lou_fine

Well, if you really want White Pages, then I guess you just have to stop being such a tightwad and be willing to dig much much deeper into your pocket: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+1063+790+231+232&Ne=230&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=amazing+spider-man+300&limitTo=790+231+232

Or is it a desire to jump out of quality to buy into bulk quantity, as per yesterday's results: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+1063+790+231+232&Ne=230&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=amazing+spider-man+300&limitTo=790+231+232

I guess this is the new definition of a comic book marketplace that is cooling down from the irrational exuberance of last year.

Someone who wouldn't buy a PLOD copy of this book because it has a nearly impossible to see teensy weensy drop of color touch on the book.

Very simple answer in terms of rarity in grade. Direct copies were brought by collectors from LCS's who knew how to care for and display their books for the condition fussy collectors/speculators, while the newsstand copies went straight to the spinning comic racks with the store owners not bothering to keep the books in top condition as they had so many other higher profit margin products to be concerned with.

Yes, have they sold all of the allotted shares for their Larson copy of Batman 1 or have they withdrawn that offering after all this time?

I’d love to see it, do you have a link to the ole 181? Not a link, but probably just as good since it's a picture of the front cover of the book itself: Hope he didn't miss anything from this scrawled shopping list or he just might find himself sleeping outside in the doghouse tonight.

You do realize that they would never ever do this because they would then have to close down the CCS cash cow side of their CCG business operations now that Matt is no longer handling that side of the business.

On second thought, I wouldn't put too much weight on these Top 10 specialty genre lists from Overstreet, because unlike the Top 100 GA and Top 50 SA charts where they do at least try to bring them up-to-date (unsuccessfully at times may I add) with new entrants, they clearly seem to simply recyle through the same books every year. Perfect example being the Venus books which did not start out as PCH at the beginning, but if they are included, Venus 17 and 19 would be right up there as they were bumped up to $9,500 and $20K respectively from their $8,500 and $10K valuations in last year's guide. Or how about a couple of other high flying PCH books also missing from the list like Black Cat Mystery 50 and Tomb of Terror 15 which were bumped up to $18K and $11K respectively from their $16K and $8K valuations in last year's guide. Looks like they also never even bothered with Rawhide Kid 17 which should really be topping the Top 10 Western list at $6,200 unless there are also some other bigger dollar Westerns out here which would not surprise me at all. Or for the Top 10 Si-Fi list, should Blue Bolt 105 qualify for the list due to its obvious si-fi related cover image, because if it does qualify, it would rocket right up to the #2 position as this L.B. Cole classic cover book has shot up to $10K from its $3,500 valuation in last year's guide.

Not by my observation either, just a case of flipping too soon (I think). I think it's really more of a problem of falling for the HA hype and getting caught up in the auction fever resulting in bidders bidding too high and overpaying for their books. Flipping too soon was certainly not a problem with the Berk Auction from about 5 years ago, as dealers like Ritter were getting them reslabbed into higher grades and selling those books for much more money within mere weeks of the auction ending. Much better CGC turnaround times back in those days, I would imagine. BTW: Has anybody here seen even a single one of these supposedly 5,000 Promise Collection books come back reslabbed with a higher grade, or is everybody scare to death of playing the usual CPR game with these books here?

Unlike what Mitch had predicted here, have we seen even a single one of these Promise Collection books come back to market and actually sell at a higher price point as compared to the original price, because I certainly can't seem to see any?

Well, when it comes to PCH, all you need to know is that even though Overstreet increased his valuations for both Chamber of Chills 19 and 23 by a rather massive 186% (from $7K up to $20K) and 67% (from $4K up to $10K) respectively. Looks like he's still got a big safety margin built in there though, with quite a few years of increases banked away for future guides since these higher guide valuations are still running at only about half of what theses two books have been selling for. My bet is that COC 19 is going to jump into the top spot on Overstreet's Top 10 PCH chart next year after taking the big jump fromthe #7 spot up to the #2 spot this year.

Yes indeed, as the full color covers at the top of every right hand page as you flip through the book to find what you want is absolutely stunning and definitely the way that comic book covers were meant to be seen.

To tell you the honest truth, that certainly did cross my mind when I saw some of the dramatic price increases for certain select books in this year's edition of the guide. Although there were also some big increases in last year's guide, clearly nothing compared to this year with select issues in a wide swath of titles. Then I took a closer look at the books (at least for the GA books) which had these high double digit or even triple digit percentage increases and even with these new higher prices, the books were actually selling at even much higher price points than that. As for just being some guy in a photo or just having your name on a book, I believe that's a valid point and even at that, it still takes up a lot of your time and energy, especially when you are already pusing into your 80's. As evident by Gemstone attaching his name to various Overstreet Guides on Collecting Movie Posters, Collecting Concert Posters, Collecting Video Games, Collecting Tabletop Games, Collecting Horror, and what have you along with his various related ancillary guides on his two major passions, comic books and Indian arrowheads. Don't think he's had to do too many of those this past year, so maybe he simply had a lot more time with the Covid lockdown and all that to pay more attention to what's been happening in the comic book marketplace. Then again, I just took a look at some of the price increases on the movie related hype books from the late SA and BA time periods. Now, some of those were definitely very un-Overstreet like in terms of going up by triple digit percentage increases with some by quite a few thousand dollars. Especially when a lot of these new guide valuations are pretty much already approaching their FMV ceiling and a few even at slightly higher guide valuations than the FMV's posted in the comic book pricing tracking websites. Almost makes me wonder if it was a two-prong approach with Bob maintaining control over the GA and early SA time periods, with a lot of the work for the later time periods being passed down to the next generation. After all, one of the keys for a successful business is to always plan for the future including succession planning, and especially as we all know, none of us are getting any younger as the years go by.

Nah............just saying that as we all should know here, our fellow boardie here (i.e. tth2) has only the highest graded CGC 9.4's, 9.6's, or 9.8's in his personal collection and would never ever let one of those toxic Skid Row 9.2's dregs (let alone anything even lower) come near any of his other books. Not sure about the Good price in the marketplace for any of these books, but did noticed this FF 213 in tonight's Heritage Sunday Auction: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/science-fiction/famous-funnies-213-eastern-color-1954-cgc-fn-60-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122230-17289.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115 Not a Good copy, but a Fine copy that sold for $12K or something like 20X the old guide condition value, but only a mere 9.25X the new guide's condition value. See, and you guys said that old Bob was out of touch with the marketplace which is clearly not the case as he's got the multiple back down to only single digits again. Clearly, still lots of bankable increases to draw upon for his future guides when it comes to the Frazetta Famous Funnies run going forward as these books have not even hit the peak of the curve on the "Overstreet Valuation Life Cycle Model" yet.

Sounds as though you are working under the mistaken perception that ALL potential comic book buyers pay attention and scrutinize every single public comic book auction that pops up on the internet almost every single day. Believe me when I tell you they most certainly do not. Might it not just be possible that some of the more deep pocketed potential buyers are simply too busy with their other everyday activities to spend 24/7 surfing all of the auction sites and might actually preferred some of the full service activities that the larger established dealers do and extensive connections they have in order to acquire some of their books? For all we know, isn't it also possible that the seller might have simply undersold and there would have been much more competition for the book at that $5.3M level in a public auction environment and the buyer might have had to actually pay more to acquire the book?

Not really as the massive rises in his valuations were very selective with the other 98% of his guide increases being the same old, same old. Since YOU seem to be an excellent prognosticator at timing the market though, the ultimate bearish sign that we should all take is you starting to unload your personal collection. I most certainly hope NOT since the valuations in the Overstreet Guide tops out at NM- 9.2, and as we all know here, you generally buy only books in grades higher than that. And as Overstreet has staed in the past, his guide does not cover those nosebleed condition levels due to the extreme volatility that take place when you are flying so high.

I would tend to agree with you here as there has always been nothing but constant and ongoing complaints with regards to Overstrret's valuation model ever since his first one came out way back in 1970 and it was then being referred to as the Overprice Guide. Has anybody ever consider the possibility that Overstreet might actually have a bigger agenda with his price guide than just trying to report on only the current values in the marketplace? I somehow tend to think that he has one eye on the current values and the other eye also on future values and where he wants them to go going forward. To each their own, but I would much rather have Overstreet's slow and conservative consolidation approach as opposed to what many of you seem to want in terms of the Gareb Shamus approach in terms of "get down on your knees and pray that the hyped to the hilt and sometimes futuristic fantasy valuations" in the guide will hold going forward which in almost all cases do not as we found out in the 90's implosion. Okay seriously, the guide is just a guide and definitely not as important in today's interconnected world as we already have other more up-to-date applications such as GPA, GoCollect, Heritage & CC archives, eBay results FWIW, etc. if we really want to get a better idea of the actual current value for our books. I don't really need or want Overstreet valuations bouncing up and down all over the place trying to catch the flavor of the day or all of the day trading flipping activity that speculators are partaking in. Any bets that if the guide had a format like that over the past 50 plus years, the current strong and seemingly healthy vintage collectible comic book marketplace that we have now would be completely different.

Hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but if you indeed end up ordering the Limited Edition Hero Initiative cover version, you will be getting this cover version by Mike Grell and NOT the Black Terror cover version that you are hoping for: https://blog.gocollect.com/hero-initiative-announces-exclusive-overstreet-price-guide-cover/ I believe the Black Terror cover version is what's referred to as their Hall of Fame Edition and is available at your local comic shops, similar to both the Winter Soldier and EC Horror cover versions.

Well, if they really do wake up to Spidey's significance, then they will be going after AF 15 and not ASM 1.

Well, from just taking a quick look at this year's edition of the guide, I would have to say that you are clearly on the same wavelength as Bob then. Especially since many of the key issues and in-demand classic covers for the genres you mentioned are showing strong double digit or even triple digit percentage gains, while most of the super-heros are showing only single digit percentage gains.

Well, that's clearly not a bad cache to have in terms of 5 Allentown Fox boxs, including the two key biggies. Looks like the next one you should be chasing after would be WW 7 as that issue there seems poised to become the most valuable Wonderworld in the entire run when you look at this year's edition of the Overstreet Guide, if it isn't already there in the real comic book world. Similar to how A-Man 22 has now jumped ahead of the long reigning A-Man 5 to become the most valuable issue in the entire Amazing-Man run.

Oh, come on now Sean......................you have to give poor old Bob a break here. Especially since last year's guide was based upon 2012 prices, so he's jumped you ahead by 5 years and already saved you a lot of money. Seriously though, he's probably already up to 2019 when it comes to prices on Seven Seas, but probably still back at 2017 on Blue Bolt 105 with a lot of runway left to go. Took a look at the small handful of low to mid-grade sales for BB 105 on Heritage and CC for 2021 and it looks like even with the new guide bumping up prices by some 187%, the books were still selling on Heritage and CC respectively at between 4X and 6.25X the new higher condition guide valuations. So, Seven Seas have been running for awhile in his guide valuation increases while Blue Bolt 105 just seems to be getting out of the starting blocks with quite a few years of increases already banked and ready to roll out over the ensuring years. Don't you love how sly old Bob uses his guide valuations to nurture the vintage comic book market so that it seems to be steadily growing in an always positive upwards trajectory over the years.

Does it worry anyone that Bob finally catching on to the massive rises in the market might be the ultimate bearish sign? To tell you the honest truth, I was actually shocked that Bob was talking about miilion dollar sales from 2022 in his market report when we were not even half way through 2022. I half expected him to be talking about sales from 2020, let along 2021 or 2022. As for these massive guide valuation increases being the ultimate bearish sign, it definitely brought back long lost memories of days gone by, as I immediately thought back to the big GA rush back in the mid-90's after the new book market had already crashed right through the floor. Pulled out the guide for 1995/96 and took a quick look at the Top 100 GA Chart for that year and it looks completely different from the Top 100 Chart for this year from a percentage increase point of view. Overstreet had pretty much implemented a broad based increase for a couple years back there where the overall increases for the Top 100 was running in the 30% plus range. So broad in fact that there were only 3 books with single digit percentage increases out of the Top 100 (i.e. Comics Magazine 1 at 5% followed by both Marvel 1 and AA 16 at 8%) while there were 6 books with triple digit percentage gains topped by Mystery Men 1 at 305% as it had shot up from a measly $2,100 all the way to $8,500 in one giant leap for comic investors. Not surprsingly, with a huge increase like that on Mystery Men 1 which brought it right up there in the ballpark of market price at the time, that book in particular along with its Fox brethen cool back down almost immediately after that. I guess comic book buyers like most other investors like to chase after and pay for things that are perceived to be undervalued with a lot of runway still to go, as opposed to chasing after things that are perceived to be fairly valued or dare we say possibly even overvalued. If I remember correctly, the entire GA market generally cooled back down after those europhic 2 or 3 years, and then pretty much proceeded to do nothing until CGC arrived on the scene a few years later. If you take a look at the Top 100 for this year as posted above, note that the overwhelming majority of the percentage increases are still only in the single digits with only one triple digit percentage gainer, with that one being Fantastic 3 and just barely making it at exactly 100%. Maybe by coincidence, he simply took Gator's advice from a few years ago when he said the way to fix Overstreet was to continue with the standard small increases for the majority of the GA books because they generally aren't doing too much and just target the Top 50 or Top 100 "shakers and movers" and increase those prices accordingly. It's probably really more of a Top 200 or so, with the majority of these books sitting outside Overstreet's Top 100, but this more selective approach is definitely better and relatively more accurate and just might keep the bears at bay and the bulls running a bit longer.

Overstreet forgot to include the Cap 46 Holocaust cover, or the scrum would have been even bigger Actually, since the top of guide valuation for Cap 46 was pegged at $60K, I guess this would have slotted in at tied for #58 and dropped the big scrum down to the #67th spot. Then again, I guess rightfully adding in Cap 46 and A-Man 22 would have resulted in both Jumbo 1 and also possibly Planet 1 falling out of Overstreet's Top 100 listing for the year. Clearly a sign of the times and the changing sentiment in the marketplace as it ooks like the early old guard #1 issues are starting to give way to more of the later classic cover books as time goes on.