lou_fine

Well, I guess that's the trick.....it's all about being the first to market with these almost common as dirt books. Just make sure you are not the first to buy though, when it comes to these types of books.

Got a link? Ask and ye shall receive: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?referral=EAlist&id=689571&title=IRONMAN I guess this book would have rightfully gone for a whole lot more than just this measly $15K if it had White pages instead.

One sold on Heritage for 11,352.50 (includes buyers premium) on November 17. --Phil My only question is will a Hulk 181 in CGC 9.8 grade ever be able to catch up in valuation to an Iron Man 30 in CGC 9.8 condition which sold for a lot more money, even though it did not have White pages? Just imagine what it would have gone for if it had White pages.

Great find. Perfect spine and presentation. You can tell the underlying pages line up basically perfectly with the front cover so no overhang issue in the corners. Nevertheless, is this book really worth $150K in most collector's minds. My own personal point of view is that there are oddles of other books that I would lay out $150K for (even if I had this kind of money) before it ever got around to this copy of Hulk 181. But to each their own, I would have to say.

fyi - the old label went away in 2004, according to cgc data there were five 9.8 & one 9.9 throughout that year, I wouldn't imagine any of them would have been cracked out. Hulk 181 census history That is really surprising there were that many 9.8's only 2 years into the CGC legacy. I just peaked and now the census is at 96. So I would have been wrong on both fronts, meaning how many I thought were in the census in 2004 and how many would be in 2016; definitely would have taken the under on that one. No, what I find surprising is that there was 1 9.9 copy just one year into CGC's legacy, and now 16 years later, there is still only the same 1 9.9 copy in the CGC census. I would have expected at least another 9.9 copy to have surface somewhere along the line in the past 16 years. Wonder what this one and only 9.9 copy looks like in comparison to the other 96 9.8 copies out there?

My own personal copy of Iron Man #30 which I will be putting up for sale, now that a copy has sold for the piddly sum of $15,000. With comic book values rising the way they are, my cherry picked copy from the shelves of my LCS should easily beat that figure of only $15K.

I believe it will continue to go up steadily in value due primarily to its rarity factor. But definitely not at the same hyper rate which the super hero keys are increasing in value. That's my worth, so take it for what you may.

If you insist, sir! Previously shown raw, now graded. Not the only plane puncher in the early Fox lineup! How was you able to convince them to use the old style label on your book as opposed to that new big fat ugly label they are currently using?

Rusted staples. Pass. Makes me think of an interesting point: Given the work already done on the book, would replacing the staples raise or lower the value? And if the rusted staples were to be replaced with vintage staples from that same time period, would that be enough to push the entire book into PLOD territory, or would it still be considered to be a Blue Conserved book? From the CGC web site: Conservation Repairs Tear seals Spine split seals Reinforcement Piece reattachment Some cover or interior cleaning (water or solvent) Staples cleaned or replaced Some leaf casting So yes it would still be a conserved grade Good to know! So, if this is a Conserved book, then why does the CGC label stated: Restoration includes: tear seals to cover, etc.? In order to line it up with their Conserved grade, should it not correctly be saying: Conservation includes: tear seals to cover, etc.?

The voldy copy with a better scan this time. Going for a bundle more this time. Below is the link: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/amazing-fantasy-15-marvel-1962-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages/p/7158-1008.s?ic4=GalleryView-ShortDescription-071515 Looks like that copy wasn't brutally over graded like everyone said it was. I thought it was in the ballpark. Someone is going to make out like a bandit! I've seen it SDCC before the auction in 8/16. The scan in the former voldy case didn't do it justice the first time around. As you said, someone is going to make out like a bandit "one of the greatest flip in less than an year" . Are you guys all sure we are talking about the same person here? Last I heard on these boards a few short months ago, almost everybody left me with the distinct impression that this poor schmuck had basically been hosed and taken to the cleaners by overpaying for this book. Implication was that the buyer was paying a high price to be schooled in the real world lessons of overgrading by the other company. I felt so sorry for the purchaser that I was even thinking of starting up a donation box for him here. And now you guys are saying that he is going to double or possibly even have a shot at tripling his money in a few short months.

Am I missing something here? Is this not the exact same book that almost everybody here was basically implying was nothing more than an overgraded POS book that would only be sitting in a 7.0 to 7.5 slab if graded by CGC? Sounds as though everybody's had their eyes checked in the past few months and their vision is so much clearer and now all of a sudden, it's a nice looking properly graded 8.5 book.

Definitely one of the bigger "head scratchers". Shouldn't really be to you since you've been here since '02 and should have seen everything unfolding. Just think about additional streams of revenues and you'll have a much better understanding of CGC's undisclosed and shifting grading standards.

Seriously, did they forget to look on the right hand-side of the book when they graded this one here. Big change in grading from the old days when blatant and obvious visual defects were treated much harsher than the feather-like treatment being applied by CGC. Instead, they've clearly moved their sledgehammer and applied it with full force on books with much harder to see additional revenue generating defects. Makes perfect business sense, of course.

Wow, a thousand bucks for three quarters of one page... It's got too much Marvel chipping for me to be interested. No worries then, as CGC does not really do much of a downgrade, if any at all, for books with Marvel chipping.

Very nice centering on that copy! Almost two full quotation marks and a nice strip of blue under the bottom table. Congrats +1 That's definitely a pretty sharp looking copy for only a 6.5 graded book, although it does have that ugly looking label. Based upon what I am seeing lately, it looks like CGC would seem to be grading quite a bit tougher in their apparent grading war with the other company. Especially in comparison to their loose grading period from just a few short years ago. From my personal point of view, consistency and accuracy would be much better choices of weapons to use in this apparent grading war.

Pretty good argument why Flash 105 gets the nod. Considering super-heroes (except the DC Trinity) were pretty much left for dead, and add to that the fact that National decides to pick up the issue numbering where Flash Comics 104 left off 10 years earlier in 1949. Yep, this was National's affirmation that the sales figures from Showcase were not a fluke, young kids liked the idea of revamping their GA characters, and re-investment in super-heroes is the future of the comic medium. +2 For me, this is also exactly why Flash 105 is ahead of the rest of the pack here for 2nd place behind SC 4.

Hard to believe that that price is considered low, but you are probably right! Indeed... should be double that at 8k.... The best page to hit the open market! who knows when another superman will be availble for sale. Will be fun to see the result of this holy grail page? Finished at $4,306. Maybe its being brittle held it back. That will definitely do it as most collectors here seem to avoid anything at all do with the word "Brittle" in the PQ. .

+1 And it's about time, although I believe he's had this particular issue broken out for a few years now. I believe more of these pre-hero Adventure's and in particular, some of the More Fun's such as #47 and #48 with their classic adventure themed covers really needs to also be broken out.

Pretty much the entire Montana run from 41-50 are great covers. My favorite after 50 is 48. Sounds as though most collectors have their own personal favorite(s) after #50. No surprise there as that whole Montana run is nothing but top notch. My own personal favorite of the bunch is issue 46 with a plethora of tightly dressed femme fatales with purposely drawn headlights for you to choose from.

my personal feeling is that some of the early actions went a little under what i would have thought. Call it auction fatigue, or seasonal dampening, or market softening, I saw the same thing with several high profile detectives last night Maybe because the Batman vs. Superman movie didn`t set the world on fire? At this time last year we were prepping for it. Also no new Batman movie until 2018. I can see a slight softening now without movie hype to get them red- hot. I think movies have a lot less impact on GA books, in terms of getting them "hot", compared to bronze to modern... +1 Although they probably are part of the reason for the significant increase in prices for More Fun 73 and AS 8. Of course, both of these 2nd tier keys were probably undervalued to start with, which makes it a lot easier to increase in value relative to other books that have been hot for awhile.

And did you buy either one? i wish. Have had basketball games both nights and missed bidding Not an acceptable excuse here. Basketball games comes and goes all the time, which is definitely not the case with the opportunity to purchase either an Action 2 or an Action 7.

I believe they were going for around $7K on a price per point basis for unrestored copies earlier this year. Not sure if this price point will still hold considering the number of copies out there, albeit most of them are restored copies. Also need to add that it depends upon how your book actually presents. Unfortunately, there are some beautiful looking 3.5's and then there are some fugly looking 3.5's out there, as CGC is notoriously consistent for swinging between loose grading periods and tight grading periods. I think it's the nicest of the 3.5s that I've seen. Very clean. Just took a closer look at the 4.0 copy on the CC website: http://www.comicconnect.com/bookDetail.php?id=686230 Certainly seems to have a lot of clearly visible defects for a VG 4.0 copy and yet its already at $33.5K with another 4 days left to go in the auction. Not sure if this grade would hold or be bump down a tiny notch given today's apparently slightly tougher grading. Looks like the book is now at $8K per point, although it makes me wonder if a cleaner and nicer appearing slightly lower graded copy (hint, hint) would be able to fetch slightly even more money.

Rusted staples. Pass. Makes me think of an interesting point: Given the work already done on the book, would replacing the staples raise or lower the value? And if the rusted staples were to be replaced with vintage staples from that same time period, would that be enough to push the entire book into PLOD territory, or would it still be considered to be a Blue Conserved book?

+1 Gotta go though my GA listing or scans one of these days since I am quite sure that I also have a few of these Cookeville books in my collection.

Personally, I never really care much for all of the paste ups and white-outs that seem to show up on some of the original art covers. The one for the Torch 16 looks nice through. To each, their own, I guess.