sfcityduck

I mostly got outbid on what I saw as the best books. My preference is for a grade above 7.0 and off-white or better page quality or books that are really historically interesting or rare. Going in my eyes were on: *Supergear (price was superhigh) * the pre-Action 1 trio (MF 31, NA 26, Det. 15 in that order - and just didn't seem worth it but I regret not going harder at the MF 31 which came first) * the Triumph lot (just missed it while on a call - insufficiently_thoughtful_person! Buyer scored hugely!) Before the auction started, I had ruled out the Flash ashcan, CCA comic, S&S Science Fiction fanzine (coolest thing in the auction), the final Superman poster lot as hard for me to justify pricewise, and apparently so did everyone else except for the CCA book. I hope Ivan pops the other three into auctions with GA superhero books where I think they will sell. What I ended up with was modest, but fit my criteria perfectly. CGC 8.0 ow-white and full of DC history. Back in the 40s, DC sought to fight off critics of comics as being insufficiently educational or literary by creating an "advisory board" of folks who would suggest content to DC. One of them was the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature - Pearl S. Buck for "The Good Earth" about life in China. She was very concerned with promoting racial and ethnic tolerance and she clearly had an impact on DC because World's Finest and Comic Calvacade for a while carried a back-up which promoted those values: Johnny Everyman. The first Johnny Everyman story was entitled "The Camera of Mei Lan" coming out in WF 15 (Fall 1944). That story was reprinted in a promotional comic which, according to the Indicia, was put out jointly by DC and the "East and West Association - Pearl S. Buck, President." So this is the only GA (maybe all ages) comic I know of inspired and jointly published by a Nobel Prize winner for literature, and it concerns the topic which made her famous - life in China. Pretty cool. Especially, since my newly acquired copy is only 1 of 2 on the Census with the other copy, a CGC 8.5, having only cream-ow page quality which makes me like my copy much better. Plus, it is a steal at the price for a 1944 DC comic in CGC 8.0 ow-w: I don't know if there are many copies of this unencapsulated, but I don't care. It's a cool piece which embodies some great history relating to my Wertham/CCA collecting interests that I picked up for not a lot at all. P.S. This banner appeared in a number of DC books of the 1940s: Turns out, Pearl Buck may have plotted the story I just acquired. Jack Schiff ultimately wrote the dialogue, but this article is really interesting on that point: Anyone know any other comic stories written by winners of the Nobel Prize for literature? I don't think Bob Dylan has turned his hand to comics.

Someone else just got one also from PBA. Thought it might be you, but saw you already have one. Did you see the CCA book in that auction?

Not me. Not even close.

I thought some of the strongest prices were on beater, restored, and conserved copies. Lots of shallow water demand for these books. Like this one I thought got a great price:

The catalogs for this sale are fantastic. Kudos to Ivan for that. And I'm not saying that just because he quoted me and others from posts on this site.

Also the Atomic 4.

I thought there were a LOT of strong prices. But there were a few deals to be had, and I'm glad I got one.

It needs to be sold with the Flash GA comics. Likewise, Ivan needs to put the S&S Science Fiction fanzine "Superman" issue previously owned by Otto Binder and Dick Lupoff and signed by S&S with the Superman GA comics.

I have heard of the "Pay Copy" of MC 1 which is a Nov. copy. But I have seen "checking copy" stamped on other GA comics.

The catalogues by Ivan for these auctions are great, they provide GPA info, Gerber scarcity, prior prices, CGC census populations, notable aspects of the issue, and they liberally mine this site for information. And I'm not saying that just because I was quoted for one description (as were other posters on this site on other lots).

Congrats if you got it.

They are getting strong prices.

Conventional wisdom is you're right about the "first printing, first state" but that they interrupted the print run to chisel off the dot because it was misplaced. In fact, there is even a "misplaced dot" house ad which clearly came out before Batman 1:

I don't think there are enough Superman 1s out there to cause a "stagnation." While a spread might develop, like with Oct. and Nov. copies, it would likely only be with similarly graded copies and not be that big. More of a premium, but one that is not going to render the MH MC 1 less than the most valuable copy. I believe the most valuable MC 1s sold were Nov. copies, right?

As time goes by, I would expect the market to assume that unless a note says its an "On Sale June 2" version than it is not. So if you don't know, you lose nothing by finding out.

Yes Oct. copies say Oct. where Nov. copies have a black circle.

I think it is will be just like MC 1 Oct. and Nov. copies. The highest graded is a Nov. and that will trump all others. But, an Oct. copy is likely to have more value than an equivalent Nov., right?

and Archie 1 and Captain Marvel 1 (in fact I assumed he owned the top 2 because his son was selling the second best copy on his eBay site for a while).

Hope not given his legal troubles. I'd hate to see it get tied up in a pre-judgment writ of attachment.

Edgar Church was the Original Owner of the group of books bought after his death by Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics which were initially called the "Mile High" pedigree but for reasons we don't need to delve into (many pedigree names are not those of the OO) have evolved into being called the Edgar Church/Mile High pedigree. The "Dentist" or "DA" etc. is the owner of that comic. Steve Borock was the chief grader for CGC & CBCS and Stephen Fischler is part owner of Metropolis Comics/Comic Connect who invented the numeric grading scale, and both have seen the book and offered their 9.2-9.4 views on the grade. Most folks believe the MH is the "best existing" Action 1, but you never know. There have been rumors of other longtime collectors than DA who are sitting on really nice Action 1s. The perception of the number of high grade GA comics generally gets deflated due to the perception that almost all are encapsulated, which is certainly not the case. Action Comic 1s were a lot more available then people think they were back in the early days of comic collecting. They were also a lot more affordable. Mitch Mehdy's Guiness Book of World Records Action 1 cost but a fraction of the cost of a house in 1973 at $1,800 and change, but ten years earlier Action 1 was available in the low hundreds and less. Who knows where those are? Richard Kyle bought his copy off the stand and still had it according to Xero 8 which came out in 1962. The best collection ever seen on these boards, Bangzoom's, is entirely unencapsulated and I don't think he ever denied owning an Action 1 even though he did not admit. The guy did, however, own the check paid to Siegel or Shuster for work on Action 1 and I just don't think he'd have that if he didn't have an Action 1. BZ is a guy, after all, who was collecting in the early 60s and dealing nice key GA books (which suggests he had great books before he picked up the key group of OO books in the 1970s that wowed everyone on these boards). The problem with estimates of the number of Action 1s is that a lot of numbers were thrown out at various times that were based on just local guesses. Mitch Mehdy, who I am not picking on here but he did get a lot of press so what he said entered the zeitgeist, told the press when they covered his purchase that his Action 1 was one of only 9 known copies. That wasn't true then. Wasn't a lie, just that Mitch didn't know the true numbers because he was a Sacramento teen in 1973 and there were collectors all over the country but no internet or reliable sources of information for him to tap. My guess is that there are other high grade copies out there, but one likely to top a 9.2 MH Copy? Unlikely, but not impossible. The two 9.0s are owned by Hariri and one is the stolen but recovered "Nick Cage copy" and the other was brought to market by Darren Adams after several upgrades in its holder (the book has a spine split but blinding white pages and the 9.0 might be technically generous but seems to have some beauty contest accuracy). The copy Adams sold was owned for many years by an established dealer who kept it in the same cedar blanket box in which he found it. This has added to the perception of the magic power of cedar to preserve comics as the MH comics were, in part, stored in a closet with cedar paneling.

While there are some pretty famous stories of owners of large stocks of art by one artist in the fine art world propping up prices at auction, Mugrabi who owned 800 Warhols is imfamous, I don't see the need or motive for anyone to do so with Action 1.

As far as anyone knows you are describing one book, the uncertified Mile High Action 1 estimated by Borock and Fishler to be a 9.2-9.4 (few others have seen it), and it appears the owner and his son will never sell.

Yeah this also was discussed long ago. The argument that “no dot” was the fix for “misplaced dot” seems indisputable.