lou_fine

That ship has sailed ... Now to me, cryto is an imaginary ghost ship that I would never even think of setting my foot on. Watched an documentary and read some articles about them during my plane ride to Australia last month and still haven't the foggiest idea of how they works, except it's not that easy to trade them unless you have a good understanding of the technology. With respect to cannabis stocks, that's a completely different story as it's actually something in the real world which I would be able to touch and feel. Something that's much easier to understand and trade. Although this ship may also no longer be at the dock, it would still appear to possibly be in the first inning of the inception of a new and growing industry. Especially with legalization of recreational due later this summer, with drinkables to follow a year later, and then edibles a year after that or possibly pushed even as early as 2019. Only problem is that it's almost like a Wild West out there right now with the number of publicly traded and hyped companies out there and you need to weed (pun fully intended) out the 95%+ of the companies that will no longer be there in a few years from now. Actually, not really that difficult as it's already starting to be relatively easy to see who will be the 800 lb gorillas or the Supes, Bats, and Spidey within this new and emerging industry. With Mom and Pa now out there crashing the bank online trading systems almost on a daily basis with the overwhelming volume of trades in hopes of making life-changing monies, it's definitely a gigantic bubble out there right now. Especially with respect to some of the smaller and more marginable players out there, but if you pick the right horse, they'll definitely be worth a ton more in a few years than where they are right now. Although you (i.e. Allan) may have been joking about turning some of these gains into AF 15's, it would actually appear that some of these more risk taking speculators are making enough monies to pick up low or even mid-grade copies of AF 15's on an almost daily basis.

The VISA/MC? All it does is to shave a percentage every time you use it. It doesn't lend money. I would do that way before Cannabis stock or bitcoins- particulary bitcoins. I still remember a friend who was busted for grass in 1968 in high school. The judge gave him the choice of jail or Vietnam. He took Vietnam and died there. That left a sour taste for the rest of my life. Like my comic books from way back when, sometimes the most enjoyable surprises are the ones you do for fun and they actually and unexpectedly turn out to be winners in the end from a financial point of view. For example, with respect to your Visa stock, I also tossed in a bit of money into Visa about 8 to 10 years ago. Needless to say, with their stock split, dividends, and continuing increase in share price, absolutely no complaints at all with respect to their overall excellent return. Of course my rationale for putting money in here was for investment purposes, which fortunately for me appears to be working out so far. And yet on the day that I left for my Caribbean cruise at the beginning of November, I decided to tossed in some "fun money" into one of the cannabis stocks. By the time I got back home from my short little cruise, my paper gain on the cannabis stock was more than my paper gain on the Visa stock which I had held for almost 10 years. Go figure that!!!

Yes, love what you love. But don't misinterpret what people are saying. AF15 is an investment. Not like a stock, but it's dollar returns are as green. But if it represents a down home payment for the kid, by all means, fullfill that dream. Being a long time collector, I guess I will always see these books first and foremost as a treasured collectible, and if they happen to go up in value, that's just an extra bonus I was fortunate and happened to get from collecting them. But at the prices that some of these books such as AF 15 is going for, I can certainly understand the viewpoint of them as being an investment. And yet from a personal point of view, I can never see myself spending the kind of money that it would take to buy an AF 15 in today's marketplace. Likewise, I can never see myself buying into the digital cryptocurrencies which seems to be the latest hot investment fad after listening to the airheads on CNBC spew about them every single day while I was on my Australian and New Zealand cruise last month. I guess I am just more of a traditionalist when I think of investing, and yet I find myself willing to toss a bit of money into some of the highly volatile cannabis stocks even though virtually all of the financial analysts are warning against them and some of the investment houses are still refusing to process transactions involving these kinds of stocks. So, I guess I should never say never as I just might find myself bidding on an AF 15 one of these days, and it'll be at that point where these books will have crossed over the line from being just a collectible for me and sadly, becoming more of an investment for me.

Not sure what you're saying. In September, 2016, a 1.0 copy of Tec 31 sold for $26k. In September, 2017, a different 1.0 copy sold for $44k. That is an increase of $18k in one year. -J. Yes, but if you click on the above link, you'll clearly see that the exact same $44K copy from September of 2017 had sold for $43,505 back in June of 2016. Hence, an increase of only $495 for the seller before factoring in the auction fees.

There has not been Customs duty on comic BOOKS entering Canada from USA for more than 10 years that I can remember. If Canada Customs classifies your 'used comic books' as COLLECTIBLES (e.g. portfolio or comic book original art category) , then Customs will assess you both gst and PST rate based on the province one resides in. That's what I had figured in terms of no additional Customs duty charges for comic books anymore. Are you sure about the PST tax portion since I believe that I was charged for the additional 5% GST taxes only, with the PST box left blank.

"may?" +2 Most definitely, even though I do have a so-called "file copy" of this book in my collection. It would have been better to start off with one of his classic early Master covers such as his stupendous V for Victory cover for Master 27.

DK got it right in that a CGC 1.0 graded copy had sold for $43,505 back in June of 2016: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=666486&title=DETECTIVECOMICS But to be more exact, it was not another copy that had sold, but rather the exact same CGC1.0 graded copy. So, I guess not so much as a $18K increase in price for the 'Tec 31, but rather only a < $500 increase in price. Or a marginal loss to the seller once you factor back in the seller's auction fees on the book.

Doesn't really matter with some of these later Fox books as they just seem to be so tough to find in any condition at all. Any copy which you can get your hands on, even in low or mid grade condition, is still better than no copy at all.

Looks like your words of caution here did not really hurt the final price of the book as it still managed to sell at multiples of condition guide at $3,855: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=713207&title=MYSTERYMEN COMICS Not as much as the $5,700 or whatever you had originally bid on the book during the Jon Berk auction, but pretty much the same as what the then highest graded 9.0 copy of this book managed to sell for a few months ago back in September on CC for only a piddly $3,900. Since then, it appears that this CGC 9.0 graded copy has now been reslabbed as a "newly minted" CGC 9.2 graded copy and successfully resold on the WW website for $7,250: https://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=713207&title=MYSTERYMEN COMICS

Maybe I should just keep this quiet, but I do not believe this is correct. Just thank Metro for being so nice. That is a big benefit of dealing with them -- for me it was anyway. Trust me, if they put the true $$ that you paid, you'd pay duty. My Comic Shop puts full disclosure $$ for customs, even when I asked them to match what Metro does, and they said no, and I paid believe me.... but never again. and for what it's worth, I also don't know why I am talking about this in the AF15 thread..... Yes, but if there were applicable Customs duties to be applied, should they have not charged it onto the amount owing? Especially since they had already invoiced me for the 5% GST taxes which was added to my amount owing.

I've never understood the rationale for paying crazy money for these $0.30 and $0.35 price variants at all. Since they are in place though, I don't see any reason why foreign pence variants should also be going for higher values relative to its much more common American counterparts, as long as it's not a later reprint.

Do you really really want to go another round with jaydog on this topic here?

+1 Never easy to complete one of these Fox runs and definite congrats are fully deserved when a collector has been able to achieve this task.

What happens to prices when we remove you from the bidding OMG, it's so dark down there and almost like a bottomless pit since I can't see that far down.

Gotham could you elobarate for those of us not able to keep up (Like myself) thanks I believe he must be referring to this: I'm sure he negotiated lower, but not 100K lower. When you factor in HA's commission, ouch. Well, somebody got taken to the wood shed and had the living daylights spanked out of him if $250K was anywhere close to the final price on this book here. And I cannot think of a more deserving person to receive this loving massage, except probably for Danny boy himself.

My question is how much more for a white pages copy in any grade? Best person to answer this question here for you would be jaydog. Why don't you send him a PM since he is the acknowledged expert on the boards here when it comes to relative values for equivalent books with varying levels of PQ.

Guess not. 95K Definitely no record setting prices on any of these AF 15's in this auction here. I guess it certainly doesn't help when you have a whole slew of them in various condition grades one after the other in the exact same auction. Definitely not the best selling situation for the consignors of these copies here.

With a CVA sticker to boot!! But how could that be as both copies have been slabbed as 9.0 graded books? I thought all of the CGC fan boys here claim that Voldy almost always overgrades their books by a couple of notches relative to what CGC would grade a book at.

Totally agree with you here. This "pre-Robin" designation should be reserved for books like Batman 1 which actually has the last solo Batman story (albeit intended for 'Tec 38) with no Robin in there.

I believe I sold that mf 74 in a cc auction a few years ago for almost double what it went for today...yikes! aquaman and ga not so hot any more I guess Unfortunately, in the current type of marketplace which we find ourselves in, it's really all about the keys and classic covers first and foremost. Second appearances don't really tend to mean an awful lot, especially in the case of another typical non-descript DC GA cover. This also brings up the other point which is that auctions are always a bit of a crapshoot and depends if the consignor has luck going for them in terms of the right set of eyeballs on the book. I could easily see this book going for more than double guide if the right 2 bidders had been chasing after this book, instead of going for under condition guide. A steal of a deal for the buyer and definitely no dancing in the streets for the consignor this time with respect to this copy of MF 74 here.

That's actually not a bad strategy to be using, especially if you are talking about the whales with deep pockets that do not know much about the actual comic books themselves. I could definitely see some of these books like the Shadow 1 which does have some degree of name recognition beyond the comic book market itself, being lost and buried if it was mixed in with all of the other "also ran" books.

Yeah, especially being a 9.0. That will take it completely out of consideration for some bidders. Also doesn't help that it's from a 3rd tier publisher like Street & Smith that is not highly collected by the big money collectors. This particular issue of Shadow Comics also doesn't sport a classic cover image which is all the rage in the marketplace nowadays. Yes, a definite shocker of a price for a non-descript cover of a non uber HG copy of this book.

Relatively strong price on the 'Tec 31 and a scorcher of a price for the 'Tec 33 which had seemingly fell out of favor with collectors for awhile there. Definitely back in the limelight now, as evident by a doubling of prices in comparison to this CGC 8.0 copy that sold back in 2015: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/detective-comics-33-dc-1939-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7136-91090.s?ic3=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514

Not even close. But let's face it, not the greatest eye appeal on this copy. So, this puts the 'Tec 38 back to the same steady upward trend line that it has been on for the past few years, as it has slowly inched its way up from $6K per point to what is now basically $10K+ per point. I guess the nice looking CGC 3.0 graded copy of 'Tec 38 that sold for just over $54K earlier this March was most likely just an outlier and the lucky consignor must be ecstatic and jumping for joy with the result that they got for the book.

Based upon my experience, I don't see a problem with bringing in creators/artists and celebrities to this show. The major problem and a key one at that, is for the show promoters to being in half decent comic book dealers with vintage comic books for collectors to buy. After all, this is supposedly a comic book convention, and I doubt the comic book collectors will continue to pay top dollar to go to a show that has virtually no comic books dealers present.