lou_fine

Wow, that must record breaking blowup price for that copy of Famous Funnies #213: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/science-fiction/famous-funnies-213-eastern-color-1954-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7189-91035.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 Those Frazetta FF covers had really jumped in price a couple of decades ago, and after that they seemed to settle back in terms of price to somewhere much closer, but still higher than guide valuations as more copies came to market. Now, if this sale is any indication, could this be the first sign of another big leg up on these beautifully crafted Frazetta Famous Funnies covers.

Much closer: Tampa Bay Comic Con. He's set up there this weekend Wow, no internet service in Tampa now.

Definitely well done and it's about time this seemingly much under-appreciated L.B. Cole classic si-fi cover finally received some recognition from the buyers in the marketplace: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/blue-bolt-105-star-publications-1950-cgc-vf-75-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7189-91019.s Must be a real toughie to fine in the marketplace as collectors most likely do not want to part with this book once they obtain one. The Heritage archives indicates a total of only 3 copies sold, all of them back in 2007 ranging in price from the low $300 to the high $800 price range. My personal thinking is that if one of the higher graded copies of this book ever does come to market, it would probably have a good chance of breaking the mythical $10K price barrier.

Where's Gator with his usual play by play for these Heritage Auctions that he used to do a couple of years ago. Or has he timed it once again so that he is he down on another one of his jaunts to a South American or Central American country which has no internet service. Boy, I am even missing Mitch's usual ongoing dollar count as to how much these auctions have gotten so far. I guess we've all gotten so jaded with these big auction results that it's a big yawner to most boardies and not worth posting about anymore like what we used to do in the past.

Incredible! Time will tell if it was a Boardie, but that's high grade SS4, GCE12 CL25 money imho. Can't remember where this book polled, buts it's certainly in that company and notorious. Should end up locked away for awhile as its a bragging rights acquisition. I know I would... Unless I'm forgetting something, I believe it's the first Baker St John romance book to break the $10K barrier. Boy, am I ever glad that Overstreet is right on top of the market when it comes to these types of books. OR NOT Looks like he's jacked the price of a VF copy in this year's edition of the price guide up by a whopping $25 from a meagre $493 all the way up to a nosebleed price of $518.

Pfft, it's not even the highest graded copy. Only fit for mulch as far as I'm concerned. Fixed that typo for you. No thanks necessary as you are most welcome.

Well maybe the FF #1 thread is where we all should be having that discussion right now. In my case, I bought my AF #15 in July 2017. More or less the height of the AF #15 bubble. I wouldn't say I feel full-on regret, but I don't think I could break even if I tried to sell my copy today. Since I bought this to hold indefinitely, and not to flip, I feel hopeful that I'll be OK in the long run. Now I'm sitting here with FF #1 on my want list. Kicking myself for not buying one last year -- in addition to or even instead of AF #15. Should I race to buy one now? If I do, will I sit here a year from now feeling like I bought at precisely the wrong time? Questions to ponder. It's almost like the stock market from this point of view. If it's in the news and everybody's talking about how red hot it is and how it's simply going to keep going up in price, that's probably the time to sell it, as opposed to buying it. Especially when the FOMO factor is right at its peak. The stock market is one of the most common places where you tend to see FOMO in play, as the regular general public always seem to get caught in all of the hysteria and ends up buying high and then selling low as the greed factor turns into the fear factor when the market drops and prices fall to the bottom. Sometimes, it's best not to follow the herd mentality of what the general public is doing and instead buy when things are cold (goes on sale) and sell when things are hot. Of course, from my own personal experience, it's also definitely a lot easier said than done.

From a financial and opportunity cost point of view, you are 100% correct as the only relevant price is the price going forward. But to these collectors that brought them decades ago at relatively dirt cheap rock bottom prices as compared to now, they most likely do not view their original purchase as a financial investment. They probably viewed it much more as purchase to satiate their collecting appetite at the time and to fill a big hole in their want list. Basically, they most likely follow the mantra which we tell all comic book collectors nowadays. That is.......to buy what you love and if it happens to go up in value, that's just an extra bonus. I guess in their case, their particular books just happened to go up a lot in value over the decades. But they probably still love them as much as the day they first purchase them all those many years ago.

+1 An absolutely wonderful magazine when Gary was running it. and especially the early issues when it was just his wife and him and they had full control of the magazine. I just learned so much from those early issues of the CBM. I assume that Gary is still alive and well back home in beautiful always sunny Coronado wince he still shows up as an Overstreet advisor.

No! Superman 1 and Batman 1, lol. Bah, who cares about all these boring common DC books. Especially in your case when you have all of those beautiful HTF truly rare Centaurs in your collection.

+1 Also in your corner on this one here...........the valuation on this particular issue here is due primarily to the classic Joker cover image.

Just reading this and adding another thought: I think another reason to slab big ones might be to "help" family members (heirs) in the event of passing suddenly ...... if it's items that are only thousands, not sure I'd make a big deal about them, but tens or hundreds of thousands, may just make it that much easier to have value established immediately at less cost to the beneficiaries ........... Well, I believe that pretty well everybody (except for the Dentist probably) has the intention of eventually selling. Note the key word that I have highlighted up above. What's the point of slabbing your book if you don't plan to sell it yet, because it would only serve to increase the census numbers and if enough collectors do the same thing, could result in a possible devaluation of your grail book. There is no point to give the impression to the marketplace that there are a lot of copies out there before you get around to selling your copy.

I can definitely see this to be the typical reaction of the old long-time collectors who were both astute and lucky enough to pick up what we now see as grail books at much lower price points decades ago when vintage comic book collecting was just starting up. Definitely much more so than believing they would be lining up at the CGC or CBCS booths with their books in hand and their submission invoices already completed in triplicate and nervously pushing their way to the front of the line before somebody else turns in their copies of these same books before they do.

And unfortunately, the opposite is also true. Some of my biggest missed opportunities is not willing to step up to the plate and spending more than my normal limits.

I think there was a thread about this book / find. And I think it was a mid-grade copy. Definitely not a million dollar copy. But maybe if it had just continued on the same red hot trajectory that it was on last summer, it just might have been a million dollar book. Or not.

Well, I'll take an ASM #3 over any edition of the Overstreet (even the first white covered one) any time of the day.

Well, I started with the Barks #7 edition. About 12 or 13 years after that, I somehow managed to luck into brand new copies of #2 and #3 as a totally unexpected Christmas present from a comic book broker who must have gotten Bob to pull them out from his back issue inventory stash and signed them for me at the same time.

Well, if you are going to refer to "Mr. Magik Man" himself, then you should check out this beauty of a book that ends at Heritage in a couple of days from now: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-silver-surfer-4-stan-lee-verified-signature-marvel-1969-cbcs-nm-mt-98-white-pages/a/7189-91158.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Oh, my bad, I would guess. Since it's been graded by the other company, I assume most boardies here would claim that it's another one of those overgraded POS books that would only be somewhere in the 8's if if had been graded by CGC.

Maybe he is the person that bought & flipped it. Being the cheapo collector that I am, I highly doubt that as my normal spending limit for any funny book has always been around only $1K and this one is way past that spending limit threshold by a long shot. And I am also definitely not the speculator type that would flip a book back out so quickly, as I have kept the books in my collection for decades on end. But I do know the person that originally sold it and the reason why I kept track of it.

That's already happened. Very well aware of this, but I also think this trend will be picking up steam going forward as affordability will become a key driving force in pushing prices further upwards. We have already seen this in terms of the entry level prices and lower grade prices for some of these high value GA books, whereby the prices at the bottom end of the condition range are accelerating at a much faster clip (percentage wise, that is) as compared to the higher grade condition copies, if they even become available.

Well, not being a big fan of the IM & Subby book, and also not wanting to be seen as an overly greedy collector, I am willing to limiting myself to only the 2 sets of books showing up in the top left hand and bottom right hand corners of the above picture. Now, that's what I call being generous and more than willing to share my wealth.

My regret is not buying it from you when you sold it. I thought Mr B bought it from you The good thing about the PLOD grail books is that it keeps the price of the book within the shooting range of more collectors. Doubt this will be the case for the long term though, as I suspect the affordability factor for these PLOD grails will serve only to also accelerate their prices at a fast clip going forward.

Yes indeed, as I clearly remember picking up the Hulk 181 first even though that was the most money I had ever paid for a BA at the time. Too hard to resist as it was up there all nice and shiny as a wall display at a dealer's table at one of the locals cons I had gone to back then. Clearly remembered that the dealer wouldn't back down on the price, but now it looks like it all worked out in the end anyways. Picked up the Hulk 180 after that and then begrudgingly picking up the 182 even though I had no real interest in it, but just wanted to finished off the trilogy. The only other Hulk's I picked up in the 100 series was the couple of issues in the high 170's when Warlock was hot. Don't believe I bothered with the Hulk 102 because it just seem like an odd issue number at the time , as compared to the Cap 100 and the wonderful and beautifully crafted Silver Surfer 1 to 6 square bound run which I did keep.

You have the Same range for Tec 27, Lou ? Well, my guesstimates for what it's worth in terms of 'Tec 27 would be slightly lower at something like 150 to 225 copies. But then again, what would I know since I don't breathe the air in that rarefied atmosphere.

Well, it's definitely good to see some younger blood in here chasing after the GA books. When I was your age, I was still wasting my time cherry picking the latest supposedly hot (definitely not so much anymore) newsstand books like the Wolfman/Perez New Teen Titans, Miller Daredevil's, Wolverine mini-series, and what have you. Definitely love those stories which is all good, but I guess I should have also allocated a part of my budget to GA books which was still a few years away for me at the time. As for your guesstimate of existing copies of Action 1's, I believe you are definitely right on the green as my own personal estimate for total copies (i.e. unrestored, restored, incomplete) would be somewhere in the 175 to 250 range.