lou_fine

Did anybody bother to check the Graders' Notes to see the reason for the CGC 2.0 grade on this copy here? Just wondering if the spine was split almost the entire way through or what have you, especially when the scan of the back cover does not include the spine.

Well, for all of those DC pre-hero fans who might have missed out on these raw copies the previous weekend, it looks like it's your lucky day as this week's Heritage Signature Auction have seven graded copies from More Fun 30 through to More Fun 50 for you to bid and hopefully win from, including the two pre-hero issues (i.e. MF 35 & 45) pictured above. As an extra bonus, it also looks like there's a graded copy of New Adventure 30 with the classic Creig Flessel whale cover and for the raw collectors out there, a raw copy of New Fun Comics 4, albeit a slightly restored copy with color touch and some water damage: https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=52+1060+794+793+792+4294940053&Ntk=SI_Titles-Desc&Nty=1&Ntt=more+fun&limitTo=4294940053&ic4=KeywordSearch-A-K-X-Y-071316

Now, this is a gorgeous looking copy of More Fun 67 from both your scan here and HA's detailed scan, as it certainly presents nicely relative to its assigned CGC grade. Big congrats to you on upgrading your copy to what is now tied for the 3rd highest graded Universal unrestored copy and at a very resonable price point to boot.

The Transformers 1 9.9 outrage paragraph is in the same word document. Oh, come on now...........................................Transformers 1 is just so "yesterday" in today's fast moving comic book marketplace. You guys need to keep up to speed as it's now all about rare and valuable books like DC Comics Presents 26 at $40,005 and Thor 337 at $32K.

Haven't you been paying attention as it's already at 11 zeros, although I believe even an infinite number of zeros is still equal to a big fat zero: Maybe the old Timster was talking about Russian rubles and has anybody here seen the proof that he was going to share with all of us here?

Oh, the end must be near because wasn't you offering a whole $5 for the DC Comics Presents 26 only a few short weeks ago, but now only 50c for the Thor 337?

Well, look like prices are continuing to go ballistics on the GA and SA keys, while some sense of sanity is starting to return to the newer books, as evident by this sale here: Sold only for a piddly $32K and a big drop down from the $44K for the Transformers 1 and the $40,005 for DC Comics Presents 26.

Noticed that this CGC 3.0 graded copy of AF 15 just sold for $37,200 at HA which is probably a sign that the prices are starting to pause and consolidate for now after HA just finished having 4 straight sales in this exact same grade condition in the low to high $40K's from November 2021 through to February 2022: https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/superhero/amazing-fantasy-15-marvel-1962-cgc-gd-vg-30-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122214-11060.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Archive-ThisAuction-120115

Is that with BP? Yes, looks like the hammer was hit at $6,800 with the final price then coming in at $8,160 including the 20% BP juice. I was actually expecting it to go a bit higher than that considering that they had just auctioned off a slightly lower CGC 7.5 graded copy off for $7,200 just a few short months earlier in December of 2021. Then, I took a closer look at both copies and from both the front and back cover scans, it woud appear from a strict visual POV that the CGC 7.5 graded copy presents noticeably nicer than the CGC 8.0 graded copy.

Would you by any chance be referring to buyers of books such as the CGC 9.6 graded Promise Collection copy of Phantom Lady 17 which sold for something like $456K, while the CGC 9.4 graded copy of PL 17 from the Phantom Lady Collection sold for a piddly $121K when many boardies here thought the Phantom Lady copy actually presented nicer than the Promise Collection copy? I thought it was a case of these buyers having an inferiority complex and being totally insecure in their own opinions and eyesight and needing the soothing warmth of somebody else's judgement and approval before they feel it's safe to go ahead and place their bid. Seriously though, I am sure it's really a case of to each their own. Personally, from my own POV which I am sure most others here would not agree with, I would much rather bid on a book with a lower technical grade that presents nicely, as opposed to a book with a higher technical grade that does not present quite as nicely in comparison. Everybody collects in their own way and to me, it's all good as long as you are happy doing what you are doing and enjoying your purchases.

Any guesses as to where this copy of Cerebus 1 will finish up at the Heritage weekend auction this Sunday: https://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/cerebus-the-aardvark-1-aardvark-vanahem-1977-cgc-vf-80-white-pages/a/122214-11300.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515# Already sitting at $5,760 with the BP juice in there which is miles ahead of the $1,320 that the last CGC 8.0 graded copy managed to fetched at HA back in September of 2019. My bet is that it will also blow right past the $7,200 price point that the CGC 7.5 graded copy managed to fetched at HA back only a few short months ago in December of 2021. Will definitely be interesting to watch where it ends up by the time it's all said and done.

To each their own, but I certainly found it rather surprising that buyers were willing to pay rather seemingly insane premiums for this so-called "sole highest graded" copy back in the first decade or so of CGC's existence. Especially when single highest graded was really still much more of a "transitory" nature at the time since certification was just starting out and most of these books were unable to hold onto this status for very long, especially when the CPR game came into full play.

Yes, based upon how the grading process is supposed to work, the graders are supposed to grade the book that's in front of them at the time as it crosses their grading table and not try to figure out the history of the book. Now, as for whether it should have been encased with a blue label which it was or possibly a green or purple label, I guess that really depends if a chemical treatment was used to removed the stain or not, and if so, were the CGC graders able to catch it.

Yes, you are right with respect to the Allentown Cap 1, as it was my bad since I had Marvel Comics 1 in my mind for some reason there.

Don't think so. They were likely interested in the auction result to get a feel for the 9.8 they hold. How sure is everybody that this copy here would actually grade out to 9.8 or would the CGC graders be "intimidated" to give it the benefit of the doubt if borderline and award it a CGC 9.8 after all of the talk that has taken place about this copy over the decades?

Hey, at the rate collectibles are going in this pandemic driven environment, if I had one of these it just might be a good idea to send it to Heritage and hope that Halperin or somebody will bid it up to a million dollars in their quest to expand the collectibles marketplace into new and undiscovered territory.

Ummm...............you do realize THIS is exactly why prices are bound to eventually ease big time on these readily available BA and CA books.

No, really only for storage purposes where I have a lot of old stuff saved there that I couldn't bother copying over to my laptop. Desktop was for work a few years ago where they were still working with Windows 2000 or something like that.

How much did the 5.5 copy sell for last year, and according to the HA archives, it looks like this exact same copy sold for $24K back in 2019: https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/horror/mask-comics-1-rural-home-1945-cgc-fn-55-white-pages/a/7212-92133.s?ic16=ViewItem-Auction-Open-PreviousPricesHeritage-081514

Thanks for the tip as that might actually do the trick. I remember trying to load some pictures from my iPhone camera onto my desktop computer once and the dropdown list didn't include anything for Apple, but did have an option for something called an Agfa camera. I guess there was no such thing as an Apple phone at the time, but they just might have an option for a Polaroid photo.

Oh, come on now......................seriously, what do you think? Well, I believe top of guide is over $40K on the book now. Since this is the Age of Certification though and as I had stated in my post, the book was not NM and probably in the grade condition range of VF 8.0 or thereabouts, I imagine the book would probably be worth about $40K in today's marketplace. Then again, since it is a pedigree although not a Church pedigree, it might just possibly go for north of $40K.

Yes, this was definitely the case during the first big GA rush back in the mid-90's, as it was pretty much based upon the reputation of the pedigree back then prior to CGC. I remember having dinner with a table of collectors and dealers after the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening and mentioned that I had a pedigree copy (not the Church copy) of a book they was talking about at the time. I clearly remember Greenhalgh pulling me aside and offering me $10K for the book which I thought was totally ludicrous considering the book had a top of guide value of only a bit past $2K at the time. I told him the book was NOT a NM copy and also had siamese pages to boot which made it virtually impossible to read without damaging the book. He said it didn't matter as he was willing to buy it sight unseen since he already had a ready buyer for the book at $15K and the buyer wouldn't care about things like that. I ended up telling him NO because I didn't want him to use my copy of the book to rip off some poor smuck for $15K over something that was clearly not worth that kind of money.

Yes indeed, as for us long time comic book collectors from the old days before books were so readily available, it was always said that that cash was replaceable whereas this was not necessarily the case with some of the exquisite and HTF books that didn't tend to show up in the public marketplace back then.

It was more along the lines of “Out of all the possible ways he could have sent you pictures, why did he choose a CD?” Oh come on now, you two.....................you make it sound like CD's are antiquated and something from back in the Stone Age. I still remember being given a handful of CD's about 15 years ago, with each of them holding the scans of the raw books from the Chinatown Collection and asked if I could get in contact with the right people in order to help get the collection pedigreed and included as part of the then soon to be published Pedigree Book. Needless to say, Timely was a big help here who then put me in contact with Ritter who was the one that ended up putting in countless hours and months of work in compiling all of the stats and then doing a draft writeup on the collection. And as we all know, we are all still waiting for this Pedigree Book to come out.

Sounds like such a beautiful copy that it's the type of book that I would never be able to trade away if it was in my personal collection. Hope you was able to acquire a book of equal importance and beauty back in return for your copy of More Fun 56. Talking about beautiful copies of More Fun 56, has anybody here seen or know the whereabouts of the Larson copy of MF 56? Just wondering since I remember being part of a discussion scrum in which a noted collector was seemingly holding court at one of the SD Con's back in the mid-90's. This was right after Overstreet finally got around to breaking More Fun 56 out from the rest of the grouping that it had been locked in with. I remember he raved that the only copy he had seen that might be as visually nice as the Church copy was the Larson copy of MF 56, but then he went on to rant that from his own personal POV that it might only be able to fetch G/VG guide valuation since there was a coupon clipped out from one of the later backup stories. I guess this definitely goes to show the change in the marketplace since that time because if that Poor condition Incomplete More Fun 69 with 6 pages missing from the lead story can fetch VG/F guide valuations this past weekend, I am sure that a HG Larson pedigree copy even with a clipped coupon should in theory be able to do far better than that in today's crypto like red hot marketplace.