lou_fine

+1 Yes, a pretty nice report from my point of view. Especially on Page 1 of this thread with all the pictures of the Church Planet's, the pre-Robin 'Tec books, your own personal pick-ups, etc.

And how many of those copies have been cracked out and resubmitted for an anticipated grade bump without the earlier census entry being removed? Food for thought! +1 Exactly my thoughts also. Of course, on the other hand, this apparent reduced population count would also be offset by the number of raw copies still residing in private collections and haven't come anywhere close to a CGC grading table yet.

Especially when quite a few of them, including the Larson 8, are old label slabs which means that their potential may not have been fully "maximized" yet.

Of course, I already know they were just from the tone of your post.

What about the rare December copy!!! Well then, how about the super super rare and virtually impossible test run September copy which I have in my personal collection.

Wow! Thanks a lot of comics Karl!! So very true, especially when it comes time to try to sell them. As I have always said, especially in today's marketplace........It's so much easier to sell just one $10,000 comic book, as opposed to trying to sell one thousand $10 comic books.

You sure? Was hoping CGC would be in there. Guess I need go to ECCC to get my books submitted. Really, would it not make more sense for you to simply check your own Dealer list to see whether CGC has booked a table for this convention. Anyways, I went over to the FEV website and pulled up the list of Retailers that will be there. Looks like the "other" grading company will be there, but no CGC this time. Also looks like the biggest LCS in the city (i.e. GA Collectables) will also not be setting up at the con on this go round. Less reason to fork over big dollars then to attend another comic con filled mostly with non-comic book related booths.

Most of the keys are sent for pressing and Cgc or Voldemort slabbing by the proprietor once purchased. Not quite sure why GA Collectables has a bundle of lower grade slabbed early ASM in Cgc 3.0 or 2.5 in stock, as barely worth slabbing(?). Sloppy seconds left after the Gang of 4 (greggy, Thanos88, Fan Boy, aardvark88) scoops out the semi-keys. It's most likely because if the owner has any book of real value, it would NOT be for sale as he tends to keep those kinds of books or anything even closely approaching it in either his personal collection or in his NOT YET FOR SALE inventory stock. And who can blame him, especially when he doesn't have a real need to sell them right now and these kinds of books also tend to consistently go up in value over time.

We'll if you extrapolate from the sale of the cgc 0.5 brittle page copy with typical GA book scaling, your 5.5 should be about a $30,000 book... and the previously mentioned 9.6 should go for $500,000- 750,000. Good luck with that to both of you ... Well, as we all know by now, Overstreet doesn't list guide valuations for uber HG books over NM- 9.2 condition levels due to the high volatility associated with these nosebleed grades. Likewise, I guess Overstreet also doesn't bother to list guide valuations for books under the Good 2.0 condition levels. Perfectly understandable here for both key GA books or HTF classic cover books due to the "clinically insane" prices being paid by collectors just to obtain entry level copies of these books.

Unlikely. Church collection stops being very comprehensive sometime in 1952. +1 I would also tend to agreed with you here as the MH Catalogue indicates his run going up to Blue Bolt #118 after skipping BB #117. Of course, it's also possible that the title change to Ghostly Weird Stories might have thrown Chuck for a bit of a loop in terms of his catalogue since it was such a late short run.

Same here.

There are several really nice high grade copies out there for sure that I’ve seen. But doubt they are coming to market anytime soon. Are you aware of any other pedigree copies of this book or is the Church copy about the only one out there? From just looking at the Heritage archives, it would appear that they have all pretty much hit the open marketplace during the past 15 years or so, with some of them multiple times. The only obvious exceptions to this would be the rare HTF Suspense 4, the Suspense 8 with the much in demand classic spider cover, and not sure why, but also Suspense 10. Wonder how good Chuck's grading was when it came to the Suspense run because he had 6 of them graded as NM+. Looks like the 5 of them that has been graded and shown up in the Heritage archives indicates 3 of them (i.e. Suspense 2, 7, & 9) as being CGC 9.4, the Suspense 1 as a CGC 8.5, and the Suspense 12 as a CGC 9.0. Maybe the Suspense 8 might just slot nicely in there between the Suspense 7 & 9 as a CGC 9.4?

Who says I wasn’t at the bar bidding on my phone? I’m actually surprised I didn’t go higher Well, it's obvious to me that you didn't get to the bar soon enough then, otherwise you should have been passed out already by the time they got anywhere close to the "W's".

On the topic of Suspense Comics, I was wondering if anybody else had noticed this sale of Suspense Comics 10: Makes me wonder if the seemingly almost 2-decades long slumber which these Suspense book have been in is finally over as this copy here managed to fetch $4K or what amount to 2.5X condition guide? Or is it because the L.B. Cole cover books are also starting to pick up on the cover-centric wave that has been gaining strength during the past few years? Definite signs of strength here since the Suspense Comics 11 with the classic Devil cover pictured above also went for a relatively strong price at $4,800 or just slightly over 2X condition guide. Or is it something to do with the auction venue which I highly doubt in terms of Heritage which normally gets pretty strong prices? Not so much the case the past several years during this apparent Suspense slumber with prices running usually around guide and many of them seemingly on a slight downward trend. For example, the CGC VF 8.0 Davis Crippen copy of Suspense 10 originally sold at Heritage for $1,434 and then was resold a full decade later in 2016 at a lower price point of only $1,075. Maybe, the high profile sales of both the Penn copy and Church copy of Suspense 3 during the past couple of years have help to revive collector interest back into this Suspense run once again? Absolutely glad to see these seemingly under appreciated L.B. Cole Suspense books finally getting their day in the sun again. Would also absolutely love to see a nicer copy of either the extremely HTF Suspense Comics 4 or Suspense 8 with the classic spider cover come to market since I believe both of these books are virtually impossible to find in grade.

I was a late bidder on this one as well, though I was not the underbidder. Nice pickup @jhm! Well, since the "W" is right near the end of the alphabet with the Wings ending quite late on a Friday night, shouldn't you guys all have been either out getting an early start on the long weekend or in bed sleeping by then. If the two of you had only done your part, I would have been able to pick up the book from the boys at CC/Metro at a much lower price point.

Did you ask him if you could check out the copies of Action 1 and 'Tec 27 while you were there?

Any idea how tough it is to find a Flash 98? I know a fellow collector who has been looking for one for awhile, or is it relatively common and he's just having bad luck?

Prices on the Flash 86 have changed a bit over the years, eh @tabcom? Wow, what an absolutely amazing run of the very elusive later Flash issues. Even duplicates copies of some of them including the very much in demand Flash 86 with the classic dinosaur cover and the first appearance of Black Canary. Yes indeed, you certainly don't ever expect to see a 67% year over year increase in the guide valuation of a mainstream GA superhero book which is simply so un-Overstreet like who has always been knownmuch more for taking a slow conservative almost snail-like pace approach to raising his prices on vintage comics. Like all of the high dollar value GA keys and semi keys though, it is both interesting and good to see that he is also acknowledging the fact that the lower end condition and more affordable books (especially the entry level copies) are selling for sometime big multiples of guide while the high end copies are pretty much locked away in private collections and very seldom ever comes to market. This is quite evident as the bottom of guide valuation for Flash 86 has increased by almost 700% from a valuation of only $314 in 2015 to this year's valuation of $2,500. At the same time, the top of guide valuation for this Flash 86 has gone from $5,500 in 2015 up to $25,000 this year for a significantly smaller percentage increase of only around 350%.

When I was given access to the DC vault in 1998 I saw no single issues - just bound volumes. Gary; Any idea if these would have included all of the early and rare pre-hero DC books from the mid-30's time period? I thought that I had read either in an article or in an interview with Gary Carter that some of these books were so rare that even the DC Archives did not have them.

Now, that's a classic "devil" of a cover for you to be picking up here. Looks like you managed to get it at a more reasonable price point as compared to the less classic Suspense 10 which also topped out at over $4K.

Mine isn’t the highest graded, just the best I’ve seen for sale. There’s a 7.0 and a 9.6 in the census. I believe the Verzyl estate owns that latter one. I forget if it’s a ped copy or not. Tough run to assemble in any reasonable shape, that GL. Yes, you are indeed exactly right. In my rush to post, I really meant to say that your CGC 6.0 graded copy appears to be the highest graded copy made available in the public marketplace to date.

+1 In full agreement with you in terms of GL 30 here and maybe one of the reasons why Overstreet continues to have this particular book designated as Rare in his price guide after all of these years. Especially if you are comparing it to other mainstream DC super hero books. Glad to see that you've got the highest graded copy after all of these years of slabbing. Makes me wonder if another higher graded copy will eventually show up in the marketplace. Especially since the Church copy was only originally graded by Chuck as a Fine copy which probably means more like a VG+ copy in terms of today's apparently tighter grading. Not sure if there are other pedigree copies out there, but there is not a Larson copy as the Larson List indicates no GL's at all.

From the CGC census, it definitely confirms that all of these GL covers featuring Streak the Wonder Dog should not be termed Rare in the actual definition of the word, although it might indeed be rare in terms of being found in grade. I believe these later issues have a reputation for supposedly being more rare and in demand, and as such, would naturally encourage collectors to have more of these particular copies graded. Especially in terms of the GL 30 which is by far the go to cover out of the entire GL run once you get past the first few issues of the title. Highly doubt it has much do do with Streak being on the cover and probably more to do with the anatomically impossible but homely looking femme fatale in striking yellow that is standing next to Green Lantern. Most likely a definite keeper for collectors once they manage to get their hands on a copy of this book as it hardly seems to show up in the marketplace. Even the Heritage archives indicates only a handful of sales over all of the years, with none of them grading out higher than a CGC Fine 6.0. I do definitely like the appearance of this copy here relative to its assigned CGC grade of only a VG+ 2.5:

And what pray tell is that little secret since Batman's raised leg is most likely covering up a tell tale clue about Batman's reaction to young Robin's naked legs which is covered up only by a set of small tight green underwear?

Rather a bit surprising since the CGC census indicates a total of 28 graded unrestored copies, with many of them in the higher mid-grade range up to the current high of 9.0 NM-. Nonetheless, this copy here here has quite a bit going for it in terms of being a first appearance and origin issue, near classic cover image, along with the fact that it is the highest graded copy for now. Not sure though if a sale of this magnitude in terms of its end result will draw out even more nice copies of this book.