lou_fine

Can't quite remember now, but was there actually more than one sale for this book in the $100K price range in this condition grade?

So nice to see that even though you sold off 99% of your collection, you are still here on these boards to share your collecting experiences and knowledge with us. Especially when it seems that most boardies who end up selling their collections tend to no longer patrol these boards after awhile. By recently, I hope you was able to sell the rest of your BA and CA portion of your personal collection during the big wild Covid runup of 2021. Not sure, but did your collection ever go as far back as into the GA time period, as I believe it did go back into the SA if my memory in my advancing age is correct?

Which actually represented a drop of $1,200 or 9% in less than a year from the $13,200 that it managed to fetched back in November of 2021: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/crime-mysteries-4-davis-crippen-d-copy-pedigree-ribage-publishing-1952-cgc-vf-85-off-white-pages/a/40183-82040.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Looks like everybody is still keeping their powder dry since all of the bids are still "scraping the bottom of the barrel" low right now.

Big congrats to you on being able to pick up some great books and then having the smarts to keep them in tip top fantastic condition all these years until it came time for you to cash in on your little nest egg here. The only problem being that it's actually hard to justify having them certified when your cost of acquiring the underlying books themselves is only a tiny fraction of 1% of the total cost to have them "prepped" and then graded for certification. Hence, the reason why the old school long term collectors usually simply leave them raw sitting in their private collections until it comes time to actually sell them.

If we could only turn back the clocks Let me tell you, if I could turn back the clock to buy comic books, it sure would be a lot further back than having to pay $30K for a Hulk 181.

Since you have some prior inside experience with CGC and its inner workings, just a question for you here. Are the graders actually aware of what tiers the books were submitted in when it crosses their grading table? Just wondering because from your comment here, it almost sounds like they would know if it's an Economy tier book, they should then not spend as much time with detailing the grading notes.

Most definitely and for a moment there, almost reminded me of the 'Tec 140 selling for the rather astronomical price $456K in the summer of 2021. Then it got me thinking as to what the single highest CGC 9.4 graded copy of 'Tec 40 with the first Joker cover (along with the first appearance and origin of Clayface) might go for in today's marketplace and if it could be right up there in the same ballpark as both of these single highest graded copies of 'Tec 168 and 'Tec 140?

If you are referring only to the exploding word boxes and title sidebar on the left, then I am in 110% total agreement with you. It's just that the image which you had posted in your post also left out the background stars and planets, along with the jagged mountain landscapes and volcanoes at the bottom, all of which I found completed the si-fi image as a whole.

Well, is it any worse than paying over $30K for a signed copy of this "available in abundant quantity" so-called key book?

A word of warning to you here from personal experience..................you will be sent to the CGC sin bin to have these kinds of thoughts removed from your mind if you continue to bring politics into your posts on these boards here.

But probably even better in a mylar sleeve where all of their colors and brightness can still shine through, but also much more easily accessible if you want to take a closer look and even more so, takes up a lot less storage space.

Being a longer term type of comic book collector, I certainly wouldn't want to be buying into a book whereby it's valuation is based upon movie speculation because we all know how the story ends on those types of books if you can't master the FIFO (i.e. first in, first out) timing strategy adeptly enough and end up buying in too late and then holding on for too long.

I would tend to agree with you here, as CL is really the home for the speculators and CGC label chasers. And as such, probably the best place to be when it comes to selling readily available highest graded copies of so-called hot books in a rising market, but when the market is heading downwards the other way, all of the speculators (i.e. your potential buyers) are all rushing for the exit doors as fast as their little feet can take them.

I would actually tend to disagree with you here as the only part that I found distracting was all the exploding word balloons and the oversized title sidebar. If you take a look at Contact 12 which I agree is a great cover, both the foreground and the background gives you a complete si-fi image: To each their own, but the picture above without the background artwork just kind of makes the whole image appear a bit "naked" and it kind of loses it's si-fi feel at the same time.

Yep, definitely still a strong price for a CGC 7.5 graded copy, as that's also still well over 4X Overstreet condition guide value. It's not like some of the other more readily available so-called movie hyped books that were selling for multiples of condition guide value and now only able to sell at a discount to condition guide value. Or like some other higher risk speculative investables like Bitcoin or some of the Nasdaq stocks which have dropped by as much as 80% from their highs of a year or two ago. Now, that's what I call a big drop and taking a massive body crunching hit.

Apparently there's an Ebola outbreak going on in Africa. Well, I somehow doubt that the general populace in a place like Uganda or the Congo would have our four color treasures very high on their list of shopping necessities. If anything, you would expect the more affluent big spenders locked away in a country like China with Xi's Zero Covid policy in place to be clicking away on their laptops snapping up our four color treasures. Instead, they seem to be throwing their money towards more traditional stuff like real estate, classical Chinese artworks, high end fine wines, and big dollar fashion designer brands like their LV or Hermes Birkin bags, Miu Miu or Louboutin shoes, but pretty much nada when it comes to American comic books.

Well, the point to remember here is that even in a rising market (which we don't necessarily have right now BTW), nothing ever goes up in a straight line. Especially since we really probably need a couple more data points before a trend can actually be determined, considering that this is only a 7% drop based upon one auction result while many other books have been trending downwards by solid double digit percentages based upon multiple auction results. For all we know at this point, this might be nothing more than the prices consolidating before it takes the next jump higher up and might actually be a good time to buy. Price consolidation at various intervals is actually a healthy sign when the price of an item is going up longer term. Especially after a spectacular price increase which some can say took place here, especially considering that prices for Blue Bolt 105 in this grade range was selling for only low 4-figures back about 5 years ago and even into the 3-figures about 15 years ago before starting to make their move upwards a few years ago.

Although it is definitely in both Heritage's and CGC's modus operandi to generate repeat business on the same book which they have clearly done in the past, it would appear if this was their intention with the Promise Collection books, they have clearly done an absolutely terrible job here when compared to some of the previous collections they've had.

Well, really not much of a surprise here considering that Matt was his former business partner in starting up Worldwide and no doubt highly influential in showing Ritter the benefits of pressing.

Totally agree with the both of you as it would appear the cover defects were so visually obvious that the bidders most likely looked right pass that big number on the top left hand corner of the slab and decided to go old school here by buying the book and not the label.

And if you go back to 2018 which is really not that long ago, 9.8's were selling only in the mid to upper $30K's. So, bottom-line here is..................still a fantastic rate of return if you are a longer term type of collector.

Probably after a copy of Silver Surfer 1 sold for something like $108K and a copy of Silver Surfer 4 had sold for $90K.

Then again, maybe not and wowza, will wonders never cease since @buttock's post referencing Ritter's website led me to this book here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/planet-comics-59-the-promise-collection-pedigree-fiction-house-1949-cgc-nm-94-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7248-93153.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 This Promise Collection copy sold at Heritage in November of 2021 as CGC 9.4 graded copy for $5,280 and then followed by this sale here: https://www.wwcomics.com/comicdetail.asp?Product_ID=PlanetComics_59_44226 http://images.wwcomics.com/images/medium/PlCo_59_96.jpg Currently showing up in Ritter's WW website as "Sale Pending" at $8,500 with the book now being certified and slabbed as a CGC 9.6 graded copy. Wish that Ritter website allows you to zoom in so that I can see the serial numbers to see if Ritter had done the CPR treatment on his Promise books or not. Either way, you gotta give him some credit for having the balls to play the CPR game with his Promise book(s) here, whereas nobody else seems to have so far.

Well, that's probably because Ritter figures that some pedigree books might just be worth a lot more in raw condition, as opposed to when they are already in certified graded condition. I would tend to agree with you here, as I am quite sure that Heritage with their experience would know much more about which books would benefit from maximization and which books would probably not. Unlike some submittors who does not have the same expertise or knowledge and end up simply sending everything in for maximization prior to having them graded.