lou_fine

Definitely too late if you are thinking of chasing after the latest hot GA books like this one here: I guess this book is definitely still smoking red hot as this copy just sold in the recently completed CL Auction for $5,526 as compared to a condition guide value of only $850. Another case of the stratospheric prices for hot GA books filtering from the higher grades down to the lower grades, although this particular copy certainly does appear nice relative to its assigned CGC grade. I guess if they had stuck one of those CVA Exceptional stickers on the slab, the book might have gone for even more money than this.

Someone pounced on that 9.8 last week for $3,500! New all time high price. edit to add, I think the census drag on this book is because it is from 1973 and doesn't make the modern tier. Now that it's moving up, more will be showing up! Well, it appears that they had 4 different copies of SME 15 in the just recently completed CL Winter Auction. It looks like the first CGC 9.8 graded copy from last Thursday managed to fetch $3,500 while the second CGC 9.8 graded copy managed to fetch only $2,500 this past Monday. I guess it pays to be a bit patient sometimes, although I believe it worked the opposite way last time as the movie announcement came out over the weekend right in between the 2 auctions. Looks like the CGC 9.6 graded copy sold for just a bit over $1K while the 9.4 copy graded by the other guys across the street managed to fetch close to $600. It would appear that the CC Auction due to end next week has only this 1 copy available sitting at a price of only $155 for now: Even with the white spine (at least it looks relatively straight), my bet is that it will manage to climb past Overstreet's top of guide valuation of $300 where he seems to have had this book pegged at for almost the entire decade. I guess it's finally going to break out of its multi-decade funk with talks of the Shang-Chi movie being fast tracked for development and production.

Uh on, I guess the CLink auction must be all over and done with. Looks like I am starting to get quite a few Outbid notices in my email box for some of the lots which I had placed a bid on in the current CC auction that is going to wrap up starting next week.

If there is only 18 of something in the world that is wanted by collectors..I would say that is exceedingly rare. The 72 9.6 don’t count because they’re not 9.8 and may never be. Same for any raws out there. If they find a warehouse full of wwbn32 and 100 of them come back 9.8 then that’s a different story but highly doubtful. Well, if you are talking about the entire world which has a population of almost 8 billion people, I would have to say that the entire 8 million print run of Jim Lee's X-Men #1 could also then be seen as exceedingly rare. Seriously though, something that's ever more rarer than the 18 copies of WWBM #32 in CGC 9.8 is to find 17 other collectors in the entire world that would be willing to pay anything even remotely close to $50K for a copy of this book in CGC 9.8 graded condition.

Just thought of something here. If you want, you could go to the current CC auction and do a sort from Lowest Price to Highest Price to see what comes up. For example, it looks like this perfectly beautiful book is still sitting there with a high bid of only a dollar for now: Or if you are more into the GA super hero type of books, this one here currently has a high bid of only $8 for now: Looks like this last one here with the grey-tone cover could also be easily upgraded if you wanted to press out that bottom left corner, assuming you are into that sort of thing.

Yes, if you are looking for DC super hero books that are deader than a door nail, you can't go wrong with the World's Finest issues. And if you are a fan of the Flash, Green lantern, or Wonder Woman, you can go after the no-demand Comic Cavalcade run. Never could figure out why collectors never took a fancy to these titles, especially the early ones which were the huge 100-pager ones with the beautiful cardboard covers.

Yes. It's a top 10 SA book. Well, how about Fatman, The Human Flying Saucer then. But only because I think I might have a File Copy set for all 3 of those issues somewhere deep down in my collection.

+1 I would definitely go after some of the Fawcett books as they are not quite the flavor of the day yet. After all, doesn't the Big Red Cheese have his own movie coming out and you can never go wrong with those early Raboy Master covers, assuming you can find them that is. Just look back at now hot books like Wonder Woman, Police Comics 1, L.B. Cole books which were lukewarm at best only a few years ago, but definitely not the case anymore. It's always best to buy books when they haven't popped yet, as opposed to buying them at the top of market when every Tom, , and Harry are chasing after them.

Well, all I can really say to this is that it's probably wise to follow the old axiom of "never say never". After all, if you just look back on the changing sentiment with respect to books in this marketplace, consider all of the activities they have slowly removed from the Restoration category over the years since CGC first opened their doors back in 1999. From pressing to dry cleaning to disassembly & reassembly to conservation, and so forth over time. Sadly, we only found out about some of them retroactively after the fact. Sounds as though your line in the sand at this current point in time is probably where micro-trimming comes into play. But to each their own as everybody's line in the sand might be at a different point. Not only that as everybody's line in the sand will most likely tend to change over time as different activities gets thrown into the "acceptable" pile over time and simply becomes the new norm after a period of time to adjust to the new thinking. Especially when the change results in more money being made on books which seems to always make these changes so much more acceptable.

I would have to say that your definition of scarce would be different from my definition of scarce. According to the CGC population census report, there are already 17 other CGC 9.8 graded copies of this particular issue, plus another 72 CGC 9.6 graded copies which owners might think of trying to upgrade now that they have seen the %50K price tag on this copy here. Plus all of the other raw uber HG copies still sitting out there in private collections waiting to be graded and slabbed.

Just bid on centaurs Daredevils and forget the rest! Well, I went looking for the Daredevil's and could't find a single one in there. GA that is, but I did notice this HTF in grade beauty on the same page that's already at $5,400: Seems to be quite a few nice Crime books in this go round here. Some already right up there in price and yet some others that's barely cracking the $100 mark.

I think most collectors tend to feel that they are too late to join the party. Heck, I definitely felt that I was a bit late to the party when I started collecting GA books back in the late 80's. You just have to know that there'll be others that will end up joining the party even later than you.

Jim Halperin's a good guy. Apparently you don't think so, however. Actually, I have absolutely no idea if Halperin is a "good guy" or not. I would assume that he would be since most people, especially collectors like us are. I was really commenting more from a business point of view, and as such, I think he is very astute at what he does. Especially from the point of view of maximizing the top line and bottom line dollars for his company by pursuing additional streams of revenues (i.e. additional services) on the same book which submittors would pay for. He is absolutely doing his job here from this particular point of view. As for myself, I was really speaking more from a pure hobbyist point of view in the sense that although money is always nice, it's a bit sad to see some of the changes that have been made as the almighty dollar has become a bigger and bigger factor in this current marketplace. On an overall basis though, there have definitely been more positive than negative over the past 20 years. If I didn't feel this way, I probably wouldn't be here anymore, like some of the other collectors who decided to take their leave or to cut back because they didn't feel as comfortable with the current marketplace. Likewise, if we take it a bit further and they ever do relax their stance on something like properly done micro-trimming of books, I would not be surprised to see some other long time traditional collectors exit the hobby. Of course, we would also have other speculators or opportunists entering the market as they see another opportunity to make some fast money in this seemingly ever changing marketplace.

Personally, I think that each one of these 3 major auction sites have their own particular niche and target client base. So, it's really a matter of the book you are thinking of selling and identifying which one of the auction sites will leave your pockets bulging the most after all of the fees have been paid for. Of course, you also need a little bit of luck sometimes and hope that there's just 2 deep pocketed hungry bidders that has their eyeballs on your listing when it comes up, instead of being away on vacation somewhere or busy doing who knows what, instead of paying attention to the auction.

Well, just checked and I am still high bidder on several of the Centaurs lots for now. Highly doubt this will be the case in the end though as it certainly looks like the serious bidding for this auction hasn't even really started yet.

That's actually a very good idea and somebody should probably suggest it to them. Would certainly help in terms of not wasting your time trying to skip through all of those listings with Marvel books which are so ubiquitous and common that I never even look at any of them on any of the auction sites.

I bought it well after that (2011 maybe?), and didn't pay a whole lot more. Maybe an extra grand. Well, if you put it up for sale now, I am sure you'll get a whole lot more. Maybe even an extra ten grand.

Well, I guess it must still be too early in the game as this Ohio pedigree CGC 6.0 graded copy is still sitting at only $2,615: Trying to decide if I should place a bid or not, but can't figure out if I might have missed the better deal with the CGC 0.5 graded copy that just sold on CL for $2,260. I guess it must be a case of you snooze, you lose.

And to think my good friend Tri-colorbrian made fun of me for paying $200 last year for this one raw I mean... I don't normally pick up rags like this but glad I did for this one Speaking of Church copies and the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening back in the mid 90's, I remember the Church copy of this book sitting behind glass on the top shelf of the mahogany armoire in the library right next to the Church copy of Mask Comics #1. Needless to say, a perfect pairing with the Church Suspense 8 looking absolutely glowing with the lights shining on the stunning colors and according to CBM, it sold for close to triple guide at something like $2,400 at the time. Will most definitely become the highest graded copy whenever it gets slabbed, as the current highest graded copies are 3 of them in only CGC 7.5 VF- grade.

Well, like the other major high dollar keys, it now looks like the rush to buy entry level copies of classic covers have also moved into the stratosphere. Yes, if we flashback to the mid 90's, it looks like the Church copy of Mask 1 sold for something like $2,800 during the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening.

I can always put up an argument. Absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. I also agree with your viewpoint on Jerry Bails, but feel that Bob's long and continuing influence over the decades has made him a more important figure in terms of today's marketplace. If you are focusing on the "first" one and only though, I would agree with you about Jerry Bails then.

+1 Very well said and I doubt many here can truly put up an argument against what you have stated here in your excellent post.

It is my personal copy, but I don't intend to sell it. (I rarely sell any books.) +1 I totally get that as I am also a long term collector myself, and as such, have had most of my GA books held since I first purchased them way back in the late 80's and early to mid 90's. Only wished I had been wise enough to have brought them even earlier when they were both cheaper and possibly more readily available, instead of buying what are now virtually worthless books off the shelves of the LCS's at the time.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but the Spawn movie already came out well over 20 years ago now. No real surprise, but it didn't really seem to help with the price of the Spawn back issues going forward. Strongly doubt if the remake would make much of a difference to the valuation of the books longer term.

+1 Bob wrote the Hobby's bible and almost everybody who was ever of any notoriety in this hobby. many talked about in this thread, were either written about, advisors, or advertisers in Bob's Bible. Until online this and that, who was a hobbyist in the 70s, 80s, and 90s that didn't look forward to picking up the Overstreet every Spring from the 70s through the 90s? Bob brought all these people talked about in this thread under one umbrella, the Amazon or Ebay for the comics hobby of his day!! +2 I would definitely have to agree with Bob as being one of the early pioneers of comic book collecting here since he's been around since the old EC days of the early 50's. Probably not the first one, but most definitely one of the most, if not THE MOST influential person in our hobby and marketplace without a doubt.