RareHighGrade

Thanks for posting this. Creig Flessel was a remarkable man. Even in his 90's, he remained as sharp as a tack with a phenomenal memory about the early days and creators of the comic industry. His passing was a sad day for his many fans.

I agree 100%. I got the impression that they loosely graded books in an effort to attract submitters/sellers. But what they didn't realize is that they lost significant credibility with buyers. In the end, it backfired for both the grading service and the submitters because the product was viewed as substandard. It's a shame because it would have been better for all of us if they had been comparable to CGC; then both companies would have had to raise the service bar to earn market share.

Brutal.

That was a candidate for the best deal in the last 5 years. I still can't understand how such a high demand book got overlooked and went for a fraction of its perceived FMV in a red-hot market (even though it seemed to be over-graded due to a significant color breaking crease in the LRC).

Would you pay $2 million for it?

The higher the FMV of the book, the more relevant is the CGC census data. If a $50 book has less than 5 copies in the census, the census data is meaningless. But if the book has a FMV in the 4 figures or higher, then the fact there are less than 5 copies in the census is a very good indicator that the book is uncommon or rare.

Thanks Mike.

Has CGC ever offered an explanation for why some of the recently slabbed pedigrees were not given a gold label?

tth2 is a veritable wizard when it comes to timing the sale of his books. He should write a how-to book on the subject for the rest of us.

I love Everett's artwork on that splash page.

Judging from the prices realized in the auction, the GA market remains on fire, even for Fawcetts.

I never found that John Verzyl had "reasonable" prices, but he had an inventory of amazing books that could not be found elsewhere, and he was one of the warmest and kindest people I ever met.

"One of the rarest comic books in the entire world."

Great set of books, GLWTS Jeff!

Countless copies of this issue don't have the whole Bob Kane signature, so I don't know why the signature would be the tell-tale sign of trimming.

Weren't there accusations that it was trimmed, which was why it wasn't graded or shown to anyone at the time? Were those accusations ever proved or disproved?

These are classic books. If you list them with one of the major auction houses, you will likely get at least your listed prices, if not more. Your NA 24 looks like a potential candidate for "de-restoration."

You have excellent taste in Baker covers.

That's a very nice copy of a tough book. Nice to see this thread brought back to page one.

Don't forget More Fun 17:

Interesting topic. The problem with getting good input is that, in most cases, folks will only want to identify undervalued books they already own. If they don't yet have the books, then touting the books will only create a demand that makes it harder to get them. Especially in our recent hot market where very few GA books seem to go for less than they are worth.

What I find curious is that both Tec 16 and New Adventure 27, which are cover dated June 1938, have ads for Action #1, but the photo has a copy of Action #2, which has a July 1938 cover date. I would have expected to see Tec 17 and NA 28 in the photo because they have the same cover date as Action #2. I haven't checked the cover dates of the other books.

Great story. After reading how the books were all in pristine condition, my jaw dropped when I got to the part where you started identifying them, including Cap 74! But then I got to the punchline about the covers missing. Darn!! But then again, it's probably a good thing because if the covers had been on them, they would likely be residing in the collections of Fischler, Sartre or Bedrock. In any event, the ones you posted are beautiful!

Love them both!!

Wow, Forbush-Man, those are books we don't see very often, if ever.