lou_fine

Yes, 100% sure about the dates unless the Heritage auction archives are incorrect which I would highly doubt, as evident by this link to your purchase: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/amazing-fantasy-15-marvel-1962-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7158-91123.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 I guess time flies and the years goes by quickly, especially when you are having fun and after a big win. BTW: Any idea if the other HG Spidey's from Magik's collection also came from this "Crazy Charley" guy since I remember Magik saying that he thought his CBCS 9.8 graded copy of Spidey 14 would end up going for more than his copy of Suspense Comics 3? He based this upon his POV that Spidey 14 was such a big key SA book and there were still no certified 9.8 copies out there at the time that his copy was graded and some 50+ years after the book had first come out.

As opposed to this home run. Grade ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. Well, I guess this would be a perfect example of a case where you win some and you lose some. So, although he clearly lost some $10K+ on the Donald Duck Four Color 9, he still ended up making some $20K+ on Star Trek 1 after an unsuccessful attempt at an upgrade after he had picked up for only $20,400 back in November of 2019: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/science-fiction/star-trek-1-gold-key-1967-cgc-nm-96-white-pages/a/7212-92275.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514#

Fixed the timing in your post for you as you are out by one year on both parts of the transaction. Anyways, big congrats to you on taking the leap and picking up this copy of AF 15 at just the right time back at the start of 2017 just before the book took off like a rocket into the stratosphere. You are clearly no incredibly stupid, ignorant know-nothing buyer as recent history would clearly confirmed for us here. Just found it rather kind of ironic that so many boardies here held that exact opinion for the original buyer who was pegged as being a big fool for picking up what was surely an overgraded POS book for some $77K and then somehow then deemed to be an even bigger fool for selling it too cheaply a few months later for what was surely an undervlaued $155K. Yes, it was verified by the boys across the street as a signed 8.5 graded copy and then given the same CGC universal grade of 8.5 with the Graders Notes indicating a "writing bottom of page(s) 16" defect. Not sure if Stan's signature and note to Charley extended over to the interior back cover as the notes also indicated a "writing bottom of interior back cover" defect. Does this mean that CGC would have actually graded the book higher than 8.5 if they had viewed Stan's writing as a verified signature (which CBCS clearly did) and not as a writing defect?

Athough this is probably much deserved for Dougie based upon his past reputation, I think this $10K hit that he took is going to look like peanuts compared to the hit that the consignor of your $90K FC 386 Uncle Scrooge is mst likely going to take in this month's upcoming Heritage Signature Auction. Not sure why buyers try flipping these books back out in such a hurry when they just finished buying them at record top of market prices.

Well then, thank goodness I didn't waste my time and money sending in any of my copies for grading last year because by the time I would have gotten them back from CGC next year, they might have made the full round trip and be worth less than the cover price which I had paid for them in the first place.

Sounds as though they need to hire the know nothing IT guys that revamped the Metro/CC website, as this Goldin auction site sounds even worse than that one there.

Thanks for providing the links to both of these auctions for us here. I guess this goes to show that it's never a good idea to try to speculate and try to flip a book so soon, especially if you had paid top dollar for the book in the first place. Either that, or since I noticed that the reserve was met on the second go round, is it possible that the winning bidder from the February auction might not have gone through with the auction in the end. Especially since it would be rather strange to place such a low reserve on the book right after having paid so much more for it.

What was the grade on this Superman 1 and can you provide us with a link to both of these Goldin auction lots?

Even better than a stone cold dead and long forgotten book like Avengers 93, I'll even up the ante and give you a 9.6 copy of BOTH the hot (or not) She-Hulk 1 and Eternals 1 which all of today's generation of speculators and day traders are so much more familiar with.

Being the good fellow boardie that I am, I will step up to the plate and take this piece of BA drek off your hands at top of guide in order to relieve you from your long years of suffering and trauma by having this POS toxic book devaluing the rest of your collection.

Exactly right as Sweet Lou is looking in the rear view mirror with almost 50 years of scenic history behind him, whereas books like Hulk 181, Spidey 129, and XM 94 all came out much later towards the mid-70's. Definitely hard to beat 52 pages of Admas goddness all wrapped around a squarebound cover. The go to Marvel BA books that I remember DURING the mid-70's when I started collecting back issues were Conan 1, Avengers 93 (rest of Adams & Smith run to Avengers 100 to a lesser extent), and the duo of Spidey 121 & 122.

Or the Jon Berk Auction with all of the truly HTF rare vintage GA books that all long time collectors wanted a piece of for their own collection. Also believe that Metro/CC has been in on the buying or selling end of way more copies of Action 1's than any other dealer or auction platform to date.

Yes, long gone are the days when Avengers 93 was considered by many to be the go to book for the BA when Hulk 181, Spidey 129, and XM 94 were all still valued at under a dollar in the Overstreet guide and available around that price point.

Yes, especially since I thought from his auctions, that he was really all about HG early SA Marvels and pretty much nothing before that. Now, if you are into pressing even relatively lower value Crackajack Funnies, then I assume everything in that auction must have been squashed and flattened to the absolute max.

Yes, but once you add in the relative scarcity POV, wouldn't MS 5 be the top BA book out there since it managed to fetched $264,000 last year?

Yeah, looks like Dougie is keeping the pressers busy as it looks like pretty much all of those Crackajack Funnies have been bumped up in grade and it would certainly be nice to see them sell for less than what they sold for in their unpressed condition a couple of years ago, although I would highly doubt this happening. Don't think so since I believe the Church run of Planet was owned by Fishler himself and it was auctioned off on CC a few years ago. As for Schmell using Heritage to auction off his own books (like his multi-million SA Marvel collection years ago), I see two scenarios here: 1) A positive from the POV that he does not want the sale of his books to be seen as a potential conflict of interest if auctioned off on his own Pedigree website; or 2) A negative since he is well aware that his Pedigree website would not bring him top dollars for his own books and his site is meant only for unwitting "losers" who don't mond leaving money on the table when selling their books? Not sure about other boardies' opinions here, but based upon Doug's rather "sterling" reputation, I am tending to lean towards the second scenario here.

From reading your post here, it sure sounds like you think grading is an EXACT science, as opposed to the SUBJECTIVE OPINION (albeit a so-called expert one at that) that it actually is.

Mint 10.0 0 0 0 0 0 Mint 9.9 1 0 0 0 1 Near Mint/Mint 9.8 136 0 12 0 148 Near Mint + 9.6 345 2 26 7 380 Well, I think we all know this already and although I have not seen the new "damaged" version of this CGC 9.9 graded copy myself, it seems that some who have say that it would even have a problem grading anywhere in the 9's unless a lot of hopeful and wishful magical work could be successfully performed on the book. If you are viewing it from the ACTUAL book condition POV though, as opposed to the graded label case that's enclosing the book, this off-centered miswrapped Suscha News pedigree copy might then also be a wolf masking itself in 9.8 sheep's clothing from a strict visual POV, especially when compared to the other CGC 9.8 graded Suscha News Collection copy.

Well, why not as I guess it could be viewed as a so-called hot to trot "variant" in today's rather crazed limited edition variant marketplace.

Well, from some of the auction results we've seen lately, especially with respect to the early World's Finest, I guess you are going to have to open your wallet a bit wider if you want to continue to pick away at them.

Not for this CGC 9.8 graded copy here at least. The real question though is whether we are also seeing the same relative strength for this book in the shall we say more real world HG condition levels of say 9.0 to 9.6, or is this more of a graded label purchase by a CGC label chaser. To each their own, but if I was going to be spending this kind of big time moolah on a not so hard to find second highest graded copy of Hulk 181 (which I definitely would NOT be), I would have been more patient and waited for a much better presenting copy myself.

Yep, this Suscha News pedigree copy is definitely not as visually attractive as the other Suscha News pedigree copy that had sold for $15K when it was first brought to market. I guess that's probably why the above copy was first sold for $11K a few months earlier and then managed to only reselled at a lower price point of only $8,499 a few years later. If that's the same second owner that has now sold this copy for a rather astounding $146K, now that's a definite real strong ROI on his $8.5K purchase from less than 10 years ago. Being a comic book collector from long before CGC came into existence, looking at this copy though reminds me of how much grading has changed with CGC now firmly calling the grading shots. Off-centered books like this one here or the way off-centered fugly big wide white lined Special Marvel Edition 15 (I believe ??) that had sold for something like over $20K where you can see this off-centered printing defect from across the convention floor room were passed over by most collectors and sold at a discount back then. Now, books with this type of clearly visible defect are given a free pass by the graders at CGC who are totally focused on near invisible non-color breaking spine ticks which can only be seen by holding the book up at a certain angle to the light, and of course we all know the reason for this.

But how can that be, since this copy here just sold for a record setting $2,306.90 a mere short month ago: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/952675

Well, admist all of the doom and gloom that we are hearing lately from the CA and BA speculators/flippers on the boards here, I imagine the GA market is still running in fine form for now. Must definitely be the case here if even books like the once moribound stone cold dead World's Finest books have finally come out of their decades long banishment in the deep freeze and have finally been granted a pass to join the big party: Seems to have started with World's Finest 3 featuring the origin and first appearance of the GA Scarecrow a few years ago before jumping over to World's Finest 9 with the Hitler cover. This fever now surprisingly even seems to be able to beat down those rather silly nonsensical comical covers as evident not only by the $1,860 paid for the above CGC 3.5 graded copy of WF 30, but also the current bidding for this World's Finest 18 offering: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/world-s-finest-comics-18-dc-1945-cgc-vf-80-white-pages/a/40212-82139.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Archive-OtherAvailable-081514 Already sitting at $2,400 or more than double condition guide with still another 2 weeks to go in this auction. Especially surprising considering that this title used to sell only at a discount to condition guide for decades, as clearly evident by the mere $840 that an equivalent CGC 8.0 graded copy was able to fetch at HA only a short couple of years ago back in May of 2020. Then again, it's certainly nice to see long under appreciated titles like these to finally get their day in the sun, especially with respect to those early giant size squarebound 100-pager issues up to World's Finest 9 with those beautiful nice thick cardboard covers.

Wowza, half a million bucks, let alone a full million for a 8.5 graded copy of AF 15. I still remember it wasn't that long ago when boardies here were laughing at the know nothing fool of a buyer who had picked up a verified signed Stan "The Man" Lee 8.5 graded copy for under 6-figures at something like a 30% or $35K discount to condition guide saying that they were not only going to lose their pants, but also their top and underwear at the same time for buying this surely overgraded POS copy since it was certified by the boys across the street.