lou_fine

That's definitely interesting and runs rather contra to most collector's opinion here and enough to make me go take a look at the cover for SS 3: To each their own, but given the cover image for Seven Seas 3, I would personally prefer the Seven Seas 5 with the much larger, closer up, and more classic image of the Seven Seas Girl over the SS 3 myself:

That's too bad as there's generally nothing ever better than to have a Church copy of a book in your personal collection. Then again, I guess it's not real surprise since Jon Berk said tht collectors of yesterday like even him would not be able to acquire many of their treasured books in today's marketplace. BTW: Since you are clearly one of the long time collectors on these boards here, do you know there whereabouts or have you ever seen the Church copies of books like Seven Seas 4 and Seven Seas 5, or even any of the rest of the run? Just wondering since they must be true beauties to behold as they were all listed to being in NM+ condition (save for SS 2& SS 6 in NM) in Chuck's original Mile High catalogue.

Would you happen to be referring to this copy here by any chance that sold for some $25K back in 2017 and would surely go for a whole heck of a lot more today: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/732560

You guys sure do have good taste and that's the EXACT reason why I went looking for a copy of Seven Seas 6 back in the day. Ending up talking to a dealer who said that he didn't have have a copy of SS 6 at the moment, but did have a nice copy of Seven Seas 4 if I wanted that instead. After thinking about it for awhile, decided to take the Seven Seas 4 as I figured it would be a good placeholder until I did eventually find a copy of Seven Seas 6 for my collection. Rather ironically and some 30 years later, I now have the first 5 issues of Seven Seas, but still no SS 6 and I have now resigned to the fact that I will never have one in my collection given the price point at which they are currently selling for.

agreed!! Well, with most of these later Fox books, you just have to love them in any condition that you are lucky enough to find them. Especially since unless you have the Church copy, they generally mostly exist in low or at best, mid-grade condition only.

When it comes to danger in the waters, I guess the femme fatales tend to attract a whole lot more loving from the collecting base: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/seven-seas-comics-4-davis-crippen-d-copy-pedigree-universal-phoenix-feature-1947-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40216-81340.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Already sitting at a hammer bid of $26K with still another 21 more days to go. I guess it doesn't hurt when this is the artistic promo image for Heritage's upcoming GGA Valentine's Showcase Auction.

Well, at least nothing in comparison to Wizard back in the early 90's as they were caught with their shorty short shorts right down around their ankles quite a few times when they were trying to "set" or lead prices in the marketplace. Especially when they listed rather sky high valuations on so-called hot books at the top of their Top 10 Red Hot List that actually didn't even end up making it onto the shelves of the LCS as scheduled due to either creative or production related deadline delay issues. Ask and ye shall receive. Took a quick look at some of the Heritage weekend auction prices and I would definitely say that there are now a whole lot more relatively easy to find, but once so-called hot BA and CA books that WERE selling at strong prices during 2021/22 that are NOW selling for not only big discounts to their recent irrational exuberant highs, but also at noticeable discounts to their condition guide values, including some of the following: 1) ASM 300 in CGC 9.2 sold for $516 or at only 64.5% to condition guide of $800 and a Heritage listed high of $780 in October of 2022 for this grade; 2) Daredevil 168 in CGC 9.2 sold for $288 or at only 64% to condition guide of $450 and a Heritage listed high of $480 in June of 2022 for this grade; 3) GSXM 1 in CGC 8.5 sold for $4,080 or at only 65% to condition guide of $6,250 and a HA listed high of $$7,200 in January of 2022 for this grade; 4) GSXM 1 in CGC 9.8 sold for $29,249 in CL on Monday or at only 43% compared to a listed CL CGC 9.8 result of $67,900 in March of 2021; 5) Hulk 180 in CGC 9.0 sold for $1,680 or at 87% to condition guide of $1,928 and a HA listed high of $3,120 in November of 2021 for this grade; 6) Hulk 181 in CGC 8.5 sold for $6,600 or at 88% to condition guide of $7,500 and a Heritage listed high of $8,400 in May of 2022 for this grade; 7) Iron Man 55 in CGC 9.2 sold for $1,860 or at 93% to condition guide of $2,000 and a HA listed high of $2,160 in March of 2022 for this grade; 8) Marvel Spotlight 5 in CGC 7.5 sold for $1,740 or at 81% to condition guide of $2,137.5 and a HA high of $4,020 in March of 2022 for this grade; 9) Marvel Super-Heroes 13 in CGC 9.0 sold for $1,080 or at 52% to condition guide of $2,062 and a HA high of $1,800 in Sept of 2020 for this grade; 10) Star Wars 1 in CGC 9.2 sold for $336 or at only 67% to condition guide of $500 and a HA listed high of $540 in October of 2022 for this grade; 11) Strange Tales 180 in CGC 9.4 sold for $312 compared to 9.2 top of guide at $325 and a HA listed high of $528 in Dec. of 2021 in CGC 9.4; and 12) Wolverine 1 Mini in CGC 9.2 sold for $139 or at 69.5% to condition guide of $200 and a HA listed high of $188.40 in June of 2022 for this grade. Obviously, somebody with far too much time on my hands after the hectic Christmas rush looking for something to do. So, even though this is a SELECTED sample of some auction results during the past few days for what are supposedly in-demand BA and CA books, it should provide you with a general answer to your initial question of whether prices have dropped or not. Haven't bothered to check, but I would suspect the drops for the CGC 9.8's would be even larger since the swings in the more extreme grades usually tend to be more volatile or exaggerated, as seen by the 57% drop in the CGC 9.8 graded copy of GSXM 1 when compared to the 43% market price drop for the CGC 8.5 graded copy. Then again, all good if you are a long term collector since the $29K price point is still more than a double from the low teen's where the CGC 9.8's were selling for just prior to the pandemic. I guess it really depends on where it will eventually settle in at as it took a temporary pause in the high $40K's and then in the mid $30K's and now > $30K on its descent back down from its pandemic peak in the $60K's price point. All somber seriousness aside and in good fun, since there's been zero activity in this sleepy thread for the past couple of days, maybe it might just need my usual obligatory touch of bad humor to spice it up a bit by leaving some low hanging pejorative fruit for some good fellow boardies like @buttock to pluck and munch away on for their midnight snack: Oh come on now, move along as there's really nothing to see here except for a case of some penny pinching bottom of the barrel scraping cheapos of today taking advantage of some mindless day trading crypto deluded CGC label chasers of yesterday during a momentary weakness in the marketplace. Ok, all kidding aside for real now, haven't seen this kind of down draft in the much HTF GA marketplace so far to date, but you can never say never since this comic book market from a historical POV have usually always tended to move in cycles.

I know. I found that troubling too The lighting in the CGC grading room was recently switched out to new ones with a slightly stronger wattage.

Not sure about your request here, but is this attached link what you are asking for: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/famous-funnies-213-eastern-color-1954-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7338-92036.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Similarly, there will also be no record of the pisss-poor result on the Spidey 129:

Not exactly sure if I am reading the chart correctly or not, but if I was the seller and that $508 does come into play the way I think it does, I am probably too busy to worry about any old chart anyways.

Now, that's the way to think although who would want two of the same thing. Especially when you would still have more than enough to pick up a little beauty like this one here with your leftover money: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/famous-funnies-213-eastern-color-1954-cgc-vf-80-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7338-92036.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Now, now, now......................we should have more positive and uplifting thoughts on these boards here. Just imagine being the lucky schmuck who got $37K for it and can now buy it back for only $15K.

Wow, absolutely love books that present so much nicer than their assigned CGC grade from a front cover POV, even though I am sure that there are "hidden" defects that account for the grade.

That's it exactly as you can never really look at the price guide valuations in isolation by themselves without also looking at its multiplier. It's rather a bit surprising how consistent this multiplier can be over time for most books in general, but you can also see the changing sentiment in the marketplace for individual books when there are noticeably significant changes to this multiplier. Not a good sign though when what was once a multiplier for the longest while changes into a divisor as has happened the past several months in the case of many of the so-called red hot but readily available BA and CA keys or quasi-keys from the past couple of years.

Appreciate your words and sentiments here, but these are the boards and best for us to do what we all came here for, namely to have fun and talk about the funny books here.

Well, the answer is in there somewhere, namely tough to find in grade and potential buyers are willing to step up to the plate when books in grade like these do come into the public marketplace. Seems a bit too dry and boring, and it's always good to try to frame it with a touch of humor here and there since we are talking about the funny books here. My bad though if I might phrase it incorrectly and it comes across the wrong way, especially since collecting is really a case of to each their own, as long as we are all here having a good time and enjoying it while we are collecting what we all individually love.

Referring to actual market sales as many of these BA and CA keys are now not only selling at huge percentage discounts to where that were last year, but also at a noticeable percentage discount to the new condition guide valuations after Overstreet had jacked them up so much in this year's edition of the guide. Just take a look at red hot books from the past few years like the once skyrocketing BA/CA big boys like TOD 10, WWBN 32, and even GSXM 1, before we get even to a slew of the lesser keys like early Defenders Marvel Feature's, Jungle Action 5, etc..

Well, I guess you haven't gotten around to the keys and hot books from last year when it comes to the BA and CA, so I fixed that for you above. Never say never and it would appear that he certainly did pick a bad year when it came to the BA and CA books as a lot of them have fizzled out like a rocket falling from orbit.

Hey, come on now....................weren't you the guy who paid something like $45,600 for your own personal copy of the guide here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/books/overstreet-comic-book-price-guide-1-first-printing-overstreet-publications-1970-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7246-94188.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Yes, this would definitely seem to be the case here with virtually all of the so-called hot but readily available BA and CA keys that shot to the moon during the past couple of years, as they have now kind of fizzled right out. The only comic book time period that seems to be staying up there, if not continuing their acceleration are the GA books, especially the HTF ones or classic covers where condition is not the overdriving criteria as they are up significantly in all grades across the entire condition spectrum.

Isn't it always about the anticipation and so much more than the actual real thing? Just take a look at movie or TV related hyped comic books when all of the action takes place with the pre-hyped announcements and by the time they actually do hit the screens, they are usually already past their peak and on their way back down. From an equity investment point of view, take a look at all of the weed stocks north of the border that absolutely shot to the moon in anticipation of legalization. Once legalization came into place though and those dreams were all washed away with real world indicators, they all dropped by some 95% if they even managed to survive the resulting carnage.

In general, because virtually all DC's from the early 50's time period are deemed to be tough to find in grade, although this one here is certainly stretching it a bit all the way to January of '54. More likely due to the fact that this is one of three highest graded copies to date and we all know what gets the CGC label chasers all in a frenzy to open up their pockets nice and wide.

This is it EXACTLY and also the reason that FF 213 also sells for such a high amount, besides the fact that it is a absolutely gorgeous cover. I must admit though that with a seemingly large quantity of 27 copies in CGC 7.5 and above, being able to still garner $12K is quite a feat. What I find even more surprising is the lack of HG copies for some of these mid-50's FF's, and yet so many for some of the other issues right adjacent to it.

Well, looks like @Ricksneatstuff did alright with this Frazetta Famous Funnies @12 which finished up at $12K earlier this morning: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/famous-funnies-212-eastern-color-1954-cgc-vf-75-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7338-94037.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-SearchResults-120115&lotPosition=36|0 Not as good as that outlier CGC 8.0 graded copy that had sold for some $19.2K back in 2021. A bit surprised they had it in the Saturday backwater portion of their auction here though, instead of their Thursday main portion of their Signature Auction, where there are supposedly bidders with both bigger eyeballs and deeper pockets.