lou_fine

Complete run of Church Mystery Men?!!! I knew he had a bunch but WOW i can't wait to see these all together!! I remember mentioning to him that I was really only interested in the MM 1 to 10 portion of the run and he informed me that was also the only part of the run that he was interested in. But he stated that Geppi and Overstreet were not willing to break apart the Church MM run and were only willing to sell it as a complete intact run (Note: No MM 21 - 23 in the Church run) and that was why he purchased the entire Church run. Looks like it worked out for him in the end though.

I know that he has the complete Church run of the Mystery Men series which he picked up during the Diamond Int'l Galleries opening back in '95. Any idea if he also has the Church Wonderworld's or is that run sort of scattered between various collectors?

It's quite possible that there might be a bit of a spine split there, but who really knows unless you purchase the Grader's Notes. It's also possible that it might be nothing more than just extreme tight grading as there have been a lot of nice GA books graded during this summer of 2016 time period that simply presents absolutely much better than their assigned grade. Take a look at the nice 'Tec 38 in the same auction which was graded on July 14th of 2016 and that book also appears to be undergraded relative to its assigned CGC grade of only 3.0. The serial number for the 'Tec 29 indicates a grade date of August 25, 2016. These are the 2 pre-Robin Detective books that stand out for me in this latest CC auction. Ok, my bad as Detective 38 is technically not a pre-Robin book. Nevertheless, it is still a GA super key that has been relatively underappreciated in the past and just seems to be coming into its own now, and a book that would seem to have a lot of upside potential to it.

I would guess much more ... depending on what books/OA he still has and that will be included in this sale. +2 Definitely much more than what Schmell got as his was basically just Marvel SA books. Jon has a complete Marvel SA collection plus a significant GA collection to kill for and then comic related OA on top of that.

I thought it was something more like in the neighborhood of $3.6M or thereabouts. Okay, my bad as I was starting to get my collections mixed up there. It was the Billy Wright Collection that sold for $3.5M while the Doug Schmell Collection sold for $3.94M.

Absurd Why....what makes you say this when it's considered to be one of the classic Batman covers of all time and this copy here is one of the highest graded copies to date so far?

Well, here is what I had posted on the AF 15 thread regarding this copy of AF 15: I expect that you will receive your answer in 6 days from now as the current CGC 8.5 graded copy of AF 15 is already sitting at over $131K with the juice included. Guess the consignor of this particular copy did not do so bad after a lot of board members here opined that he had over paid for what was clearly an overgraded copy of this book when he paid $77K for it only a few months in the summer Heritage auction. Looks like the consignor is going to have the last laugh here and not be the doofus that some members thought he was for picking up this supposedly overgraded copy of AF 15: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/superhero/amazing-fantasy-15-marvel-1962-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7158-91123.s?ic3=ViewItem-Auction-Open-JumpLot-081514 Already at exactly double the price he had to pay for the book only 6 months earlier and we still have the live portion of the auction to go. A definite win for them, especially in light of the extreme negativism on the boards here about this copy on its first go round with Heritage. Probably all of the unfounded extreme negative talk about how the book was clearly overgraded and how it would never be able to hit even into the 8's if graded by CGC, scared off some of the potential bidders and certainly did not help the price of the book when it hit the Heritage auction block the first time.

Is it the shadow cast by the cabinet across the folding curtains? No, that's when he nodded off while finishing the art and for this cover and his inking brush fell onto the artwork.

Maybe they should really slow down a bit and take a look at all of the possible alternatives that will be coming to market soon. Especially in light of the fact that Berk's complete SA Marvel collection, including all of the keys, will be hitting the auction blocks in the not too distant future.

I will say 275 000$ to 300 000$. Makes me wonder what Jon Berk's copy will grade out at, and if it's possible that he might even have more than one HG copy of AF 15 to boot.

Well, that would definitely exclude the 1.8 copy on the CL auction site then. Then the much nicer looking CGC 3.0 graded copy on the CC auction site should be right up your alley then. If not the 'Tec 29, then both the Detective 1 and the 'Tec 38 on CC also looks really nice with decent PQ, relative to their assigned grades. I guess it would really depend on whether those books are in your wheelhouse or not.

Yes, looks like Jon made it to the finish line first before Verzyl and Anderson.

I am guessing he is bidding though....fireworks. Who's to say that Fishler himself would not be much closer to the dispersal stage of his collecting life cycle as opposed to the purchasing stage of his collecting life cycle.

I believe you mean it's going to be a buyer's market if all of the big long time collectors starts to cash out on their books at the same time, especially if there is not enough money to absorb all of the collections out there.

If potential sellers were planning to consign any of their books for this coming year, it would probably be a good idea to put it on the back burner as Jon's books would be chewing up all of the resources at CGC. Witness the recent release of the Lasry books which resulted in many GA books being assigned grades substantially lower than their visual appearance. On top of that, there is a high probability that their books would not be seeing anywhere close to top dollar as many potential bidders would be holding their money back to bid on these quality books from Jon's long-held personal collection.

I believe Heritage is not going to be very happy about being scooped out of one of the biggest collections of all time by CC. I am sure that past relationships was a factor here as Fishler and Berk have both been around from the start of serious collecting.

Are you planning to go after one of the other 2 unrestored 'Tec 29's that will be coming up in the CL and CC auctions then?

When and where was this last sale for the 'Tec 29? Linky link please, if you have it.

That's rather strange............I thought bidding on the upcoming CC Event Auction was not scheduled to start until next week on February 27th. Still haven't receive my usual email message yet from them notifying me that bidding for their auction is now open. Oh, well.

Agreed!! Really..........then where were you two guys last August when this exact same 8.5 already graded copy sold for exactly half of this dollar amount at only $77,675?

The shocker to me has to be the 29 +2 Yes, simply perplexing and yet amazing that a TRIMMED and RESTORED copy of a book can sell for almost double the condition guide value of a unrestored copy of the book. Especially when there are 2 other copies of this supposedly rare book that will be coming up in this round of auctions. CL has an unrestored CGC 1.8 graded copy ending next week that is visually much more appealing than this restored 1.8 graded copy. And to top it off, CC has a beautiful looking CGC 3.0 graded copy of this same book in its upcoming Event Auction set to end next month. I can only imagine what these 2 nicer looking copies will be going for given the astronomical price paid for this restored entry level copy.

Why? The online bidding phase usually provides zero insight into what the floor auction results will be, unless the online bidding is incredibly strong, in which case it usually means that the real fight is actually taking place during the online bidding phase for whatever reason (maybe one a major player won't be able to bid live at the floor auction). But if the online bidding is weak to average for a big book, then it usually means that the big bidders are keeping their powder dry for the floor auction. Live bidding could be 50%, 100%, 200% above the last online bid. There is NO correlation. So very true, especially the part in bold, as clearly evident by some of the results in this very auction here. Although the Detective 32 did in fact managed to achieve a double in the live portion of the auction, both of the Batman 1's and the 8.5 copy of AF 15 did not even managed to go up by a single dollar in their respective live portions of the auction.

Jimbo 747 should be happy with that price and his 9.0 There's a CGC 9.2 on the census which is the highest graded copy for the Seven Seas 4. Does anybody have any idea if this would be the Church copy or the possible whereabouts of the Church copy for this book? Chuck had the MH Seven Seas 4 listed as a NM+ in his catalogue, but then what does he know since he had Seven Seas 1 and 3 both priced way higher than issue #4.

Crazy that a 9.2 FC 108 went for more than a 9.2 FC 199. Not sure why it would be crazy that a FC 108 sells for for than a FC 199 in equivalent grade since they both have artwork by Carl Barks? I thought this would almost be expected since the FC 108 guides for almost double what the FC 199 is valued at in Overstreet. Nevertheless, some strong prices on these Barks FC's plus the Funnies with the first appearance of Woody Woodpecker. Surprisingly, I guess there's still some life left in these funny animal books after all.

Haven't had time to take a close look at the results yet since I just got back from some grocery shopping. Looks like the White Page CGC Highest Graded copy of World's Finest #6 came close coming in at only $1,075 versus a condition guide price of $1,037. Guess the World's Finest series of books are still sitting in the doghouse where they have been for the past couple of decades. Not sure what's going to get them out of there, unlike the Wonder Woman related books which finally managed to get out of their doghouse with the movie hype, after an almost similar extended period of malaise.