcome. I actually felt kind of sorry for poor Terry who must had spent quite a bit of time to put this 25 minutes video together, but yet had only 135 views after more than 2 years when I first saw it the other day. Maybe we can get it closer to 200 views by posting a link to it here.

Saw the attached YouTube video which took a look at some of the top books in Overstreet's first comic book guide from 1970 and how some of these books have performed over the years. Thought some of us GA oldies would be interested since most of us might not have a copy as I believe it was limited to a very small print run of only 1,000 copies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xctA_pEfLc Although it looks at everything from the point of view of Good valauations only, it's interesting to note that the spreads between Good to Fine to Mint were relatively small compared to today. This is clearly evident with Action 1 which not surprisingly was (and still is) the most valuable book with a valuation of $300 in Mint, but not too far behind at $250 in Fine and still at $200 in Good condition. Compared that to the spreads 48 years later with Action 1's valuations coming in at $200K in Good, $1.4M in Fine, and $3.8M in NM- condition. In some cases, not much has really changed with the usual suspects such as Action 1, 'Tec 27, Marvel 1, and Supes 1 finishing up at the top of the chart. And at the same time, although definitely not surprisingly, all of the strip reprint books and the historical books to a lesser extent have fallen way down the rankings and right off the charts for some of them. A perfect example being King Comics #1 which was tied with Batman #1 in the #6 position with a Good valuation of $100. Definitely hasn't fared too well performance wise relative to the other biggies at the time as its current Good valuation in this year's guide was only at $1,450. Sad, but still a lot better than the Flash Gordon Four Color #10 which was ranked in the #9 spot (tied with 9 others) with a 1970 valuation of $85 in Good and now a humongous monstrous move all the way up to $86 in the current guide 48 years later. The other strip reprints like Feature Book 25 (Flash Gordon), FB 26 (Prince Valiant), and Single Series 20 with Tarzan didn't seem to do much better with only a doubling in their Good valuation after all this time. Definitely sad to say, but it looks like the historical books which gave birth to this wonderful medium of ours such as Funnies on Parade, Century of Comics, Famous Funnies #1 also seem to be slowly drifting in this same downward direction as time goes on.

Yes, it's definitely hard to resist HTF books like these when you see them in the raw. Can't wait to see the rest of them if they look as beaur\tiful as this book here.

Well, all I can say is that your copy of 'Tec 31 is definitely nothing to be sniffed at. Especially when it presents so nicely relative to its assigned CGC grade which I believe are going for over $20K in today's red hot marketplace.

Only a fan of male bondage or a person with prior experience in this practice would ever imagine this. Any truth to the rumours that you have been snapping up every single copy of this book as they come to market, similar to Fishler's fansination with Fantastic 3?

That's definitely a nicelooking copy of a HTF very early Centaur that doesn't come around very often. Surprised that the seller would be willing to sell it raw when books of this rarity and quality are usually slabbed before they get sold. Congrats on the fantastic pickup and looking forward to seeing more of your recent fun book pickups.

Jon Warren is/was a very, very smart man when it came to comics. He would put the online know-it-all-but-know-nothing bloggers to shame...and they, no doubt, would attack him, and call him a "cyber bully." You won't get any agruments from me about this point. Surprisingly though, I would have expected him to have realized that the two Marvel Mystery's were from the San Francisco pedigree collection. The buyer was astute enough to snap them up and from what I heard, able to convert them into a pedigree copy of Exciting Comics #9 with the key origin and first appearance of the Black Terror.

Is that "dealer" still in business? Which one of the dealers are you referring to? The one that I brought the 2 Cap's off was Jon Warren who was Overstreet's go to guy when it came to his Price Guide Update at the time. I believe he went on to become the Price Guide Editor for Wizard after that. My only regret was that I passed on the 2 Marvel Mystery's that were behind the Cap's because they did not appear to be quite as nice as the Cap's. The guy behind me was right on the ball and snapped them up as he knew right away they were the Tom Reilly SF copies as evident by the "G" codes on the cover. As for the other dealer, I believe these kinds of dealers are still alive and well even in today's marketplace, as clearly evident by all of the speculative fever with buyers chasing after both CGC 9.8 graded copies of common books and variants that are fresh off the shelves of the LCS's on a weekly basis. But it's really a case of to each, their own when it comes to collecting and my way is not necessarily any better or right as compared to their way of collecting. It's just good to see that's there's room for all types of collectors and/or speculators in this wonderful hobby of ours.

Why, has your software expanded itself into hardware?

Now, that's the kind of fun and raucous auction that I enjoy watching. And even much more so if it was one of my books.

It was worth more than Action1? No, I think he was simply trying to emphasize the point that collectors tastes can change over an extended period of time. This was definitely the case with the early strip reprint books which indeed was right up there near the top of the valuation charts. And yet collectors tastes in some ways have also remain the same as Action 1 and 'Tec 27 was at the top of the charts back then and they continue to be at the top of the charts almost 50 full years later. If you click onto the link below, you'll find that Feature Book 26 was indeed quite high up in the original Overstreet Price Guide way back in 1970 as it finished up tied with 10 other books at #9 with a Good valuation of $85. Looks like Action #1 was at the top with a Good valuation of $200 followed by 'Tec 27 at $175 and then the long time #3 position held by Marvel Comics #1 at $165. This was then followed by the expected Supes 1 and Whiz 1 at $150 followed by the only other 3-figure books which were Batman 1 and King Comics #1 at $100. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4xctA_pEfLc Definitely an interesting 25-minute YouTube video on the first Overstreet Price Guide as long as you don't mind the numbers and charts or fall asleep while listening to his analysis. Too bad I don't have my actual guide handy as I clearly remember Action 1 being at $300 in top of guide Mint condition while 'Tec 27 was at $275 in Mint. Noticed how close the spreads were back then as compared to Action 1 now listed at $200K in Good and at a whopping $3.8M in NM-, with 'Tec 27 coming in at $170K in Good and $2.5M in NM-. Of course, at the other end of the spectrum, we have the Flash Gordon Four Color 10 tied in the #9 spot at $85 in Good condition way back in 1970 and now making a monstrous move all the way up to $86 in Good condition in the 2018 edition of the Price Guide. Methinks that this particular book has probably fallen not only out of Overstreet's Top 10 chart, but probably even right out of his Top One Million Chart. Hey, maybe we should all click onto this video above since we should give some props to Terry for coming up with it and show him a bit of support so that his view count can go past 138 views.

RAM rammed ROM and made a Micronaught... Oh, come on now. Isn't it obvious to you that it's not only my memory that's starting to go, but my eyesight and dyslexia is also starting to go.

What's going to happen when all these old men die off? This reminds me of the first time I was down in the SD Con in the very early 90's and the latest hot book was the Limited Retailer Edition of Spidey 1 by McFarlane which all of the dealers were trying to foist off to the speculators for $1,000. Talk about a speculative bubble just waiting to burst. I remember being lucky enough to find a dealer with 2 uber HG copies of Cap 29 and Cap 31 at $500 a pop. When I showed them to a dealer, he told me I was crazy to pay that kind of money for books like that which will eventually go down in value once all of the old collectors die off. Instead, he stated that my $1K would have been much better spent on the Spidey 1 which was a true rarity and would never see $1,000 again, especially since it was drawn by McFarlane who would be the super hot artist going forward. Well, at least he was right about one thing as it's definitely not seeing $1K anytime soon as it's sitting at only $195 in top of guide in this year's edition. In the meantime, the 2 Cap's have also moved away from their $1,000 top of guide valuations back then and like the Spidey 1, will also definitely not see the $1K mark again. Especially since they are now sitting at a combined valuation of well over $15K at top of guide in this year's edition.

+1 This is actually so very true, as evident from the many board discussions here in the past talking about resubs that have come back with different grades. You guys make it sound like it's a total crapshoot and they're just throwing darts but that's not the case. There is some variance in a minority of submissions where either in-betweeners could go between two grades or something changes about the book between submissions but as a general rule books don't bounce between 3 different grades as the norm. Roy; Definitely not a crapshoot by far, but also not anywhere close to the "science" that you and other boardies like RAM makes it sound like sometimes. I remember when the new grading regime came in a few years ago and boardies were complaining how much lower their accuracy were in terms of having their estimated grades line up with CGC's final grades. There were even threads here questioning why CGC 9.2 graded books were coming back as CGC 8.0 and CGC 8.0 graded books coming back as CGC 7.0 upon straight resubs with no work being done to them. Good thing the submittor was smart enough to retain the old labels and able to get CGC to move the grades back up a bit. On the other hand, if I remember correctly, there was even one that went the other way with a CGC 9.0 graded copy coming back as a 9.6 copy with just a straight resub. Go figure that or it's quite possible that my memory is starting to fade after such a long time. I can definitely understand the grades going down when a new grading regime takes over as they like to show everybody that they are not only just as good as the previous regime, but in fact even better. Unfortunately, to most people they think that being a tougher grader means that you are a better grader. A definite fallacy from my point of view as I think a better grader is one who's consistent and accurate, as opposed to being either too soft or too hard. By the way, a grading range of 9.2 to 8.0 or from 8.0 down to 7.0 is definitely what I would call an in-between, but a bit too wide for my taste.

Well, if you are talking about CGC 9.6 and 9.8 graded copies of books, then you are most likely referring to the Modern books. In this particular niche of the comic book collecting world, it would appear to be pretty much all about collecting the label as the underlying book itself doesn't actually have much value in anything below uber high grade condition. As a result, it's all about the label because these books otherwise, are pretty much just as common as dirt. If you check out the GA auctions though, you do tend to see lower graded copies going for more than higher graded copies. Especially with the HTF books or in demand classic covers where it's really more just about acquiring the book itself as opposed to chasing after a label. With these types of books, the label definitely does not mean as much and in fact, you often see lower graded copies go for huge dollars just because it presents much nicer relative to the assigned CGC grade. It's all about the books here and not so much about the label.

It seems as though you still don't understand how the grading game is played after all this time. CCG is a business after all, and as such, it's really all about the money. Obviously, clearly visible and fugly miswraps are not an additional revenue generating defect in the same sense as some of the other near invisible defects which they apply a heavy sledge hammer to in order to generate repeat business on the same book.

Being a GA collector where there are so many HTF in demand books that have less than 20 or even 10 graded copies in total across the entire condition spectrum, your definition of FOMO is actually a bit of a stretch. The only FOMO which I would see from your example above would be from the seller's point of view in the sense that they might miss out on selling the book at these ridiculous dollar amounts (especially for movie hype books) before they inevitably come crashing back down to Earth.

+1 This is actually so very true, as evident from the many board discussions here in the past talking about resubs that have come back with different grades. This is to be expected though since as we all know, grading is really nothing more than a subjective opinion by a human grader at a particular point in time, as opposed to an exact science with fixed and measurable grading standards. Heck, the grading standards aren't even published anywhere at all and hence, subject to changing interpretation over time which is something that has clearly happened in the past. As a result, it is in fact quite conceivable that the CGC 9.6 graded copy could possibly be graded as a CGC 9.8 copy the next day, while the CGC 9.8 graded copy could also possibly be graded as a CGC 9.6 copy the next day. If you read the fine print on the back of their labels, the only guarantee is that the book has been "inspected" by their graders and anything beyond that is really nothing more than just a subjective opinion. So, if somebody is willing to pay double or more for a label that is (a not always set in stone) 0.2 points higher on a particular day, than all I can say is more power to them.

Which book? Hypothetically, if there are 10 copies in CGC 9.8 and 30 copies in CGC 9.6, shouldn't the CGC 9.8 be more than double the price? To each, their own, but if there's that many uber HG copies, I can just imagine how many copies there must be that's just under the CGC 9.6 grades. Sounds as though it must be a pretty common book then and I would certainly not be willing to pay 5 figures even if it was a common BA key like Spidey 129 or Hulk 181 which already has thousands (if not well over 10K) of graded copies out there already. Especially when there are still a ton of ungraded copies still sitting in private collections that has yet to be graded. Now, if it was something that's harder to find in uber HG like GL 76 or HOS 92, then I might give it a bit more thought.

FedEx? You are clearly in the inner circle. My catalog arrives by freight train. Definitely not even close to the outer circle at all as the only catalogue I ever received from Metro was their #1 Catalogue from way back somewhere in the 90's. I guess the only reason I started to receive catalogues was when I contacted them for a copy of the Jon Berk Auction Catalogue. Now they won't stop coming. Probably sent by FedEx only because it's out of country.

I haven’t either nor have I received my catalogue yet Well, I guess I am one better than you though since I received my copy of the catalogue last Monday on the 27th via FedEx. Methinks that somebody might be away on their summer holidays. I think Gator should get on the horn and tell them to get their act together since he apparently has a bunch of books listed in this upcoming auction.