lou_fine

Deathlok; Totally hilarious as after 20,000+ posts, you get all excited over a 9.2 Iron Man #1, and yet don't know what a high grade All-American #16 or an Adventure #40 is. Makes as much sense as a newbie collector rushing in and trampling over 9.6 copies of Fantastic Four #1 or Journey into Mystery #83 so they can get their hands on the 9.2 copy of Spawn #1 or Ultimate Spidey #1.

Well, all I can say is: isn't Bangzoom doing this on an almost daily basis on the boards here. He certainly does have a lot of the board members in a frenzy with his fresh never before seen collection that is worth possibly millions of dollars. Probably will be one of the top pedigrees of all time if he ever decides to grade them. Seems to be the first thread that a lot of board members now check on a daily basis as he slowly reveals them one photo at a time. DL; Well, I guess it's quite obvious you just have to expand your horizons a little instead of slumming all the time in the Comics General section of these boards. Bang has been giving the board members a visual tour of his orginal owner collection which he picked up back in '73 for the princely sum of $7,500. Approximately 1,000 HG very early HTF GA books. All stacked up in his basement in cheap little plastic bags. Included are minty fresh runs of All-American from #3 onwards including the ever popular AA #16 which must be worth a couple hundred grand. Also possibly the nicest unrestored copy of Adventure Comics #40 which should also be hitting 6 figures. Also got a run of Peps from #1 onwards, including the high in demand #22 with the first appearance of Archie. You should understand that raw copies of these books such as Pep #23 are going for almost 5X guide in raw condition on eBay. This is especially significant considering how CGC-centric and HG focussed this market seems to be. Goes to prove that if you have the right books, they'll always be able to fetch good money, even without the CGC brand. Our little visit to his treasure trove have also revealed HG sightings of hot hot pre-Robin run of 'Tec books along with many early HTF Cenaturs and Fox books. An once in a lifetime dream to see some of these books in this type of condition. It's like going through the Gerber Photjournal, except it's all there sitting in little piles for him to go through and read. Sounds like we are about to see some sightings of HG Timelys pretty soon. I guess eventually he'll get around to his unrestored 'Tec 27 and Supes #1. Can't wait for the next episode as this seems to be the must see thread of the year so far.

Well, all I can say is: isn't Bangzoom doing this on an almost daily basis on the boards here. He certainly does have a lot of the board members in a frenzy with his fresh never before seen collection that is worth possibly millions of dollars. Probably will be one of the top pedigrees of all time if he ever decides to grade them. Seems to be the first thread that a lot of board members now check on a daily basis as he slowly reveals them one photo at a time.

I love all those Detective Comics!!! Makes me wish I can get more!! Great books!!! Not only the 'Tec's, but also a lot of really nice early Fox books in this bunch here. Can't wait for the Timelys as we have not seen any of these yet. Keep them coming, Bang.

I almost bought this book when Harley had it a decade ago. This book is KILLER and the scan does it no justice. NICE! West West; Personally, I am glad you didn't pick this book up! I ended up getting this book from Harley for a little less than 2X guide at a convention. Sold it a few years later in the big Manning auction and they was able to realize almost 7X for this book. Strongly doubt that Richard had to pay this kind of money for the book as I believe he picked it up subsequent to the auction. Certainly can't complain about the money although I do believe it is the still the highest graded Fox book along with Mystery Men #13 which is also a NM+ 9.6 grade. I believe all other Fox books have graded out lower than this up to this point in time. The funny thing is that Harley also had the Allentown WW #14 at the same time. I almost took the 14 over the 13 since I thought the pages were a bit stronger. Probably should have picked up both books since Harley told me just to take the books and pay him later when I got back home. Turns out the WW #14 only graded out as a VF 8.0. Shows you what I know about grading, unless there was some damage done to the book in the interim.

Steve; I guess the Hawkeyes are one of those GA pedigrees that we very seldom hear about or come across. Any idea how many books were in this collection? Are Hawkeyes generally in the upper end of the condition scale as virtually all of them which I have seen are generally quite nice? Guess I am just too impatient waiting for this Pedigree book to come out.

Bangzoom; Congrats on having the forsight to compile such an absolutely amazing and goreous collection of books. Just wondering if your collection would have any Timely books since this is about the only major publisher which we have not seen so far? Thanks again for sharing your one-of-a-kind collection visually with us here.

Jon; My feelings exactly as I know what you mean from a historical comic point of view! I have already sent an email message to Stephen Ritter about this collection who seems to be the main man on this upcoming Pedigree book. I also feel that a collection such as this should most definitely be included in the book, especially considering there is approximately 1,000 books which is a sizeable collection to be found in this grade. If there is as much in the collection as we suspect from a content point of view, this could be one of the Top 5 GA collections of all time. Have not heard back from Stephen yet, but maybe Timely (West) can also answer this question for us since he is also involved with the book. I suspect the answer is this might be a little too late in the game to give it the full write-up unless the book is going to be delayed even further. I believe the book was supposed to be out in time for the Philly convention in June and has now been pushed back to the SD Con in July. The other reason the book will not be given a full write-up (unless it is an exception) is that none of them has or will be graded. Although the full-write-ups does cover the collection from a historical point of view, there is also an underlying CGC portion with grade comparisons, PQ comparisons, CGC graded total to total collection size, sales multiples to OS, top of CGC census counts, etc, etc. Certainly hope they can include something in their Pedigree book about this collection as it certainly deserves to be in there based upon what we have seen so far.

BZ; You should seriously consider having this collection designated as a pedigree eventually. It appears that this entire collection is from the right time period that it would have a large percentage of the GA keys there. That plus the runs and the apparent HG condition of the books would certainly make it more qualified than some of the more recent pedigress that CGC has designated.

Shield; Those were some really nice pickups you managed to get last Sunday. The prices were pretty high on some of these early Peps and I wasn't able to pick up any of them. The closest I came was being the underbidder or second underbidder on this particular copy. Surprising that Dave is able to generate multiples to guide on raw books in this CGC centric marketplace of ours. Dave provides a lot of detailed description on his raw books as compared to his CGC graded books. Based upon your past dealings with him, does he have a pretty sharp eye for restoration, since we already have one negative opinion from Steve C. with his infamous episode with the Adventure #60? Although it sounded like CGC did side with Dave on this particular book as based upon their restoration check.

Yes, based upon the books I have seen so far, this could definitely have the potential for a new GA pedigree. Especially since all of the books appear to be from an original owner collection, consist of early GA runs including the keys, and appears to be of uniform high grade quality condition. Only question is how large is this collection and what other titles would be included here. Sure looks a lot better than the Central Valley or Davis Crippen books which were given a full pedigree status.

Yes, isn't this the copy that Parinno try to sell on his site for $600K! I guess Geppi made out like a bandit on this flip and repurchase.

Scott; Absolutely fabulous report from you on your luncheon meeting with Creig. Very informative with some really insightful information such as the following little nugget from Creig: I am sure that it would take him "more than a couple of hours" now to do the recreation for the cover to 'Tec 18. Does he have a lot of commissions on the go or would he also be willing to take orders from some of the board members here? Thanks again for sharing your extraordinary day with us here.

hello all... I am sure Brian will chime in, but he posted in another thread? that he had gotten an 8.0 restored, to go along with his unrestored Metro purchase (the right one, "S" copy)...I think the unrestored one is in the vg/vg+ range, due to spine split?...but both are beauts! I just love those early Tec's! rick Don't have a problem with restoration as long as it is fully disclosed when it comes to a book like this. Especially considering that it is probably the only way that I would ever be able to afford one at this point in time. Extensive or slight restoration?

GE; Now that's a real sharp looking book for a 6.5 F+ and a great pickup. I have been looking for one of these for years now at a reasonable price without any luck. I remember Fishler had the D copy at one time, but was asking for a really outrageous price considering the condition. What are the major flaws on this copy since it definitely looks nicer than a 6.5 from the front cover image? Did you have to pay a significant premium to condition guide for this copy? Congtars again on your pickup.

Steve; Although the Fox books are generally acknowledged as being one of the tougher GA publishers to find, I have always known that there were HG copies of the early Fox books out there just based on the pedigrees alone. I have also seen quite a few of the so-called "Black S" copies of the early Fox books around, although these are not considered to be a pedigree of any sort. Besides the Church, Allentowns, and Larsons, do you know of any other pedigrees that would have a good sampling of the early Fox books?

Hey DK; Looks like a couple of real nice copies! Is the one on the right one of those "Black S" copies that generally shows up in unrestored HG condition? Now that you have two copies, would one of them be available for sale to another less fortunate board member?

Probably another couple of weeks yet. hang in there... I'm trying Bronty, but it is hard.. I guess it must also be pretty hard for you to sell off a bunch of really nice books in order to obtain that one big big book. That's something that I would also just find tough to do as collectors generally fall in love with their books. Speculators, on the other hand, would have no problems flipping since it's just like day trading stocks.

Yes, I would also agree with your comments here. Especially the fact that the work cannot be undone. Like everybody states, it also affects the entire cover and you can almost always feel the difference in the book. I remember holding a lot of Mark Wilson's books before in the past and they simply felt unnaturally stiffer. Not sure if this was due to a bad cleaning job or just the nature of aqueous based cleaning. Any idea what type of discount to guide is generally applied to these cleaned early GA books, considering that this type of work usually falls under the slight restoration category?

You are thinking of the high grade #36 which has a cleaned cover. The VG/F does NOT have a cleaned cover. Stephen Which has more of a negative impact on the price of a book? A book that has had its cover clean or a book with colour touch? I guess it really must depend on the amount of the colour touch. From the above listed prices, it looks like the copy with the microdot of colour touch still sold for over guide. The book with the cover cleaned is still sitting unsold for around guide price while the copy with both colour touch and cover cleaned is also sitting unsold even at a big discount to guide.

Talk to me here, Sean. What do I have to do to put that book in my house? Yes, another series where OS must be wrong on the prices. He has issue #1 listed as the most valuable at $1,175. Yet, the much more in-demand issue #4 is listed at only $1,000 at top of guide while the equally nice issue #6 is listed at the bargain price of only $875 at top of guide. Well, maybe I shouldn't complain too much since I did pick up a really sharp HG copy of issue #1 from Metro about 10 years ago. Was listed as a 41 or something like that on the Metro grading scale at the time. Not really sure how that relates in terms of CGC's current grading scale today.

Alright, who poached that book, and what do I have to offer tham to wrestle it away?? It sat unsold for 10 minutes before someone claimed it. S Seve; Congrats on the fast sale, especially since it went for over 4X condition guide. I guess this is just another one of those GA books that's undervalued in the guide. I was actually planning to make an offer on one of your Funny Pages book on your site. Guess there's no point after seeing this type of multiple for a non-HG Centaur.

I believe the answer to the question here has already been definitively answered by Zipper's quote above with special emphasis on the bold words.

Steve; I have heard about the Indian reservation copies before in the past, but never anything about the background story. Any idea if CGC considers these book to be a pedigree or not? In addition, would you know if this is going to be included in Stephen Ritter's and Matt Nelson's upcoming book on Pedigrees due out later this summer?

Steve; I remember that I used to own a high grade copy of this book at one time. Decided to give up on the AA #20 since I already had a nice 'Tec #37 with a similar type of cover image. Ended up trading it away for a really nice copy of Target Comics #7 in a three-way deal. Not sure if I made the right move or not in the long run, since one is an early DC book while the other is simply a scarce book with a classic cover from an obscure publisher.