lou_fine

Sounds to me as though you are nothing but a big time hoarder here. Have you had a chance to talk to somebody about your condition yet?

That was not there. He told me he kept that one. Said it was a vg+ Well, that apparently seems to be one of the go to covers in the AMF run that almost everybody wants in their collection, along with AMF V1#3 and AMF Vol 2#5.

What was the price and approximate condition for his copy of AMF V2#2 if he had one there?

They were pretty nice. A tad under the heritage condition. And I would assume not quite nice enough for the supposedly $5K+ asking price range that I am hearing that Michael is trying to get for the AMF's. Wonder if the Heritage Auction results for the AMF Centaurs next month is only going to possibly result in a further upwards adjustment on his asking prices for these books here?

I take it from your comment here that most of these raw early AMF Centaurs at SDCC are not as nice as the ones in the current Heritage Auction then?

Apparently CGC's take on this is that Marvel chipping is basically a production flaw and as a result, tend to give it much less weight than some other defects such as near invisible non-color breaking creases which you can see only if you hold the book up at a certain angle to the light. My take on it is that they really cannot do anything about Marvel chipping whereas they see non-color braking creases as an additional revenue generating defect and hence, will apply the sledgehammer to it when it comes to grading. After all, they are a business entity and it's all about generating revenue and dollars for their owners.

Were they priced about the same as last year or higher as a result of the Berk Auction and the current high bids on some of the ones at Heritage right now? What type of condition range are they generally in since I am surprised they would not even bother to slab them after all this time? Any reason why you brought one this year and not last year, or is it that demand has picked up on these Centaurs with the recent auction activity?

I thought there were much more early HTF Centaurs, especially with respect to the early AMF's and early KDF's in grade at the con, as compared to previous years? Apparently, even though they are raw and with the very aggressive prices being asked for them, they are still moving. Since you already have all of your Centaur runs completed, I guess these wouldn't be of any interest to you.

Ill pay 50 bucks Wow, now you are almost down into Chuck's buy price range since he likes to pay only pennies on the dollar for his books. I am willing to double that and go $100 for the whole lot because that one picture proves that this book must be almost as as common as dirt. And as further proof of that, even I already have a pristine copy in my personal collection for just a bit over cover price.

Reminds me about yesterday when I was down at the local community centre working out at the gym and then going down to the swimming pools. Was in the hot tub at the end and overheard the gentleman next to me say to his friend how he comes to the centre everyday since he has an annual pass for a couple hundred dollars and he wanted to be sure to get his money's worth out of it. He then tells his friend about the house that he had just brought last month for only $10M dollars and now they were looking for another one for their son and daughter-in-law because it was such a good deal. I guess it's all relative in the end.

And yet from what I've been hearing, this is probably the best SDCC in years for the true collectors in terms of both buying and selling GA comic books and a definite must see. From the dealers that did attend, there are apparently a ton of GA books out there, with virtually all dealers reporting very strong sales. So, maybe it's just a matter of sifting out all of the riff-raff products and just focusing on the vintage quality collectible comic books because they are apparently out there in spades this year.

Probably because it is such a common book in grade that almost every single non-vintage comic dealer has a copy of it sitting unsold on their tables at all of the local cons.

Not quite sure what aspect Steranko was striving for in that cover? Seemed like rejected Wondercon promo art from 10 years ago. Looks like he was trying for that original Bat-Man concept that Bob Kane had initially thought of, in terms of the almost mechanical bat-like wings. If so, I guess the costume should have been all red then, instead of this later color scheme which Bill Finger actually came up with. Still don't care much for it, but it might grow on you very very slowly. The Tick cover was actually pretty detailed and nicely done, although it is only for the spiral bound store edition with no market reports in them. Which cover did you end up going for in the end?

Yes, looks like Overstreet has really given a boot up to the classic covers in his guide valuations the past couple of years, especially since the marketplace has also been so hot to trot for these classic covers. Although he is a bit slow and conservation with his valuation increases, he's not as completely out of touch and irrelevant as some people try to claim him to be.

Johnny; Looks like both you and I have the exact same high opinion with respect to the Overstreet Price Guide. Actually, my comment about the irrelevancy of the guide was really more directed at Jay since he was the one to comment on the lack of usefulness of the guide. I always like to point out that the title of the book itself states that it is only a "guide" and from a price valuation point of view, I have always use it more from a "relative" valuation point of view, as opposed to an "absolute" valuation point of view. Nice to see that you also have the first 3 editions of the guide in your collection. I have the initial White copy of the first price guide along with a set of the 2nd and 3rd editions signed by Bob Overstreet and given to be as a Christmas present by John Snyder. BTW: What was the top of guide price for Hulk 181 vs Cerebus 1 this year, since I won't be getting my copy of the guide until this coming Tuesday?

I believe you have to go to Doc Joe's Journals as he has a ton of pictures with GA books in there.

When it comes to selling, John taught me something else. Every now and then, you have to sell something...........if only to convince the "better half" that you can actually make some money on these silly books. Well, guess what.....I actually did after several years and then she had absolutely no problems with me buying more after that. In fact, I got the idea that she was actually hinting or even trying to encourage me to buy more. Jon; I think in your particular case, it's really more a case of the student becoming the master. From all of your thoughtful postings on the boards here along with all of your scholarly and well-researched articles that you have authored for the various comic book related magazines over the decades, I personally believe you have become a "mentor" for many of us in this wonderful comic book collecting hobby of ours. Many thanks again and keep on posting!!!

Is this the CC Event Auction scheduled for August / September since I don't see them in the auction yet, or are you referring to their next monthly auction ?

Hey Steve; How extensive and complete is this OO Centaur collection and what type of condition are they in? Has this collection already been graded and at one of the dealer booths or is it still in raw condition? Is it good enough that we can all stop bidding on the AMF Centaur's in the Heritage Auction that is currently underway?

Well that only took three years . This is why Overstreet is mostly irrelevant these days. Better late than never. Guess this thread can finally die now. -J. Slight correction here for you and Johnny........Overstreet has had Hulk 181 at a higher valuation in NM- 9.2 grade in last year's guide already, with Hulk 181 coming in at $3K and Cerebus 1 coming in at $2,600. And as we all know, Overstreet has always had Hulk 181 ahead of Cerebus 1 in all grades under 9.2. So, maybe Overstreeet is not quite as irrelevant as you might think and it's actually this thread here that has been irrelevant for the past year or so.

You mean that we won't have to trudge through his usual 20+ almost endless pages of percentages to guide for virtually every single title ever published. Why, is it down to only $15+ pages in this year's edition of the guide?

Love to see these old resurrected threads just to see all of the old former boardies who are no longer posting here anymore, as there are usually a lot of them. Seems that the life cycle for most board members here are really not that long.

Hey Jon; So, you was one of the lucky collectors who managed to hook up with John early enough to acquire some of the beautiful Church books he had managed to acquire during his days as a comic book broker. As you had correctly stated, John was a perfect mentor for an early collector such as myself when I first hooked up with him back in 1987. I was lucky enough to answered his one and only ever ad in the CBG and also the first ad I ever responded to since he had listed both Bob Overstreet and Steve Geppi as references in his ad. I called him up and ask about the Mint or NM copy of Playboy #1 he had listed for $1,000 and was told by John that it was already gone. Same for the uber HG set of Hawkman #1 - #10 which he had listed for $110 . He then said that I should probably try something earlier as he still had a VF/NM copy of New Book of Comics #2 with blazing snow white pages which was apparently nicer than the Mile High Copy (at that point I did not even know what a Mile High was) and even higher than Overstreet's top of guide listing for the book which was only a VF at the time. Needless to say, I was absolutely astounded by the book when I received it in the mail. An absolutely gorgeous squarebound cardboard cover book with 100 pages and my first GA book which was a perfect fit since I had always wanted to acquire some of the pre-hero DC books after reading that amazing article by Gary Carter a few years earlier in the Overstreet guide. Although I did acquire other wonderful GA books from John over a period of time after that first transaction, the thing I would remember and treasured the most were the hours we would spend talking on the phone. He would tell me about some of the different pedigrees that were in existence at the time including all of the Church DC keys he had acquired directly from Chuck. In addition, he would also tell me fun and interesting stories about some of the early pioneer collectors such as Overstreet, Geppi, the Carter brothers, Anderson, Rozanski, etc. and some of the books he had transacted with them. Since he knew that I had only a very limited budget, he would emphasized the importance of building a collection focusing on keys, classic covers, and the highest grades possible whenever they became available. It would have been easy to spend your entire budget on mid-grade mid-run books, only to find out that you had no money left when the right books did come along. And this was all at a time before the Gerber was out there, CGC was still well over a decade away, and also when the spread between bottom and top of guide was only 1 to 6 or something small like that. He constantly emphasized to me that the marketplace would one day realize how truly rare the high grade books were and that I should be targeting these copies because the current 1:6 spread will be a fraction of what they would one day be in the future. As you have already stated, John was always an absolute true gentleman and I cannot say enough about the guidance and patience which he showed me in helping me to build my collection based upon the tenets he taught me. The only collecting mistake I ever made with John was entirely my fault and one that I still regret to this day. During one of our phone conversations around 1988, he mentioned to me that he had just acquired a high grade set of Spidey 2 - 10 from a long-time private collector who had slowly and meticulously upgraded it over the years into this final compilation and that I could have it for the grand sum of only $1,000. Even after thinking about it for 2 whole weeks, I still said NO for various reasons not worth mentioning at this point, except it turned out to be my greatest collecting regret in terms of passing up on a set of books. Especially when you considered all of those key "firsts" in that short run as you must know since you are still keeping your own Spidey 1 - 11 run, even after selling your other quality books off. For me, John was my fountain of knowledge and someone who opened my eyes into the world of vintage investment quality comic book collecting and for that, I will be forever indebted to him. When I look at some of the books in my small collection, I still can't help but to think of John. It's rather sad that John is no longer active in the hobby after retiring from Diamond Int'l Galleries, as I am sure he would have been a wonderful mentor to some of the new and younger collectors starting up in the vintage comic book market today, like he was with some of the new collectors of decades past.

Anybody holding a GA superhero book for even 3 years should be making money, let alone a semi-key book from one of the 2 big GA publishers for a 33 year time period. Actually, personally I find that Pat does not have any real intention of selling off any of his quality books, especially when it comes to the GA stuff. Just take a look at the Chinatown Collection which he has had for well over a decade and the only books he might possibly consider letting go would be some of the later unwanted Four Color books. Doesn't really need the money I would assume, so then no real immediate reason to sell.

Yeah, that seems about right. No, I believe that equation is actually incorrect. The correct equation is as follows: Cerebus 1 > (Hulk 180 + Hulk 181 + Hulk 182)