lou_fine

By day - I am an engineer. By night - low end flipper/collector ( flip collections to make some extra money so I can buy more GA books, lol) -- Once I found the boards - the engineer side of me to learn whatever I could about grading/slabbing/pressing. Helps all around with collecting. If I had my preference, I would rather pressing did not exist, but since it does and is used by so many, better to know as much as you can about it..... So it definitely is a nice thing to come across raw "unpressed" books that are graded/priced fairly ( my last pickup like this was a nice batman 14 from a boardie.) ... Still early for that particular book - so no idea of a real estimate of the final price - but it looks to have already been bumped a little more, so probably less of a bargain now. Will probably get more interest closer to hammer time as well........ Yes, you are right since the book has indeed bumped up a bit: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676934 I guess it's to be expected on the last day of bidding, although bidding in the extended time period for this particular CC auction seems to be quite a bit more tepid as compared to the last one. So, even if it's bumped into the $500ish price level, it's probably still a steal of deal for a Church book since that would still be quite a bit lower than condition guide price. Everybody keeps saying that books should be viewed in person which is not financially feasible most times. Guess what, looks like the magic and economics of "letting your fingers do the walking" also works sometimes. Now the Grader's Notes and grading makes sense as the "defects" had absolutely nothing at all to do with a possible bad pressing job in terms of the back cover shifting as pointed out by Gator. Book supposedly went from a long-time private collection straight to grading without making a pit stop at the pressing table. Looks like the Sensation 40 must have come out from the same collection as it has the same series of serial numbers: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676935 Looks like non-color breaking creases must be at the top of the Hit Charts for the current crop of graders at CGC because the only breaks which I can see are very slight ones on the back cover. I guess they must be there if you hold the book in hand and angle it properly to the light. Since I know this friend in the city who loves to find these types of books on the cheap for potential upgrade, maybe I'll let him know. Especially since these mid-run non-key books generally fly under the radar in most auctions, although Wonder Woman is apparently coming out with her own movie later on this year. Or maybe not if the price stays down here below guide since I am El Cheapo and always like tightly graded books at a discount price.

thanks. looks like that copy sold on HA for $11,950 (including BP) on 2/22/12. Are you telling me that Mitch is finally right when he said that we should jump on board and buy the Billy Wright's when they first came out in 2012 because we would never see them at these prices again. If I remember correctly, turned out that most speculators or flippers lost money on those books when they tried to resell them again in the short term, which is usually never a good idea when it comes to most comic books.

Chris Pratt has stated he wants to play Star-Lord for a long time...Maybe he will stick around as the 'anchor'/leader of the team for some time? I mean, why not? How many Marvel movies has RDJ/Evans been in now? http://www.cbr.com/guardians-of-the-galaxy-chris-pratt-star-lord-long-time/ Well, the decision might not be left up to Chris Pratt if there is any truth at all to the following interview with Gunn and Feige: http://www.torontosun.com/2017/04/25/sylvester-stallones-guardians-of-the-galaxy-vol-2-character-has-a-big-future-in-the-mcu According to this interview, Gunn seems to clearly state that the first three movies tells one story and this story comes to an end with GOTG Volume 3. If there is a fourth installment, it would be with a different group, and the clear implication is to the original Guardians who makes an appearance near the end of GOTG Volume 2. Of course, in the world of Hollywood, anything can change at a moment's notice.

No he said 8.0 and higher and I said 6.0 and higher.....that is two full grades he does not seem to consider as having a lower population. The CGC population report show a major decrease in 6.0 and higher for AF15. Now, either I am not reading the numbers right or it's really just a case of relativity. I would tend to agree with the original poster who states that there are very few copies at 8.0+. If you take a look at the census, there are only a total of 47 graded copies in all condition grades from 8.0 and up. You state that the major decrease starts at 6.0 which I don't really agree with since there are 56 copies in the 6.0 grade itself (or more than all of the 8.0+ grade levels combined) plus a further 56 copies in 6.5 graded condition. In fact, the CGC census population report indicates a total of almost 200 graded copies from the 6.0 through to 7.5 condition grades. Based upon these census numbers alone, I would definitely agree with the original poster in terms of the true decrease in supply starting off at the CGC 8.0 condition grade levels.

I was always a big Vance Astro,Charlie-27, and Martinex fan. To me those were the Guardians of the Galaxy. Well, for all you collectors who prefer the original Guardians, I guess you must be ecstatic then that Gunn and Feige are both talking about having the original Guardians become the new crew on the movies once Volume 3 is done and finished. So, looks good for the collectors who either bought or decided to hold onto their much tougher to find MSH 18, instead of spending their dollars on the much more common Marvel Preview 4.

I believe this is exactly what he said in his post, as seen below:

This one should definitely be interesting to watch, as it's not only the highest graded copy to date, but also a White Page Church copy to boot. Only real drawback is that it's part of the More Fun run which is another one of the 2nd tier DC runs that is not exactly setting the marketplace on fire, except for the movie related hyped More Fun 73. But since More Fun 56 is considered to be a classic Dr. Fate cover and a key book, I guess we'll find out if this apparent momentum shift back towards some of the long time traditional keys will continue to take hold, as MF 56 definitely qualifies as one of these traditional DC keys. Yes indeed, let's hope this copy can reverse the downward trend in prices that this book seems to have suffered from 2002 through to its last reported through Heritage in 2012. Well, looks like this copy of More Fun 56 finally managed to put a stop to the sliding of prices which this book had experienced from 2002 through to 2012. I guess there must have been some action on this book either near the end of this auction or during the extended bidding time period since I saw it at only $21K earlier in the day. Of course, it always helps to give it a push when it's a Church copy with beautiful White pages. Interesting to note there's only 10 Church books in this entire auction, which seems to be a much lower than normal number as compared to some of their past CC auctions.

Nice books. Hope they do well. Looks like they did alright, especially with respect to the Cap 35 and 56. I guess it doesn't hurt when they are listed as the Highest graded copies.

+1 Great pickup on that Jumbo 11 which I strongly feel is a highly underappreciated cover. Interesting to note that Overstreet has broken out issues #9 and #10 for the longest while, but still has issue 11 lumped in the same valuation grouping as the less classic and less interesting Eisner covers.

If someone can afford to live in a condo and earn more money than they need, why would they have any interest in the hassles that go with owning a home? As the Oracle of Omaha would say: And this is coming from a guy living in a city where home prices have shot up from 30% to 40% over the past 12 months alone. I guess you must be trying to catch up to all of the homeless people here on the Left Coast who can no longer afford to live in their own city anymore.

Does this book look like a bad press job? - I would say no. Not really enough visual cues to tell. I am not a presser ( I use the pros for that when I slab books) - but I have gotten pretty good at spotting the defects. It is a great thing to find a book in the wild properly graded at a good deal --- but with awesome pressing potential. The only area that is visible which might give more clues - are the staples. The small circular stress areas ( more visible on the upper staple) - could be from pressure. On a modern book - this is an indicator of a press as the staples would generally be perfect. On a GA - could also be general wear. On a raw book- this would prompt me to examine the CF staple areas and interior areas of the book closer to see if there are more indicators of staple smashing. from the book you linked -- "crease on the left center of cover" - this would be the defect that I would want to really see. I looked over the hi res images and cannot find it. That with the other notes - can really only tell you that it "might" be a candidate. BUT --- being a candidate and being worth your time and $$ to get pressed are not really the same thing. You and GAtor - are way more versed in what GA sells for - but assuming the hammer price is ~ 500 and you feel that grade bumps would be worth $200 for one bump, a 9.2 would be an additional $500. You will probably have to put $100 ish into the process.... You would have to be really sure that the book would get a 2 grade bump to make this worthwhile. Wow, it looks like you have given this a lot of thought. Would definitely agree with your statement in bold above. Personally, my preference is also for very tightly graded books, especially ones which have not yet had their potential maximized since I am much more of an old school type of collector who prefers so-called "untouched" books. Not really much of a Wonder Woman fan per se, but you can't go wrong with a tightly graded Church book that is sitting at only $385 or at a huge discount to its condition guide price. Especially when there's a total of only 10 Church books in this entire CC auction on this go-round, with most of them priced quite a bit higher. Did noticed there was also another Church copy in the upcoming Heritage auction, but with this one you can clearly see the color breaking creases on the spine even though it's been graded much higher at CGC 9.4: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/sensation-comics-72-mile-high-pedigree-dc-1947-cgc-nm-94-white-pages/a/7163-92117.s?type=bidnotice-dailystatus# Or maybe it's nothing more than just different grading time periods as the Heritage copy was graded at the start of 2014, while this earlier Church Sensation 39 in the CC auction was graded in September of 2016. The summer and fall of 2016 definitely seems to have been an extremely tight grading time period for GA books, so who really knows. With your post here, you've certainly re-piqued my interest again, and might actually warrant a bit of checking out. I guess we'll see since there's still time.

As high as I and underbidder take them? truthfully, uncharted territory. There is a point I will back off since I have the Lost Valley copies. This beautiful Star Comics plus the other Church Star Rangers must all be coming out from a long held private collection. They are absolutely stunning and probably a once in many decades chance to pick them up.

Congrats on your 2 pickups here. Especially with respect to the 'Tec 102 which appears to be much nicer relative to its assigned CGC grade of only 3.5. Except for the staining on the back cover, it looks pretty nice for a CGC 3.5 graded book with White pages to boot.

Hey, hey........reprints, are you trying to talk down the value of Superman 1 here. Seriously though, Superman 1 is definitely not the first time a comic book story is reprinted by a long shot. The Big Book of Fun from 1936 is DC's first reprint book as it reprints the stories from New Fun 1-4. Then New Book of Comics 1 (1937) and 2 (Spring 1938) reprints some of the very early New Comics and More Fun issues.

I can't afford it either. That's why I do it for a job and not a hobby. Oh, I get it now........you are getting me, the poor taxpayer, to pay for your jet-setting flights around the continent, along with your posh hotels and lavish meals.

Welcome to the Boards here. An absolutely amazing and very thoughtful first post from you and hopefully not your only post here. Especially since it's always good to get an outsider's opinion of our marketplace. Since you and your wife are financially stable, I am a bit shocked that you would still be renting as opposed to owning your own place. Especially with the way real estate is going and depending upon your location of course, real estate would definitely appreciate at a much faster and safer rate than AF 15's, especially if you throw in the use of leverage which you cannot really do when purchasing a comic book. A word of warning here: If you are looking for a 8.0 graded copy or better and you are thinking more in terms of next year, it will most likely cost you more than $100K at this point in the game. So, you should start working on your wife as soon as possible. Either way, it looks like you are giving it a lot of thought and I am sure you will end up making the right decision in the end.

You can view the books in hand. I viewed some of the Metro books (including the AF #15 CGC 9.0) in hand when I was in NYC the week before the auction ended. Although some buyers will buy just based on scans and grading notes. Roy; Unfortunately, not everybody can afford to have your jet-setting lifestyle and be able to fly around the entire continent in order to view books in person. Since I am on the other coast and can't afford to flit around the country like you, I guess I will just have to suffer along with only scans and Grader's Notes for now.

Hey direct away, what I'm saying is that from an incremental point of view the total cost of slabbing a number of BA and Modern books verses their valuation Raw starts to not make sense at a certain number. So yes the cost of $2 should not be your prime determinate and if it is then yes you are probably doing it wrong. However slabbing of $27 and $38 per book, plus shipping both way starts to eliminate the utility of a lot of BA books not in 9.6+ that's all, or at least increases the potential for one to reconsider. This whole thing about slabbing common books with no real value unless in uber HG condition does not make much economic sense at all. The only people making money on this are the grading companies and the shipping companies. Especially true if you need to book to hopefully come in with a grade of 9.6 or possibly even 9.8 before you start to break even. Good luck with playing that game, especially if you also have to throw in pressing fees in order to shoot for those grades. I've always held to the belief that a book should always be worth at least a few hundred dollars in non-uber HG condition before it's worthwhile to even think about slabbing it.

Welcome to the Boards since this is your first post here. Although it takes decades of advanced collecting to find out this closely held secret, I will try my best to give you my opinion after years of deep analysis and study. I believe this book features the first appearance of some character named Spider-Man.

Looks like there's no slowing down at all with 'Tec 29: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=700355&title=DETECTIVECOMICS Still able to sell for a premium to condition guide price. Something which only a very limited number of books seems able to do in today's PLOD adverse marketplace.

Up, up, and away And able to leap tall buildings in a single bound...........it's Superman 1! It's a definite keeper.

Looks like we are seeing further confirmation of the upward momentum and strong prices for 'Tec 29: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=700355&title=DETECTIVECOMICS Especially when a mid-grade PLOD copy can still sell for more than the condition guide price.

Typically if it says "crease" without qualifier it breaks color That's interesting since it also mentions "light spine wear" and "wear on top right of back cover" that does "break color". So, my assumption is that there must be both color breaking and non-color breaking stress lines/creases since it identifies them separately for the spine. So, I was assuming it must either be a really bad press job on this book or possibly a book that has not been pressed yet. BTW: Greatly appreciate your feedback here!

actually, there was a time last year (and maybe it is still going) where they intentionally pressed the spine back to cover up spine wear/stress... Took a closer look at the notes now. Since it also mentions a crease on the left center of cover and spine stress lines (both with absolutely no mention of color breaks this time), does this mean that the pressing job was done so bad that it even failed to remove the non-color stresses? Or is it possible that the press job (if there was one done?) being improperly done might have even added in the non-color stress lines and wear where there were none before hand, instead of actually covering it up? I guess it's quite obvious I don't really know too much about pressing defects.

I define early covers as 1,7,10,13,15 +1 I would agree with this listing since Superman became a permanent fixture on the covers starting with Action 17 going forward.