VintageComics

I don't check the usual sites very often so I didn't even see that one. I just went by my gut when I estimated the price. Do you happen to have a scan of the book?

I've used Comiclink for years for buying and selling. I can't even count the number of times. I've never noticed a pattern of my bid being bid up to right below my max. In fact, I bid on a very big book in this last auction and it ended thousands below my max.

There's also a range based on grade. There's been a lot of flux right now and I don't think any real pattern has settled down yet. The book is more expensive but exactly how much more expensive is a bit of a grey area right now (to me anyway).

The discussion about shill bidding at auction houses has been raised here many times over the last decade and a half. You have to understand that this place has a history of people dropping in during opportune times with an agenda and then posting something and not hanging around long. You came into the AF #15 thread with your first post, you're named after the book and talked about buying a copy. An old timer might see that as a potential 'shill' that joined simply to pump the book. I'm not saying you are actually doing that. I'm just saying that like auction shill bidding theories, there could be more to the story than shills ( ) or shill bidding.

Shill bidding is a part of auctions, like it or hate it. Sometimes when things are out of the ordinary some people might scrutinize them and try to figure out why - like your appearance. It was timed very interestingly. And sometimes a duck is just a duck. Not all, but most serious bidders don't bid until the closing seconds for that reason.

Best chicken wings you will ever have in your life is in Carmine's in Times Square. Be prepared for a long wait during peak hours. Everyone I've ever taken (New Yorkers and non-New Yorkers) agree, the best wings ever.

If you're implying that Comiclink as an auction house shill bids behind the scenes, I'd highly doubt it. But even a straight laced auction house can't stop someone from asking a friend to throw in a bid on a book. For the record, I disapprove of that practice and do not ever participate in it.

You should let me know when you're done appreciating it.

Yep. I know where the book ended up.

Gang, this thread is 4 years old. I sold the book 4 years ago. I don't have a Whiz #2 (1) for sale. I sold this copy to find a replacement and never did. I'll close the thread.

You bought my last Whiz #22.

You can't compare copies to catch trimming. Early SA Marvel quality was so poor that they often differed in size.

I paid nearly $50K for my personal copy about 5 years ago. Auctioned it off and it went for $35K or thereabouts when I decided it was time to sell. Nice to see that the book is finally picking up steam again. One of my fave books of all time. That was a fresh looking copy.

Agreed much softer or the person who paid 275 000$ simply paid to much and just wanted to own one in high grade knowing he was over paying at that moment in time. I had several people last night ask me what I thought the CGC 9.0 was worth. Obviously, in this ridiculous market over the last few months it's become impossible to predict. $150K books go for $261K and $200K books go for $100K irrationally, but I told them $220-230K sounded like the right number for the Hulk #1. The $275K sale was a strong number (and it was a real sale, I know the buyer) just as $261K for an AF #15 CGC 8.0 is a strong number. Like the Hulk #1 @ $275K, I don't see the buyer of several of these AF #15's getting their money out quick either. Selling too soon is always a liability, especially if you pay strong money. For reference sake, the Hulk #1 9.0 sold at what I would have valued an AF #15 9.0 a year ago.

Are you seeing some sales from one auction being reported while others are not? From what I can see none of the record sales have made it to GPA yet. CC doesn't report immediately like Heritage. They submit will after the auctions have ended.

I vividly remember that book hitting the market. Awesome, awesome book. It was mid 2000's.

Impossible to tell in this market what is going rate. Might be in the ball park.

You should contact Arch to have your account straightened out.

My recollection was that they did climb after that but I could be wrong. @october Andy, I was wrong. Now when I think about it, I think the X-men #1 market was established but the surprise was the CGC 9.4 price because one hadn't been on the market in a while. But that price point was more or less established when the book came up for auction.

My recollection was that they did climb after that but I could be wrong. As I mentioned earlier in the thread, a similar pattern also happened when AF #15 CGC 9.4 broke $200K in a Clink auction circa 2008 or so. Before that sale, there just hadn't been a lot of high grade AF #15s that moved. GPA has one listed at $90K in 2003. After the Clink copy sold, all lower copies started to appreciate rapidly after that. I'm sure AF #15 rose sharply after that as I had just sold a copy a few months before. My point is that what happened in Hulk #1 is not an isolated incident in my experience (and I've stated this more than once). It's usually either a higher grade copy that sells that hasn't sold in a while that lights a fire in lower grades or sometimes it's a slow buildup in lower grades that causes the top grades to push up (as is happening in Bronze keys like Hulk #181 where the top in 9.8 had come down from it's peak and now has started to climb back up due to upward pressure from lower grades).

No worries. Just my perception. Same thing happened when the Mound City X-men #1 CGC 9.4 went for $107K in 2009. Everyone was shocked but I was the high bidder, bidding for someone else and felt $100K was the right price based on my understanding of the market dynamics at the time. Shortly after the MC X #1 9.4 sold it started to trickle down to lower grade copies, which started to climb. There just hadn't been an X-men #! in 9.4 on the market in some time before that (non listed on GPA pre 2009).

I like GPA, and use it a lot, but..... without CL & CC data, GPA has effectively been neutered. CC supplies GPA with data but it's not immediate.

Some books have unique dynamics in some areas. Hulk #1's unique dynamic is it's the toughest of all big Marvel keys in high grade with a sole 9.4 being the highest. So when a 2nd highest graded 9.2 shook loose in 2014 it jumped hard. I assume that's what it took to shake it loose, and that pulled up lower copies. That's a very normal market dynamic that we've seen over and over.

That's now two 5.0 results that make the $61k someone just paid for the 6.5 in the last CC auction look "cheap". That's also 2 x 5.0 copies that unquestionably looked exceptional for the grade. Unexceptional copies don't seem to be selling for the same record numbers. Is the 8.0 upgradeable? I have no idea. I asked for large scans to take a look at the book closely and never got them.

You generally can't tel if a book is trimmed from a scan unless it's very badly trimmed. Many early SA books can look trimmed but may not be. Only way to really tell is to inspect the book in hand.