lou_fine

with those rusty staples ? Any chance the book might have sold for more if the rusty staples had been replaced with clean vintage staples from that same time period. Of course, the book would then be sitting with a Conserved label, as opposed to a Universal unrestored label.

book was just graded last year...if I was a betting man, I would say it was pressed before it was certified... If so, then I would assume this is just another example of an improperly done pressing job by the boys over at their sister company.

Since the Grader's Notes on this particular Church copy of Wonder Woman is pretty much all about the color breaks on the spine and the stress lines on the spine, would this be an example of a book that should be upgradable? Especially when for the life of me, I can't seem to see any spine cracks on the front cover, even when the scan is at max size. I would assume the spine breaks must be there and clearly visible if you are holding the book in your actual hands as opposed to just looking at a scan. if you look at the back cover, you can see some of the spine breaks...I'm guessing this book has already been pressed based on the way the cover has shifted back pressable defects are ones that "don't" break color... if the notes say "break color" you can NOT press that out That's good to know! Not sure if the "misalignment" of the spine is an indication that this particular book has been pressed or not. Especially since I have several GA books that seems to exhibits this same kind of back cover shifting. And these are all relatively low dollar value books brought back in the early 90's when pressing was not the "must" thing to do when selling your books. Definitely not financially viable to do it back in those days.

Still waiting to see where this 'Tec 35 will end up at. Looks like Gotham Kid's estimate is probably a good bet since the book still hasn't moved at all for the past few weeks: 35-40K Less nicer looking 3.0 that sold end 2016 http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=685988 Given how most of the early Actions did not have much movement at all during or prior to the extended auction bidding time period yesterday, this classic pre-Robin 'Tec cover just might not even hit the $35K bottom estimate here. I guess it's just a matter of time before we find out.

Hey Rick; Figure I would get some further clarification from you here, as opposed to the AF 15 thread where the original post had come from. Especially since the example I am looking at for now is a GA book: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676934 Graders notes will typically detail "pressable" defects Since the Grader's Notes on this particular Church copy of Wonder Woman is pretty much all about the color breaks on the spine and the stress lines on the spine, would this be an example of a book that should be upgradable? Especially when for the life of me, I can't seem to see any spine cracks on the front cover, even when the scan is at max size. I would assume the spine breaks must be there and clearly visible if you are holding the book in your actual hands as opposed to just looking at a scan.

Forget about that 6.5 that sold for $36k. It sold for that because it was chipped to death and had glue on the cover. As with many of the books that have been selling strong recently the "PQ" on the label was obviously the least of anyone's concerns. Why that book wasn't in a purple (restored) holder is still a mystery to me. But the market clearly rejected it as either being over graded or hammered it as a quasi-restored book that was improperly put in a blue holder. -J. Well, it's good to see that collectors are maturing a bit and learning to buy the book, as opposed to blindly buying the label which seem to be so much more prevalent not that long ago.

Looks like I was wrong about a lot of action on these early Actions since they have been pretty well dormant for the past few weeks after some initial bidding. With just 1 more day to go, any guesses as to where this Action 7 will end up finishing at since it has been sitting at this same $121K mark for the last 3 weeks, without inching up by even a single dollar: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=713907 I guess all of the serious bidders for these books are simply biding their time until the extended auction bidding time period comes around. Looks like I was wrong again here. I guess all of the serious bidders had already placed their top bids from the get go as there was hardly any movement at all in the end on most of these early Action books. The only real exception to this was the Fair 1.0 graded copy of Action 13 that almost pulled a double from its price of $12K as the auction on this book was ending. Looks like it managed to hit just a shade over $22.5K by the time it was all said and done. The Nova Scotia 8.5 graded copy of Action 21 also didn't do too bad at $28K with a ton of bids placed on it.

I will be the 1st to admit I thought the CGC 6.5 was going to go for between 70k and 75k....I was wrong!! A 6.5 sold for like 36k just a few months ago, with decent PQ as well. It was a solid book if i remember correctly. Thats coming close to a 100% price increase in same grade against the last recorded GPA sale back a few months ago. Thats stupid enough. These prices dont make sense. Now, now.....let's just calm down a bit here. Since the last CC auction back in March resulted in a CGC 5.0 copy selling for $57K and a CGC 4.5 copy selling for over $37K, are we not actually seeing a significant drop in prices for AF 15's or at best, a plateauing of prices here.

Actually, I was more surprised that not a single one of these relatively higher graded copies of AF 15's even even went into the extended bidding time period, as the final prices were set either a few hours prior to the end of the auction or in some cases, a few days before the end of the auction. Unlike the last CC auctions withe the AF 15's, I guess all of the bidders placed their high bids prior to the end of the auction on this go round and didn't bother to go back in to bid again at the end.

Maybe a lot of potential bidders did fall asleep at their computers. Especially since a lot of the bigger books in today's auction hardly moved at all in the extended auction bidding time period or stayed where they were prior to the end of the auction. If I remember correctly, there was a lot more active bidding in their last auction. Wonder if all of the big bidders are simply keeping their powder dry for the Jon Berk Collection due out in their next auction?

Roy; As you have said many times before, you cannot really grade a book simply from just a front and back cover scan. I fully agree with your point that you need to have the actual book in hand in order to grade it properly. So, how would potential bidders for a book be able to determine if a particular book is "upgradeable" or possibly have upgrade potential if they do not have not seen the actual book in question? Is it simply nothing more than a best guess based upon what they are seeing on the covers or do they do it in combination with the Grader's Notes in order to hopefully provide them with more information?

+1 Yes, with this particular copy, you would need to have the book in hand as opposed to just looking at cover scans in order to determine a proper grade for the book. My concern would be if the staining and issues that appears on the back cover have migrated into some of the interior pages, but cannot tell this from the scan.

Unless it's an uber HG copy of TMNT 1, I seriously could not think of another CA book that would be worthwhile grading. Even though you might make a small profit from many books, it's just not worth the time or hassle involve with trying to sub for 9.8's. Especially since you will end up with some that will grade lower and hence being money losers to you. Of course, I am sure that I must be in the minority with respect to this line of thinking.

Isn't it simply amazing how CGC 5.0's graded by exactly the same company only a month apart can look so completely different? The fugly CL 5.0 copy graded in January of this year: http://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAuctions%2Fdefault.asp%3FFocused%3D1%26pg%3D58%26x%3D32%26y%3D11%23Item_1176537&id=1176537 versus the much nicer looking (albeit with the stain on the back cover) CC 5.0 copy graded in December of 2016 that sold for $57K last month: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=700363&title=AMAZINGFANTASY I am glad to see that collectors now appear smart enough to buy the book as opposed to simply and blindly buying the label.

Agreed. And I hope it happens after I finally get my copies... Yes, absolutely surprised that many of these HG copies still seems to be fetching only around condition guide prices, or in some cases, even less than guide. Especially with the new Avengers movie due to come out next year.

But then you wouldn't be able to lovingly share it with your collector friends or to peruse through the book at your leisure to enjoy it: In addition, if you are talking about moving 6-figure books after you've gone to the big LCS in the sky, it's not a problem at all. You just have to leave your loved ones with the contact numbers for some of the major auction houses and they will more than gladly sell the book for you on your behalf right from shipping through to grading to listing and selling it for you on their auction site.

If i had a raw book worth $100k. I would slab it to protect from any further handling. Also if i kick the bucket, it be easier for my family to move the book. I think it really depends on what generation of collector you are from. I know of so many long term collectors from way before the CGC days who are still collecting today that would never think of getting their books slabbed until it came time to sell them. It's the mentality of these long term collectors and has absolutely nothing at all to do with value. At the same time though, there would appear to be a ton of newer collectors from what I call the CGC generation of collectors who would slab a book even if it was worth only cover price, in the hopes of creating some additional imaginary value to something that is basically worthless.

I would argue that a very large percentage of the copies graded by the other company have migrated from CGC holders, and then back again in many instances. The CGC census is most certainly bloated with unaccounted for re-subs when it comes to this particular book. What percentage exactly? Who knows. I'd guesstimate it's off by at least 15%. -J. Yes, but don't forget the X-Factor in all of this is still all of the raw ungraded copies sitting out there in long-term collections still waiting to be graded. Especially when there is no real reason for anybody to get their copies graded and slabbed until it comes time to sell their books.

Looks like I was wrong about a lot of action on these early Actions since they have been pretty well dormant for the past few weeks after some initial bidding. With just 1 more day to go, any guesses as to where this Action 7 will end up finishing at since it has been sitting at this same $121K mark for the last 3 weeks, without inching up by even a single dollar: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=713907 I guess all of the serious bidders for these books are simply biding their time until the extended auction bidding time period comes around.

Well done and congrats on this beautiful pickup of yours. That's an absolutely fantastic book to have in any collection, especially in that high of a grade. I still remember way back in the day when this book was considered to be one of the premiere BA books to own, with Neal Adams artwork both inside and on the cover. Unfortunately, not so much anymore as that whole beautiful Adams and Smith run from Avengers 93 through to 100 seems to have been forgotten by the collecting marketplace as they haven't really done that much from a pricing point of view over the past couple of decades. Hopefully, it's day in the sun will return one day soon.

On the other hand, the census population is most likely understated due to the fact that all of the AF 15's being graded by the other company would not be included in the CGC census. Until they get around to generating a census population report of their own, I assume the numbers in the CGC census might actually be on the low side since I assume the unremoved CPR labels are probably more than offset by the number of copies being slabbed by the other company.

Most of the biggest sales for AF 15's have been going through CC and as far as I know, their auction results are reported through to GPA. The only major auction house that does not report to GPA is CL since they only wanted to provide "select" auction results to GPA. Not only is this type of information useless, it is also damaging since it is really misinformation provided to give only a biased and incomplete picture of the marketplace.

No way this member has not seen this in the past he was even part of some of the same exact discussions. I remember him participating. He has almost 7000 posts he has been here for what like a decade. Well aware of the strong pricing momentum for the AF 15's over the past couple of years, although this was the first time I took a look at the census population report for the book. Just a bit surprised that there were already over 500 mid-grade copies considering that the prices in this condition range seems to be approaching $10K on a price per point basis and in some cases, even surpassing $10K on a PPP basis. With this many copies out there and the possibility of other raw mid-grade copies still be to graded, I am not sure if this same upward trajectory in prices that we've seen in the recent past can be sustained over time.

...........as someone pointed out they hope the useless subs slow down or stop. that basicly kills their main source of income if they slow/stop There is no way in the world they want collectors to slow down or to stop sending in their worthless books to slab as that is their bread and butter or cash cow for them. If they really wanted to do away with the slabbing of worthless books, they would have increase the fees for MA or SS tiers by $20 or $30 per book and that would have driven the customers away. Of course, it makes no economic sense for any company to ever want to do away with their top product line and biggest money maker.

What guarantee do we have that turnaround times have been improved on an ongoing basis in order to justify this increase in grading fees. Especially when their Economy tiers last summer and fall were nowhere close to 40 business days and really much closer to 5 months.