namisgr

Reprints of FF 48-51, with brand new cover art by John Buscema, Sal Buscema, Gil Kane, and Sal once again:

You're right about that. I was thinking more about yesterday's seller, and the bashing they're taking for supposedly having paid $2 million for the TOS.

Your no-prize should be winging its non-way to you any day now.

Eh, a private deal made by Comiclink. Who knows if there was trade involved and what it really changed hands for?

Private sales are sometimes not all cash transactions. In these cases, the selling auctioner/dealer often themself assigns a value to the trade portion of the deal. Who other than the folks at Comiclink really knows what the book sold for earlier?

Final hammer prices, including the buyer's premium: Avengers #1 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 5).... $432,000 Daredevil #1 cgc 9.8 (top 1 of 3).... $360,000 Journey Into Mystery #85 cgc 9.4 (first Loki, Asgard, and Odin).... $84,000 Justice League of America #1 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 2).... $348,000 Silver Surfer #1 cgc 9.8 Signed by Stan (top 1 of 1).... $108,000 Strange Tales #110 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 7).... $150,000 Tales of Suspense #39 cgc 9.8 (top 1 of 1).... $840,000

cheapskate

Good call.

While I have no insight as to what the final sale prices will be for any of these SA keys, based on prior experience with Heritage Signature auctions expect the final prices to be bid up during the live auction portion, some by a lot.

The mega-key SA spectaculars in the Heritage Auction go up for live bidding today. Here's where they currently stand with a few hours to go in the internet-only phase of the bidding: Tales of Suspense #39 cgc 9.8 (top 1 of 1).... $645,000 Avengers #1 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 5).... $132,000 Daredevil #1 cgc 9.8 (top 1 of 3).... $336,000 Journey Into Mystery #85 cgc 9.4 (first Loki, Asgard, and Odin).... $55,200 Justice League of America #1 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 2).... $150,000 Silver Surfer #1 cgc 9.8 Signed by Stan (top 1 of 1).... $72,000 Strange Tales #110 cgc 9.6 (top 1 of 7).... $102,000 Nick Fury #1 cgc 9.9 (top 1 of 1).... $9,900 Strange Tales Annual #1 cgc 9.4 (top 1 of 2).... $5,160

While most of my raw picture frame collection was put together over years attending shows, and a very small handful are the copies I bought off the rack and never had slabbed, all of the recent upgrades are books cracked out of slabs. For instance, the FF120 was graded by CGC 9.0 and the Captain Marvel 9.2. With my collecting reduced to the rare picture frame book, I no longer have the want list to look for books at shows or on the Bay. When it ultimately comes time to sell this collection, it won't be done looking for any percentage of FMV of a slabbed counterpart. Instead, I'll take the slabbing fee out of my asking price and provide another discount for selling in bulk lots. Rather than having to sell them as ~275 single books, they'll be grouped into lots either by publication month or title and sold that way. I won't be looking to maximize profit, just to re-coup most of cost.

The wild Wolverton covers alone give the run cool.

Great comic! Nice to see it receive an unrestored blue label.

My recent upgrading is decidedly more modest:

It's the staple under the cover and holding the interior pages together. When it produces a bump on the cover surface, it's a production feature. With that said, in looking through the Heritage auction archives at 9.8 copies, I certainly couldn't say that this copy looks nicer or sharper. But I'm neither a professional grader or potentially subject to motivated grading.

It looks stunning to me, with the edges and corners really standing out, along with clean cover. But I've only seen scans of 9.8s, and images don't always show everything there is to see, so I don't have much to compare it to.

I wonder if Metro submitted it for grading.

The Tales of Suspense is currently at $576,000 with 11 days left of internet bidding and a live auction to come. Next at the moment is the DD #1 currently at a little over $250,000.

There's no harm in letting CGC make the call on the tier your comic belongs in after they've graded it. Back in the day when the Value tier existed, I'd submit everything on it, and then await a phone call should a book or three fall outside the maximum allowed value of that tier with the news that I owed more money.

All alone at the top of the census: And 1 of 2 at the top of the census for this tough pre-hero issue and 1962 Annual:

Perfectly aligned cover and white pages.

A mere 9.4, but the cover whites are tremendous.

Yes, there's the Kansas City blue label 8.5 copy of Action #1 that's now sitting at over $5 million. But there's some seldom seen and never-before seen SA keys, too, including top census copies of Tales of Suspense #39 in 9.8 (1 of 1), Daredevil #1 in 9.8, Justice League #1 in 9.6 (1 of 2), Avengers #1 in 9.6, and Strange Tales #110 in 9.6. Even if I were still collecting Silver, these books would be way, way beyond my reach. But it's really enjoyable to peruse some of the scans and marvel at these copies.

I'm liking 'salamander' for the new signature authentication slabbing. Especially given that many types of salamanders can change their colors.