lou_fine

Any idea if the boys from across the street recognized the Chinatown pedigree since it's a relatively new pedigree from 2020 recognized and graded by CGC, but has yet to make its real appearnace in the comic book marketplace?

I finally found a few minutes to go onto their website and I believe this link here should hopefully answer a lot of your questions on the mechanics of how the system is supposed to work: https://rallyrd.com/trading/

Clearly the case with perfect examples being some of the following: 1) CGC 5.0 graded copy of Cap 3 which they purchased for $35,500 from Metro and then offered up for an IPO offer price of only $37,000: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1768126/000176812620000004/rseaex6z54.htm 2) CGC 9.0 graded copy of Superman which they purchased for $7,000 from Metro and then offered up for an IPO offer price of only $8,500: and https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1768126/000176812620000004/rseaex6z55.htm 3) CGC 8.0 graded copy of Incredible Hulk 1 which they purchased for $87,000 from Ken Goldin and then offered up for an IPO offer price of only $89,000: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1768126/000176812620000002/rseex6z41.htm Definitely losing money back then as that kind of narrow margin spread would certainly not be able to cover all of their associated costs like registration, marketing, storage, insurance, and any other ancillary legal or admin expenses. As we can see with the Larson copy of Batman 1 and CGC 9.8 graded copy of Silver Surfer 4, the margin spreads between the purchase price and their IPO offer price are certainly a lot larger to hopefully be able to cover all of these expenses.

No, just more of a general comment that it's always better to have a scan that reflects the true actual colors of a book, no matter the auction platform. Can't really comment on CL as it's been a few years now since I received my last shipment from them. As for Heritage, have not personally won any books with bright scans since I always seem to lose on those lots, so no real complaints from my end recently. As for CC, I believe your commenr is pretty much bang on since I have been at least pleasantly surprised with some of my wins in terms of books with straight bottom edges and books not quite as dull or dark as their scans.

Any idea who the previous owner or Goldin winner of this Larson Bat 1 book was, since I assume this information would be disclosed on the Rally Road Purchase Option Agreement? Just wondering if it was a private collector at the "retail" level since it seems most of their books are sourced directly from the auction houses or from established comic book dealers. If the former, then this would be a good sign since it provides a new avenue (i.e. beyond the auction houses or "wholesaling" to dealers) for boardies and long time collectors to sell their vintage collectible comic books. Even if this is the case, no doubt the books would have to have a recognizable character or title with premium quality and value attached to them since the customer base which you will be offering your book to will be the Rally customer base who might not have the same deep knowledge about comic books as the regular comic book collectors who tend to buy from the auction houses and major dealers.

Yes, but isn't it better to have scans or photos that reflect the real colors on the covers of the book when you get it, as opposed to ones where the colors are embellished or so bright that they appear to have been placed on top of a light table to take the scan and you end up with a book that pales in comparison to what you thought when you open up your parcel in the mail?

Well, if they paid $67K for the Silver Surfer 4, then this must have been the copy that was auctioned off on CL for $67K back near the end of August. So, unlike the Larson Bat 1 in which they brought a 80% interest from the Goldin winner, this Silver Surfer 4 was brought directly from the CL auction. Looks like the spread between their purchase price and their subsequent IPO offering price was more than enough to cover all of the admin and legal fees that would have been required to registered the book. Do you remember the purchase price for the TMNT 1 and the subsequent IPO offer price because if I remember correctly, the spread was a lot tighter and I simply couldn't figure out how they could cover the admin and legal fees with such a narrow margin on the spread? Or were those first few books done at a loss in order to promote this new buy and sell concept at the time back then?

With respect to the Silver Surfer 4, was that probably because the IPO price was set closer to the $90K high water mark that the book had hit back in the summer of 2021, or was the IPO offering price closer towards the high $60K's where it had sold for after that?

What were the 4 books that took an almost immediate hit of 55% to 61% right after their IPO? Any idea if they were GA books or more recent high flying overpriced BA or CA books, because that sure seems like a pretty big drop to take right off the bat which leads me to think that their IPO price must have been way out to lunch and completely unrealistic. Not quite as bad as some of the former red hot flying growth stocks on the Nasdaq, but at least those took a few months to unwind themselves back down by 70% to 80% from recnt market highs.

Well, if it's any help here, I can almost read the CGC logo in the top right hand corner of the label for the CC scan, while I probably need a pair of sunglasses toget past that glare on the CGC logo in the CL scan.

Yes, those were definitely the fun days as I still remember my brothers and I riding on our bikes across the city to the used bookstore looking for half price comic books at 5 cents a pop. I remember my older brother being into Westerns which was the big thing for him while my younger brother didn't seem to have a particular interest and hence didn't stick with the comics for that long. I always wanted the super heroes and always looked for the early 10 cent DC's and Marvel #1's and I guess I was too late to the party as the only ones I could find were the later Marvel first issues like the Avengers, X-Men, & Daredevil. If I remember correctly, I believe I started to read them around the time that FF 19 and Spidey 6 hit the newsstand. What a dummy I was as I really should have focused on condition in terms of paying the full 12 cents cover price for a brand new copy of the latest Marvel book, instead of picking up rag tag used copies. As for "used comics" being sold at cover price of less, I guess this is probably why the Church family members must have thought they had found a live one to hose in terms of that no nothing hippie kid sleeping in the back of his vehicle who was willing to pay full cover price for that 20,000 load of old moldy used comics that they needed to get hauled away from their house.

Greatly appreciate all of your useful and insightful information here. So, my question here is how would they be able to determine the valuation or price on a book like this Bat 1 or any of the other older vintage collectible comic books since these types of books do not necessarily sell on a regular basis as they might come to market only a few times a year, if that? Even less if you also have to factor in the condition of the book at the same time in oprder to come up with a more "accurate" value for the book.

Is this not the same fine print legalese that we used to see on the back of the CGC labels that there is no guarantee on the grade of the book, even though the company is called the Certified Guaranty Company (i.e. CGC)?

Although I am sure that everybody here has their own opinions on this issue here, from my POV, this is the sign of a collector who has his priorities in the right order. Especially in terms of being a loving and thoughtful family man who places his family's best interests in front of his own personal individualistic collecting interests.

Totally agree with you here as it looks like your typical fine print standard disclaimer that all investment companies put in to cover their arse.

Wow, and a big thumbs up to you as I am not sure how you managed to get the scoop of this one here with all of these details. So, based upon these numbers here, it would appear that the buyer of the Larson copy of Bat 1 from Goldin is well on his way to making some pretty fast money here if Rally is able to sell out the shares on this offering. The previous owner (i.e. Goldin purchaser) paid $1.47M for the Larson Bat 1 and then immediately sold off 80% of it for $1.34M which basically gives the book a theoretical 100% market value of $1.675M. Not too bad at all, but even better, Rally now offers the book up for fractional shares sales with a total market cap of $1.8M with the previous owner retaining 20% of the shares. This means the previous owner or the Goldin purchaser is now out of pocket by only $130,000 (i.e. $1.47M - $1.34M) , but retains a 20% stake in the Larson Bat 1 which is worth $360,000 (i.e. $1.8M X 20%) if Rally is successful with their share offering of this book here. And if Rally is able to resell the book for an even higher amount going forward after a successful IPO, the Goldin purchaser with his use of leverage will really be in terms of his real rate of return on his actual out of pocket expenditure of only $130,000.

Looks like you are a fountain of knowledge here with respect to the Rally fractional shares and exactly how they work. Can you confirmed that the trading window for all of these books can actually be done on a daily basis,and if so, how do they determine the value of a particular book at the end of each day? Although I haven't been following these Rally fractional share books since they were first talked about on these boards back in 2020, I thought the trading windows on these books were only opened at certain specific time periods and actually not tradeable on a regular daily basis. Hence, a rather illiquid asset, but if they've now changed the business model to facilitate daily trading of these books, then it becomes a much more liquid asset, depending upon how they determine the daily price point for each book.

Like @Crowzilla had already alluded to with respect to the other Adventures back in February, maybe we really need to check out the back cover of this Adventure 37 to see if this one will go into double digit condition guide value or not.

As others have stated above, I think there are often "deals" to be found on Clink. But you can find exceptions in every auction on every platform. Although there are certainly exceptions on every platform, I think it's also a case of each auction site having their own particular customer base. For example, I feel that the customer base for Heritage is much stromger when it comes to OA and high end GA books. CC, on the other hand, seems to be strong when it comes to the early pre-Robin 'Tec books and early Action's along with some of the other GA books. CL seems to be partocular strong when it comes to the highest graded copies of the more recent BA and CA books because that seems to be the preferred venue of choice for the so-called CGC label chasers. Of course there are always exceptions on each one of the auction platforms, but it's also a case of knowing the strength of the customer base for each of them too. Perfect case in point being the CGC 9.8 graded copy of GSXM 1 which was auctioned off for some $67K just last week while the Heritage equivalent graded 9.8 copy sold for just $43,200 a week earlier after 2 CGC 9.8 copies sold there for $48K a month earlier in January. So, I guess both steals of a deal and overpriced outliers can be found on all auction sites if you take a closer look.

Well, I certainly hope you listened to your mother then and picked up multiple copies of GSXM 1 since CL apparently managed to auction off a copy for $67K just last week.

Not sure why you would be so concerned with the fractional ownership companies and hedge funds when the same potential for shenanigans exist with the comic book auction houses or possibly even in the old days with dealer to dealer transactions? As I have alluded to before, wouldn't a more recent book like TMNT 1 which is available in uber HG in relatively ready availability and also recent enough for an astute dealer(s) to acquire multiple copies be an ideal candidate for possible manipulation. Especially interesting since CGC 9.8 graded copies of this book have moved up rather parabolically from the mid/high $30K's up to a quarter of million dollars in something like only a short 2-year time period.

Maybe really NOT that crazy considering the other New Adventure and Adventure Comics in a very recent February Sunday Auction sold for something like double digit condition guide value.

Definitely rather surprising since Heritage was able to fetch only $43,200 for their CGC 9.8 graded copy only a short week prior to this CL sale: https://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/giant-size-x-men-1-marvel-1975-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/122209-17541.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515 And this was after back to back consecutive sales at a price point of $48K for two WP CGC 9.8 graded copies at HA a month earlier in January.

Any idea where and how companies like Rally and Otis are reselling their books since it seems that they buy them through the public comic book auction sites, but not sure if they are using them when it comes time to sell the books?

Tim; FWIW, I think you are still way too young to be in full blown divestment mode already.