Roger66

I've good friends, who are investing heavily into this niche - so I feel bad expressing this. I personally find it ridiculous the prices asked for and sometimes paid for these items and I believe it more a sign of the times with the nostalgic desire to mine our past and create wealth from detritus. Markets are often about perception and those at the bottom are often greedy and chasing quick bucks without a care for the item in question - will this have longevity? - I think not - but regardless my interest in this niche is beyond less than zero. p.s. don't get me started on video games and the manipulation there

Just got my KEY in the mail. Incredibly well-packed and super fast shipping! thank you

100% right... from that perspective - we must all remain vigilant and outspoken... well said

I think all in all there are suckers born every day . While as a tight knit community we like to call out the scammers - in the end you cannot prevent the gullible, naïve and also often greedy folk from being just that 'stupid if not irresponsible.' I could open an eBay account right now and call myself uAsucker69 and sell a Hulk 181 CGC 6.5 for $500.00 and it would be sold in 60 seconds and once that guy opened his box and saw a Russian reprint - he would be whining all over the internet . I stopped flagging scammers a long time ago because it is the suckers, who cannot be stopped - in the end fools and their money are easily parted - it is almost Darwinian.

My lousy 2 cents: I now don't generally collect-buy comics after 1974 as a rule. So when I see complaints about these newer books being really a 9.6 vs a 9.8 in addition to folks willing to pay a significant sum more for a book because it happens to have less spine ticks then another very similar copy - I just role my eyes . This hobby has become rotten if not delusional the closer you get to modern and variant books so far as the desire to own and pay large chunks of money for books that are relatively new, not scarce and often have 1000s in high grade is a huge sad expensive joke that no one who buys these books now gets but one day will when this house of cards or castle of sand collapses . To sustain this type of artificial market you need a large group of gullible individuals or followers all willing to disconnect from the reality that they just paid perhaps $1,000 for a really-truly insignificant if not common thing (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_mania) instead of paying their credit card debt down or rent or saving the money for a rainy day - and these irrational self-indulgent values they place on these types of comics are so easily manipulated by some semi-shrewd collectors on top - that it it like stealing candy from a baby when someone pays said prices - thus I say welcome to the rabbit-hole of this hobby. “A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.”― Robert A. Heinlein

Thank you GrasshopperFF - Comics in some ways can be thought of like stocks due to the incredible surging value they have - just think for a moment that the entire recorded Hulk 181 CGC population of say 20,000 copies could be worth I don't know say for argument's sake 150 million dollars while the entire FF1 CGC population of about @ 3,500 copies could be worth say about 100 million bucks and AF15's population now of about 2,300 copies could be worth perhaps 275 million plus... with that in mind - comics - all of them - are worth billions of dollars in their entirety - if you have limited comic money each month to invest in books or let's say stocks - long term you want to create a portfolio that can perform, endure and outlast the competition . There is always room for certain characters to grow esp when for years they were left behind in the collectors subconscious mind like Daredevil and Dr. Doom, both loved but not really appreciated money wise until all eyes focused on their importance.... same could be said for Galactus but remember like Thanos once his story arc was done and over in the MCU (and we all hope it shall be royally epic ) - you likely won't hear from this planet eating villain again. So to me Galactus is in tier 2 and not a tier 1 character.. same for Thanos. I also believe very strongly that if you have 3 to 5k to spend on either a FF48 or FF49 - hands-down grab issue 48 over 49. Silver Surfer btw is potentially a tier 1 character and may be there sooner than later. Hope this helps as well as encourages you - stay thirsty my friend... Good luck..

My perspective on collecting Marvel Silver Age keys is that of a collector in the mid-century of his life, who became familiar with all of these characters in or around the 1970s. I collected strongly in my youth and stopped for about 25 years and have since resumed. I stand my ground when I say your can divide what to invest in into 3 categories. On top of the pyramid so to speak are the ELITES or solid historical standby keys - such as Spider-Man 1, Hulk 1, FF 1. Thor JIM83, Iron-Man's TOS39, X-MEN 1, Hulk 181 etc. Beneath them and with great respect and seemingly percolating towards the top for good reasons remain the strong supporting characters 1st appearances like that of Black Widow, Ant Man, Hawkeye, Daredevil, King Pin, Dr. Doom, Avengers 1 & 4, ASM129 etc - and admittedly some of these characters have bled into the top tier (i.e. DD1 & FF5) by virtue of very strong sales, high demand and huge investment returns. In the third and by far the largest tier is almost everyone else such as 1st appearances of Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Shang-Chi, Venom, Kraven, Eternals, Guardians of the Galaxy, She-Hulk etc - My above list is by no means comprehensive and might need to be tweaked upon a further editing and certainly I expect will be disputed. Barring high graded CGC copies of any of the above - I find myself reluctant to invest in the third tier esp when the key is HOT and thus will buy the 2nd tier if the price is right and the grade desirable and of course the 1st tier if possible. In short I find you are best served if with a limited budget to save for Tier 2 and Tier 1, which is now a stretch for most collectors on a constrained budget. This whole "heating up" things is essentially the answer to the question, which is nothing heats up forever and eventually returns to room temperature or to a lesser degree after the oxygen is diminished. Staying true to your heart and intuition and remembering what historical characters built the MCU is IMO the way to go - so ignore the incessant chattering, hype and movie rumors... - my 2-cents.

Take ASM 50 cgc 6.0 per pm

it is a beautiful looking 6.5 and should make the next owner very happy.

Puffery From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia In everyday language, puffery refers to exaggerated or false praise. [1] Puffery serves to "puff up" what is being described. In law, puffery is usually invoked as a defense argument: it identifies futile speech, typically of a seller, which does not give rise to legal liability. In a circular manner, legal explanations for this normative position describe the non-enforceable speech as a statement that no "reasonable person" would take seriously anyway.[2

http://www.wymann.info/comics/060-PencePriceVariants.html

If a collector was in a deep coma for the past 18 months and awoke now - he would be in a price-sticker shock-world - and likely fall back into a coma. The current market was I believe unpredictable despite what some might state or pontificate on. I also believe despite the settling of the market of late if not 'appearing to plateau' on some keys - it will never go down to yesteryears prices at least not what I covet - pre-1974 select books. (btw I have nothing but eye-rolling, snarky comments and cynicism about the moderns and 9.8 variants etc, which I expect to absolutely implode one day . ) So 'what happened?' you asked - it was a perfect storm if not a confluence of factors all occurring at once - the bit-coin crowd looking to park its' money somewhere, the proliferation if not inundation of super-hero movies, the echo-chamber of IG and you-tube prognosticators, (Covid-confined) collectors working at home having more time to buy online and my favorite being that like a fine wine - many comics have become truly historical if not vintage - i.e. just think about Hulk 181, which published in 1974 will be 1/2 century old soon.

CGC and CBCS are competitors with no public recognition or acknowledgement that the other companies grades are as strict as theirs otherwise they might as well merge and become CGCCBCS .

I must admit browsing through this discourse has been quite educational if not eye opening . Despite being immersed in pre-1974 comics for a very long time - I had no idea there was such a fruitful, thriving and profitable side to modern variants. My only question is this IF a benefactor offered you for free either an AF15 blue label CGC 3.0 with say o/w pages (current value could be I don't know say 45K) or a group of those top 5 variants worth perhaps 65K FMV value now - and the catch was you had to hold it for at least 36 months before selling - which would you choose - the 45K AF15 or those 65K modern variants?

I second that.... - at 25 cents a pop-cover price and with perhaps a 1/2 million copies rolling out of various presses in 1974 - you can imagine the quality control wasn't perfect...

“There was a long hard time when I kept far from me the remembrance of what I had thrown away when I was quite ignorant of its worth.”― Charles Dickens, Great Expectations

Certain individuals seem to walk blindly with eyes wide open into a large black hole in the middle of the day. Do we need blinking neon signs to say 'large hole in front of you beware?' There was a time on eBay I would see Hulk 181s CGC'd being listed in the Russian Federation for prices that were so-so obviously a scam - I would put them on my watch-list as a joke and sure enough someone would buy it. You cannot protect some people from themselves. Sort of like putting a warning label on an 'adult' trampoline.

“A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom. But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.”― Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Ed is very reliable, earnest, friendly and a credit to the Boards. Thank you for my books.

And that I respect immensely. When it comes to movie entertainment or even ice cream flavors - our palettes are indeed uniquely our own and that is what makes life interesting.

I read the book as well. Big sci fi reader growing up.. Asimov, Bradbury, Herbert, Heinlein etc..... I felt Dune would have been much better served with a series sort of like G.O.T. where they could have fleshed out the characters, their backgrounds and created more drama if not an intelligent ---script. The movie was just this big beautiful pastry from the outside, which one you digested it - it was tasteless and formless. I am amazed at how many people sing this movie's praises. Perhaps the bar has sunk so low or maybe my bar is just too high... regardless - Dune the movie remains forgettable.

I still found it more entertaining than Dune.

X-MEN #1 without a moment's thought. As AF15 & Hulk 1 prices jettison out of most mere mortals' income-reach (might as well start including FF1) - more and more eyes are focused on such blue chip grails like TOS39, ASM1 & of course X-MEN1 - comic collecting now is more or less about what the mob demands - and just looking at IG postings I see without a doubt an incredible excitement to add an X-MEN1 to the PC in any condition.... no doubt FF5 is a super grail but of the 2 if sadly having to cut ties with one - X-MEN1 is the best bet - plus we sometimes forget that X-MEN1 is also the 1st appearance of an iconic villain right up there with the Doctor... the current lull in X1 prices below 5.5 is simply temporary but feels bigger then it should be because of the almost weekly fixation and repetitive-cyclic commentary on auction sales...my 2-cents “A valuation, which is established as the outcome of the mass psychology of a large number of ignorant individuals is liable to change violently as the result of a sudden fluctuation of opinion due to factors which really do not make much difference . . . since there will be no strong roots of conviction to hold it steady.”― John Maynard Keynes

I will - I learned something new today too.. thank you

I have had a few raw golden age books that stunk like moth balls and 1 like turpentine due to the way they were stored over the decades by the prior owners - all joking aside - smell or stink is not a factor in CGC grading or it would be in the graders' notes and then some seller's might start misting their books with perfume prior to submission....