Cat-Man_America

Millie to Billy (Wright)...

This is certainly another perspective, and in fairness, not totally unreasonable. But the Church collection pedigree still checks more boxes than the Promise Collection in spite of the time gap between each collection's discovery and marketing. My biggest concern about any "newly discovered" collection is whether the attached hype is self serving to grading concerns and marketers. I'm not suggesting there's any ethical malfeasence going on, just that there seems to be an overwhelming presumption of "greatness" surrounding new finds that may lack the gravitas of long established pedigree collections. Also, I think the Britney Spears analogy is a hoot, especially the "immoral" words of Chris Crocker (aka Cara Cunningham); ...hey, you said it!

Each pedigree collection has pluses and minuses. IMO, Church is the best and among the most perfect examples of a discovered collection. Church has all of the checked boxes, ...depth of numbers, key appearances, exceptional condition (covers and PQ), ideal preservation/storage conditions (which contributes to future longevity), easily recognizable albeit unobtrusive pedigree/distribution date markings, great background story that's fully verifiable, tight 3rd party grading, etc. So, rhetorically speaking, where does the Promise Collection fall along the pedigree continuum? With no bias whatsoever, my personal assessment is it's way down the list. Granted, the Promise Collection has the numbers, but not a lot of key first appearances; while the overall condition of books as graded is high there's been debate over whether the assigned grades actually meet expectations, the question of storage is iffier, anecdotal and unverifiable, identifier markings vary, original owner story sounds almost too good to be true (and remains questionable as parts of it are unsubstantiated), and so on. This doesn't make the collection any less desirable, but it does provide significant caveats about the hype that resulted in fizzling skyrocket market values. Those of us who own Promise Collection books should not see this as a denouncement of the pedigree, but rather see it as a cautionary about "fever-bidding" and the predictable feeding frenzy over newly anointed pedigree collections parsed out into a hungry marketplace via a series of carefully orchestrated auctions under a cloud of hyperbole, mystique and muddled facts. That's my two cents; the caffeine influencer was included at no extra charge!

No, I'll assume you're being facetious. I think 5 or 10% of actual cost offered as store credit is more in keeping with an error of this magnitude, but you're certainly entitled to another opinion (hopefully you weren't serious). The only real failure of MyComicShop is cashing his check before confirmation of prior sold inventory. My suggestion as a reasonable counter offer is based on the dealer having connections and outreach most collectors don't have and such a good faith gesture would go a long way toward making the customer whole given the level of disappointment associated with snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Of course mileage varies and being a personal fan of MyComicShop's owners I'm just trying to look at this situation from a totally unbiased perspective.

Sorry this happened to you. From what I've heard My Comic Shop is usually very good about fixing mistakes. I'll admit $95 bucks in store credit for an error on a 10 grand purchase seems a little lightweight. A better work around might've been offering to use their connections to locate a similar copy in that grade or slightly higher within a reasonable length of time and guarantee you the same price point, thus endearing you to them as a customer. Just my 2 cents, ...and I've been imbibing ale.

Sadly, looking back on it, the Promise Collection story sure seems like a perfect storm of hyperbole. The brother's tale and mystery certainly added to the heavy buzz around these books, but as a collection I'm not persuaded that this pedigree or the high grade opinions can be compared to the quality of Church and San Francisco/Riley pedigree books. Was the Promise Collection overhyped? That isn't for me to say. Retrospective sales results suggest there was one helluva hangover following the first drunken orgy of bidding. I've said it before, I'm happy with the few books from this collection I've won, but I didn't go BID-crazy. The first book cost a little more than expected, but the second and third books were in line with the budget I'd set aside for them.

I agree with pretty much all of this as an overview of the balloon-atic nature of investment collecting, but a bubble in comic collecting is a bit more nuanced because values are so closely tied to 3rd Party grading (that said, I kinda like the tulip analogy in respect to petal-ing comics). Cryptocurrencies are just scary (anything with the word crypt in it has an implied risk of finality). This elusive type of transaction is certainly a variable in the investment criteria of most collectibles these days, but where market bubbles are concerned the monetary sourcing is probably an outlier. The three biggest factors in bubble perception are these (no particular order): 1) Grade or rather the perception of grading accuracy (trust in the third party grading company's accuracy in establishing comparable values of lower and superior grades) 2) Media speculation (published or heavily rumored television and/or movie studio interest in character properties that are hotly competed for origins or first appearances) 3) Censes rankings (grades and desirability weighed against the number of available copies in the marketplace is the gauge by which all collectible paper is valued) Note: The factor which I like to zero in on is total censes numbers which determine whether a collectible can be subject to serious volatility in the ebb and flow of an economic downturn. This is one of the reasons I'm persuaded that GA is less vulnerable to catastrophic bubbles (Promise Collection feeding frenzies and market corrections notwithstanding). I think this is called the bubble gum theory of investment.

True, but only Subby appeared with more sourpuss goose-steppers on a single cover!

bondage to war bondage...

DC snow job to Cat-Man blizzard (Cole conditions)...

tied in a tree to bound & hanging limbs...

Fox cover to popular fox on Fox cover...

skull masked villains jaw punched to full boned skeletal body punches and spinal strangling...

Black Cat to Cat-Man & Kitten...

Horsing around to going the extra mile to stirrup trouble...

L. Ron Hubbard to L. Ron Hubbard...

Panama canal to eerie ear canal...

Several pulp keepers...

BOMBER to bomber...

If it'll take you time to look they must be well stowed.

Precode horror to precode (phonetic) "horror"...

love craft to Lovecraft...

bald dudes to bald green dudes...

Jarhead to jarring head...

C/OW which is a moo point! Prefer the cream crop wise, but OW or better PQ... Note: This was free stock photo, so I'm milking puns for all they're worth!