lou_fine

Am I too late if I say that I'll take them all at your listed prices with no haggling at all on my end here?

I am just so glad that I peruse these boards here as there is just so much hidden knowledge and information here that allows you to get the inside scoop before it becomes common knowledge. If it wasn't for you guys here, I never would have had the foresight to trade off my about to become worthless copy of 'Tec 27 (I so wish ) last night to some know nothing Johnny come lately fool who gave me his copy of Action 12 in return. Clearly he didn't get the word that Action 12 had the first appearance of The Batman and was out on the newsstand a whole week prior to 'Tec 27 hitting the streets, and as such, is clearly destined to rise to the top of the charts on Overstreet's Top 100.

Well, in this same CL Auction that just finished up last week, you could have gotten this very "presentable" copy of Famous Funnies 209: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FPREVIEW.ASP%3Fcode%3D2022aug%26x%3D40%26y%3D8%26pg%3D5%23Item_1593802&id=1593802&itemType=0 Then again, although it is substantially cheaper than the FF 215 given that this is a CGC 9.0 graded copy, I am not sure if the $4,050 price point would qualify as "on budget". Then again, it does come with one of those CVA stickers attached onto the slab.

Yes, there's a clear distinction between the earlier portion of the Frazetta FF run from the latter portion which is clearly evident in the prices realized and I noticed that Overstreet finally got around to recognizing this fact in his latest edition of the guide. Not sure if he got the breakdown exactly right though as he grouped Famous Funnies 212 to 214 together with a top of guide valuation of $8K and the rest of the Frazetta run with a top of guide valuation of only $4K. Personally, I would have broken it down into 3 groups with the top grouping being FF 213 & FF 214, followed by FF 212 & FF 215-216; and then with the much more common FF 209 to 211 in another grouping.

Are you saying it's going to be more like a $15K copy then?

Well, for you lucky holders of Famous Funnies 215, it looks like this latest CL Auction result from last week clearly confirms this book's a keeper: https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FPREVIEW.ASP%3Fcode%3D2022aug%26x%3D27%26y%3D14%26pg%3D10%23Item_1606625&id=1606625&itemType=0#detail Sold for a strong price of $5,100 for a CGC 5.0 graded copy which leads me to think that your 7.5 copy should have no problems hitting 5-figures which represents a rocket of an increase from the high 3-figures or very low 4-figures that a CGC 7.5 graded copy would have garnered a short decade ago.

Oh, come now, let's not be so modest.............there's probably even some here who will bid the farm on a 9.6 copy, but yet see a 9.4 copy as being more worthless than used soiled toilet paper.

Then again, I was also watching the Four Color Flash Gordon books which had a nice showing as they all tended to finished up in the $800 range, but nowhere close to the $2K to $3K price range which similar issues (albeit slightly higher graded copies) managed to fetch at CC last year. Perfect case in point being the Four Color 512 Flash Gordon book, where the CGC 9.2 graded copy sold this past weekend for only $840: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/four-color-512-flash-gordon-dell-1953-cgc-nm-92-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122236-11326.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 While this slightly higher CGC 9.4 graded copy sold for a whopping $2,725 in a CC Event Auction back in the Spring of 2021: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/820394 So much so for people who say that Heritage is always top dog in terms of getting the strongest prices for their consignors. At least, not so much with the Flash Gordon's in this particular case here. Then again, it MUST have been the QES sticker that shot this copy so far up into the stratosphere.

Nice to see that both low grade Restored PLOD books and low grade Qualified books can still fetch nice premiums and multiples to condition guide: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/new-york-world-s-fair-comics-1940-dc-1940-cgc-apparent-gd-25-slight-c-1-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122236-11630.s?type=bidnotice-tracked-endofauction https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/superhero/weird-comics-3-fox-features-syndicate-1940-cgc-qualified-fr-gd-15-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122236-11846.s?type=bidnotice-tracked-endofauction These two books sold for $1,680 and $810 respectively which are strong prices considering their grade and non-Universal status.

Yes, this book's definitely NOT for me as I totally don't understand the prices being paid for it. Especially since it is certainly not scarce by any definition of the word as it seems to show up in every single auction and already has well over 100 graded copies in the census. Not too surprising about the population count though, as I heard that this book might possibly have been part of a warehouse find back in the day.

Isn't it really much more likely that these are brand new raw copies submitted in for grading since the count for the CGC 9.8's went up by 2 for the Universal and by 1 for the Signature series for the week of August 9th: http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/comicid/5000360/6mo Especially since TMNT 1 is a more recent book from 1984 and we would expect to see more 9.8 graded copies to surface over a period of time. Heck, i would not be at all surprised if these 3 new 9.8 graded copies came from the same submittor who had squirrel these copies away from the get go since they all popped up in the same week.

You are going to have a ton of competition here if this ever happens, including from yours truly here. And isn't it really about time that Overstreet break out more of these books from their larger groupings since the adventure theme covers and some of the more in-demand covers in these pre-hero books clearly sell for more than their adjjacent humour theme covers?

Was looking at this Signature Auction listing here and it's pretty clear that they must be pulling up incorrect Overstreet valuations for this book here: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/suspense-comics-8-continental-magazines-1945-cgc-fn-55-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/7279-94194.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Instead of showing the Fine valuation for this book at $1,623 they are showing only the $150 valuation which is for the Atlas copy of Suspense 8, and not this Continental Magazine copy of Suspense 8.

I would tend to agree with you, although with the restored and low grade pre-hero DC's, they were only a few hundred dollars in condition guide value. A few examples of these rather surprising raw Heritage sales (at least from my POV) from earlier this year were the following: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure-comics-38-dc-1939-condition-apparent-gd/a/122207-13010.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure-comics-33-dc-1938-condition-apparent-gd-vg/a/122207-13007.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 Both were graded as Apparent Good or G/VG copies and sold for $4,320 (or 11.7X condition guide) and $5,040 (9X guide) respectively; OR https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/more-fun-comics-45-dc-1939-condition-gd-/a/122213-17630.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 This unrestored Good+ copy of More Fun 45 that sold for $4,800 or a rather astounding almost 20X condition guide for a RAW graded book.

Although I would definitely ten to agree with you here, I will have to say that they are clearly making some inroads into the GA market for the past few years as it has become one of the hot sectors of the comic book marketplace. If I was a GA consignor though, I would most probably still go with either HA or CC depending upon the book. Unless it's a highest graded copy or something close to that since I find that CL also tends to be the home of the labels chasers and when you have a highest graded copy of a book, they certainly do like to promote that fact as part of their auction listing description.

Not exactly sure why, but it seems that this even happens within their own Hertiage auction platform when it comes to raw copies seemingly selling for more than graded copies. I still remember Heritage having some raw early HTF pre-hero Adventure and More Fun comics earlier this year that still managed to fetched double digit condition guide value in their Sunday auctions, even though a few of them were either restored or Incomplete. And yet, when similar graded pre-hero copies of these books from the same time period showed up in their Signature Auction, they couldn't fetched the same high multiples to condition guide. Maybe it has something to do with a slightly different set of eyeballs looking at these auctions here.

I actually think there might have been a couple of other books that were broken out with substantial price gains, but can't remember them now off the top of my head. Certainly nothing as significant as this Top Notch 22 even though I thought this was pretty much standard knowledge here on the boards at least. I will say that Overstreet did go through with a much finer tooth comb when he did his guide valuations for this year's edition and pretty much did jacked up his valuations rather significantly for many of the HTF and classic cover books that have been going for a lot of money and talked about on the boards here. Examples of this would be the L.B. Cole classic cover books like Blue Bolt 105 which rocketed up from $3,500 in top of guide all the way to $10K or his Mask 2 which shot up from $7K to $20K. Another example would be Famous Funnies 212 to 214 which he broke out from the rest of the Frazetta FF run and raised their top of guide price from $3,100 up to $8K, while the rest of the Frazetta run was bumped up from $3,100 to only $4K. Looks like somebody must have really bent his ear on some of the late SA and BA & CA keys and semi-keys as quite a number of those books were overshot compared to what they are selling for now after coming back down from their dizzying heights of 2021. Nowhere even close for Top Notch 22 at $10K to be in Overstreet's Top 100 as I noticed that both the $9,500 and $10K price points were very popular for him to use for bumping up many of the higher demand 2nd and 3rd tier GA books. His Top 100 GA chart bottoms out with Jumbo 1 at $34,500 allthough it should in theory be higher than this as there were a few books with higher valuations that were missing from his Top 100 chart. If you are into picking up the guide only every few years and haven't brought one for several years now, this year's edition might be a good one to pick up. Lots of significant price re-evaluations in there and it's definitely a much more gorgeous looking book with full color eye popping comic covers at the top of every other page instead of the usual bland B&W covers in previous editions of the guide.

Although this was definitely true with previous editions of the guide, not so much the case with this year's much updated edition where Overstreet finally got around to making some long overdue changes, especially with regards to some rather significant valuation increases. Perfect case in point being this Top Notch 22 which as you had correctly stated, had no notation at all about the Archie appearance in prior editions of the guide, as TN-22 was simply lumped in as part of the top Notch 21 - 30 grouping. Clearly broken out of the grouping with it's own separate guide listing this year including the following note: "Archie cameo in ad (12/41) same date as Pep Comics 22". As for the guide valuation, not so surprisingly, it took a rocket of a jump from $1,450 in top of guide last year all the way up to $10K for an unheard of almost 600% increase in this year's edition of the guide, as compared to the rest of the former Top Notch 21 - 30 grouping which snailed its way up to only $1,500 in top of guide.

Would you happen to be referring to Danny Dupchak here and his supposed Eastern Color File Copies?

That was a pretty fast turnaround as this looks like the same copy that sold for $19,800 on Heritage back at the beginning of this year.

How long ago was this and where did they go on sale, along with any other details you might have on these file copies?

Have we now come full circle on CGC 5.0 graded copies of AF 15 because wasn't it Glassman who had sold the 5.0 graded copy for something like the mid-$50K's through the greatest comic book dealer in the world and a copy which he had found in a bus: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/amazing-fantasy-15-marvel-1962-cgc-vg-fn-50-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122235-19024.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 And yet this nicely presenting copy here without the fugly Marvel chipping sold for only $55,200 in Heritage's Sunday auction this past weekend as compared to fetching much closer to 6-figures earlier this year.

Been looking at some of the recent auction realized prices since this new Overstreet came out and I would definitely tend to agree with your point when it comes to the GA books, especially the HTF and classic cover books. As for some of the more recent books such as the late SA, BA and CA keys or semi-keys, all I can say is that somebody must have really bent his ear on some of these books here. Seems that he overshot the current market on some of these books here with quite a few of them selling for less than condition guide value by a rather noticeable margin. Although it's probably more accurate to say that prices on most of these not so HTF more recent books have dropped substantially in the marketplace from what they were selling for last year.

Not sure if I am misunderstanding your point here, but since CGC is seens as the top dog in grading when it comes to comic books, both of your points here would tend to confirm that this SCG 9.5 graded card is not the best condition Mantle card out there.

I mean that's what I'm praying, because as of now I ain't doing too hot haha Yes, with the CL auction format and the customer base that bids there, the real action doesn't tend to start until the fat lady gets off her big duff to sing.