lou_fine

Spill the beans Wow, now that's what I call MANNINGUP as Mitch would say. Any idea where and if the Church copy of this book has ever shown up in the marketplace before? Congrats again on picking up a fantastic book.

Especially in the case of the 'Tec 29 which is restored and TRIMMED, but still managed to fetch almost double its condition guide price. Looks like these pre-Robin 'Tec books are still smoking red hot, with the fire not appearing to go out anytime soon. If a trimmed and restored CGC 1.8 PLOD copy went for over $20K, it makes me wonder what that beautiful looking 3.0 graded copy on the CC website is going to be able to fetch in their Event Auction next month. Both that copy along with the Detective 1 and 38 would appear to present substantially nicer than their assigned grades.

Like you, I am actually surprised that the book was able to do a double from its current offer of $30K.

Looks like you were bang on right!

I'm waiting until it gets to real money and not chump change before I start bidding Like telerites was saying......I was waiting for the big money to come in before bidding since I didn't want to waste my time with these petty cash amounts. Darn if both copies of this book did not even move up a single dollar in the live portion of the auction. Oh well, there's always next time, I guess.

+1 This phenomenon is clearly evident as most buyers are chasing after only the keys and classic covers, while ignoring the non-key run books. Focus is definitely on buying more for investing and future resale, as opposed to buying for reading and retaining in your collection.

Is she still holding on for Mitch's mega post?

It's new owner will soon be determined... and simultaneously, separated from a large, large sum of cash... Why, what in the world are you talking about.........it's sitting at piddly pocket change of only $12K, with still the live portion of the auction to go yet.

Have you fallen asleep at your play by play switch? The book is now at $143.4K with the juice, and we still have the live portion of the auction to go in another hour from now. Since the book definitely presents much nicer than its assigned grade, it now looks like the price is also going to be much higher than normal relative to its assigned grade. Hey, are bidders now buying the book as opposed to buying the label? Wow, what a novel idea here.

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.

Yeah ! What's up with that ! Not totally sure about this, but I thought the 'Tec 35 had been sitting at this same bid level for quite a few days now. The one that I find a bit surprising is the 8.5 copy of Seven Seas 4 which is already sitting at almost $12K. Especially when the listing clearly states that there are 4 higher graded copies out there. Definite continuing strong upward movement in the classic covers, but still!

Wait for it. We all know it's the last day and live auction when things go gaga. I thought we were supposed to wait since it's not quite the last day yet. I will admit though, that it's definitely not looking very promising for the consignor at this point so far.

Yes, saw that picture and write-up in the morning Metro paper. Certainly good to hear that they are going to be able to keep the shop going. And I thought residential home prices were going through the roof at a clip of 25% to 50% per year, although we should be seeing a bit of decline this year. Sounds as though there is no looking back for commercial and industrial property values as they are continuing to motor along at a 40% and higher clip per year, with no apparent relief in sight.

Yes indeed, the CGC 3.5 graded copy of Batman 1 certainly does present a lot nicer than its assigned grade. A check of the serial number indicates that the book was graded back in the summer of 2016 when the Marc Lasry books were probably going through at the same time. So many beautiful GA books going though at the same time makes you kind of wonder if CGC had to use some of their less experienced graders during this time period. Hopefully, they didn't end up drafting the services of the MA graders who are used to looking at newsstand fresh books and graded these GA books the same way. Just take a look at some of the beautiful looking GA books coming up in the next CC auction and yet, they were all graded in this same range as this copy of Batman 1. For example, just take a look at that beautiful copy of Detective Comics #1, along with a couple of the pre-Robin 'Tec books. Besides the fact that they all present much nicer than their assign grade, they were also all graded in the latter half of 2016.

In the last auction with the Peps in there, I thought most of the Peps did not move very much at the end as they were already topped out going into the live portion of the auction. Consignors would not be very happy if the same thing happens here as many of the books in this auction here are sitting there with relatively low bids right now.

+1 Yes, the only real reason why I even clicked onto this thread in the first place.

Well, seems as though you are contradicting yourself here as you claim that you are looking for books for collecting purposes, but at the same time hoping to invest in books that will probably increase in price over the next few months. Anyhow, since you are only 20 years old, your time frame should probably be much longer than only a few months. Unless you are really more interested in the day trading of comics will is much more like this

I believe the type of books you are planning to auction off would be a significant factor to take into consideration with respect to your decision here.

Yes, forgot all about the collapse of the real estate market right when he started to move into that area. Was definitely sad to see how he had to sell off many of his long-held vintage comic books during this period of time to keep the cash flow going.

Looks like the stresses and headaches of the direct distribution comic book market over the past couple of decades is clearly showing on Geppi. Still seems to have a burning love for the vintage comic books themselves though.

Doubtful since they specify restoration check is not included. I'd see a bidder liability issue if someone buys a 9.4 Hulk 181 and the switched books is only a 8.5 with hidden defects. I'm sure there is some disclaimers thrown in to cover their butts. Not sure how easy it would be to switch out the books since the mylar holder is apparently sealed to prevent this type of fraudulent activity from happening, as based upon the following statment from the article: "The grade is displayed on a sticker on the front of the Mylar bag, which is sealed with a tamper evident sticker for security."

You do realize that an overwhelming majority of the books graded by CGC are MA books and out of those books, a further overwhelming majority of them are brand spanking new variant copies fresh off the shelves of the LCS's. A restoration check on these types books is indeed absolutely worthless and nothing more than a waste of your money. For any truly vintage collectible book, I highly doubt this service is geared towards these types of books, as collectors with any brains at all would be sending these books in for grading through the traditional grading service.

My bet is that if CGC had initially come up with this idea, some of the naysayers would be saying what a fantastic idea this was and a nice complement to their current grading services.

I assume, seeing as how the book isn't listed as restored, that the upgrade work was a simple press and clean, but how did the pages get improved from "Cream to Off-White" to Off-White? Hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but there are many other so-called "non-restorative" work besides just a simple clean and press that can be done to book and it would still be considered as unrestored from CGC's point of view. Don't think that is the situation here, but who really knows. As for the change in PQ, grading is really nothing more than just a matter of opinion at a particular point in time, and when it comes to page color, apparently it is one of the least scientific and most subjective part out of the entire grading process.

Noticed that I said "in theory" which means that Heritage would be taking both the BP and SP since we do not know if there were any special deals here. My line of thinking is that if the book hammers at $59K, this means that the final price paid and the one that goes down as the actual sales price would be $70,505 which would include Heritage's 19.5% BP. In theory, the seller would be seeing only $53,100 since Heritage would also be entitled to their 10% SP. Since the consignor originally paid CC just over $50K for the book in the first place, this means they will be left with about $3K to pay for whatever upgrade work was done to the book along with the regrading fees. So, if the final realized price doesn't go over $70K for this book, the consignor could in theory be out some money on his purchase of this book.