lou_fine

I've never see CC put multiple keys of the same grade in an auction, have they?...they have too much experience to dilute the bidding base, I would think And if they were super smart, they never should have done a simple dump of what was sitting in their inventory waiting to go to auction. Now, many of the potential bidders already knows about the other 3 copies or 4 copies of the AF 15 in the same CGC 4.0 grade that will most likely be available to them in future upcoming auctions.

Now that's an absolutely super underappreciated classic cover if you ask me!!!

Thanks for the info as this confirms the answer that another boardie had already sent to me. And apparently they also don't count the covers either as part of their page count. Go figure that.

Have you guys ever seen a GLOD label specifying a clipped coupon on a particular page number and when you check the Comic book databases, there is actually no coupon on that particular page in the middle of the book? There is a coupon on another page at the end of the book though, which kind of makes you wonder if the coupon was even clipped at all and maybe it should actually be sitting in a blue Universal label instead of a GLOD. Can't tell without cracking the book out of the slab though.

Just curious if this is nothing more than pure speculation and a conspiracy theory on your part, or do you have any actual evidence that this might actually be taking place?

Well, it looks like we got the answers to both of our questions here: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookSearch.php?searchType=advanced&listing_type=event&pageSize=25&pageNum=4 1) The R must have stood for Restored as the 8.5 copy is indeed a Slight/Moderate (C2) Restored with color touch, tear seals, pieces added, and trimming; and 2) Looks like there is going to only one of the 4.0 copies and its going to be the Hidden Valley Collection copy.

Well, if you do, I guess they won't have to worry about selling this anymore then: It'll be pretty tough to resell once it's been used to club you over the head and then impaled inside your body.

When it comes to these uber HG flawless books, are you saying it's based in part on a quota system, as opposed to just the book in front of them? How NOT surprising at all.

I believe you've nailed the key factor here in determining the difference between a CGC 9.8, CGC 9.9, and a CGC 10.0 graded book.

Sure, if he'd offer it at 10% Probably less than that as it looks to be low grade non-key mid-run GA drek and all with heavy spine roll.

Never knew this issue was so tough to find, but maybe it is as there's only 3 copies listed in the CGC census. I managed to pick my mid grade copy up from Harley several years ago for not that many dollars.

Another book I wasn't actively trying to upgrade , but why not. Like Gator had already said, it's either feast or famine with a lot of these HTF Centaur books. Looks like it's been a relative feast lately with the Jon Berk 6.5 copy that sold for $1,655 which was then followed by another CGC 6.5 graded copy that sold for $1,450 in the just completed CC auction.

Au contraire mon ami... "When CGC was first established in 2000, we thoroughly researched and implemented the best practices in archival preservation. We took a conservative approach and suggested that customers may wish to consider reholdering their books after approximately seven to ten years so that the MicroChamber paper could be replaced. " Unless you're David Blaine you're not going to be able replace the MicroChamber paper without having the book reholdered. Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of an expiry date on the grade of the book which would be a huge windfall for them. Best to keep this to ourselves though before they actually think it is a good idea and decide to implement it.

Nope. Book went for about 4x - 5x price according to GPA. Like everybody else has been saying though, you can't always go by GPA prices. And you also can't always go by irrational prices paid when it comes to a potential auction outlier result. On the other hand, maybe this $19K will be seen as a bargain basement discount price going forwards as there are only 27 CGC graded copies in higher grade than this copy here. It's not like there's 270 higher graded copies out there, although I imagine there must be some from the other grading companies also.

Yes, that was my book, graded in 2013 auctioned on the Link. There hasn't been another to my knowledge and it has not resold (that I know of). Brian; Congrats on being able to track down such a nice copy of this hugely in-demand book and being able to get over $15K from it. Maybe if you had contacted Boston about your copy, he might have given you a lot more money for it plus thrown in his 9.9 copy just to get your 10.0 graded copy out of the marketplace.

Actually, 10,000 for a total population count of existing AF 15's in the world might not be that far off. Especially when you considered that there's almost 3,000 slabbed copies from CGC alone so far, which means there should be a few hundred more from the other grading companies out there. Then you add in the raw copies sitting in the collections of long-time collectors who have absolutely no reason to have them graded to this point in time yet. Especially when I've seen far more copies of raw AF 15's out there in the real world as compared to slabbed copies (i.e. excluding the ones on the internet and auction websites). So, 10,000 total copies might be a shade high as far as we know, but probably not by that much.

Thus endeth the lesson! Wonder if he's still employed as an economics professor at whatever big university it was.

An exceptional book! +1 Would definitely agree as this copy looks like an absolute stunner and certainly nicer in appearance than its assigned CGC grade of only 8.5 VF+. Probably one of the reasons why it went for such a strong price. Just glad I managed to snag the Overstreet copies for both Torchy 5 and Torchy 6 when I was going through the Diamond vaults after their grand opening.

Looks like this copy was graded back in 2013. Wasn't that considered to be a relatively loose grading time period for CGC? Wondered if the book would receive the same GEM Mint 10.0 grade if regraded today? Any idea what this copy sold for or is it best to ask somebody like Boston Corbett what a book like this would be worth?

Sounds a bit late for me as it would appear like a case of closing the barn doors after the horses have already escaped. Especially since "most everybody" by now already knows about these 4 copies that are about to or will eventually hit the open marketplace.

Yes, the market can definitely absorb 4 copies of AF 15, but unfortunately only at declining prices in a true auction format like CC's. In virtually all auctions, a good portion of the final realized price is usually in most cases bidded up by only the final 3 and then 2 buyers. Now, if these last few bidders now have all 4 books available to them instead of just the one, guess what's going to happen to the prices. Well, probably not that bad, but still enough of a drop to be definitely noticeable. Are these copies available in a true no-reserved auction format or are they generally sitting there with fully protected outrageous BIN prices that nobody would ever click onto?

Richard; Yes, definitely sorry to hear about your predicament as my initial belief was that you had made it out alright from these nasty hurricanes and floods based upon a post I saw from you last week. Unfortunately, not so much it would seem. And definitely real top notch of both Vincent and Steve to have your back in your time of need.

some already had about 1 hr ago ... I wonder if it's possible that CC simply does a data dump of whatever is sitting in their auction pipeline whenever they load up for the next Event Auction. Then some of these books get pulled when the consignor sees them as they were actually intended for later auctions or the consignor simply didn't like some of the other available books that it would be competing against.

That's a beaut +1 What a stunning and absolute beauty of a book and I don't think you can beat that array of bright colors that you've got on this cover here.

You over paid +1 Most definitely so if this book was purchased for $15 smackers back in April of 1938. Not so much some 40 odd years later though.