lou_fine

Would you happen to be referring to a "fire sale dump" of 18 copies of this water stained book that still somehow managed to fetched some $418.25 back in 2009: 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 even CGC 2.5 graded copies of this book have been fetching 5-figures which means the winner must be

I'm not sure why you chose to deliberately misquote me. Sorry, my bad as I had to go back and reread one of your previous posts and missed the part where you had excluded the mega keys: As for a former long stone cold dead book like Marvel Family 1 with a snorefest of a cover, I think it really has less to do about the auction house and so much more to do with speculators speculating on what other books speculators might be speculating on when it comes to overblown movie related hype. From my POV, it looks like the typical historical pricing pattern with these books after the movie has come out, and no doubt exacerbated by the fact that the studio and the Rock (albeit against his will) have pretty much nailed the coffin shut on the entire Black Adam franchise, at least for now. Clearly evident by the fact that although CC was able to auctioned off a CGC 1.8 graded Restored PLOD copy of Marvel Family 1 for over $5K last summer, Heritage was only able to fetch $2,880 for their 2.0 graded unrestored copy back in January of 2023.

Clearly an understatement here if I ever saw one.

Now, this is a top notch excellent post you made here based upon your experience from long years of collecting these Fox books. Greatly appreciate you sharing this with all of us here as this is exactly why I love these boards because we can all learn so much from others through sharing this knowledge while having some good fun with our fellow boardies at the same time.

Since you've been chasing these early Mystery Men issues for a couple of years, have you been able to snag an unrestored copy of MM 7. Just wondering since I had posted this about Mystery Men 7 in the CC thread this past weekend:

That's because you simply need to call them to request your profile be changed to a standing order that all of your winnings are to be placed on hold until you call in to request that they be shipped out to you. All I can say is that their shipping warehouse must be like that last scene in Indiana Jones where it's absolutely endless because you REALLY will never hear back from them about your books until you do get around to finally calling them, whether that be months later or even YEARS later.

I'll take it. No, better not now that I think about..........at this rate it just might be down to cover price or less by the end of this year.

I am assuming you mean Heritage here since CGC would certainly not deal in raw books?

Then again, as some boardies such as @buttock, @drbanner, @Courageous Cat,etc. might say here.............and at times Heritage is just the absolute WORST place and WORST auction platform to sell your GA goodies. Sometimes Heritage is just an absolute crapshoot. A drop from $3,960 all the way down to only $360 or a beatdown of over 90% in just 5 short months for the EXACT SAME copy.

That's my exact same feeling! Also Avengers, FF and X-Men. Well, with these Sunday auctions, just skip through all of the non-GA Marvel and DC pages and you'll be done just like that since there's no point wasting time on books that will show up in virtually every single weekend auction ad infinitum.

Isn't Marvel Family 1 one of those long dead slow as a snail Fawcett books and an absolutely typical snorefest of a Fawcett cover which had virtually zero demand except for that short term crazed crypto-like time period of 2021/22 when all of the speculators, flippers, and day traders had a big hard on for Black Adam before the Rock virtually single-handedly killed off the movie character all by himself. Just look at that.................far too many sales of a book that nobody cared about in such a short time period. So many, in fact that you even seem to have missed a couple of them. Namely, the 2.0 graded copy that Heritage was able to fetch only $2,880 for in January of this year and the CGC 1.8 graded Restored PLOD copy that CC was able to fetch a rather strong >$5K+ back in June of 2022: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/952653 So, from what I am seeing here, it would appear that based upon past movie hype pricing trajectory, as expected sanity has simply returned to the Marvel Family 1 marketplace and we are simply back to the pre-Black Adam movie hype trend line excluding the irrational exuberant crazy time period of 2021/2022.

Now I can see why they were looking to hire more graders of their own because it seems that an overwhelming portion of their books for these Sunday 3-day auctions are now raw as they are probably not worthwile to send in for CGC certification. I imagine some of their consignors are willing to give them their nicer books for consignment, but only on the condition that they also take all of their other crapola books and I imagine the Heritage warehouse must be filling up to the point of almost exploding by now.

Try telling that now to the consignor who was able to get only $201K for his CGC 7.0 graded copy of Cap on CL when CC was able to fetch over $300K for their CGC 7.0 graded copy of Cap 1 the following week.

I totally and absolutely agree with you 100% when it comes to the books that CGC receives by the boxloads on a regular daily basis. Now, for the books which sells for double digit percentage multiples to unrestored condition guide even in raw low grade and/or restored condition, definitely not so much as it's much more like a

You do realize that "asking" in clearly not the same as "selling". You could ask $10 million dollars for your dump of a house and everybody would laugh, but ask $1.5 million and you'll have a line up down to the end of the block.

Feom a collector appreciation POV, I actually think the Jumbo 11 cover is a bit like National 7 which seemingly took a long time to regain marketplace valuation, and no doubt hurt by the fact that after the Church copy sold for $20K back in 2004, it was sadly unable to find a buyer in 3 subsequent HA Signature Auctions over the following 3 years even though the Reserve Price was dropped each time until it hit only $11,500 in 2007 and still could NOT sell: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/national-comics-7-mile-high-pedigree-quality-1941-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/823-41352.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 I believe it was eventually sold through a private transaction and all I can say is that it would have no problems at all blowing right through that initial $20K number and much higher in today's GA classic cover driven marketplace. Back to Jumbo Comics 11, heck.........it's not even broken out in the Overstreet guide yet and simply lumped in there as a group as Jumbo 11-13.

Maybe a bit from a si-fi cover art POV, but definitely not so much from a collector appreciation and hence marketplace valuation yet.

When it comes to availability or really more lack thereof, besides the goulish cover which is so IN with collectors nowadays, rarity in any grade with only a meagre 5 Universal unrestored copies graded so far must also have been one of the main factors driving this copy here all the way up to $24K only a few short months ago: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-30-fox-1942-cgc-vg-45-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40214-81108.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Especially considering that an equivalent CGC 4.5 graded copy had sold for only $227 back in 2009.

Actually, I went back to look at the Jon Berk Auction catalogue the other day and although the Church copy of Mystery Men 7 at a grade of CGC 8.0 is considered to be "high grade" for this issue, it is actually tied only with Mystery Men 30 27 as the lowest graded copy in the entire run as all of the other Church Mystery Men issues graded out into the 9's. The only exception to this was the Church copy of Mystery Men 11 which for some unexplained strange reason was not certified and sold off as a raw F/VF copy because it had a 3/4" spine split at the top and a 1/2" spine split at the bottom. As a aside, since I know you are starting to get into the early pre-hero books, and speaking of impossible to find books except in low grade like the Mystery Men 7, just try finding yourself a copy of New Comics 2. No Church copy of this super rare book listed in Chuck's Mile High catalog and only 5 Universal copies graded to date, with the only known pedigree copy of this book, namely the Billy Wright being the single highest graded copy of this book at only CGC 2.0 with the other 4 remaining copies below that: https://comics.ha.com/itm/platinum-age-1897-1937-/new-comics-2-billy-wright-pedigree-dc-1936-cgc-gd-20-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7054-91110.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Well, you did have a second shot at the Church copy when @tth2 put it back out into the marketplace and it sold for $78K in June of 21: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-3-mile-high-pedigree-fox-1939-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7244-94053.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 As for your awesome compilation of Lou Fine cover books here: The one Lou Fine cover that I find most undervalued and for some odd reason that collectors have seemingly overlooked is this beauty here: Absolutely love this blood curdling red cover with all of its FINE detail and not sure why it seems to have overlooked by the collecting base.

This is the real sad part though to lose the provenance of a pedigree.

With all of the more knowledgeable Fox aficionados in this thread here, thought it might be better to ask this question here, as opposed to the CC thread where I first posted it. With all of the recent very strong prices that we have now seen with Mystery Men 2 during the past couple of years, has this book now pass Mystery Men 3 to become the 2nd most valuable issue in the pantheon of early Mystery Men books, a spot long held by MM 3: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/988078 Although I've personally always like the brighter cover colors when it came to Mystery Men 2, I also totally agree with the point made by @adamstrange that the whole si-fi image with spaceships, ray guns, robots, etc. tend to have wider appeal. No need to ask our other long time resident fellow boardie here, namely @MrBedrock himself, because he'll simply think we've all gone bonkers from our weekend hangover and it's really all about Mystery Men 10.

Exactly, and the main reason why I love this Mystery Men 2 cover plus the fact that it is a much brighter colorful cover as compared to MM 3. Although a much darker cover, probably the main reason why I also love the Blue Bolt 105 si-fi theme cover except for all of that unnecessary wording, sidebar, and exploding word ballons at the top which certainly takes away from the cover image.

For all of you Marks Jewwelers aficonados, here is a link to the copy of X-Men 107 with the insert that was auctioned off last night by CC: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/971609 Sold for a seemingly strong price of $9,500 and looks like close to double what the regular CGC 9.8 graded copies have gone for recently in their auctions, and only topped by a regular CGC 9.8 outlier that was auctioned off for $9,800 in one of their Event Auctions back in September of 2019 prior to the pandemic. Just checked my copy of X-Men 107 and darn........................it's just the regular edition without the Marks Jewelers insert.

If the spine is split all the way to the staples at both the top and bottom, would this then not be exceeding CGC's definition of Slight?