goldust40

They didn't even alter the dialogue...

I love it when lowball end-the-auction-early offers get posted publicly. Yeah, I saw that (always amusing). Vindication for the seller couldn't've happened much quicker. .... and one buyer was brought close to guidance immediately. How would you guys grade the book? 6.0? Looks like it has a sub-crease. You can see it start above the "A" in "Mask" and end under the guy's face. Hard to tell what the grade might be without better pics. Yep. I thought it was a 5.0 that presents well.

I love it when lowball end-the-auction-early offers get posted publicly. Yeah, I saw that (always amusing). Vindication for the seller couldn't've happened much quicker.

I placed THIS just-listed auction on my watch list, with the bidding at $100. I check my eBay watch page after a couple of hours and find it's up to $1500 already. PCH still very much a draw...

There were quite a few books that I thought would go higher - the MT 153 in 5.0 at $125 looked to be a decent buy.

The books that graded below 4.5 (at least half of them) generally went for moderate / expected market prices, although there were obviously books that did well for the grades, with the odd Strange Tales, JIM, Menace (notably 11), Mystery Tales (11 and 13), and TOS 4 going for very decent money. Got outbid on the Marvel Tales 116.

Yep, plenty of old-schoolers like that in the U.K. But then they've been around since the ark.

With many particular sellers who are not immersed in GPA / CGC / CGC Chat forum. It's not about the seller, it's about the types of buyers. Sure, but the raw collector market is much larger than the CGC graded flipper market. And if a slabbed book is going cheap on Clink they wouldn't know it because they ignore slabbed comic sales. I can't imagine the two markets as you refer to them are mutually exclusive.

Great covers on those two. Congrats.

There are a lot of nice slabbed copies of some of these books in current auctions that may go for less than people are paying for these raw copies...feeding frenzy...speculation... Perhaps, although the majority of the books are in the lower grades. Right, that's my point, people are bidding up lower grade books in a frenzy when slabs with confirmed grades are at least currently auctioning for less. Look at the Menace 11 on Clink.... Anyway, the auctions are early so it may not pan out that way, but it is interesting. I checked both auctions and you're right. Remarkable. That's because the guys buying raw books are often collectors who don't care for GPA or slabbed books. They're just collectors who want a copy of a book. The guys buying slabbed books are part speculator / part collector. This just reinforces my belief that there are multiple types of markets out there. It also crushes the idea that just because it's slabbed it sells for more. On this particular occasion with this particular seller. I also think that the guys buying the raw books are equally likely to be speculators, rolling the dice on the pretext that the book might be undergraded and presumably unpressed. Almost certainly true. +1 There are also plenty of Atlas "collectors" buying slabs at record setting prices. I find it hard to believe a "speculator" paid $2K+ for a JIM 16 CGC 5.5 in a recent HA auction with the intent of turning around and selling it at a profit any time soon (if they did they have a problem). I assume some collector really wanted that book for his run and didn't care about price because it would almost certainly sell for quite a bit less if put back up at auction right now. There are lots of examples in the last year of eye popping Atlas prices for slabs at auction and they can't be the work of speculators because these books can't be sold at a profit anytime soon e.g. the CGC 9.0 Spellbound 14 that sold for $9K or the high grade, post code, JIM's in the March CC auction that went for approx. $10K. There are many others - nearly every JIM in that March auction. Bottom line is I don't think the high slab sale prices at auction are due to speculators, but more likely collectors who are filling runs or recognize how tough some books are, doubt they will get another shot and are OK with paying top, top dollar right now. I would guess most "speculators" focus on the raw Atlas that comes up for sale on Ebay, here and in the weekly HA auctions - pressing VG/FN into FN and so on - this is also a fool's errand in my opinion. Anyway, that's my two cents and my comments are limited to Atlas only. And a +1 for this.

There are a lot of nice slabbed copies of some of these books in current auctions that may go for less than people are paying for these raw copies...feeding frenzy...speculation... Perhaps, although the majority of the books are in the lower grades. Right, that's my point, people are bidding up lower grade books in a frenzy when slabs with confirmed grades are at least currently auctioning for less. Look at the Menace 11 on Clink.... Anyway, the auctions are early so it may not pan out that way, but it is interesting. I checked both auctions and you're right. Remarkable. I don't bother tracking their auctions. It's not that there is anything wrong with them, there isn't (and that's kind of the point), but they achieve above market prices on a lot of the auctions. Overpaying is not my thing. I like to keep tabs on the market, so I'll follow the auctions. I win the odd book...

There are a lot of nice slabbed copies of some of these books in current auctions that may go for less than people are paying for these raw copies...feeding frenzy...speculation... Perhaps, although the majority of the books are in the lower grades. Right, that's my point, people are bidding up lower grade books in a frenzy when slabs with confirmed grades are at least currently auctioning for less. Look at the Menace 11 on Clink.... Anyway, the auctions are early so it may not pan out that way, but it is interesting. I checked both auctions and you're right. Remarkable. That's because the guys buying raw books are often collectors who don't care for GPA or slabbed books. They're just collectors who want a copy of a book. The guys buying slabbed books are part speculator / part collector. This just reinforces my belief that there are multiple types of markets out there. It also crushes the idea that just because it's slabbed it sells for more. On this particular occasion with this particular seller. I also think that the guys buying the raw books are equally likely to be speculators, rolling the dice on the pretext that the book might be undergraded and presumably unpressed.

There are a lot of nice slabbed copies of some of these books in current auctions that may go for less than people are paying for these raw copies...feeding frenzy...speculation... Perhaps, although the majority of the books are in the lower grades. Right, that's my point, people are bidding up lower grade books in a frenzy when slabs with confirmed grades are at least currently auctioning for less. Look at the Menace 11 on Clink.... Anyway, the auctions are early so it may not pan out that way, but it is interesting. I checked both auctions and you're right. Remarkable.

There are a lot of nice slabbed copies of some of these books in current auctions that may go for less than people are paying for these raw copies...feeding frenzy...speculation... Perhaps, although the majority of the books are in the lower grades.

He generally gets strong prices on his books anyway.

This. There is a feeding frenzy going on... Indeed...

Dammit! Why didn't you tell me earlier, Kav??

Very impressive. Wish this collection had been around when I was putting my runs together. Might've saved me a lot of time. I am always amazed at the volume of good stuff that Pete comes up with. A big dealer that somehow flies under the radar... In the last few months, his eBay auctions have gone from worth checking out, to ballistic. There have been some great books listed over the last month or so, and now there's this 600 issue lot of Atlases. It's all been down to hard graft and patience - eventually the great books turn up. I just wish he'd opt out of the damn GSP... The GSP is bad news? Have not had to use it (from the selling end obviously). I wanted the Weird Mysteries 6 in 6.5 that he had up this past week, but did not want to go to $2000 for it. Bad news for foreign buyers, and it can shrink the bidder pool somewhat for U.S. sellers. Good that you haven't opted to use it. And I didn't expect the WM 6 to go that high - I never did my homework on that overlooked book (at least compared to the two issues that precede it) but it is certainly scarce in above FN...