kimik

Good call. Edmonton will be a better con. Will FanExpo have any of the Detective #880 Black Foil variants available for the Edmonton show?

Can't it just be microtrimmed?

Too bad you are not coming up to Edmonton. Wizard's, Comic King and Comic Fever all have a nice selection of SA, BA and CA back issues, as well as moderns. If you are looking for older books, the selection up here is way better than in any of the Calgary stores.

Nobody is coming to the show?

What is a CGC 9.4 copy worth now?

There are a ton of collectors out there that do not care if the hot/big BA keys are slabbed or raw, they just want a copy (GA and SA seem to be different since restoration is a bigger issue, but raw copies will sell just as fast as graded ones provided you vouch for them/disclose any issues). IH 181 sells just as fast raw as it does slabbed, and I expect this continue in the 7.5 and under range. For the higher grades, since the price point may soon be $5,000 for an 8.0, I expect slabbing to be preferred since each 0.5 of a grade is a decent jump in value. I also have regular SA key buyers that trust me and prefer buying raw books since they can touch and feel them. Personally, I only buy slabs for my PC since they are more liquid, but if you want a copy and know that the seller 1) fully discloses and 2) will provide a refund if the book comes back restored, then for some it is not an issue.

It is likely a 1.8/2.0 to start with, and the missing piece on the first page that affects the story will drop it to a 1.5 based on my experience with books that have missing pieces on interior pages.

ASM #300 is only selling for higher prices than BA 12 right now due to the Venom movie. I expect it to drop from the current peak just like every key does, but likely still stay a bit ahead of BA 12 for now due to the lack of new Harley movie appearances.. Go back two years to when the Harley hype was peaking due to SS and BA 12 was outselling ASM 300 by ~$800 in CGC 9.8. If you go by general public, it would be Harley, then Deadpool, and finally Venom in order of popularity. You will see way more Harleys or Harley and Joker couples at shows than DP, while there will be very few if an Venoms. While the Venom movie may be a success, the character still has a long way to catch up to either Harley or Deadpool in general public popularity.

Do you consider Batman Adventures 12 as Copper or Modern? If you consider it Copper, an argument can be made that she is the premier character of the Copper Age as 1st Harley sells for similar amounts and she is way more recognized than Venom by the broader public. If not and you are just going from a comic collector perspective, then Venom >>>> Deadpool. However, if you go by general public awareness and following, it is not even close as Deadpool>>>>>>Venom.

Is this book worth slabbing? It is nice and tight except for the bindery tear at the bottom of the spine and light bend in the bottom right corner that should press out.

I can't believe that ASM #258 will sell at that level.....it is as bad as ASM #263 fetching top dollar due to the Red Goblin arc........

AT&T acquisition/merger of Warner Bros. looks like it will finally go through.

It could be a function of the markets. Out here, ASM and Batman back issues have sold fast for as long as I have been doing shows (started in university in 1997). I can remember getting $1,000 for PR/FR Amazing 1s in the early 2000s. FF has long been a slow title, but books like AF #15, ASM #1, TOS #39, IH #1, and even X-Men #1 have always sold fast. I have only had a couple of FF #1s over that time, and I had to move them online to get a sale.

Not all books were slow. IH 181 has long been a fast seller, as well as a number of other keys. FF as a title was pretty much stagnant after FF Rise of the Silver Surfer. Look at how long #1 languished behind other Marvel SA keys. The same could be said for the X-books as well, outside of GSX #1 and X-Men #101, 109, 120 (those have sold well since the first X-Men film). The problem I see for FF is this - the title had been irrelevant for so long that the bulk of its collector base was the aging Baby Boomers who already had their runs. Without the merger spike, we would still be seeing low demand and much lower prices for all of the books, including FF #48. That being said, I am happy the merger went through as I had been accumulating copies of early FFs and X-Men in 2016 and 2017 since they seemed undervalued. I just sold off my FF #48s (late 2017/early 2018) a little too soon.

What happened to Suicide Squad ($740M WW) or Justice League ($650M WW)? You missed/I was not clear with my point, but that is fine. My point is this - there is no guarantee that any 2nd or 3rd tier Marvel or DC character is guaranteed to be a $600M+ movie, let alone a $700M+ film. Especially with the number of films in planning/pre-production/early production. The market is going to become oversaturated with hero films and we will see more fatigue from movie-goers as a result. FWIW, I think that Ant-Man 2 is suffering from that since it came along after BP, IW, and DP2.

As I stated in the Ant-Man 2 thread, I viewed $600M to be a success for this film (which was lower than what others were posting), but I don't think it will get there. Even with China release looming, I think it is going to struggle to hit that mark due to the release schedule. Thanks to the long delay, how many Chinese viewers will not have already seen it online or elsehwere? It also has MI - Fallout releasing on August 31st in China, where the last MI film did $135M, which will mean increased competition at the theatre.

FF #48 was a slow seller even last year before the Disney rumors started. A high demand book is one that you can sell copies of at every show (i.e. IH 181 the past 20 years) - FF #48 was not at that level as it would take a number of shows to sell one. It was a low to middling demand book even in early 2017, and would likely still be at that level without the merger speculation. It will be interesting to see what happens to prices if Disney does not announce (not feature, just announce) Surfer in a film within the next year. Will the speculators keep holding their copies? Or, will they dump them to chase the next hot book?

That was my point. SS is more equivalent to Ant-Man than Spidey/Cap/Hulk. He is a supporting character like Ant-Man, not a leading one like the others. The rest of my point was that as the hero film market becomes oversaturated there should be a corresponding drop in box office takes. Look at Ant-Man 2 - after the huge success of BP, then Infinity War and another strongish DP movie, there is less interest in a solo film for a 2nd/3rd tier property. Could a Surfer stand-alone film be a success? Sure, and a success for it would be the $600 million range, or possibly a bit higher due to the amount of CGI the film will need. However, getting it over the $700 million or $800 million hump would be a much more difficult task. Looking at how many films Marvel has in development, and what AT&T/DC likely will as well, I can see a point soon where the competition between 2nd and 3rd tier property films reduces the box office takes. The studios would be better off leaving those characters as supporting heroes in the big ensemble or top tier property films instead of oversaturating the market. If they want more exposure, do better on the small screen.

Cool book. I am in the 2.5 camp as well. The last 2.5 sale was just over $1200 late last year.

Is there a Crime SuspenStories #22 in the mix anywhere? That is another $1000+ book.

Wow. AT&T should stay as far away as possible as well.

Which boardies are planning on attending this year?

Have not seen it yet, but word of mouth I have heard is that it is not as good as the first film (which I did not like either). Looking at the box office numbers, $600MM will be a stretch, but it should easily top $500MM worldwide which is still a win for a weak character property.

I tried to say this in another thread re: there being a lot of HG copies of IH 181 locked into long held collections and got jumped on for even suggesting it since all of the high grade copies have already been slabbed.

It is not rocket science. Some boardies/collectors have been building multiples of keys and hot covers for a while now..........