lou_fine

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?

Well, even if it's the first Blue Beetle cover, have you taken a look at the cover artwork and that might to explain why as it's certainly no Fine or even Tuska. Just checked the Grand Comics Database and the cover is listed as Charles Nicholas which is supposedly the pseudonymous for a few of the artists working in the Eisner & Iger Stdios at the tie. Never know, it just might have been some fledging newbie at the time like Jack Kirby. I guess you haven't heard the latest in terms of robot covers being the new skeleton/skull or dripping flesh covers for 2022 and 2023.

Without a doubt, this would bump up the profile of the comic book collecting hobby up to another level with Elvis's name attached to the collection. Not too sure if they would be in that fantastic of a grade condition though as I get the feeling that Elvis probably read the heck out of them while laying in his bed.

Or the Fish himself since he was most likely closedly involved with Berk in acquiring books for his collection and the big auction at the end.

I get that some folks have grade standards. Uummmmm............................I believe that Tim might just have been looking at himself in the mirror when he made that post.

Not too sure, but he did have a copy of CMA 2 which was slabbed as a Slight (C-1) Restored CGC 7.5 graded copy with a small amount of glue on the spine and tear seal to cover that sold for $2,161 in the big Jon Berk Auction back in 2017. Interesting to note that Tricarichi had graded the book as a NM/M copy, so not sure if the book had suffered some damage in the interim or if Joe was really that inconsistent of a grader. From some of the grade comparisons in the Larson List for the Larson books that have been slabbed to date, all I can say is that Tricarichi is certainly no Jim Payette when it comes to tight grading as most of the CGC grades for the Allentown books have actually come in higher than what Payette had them listed at in his Master Allentown List, with very very few that have come in lower. As for CMA 1, The Larson List does indicate a F/NM copy in there with the bracketed notation of a tiny piece out from the spine and lite fold length of front cover. Now, not sure if this was one of the very small handful of books that Jon supposedly decided to keep for himself after auctioning off his collection back in 2017. If so, surprised that he did not keep the Church copy of Mystery Men 3 since that was always one of his very favorite books. Then again, I hear he apparently did have two copies of that book and probably kept the undercopy for himself and let the Church go along with the rest of the Church Mystery Men run. So, it's quite possible Jon might indeed have the Larson CMA 1 still with him since he did have the CMA 2, but who really knows except for Jon himself and possibly a few others in the know.

Oh wow, a Hawkeye pedigree copy to boot. From the very few Hawkkeye's which I have seen, they are absolutely stunning and gorgeous books. The only problem with this pedigree is that they have no tell tale identification markings on them which no doubt have probably resulted in many of them losing their provenance over the years.

Interesting point, yeah maybe. Most of those tend to have too much resto, but you never know. Maybe there’s a sneaky 8.0 with slight ct, waiting to be worked on. Well, why think so low when they already have a Restored copy in CGC 9.6 and it's listed as only SP (i.e. Slight professional), so who knows.

Yes indeed, a very good question and it would not surprise me at all if his father, the Dentist himself, does own the raw Church copy. Just checked Chuck's Mile High catalogue and he rather surprisingly and uniquely writes a whole paragraph on this book here about the poor page printing quality and how it is his belief that this is either close to or the best copy in existence. He goes on to state that "it has a small nick at the bottom of the spine and a very slight bit of splitting on the spine. The splitting only affects the outer layer of the paper." He then lists the book as in NM condition at a price of $3,000.

Clearly my bad then, but that trend does seem to have held pretty consistently for the past 2 or 3 years now. Oh heck, since it's a Friday night heading into a weekend, let's go real crazy here and say it's really all about Mystery Men 7 then. Come on now, don't they have any unrestored Universal copies of this book here as I just took a look at the Heritage archives and out of their top 7 dollar value sales for this book here, 6 of them were restored copies with the only unrestored being a RAW Good condition rated copy that sold for $3,346 or somethng like 10X condition guide value back in August of 2017. Looks like the most recent sale and their high water mark was for a Restored CGC 2.5 graded copy for $3,360 or almost 7X condition guide value for a rather less than visually appealling RESTORED copy only a short couple of weeks ago back on February 27th: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-cgc-apparent-gd-25-slight-c-1-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122309-17635.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Besides the Jon Berk Church CGC 8.0 Universal copy which CC sold for over $13.5K back in 2017, it looks the only other recent sale CC has had was for a Restored (there's that word again) CGC 4.0 copy that they sold for $4,150 back in March of 2022. Just took a look at the CGC Census and it appears that there are only 11 Universal unrestored copies of this book graded and slabbed to date so far, with the Church copy the highest by far as the other remaining 10 unrestored copies are all graded in CGC 4.0 condition and below. So, I somehow highly doubt we will be seeing any half decent unrestored copies of this book making its way to market anytime soon.

Do you have a link for this $4,300 sale since it's clearly not Heritage and I was sort of comparing the CC 3.0 result at $3,305 to the Heritage 3.5 result at $3,600 which just took place a few days earlier on March 12th? The point to remember here is that not all CGC 5.0's are the same, and as such, unless you are Mr. Magoo, it is rather obvious which one of these CGC 5.0 graded copies is clearly much more visually appealing: The one that sold for only $2,777 with a color breaking subscrition crease apparently throughout the entire book: Or this one here that sold for $3,840: Actually, it's rather refeshing to see that more bidders are now looking beyond that big big number on the top left hand corner of the slab and looking at the underlying book itself before placing their bids. Maybe in addition to the CVA and QES stickers, they need to add another sticker to denote books that appear to be visually inferior to their assigned CGC grade. And as for the FF 209 and trying to compare prices between CGC slabbed books and CBCS slabbed books, I belive you've already made the point yourself that they are NOT comparable.

Except that it's still so gosh darned fugly looking and so much like obvious restoration staring right back in your face even though it technically isn't any longer. Well, at least according to the boys at CGC with their revised definition of what now constitutes Restoration and Conservation.

Now, if you are referring to the CGC 5.0 graded copy of Mystery Men 6 here, that's not really that high at all as it went for only $1,678 which is not even double condition guide. Then again, if you are referring to the CGC 3.5 graded copy of Mystery Men 2 that sold for just over $6K, I would tend to agree with you more. Definitely a beautiful brightly color very early robot cover, but has this book vaulted ahead of Mystery Men 3 to move into the second most valuable issue in the Mystery Men run and a spot which was long held by MM 3? Especially since CGC 3.0 to CGC 3.5 graded copies of MM 2 have now seen multiple sales in the $6K to $7K price range (or up to 9X+ condition guide value) over the past couple of years, with the only outlier being the CGC 3.0 copy that sold for $5,040 at Heritage in August of 2022. Especially since the Heritage archives (no sales in this condition range in the CC archives) indicates the last CGC 3.0 sale for Mystery Men 3 was for only $2,280 back in November of 2020. Looks like the HA archives indicates that copies of MM 3 in CGC 4.5 and CGC 4.0 managed to hit only $5,160 and $4,800 in May and December of 2022 respectively. Wow, lower graded copies of MM2 selling for higher prices than higher graded copies of MM 3 on a seemingly consistent basis. Go figure that!!!

Well, you are clearly a collector with top notch excellent taste if you are into both Master 21 and Superman 14. Sadly, I have always loved the cover for Master 21 with their nice color combinations, but was never ever able to come across one in nice enough condition when I was into my big collecting phase back in the day. For some reason Master 21 seemed to have dropped down the chart somewhat when it came to collector demand for awhile, but nice to see that it's getting some long overdue appreciation now as evident by this CGC 6.5 graded copy selling for $11,611 last night. As for Supes 14, looks like it's still flying sky high since it had risen from some $5K or $6K when I started this post before my better half dragged me off to her doctor's appointment and seemingly endless grocery shopping and now finally back home to see that it's closed at $19K: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/982268 BTW: What 8.0 sale are you referring to that Heritage had just done, since I checked their auction archives and the only recent CGC 8.0 sale that I could find was for $16,200 back in April of 2022 when the majority of the comic book marketplace (exc. the GA at least for now ) was supposedly on the last legs of its pandemic peak? Have always loved this cover and actually listed it as one of my Top 5 GA covers for a CBM survey back in the 90's, along with a couple of other I guess unknown covers back then (i.e. 'Tec 31 and Punch 12) as I was the only fool at the time to have included either of those two covers as part of their Top 5 list. As for Supes 14 and a funny story, I remembered meeting up with Mark Wilson back in the late 80's at a Denny's resturant to pick up some book which I can't remember now. After we had completed our transaction and our meal, he then pulls out this absolutely stunning copy of Supes 14 for me to take a look at and I just couldn't believe how gorgeous it was with the solid deep black cover and the eye-popping colors like the book had just come off the printing press. He asked me to take a look at it and when I said it was absolutely gorgeous and stunning, he then asks me to take a much much closer look at the book and then I point out some area near the bottom of Superman's left foot and he said "Yes", he had done a tiny seal or color touch there (can't remember which now) but that nothing else had been done to the book. Since I was still unsure, he told me to take the book back home and if I decided not to take it, just ship it back to him, and if I decided to keep it, just to send him the $600 or $800 or whatever it was to him. All I can say is that knowing Mark's reputation, he must have scrubbed and cleaned that book multiples times to get it to absolutely "shine" like that to the point that I just couldn't find it in myself to ship it back to him in the end. That's the advantage of being a long term collector though, as time can oftentimes heal some of your purchasing mistakes.

Yeah, I was watching that video and thought Vinnie might use the opportunity to explain the orign of this "Microsoft Copy", but nada. Yep, pretty much dead slow for the longest time in comparison to all of the SA Marvel keys which has risen virtually non-stop for decades.

Yeah, I was also kind of shocked at what the Showcase 6 had gone for at almost $17K, so I decided to pull up the listing and listened to Vinnie's video. Found it kind of funny how he said they used to joked that Showcase was really Slowcase, but now no more as it IS clearly DC's undervalued title in their panethn of titles. Not sure if there are any rumours of a possible DCU movie with James Gunn looking for new characters, but it seems that this series has really shot up in value since the pandemic lockdown. Decisded to check the Heritage and CC archives and it looks like Heritage was able to fetch only a piddly $4,680 for their equivalent CGC 8.5 graded copy of Slowcase 6 back in February of 2019, but was then able to auction off a CGC 9.0 copy of Showcase 6 for a rather stunning $26.4 in June of 2022. Decided to check out the biggie (i.e. Showcase 22 in CGC 6.5) which Vinnie was holding in his hand which went for over $17.5K last night and also noticed in their CC archives that they auctioned off a CGC 7.5 graded copy of Showcase 22 for over $50K back in December of 2022. So, like Vinnie was saying in his video, Showcase is no longer Slowcase.

Not sure if this price is really THAT super strong, especially since we've seen lower graded CGC 4.0 copies selling into the teens with the high point for a CGC 4.0 being $14,754 in a CC Auction back in April of 2021. As for Mask 2 reaching parity with Mask 1, I guess the upcoming Heritage Signature Auction at the end of this month will possibly give us an answer to your question here. Especially since CL was able to fetch a rather astounding $118,700 for their single highest graded CGC 8.5 copy of Mask 2 back in June of 2022 while Heritage was able to fetch only $102K for their single highest graded CGC 8.5 Promise Collection copy of Mask 1 back in June of 2021. It will definitely give us a much better picture of where both copies stand when we see what the Promise copy of Mask 1 does in response.

Any possibility that it might have been a group effort and Baker did a good portion of the cover art since Overstreet, CGC, and the Grand Comics Database continues to give cover credits for this issue to Baker? That it most certainly is.