lou_fine

It's quite possible that there was a bit of auction fatigue by then. By the time the Weird's hit the countdown clock, it was almost 5 full days of fast paced high action auctions and also on a late Friday night at that. I know that I was getting extremely tired by then and hoping the auctions would just end sooner rather than later. And that's coming from somebody on the West Coast, so I can just imagine what it must have been like for the bidders on the East Coast and beyond. Not sure if it's just my imagination or not, but in checking some of the prices it appears that the discounts to guide for both the Conserved and Restored books seems to have decrease as the auction moved through the week. Even to the point that we started to see premiums and in some cases, multiples to guide for these books, especially with respect to some of the truly HTF books. I sincerely hope that the results of this auction signals the start of a positive change in the attitudes and thinking of collectors towards slight restoration and conservation going forward, as the negative stigma of the CGC PLOD has been with us for way too long.

Tim; You are really knocking it out of the park with these Church copies of the Mystery Men books. Any plans to go after any of the other early Fox runs or are you planning to stick with the Mystery Men's only? Congrats again on these beautiful pickups, especially with the MM 3.

+1 If I knew then what I know now in terms of some of these final hammer prices, my wallet would be a lot lighter by probably multiples of what I actually spent on this auction here.

1.8 MIL ? I'll say $4.2 million. +1 $1.8M is definitely way too low as that figure was long passed. Definitely way too low as the 3 big Fox runs by themselves (Fantastic, Mystery Men, and Wonderworld's) along with just the single Action 1 and 'Tec 27 books adds up to over $2M, with still another almost 2,900 lots to go after that. I think all of these figures are way too low, as I believe it's quite possible to see this as a record comic book auction that could even pass the $10M mark. After all, it's quite possible that the other 2,900 lots could average out to $3K per lot which would then put the entire auction well over the $10M total. After all, weren't there several books like the 2 Cap's, Subby 11, and Amazing-Man 22 that were over $30K just on their own, let alone almost forgotten books like Star Comics 3, Jumbo 9, some of the Silver Streaks, etc. amongst countless others that were pulling in 5 figures on their own. This is even before we get to the OA where a few of them went into the 6-figures, with others getting close to this 6-figure amount. Of course, you do have the BA and some of the SA Marvels in there pulling down your average, but I guess CC will give us the final total in the next day or so.

+1 $1.8M is definitely way too low as that figure was long passed. Definitely way too low as the 3 big Fox runs by themselves (Fantastic, Mystery Men, and Wonderworld's) along with just the single Action 1 and 'Tec 27 books adds up to over $2M, with still another almost 2,900 lots to go after that.

Pretty sure it was mentioned before. 35K iirc. Once again, your memory is spot on: The Cap 2 that sold for $3,477 looks like an absolute steal in comparison. I guess absolutely everybody in the comic book marketplace, except for old Bob himself , must be aware by now that Cap 3 is by far the second most valuable Cap book out there. Once again selling at huge multiples to condition guide, as it has consistently done over the past several years.

WOW and congrats on your super pickup here!!! Now, that is one dynamic and beautiful si-fi cover and definitely a classic in my book. Absolutely love the colors on your copy here. Although this book was certainly being chased after as evident by the final price, I was rather shocked that the Target 7 only managed to hit a shade above its condition guide price. Another rare book that hardly ever hits the marketplace as I certainly would have gone after it at that price level. But so many good books in this auction, that it's so easy to miss or forget about some of them if you aren't proactively looking for them.

Great pickup on a nice cover at what amount to a bargain basement price.

What's the story about it sitting in HA's vaults for that long?? No story here at all. After all, it's always up to the consignor as to when they want their books to go to auction. As far as I know, it has always been this consignor's plan to auction his books off over a few years, starting with the GA books and then finishing up with his BA books. No problem with HA holding onto big dollar books like Suspense 3, AF 15, or what was then the sole highest graded copy of ASM 14 as a service to the consignor. Not so sure about the BA books though. Not sure if I would have used the same strategy from a timeline release point of view, but that's really the prerogative of the consignor and not up to the auction house.

Oh, so that was you that I was batting heads with for this copy of Weird 3. I guess it makes up for the fact that I was able to come out ahead on the Amazing Mystery Funnies Vol 2 #2 after a long battle. Happy to see you win the Weird 3 as I was actually more interested in the Weird 4 with the deeper and more solid colors which went past my target price very early in the bidding process. You most definitely got this Weird 3 at a very reasonable price as other copies have been selling at much higher multiples to guide recently. I was actually going to raised my bid again, but the continuing 3-minute extensions allowed me to do some advanced scouting and I decided to make a run at a couple of the later non-Church Wonderworld books which were running at relatively low bids at the time. So, it looks like you got the Weird 3 in the end and I was able to luck out on the highest graded copy of Wonderworld 24 for less than a grand after it was all said and done.

WOW!!! Congrats on picking up this jewel of a book and what is arguably the most classic cover in the entire Amazing-Man run. I bet you must have been one happy camper that this one didn't go into the insane extended bidding time period and that your bid from the previous Saturday held up for you.

Not a big fan of that cover. A bit surprised to hear this as it is now clearly deemed to be the go to cover by most collectors not only for this entire WW run, but also possibly the second most desired cover in the entire early Fox empire after Fantastic 3. But the most important criteria is to ensure that you buy the things which you love, as opposed to what others and the marketplace are saying, especially when you are spending this kind of money here. My love and appreciation for this cover has grown over the years as more and more collectors continue to talk about it. Interesting to note that when I was chasing the early Fox books back in the mid-90's, this book hadn't even been broken out yet in the OS guide and was probably being more sought out by collectors in the know, as opposed to the other surrounding issues. To tell you the truth though, my love for this book is probably also heavily influenced by the fact that I don't have one as opposed to books like MM 3 and WW 8 where I do have nice copies. I guess it's something about craving the things you don't have and know that you will most likely never be able to acquire one in today's robust marketplace.

Tim; Surprised that you didn't snag the WW 7 as that would have been a perfect pairing with your MM 3. Especially since you should still have had some extra house money left to make a run for it since you apparently managed to pick up the MM 3 for well under your max bid.

Surprisingly, it looks like the Wonders and Wonderworld combo run finished on top of the Fox runs with a total of just a shade over $458.1K, followed very closed by the Fantastic run at just a shade under $452.2K, with the MM run coming in at $406.2K. Not too shabby as this amount to over $1.3 Million for just the big 3 Fox runs.

Two real nice pickups here. Should be pointed out to you, however, that your wallet wouldn't have gotten off so lightly if my attention hadn't been distracted with all of those Star Comics which were still being extended as these Star Rangers and the Star Ranger Funnies hit the countdown clock. Note to self: Must learn to be more efficient going forward by opening and being able to jump through windows more quickly.

Thanks Rick, I agree and am over the moon that I got it at this price, which was way below my max bid. This was a book I have coveted since seeing it in the gallery in an Overstreet many years ago, and it was my only priority in this auction. +1 Although $57K sounds like a big chuck of change (which it is) at first blush, I also agree with both you and Rick that this is actually a very good price for a book of this magnitude. After all, Mystery Men is considered by most to be the top title in the Fox empire, and also with issue #3 arguably rising over and above issue #1 right to the top of the MM run. From a guide point of view, you are really also looking at a multiple of only 5X top of 9.2 condition guide for a 9.6 highest graded copy of a book coming from unquestionably the #1 pedigree in our marketplace. For comparison purposes, it definitely looks relatively cheap when you compare it to the 2 big pre-Robin sales which CC had in their last auction back in March. Both the 3.0 copies of Detective's 29 and 38 also went for a multiples of well over 4X condition guide as they sold for $66K and $54K respectively. And those kinds of prices and multiples were achieved for books that were ranked 19th and 28th (excluding the restored copies of which there were quite a few higher graded) in terms of their unrestored condition ranking. So bottom-line: $57K and only a multiple of 5X top of 9.2 condition guide is a fantastic price to be paying for the best copy of this all-time classic cover book.

Tim; Wow, what a beautiful pickup as this is definitely one of the highlights of the auction here! Looks like this is proof positive that you are completing the shift from the uber high end SA books to top of the line GA books. With books like these in your personal collection now, I promise I will pay a lot more attention to them when I see you in HK the next time. Absolutely superb and at what I would consider to be a very good price, considering that it is not only the highest graded copy, but also originating from the #1 top pedigree in our hobby.

There were a lot books that were going bonkers tonight, including the last lot to close for the night with the extended bidding which was Subby 11 at just over $30K. Now, that book must be smoking hot to fetch a price like that. I tried to snag a couple of low profile HTF toughies which I was hoping would fall through the cracks. Not much chance of that happening though as I chased both the CGC 3.5 graded Rocket Comics 3 and the Star Comics V2#1 (with the Phantom Rider cover) through the last thousand dollars to $2,400 and $1,670 respectively, before dropping out since they were both already at huge multiples to guide by then. Did managed to sneak the CGC 7.0 graded copy of Star Comics 16, with the first appearance of the Phantom Rider, whoever he is. Wasn't expecting to bid on this one here as I was really trying to snag some of the other earlier issues along with the Star Rangers. But noticed during the extended bidding time period that there were only 3 copies of this book on the census, with this one being the highest graded copy by far. Also noticed that there is possibly no pedigree copy of this particular book since it was not listed in Chuck's Mile High Catalogue, the Larson List, or in the Lost Valley Catalogue. Don't you love these 3-minute extended time periods since it allows you to do some quick last minute analysis. Since the Heritage archives indicated a sale of only 1 raw G+ copy way back in 2003, I was quite happy that I ended up having to pay just over $1K for this copy which works out to about double condition guide for a highest graded copy of a book from way back in 1938.

Congrats on a beautiful pickup here! The colors on this copy are just so mind blowing bright, as though it had just come off the printing press. I do have to say that valuation or price is a relative term. This book in a sense did indeed go "cheap" relative to most of the other surrounding issues, especially in comparison to MM 10 at $22.K which had similar villains on the front cover. On the other hand, it was also the only unslabbed copy out of the entire MM run and also the only one listed by Chuck as not being in the NM condition range as per his original MH catalogue. Interesting to note that the 2 highest graded copies of this are both CGC 9.0 graded copies, with one of them being the Allentown copy. It would indeed be interesting to see if either one of these 2 higher graded copies would be able to fetch the same kind of dollars if they were to hit the marketplace anytime soon. Somehow, I doubt this would happen as the Allentown copy appears to have last hit the auction marketplace back in 2005, and I also believe the Edgar Church brand carries a lot of monetary value and the Jon Berk association certainly doesn't hurt.

Richard; Congrats on your pickup of issue #10 as I personally know you have been chasing after a top shelf copy of this one for well over a decade. Now, you can stop batting your eyelashes and wondering about the Allentown copy, as acquiring the Church copy must be like a dream come true.

(Seen some slightly brittle books in there too. So take that, @Sqeggs!!) Besides the bad PQ, even the Conserved and the much dreaded PLOD Restored were still alright for the truly HTF generational books which you might never ever see again. Especially for the ones with only 3 or less graded copies (and low grade at that) on the census and also not showing up in the HA archives after all these years. With the full disclosure, all good to go for me. Definitely found myself bidding on many of these books, but unfortunately for me, so were many other bidders.

Bob, is that you in there? Seriously, although we often complain about how Overstreet is well behind the marketplace and seemingly out of touch, I strongly believe his slow and steady approach to valuations have served to nurture and grow this market through both good and bad times over the past almost 50 years. Certainly not the roller coaster ride approach that the once more hip and popular Wizard magazine would have taken. Kudos to Bob for ensuring that our market continues to grow at a long term healthy and steady pace.

I know once or twice I've sat there during that 3min of refreshing saying "please god, what was I thinking, Please have someone outbid me " I've definitely also had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach on several occasions.

Yes, indeed! It certainly looks like it is going to be one heck of a fun and busy day for everybody here today. Hope it's going to be a happy and productive one for everybody at the end of it.

Pq prevented most from being upgrades for me i got sidetracked bidding on the little giant 4, and missed bidding on a couple Yes, PQ was a definite drawback on most of those early KDF's with the Light Tan and Slightly Brittle pages. But I went after some of them anyways and was able to land the KDF 10 for something like $525. I guess I really can't complain too much about that, as it's apparently a real toughie to track down.