lou_fine

They probably got this from the Overstreet Price Guide where the latest current edition still denotes it as "Historic Actomic Radiation-c (6/43)". Unless this continuing error is left in there for potential infringement of copyright purposes which some books tend to do.

A bit surprising that these Frazetta Famous Funnies issues are continuing to realize strong prices, especially considering so many have been making their way into the marketplace recently: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/famous-funnies-214-eastern-color-1954-cgc-vg-35-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122314-11047.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Sold for a very strong $3,840 for a CGC 3.5 graded copy in last Sunday's Heritage Auction, and just wondering if these issues are going to be taking a breath anytime soon before continuing their seemingly never ending journey upwards?

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/scaled/2012/06/01/article-2153173-13665B93000005DC-119_308x185.jpg&tbnid=SVn4vEYw7YgbXM&vet=1&imgrefurl=https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2153173/Comic-book-fanatics-prized-collection-fetch-staggering-3million-auction-used-sell-12-cents-each.html&docid=yXjUI0BuHgNCNM&w=1908&h=1146&hl=xx-elmer&source=sh/x/im Yes, that was the big HA summer auction of 2012 and least with this one here, they clearly designated it as "From The Doug Schmell / Pedigree.Comics Collection: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+790+231+4294957212&ic5=CatalogHome-ActionArea-BrowseAll-071515 I still find it highly ironic that Doug's PedigreeComics.com website auction platform which specializes mostly in HG SA Marvels for his clientele, and yet he felt it was not good enough when it came to auctioning off his own personal SA Marvel collection. Great promotion and selling point for his own auction platform. Interesting to note that your linked Daily Mail article states that Doug's favorite book was his CGC 9.8 graded Pacific Coast copy of X-Men 1. I sure hope so because it must have cost him a ton of money to get it into that final slab because if I remember correctly, it took him about 3 or 4 resubs before CGC figured that he must have paid enough dues and finally gave it the bump from a 9.6 up to a 9.8. The article also states that almost every single comic in the collection was rated as the highest graded copy left in existence. Although probably true for most of the issues, definitely not the case with respect to the majority of the key first issues as I believe that Brulato's copies of those key first issues are still the highest graded copies (save now for only a couple of the titles) after some 20+ plus years of certification. Actually, rather surprising with so many copies of these key first issues submitted in the intervening years and decades for grading and still none (save for 2 titles) have been able to beat those copies from Brulato which were graded when CGC first opened their doors.

Not of any interest to me but wern’t there supposed to be multiples of SA keys? Or were they secondary or BA stuff? Seems kinda odd to have CGC issue a special label for two books… Yes, there apparently were multiples when it came to FF1 and GSXM 1, but as per my post up above, I was referring specifically to GA books:

He was approached by the consignor at Motor City con last year and they hit it off. Apparently, only the Bat 1 and Supe 1 went to HA. With so many of these books going straight to Harley in raw cndition and from what we've seen here to date so far, I am starting to get the suspicion that the only GA books of any significance or value is just the Bat 1 and the Supes 1 and posssibly pretty much nothing after that.

Can't remember for sure, but I believe it was something as simple as the staples not being attached "properly" and hence the reson why it got that first big bump from CGC 4.0 all the way up to CGC 7.5 once it was reattached properly?

Well, of course my computer skills leave a lot to be desired so it's quite possible that I am simply not searching in the right online places. That's why although I suspected it might have been Schmell's collection in the first Doug's Dell & Gold Key Showcase Auction back in November, I was not actually sure until a few other boardies in the know mentioned it in their posts here. Since you are obviously much more computer literate than me, maybe you can find and post a link to this tagline for the rest of us here.

No, I clearly remember that one there along with Borock's eventual rationale for the book to reside in a Blue Universal slab through all of those iterations, which went something like this at the time............."Disassembly and reassembly of a comic book in and of itself DOES NOT consitute restoration". I still remember there was so much heated discussion on the boards here when this copy first came up for auction as an 9.0 graded copy that it eventually got withdrawn from the auction. I also noticed it coming back to auction in 2018, but decided it would be best for everybody not to say anything because I figured that it had already served almost 15 years of penance since its last failed attempt at auction and deserved to be set free from its past indiscretions by then.

Happy to see that some of these books featuring TV shows from the 60's such as this Rifleman 10 is still solid as a hard rock and instead of drooping back down after its explosive Covid peak, has strong staying power unlike most others and has continued to rise even further on its upwards trajectory. Okay, seriously though, some other TV related books from the 60's that also did quite well in Dougie's little auction here included the following: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/space-ghost-1-file-copy-gold-key-1967-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82366.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Sold for what I thought was a rather stunning $12K, considering that Space Ghost was not really that successful or memorable as a TV show; https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/dell-giant-48-the-flintstones-dell-1961-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82033.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Sold for a much more deserved $9,600, especially since this is actually the first comic book appearance of the long running Flintstones TV series; https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/the-green-hornet-2-rocky-mountain-pedigree-gold-key-1967-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82279.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Sold for a big $9K for a #2 issue and I guess you can never go wrong with a comic book like Green Hornet that has Bruce Lee on the cover.

I guess one of the main reasons why I don't win many books because I usually bid based upon how a book visually presents, and not so much on the CGC label because we've seen other examples of books with bumps of this magnitude before. In this Four Color 33 example here, why would I bid "CGC 9.6 money" for a book that visually presents only just as nice as a CGC 9.0 copy? And in some cases, it's pretty hard for a defense attorney to claim reasonable doubt and relatively easy for the prosecution to secure a conviction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-vf-nm-90-off-white-pages/a/830-91039.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|5 Grader Notes Front Cover Writing Top Back Cover Lite Shadow A nicely presenting CGC 9.0 graded copy that sold for $1,434 back in November of 2008 for the first comic book apearance of Red Ryder. After that, morphed into a CGC 9.6 graded copy that sold for $2,868 in November of 2017 before I assume Dougie picked it up for $3K in November of 2018 and managed to massaged and deep cleaned it even further into this copy here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/crackajack-funnies-9-file-copy-dell-1939-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40208-81046.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Sold for $6,600 as a CGC 9.8 graded copy in Doug's first Dell & Gold Key Showcase Auction back in November of 2022. Rather interesting to note that it was still exhibiting the exact same two defects (albeit it a lighter shadow or is that just the scan ) that was highlighted when it was graded as a CGC 9.0 copy, but now with the following more detailed defects being listed on the CGC 9.8 Grader Notes: Grader Notes ""file copy"" written on logo front cover small wear bottom of spine breaks color small wear top of spine breaks color

Where exactly are you guys seeing this tagline with Doug's full name in there, as I can only see the title of the auction, namely Doug's Dell & Gold Key Comics (& Comic Art) Showcase Auction(s)"?

Actually, the real loss would be much bigger than that once you factor in the Heritage auction fees, the CPR fees since it looks like he "reworked" every single one of them into new slabs hoping for an upgrade, along with any other additional ancillary costs like shipping, etc. No surprise that the Lone Ranger 27 turned into a big loss as it's never a good idea to pay over 10X top of guide for a non-pedigree book. Looks like he had a very poor batting average (i.e. 0.375 average) with his CPR game here with only 3 successful upgrades out of 8 books. As for the Lone Ranger 28, kind of funny and ironic that he still lost money on the book even though it got bumped up by one grade increment here from a CGC 9.2 up to a CGC 9.4 condition grade. Reminds me of some of the Crackajack Funnies in one of his prior Doug's Showcase Auctions that also sold for less money even though they got bumped up by one or two grades from when they were auctioned off at CC back in 2021. The only difference there being he had a perfect batting average there with his upgrades, as they pretty much all came with the QES sticker when they were initially auctioned off on CC. Absolutely no reason at all to be embarrassed to owing some stunning Edgar Church Mile High copies of a well known character like our "kemosabe". Heck, I own a few of the later long forgotten Target Comics, and if not for the Church pedigree, they would otherwise be virtually worthless which they probably still are anyways. But absolutely happy to have them in my personal collection since they are just absolutely stunning with eye-popping colors and blinding snow white pages.

Absolutely untrue. Probably correct if you are either astute enough to pick up books at a good price point or lucky enough to have picked them up prior to a global pandemic locking collectors into their homes and the government throwing money at them hand over fist, with nowhere else to spend some of their free time and money except on the comic book auction platforms. Then again, being able to successfully play the CPR certainly doesn't hurt your chances of making money when it comes to flipping comic books in the hopes of making some money.

Yes, all of those Doug's Dell & Gold Key Showcase Auctions which Heritage have been running from November 2022, Febraury 2023, and now April 2023 are all referring to books from Doug Schmell's personal collection, with possibly even more to come. Needless to say, I believe we are all aware of his big early key Marvel personal collection which he also auctioned off through Heritage several years ago for a few million dollars at the time. No doubt, he didn't want to have any of his personal collection books anywhere close to that third rate PedigreeComics.com website auction platform.

Wow, I am actually surprsied that the loss was so small on so many (i.e. 16) Promise Collection retread books. Any bet that the loss would have been quite a bit larger if he had the balls to auction them off on his own PedigreeComics.com website. Of course, he would never ever do that because he clearly has absolutely zero confidence in his own auction platform when it comes to auctioning off his own books, as that website of his is only for know nothing suckers who don't know any better.

Well, being a longer term collector myself as opposed to being an investor or flipper, I find it's really all about spending time in the marketplace, as opposed to trying to time the marketplace. Especially when I have found that time can often heal a lot of your initial purchasing mistakes when it comes to buying vintage quality comic books. With the proviso of course that even time cannot heal your purchasing mistakes when it comes to buying toxic putrid off the LCS shelf garbage like your 1980's B&W's, unless you was lucky enough to fluke yourself into a copy of TMNT 1.

OMG..............is this one of the big big boys that you sold off last year to Schmell since it's ending in a few short short hours from now: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/western/the-rifleman-10-dell-1962-cgc-nm-96-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40229-82361.s?type=KMrm-criteo-comics-dynamic-segwindeal-061621 If so, HOW COULD YOU as nobody should ever give up on a big boy like this one here, especially when it's also a File Copy and one of only 4 highest graded copies to date.

Yes, sounds like typical Schmell at work here. When you post your comparison for us here, can you also post the old grade and new grade at the same time?

Yes, I believe that those would be the two easiest way to identify a Larson pedigree book, with the 3rd method being the unique Larson recall code for each individual title.

Yet I feel some of Fine's Quality covers are still seemingly underappreciated and hence undervalued relative to his Fox covers, examples being: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/national-comics-7-mile-high-pedigree-quality-1941-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/823-41352.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/hit-comics-1-mile-high-pedigree-quality-1940-cgc-vf-nm-90-white-pages/a/7158-91059.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Absolutely love the detailed artwork on these two covers and I personally feel measures right up there with some of his more recognized and sought after classic covers over at Fox.

So, are you saying that Fox is the culprit and the main reason why Police Comics 1 has not really kept pace with a lot of the other GA first issues: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/police-comics-1-mile-high-pedigree-quality-1941-cgc-nm-94-white-pages/a/7087-91291.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Especially since Police Comics 1 is a key GA book featuring the first appearance and origin of Plastic Man who is still around to this day and also Phantom Lady who goes on to become much more famous after moving to Fox Publications with the GGA artwork being handled by Matt Baker.

Cover to cover it's a better comic, as there is a wild world-wide zombie attack in the cover story that was also drawn by Lou Fine. Well, if we are going cover to cover, then how about WW 8 since that cover image certainly looks like it should also have an enticing cover story?

[writes down all advice from Mr. B] And believe it or not, sometimes even within the same title, which I found rather interesting when it came to the Torchy's in this auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/torchy-5-quality-1950-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7339-94189.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 I still remember way back in the day when both Torchy 5 and Torchy 6 with the then more risque classic GGA covers by Ward were the go to issues in the Torchy run. As such, interesting to note that this copy only sold for a mere $1,680 while the other earlier more mundane and less alluring covers all sold for just over $5K price point, with the Torchy 1 slightly lower at $4,560: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/torchy-1-quality-1949-cgc-vf-80-off-white-pages/a/7339-94186.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|2 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/torchy-2-quality-1950-cgc-nm-92-off-white-pages/a/7339-94187.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|0 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/torchy-4-quality-1950-cgc-vf-nm-90-off-white-pages/a/7339-94188.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|1

Nooooo..................REALLY, tell me it isn't so!!!

Well, seeing hiw today's comic book market is like...................if you think of it from the POV as being akin to a variant copy of the original version, then this is a dirt cheap price as it should be going for multiples more than the original real version of Cerebus 1.