lou_fine

Now, that's certainly a beautifully presenting copy of one of the Top 3 graded copies of Mystery Men 2 that you've got in your collection. And from some of the posts here, an issue that some boardies now feel to be the second most valuable issue in the early Mystery Men run, ahead even of the long acknolwdged Mystery Men 3 issue.

Not sure about the others, but really not that long ago for the Allentown copy of Mystery men 1 in the grand scheme of things as it was only in August of 2016 when it sold at Heritage for just under $40K: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-1-allentown-pedigree-fox-1939-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7139-91103.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

You definitely can't go wrong with a Mystery Men 1, especially when it's a part of the much in demand and HTF Allentown pedigree. A case of to each their own, but I personally would consider Mystery Men 1 to be the #2 book in the Fox pantheon line of books behind only Fantastic 3 and surprise, surprise, ahead of Wonder Comics 1. Especially since I view Wonder 1 as tantamount to almost being the Red Raven book of the Fox line of books.

Like you correctly stated, it really depends upon what books you pick, but in your example here, you are using what is probably the winningest book out of tens of thousands of books that came out in the Modern Age. Likewise, and probably just as misleadingly representative as if I had chosen this "fire sale dump" of 18 copies of this water stained book that still somehow managed to fetched $418.25 back in 2009 for my GA example here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/chamber-of-chills-19-multiple-file-copy-group-harvey-1953-condition-average-gd-vg-total-18-comic-books-/a/19062-12153.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Especially now that we've even seen CGC 2.5 graded copies of this book fetching 5-figures which mmeans the lucky winner of this lot here should have no problem at all pocketing well into 6-figures for this lot of 18 copies if they had decided to hold onto all of them. Of course, no doubt that's just an one-off and also requires a lot of luck in terms of snagging a red hot book become it gets recognized by the collecting base. A more ususal case is the willingness of the buyer to step up and open their wallet for say a book like 'Tec 31 with its classic Batman cover in CGC 2.0 back about 5 years ago when it was sitting in the $20K's price range and hold onto it long enough to where CGC 2.0 graded copies are now approaching 6-figures, if not there already. Of course, not all of your GA books would have moved up by 25% or 50% since 2019 as per your example here. Like always and as you have already alluded to, it's about picking the right books to buy, but I will say in watching the GA books that I was interested in during last week's CC Event Auction, they all seem to be continuing on their upward trajectory with many selling for record prices in their grade. The one thing that these auctions do confirm for me though so far to date, is that capital preservation and positive ROI return seems to stand a much stronger chance when your purchasing decision is based more upon the underlying book itself, as opposed to that big big number on the top left hand corner of the slab.

The problem that I see with this theory here is that when it comes to the overwhelming vast majority of the Modern market, unless the book becomes super hot going forward longer term (e.g. UF 4), they generally tend to become forgotten drek over time. With the MA market, it's all about the flavor of the day, and unfortunately, they tend to spoil rather quickly because their Best Before Expiry dates are usually quite short, especially since new hot items are constantly going onto the shelves all the time.

After reading that thread, "What Books Had Tanked the Hardest", I would tend to lean much more towards Beyonder's point of view here: Especially when you see most of these former red hot movie related hyped books dropping by 75% up to a speculative Nasdaq like drop of 90% from its recent highs. Personally, if I was looking to preserve my initial investment, I would tend to avoid books where their values are based upon either their grades, movie/TV or other media related hype, and blatant auction house overhype like what took place with the Promise Collection. My theory has always been the best way to preserve your initial outlay and to hopefully obtain some future ROI gain going forward is to acquire books whereby the percentage of the value derived from the underlying book itself is maximized to as high of the total value as possible, and the percentage of the value derived from the subjective grade assigned to the book is minimized to as low of the total value as possible.

Well, it's quite possible that Hakes simply has a very loyal customer base that don't bother to check out the other more major comic book auction sites, and as a result, this is probably the only real nice one that they have seen come into the marketplace. I totally agree with you though, from a strict visual POV, a nicely presenting one relative to its assigned CGC grade, but not it's price point of >$7K.

Just wondering if any of you Frazetta Famous Funnies aficonados here are shicked and totally flabbergasted by this result here: https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/256987/FAMOUS-FUNNIES-210-FEBRUARY-1954-CGC-85-VF-BUCK-ROGERS A CGC 8.5 graded copy of Famous Funnies selling for a rather whopping $7,009.20 at Hakes on March 16th of this year when Heritage was able to fetch only $6K for their CGC 9.4 graded copy back in January of 2023 and CC was able to fetch only $4,100 for their CGC 9.2 graded copy back in December of 2022.

Playing a bit of devil's advocate here, but wouldn't taking the exact opposite approach actually be better at not only preserving capital, but also give you a much better chance at acheiving a positive ROI going forward. In other words, if you pay top dollar to buy CGC 9.8 graded copies of MA books and yet these books don't have any value in say anything below CGC 9.0, I don't think these books will be gaining much value going forward longer term. Especially when it would appear that the underlying book itself has no real value per se as it's really all in that big big number at the top left hand corner of the slab. Even more so from the sense that the majority of these books are simply nothing more than flavors of the day and speculators will be moving onto the next flavor as the speculative buying cycle on these type of books are relatively short. Now, if you take that same money and buy into say a low grade and possibly even Restored RAW copy of a much older HTF GA book for example that is selling at single or even double digit multiple to condition guide, wouldn't that book actually have a greater potential of not only preserving your capital, but also possibly giving you a better chance of acheiving a positive ROI going forward longer term. Especially when it would appear that all of the value is derived from the underlying book itself with none at all coming from the wishy washy CGC label itself.

No, the one sold on January 12th of this year for $27,600 was on a Thursday for the Heritage Signature Auction. What it looks like to me is that the CGC 6.0 sale at $36K is more of an outlier than anything else and most probably due to the Promise Collection drunken hangover because it seems to be out of line with the other previous sales. If anything, probably just a price consolidation for now before making the next leap forward. So, will need to see what future sales are like going forward, whenever that may possbily be.

Greatly appreciate all of the work and time it must take to compile this list for us here. Any idea where you got the last sale from for Famous Funnies 210 at $7,009 because I could not see it in either the HA or CC archives? Either way, that $7,009 would definitely appear to be an outlier by a long shot from what I am finding based upon relative pricing by grade.

Thanks for being a rabid fan of mines , but I thought you would have been a much bigger fan of this guy right here:

Isn't there like a minimum quantity or number of books that you have to meet in order to submit for a 9.8 screening?

Super glad to see that Gold key is going to be back after some 40 long long years. Definitely much safer to start with a recognized name like Boris Karloff to kick off your relaunch. As per my previous post just prior to yours, any chance for a M.A.R.S. Patrol relaunch further down the line although probably a rights issue:

.I think that 8, 10, and 30 are more interesting and scarcer than the either the 2 or the 3. With your long term experience and knowledge with these books here, what's your opinion on Mystery Men 7 with respect to scarcity? Especially since the CGC census indicates the only relatively HG copy being the Church at 8.0 and the other remaining 10 Universal copies all in CGC 4.0 and below. Looks like the Larson copy won't help here since Tricarichi shows it in his Larson List as having a coupon cut out of the back cover along with a 3/4 inch tear on the back cover at the spine.

And Flanagan! Now, now..........let's not go there or you just might send prices up into the stratosphere where we would never be able to afford them. Although rarer, these very early humor theme covers generate less demand and hence lower prices even though they tend to show up on a far less frequent basis. Contrast that to the more in demand adventure theme covers where the prices can get quite erratic and go rather ballistic at times when they do come to market: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure-comics-33-dc-1938-condition-apparent-gd-vg/a/122207-13007.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 A raw graded Restored G/VG copy of Adventure Comics 33 selling for over $5K or more than 9X condition guide value in February of 2022; or https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/more-fun-comics-45-dc-1939-condition-gd-/a/122213-17630.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ArchiveSearchResults-012417&lotPosition=0|1 A raw graded Good+ copy of More Fun 45 selling for $4,800 or almost a whopping 20X condition guide value back in March of 2022.

Wow, big congrats to you on having one of the top unrestored graded copies of New Comics 2 then. I haven’t seen a slabbed one yet that looked like it. I had the 2 and 3 from Bridwell; the 2 was really rough, and the 3 had a big ding thru 2/3 of the book. I love these early paper cover-to-cover books; they are super scarce pieces of history. Totally agree with you as I also loved these very early paper cover books since they come from a time period where books are truly rare. In a similar vein, I also absolutely love the large squarebound 100-pagers with the cardboard covers like New Book of Comics and the very early World's Finest issues as they are so thick and heavy and rumors are that they tend to be much harder to "monkey" with. BTW: On the topic of New Comics 2, since you seem to be a very knowledgeable collector of these early pre-hero books, have you ever heard of the possibility that a copy of this book from the so-called pre-hero "pencilled S" collection might actually exist?

Heritage also had a nicely presenting Moderate Restored (A-3) PLOD copy in one of their weekend auctions last month that sold for $1,680: https://comics.ha.com/itm/platinum-age-1897-1937-/miscellaneous/new-comics-2-dc-1936-cgc-apparent-vg-fn-50-moderate-a-3-off-white-pages/a/122307-13612.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Inventory-BuyNowFromOwner-ThisAuction-120115 In their description, Heritage stated that this was the first copy they had seen in more than 8 years. In the same weekend auction, they also had a CGC 1.8 graded Qualified GLOD copy of an almost as rare New Adventure 13 which was sold for $1,920. It was described as being only the second copy HA had ever encountered, with the first being the Lost valley copy 8 years ago. Trailing the pack was a CGC 1.8 graded copy of New Book of Comics 2 with Slightly Brittle pages that was sold for $960. Personally, I've always found that although relative scarcity tends to increase the value of a book over time, extreme rarity tends to hold the value down due to the lack of market turnover in the form of reinforcing sales which a books needs in order to propel prices ever upwards at a faster pace.

Hey, hey, you don't have the right to post pictures like that anymore............................ever since you sold your copy of Uncle Scrooge for 90 big ones in the same auction where you sold your Mystery Men 3 for $78K.

I wouldn't say that about CC. Comiclink, on the other hand ... Yes, ComicLink on the other hand.................as I've said here many times on the boards before: If I have the highest graded copy of a BA or a CA book in my hot little hands, I would be running to bang down the doors of CL as fast as my liitle feet could take me.

Especially when we've seen at times when a CGC 9.0 graded copy of a book can turned itself into a CGC 9.8 graded copy of the book. Clearly a sign that you are then buying the label, instead of buying the book since it is EXACTLY the same book, but only with a different label.

Oh wow, 90%......................if that's really the case with you, then you are more than fully qualified to get a job with CGC as a grader.

Totally and absolutely agree with you 110% on your point here. I was doing nothing but just making light of some posts from the weekend stating that CC was a terrible auction house to sell your GA books unless you wanted to sell them at a discount. Hence, just cobbling together some posts from other boardies here who made the exact same comments after they saw that CC had auctioned off a CGC 6.5 graded copy of Marvel Family 1 for just a paltry $9,750 in last week's Event Auction: Of course in that list of FOMO driven overblown Black Adam movie related hype that the speculators fell victim to again, looks like a couple of transactions were missed that I included in my post below: All I can say is that from the GA lots which I was looking at from their CC Event Auction last week, I believe the consignors of those books should be super happy with the results that they got from CC. Especially since they looked pretty much like what they would have received by consigning with Heritage, but at a substantially lower auction commission fees cost.

You forgot to finish the second part of your statement here.............and all those who have sold the Mile High copy of MM 3 are appallingly horrible people who slither the Earth like fallen gods who've succumbed to the whims of the anti-Christ or to the Devil himself.

I guess in NOT being a pre-code horror collector myself, I've never quite understood the recent seemingly FOMO driven drive to pay ridiculous money for copies of this book here. Especially since this book is not scarce in any sense of the word, and some have even speculated might have been involved as part of a warehouse find. Looks like there's already 118 of them slabbed in Universal unrestored condition, with 8 of these in CGC 9.0 and above.