lou_fine

Well, you do at least have AF 15 in there.

I noticed 28 being sold for prices significantly above GPA around September so bought an old blue label 8.5 for about half what they are now. I CPR'ed it but did so right in the middle of CGC's tightening so even though two of the four items on graders notes were removed it still came back an 8.5 with a bump in PQ. Well, if you think the 9.0 copy went for crazy money, just take a look at the CGC 9.6 copy in the current CC auction: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=709009 Even though it is the Pacific Coast pedigree copy, already at an astounding $22,500 with still another 11+ days to go is a ton of money for this book. Fully understand that it is currently the highest graded copy at 9.6, but there are also 6 other 9.6 copies keeping it company, with another 13 nipping at its heels in CGC 9.4 graded condition just waiting for an potential upgrade.

Well, since that was 22 years ago back in 1995, the prices on all of the books would look like a bargain today. Since the condition guide price for the Black Terror #1 was at only $310 back then, the brochure listed price of $600 might not seem like such a bargain after all.

Hey Gator; As we all know, the early appearances of both Batman and Superman in their own individual GA titles are relatively hot and ten to bring pretty strong prices in today's marketplace. Yet, when we put both of these relatively hot characters together in a combined 100 page cardboard squarebound issue like World's Finest, all of a sudden they become deader than a doornail in terms of back issue demand and prices. Is this because of the much later time period they came out , the silly comical covers on World's Finest, or whatever?

Speaking from a competition point of view, I guess the CGC Mods must be really happy that Jon decided to go with their company for having his collection graded. Otherwise, they would be busy here all day deleting threads and handing out strikes as boardies continue talking about this generational collection here.

He has most of the run of Wonderworlds. They've already shared scans of the 3 and 7. Don't see any scans for the Church Wonderworld 3, although I do see the ones for the Church copies of Wonderworld 7 and the Mystery Men 1 which you may have actually been thinking about. Okay, my bad......I just found the scan of the Church Wonderworld 3 CGC 9.4 in the Scoop article that was sent out last Friday: http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1014?ArticleID=191226

Overstreet bought a lot of restored copies. Probably to keep costs down, probably because he didn't mind too much on big item, and probably because he was sold some that had undisclosed restoration. Unfortunately, it would also appear that many of the big books from the DC and Timely in Jon Berk's collection also appears to have been either restored or conserved. Aside from the reasons that you had already mentioned, another possible one is that for quite a few years there, restoration was something that was seen as adding value to an unrestored book, similar to how pressing is seen as adding potential value to an unrestored book in today's marketplace.

+1 Yes, indeed! For me, every single year before 1938 just seem like so much more than a year. Owing a book from 1936 just felt more like a decade away from a 1937 book. And a book from 1935 just seem like something really special and different to hold in your hands.

Which one of these early Funny Pages do you believe is the toughest to find? Or are none of the Funny Pages really that tough to find since that is one of the major Centaur flagship titles?

+1 I am so used to seeing the first issue of Big 3 that you never even think about these later issues. Looks like this issue #6 must be quite tough to find since there's a total of only 3 copies in the census as compared to 18 copies for the first issue of Big 3.

Was this the Market Report that was apparently lost by the boys over there at Overstreet Publications? Actually, your Market Report was never lost by accident and more probably conveniently misplaced with intent. Your price per point concept was probably seen as a novel idea and hence viewed as a potential threat in terms of undermining the price valuations in the guide. They was probably afraid you was going to copyright the concept if it took hold and then asked to be brought out by Overstreet so that they could continue using it if it had gone into the guide. All these conspiracy theorists!

He has most of the run of Wonderworlds. They've already shared scans of the 3 and 7. Don't see any scans for the Church Wonderworld 3, although I do see the ones for the Church copies of Wonderworld 7 and the Mystery Men 1 which you may have actually been thinking about. Would I be correct in assuming that the Church WW 3 must be the second CGC 9.4 that is showing up in their census population report? The Heritage archives indicate that the first 9.4 graded copy of WW 3 was sold at auction for just over $25K back in 2002. Looks like this copy was then regraded with a new serial number a month later at the same CGC 9.4 grade and then subsequently resold at Heritage for $15.5K in 2005. Interesting to note that for both Heritage sales, the book was not described as a pedigree copy, yet the CGC census population report now identifies this book as being the Allentown copy. I guess they must have dug up some documentation or traced the lineage of the book to authenticate the pedigree in the interim.

Wow, since it's sitting at less than $2K right now, you've got a really long way to go to get to your target level of $8K.

I'm almost 100% sure that Ayman is aware of the Berk CC auction in a few months. Who knows how many calls and reminders Metro will do to remind him of the auction as it approaches. I can see him winning some if not all of the higher graded rare books (pedigrees) that would fit his Impossible Collection and key books. +1 on this +2 Like most other high profile big money collectors coming into this marketplace, their interest is generally limited to only the mainstream superhero books from DC and Marvel only. Take a look at Danny Kramer, Jay Parinno, and all of the other so-called money players who came into this comic book marketplace. One thing they all had in common is that their purchasing was generally limited to only the Big 2 and really nothing after that. Now, with Ayman it's quite possible that he might be different since it states that he has been doing this for 16+ years. All evidence though indicates that his collecting sights has also not wandered beyond the Big 2 so far. This is the easiest part of the marketplace to understand and also the easiest part of the marketplace by far from which to buy. To go beyond the DC's and the Marvel's and into books like the early Fox and Centaurs requires a more sophisticated collector who has a much deeper appreciation for the comic book hobby itself. Not sure where Ayman Hariri would fall on this scale in terms of being a comic book collector. Of course, there's an outside chance he might go after some of these early Fox books since they are still superhero books after all, of pedigree status in the Church copies, and also probably be subject to a crash course on the importance and rarity of these books (except for Fantastic 3 of course ) , courtesy of Fishler himself. I guess we'll just have to wait to find out.

Wow, now that was a top notch detailed analysis, especially on the Detective 1. Saves me a lot of time and all that for free. In addition to the backlog issues you had mentioned in your post, I believe the GA books were also affected by the big influx of books from the Marc Lasry Collection during this summer time period. An unbelievable amount of GA books from Action 2 all the way up, Larson Batman 1 all the way up, Detective's from the mid 30's all the way up, etc. With this amount of top quality GA books to grade, maybe they had to assign some of the MA graders to this task who then immediately proceeded to use the much tighter MA grading standards to these older vintage books. Looks like the Batman 1 went through in June of 2016, the Detective 38 in July of 2016, and the Detective 29 in August of 2016. No apparent visible loose grading on that 'Tec 38 even though it was done in July. Maybe they were taking some practice shots at tightening their grading on that particular book.

The two Tecs have to have an issue not visible on FC/BC. Visually both of those books appear to be 5.0 at a minimum. On the #29 I can see a subscription fold or scratch running verically down the center but even so that wouldn't account for the grade. The #38 looks more like a 6.0. The only way to know for sure is to buy the grader's notes. No point in buying the Grader's Notes since they will both most likely go way past my budget. The 'Tec 29 has already with still 15 days left to go in the auction. You must have taken a closer look at the 'Tec 29 then me since I didn't even noticed the scratch at first. As for the 'Tec 38, it would appear to be a copy that is fresh to the market as both the Heritage archives and the CC emails don't seem to indicate a previous copy with the "2" in the top left hand corner. I guess the book must have hit the newsstand in February or the second month of the year which would line up with the April cover date on the front. Must get around to checking the Detective's 1 and 29 when I have time. Since we are talking about Marvel chipping, what's your opinion on the following 2 books which graded out in almost similar grade at CGC 3.5, with one of them definitely showing a few signs of chipping or pieces missing: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=697754 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/batman-1-dc-1940-cgc-vg-35-off-white-pages/a/7158-91008.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 My own personal suspicion is leaning towards an extremely tight grading time period since all 4 of these books appear much nicer than their final assigned grades, with all of them graded in the summer months of 2016 (except for 'Tec 1 graded in December of 2016). The HA scans indicate a spine split down to the top staple on the Bat 1, but they all sure do look awful nice relative to their grades.

You know the answer. CGC allows Marvel chipping in varying degrees based on the grade. GA DC's don't have this chipping. Even though I am not a SA collector, I have heard of Marvel chipping. Are you saying that even though 2 books have the exact same type and amount of defects, with the only difference being that one book also has Marvel chipping, CGC would still give both of them the exact same grades? Even though it is a clearly visual eye detracting defect, CGC would turn on their blinders and grade the book as if the chipping on the pages were not there. That makes absolutely no sense at all from a grading point of view. The only way that this would make sense is if Marvel chipping and a production related issue that was prevalent on all copies of the book that came off the printing press. Clearly this is not the case as seen with copies such as the pedigree and some of the other non-pedigree HG copies of AF 15. I remember a similar issue being discussed on the Cerebus 1 thread in the BA Forum. As we all know, Certebus 1 is notorious for having varying degrees of spine ticks on virtually all copies of the run that appears to be either a production binding or distribution related issue. Even though virtually the entire print run of 2,000 copies show evidence of spine ticks to one degree or other, CGC still downgrades for these spine ticks. I guess the rationale would be what one board member alluded to, since Dave Sim was able to scoured the entire print run to hand pick and pull out a handful of copies without the spine ticks to retain for his own collection. Hence, since Dave Sim's File Copies provided proof that there were indeed copies of Cerebus 1 exhibiting no spine ticks, then any copies which had spine ticks on them should then be downgraded accordingly. Likewise then, since the Curator and other similar pedigree or even other non-pedigree HG copies of AF 15's exhibits no Marvel chipping, then should not any copies of AF 15 which have Marvel chipping on them also be downgraded accordingly.

Man, the reds and yellows are insane, then the PQ!!! It must've taken awhile to find this copy! Man, I still can't fully understand CGC's grading at times. If the above AF 15 was graded as a CGC 3.0 G/VG copy, then can anybody explain how the following 2 books that's currently in CC's auction were also able to obtain equivalent CGC 3.0 grades: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=684452 http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=676931 Not sure if it has something to do with the ages as the AF15 is a SA books while the other 2 in the CC auction are not? I know you can never truly determine a grade from just cover scans, but still.

+1 Yes indeed! If Ayman Hariri truly wanted to have an Impossible Collection that lived up to its name, then he should really consider picking up some of these rare and HTF runs, especially in terms of the pedigree runs. After all, most DC and Timely books, even in high grade are really not that Impossible to find.

Definitely one of the least known Fox titles. Surprised at how much they are listed for in the guide. Congrats on completing this hard-to-find run.

Would a classic example of this be the case of the Atlantic City copies of Action 10 and Action 13 which were auctioned off by CC at over $250K and almost $200K respectively? Would Metro have purchased both of these books on behalf of Ayman Hariri, since Steve and Vincent of Metropolis were identified as the men behind the compiling of the Impossible Collection?

So, was it one of the board members here who was lucky enough to snag the CGC 8.0 or the single highest graded copy of Cinderella Love 26 with the Matt Baker cover?

Spoken like a true collector!

Not real well if I recall. Not that he'd admit it. Pretty sure it was an eBay sale... and as we all know their archives are ?. Note that I corrected where the auctions took place. I initially mistakenly thought they were done in Heritage, but it sounds as though they took place on CC, as per MMM's initial post.

Only Pep 22 has the prepubescent characters. They are teens in Pep 23 and Jackpot 4 Definitely me bad then for not doing the research here. Did try to Google up the Jackpot 4 story before I did this post, but my computer search skills leaves a lot to be desired. Wish I could afford a copy of these books to allow me to readily determine these details. Thanks again for clearing up my mistake so promptly.