lou_fine

Hey Richard; With the prices that some of these books such as Cindy 37 and Romantic Marriage 24 are fetching in today's marketplace, maybe you've got yourself a big goldmine in that love collection of yours.

This is key before jumping to conclusions. CGC 6.5 B-5 as a starting point. Any idea what it was prior to its initial restoration? To hit 6.5 B-5, at best would be 1.0 Are you saying that in its original unrestored condition, this book must have been 1.0 or possibly even lower? Or are you saying that it must have been at least a 1.0 to start off and could have been anything up to its initial restored grade? As you can tell, I know absolutely nothing about CGC's new convoluted restoration rating system.

This is key before jumping to conclusions. CGC 6.5 B-5 as a starting point. Any idea what it was prior to its initial restoration?

Should slightly brittle pages really drop the price of a 4.0 down to about same as a 1.8 or did the 1.8 sell above market? The 4.0 was a nice looking copy.... No, it's the power of the Voldy label versus the CGC label.

Yes, I have a nice copy of Wonder 15, except for the fact that somebody traced in pen the outline of the woman's body on the cover.

I've always loved the colors from this underwater Xela cover! Next to the Startling 49, what would board members say are the next highest demand Xela airbrushed covers?

didn't the MH copy have a tough time finding a home (I think win eventually bought, after like the 3rd straight heritage auction)... maybe it was a book bob still needed, and so the price stayed a little lower Yes, same theory that I have a per a post I had made a few weeks ago; All I can say is that running on close to 10 years is a pretty long time to be banished to the penalty box. I guess the other thing hurting this book is how tough it is to find and hence, the apparent lack of sales to reinforce the upward price movement. The HA archives show only 1 other sale within the past 10 years and that was for a Fine 6.0 copy that sold for just over $2K back in February of 2014. Comic Connect shows a Conserved 6.0 copy that sold for $1,050 back in December of 2015. Can't seem to find any other sales for this book, so I assume there must be some private sales. Does anybody have the GPA stats on this book here? But as Steve has said, definitely undervalued in the guide from my point of view.

because I will be an active (to win) bidder on most, I do not want to tip my hat... sorry Why.............you little Centaur hoarder, you need to save some for us! I thought you only needed the Star Ranger Funnies 2/1?

1.0 or 3.0 or 5.0...should be the same list action 1 detective 27 superman 1 batman 1 captain America 1 marvel 1 all star 8 action 7 detective 31 whiz 1 an argument could be made to replace whiz 1 with pep 22...6 one way, half a dozen the other...with shazam picking up steam, went that route I'd say whiz 1 and all star 8 will surpass marvel 1 Personally, I would take the Pep 22 over the AS 8 and the 'Tec 31 since it is a much tougher book to come across. Especially when there appears to be so many copies of "rec 31 that has come into the marketplace over the past couple of years. I believe the significance of the AS 8 is diluted a bit by the presence of both Sensation 1 and WW 1. But that's just my rationale for taking Pep 22 over both AS 8 and 'Tec 31.

And as my former Science teacher would say, it's obvious you haven't been paying attention in school again. Wasting all your time thinking about weird and fantastic things in that wonder world of yours. You've forgotten all of the Fine and beautiful things that you learned in Science 1, Science 2, and Science 3. It's detention time for you again after school today. Seriously though, greatly appreciate your thoughtful insight as always! BTW: What's the current PPP for Jackpot 4 as until the past few years, it always seem to be the ugly stepchild to both Pep 22 and Archie 1?

3-fox 4-mlj 5-fiction house 6-fawcett 7-ec 8-centaur 9-quality 10-ace, though I would put lev Gleason ahead of ace and probably quality too Wow, surprised to see that Fox finished up in your #3 spot as I thought the lack of supply and subsequent sales would have been enough to keep it further down the list. Well, since you have Fox listed as #3 and MLJ listed as #4, what would be the Top 10 books from these 2 publishers based upon the current marketplace today. I assume it would be easy to put Fantastic 3 and Mystery Men 3 along with Pep 22 and Archie 1 at the top of both of those lists, but what books from your point of view would follow after that?

If true, that's really not a surprise - Centaurs are not transacting as much as the Big 2 (DC and Timely), there are no movies propelling them to the forefront, and in the GA field they are a collecting niche. I love Centaurs because they are pre-Timelys (Everett, Burgos, Gustavson, Mills, etc.) with a dash of DC feel tossed in. To clarify, I guess what I am really saying is that it is the super-hero books that are really powering the Big 2 in terms of their upward price movement. With the Centaurs though, from a relative pint of view, it's not just the super-hero books that are moving the prices upwards, but also the earlier harder to find non-hero books. Certainly not the case with DC's, in particular, where many of the early pre-hero books appears to be in more of a a price lull relative to their later super-hero formats. The strength in the Centaurs are much more diversified throughout their entire line of books. I love Centaurs because they are from the earlier part of the GA and just so much tougher to track down.

I think the "bid" on the clink fps7 might have had a lot to do with the price movement (I don't buy it for a second, but what do I know)... but, there are only a handful out there, and most every centaur is "rare"...however, if folks do want an early Kane proto, then surely this book should be separated in value from surrounding issues, even though all are about the same scarcity level star 3 is the same...there are only a handful of known copies...I'm not sure what the guide says it is in fine, but I paid $3500 for a 6.5 copy... opportunities rarely come up to own any single digit star comics, so they are "worth" what someone is willing to pay I agree that FP 2/10 is just as significant, but let's be realistic, no many folks banging down doors looking for Gustavson's arrow books these days (though they should!)... Jon Berk owns several of the MH I believe, as does Metro/Fishler... Win M and Bunky Brian also have some caches of MH copies of centaurs... Rick; You indeed are the man when it comes to the Centaurs! Was there an actual bid on a CLink FPS 7 as I typically have not pay much attention to CLink since their GA selection were rather slim at best? Not the case anymore, I would now have to say as based upon their past few auctions. Google indicates that CLink has a CBCS 5.5 copy of FPS 7 available now for a reduced ask price of only $3,400. Looks like it may possibly have been affected by the $3,500 you had paid for your Fine+ copy of Star Comics 3. Based upon your experience with the Centaurs, what is your ballpark estimate for a Fine copy of FPS 7 since I assume it should be less than Star 3, if based upon rarity? It would appear that none of the Centaur hero books, including even Amazing-Man himself, are not holding up as well as the main super-hero books for the Big 2. Actually, the Centaur covers that I really like are AMF Vol 2 #4 and Funny Pages #40 & #41. Okay, I guess you can toss in the run of AMF #3 - Vol 2 #3 in there also.

Rick; Since you are the acknowledged Centaur aficionado on these boards here, I had a few questions on a couple of early Centaur books, namely Funny Picture Stories #7 and Star Comics #3. Are these 2 books really as rare and as valuable in the marketplace as Overstreet appears to be making them relative to the other early non-hero Centaur books? Especially since both of these have been designated as "Rare" in the price guide and starting to approach guide valuations to the first appearance of the Arrow in Funny Pages Vol 2 #10, which I consider to be a much more significant book from my point of view. In fact, it looks like Overstreet bumped up Funny Picture Stories #7 by just over 30% from $4,600 up to $6,000. Is it because these 2 racial related covers are impossible to find in grade or is it because they simply do nor exist in high grade? BTW: Any idea as to who owns most of the Centaur Mile Highs (similar to Veryzl with the Timelys) or are they all pretty well scattered to the wind? A lot of questions for today.

I'll take both of those please. I won't be greedy.........I'll just take the Wings 90, please. Okay.......pretty pleaaassse!

Yes, definitely seems to be following the same trajectory as all of the other newspaper feature related books which were once amongst some of the most valuable books in the hobby. Definitely no longer the case here for a long time now.

Well, if you are patient, I am sure that one will show up on the Heritage Auction website as they seem to show up there quite often. Actually, if you check the HA auction archives, it looks like they have sold in excess of 20 copies of this book over the years. It also looks like some of them are open to offers to the new owners if you want to give that a try.

entry level does not follow logical ppp Still a 10k+ ish per point book Seems it would also depend on what sort of 0.5 one is talking about. A midgrade looking book missing a centerfold is not the same thing as a beat and brittle taped up rag with a chunk out of the cover - yet both get the 0.5 slab Common sense would dictate that CGC should really be using their Qualified grading in this case since it would provide so much more information on the book, instead of simply saying that it is a CGC 0.5 Incomplete or Poor rated book.

Maybe lou_fine doesn't collect Lou Fine books? The name must be a coincidence! You weren't supposed to let anyone in on the secret!

Nope - the collection appears to have been broken up early in fandom, but they sure are purdy books! Any chance that they might have become one of the early pedigree collections out there if he had held onto his books longer? Like possibly into the late 70's or early 80's when the other early GA pedigrees were finally identified?

I guess nobody's still been able to figure out yet who the writer with the big black grease pencil is after all these years. All I can say is that we should all thank him for keeping his books in such tip top condition.

Is she robbing the train or protecting it? Isn't it obvious that she's trying to rob you of your comic book collection!

Yes, a no back cover 13 went for $14k+ recently on a Sunday HA. That would appear to be an absolutely amazing price for a raw unslabbed graded book. A Poor grade actually appears to be on the generous side considering that it had no back cover, detached front cover, piece missing out of front cover, and tape running down the quite left side of the book: http://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/action-comics-13-dc-1939-condition-pr-no-back-cover-/a/121627-11140.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515 That price works out to a price of almost $30K per point which would work out to almost 7X what the price per point is in the Overstreet guide. The seller must be totally estatic with the result.

Dang! +1 Yes, it would appear there are the typical Larson's out there, and then there are Steve's killer Larson's with the eye-popping colors.

That is a great one. You almost never see those books for sale. +1 You can't be more right! Almost as nice as Wonderworld 7 and it's nice to see that Overstreet has designated both of these Fine covers as classic covers.