lou_fine

$6k a point ?? What was it 5 years ago ? Realize it could just be the auction house but maybe not Well, if the $40K+ figure is right including the 25% juice, then it's probably not too far off from the other auction houses. Looks like Heritage was able to sell a CGC 4.5 graded copy for $28,680 while the CC database indicate they sold 2 CGC 5.0 graded copies back in 2013. The first one went for $37,611 back on June 12 of 2013; while the second copy sold for $33,500 later on December 11 of 2013. All 3 of these were sold at a premium over the Overstreet guide at the time, which is also the case here with this copy going for $40K.

Please believe all of us here. It's absolutely and totally NOT necessary for you to do this.

Depends on your niche. For the handful (hopefully more) collectors of centaurs, the cc auction is about as good as it gets. Some books there have never been auctioned before (even when berk sold) Well, based upon the usual museum quality and way beyond my price range books which now seems to show up in almost every single Heritage auction, I can tell you for sure that much more of my time will be spent bidding on the HTF and almost never seen Centaur books in this upcoming CC auction.

They grade some explicit covers on comic books... and the Hustler 1 is not "explicit" in my view. I guess a perfect example would be Crackajack Funnies #5 from way back in sexless days of October of 1938. Overstreet even has a listing that states "Nude woman on cover (10/38)".

Hmm ... if any number of big shots ( Eric Roberts et al ) were to re-register their books ( like they did in the past ), they would blow his registry sets out of the water all the way to the moon. Are you saying that you have to update your personal registry every year or so in order to keep your Registry active?

Definitely not like the old days when you were lucky to get guide for low grade beaters. Now, it looks like you need to pay multiples of condition guide to acquire entry level copies of key or classic cover books. Looks like this copy here went for close to 8X bottom of guide price.

Even when I put my sunglasses on, I still can't make out that label on the top right.

I agree, Dave. I had this same problem/question when I purchased my B&W copy of "If the Devil Would Talk". I was told CGC would not grade it (even though others will). Well, it's quite possible that Borock and West with their decades of collecting experience, as compared to the relative newbies at CGC, have come across these books many times in their journeys and simply have much more confidence that they can differentiate between a real and a counterfeit copy.

MOKF was supposedly being fast-tracked so I would go with that one. ROM is still just vapor. Or.......ROM movie development is still in Limbo? Well, in this case it sounds as though the better bet for the short term speculators at least is to snap up copies of Special Marvel Edition 15 along with possibly some of the other early MOKF books, as opposed to picking up the ROM series right now.

Good to know. I guess you must had brought those as just a speculative buy then and sold them off when you figured it was an opportune time? Or did you simply lose interest in all of that B&W independent genre which most of these books appears to be from? Was there actually much demand for these books when it came time for you to sell them off? Hopefully there was, especially since they were slabbed and graded, with the Elflord 2 & 3 being the only graded copies out there?

You have to find one with some kind of provenance. Not sure if any of the ones I saw on the Heritage and CL auction sites had any provenance. They just seem to have a written description with some type of disclaimer qualifier such as the following example: Publisher: WARREN Page Quality: Off-White to White Pages Seller's Grading Comments: COMICLINK GRADED. FIRST PRINTING. End Date: 1/20/2010 11:25:40 PM ComicLink Comments: There is said to have been only 500 copies published of this elusive first print/first edition of Warren's Eerie #1. More of a pamphlet then a comic magazine, Warren produced this 5 1/4" x 7 1/4" book quickly to earn the rights to the name. Because of its cheap printing format, at least 2 unauthorized editions are known to exist. Even though authenticating this comic has uncertainties, there are some tell-tale signs of the first printing done by Warren. There is no blue coloration of any kind found on the staples of this example, the second printing is said to have 1/4" blue stripes on the staples. Secondly, on page 18 panel 5 the bald headed man is clear and discernible on later printings, where as, in the original the bald head is not visible because it blends in with the black shadows. This example exhibits no bald head in the panel. Finally, determined by looking at the house on the lower right-hand corner of the first page of the first story, the lines on the roof of the house are sharp and unbroken. Later printings are said to have broken lines on the roof. The offered example has been reviewed by ComicLink and by the best of our abilities we have determined that this is a first printing - first edition. CGC does not certify this book because of its inexpensive publication methods and ease of counterfeiting. Therefore it is impossible to verify that any one example is truly the first print and ComicLink cannot guarantee its authenticity with 100% certainty. The offered example has been preserved nicely with supple Off-White to White pages and has been graded at 9.4 NM by ComicLink. Looks like I had some type of losing bid on this copy here as I was rather wary of CL's qualifier and was not really willing to go too high on the book. I believe the Heritage copies had pretty much the same description, but didn't have the same qualifier and went for a whole lot more money.

Do you have one? Yes for Cerebus, but unfortunately (or maybe fortunately with the supposed counterfeits out there) nada for Eerie. That is why I have been saving some of these scans, but looks kind of risky to take the plunge. I believe I have the one for CL saved somewhere, although it was from several years ago, if I remember correctly.

Overstate does have a note stating to beware of counterfeit copies. Since the book is black and white it's probably harder to differentiate between the real and fake copies. Real copies however have a deep looking print on the black print. Copies would be equal as the white part of the book. Well, I assume bidders for this book must then be taking a bit of a gamble since I see supposedly first prints going for over the one or two thousand dollar range in the Heritage archives, and yet we see it selling for quite a bit lower on the CL auction website?

It is easy to copy it , so hard to differentiate between the real copies. I can tell the difference though. I have studied all the subtleties of the book. So, you are basically saying that it is really more than just a first print and second print issue as denoted by Overstreet in the Guide? If it involves counterfeit copies then, I assume it must be better quality then the Cerebus 1 counterfeits since CGC does slab copies of Cerebus 1.

They can't be slabbed. Any idea exactly what is CGC's reasoning as to why they can't be slabbed? Doesn't seem to make much sense to me since they seem to be able to slab other irregular size books and/or books which are known to have more than just the one print.

No chance this goes anywhere near a billion. Even with the holiday and extra days of previews it is still lagging Justice League in comparable period in North American release. Also, while it may have only been out for a week or so here, it is nearing a month of release in most other places in the world. I will be impressed if it gets to $850MM after all is said and done. Jay; I guess you must be beyond very impressed and totally ecstatic as comic book fan that Aquaman has now crossed over the $1B mark, as based upon your comments from just last month. Actually, I think it's really more than just about box office numbers and bottom line profits sometimes. Although Venom is still ahead of Aquaman in terms of net profits (for now at least), I am definitely hearing a lot more positive buzz and ongoing chatter about the Aquaman movie as compared to the Venom movie. I strongly believe this type of positive buzz for Aquaman has a hidden and still to be received monetary benefit for Warner's as this is also bodes well and is a big positive for other DC movies that are about to hit the theatres going forward. Bottom-line: I think the success of this Aquaman movie will go to help upcoming DCEU movies relatively more than the success of the Venom movie will go towards helping the upcoming MCU movies going forward.

Absolutely. Already have the second print ashcan. (plug) please see my journal. Very well done!!! Any idea what the going rate is for a first print HG copy of the first Eerie issue? More than top of Overstreet guide, I would assume? Is their a particular reason why I can't find the CGC census population report for this first issue as it seems to be there for every other Eerie issue?

Which do you think has a better chance of actually making it to the finish line, this Rom movie here or the Shang-Chi MOKF which they had announced back in the early part of December?

Would this happen to include the supposedly rare first printing of the first issue along with the also HTF second printing of the first issue? If so, most definitely very well done then.

Very nice! I have a WINDBLADE #1 in what I would say is a solid NM 9.4 condition and signed by the artist Barry Blair! Oh wow, it looks like Juggie posted these pics from way back in 2011. And yet after all this time, his CGC 9.0 graded copy of Elflord 1 is still tied for 1 of 2 highest graded copies with only 3 graded copies in total of this particular issue. In addition, his graded copies of both Elflord 2 and 3 are still the only copies graded to this point in time. Makes me wonder if this is due to extreme rarity of finding these books or due to perceived limited demand for them that nobody bothers to slab them, or some combination of both. Personally, I think it's probably both, myself, but leaning a lot more towards the rarity of supply side of the equation.

Just checked the census population report and surprisingly, there have only been 3 copies graded to date. The CGC 7.5 copy posted above along with 2 other CGC 9.0 graded copies. I thought there would have been a lot more copies than just these 3 since this is a pretty recent book.

Yes, makes absolutely no sense for Overstreet to have the first Elflord series listed in his guide, and yet not the Windblade issue. I assume it's just a matter of time and if somebody ever gets around to giving him the heads up as I believe he also used to never had the first Elflord series in his guide before.

Well pretty sure the thief saw this as well and if he is smart( most likey he is else he wouldn't steal comics and be that stupid to resell this exact slabs). He is going unslab all the comics and definitely worth the money shipping and fees and resend to cgc for grading but slowly over time and sell them. Books of this magnitude (i.e. some with pedigree designations) will most likely have been auctioned off before through public auction sites. As such, there will be detailed and tell tale scans of these books out there already. I highly doubt the culprits will be able to send these books through to CGC for regrading (even slowly over time) without them being spotted by either somebody at CGC, or by the collecting base whenever they try to sell it through any of the public auction venues. From my personal point of view, it's only a matter of time before they are caught due to the type of books which this stolen collection was comprised of.

Well, it looks like you and I tend to view the comic book market from opposite points of view. Nothing at all wrong with that as it's really to each their own. What you see as an unhealthy and speculative sign of the comic book marketplace in terms of prices going up across the entire condition spectrum, I actually see as a very healthy and positive sign of the marketplace for the particular book in question. In terms of rising prices for Hulk 181 in all condition grades or any comic book for that matter, I tend to view that as a comic book transitioning from being just a graded label collectible into a true vintage comic book collectible. I think a comic book is a lot more speculative if it can only sell in high grade and only at huge discounts to condition guide in anything below high grade. Especially since you are really buying only the "label" at this point then. Conversely, I think a comic book becomes much more of a true collectible if it can sell for a healthy premium or even multiples to condition guide in all grades across the entire condition spectrum. And even more so, if this can be done with the book in either restored condition or conserved condition as is the case with many truly HTF GA books. For example, when I see a CGC 0.5 graded copy of Action 13 selling for $15K or CGC 1.0 graded copies of 'Tec 31 selling multiple times for $35K to $45K, I feel this is a sign of a strong market whereby collectors are wanting to acquire a book at a price level which they can afford, regardless of the condition grade stated on the label. Similarly then, with prices for Hulk 181 showing broad strength and demand across all condition grades is actually a very healthy sign. This, I feel is actually an indication that the book is taking the next step and fast becoming one of the truly vintage collectible books in our hobby going forward, as opposed to being just a short term speculative buy.

I believe this is the story I had heard anecdotally and as I recall it didn't end well for the people who tried to do this. I still think when you add up the value of all the graded copies of this particular book it is well within the means of some people to buy up enough of them to drive up the market. Obviously it would be risky but I just don't think its that outlandish a proposition. I'm not talking about just buying a few 9.8s to drive up the value of your other 9.8s.... you hoard mostly lower grade books by the 100s or thousands of copies....then you spend a few months bidding up all of them up in all grades...the market is inflated....now you start selling. You guys may call it tin foil worthy but....if someone had done this or is doing this....they'd be making bank as it stands right now right? The only problem with this whole strategy is that if you remove the biggest and winning buyer (i.e. namely yourself) in all of these sales over the past several months, guess what is going to happen to the price when you start selling them. Isn't his exactly what happen to the Hunt Brothers when the Silver Exchange changed the margin rules for purchasing silver which forced them to dispose of some of their silver to cover their margin call? Well, we can all guess what happened when they started to sell and before you knew it, they had lost over a billion dollars in short order as margin calls kept accelerating as the price of their Hulk 181's silver were dropping like a rock. Instead of making bank, like the Hunt Brothers, you might be filing for bankruptcy instead.