Flex Mentallo

Imagine the carnage if you sold the rivet run as well!

And only half way.

No that would be me

Dont you hate it even more when some twerp posts a similar copy to yours then tells you he only paid $351 for it in 2009?

Well done Billy!

It's one of my favorites as well.

For my money this cover is just as good as #17.

Another stunning book!

Beautiful!

The other eye squints a little.

This one too.

...and this was still highest graded last time I looked [on a technicality only - pace adamstrange!]

Here's one that punches beyond it's weight.

What a thread. Imagine us apologising for showing books in less than 9.4 grade, remarkable though they may be. All great books here, guys and gals! Here is a lowly 9.2. Sorry!

I am crashing down through the gears here.

You know what they say - in the dark all comics look alike.

I only have the one Planet in 9.6 more's the pity. But I like this little cluster of 9.4s that stop it feeling too lonely! I can remember the first London Comic mart I attended around 1991 in Westminster. I met Harley for the first time, and he had a box full of very high grade later Planets that were way beyond my means art the time. But they were burned into my memory, which probably explains why these particular issues move me so strongly. All I had to do was wait about 25 years to get ones like them!

Well done Jason!

More like an extreme case of sanity!

There is also something about her fur trimmed outfit...seems self-contradictory!

Ah well, so mote it be.

What I'd like to ask you, Richard, is whether you see a widening rift in the back issue market, between the higher end and everything else, or would you speculate that a rising tide will raise all ships? I promise not to take your view as fact - just interested to learn if you have a view? There was a time when you could go on Ebay and most of what was offered in Golden Age was auctioned. You could bag last minute wins under the radar. Now all but 3% or 4% of what is on offer is BIN. Most of that seems to be optimistically priced. A lot of that stuff just lies there unsold. [The first golden age book I ever won in a Heritage auction was a Military Comics #14 in 9.4 that went well under guide. I flipped it a year or two later and just about recouped my outlay. The buyer immediately listed it on Ebay at several times the price. It has been there ever since - maybe 8 or 9 years.] Meanwhile the high end market surges on to greater heights, seemingly unstoppable. I assume that when compared to other areas of collecting, comics still have huge growth potential, and there are evidently many people out there willing and able to speculate. If a book sells high at auction, a new value is established, a sort of magic realism. This attracts further interest. On Ebay, conversely, sellers seem to assume that their low to midgrade books deserve to be priced in relation to high grade books, and hike their prices, even on books in rags. Even the dross seems largely overpriced. I suppose it was ever thus, but is it more thus than previously?

Tough book!

Nice one Rick - I've always felt that cover is underrated.