lou_fine

Now that was a savvy buy Yes, no doubt the best $25 investment of his life by far.

I would have loved to have added it to my Action Funnies and Action Comics, but the NG just turned me off. I asked Mark how he priced the pair and he said he really didn't do it that way. In my head I had the DA 2 at $50,000. That puts $30,000 on the DA ashcan, which seems a bit low to me. I don't understand why they didn't sell each separately. I think it hurt the overall valuation. +1 Bang on in terms of the 2 factors keeping the price down on these 2 books. Makes no sense at all why CGC would not grade this book and why Metro would then try to pair them up in order to auction them off. Wonder if the NG designation by CGC for the DA 1 was the driving force behind the decision to pair them up, in order to give some perceived "legitimacy" to the label.

Its official, we have just jumped the shark tank Goes to show you the financial disadvantages of getting a book graded and slabbed sometimes when it is in a real POS condition, as this is not the first time I have seen similar ungraded POS books like this fetch insane amounts of dollars, relative to their overall visual appearance.

+1 Doesn't make much sense to me why vintage magazines such as these with the beautifully rendered covers by named artists would be going for pretty much "loose change", as compared to the vintage collectible comic books.

The Suspense 3 belongs to a collector named Harold Blandeman ....... purchased from Chuck in 1977. He thought the cover was interesting and well worth the 25 bucks. It is the only golden age book in his collection. Meanwhile, back at the ranch....... GOD BLESS... Now that's definitely the name of a collector we have never hear of before this. Would you also happen to know where all of the "long lost" SF Nedors are, or were they all abducted by aliens?

+1 Similar in vein to the earlier and classic Action 13 Superman train cover, but a slightly more aggressive version with a noticeably larger rendering of the main character on its cover.

And his name was Edgar Church and he used to lived in Denver CO and stacked all of his comics in huge piles in the basement of his house.

No idea - I have the Larson on Mystery Men 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 but have never seen the Larson Mystery Men 1 (then again I haven't been on the hunt for it since I have the Denver). Wow, that's an absolutely amazing set of Larson Mystery Men books to have in your personal collection. Do you remember if all of your Larson Mystery Men would have either the classic Larson identifying name/initials or the call back numbers on them? Just asking since I was wondering if the Larson Mystery Men 1 could possibly be "lost" if it did not have any of the classic Larson identification marks on the cover of the book.

Even though we all know that the pre-Robin 'Tec's have been pretty much the hottest books in the marketplace the past few years along with the classic cover books, are you really saying that a 'Tec 29 is now worth pretty much double what a 'Tec 38 is worth in equivalent condition grade? I've always been a firm believer that the market tends to move in cycles such as from the mainstream publishers to the heat that we are now seeing with some of the 2nd and 3rd tier publishers. It's just that the pre-Robin 'Tec's have been hot for an extended period of time now, while the old long-time traditional keys, outside of the big 4, have been rather tepid to say the least and just starting to show signs of life on a seemingly one-by-one basis. Seems to have started with the Wonder Woman trio of keys and then to the More Fun 73, although both of these definitely got the big push from their movie related hype. Seems that there is quite a bit of interest in All-Star 3 now (with a "not the best looking" 6.5 graded copy already at $30.5K and a 7.0 graded copy going for $69K in the last CC auction) and the Big Red Cheese in terms of Whiz 2. I have always loved the cover for 'Tec 29 and put it right up there almost with 'Tec 31, although I believe the former is definitely a lot tougher to find. With this long awaited seeming move back to the previously out of favor traditional keys, I believe we are also starting to see signs of life in 'Tec 38 which was at one time either the 2nd or 3rd biggest Batman book in the entire Detective run. So, I would agree with your assessment that it is definitely a good book to have, especially from a valuation point of view going forward as it seems to have a lot of gas left to burn in its tank.

I guess that's why it's still sitting at only $51K and hasn't really moved at all in the past couple of weeks: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=700976 Any thoughts as to whether this copy of Cap 1 is even going to get anywhere close to six figures by the time its all said and done? I would have said "no," but the supply of Cap 1s seems awfully thin lately and GA keys have been skyrocketing, so I'm guessing it will crack $100K. Well, looks like it finally made a "big move" up to $61K, but I would have to agree with Gotham here that I don't see it making into the 6 figures on this particular copy in question.

So your assumption about my not knowing about this is that I don't buy the OSPG? Really Lou? Ever stop to think that maybe I might have not remembered or may not have read his report? After all Lou, I happen to have every edition. My apologies as I didn't mean to say anything negative about you at all. As you can tell from my last comment, I myself have not read through many of his market reports. Must be spending way too much time on these boards with much more up-to-date information here, as I used to remember devouring the market reports in past years.

Going through the Larson List and noticed that the collection has uber HG copies of all of the early Fox books which are so in-demand and basically locked away in long-term private collections. Wondering if you have any idea where the Larson copy of Mystery Men 1 since it's indicated as a NM copy in the Larson List and I don't remember seeing a Larson copy around anywhere?

Jon was never a big DC superhero fan. His DC focus was on the earliest books and the classic big keys, a few of which like Sensation 1 and All Star 8 are already gone. Yes, definitely aware of Jon's fondness for the very early pre-hero DC books, as his name kept cropping up when I would ask dealers about certain books that I was interested in tracking down. Actually, my first move into vintage collectible comics was due entirely to Gary Cater's wonderful article "DC Before Superman" which he had done up for one of the Overstreet Price Guides (#13 I believe). I read this article over and over again for quite a few years and just became absolutely fascinated with the very early pre-hero DC books and how rare they truly were. So, I guess I basically went from the B&W's of the late 80's, bypassed the SA completely, and straight into the "B&W's" of the early to mid 30's before settling down into the early GA books. Seems rather unfortunate that the marketplace has almost completely forgotten about these very early books that formed the roots from which the now so popular superhero comics would eventually come from.

Never heard of Halo until this thread. Well, it's obvious you are not buying the Overstreet price guide then. Halo is a comic book certification company working out of Australia and seems to be run by a former comic shop(s) owner down there. The only reason I know this is that he has done up market reports in Overstreet for the past several years, with the last 2 being for his new certification business. It's a good thing his last name starts with the letter "A" instead of the letter "Z", since I've only gotten as far as the letter "S" so far in terms of reading the market reports and it's almost time for the new guide.

Thats what i meant... Although if I had a choice between a Jon Berk book and one from The Collection of Dallas Stephens, and both copies were exactly the same in terms of condition grade and eye appeal, I know immediately which one I would be going for.

I'm going to venture more will come with it's backstory. It would be kind of shocking to just throw up a key Church book that many even doubted existed with nary a word of whence it came. On the other hand, it's also quite possible that this will be it in terms of any backstory. Especially if the book is coming from the vaults of a long-time personal collector who wants to both avoid the limelight and is also concerned with maintaining privacy and security issues at the same time.

That goes without saying since the label indicates the spine has been completely broken through from top to bottom. Unfortunately, since this book has tape running down the entire spine and with CGC's recent change in policy with respect to tape, this copy would no longer grade as a CGC 2.5 if it was ever sent back in for regrading. But still a very nice presenting copy relative to the designated grade and a 'Tec 27 at that.

What an ugly label they've still got going there. I thought they were supposed to be fixing it up a bit, or is this already their new and improved version. Totally disappointed and rather surprised that the auction description listing does not have the back story as to where this "long lost" copy has been for the past few decades, especially when this would have certainly helped with the marketing aspect and increasing interest for this particular book.

Your sarcasm is starting to bore me. I'm embarrassed to be called a fellow Canadian. Well, since we are so loose on the "left" coast here, it's understandably and completely different from the tightly wound personalities you have on the "right" coast.

None that I recall seeing. All of his Atomic Age books were sold years ago. Any idea if Jon would have a lot of 2nd tier DC character books such as mid runs of Sensation, All-Flash, Green Lanterns, etc. left in his personal collection that will become available in this upcoming auction? I am sure that he must already have virtually all of the early keys in most of the mainstream DC runs.

As Jon has been saying on the boards ever since he got here.......if he had to pay these current prices for the books, he never would have been able to compile the collection which he currently has. For anybody that has been collecting for the past 30+ years or so, let along for the past 40+ years like Jon has, the cost of the individual auction fees and grading by themselves alone, will most likely be a lot more than his initial purchase cost for each the books in the first place.

There is a funny pages 42 in the glass case but I do not see the 35? Yes, definitely FP 42, as Funny Pages 35 is the beautiful multi-colored snowbound cover with the bear on it.

Looks like both the 'Tec 29 and the 'Tec 38 in this upcoming auction have tape on them. Wonder if this could be one of the reasons why both books appear to be grading lower than their visual appearance, given CGC's recent change in stance when it comes to tape on a book? As for PQ, I am not that fussy about since CGC is not known for their consistency when it comes to determining PQ. As long as it's not brittle or tan, than it should be good to go for GA books from my point of view. Totally agree with you on taking a 'Tec 38 though, especially in today's marketplace since it's always strategically good to buy a book when it's out of favor, but also appears to be on the verge of turning it around and going on a long overdue upward climb.

You don't know if there are stains or spine splits that could be lowering the grade Or those much dreaded near "invisible" tiny non-color breaking creases or stresses which can only be seen if you hold the book up to the light at a certain angle, and a defect which this current grading team will apply the sledge hammer to, while applying a soft touch of the feather to other clearly visible eye scorching defects which can be seen while standing from outside the convention booth.

So, if you expect the 'Tec 29 to be in the $45K - $50K range, where do you expect the equally nice presenting 3.0 graded copy of 'Tec 38 to finished up at: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676931 Of course we would have to take into account the fact that this is the issue that signaled the end of the highly popular pre-Robin 'Tec's and featured the first appearance and origin of Batman's "love toy". Nevertheless, still considered to be a GA key and at a time right when the market appears to be starting to cycle back into some of these long-term traditional keys which have been sitting on the sidelines for awhile. Any chance at all that this 3.0 graded copy here would have a shot at crossing the $30K threshold level since a "not looking any better" CGC 4.0 graded copy of this same book was able to fetch $35K in the last CC auction: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=686230&title=DETECTIVECOMICS