lou_fine

Well, I'll see your copy of Mystery Men 30 at a piddly $24K and raise you a copy of Ultimate Fallout 4 with it's now almost 200 equivalent CGC 9.8 graded copies for $40,800: https://comics.ha.com/itm/modern-age-1980-present-/ultimate-fallout-4-variant-edition-marvel-2011-cgc-nm-mt-98-white-pages/a/7274-91030.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Well, it is a Friday night and the use of mind expanding hallucinogenic drugs is a lot more common on weekend nights like this. Then again, it is THE Church copy of Mystery Men 10 and the single highest graded copy at that, so I imagine anything's a possibility in this still crazed GA marketplace.

I know. I stupidly blew most of my money on an earlier MH MM issue! Well, maybe in the manic euphoria of the live auction, is it possible that your mind just might have gotten confused and you got lost as both of those issues do have the number "3" on them?

Yep, hard for me to figure out the order for the CL Auctions as they sometimes separate them by the various ages with alpha order and sometimes not, as it truly seems to be a bit of a mish mash sometimes. With the CGC slabs imprisoning all of the books so that you can see only the covers, it's really more about the covers than anything else nowadays. As such, the super hero covers and adventure covers along with the specialty covers like PCH and GGA will always take precedence over the humor covers. Not surprisingly then, keys books with humor covers like this Funny Pages V2 #10 with the first appearance of the Arrow and others such as Ace Comics 11 with the first appearance of the Phantom tend to be underappreciated and have not performed as well on a relative percentage basis when compared to some of their more in-demand later classic cover issues. Not sure if I am in the minority or majority here, but if everything else is equal such as condition grade and overall visual appearance, I would personally take the FP V2#10 over the FP V4#1 eight days a week. Especially given the fact that although both of these issues have pretty much the same census count at 14 and 15 copies respectively, the FP V2#10 issue is clearly much tougher to find in grade with the highest being a single 8.0 graded copy with the next highest being a CGC 6.5 copy and most copies actually being in CGC 4.0 or lower, while the FP V4#1 have 4 copies slabbed in CGC 8.0 and above and only 1 copy slabbed lower than CGC 4.0. Of course, with both of these copies in this auction here, it is clear that not everything is equal in terms of both condition grade (i.e. CGC 5.5 for the FP V4#1 vs. a CGC 4.0 for the FP V2#10) or overall cover appearance (i.e. FP V2#10 cover appears relatively more faded): https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAuctions%2Fdefault.asp%3FFocused%3D1%26x%3D36%26y%3D13%26pg%3D33%23Item_1615484&id=1615484&itemType=0#detail https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAuctions%2Fdefault.asp%3FFocused%3D1%26x%3D36%26y%3D13%26pg%3D33%23Item_1623329&id=1623329&itemType=0 Then again, not sure if that would be enough to explain the price difference between the FP V2#10 at $3,200 as compared to the FP V4#1 at the substantially higher price point of $5,699.

So, are you really trying to tell us that the Church copy of Mystery Men 30 won't be coming back into the marketplace anytime soon? If so, then I imagine this would then be the same case with the Church copy of Mystery Men 10 which is locked away in the private vault of some tall Texan who had his sweet little baby blues set on a HG copy of this book for the longest while: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/713090 I thought this book had gone for a rather strong price of $22,500 back during the Jon Berk Auction, but I guess this price would now be seen as a steal of a deal in today's marketplace.

With how strong some of these HTF GA books did in both this week's CL and HA Fox auctions, hope that you did managed to hit your target level with your Centuars.

Just checked the Allentown pedigree catalog and you probably should have gone a lot harder for the Church Mystery Men 30. In this seeming census topping battle between the Church copies and the Allentown copies when it comes to the early Fox books, it looks like the Allentown copies stopped at Mystery Men 16 and Wonderworld 17. It's too bad that this much in-demand and HTF pedigree didn't extend itself a bit further into the later issues or cover some of the secondary Fox titles such as Fantastic Comics and Science Comics as I am sure that those would have also been on the radar screen for all of the high end Fox collectors nowadays. Funny thing though is that I still remember talking with Jon Berk back in the mid-90's when he was in the process of acquiring the Church Mystery Men run. Like most collectors including me at the time, he was really only interested in the early Mystery Men issues from 1 through 10 with the beautiful Lou Fine covers. Unfortunately for him at the time or clearly fortunate looking back now, both Geppi and Overstreet apparently said it was an all or nothing deal and if he wanted MM 1 to MM 10, then he would have to acquire the entire run. From the listing in CBM, it looks like Jon had to pay the princely sum of $770 for each one of those later HTF Mystery Men issues, including the now highly sought after MM 30.

Fantastic pickup of an absolutely gorgeous book and like you, clearly one of Flessel's top superhero covers out there, if not the best. Big congrats to you and very well done!!!

Yeah, totally don't care much for the way that CL handles their lots that have a Reserve price set on them. Can't remember now and also can't go back to check since they've not only remove the bid history, but also the entire lot from this Featured Auction listing. Not sure, but I don't believe they are quite as opened to let bidders know about the reserve, whereas some of the other auction platforms clearly state that "The Reserve Has Not Been Met" when they set the bid one increment below the reserve price.

I’d be surprised if this copy doesn’t run close to 10k before it’s all said and done. The glue may dissuade some buyers but it’s a tough book. Not quite up to the $10K mark, but it did take a shot as it closed up at $7,900 and like you stated, the glue probably did keep the price down a bit: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dsuperworld%2Bcomics%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1622653&id=1622653&itemType=0

I still regret not going harder after some of those HTF early Amazing Mystery Funnies with the absolutely gorgeous and colorful si-fi theme covers. Now, if that run had shown up on the last day of the auction as opposed to the first day when there were still 4 more days to go, I definitely would have gone a lot harder after them.

Absolutely love the bright colors on this classic Fine cover and the gorgeous Rex Dexter si-fi take with the spaceships, robot, and all. Personally speaking, real tough to beat this cover and one of the best in the entire Mystery Men run and an issue that's almost impossible to ever hope to find in grade.

Well, all I can say is that the lucky winners of the by far single highest graded CGC 9.4 Church copies of both Fantastic 22 and Mystery Men 30 must be absolutely ecstatic with their copies considering they had paid only $26,609 and $15K respectively for their copies back in 2017 during the big Jon Berk Auction.

Interesting to note that another 4.5 copy of this issue sold in a 2009 Heritage auction for only $227. The current bid on this copy is over 35 times that. Well, it looks like the final bid was not a mere piddly 35 times the 2009 price of $227, but a tad higher at $24K or 105 times the 2009 price.

Not so surprising for the Fox aficionados on the boards here, but it appears that 2 of the mid-grade later Fox books are about to set new records and crack the 5-figure price point in today's Heritage Fox Auction scheduled to end later this evening: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/fantastic-comics-22-fox-1941-cgc-vg-fn-50-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/40214-81057.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-30-fox-1942-cgc-vg-45-off-white-to-white-pages/a/40214-81108.s?ic4=OtherResults-SampleItem-071515&tab=ArchiveSearchResults-012417 Very strong prices at $10,500 and $8,100 respectively for what are basically mid-grade non-highest graded copies of what are two highly desired HTF later Fox books with still a few more hours to go.

Well, of course there's always going to be the odd exception to every rule, and in this case, the prime exception here would be Worldwide. From a census population POV though, it's kind of sad to see that Ritter is not even bothering to turn in his old labels when he CPR his books.

Looks like mere peanuts or loose change compared to the Terry-Toons 38 that took a 72% hit as it dipped a tad from $60K down to $16,800. Well, for those who are seriously thinking of trying to flip their Promise Collection books so soon after overpaying for them, maybe this is the wrong thread to be posting in as they should really be posting in the "Post Your Promise Collection Losses" thread. For those winners who won what are some clearly gorgeous HTF books with eye popping color covers and plan to hold them going forward, the beauty of collecting comic books longer term is that time tends to heal all purchasing mistakes, even in the case of overgraded books and more so, even in the case of undisclosed restored books.

Well, looks like we can toss another Promise Collection resale into the red Loss side of the ledger, even after a rare successful CPR upgrade: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dplanet%2Bomics%2B59%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1639613&id=1639613&itemType=0#detail Sold for only $4,902 as a CGC 9.6 graded copy, as opposed to $5,280 back in 2021when it was only a CGC 9.4 graded copy. Not sure if it ever sold on Worldwide even though it was listed as a so-called "Sale Pending" at $8,500?

Exactly why I much prefer the CC auction format method with the 3-minute extensions whereby you as the rational bidder that you really should be would have much better control of your irrational exuberant senses.

I’d be surprised if this copy doesn’t run close to 10k before it’s all said and done. Especially when this is a CL auction and as we all know here, pretty much the home of the last second snipers throwing in their Hail Mary bids at the last possible micro second.

I thought some of that crazed crypto money would have gone into TMNT 1 since the crypto traders might have been part of that whole Turtles generation. Especially since that jump from the mid-$30K price range up to $90K should have been fresh in their mind and they must have absolutely pissed their pants when it rocketed to a quarter of a million dollars during the pandemic thinking it might do another Michael Jordan or LeBron James from there. Then again, I always thought that the $90K auction result might just possibly have been a masterfully crafted manipulated jump orchestrated by some dealer(s) who had been astute enough to have acquired multiple copies of the book back in the day when the book was selling for only low 3-figures for the longest while back then. Especially when that exact same $90K copy sold in a very low profile private transaction for only $59K a few short months after that $90K auction resulted in a couple of transactions with the book finally being able to crack not only the $40K barrier, but also the $50K price point.

several You actually made me go and looked, and there were indeed at least a few of them in this CGC 5.5 grade that did managed to hit 6-figures. I guess it's really shouldn't be that much of a surprise in the downward movement since there's always multiple copies of this book available in every single auction.

Clearly, the winner of the equivalent graded CGC 7.0 copy for $4,655 a mere 3 short weeks ago was out of the bidding picture for your copy.

Well, for all you impatient SOB's, if you just wait long enough for the boys at CGC to dig themselves out of the 2021 and early 2022 supposedly big money making economy subs which have now turned into money losing ones that can't even get back your pressing & grading fees, CGC will soon be begging you for submissions similar to the first few months of the Coronavirus epidemic when nobody knew what was going to happen.

Didn't meet reserve. Yep, looks like the book is no longer listed as part of this auction as I guess Josh doesn't want any non-sales to show up as it paints a negative picture. But it does show up here now as part of his listing under Comic Books For Sale with either a place your bid or Buy It Now for $1: https://www.comiclink.com/itemdetail.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dcrime%2Bmysteries%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1636504&id=1636504&itemType=0