sfcityduck

Here's a comic for the day after Election Day:

You are referring to this post of mine:

For the record, my above post is not a guess as to price. That's an observation on why some folks here may have been guessing less than $1M.

Kudos to all who voted!

I don't see it. Get back to me when the inflation hits. Nice pic of Crater lake. Where are you located?

But apparently not so enticing to cause the Rockford to be snapped up. There's a lot of economic uncertainty, especially with the Presidential election. Our economy is teetering. Inflation does not seem a huge concern right now.

But a close second favorite is this page of Captain America, the hero who was created to fight fascists, and who gave us this memorable speech from What If? 44 (April 1984), another election year comic. It is my second favorite because it necessarily addresses the weak and dark side of America, and I prefer the light and hope:

My favorite Presidential election comic is a few years past the GA. It's the series that ran in Treasure Chest in 1964 which predicted a black man (who bore some resemblance to Obama) would win a Presidential nomination in the 1976 election. It's an optomistic story that preaches hope and is about the best of America. It got a lot of publicity back in 2008, but here's the payoff when Pettigrew is finally revealed to be black (a secret kept for months of the serial):

That may be the best Nixon comic cover as its funny and witty (especially if you flip it over). Here's the worst - FF 123 (June 1972) with a heroic (?) portrayal of Nixon in an election year. Fun fact: The Watergate break-in was June 17, 1972:

In a world where an Action 1 5.5 sold for $956K four year ago, and ten year ago both an Action 1 and D27 8.0 sold for north of $1M (D27 $1.075M), how can anyone be surprised that a D27 7.0 (ow) would break $1M? It would be shocking if it did not go north of $1M. Really shocking. This copy sold for $500K nine years ago. It's a D27!

I finally looked this Freedom train up on Wikipedia. It had this to say: My admiration and appreciation of this comic just went up considerably. I never knew the civil rights angle on this train!

I have not read any post-Cole stories. I enjoy Cole Plas.

Have all the Archives. Reproduction is great. They take you through Police 77 (April 1948) and Plastic Man 10 (Winter 1947-1948). Plastic Man was quarterly until issue 12, then bi-monthly until Issue 49, finally ending with Issue 56 (Nov. 1956) three years after the end of Police Comics. Cole left the title in 1949, so there were more Cole stories that could have been archived. There were also subsequent non-Cole stories, but I've never read any of them. P.S. Archives fit on racks:

This "wall hanger" version of the classic late 40s early 50s Dell rack just went for a steal on eBay. I have one, but I should have bid anyway:

I always wondered about this "Freedom Train." I saw the one in 1976 for the Bicentennial. What was this one for?

(The above is on eBay - not my comic, don't know the seller)

This is Soticollector's website listing of all known SOTI comics: http://lostsoti.org/FoundSOTI.htm Elsewhere on his site, you can fine a list of books still needing identification.

A lot of folks think we're living in a horror movie. Maybe these comics make the present crisis seem a bit more manageable.

Here's some thoughts: Absent recent comparable price results, I don't see how you can value an item with no intrinsic value other than (1) by how much you love it or (2) by how much you realistically would pay to replace your comics if you spill coffee all over them. UNLESS, you offer up your books up for sale on an auction site, with zero reserve, and see what you get on the closest thing we have to a free market.

Gator, I've been around the boards long enough to know you are a serious dealer/collector, so don't think I'm questioning your expertise. I am just noting we we have a serious bidder on the boards (you) who would bid up to $500K and stating my own (different from yours) opinion as to how high your bidding rivals might go. In short, I'm speculating (e.g. guessing) based on my read of the small pool of collectors swimming in the deepest part of the pool. My opinion is based on what you are willing to pay and the speculation that others will pay more. To be clear, I don't think the 9.0 is going to hit $1M because it is not the best extant copy. There's a MH/Church copy out there that sold for $176K 25 years ago which the OPG once rated at "mint" and others have said may range up to 9.8 (and no one has said is less than 9.0). BUT, I do feel in a world where the 9.4 AS 8 and 9.4 CA 1 are almost $1M books, the Whiz 2 is (or more accurately, IMHO should be) a $500K to $1M book, and closer to $1M than $500K. I admit that is rare air as examples of only 6 different issues have ever topped $750K: AC 1, D27, AF 15, MC 1, AS 8, and CA 1. But I think the best graded copy of Whiz 2, maybe the second best copy extant, could join that group.

So we got an underbidder at $500K. I'm guessing that it would be in the same league as the AS 8 9.4 and CA 1 9.4. Not a million dollar book, but a closer to $1M than $500K. After all, it is the book for advanced collectors: CM was arguably more popular than Superman. The only reason he disappeared in the early 1950s, after CA and most of the DC/AA stable had been put to bed, was due to a lawsuit. He didn't lose popularity, he was executed (or was that CM Jr.?). He had the movie serials and high profile, and he's in a movie recently (and a 70s tv show, etc.). I think his profile, historical import, and rarity make Whiz 2 a marque book on a level that AS 8 and CA 1 should not be. CA and CM are both rip-offs of concepts made popular by others, but CM 1 was MUCH more successful in the GA.