tth2

I wouldn't, but I'm trying some empathy exercises my therapist gave me.

Did Lou_Fine hack your account? Yeah, I just tend to think of prices in terms of how they relate to each other. So if a 9.2 sells for $750k and a 3.0 sells for $156k, then in my mind at least one of the buyers should be upset, and maybe even both!

That 3.0 presented exceptionally well for the grade, pretty clean looking with pretty solid colors too. Most of the defects were well obscured spine splits and tape on the interior. I think any other 3.0 goes for way less right now. The thing about paying up for a book that presents better than its grade is the risk that when it comes time to sell, the market response is "Yeah, it looks better than a X.X, but the label says X.X, so the price we're willing to pay is a X.X price".

Sure, I get that, but there's still a valuation component that has to be factored in. If one can get a 9.2 for $750k, then one should be able to get a whole lot more book for $156k than just a 3.0.

The CGC 7.0 W October 1933 ("Batgirl") Weird Tales went for $30k. It'd been sitting at $25k pretty much since the first few days of online bidding, so not much movement during the floor auction. A helpful pricing benchmark for one of the first CGC copies of one of the hobby's most iconic books.

The main thing that people should assume about any ultra-HG SA Marvel key that is publicly available for sale is that it's no better than the second best copy in existence. Even if it's tied for the highest grade, it's probably available only because one collector has assessed it and found it to be inferior to his copy.

That's why I had to have it. Congratulations!

Case in point. To me, $360k is an unfathomable amount to pay for a second-tier SA Marvel key like DD 1. But because of the even crazier prices previously paid for the book, a $360k price is now framed as an abject failure.

Eh, a private deal made by Comiclink. Who knows if there was trade involved and what it really changed hands for? Doesn't matter, as that was the publicly announced price and as such, it makes for a terrible narrative for the market.

$84k

Holy cow. some dudes have taken a serious haircut. But they pale in comparison to whoever flipped the 9.8 TOS 39 in this auction. A $1.2m loss!

What about the fact that the multiple between a 3.0 and 9.2 Cap 1 is now less than 5X? The 9.2 Cap 1 went for $750k while the 3.0 Cap 1 went for $156k. As you rightly point out, Cap 1s are (along with Bat 1) the most commonly available GA mega-keys, so it's surprising to me that the price differential is so small. Did the 9.2 Cap 1 go for too little, the 3.0 Cap 1 for too much, or both, or do people think they both went for about the right price?

Well, he has the bragging rights for the amazing loss, so not entirely down the drain. "Hey baby, I'm so rich I could (and did) set $1.2m on fire!"

Never mind the gap between Cap 1 and Bat 1, what about the gap between Cap 1s? The multiple of a 9.2 Cap 1 ($750k) over a 3.0 Cap 1 ($156k) is less than 5X? Wow!!! Particularly considering that Cap 1s are (along with Bat 1) the most common GA mega-key, so it's not like Cap 1s in low grade are that rare.

I wish people would stop comparing pricing today to pandemic pricing. There were a lot of irrational decisions being made during the pandemic, pricing being only one of them. I paid $5K OVER msrp for my car during the pandemic. People locked themselves away from loved ones. People moved away from jobs and are now in a position where they either need to move again or not work. It was silly times and not remotely indicative of real life. Nonetheless, the prices were paid and are a matter of public record, thus are going to be the benchmark regardless of how irrational they might've been. They can act as a mythical benchmark for prices to strive towards over the next couple of decades, just like how the Dotcom Bubble peak prices of many tech stocks set a benchmark for many years (and some have still never returned to those levels).

Good luck with the grades! Let us know the results!

Post Your Promise Collection Wins! Just look for the most recent summary of resales of Promise books by Master_Chief near the end of the thread.

"Guess what! I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more Garfield!"

Agreed. Your chances of finding book collectors would probably be better in the Golden Age and Pulp forums, in particular.

What kind of books are they? Heritage seems to be pretty strong in sci-fi/fantasy books, but I don't know how strong they're considered in other genres.

I retired and wanted to get out of HK (can't talk too much about it because of the Board's policies on politics), my wife is Japanese and we already owned a home here.

I'm in Japan now, which is 13 hours ahead of US east coast time, which makes staying up even harder. I don't even try to stay up and bid during the floor auctions, I just put in my best shot during online bidding and then go to sleep (which is probably why I've barely won anything the last few years). Actually, the bidding will probably go so long now that I might be able to catch the back half of the floor auctions when I wake up!

I don't think they'll forget about the auctions per se, but those sessions are going to be such marathons that people targeting items that'll come up in the back half of a session might have gotten distracted, fallen asleep or lost the will to live, or all of the above, by the time that their lot comes up.

I'll take the over.

How about marvel chipping? Prices much stronger on non MC copies. The number on the label cannot hide that marvel chipping I don't follow transactions in lower grade books, so MC isn't too relevant to the books I track. But if the market is indeed penalizing books with MC that are getting higher grades from CGC than are warranted, then that's good to hear.