lou_fine

Yes, pretty so for the past couple of decades and also sharing the same bargain basement floor as the Wonder Woman's were a few years ago. Looks like the Wonder Woman's, especially the keys, have been taken back out from the bargain basement floor and moved back up to some of the higher floors. So, maybe there's still hope for World's Finest yet, although there are still a bunch of Wonder Woman's sitting in the dollar bin right now in the current CC auction.

But still definitely not as nice as what was in their last auction for sure. Yes, except for some of the highlight books, many of the other books are not doing their fast jump out of the starting gates like the last auction. In fact, most of the early World's Finest are still in the low single digits only, while the supposedly hot Fox books are mostly still sitting only in double digits territory. Just maybe, a sign of things to come and they'll all end at record lows for a change so I can snap up a few items.

That's actually a good question since I am not sure about the answer. The 10% would be referring to the Seller's premium which the seller would normally have to pay for books sold in their auctions. The final realized price for their auction items also includes the 19.5 BP which the buyer has to pay on top of the hammer price. Not sure how the SP and BP works though when it comes to their Make An Offer to Owner option that they have to facilitate subsequent sales to buyers of their books.

Feeling lucky? Well, if it was an Asian buyer, I guess the winning amount would be $888K.

Isn't that the 5.0 that went for 57k on CC back in March? Looks so. Seems the book has appreciated 20K in value since then. Conservative. Doesn't anybody hold onto their books for longer than 1 auction cycle time period anymore? Or are they simply getting the auction house to ship it straight to the other auction house or dealer in order to save on postage charges. Especially with some of these AF 15's which are almost like a hot potato or a case of musical chairs where nobody wants to get caught without a chair.

Looks like the CGC 1.0 graded copy of 'Tec 31 jumped out to a pretty quick start on the CC auction site: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=727871 But still a long ways to go until it hits the $43K mark that this exact same copy sold for last year, and I have my doubts that it will make it back up there in this go round. Will be interesting to see what happens in the end though.

But still definitely not as nice as what was in their last auction for sure.

The question which I have is out of the very few variants that does have some value over the long run, what proportion of the variants being published today basically become worthless drek relative to their initial purchase price. Especially when it seems that almost every single comic book being printed nowadays has its own variant editions.

Oh wow.......I am 10 for 10 so far on my bids for CC's auction and I've barely gone over a grand so far.

Why is the first Black Superhero not as historically important? No where near as rare I agree, no where near the level of historical importance I disagree. Plus nowhere near the household name that Wonder Woman is due in large part to the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman TV show. That plus the fact she has been in the comics a lot longer than Black panther and able to have her own standalone books that actually last longer than just a few years.

Looks like you are assuming a continuing non-stop acceleration in the trajectory of the record prices that we have been seeing with a few of the highlight sales for AF 15's. With all of the absolute hundreds of already graded copies plus hundreds more raw copies in this condition range, I imagine you will see these prices only if everybody, except for less than 1% of these owners, who already has a copy holds onto their copy. Too many copies on the market at the same time will put a damper on the prices to make any further movement upwards. So, will you be part of the 1% that is trying to cash out at these nosebleed levels or part of the 99% that is trying to support the continuing increase in valuation for AF 15's?

+1 If I was a paying customer I would definitely be concerned as i find that any numbers coming from eBay is more than likely already skewed to the high side. Especially when an overwhelming proportion of their comic book auctions are now done only in the BIN format as sellers seemingly have absolutely no confidence their books will be able to sell for a reasonable price in a true open auction format. With BIN formatted auctions, you end up with only a very limited number of completed sales over a period of time, and yet possibly hundreds of uncompleted sales at the same price level.

Typical Steranko as he always like to outshine everybody else. Remember when white suits were all the rage and girls would think the guys looked just so cool in them.

Looks like CGC has graded 128 copies of this book so far, with 116 of them in CGC 9.6 condition or better. Not a single CGC 10.0 out of those 128 copies yet, so I imagine you should be able to get $140 only if your copy turns out to be a CGC 10.0 graded copy. I will say though that the chance of your so-called Mint copy being a CGC 10.0 worthy copy is probably running at 0.1% or less. Looks like what you have on your hands are 40 copies of MA drek which would probably be sitting in the dollar or quarter boxes at most conventions, if dealers even want to waste their time and space on moving this MA crapola.

Yes indeed, these Spideys including ASM 129 were the big BA books of the day, along with the classic squarebound Avengers 93 with 52 pages of beautiful Adams artwork from cover to cover. Never could figure out why Avengers 93 has become the long lost and forgotten once key book of the Bronze Age?

Any idea why Gold Key made so many one-shots, as opposed to turning some of these into an ongoing comic book series?

Financially i'm ready if the af15 market crashes. I'm ready to hold onto it for the next 10 years if it crashes. I see my 7.0, 7.0, and 7.5 as long term hold, but if i get a good deal from a buyer, i'm more than willing to sell it. The lower grades are fluid but i like to diversify and have lower grades if i need to sell faster(bigger pool of buyers). I've sold 50 copies 2009, allfor positive gain except for 2. So 48 out of 50 is pretty good. That's just excellent and you are most definitely right that 0.960 is a pretty good batting average to be having. I guess I should really be putting you in the camp of a quasi-dealer though if you've move 50 copies of AF 15's since 2009. I was basically just trying to get some idea of how strong the support for the AF 15 market is at these nosebleed prices since there has been so much talk lately about a bubble. Hopefully, if all of the other collectors and dealers are willing to hold onto their AF 15's through not only good times, but also during bad times when the book is out of favor and the market on them is either stagnant for an extended period of time or dropping off a bit, then that is definitely a good sign of support for the book. If other collectors and dealers start to "cash out" their copies of AF 15's once they see a turnaround in the marketplace for this book, then that is definitely not a good sign of support for the book. Especially when there are absolute thousands of copies of AF 15's sitting out there in both private collections and dealer inventories. It's always easy to buy or hold a book in a rising market, but it seems to be a lot harder to get collectors and dealers to do the same thing when the cycle turns.

Since you are not a dealer, just a question for you with regards to your inventory of AF 15's here. Did you purchase all of these copies of AF 15's because that was your original intent from the start because you are a big Spidey fan or more as a financial hedge or investment? Or a combination of both reasons? Just asking since I was talking to the owner of a LCS who told me that he had just picked up another 2 copies of AF 15 (1 low grade and another mid-grade+) during the past 3 weeks to add to a bunch which he already has. None of them really for sale and also a large majority of them not yet graded. I also know of other dealers that are sitting on quite a few copies of this same book and yet not actively trying to sell them. With almost 3,000 copies graded just by CGC alone, including well almost 300 copies at 7.0 and above, plus thousands more ungraded, would collectors and dealers still continue to hold onto their copies if the price starts to plateau or even drop off a bit with future price increases not looking so rosy or guaranteed? Just wondering if they would see this as a signal to sell or being true collectors, would they simply hold onto their copies knowing full well that the comic book market always moves in cycles and the extended long range outlook would be further increases in price for the book again eventually.

This page of artwork reminds me a bit like Lone Wolf and Cub which was also very graphic and a fantastic story.

Wow, after reading the following thread: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/420509-mystic-18-cgc-18/ It would appear that an emoji like the current one under discussion actually has informal legal binding weight behind it in the Sales Forum on these boards here. It definitely carries a different meaning in the broader and more general non-Sales Forums here. Learn something new here everyday.

I'm not understanding why you say Hariri is "almost certainly bidding." He pass on the WW 1 nine months ago. He already has a 9.4 Sensation 1. I don't know if he has or wants an AS 8, but I do know that Wonder Woman does NOT hold the same allure to him that Superman does (and Batman to a lesser extent). Since he already has a Sensation 9.4 graded copy in his collection and he already passed on the WW 1 on the last go round, I strongly doubt he would be interested in these 3 books except possibly for the AS 8 only. of course, the AS 8 would then look rather lonely without the other 2 current highest graded copies, so who really knows. My thinking is that he is probably pretty well done with the comic books because when these types of collectors usually don't come up with a museum exhibition display unless they they done and content. By the way, does anybody know whatever happened to his idea of having this display as a traveling exhibition throughout different cities?

It's actually just as important because you need the underbidder's top bid in there in order to activate the winning bidder's bid.

Gold Keys circa 1966-67 #1's found in 2 different collections of file copies, and much cheaper than 'common' SA Marvel or DC #1 from 1966. The Gold Key title that I really love from that time period is Total War / Mars Patrol as that is simply an outstanding series from my point of view and would do great as a TV show on one of these non-mainsteam networks. Have never understood why this run is not really sought after by the collecting base?

Yes, but they've been up there in prices for as far as I can remember, and well before all of the media reboot hype too place and became the primary driver in the comic book market.

I certainly see where you're going with all of these, and sure, there are some definitive parallels no doubt. But the actual realized growth, not the percentage, is a stark difference. I've been out of sports cards for far, far too long at this point, but similar to comics they experienced a significant correct period in the 90's and early 2000's. To each his own, but these collectibles and others only have themselves to blame when they crash. It's not vastly different from the stock market. Unprecedented year over year growth driven by emotion more than actual supply and demand variables means that ultimately correction periods need to occur now and then. I certainly can't be alone in finding some of it (not all of it) a bit ridiculous at times. Well ok, since nobody else except you has bothered to comment on my points during the past week, I will give you my personal take on how I believe the Overstreet price guide works. For those of you who do not want to get completely bored to death or fall into a deep sleep, be warned that you should simply skip this post or thread and go straight to the next one. Since I am not too familiar with the SA market except possibly for AF 15, I will use the price guide valuations for Action 13 as an example of how I believe Overstreet works. Action 13 has often been considered to be possibly the rarest of the early Action's with the Superman covers and has always sold for well over condition guide whenever it hits the marketplace, even in restored condition. A definite sign of a strong and in-demand book when it can sell for over guide not only in all grades across the entire condition spectrum, but also in restored condition. The Atlantic City CGC 9.2 graded copy of Action 13 was auctioned off by Metro back in 2011 for $185K when the price guide at the time had the 9.2 top of guide valuation on the book set at only $30K. Now in theory, if the price guide is "linked" to the marketplace, you would expect the guide to reflect the full value of this sale or at least a good portion of it in next year's edition of the guide. But no, in the next edition of the 2012 price guide, Overstreet raises the valuation of Action 13 by a full 50% (largest percentage gainer in his Top 100 Chart) as the book goes from $30K up to $45K. In subsequent following years, the top of guide valuations continue to increase up to $60K, $75K, $100K, $125K, and now at $160K for this year. No doubt it's price guide valuation will hit the $185K mark next year or 7 full years after the actual $185K sale of the Atlantic City copy. In the 7-year interim there has been no public sale of another high grade copy of Action 13 that I am aware of. There have been the occasional sale of lower graded copies and I believe one mid-grade copy, all done at multiples of condition guide levels at the time even as the continuing increases in the top of guide valuations are also pulling up all of the lower condition valuations along with it at the same time. For example, Heritage auctioned off a raw Poor 0.5 copy of Action 13 last summer in 2016 at almost $15K when the Good 2.0 valuation for this book has now been raised to $14K for this year (as compared to only $1,765 back in 2011). So, when the 9.2 top of guide valuation for Action 13 hits $185K or whatever for next year, my bet is that the actual true market value for a 9.2 copy of Action 13 would be well over $300K. So, what you see as unprecedented year over year valuation growth driven by emotion is in fact the exact opposite. The valuations in the price guide, especially on the hobby's top of the line and in-demand books are actually lagged, measured, and controlled in such a way as to give the impression that the market is strong, healthy, and moving up on a continuous basis. You have to remember that Bob is one of the pioneer comic book collectors out there and has an absolute and passionate love for this hobby or ours. He has always wanted this market to grow in a strong and healthy fashion and accordingly, has used his price guide valuations to grow and nurture the market over the decades. And it seems to have work as he has managed to see Action 1 rise from $300 all the way to up to its current valuation of $3.2M and for AF 15 to rise from $16 up to its current valuation of $350K based upon his top of price guide valuations. Interesting to note that what was often referred to as the Overstreet Overvalued Price Guide when it first came out in 1970 is now still being seen as being out of touch with the real marketplace, but for the exact opposite reason. So, although old slow Bob continues to put in double digit percentage gains on these books, he in fact has quite a few years of "bankable" percentage gains which he can continue to put in to give the impression of a constant rising marketplace. As a result, he will continue with the double digit percentage increase when a book is hot and when a book hits a cooling period or has plateaued, he will lower the percentage gains down to the low single digits until the marketplace cycles around and the book catches fire again. For a book which is selling at lower than guide value, he would normally put in a 0% percentage gain and wait for the market to catch up as he absolutely hates to and very rarely ever puts in a price drop in his guide for a book. It should be pointed out that the large majority of the comic book market is probably sitting at these low or at best middling percentage gains, and only the rare, classic, or standout books are receiving the huge percentage gains on a year over year basis. Although speculators and collectors who are only in there for the short-term have always complained how out of touch Overstreet is with the real marketplace, most of the long-term collectors and dealers are okay with old Bob's slow and conservative approach because they know that it will help to grow the market in the long term over time, especially with respect to the true vintage investment quality books. Especially since collectors and investors will always like to purchase books that they believe are undervalued and still have room for continued price acceleration, as opposed to books that are fully valued or possibly even overvalued as the potential for price stagnation or possibly even downside risk is much greater in that particular scenario. Bottom-line: Yes, consistent double digit percentage gains year over year is probably not an accurate representation of the true marketplace as it really moves more in spurts based upon availability of books, but what you are seeing in the price guide valuations for the hobby's top of the line in demand key books like Action 1, AF 15, Pep 22, etc. are lagged and controlled growth based upon previously earned and bankable percentage gains in order to move the comic book marketplace in a steady, but ever increasing direction upwards over time.