lou_fine

Yes, but that still wouldn't explain the significant differences in pricing for much higher graded copies selling for substnatially lower prices as compared to a supposed CGC 3.5 graded copy selling at $13,400 or pretty much double what the CGC 5.0 and 6.5 graded copies had sold for at Heritage this year.

Not a "certified" bump since it was brought from HA as a raw graded copy back in December with a COA as per my post just above yours.

What is your definition of "recent" here since that news has been pretty much well known and speculated on for decades now?

Nothing except for the rather obvious fact that Heritage is clearly THE place to buy GA books if you want to make big money right afterwards by selling them on a trustworthy auction platform like eBay.

Sorry to hear the terrible news and hope you can recover all of these books here. The one positive here is that the books that you posted here are not the type that shows up everyday and should easily stand out when the culprit tries to offload them for cash.

Listed as a VF/NM 9.0 copy back in December of 2022 that sold for $288: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/famous-funnies-169-the-promise-collection-pedigree-eastern-color-1948-condition-vf-nm/a/122250-13402.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

A lot of this is all based on individual's preferences. Some don't like marvel chipping, some don't mind it because they can get it for a significant discount compared a non chip copy. Only problem here is that from the price given, it doesn't sound like much of a discount is being factored in at all for this rather large and clearly visible fugly Mavrvel chipping.

Actually, since this is a comic book board here, all of these box office stats are meaningless, except for what is their impact going to be on the Super Mario comic book. Are these huge box office a possbile sign that the Super Mario related comic books might actually have some legs going forward longer term? Or does it just mean the same old, same old when it comes to comic book related hyped movies which has a very short term spike, but then proceeds to a crash and burn now that the event (i.e. movie opening) has already taken place.

Yep Bloodshot with a whopping $39.8M total global in its entire theatrical run versus Super Mario with a global box office of $377M in just its first weekend alone.

Yes, but not during the recession years. Well, if it's movie related hype, does this mean that our pre-hero Valiant Super Mario comic books should be zooming up in value after the animation movie box office record they just set this apst weekend?

It will definitely be interesting to see what he does with some of his price guide valuations for this coming year since we all know how adverses he is to showing price decreases. He definitely outdid himself with some of his meteoric price increases on the BA and CA keys and semi-keys to the point that most of them have dropped substantially below his guide valuations listed in the current guide. Still no problem with the GA books as he can continue to keep those increases motoring along as most of those books are still selling at huge premiums and sometimes at big multiples to their current guide values across the entire conditionspectrum, even after the big increases he put on them for this year's guide.

I think you're messin with me now, Lou! No, not at all as I always went by strict visual appearance when I brought my books back in the day and if the front cover of a book looked gorgeous enough to buy, then it was a definite no brainer if you flipped it over and it had a perfect looking snow white cover like your Promise copy of Cap 74 here (preferably without the off-center cut though):

Yes, I clearly remember always checking out the back covers because it's so much easier to see defects on a book when there's so much less cover art to obsure what you are looking at when it came to HG books.

Heck, they'll be giving them away. Heck, forget about simply giving them away....................they'll soon be OFFERING MONEY TO YOU to take these literary and artistic nightmares away for fear of infecting the rest of their treasured personal collection.

Yes. But only because of the buttons. The fact that it's still buttoned up as you were hoping to see even so much more of the REAL BIG MAN himself if it was unbottomed?

Well, as far as I can tell, still no softening or droopiness on this book here back to its former placid state, as it still looks rock hard solid and continuing to stiffened up and firm its upwards trajectory here at $5,280 just last Thursday: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-rifleman-10-dell-1962-cgc-nm-96-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82361.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

I believe you must have misread my post as I never suggested that it would only sell for $30 if it stood a chance for a upgrade to CGC 9.8. If anything, it was really more @Microchip who had made this comment from his following post up above: I was merely asking Microchip what were the clear visual differences that he was seeing between the $11.4K copy and the $31.2K copy. Although you are indeed totally correct here, it would appear that you are missing a few of the data points here. Namely, the fact that other copies of Silver Surfer in CGC 9.6 also sold after pandemic bubble at Heritage for $18K in September of 2022, $15.6K in November of 2022, and for $16.8K in December of 2022 before dropping down even further to only $11.4K in January of 2023. Based upon these more recent sales, it would appear that the $31.2K price point is more of a possible outlier until we see more confirming sales at this higher price point going forward. Personally speaking for myself, I would certainly hope so since I still have my HG set of Silver Surfers in my personal collection in raw condition.

This probably applies mostly for irrational bidders who think that grading is an undisputable exact science to the nth degree, as opposed to the subjective opinion and influenced by many factors that it actually is. I find that this phenomenon tends to apply more to recent and readily available books and not so much to GA books where you can sometimes even see books selling for more money in lower grade than when they are in higher grade: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/lone-ranger-28-mile-high-pedigree-dell-1950-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122226-17522.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 CGC 9.2 graded Church copy of Lone Ranger 28 purchased by Schmell for $2,040 back in June of 2022 and then successfully CPR'd to this: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/lone-ranger-28-mile-high-pedigree-dell-1950-cgc-nm-94-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82299.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|1 Resold by Schmell as part of his Doug's Dell & Gold Key Showcase Auction on Heritage this past Thursday for a stunning $780. It actually reminded me of a few of the Crackajack Funnies with the QES stickers that Schmell had won on CC back in 2021 and then able to bump up by one or two grade increments and yet still ended up selling for LESS money when they were auctioned off in another one of his Doug's Dell & Gold Key Showcase Auctions on Heritage back in February. Love the fact that Doug has absolutely zero confidence in his own PedigreeComics.com website auction platform when it comes to selling books from his own personal collection.

From your own personal visual POV, what's the dead giveaway that the $11.4K copy has that gives it no chance for an upgrade while the $31.2K copy has a healthy shot for a potential upgrade? Is it the fact that the $11.4K copy has that slightly off center cover or that the slab holder is not as crystal clear as the $31.2K copy? Without having the actual books in hand and just from the front cover scan, I would tend to say that the $31.2K copy "appears" to be visually nicer although I certainly don't care for what's going on with theat bottom right corner unless that's just a scanning artifact. \ I guess for the "Mr. Magoo" type of bidder here, this is where the CVA and QES stickers come in handy if you are into the CPR game since the batting average on those books when it comes to potential upgrades are substantially higher.

Were both these copies sold in the same approximate time period? As for any equivalent graded copies from dufferent time periods, grading is still more of an art (i.e. sujective opinion) than an exact science and as we all know, grading definitions and subtleties tend to change over time. As such, this is when both a high quality front and back cover scans and review of the Graders' Notes really come into play.

Best advice here and as such, it only makes sense to submit it under the lowest expected condition grade in order to avoid overpaying. Since we have seen CGC grade the exact same book from anywhere between 9.0 to 9.8, I would simply submit it as a potential CGC 9.0 copy using the Overstreet valuation which they seem to permit. The only problem with using the current Overstreet valuation in this year's edition of the guide is that most of the hot BA and CA keys from last year are now running substantially lower than the guide valuations.

I still don't understand the lack of logic that is still apparent in this market. So, are you guys really trying to tell me that books like Silver Surfer 4 in CGC 9.8 and Marvel Spotlight 5 in CGC 9.8 won't fetch prices like $90K and $264K respectively, even though there's been NO ADDITIONAL copies slabbed in CGC 9.8 in the interim since those 2 record setting sales back in 2021?

The boys at CGC thank you for your undying support and business, however, the ownership group at CCG also wants you to send your undying love and books to CCS for cleaning and pressing prior to having them graded.

My Gosh! Fitly rich. Not really, as with a huge untouched motherlode like that, it should bring ALL HG copies of Hulk 181's down closer to cover price again.

Far too common to even bother with or worth to mention as I believe it was a long box full of untouched Hulk 181's.