lou_fine

Would definitely agree with you here, but noticed that I have highlighted the key words in your statement for clarification. Unfortunately, "back in the day" is probably referring to decades ago.

The biggest winner I've seen was the 8.0 CBCS purchased for 78k (I think) and came back a CGC 8.0. I believe you are referring to the CBCS 8.5 graded copy that sold on Heritage back in the summer of 2016 for almost $78K. Looking back through the rear view mirror, that auction result was clearly a watershed or turning point for the AF 15 marketplace. Especially when you considered that it ended up selling for what amount to a huge discount to condition guide at something like a 30+% or by more than $35K under the Overstreet valuation at the time. I also remember there was a lot of talk about that book on these same boards here with most members calling it an overgraded POS book since it was graded by the other company and if graded by CGC, the book would surely only grade back out somewhere in the 7's. There was so much derision here at the poor uneducated loser that paid that kind of silly money for that particular copy as he surely must have lost not only his shirt, but also his pants at the same time on that book. Not so much the case in the end as the "loser" got the book regraded by CGC at the same 8.5 grade and flipped it back out in the next Heritage Auction at a sale price of over $155K. Of course, many of the same boobirds who ridiculed him for paying a whopping $78K then laugh at him for underselling the book at only $155K when they thought the book would easily sell for well over $200K given how fast the AF 15 marketplace was ramping up at the time. Interesting how the definition of a loser and a winner can mean the same thing sometimes.

Adventure 73 is a great pick; an absolutely incredible cover. I hope I get one before everyone else thinks so, too! +1 Yes, my sentiments exactly and yet, this book along with the entire DC GA Adventure run seems to have fallen out of favor with the collecting base for some reason. Although prices have been creeping up, you probably have had many chances to pick up a HG copy over the past several years. Especially with both 9.0 and 9.2 copies being made available on Heritage, with all of them selling at huge discounts to guide and sometimes even at less than half of condition guide. I guess we need some big name director or Hollywood studio to announce that they will be doing a Manhunter movie in order to get these books out of the doldrums.

My answer to the OP's question is that I would most certainly hope so since I believe I most probably have a nice copy of Neal Adams' Bat 251 somewhere in my collection.

Well, I guess this shows that different people can see exactly the same thing in a different light. The fact that we've only seen 69 copies (40 Universal) slabbed in nearly two decades of slabbing is likely more a testament that the old time collectors who picked up these grail books at the dawn of comic book collecting when they were around in much greater numbers simply buried them deep into their comic book collections. They have absolutely no reason or interest to have them slabbed until it comes time for them to sell the book. Now, that's just my 2-cents on the subject. Wayne-Tec: From your posts here, I imagine you are probably younger than most of us here in the GA Forum and are what I would call a CGC generational collector. Nothing wrong with that at all, but it's that your comic collecting probably focused in on slabbed books almost right from the get-go and slabs are probably all you have experienced in terms of your comic book collecting life. With us old and some not so old farts here, our comic book collecting started years or even decades before CGC was even in anybody's thoughts. For old-time collectors like us, I can't think of a single reason why I would want any of my books to be slabbed unless it was time to sell it. Especially when the book is what it is and slabbing will not change it at all or give me any additional benefit, but will certainly cost me a lot to have it graded and for what purpose.

New owners or prospective buyers may not like to learn that the 6.0 graded comic used to be considered a 4.5 book, or a top census 9.4 used to reside in an 8.5 slab. It's a part of crack/press/resubmit that is often kept quiet. Definitely no longer the Wild Wild West days of old that Borock used to referred to prior to CGC coming into place, but now a much more sophisticated, subtle, grayer, and shadier side of the game where the greed merchants on both sides of the game ply their trade in the dark with much bigger money involved. Sometimes, it makes me wonder if we are actually any better off than we were before.

Not really important to the discussion. It is to me, you little teaser. Now, I won't be able to go to sleep tonight while pulling my hair out trying to figure what the book upgraded to in the end.

What an awesome book! One of my top 5 GA DCs for sure. That book has been undervalued for years. +1 I would definitely agree with you here. In fact, I remembered when CBM ran a survey back in the mid-90's asking collectors (i.e. readers) to submit their top 5 all-time favorite covers. Although it just missed my Top 5 list since it was basically a toss up between AA 61 and Adventure 73 with the classic Manhunter cover for me, I believe 2 or 3 other collectors did go with the AA 61 as one of their Top 5's. As an indication of how collector's taste and attitudes can change over time, if I remember correctly, I believe I was the only foolish collector at the time to include either 'Tec 31 or Punch 12 in my Top 5 list. And yet, in a recent poll conducted by one of the Heritage magazines, it looks like 'Tec 31 finished at the top of the charts while Punch 12 came in at the #4 position behind both Suspense 3 and Fantastic 3. Definitely not bad company to be in, but go figure that both 'Tec 31 and Punch 12 would come out of nowhere to finished right near the top of the charts. I believe my other 2 choices at the time were Supes 14 and Silver Streak 6 which were picked by many collectors both in the mid-90's and again some 20 odd years later. Which goes to show that although some things do change over time, other things might not change too much at all.

“If” Tec #27 wasn’t the top book at that point, my reasoning for why it is likely to be 10-20 years from now still stands. Well, 20 years is a long time and people's taste and thinking could change over an extended period of time. You never know, it could be the Big Red Cheese himself reclaiming top spot after all of these lost decades. After all, didn't he have the biggest selling comic book back in the 50's until the envious DC filed their lawsuit to shut him down out of sheer jealousy at losing the top spot.

Along with another beautifully crafted Nazi knuckle sandwich cover by Schomburg, the master of the WWII covers. It could only have been better if that was Hitler himself that the Black Terror was laying a knockout punch to.

I’ve gone back and forth on this a lot over the years, but if you asked me today, I’d say that I expect Tec #27 to reclaim the top spot, eventually. But was 'Tec 27 really truly ever in top spot over Action #1? Well okay, Overstreet may have had him in top spot there for a few years back in the early 90's after the first Batman movie came out, but then what does old Bob know about the real marketplace anyways.

Can't seem to copy that post from the SD Con thread in the GA Forum, but here's the link to it anyways: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/437257-sd-con-2018-gathering/?page=1 Just look at Timely with all those copies of Catman 28 if you scroll down to the second post.

Exactly! For that type of collector-profile the incentive to slab is huge. All I can say is that if I had been lucky enough to have an Action 1 or 'Tec 27 in my personal collection (which I unfortunately do not ), there is no way I would even consider having it slabbed unless it came time for me to sell it. But to each their own, I would imagine.

Plus the fact that it is "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" as so boldly emblazoned on its front covers for the longest time.

Hey, you are breaking your own criteria rules here. These books don't look slabbed to me.

Personally, I never could understand why this old discussion came up in the first place as I always thought that Action 1 would be the no-brainer top book in terms of the comic book world.

Keeping them safe from accidental damage? I'm not sitting on any ungraded megakeys, but if I were, I would breathe easier with the books slabbed and in a safety deposit box. Even if I were fine keeping them in Mylars, I'd probably still want a resto check to get a better fix on what I had. Of course, it is possible to have that done without getting the book graded. Would they not be just as safe in a nice shiny mylar holder sitting in a safety deposit box? The safety box would definitely hold a lot more mylars as compared to those huge bulky cumbersome slabs. And if the collector has had them long enough, resto tends to have less relative importance as even a restored copy would most likely be worth multiples of what they had originally paid for the books. The passing of time is often a great healer of even some terrible purchasing mistakes.

+1 In my book, it's always better to be a comic book collector as opposed to being a graded label collector. It also definitely helps you in terms of your bank account.

Now that's a super nice looking copy of a classic Solomon Grundy cover book. Not aware of any major sales of this book last year in comparison to some of the other high profile GA sales that we have all heard about. And yet Overstreet went and gave this book the second biggest percentage boost at 26% (just behind WW 1's chart topping 28%) in his Top 100 GA Comics, as the AA 61 was only 1 of 2 new inductees into Overstreet's Top 100 and rocketed all the way into the #85 spot in its debut.

That book is no longer in that old label slab, some people ran it up to get it and resub it. I lost out on many books from bidders buying them to break them out etc. Night, That book did actually upgrade. I received a lot of derision over a year ago for suggesting that this is why it sold for so much, but there you have it. Since you seem to be in the know about this copy here, what did the book upgrade to in the end?

I guess somebody must be trying to catch up with Fishler's treasure trove of Fantastic 3 or Gator's cache of Whiz 22.

Is it possible that they expanded their list of qualified defects for their green labels when they made those major changes to their restoration label system awhile back? If it is sitting in a green label, should it not be graded without having the unverified signature knocking down the grade? And if it was sitting in a blue slab, the grade would then be knocked down for the "writing" defect. At least that's my take on the use of green labels vis-vis the grading of these defects.

+1 If you are a long time collector of comics from well before the CGC days, you would most likely not even think about slabbing a book until it comes time to sell it. Besides all of the other points already raised, just imagine all of the additional storage space it would take as compared to just sitting in a beautiful glossy mylar holder. Now, if you are a CGC generation collector, I can totally understand your line of thinking because raw books would never come across your mind as virtually all of your collecting experience have been with only slabbed books.

Holy lord, even in this market $8100 seems absurd. I bought a 9.4 w/p for less than that just last month, must’ve been some A+ marketing by Metro. Well, with these big auction houses, sometimes all it takes is 2 crazy bidders with what seems like unlimited deep deep pockets. Still, not as crazy as the Iron Man 30 which went for $15K or the Star Trek 1 which went for something like $40K in one of their CC Event Auctions a few years ago. To each their own, I guess.

As a long time collector in this hobby, I've always though it was buy what you love and if it happens to go up, then it's just an extra bonus. Of course, with the way prices are in today's vintage comic book marketplace, I would definitely not be able to afford many of these books that boardies always seem to talk about here. So, in a way I do sort of see your point of view and buyers nowadays would probably have to keep an eye to both sides of the coin when purchasing a vintage comic book.