lou_fine

Definitely 0.0% chance I would ever have the CT scraped off. Of course not! Why go to all the time and tedious work to scrape off the color touch when it's so much faster and easier to simply tear off the offending front cover and turf it.

Yes, looks like an absolute beauty in the Heritage archives here: Definitely an astute buy on your part if you were the HA purchaser in 2011 since you would have managed to get it cheaper than what the book went for back in 2002 and 2003. Especially since there's already 3 offers on the book, with the highest one just touching 5 figures now.

Yeah, I have it. It's a 9.6, bu has some color touch. Color touch.................absolutely no problem. Go check out this thread in Comics General then, before the Mods shut it down: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/450827-cgc-needs-to-modify-its-stance-on-color-touch/

Speaking of Hugo Strange, I absolutely love the way he has been portrayed on the Gotham TV show. Definitely a much bigger character on the TV show, as opposed to the comic books.

Interesting to see how opinions of the board members here change over time as more copies of these books come into the marketplace. I remember when the Atlantic City copy was auctioned off by CC about 8 years ago for something like $185K at the time. Many of the boardies said at the time that this was the rarest of all of the early Action books as very few had ever come to market by that time.

I believe it, too. The spines on the Continental books are an issue. Very difficult to find one with a cover that isn't chipping and without a fragile spine. Well, I can think of probably one copy that should in all likelihood should be able to surpass the CGC 7.5 grade level. All of the Church copies of Suspense Comics have graded out somewhere in the 9's with CGC 9.4 being the most common grade for a Church Suspense copy. The only 2 exceptions to this were the Suspense 1 which came in at CGC 8.5 and the Suspense 6 (which Chuck had graded as only a Fine copy in his MH Catalogue) which came in at a CGC 8.0. So, I would suspect that the Church copy of Suspense 8 should be able to easily surpass a grade level of CGC 7.5 whenever it gets unearthed, as almost every other Suspense MH copy has already hit the marketplace. Especially since Chuck had graded it as a NM+ copy in his MH Catalogue, for whatever that is worth.

I guess this is proof that even CGC can't detect restoration all of the time, even when it is most likely poorly done.

How is this possible at all? After all, isn't he the guy with those "beautiful" Eastern Color File Copies that used to always run those full-page ads in the weekly CBG and had all the consecutive years of CBG Customer Satisfaction Awards posted right there in his ads?

Major outlier publically. Bob storms sold one soon after for 36k I believe. Harboring between 8-12k a point since then. I expected this book to blow past this range by now. Makes me think 38 will never be considered in the same breathe as a solo Bats pre Robin Tec. From what I heard, Bob's copy was initially priced higher than the $36K mark at the start and had been sitting on his site for awhile before being "discounted" to this lowered price point where it continued to sit. Apparently, it was scooped up by an alert buyer and gone within minutes right after the CC copy sold for $54K. Since this is only second hand info, I guess we would need Bob to confirm if this is what actually took place or not.

right after I buy one, not before It already has though Definitely agree with both of you that 'Tec 38 is certainly on an upward trend and doing much better than where it was 3-5 years ago. So much better in fact that one lucky consignor was able to get a record setting price on a price per point basis for this copy of 'Tec 38: If I remember correctly, it sold for something like $54K or about $18K per point which was probably about double the going rate when it sold a couple of years ago in one of the CC Event Auctions. Although the book does present nicer than its assigned grade, it was also good timing as there were only 2 relatively nice presenting pre-Robin 'Tec's in that particular auction. The other one was a 'Tec 29 in the same grade which sold for $66K or thereabouts which must have also been a record at the time. Although there's a definite upward trend in prices, I don't believe they are selling at this price point since they've had a few 'Tec 38's hit the market after this sale. So, this sale at $54K appears to probably be a bit of an outlier for now.

I dont believe that actually happened. Only a complete whack job would ever bid something like that up to $43.5M dollars. My bad.......you are indeed absolutely correct once again as it didn't get bid up to $43.5M dollars. I just checked and it actually sold for $43.8M dollars.

While beautiful in its simplicity, the lack of huge knockers brings it down a tad. Grade: D- Well, obviously you are not looking deep enough into the blue. There's a lot more in there than just two huge knockers. After all, why else do you think it would have gotten bidded up to $43.5M dollars.

Definitely appreciate your deep and analytical thoughts on this beautiful Frazetta masterpiece. What's your take on this blue-eye beauty then: that yet somehow manage to sell for an astounding and rather insane (at least from my own personal POV) $43.5M dollars? Especially since Tim on the GA boards was so correct in confirming the fact that it's really just simply a case of me not understanding and appreciating modern abstract art.

+1 I would definitely agree with you here, at least from a seller's point of view. As I have stated many times on these boards here, in today's marketplace, it's much easier and faster to sell one $10,000 book as compared to trying to sell one hundred $10 books. But if you are a reader and a true collector in the traditional sense of the word, I imagine reading 100 books would be the route to go as opposed to having just the one book that you might even be afraid to open up in fear of possibly damaging it. So, it's really much more a case of to each their own.

Well, hopefully you was able to get back most of your money when it came time to sell your Spawn collection.

Similar to the Marvel Comics #1 October and November printings, I imagine the May stamped version of this hard cover should in theory be worth more since it is the first printing then. I would assume the June stamped version would be worth less since this would be like the second edition, similar to how the Blue cover version is worth slightly less than the White cover version for the 1st editions of the Overstreet guide.

Yes, probably not a good idea for a buyer to hold off on shipping since you don't know how long a random eBay seller might stay in business. With a major auction house, at least there's a comfort level that they'll still be in business going forward. I am just surprised they don't charge you a holding fee to hold onto the books for you, especially considering the additional security and insurance charges they might have to incur.

Why in the world would you buy books you don't really care for just to average down your shipping cost. If you are worried about the shipping cost, you can just ask the auction house to hold onto the book through future auctions until you have enough to make shipping more worthwhile from a cost efficiency point of view. Of course, I am not sure if a regular eBay seller would be as accommodating as the major auction houses in terms of being willing to hold onto your books for you.

Not if the seller gets lucky and have 2 bidders throw in atomic bomb style bids at the end hoping that they can outbid any other reasonable snipe bid that might be coming in at the end.

+1 Definitely an interesting article indeed. I would suspect there must be a lot more copies of this hard cover edition out there than just the handful which has been identified to date. Like most other rare or HTF books, probably only a very small handful if you are talking about being extant in uber high grade or unopened Mint condition. The theory of this book being on a "print to order" basis is definitely interesting and would appeared to be supported by the different variants that you have identified in your article.

I highly doubt this will become the most expensive comics related item of all time. After all, as I had mentioned in the Heritage thread on the GA boards here, I believe this Frazetta piece will get nowhere even close to the ballpark of what Roy Lichtenstein's Masterpiece was able to sell for: Especially since $2.64M dollars is still light years away from the $165M dollars that was paid a couple years ago for Lichtenstein's 1962 Masterpiece artwork making it one of the Top 10 prices ever paid for a piece of original art or painting. An absolutely stunning price since it is not even truly original as it is basically an altered recreation of the following comic book panel:

From your post, it would appear that you are the only boardie here who has answered my question (albeit indirectly) from the other week as to Cole's most valuable book, whether it be Mask 1, Blue Bolt 105, Suspense 8, or what have you. Although you are probably correct in your assessment here, it would appear that you might run into some pretty stiff competition with your selection here. Especially considering that CL had auctioned off a BB 105 for something like $37,500 last summer and there are a total of only 25 graded copies of this book out there. And although there is a total of 48 universal graded copies of Suspense 8 out there, it should be pointed out that there appears to be no "high grade" copies to date as the highest graded copy is only a CGC 7.5 (either universal or restored) to this current point in time.

For 165M I'd buy the highest graded copies of every GA and SA key book. And I'd be so very much happier than owning that painting. Or with your $165M, you could have brought this painting for $43.5M: and still have more than enough left to buy up the highest graded copies of every GA and SA key comic book. I guess it's probably just a case of us not understanding and appreciating modern abstract art.

I have a tendency of choosing to watch a quiet morning showing after having had insomnia, and so I hope that I can remain conscious throughout the full three hours of this film. Hate to say this, but I have never made it through a single one of the Avengers movie without falling asleep. In fact, I've tried to watch the first Avengers movie on 3 different occasions, but have never made it anywhere close to the end. Have no incentive to give it another try and I fell asleep even before I got to the halfway point of the Ulton movie. I will definitely give the Avengers 3 movie another shot since I saw the beginning of the movie twice and like it and managed to make it through to the end on the second try, even though I did fall asleep during the middle parts both times. The ending for Avengers 3 was definitely interesting and I would like to see the movie in its entirety one day from start to finish. Maybe I should stop watching all of these Marvel movies on the airplanes when I am already half dead tired from running around all day or getting ready for a trip.

wow ! (2.5M w/ BP) Definitely shocking, but I doubt it will get anywhere close to the absolutely shocking price that Roy Lichtenstein's Masterpiece sold for a couple years ago: At a price point of $165M dollars, it became one of the Top 10 most valuable paintings ever sold in the world.