markseifert

...25?

GREAT work. I've seen the anchor stamp on GA covers here and there and have often wondered about it myself.

I've been looking up this sort of info via old Library of Congress Catalog of Copyright Entry books (which agree with your data here on this issue, of course), but your data there is handily formatted. What's the source of that?

Haven't seen this one before: In addition to the comics in the window, historically fascinating for the signage touting the availability of American comics, biggest selection in East London. Found here, the twitterer says it's from 1952:

Yep. Going along with this, I think many have felt that the market has long overreacted to certain slight levels of resto. But market data is what it is. IF we see significant price movement in converting purple slight to blue conserved, I think there's little doubt people will start investing in that process. But, the market is what it is, and we shall soon see.

It'll be interesting to start seeing sales results from stuff moving from purple label to blue label conserved. edit to add -- I think the new scale is a good idea (more info = better), but it will be interesting to see how the market handles certain things.

I don't disagree, but I think the thing that you have to think about is at what various $$ levels new achievements are unlocked, so to speak. Consider: Let's say you've got a Tec 27 cgc 8.0 that is gorgeous except for a color breaking crease. If you threw $250k at it, could you get that crease removed, or make it invisible without adding anything? I don't know, but it's interesting to think about. You could pay an expert to sit in a room with a microscope every day for a year... slowly, carefully teasing paper fibers and color flakes into place. Is it possible? No idea, but I wouldn't bet against it given $x resources.

You know what, being fair to Mitch, and playing devil's advocate here... he's probably actually making a point worth pondering here. A 2 million dollar bump does likely pave the way towards new methods. It's not a new behavior or dynamic, but it IS potentially a level-up. As Gator saw the book as an 8.0 (I think?), and given his experience, he's in the best position to know that this is a difficult-to-repeat set of circumstances. And yet... and yet.... a $2 million dollar bump. At that point, you can say to a conservator, "here's $100,000. (or $200,000. or $500,000). If money is (nearly) no object, what can you do to make this book look better? The door was already wide open, but this does (yet again) push it open a few inches farther. There's little doubt that [insert names of experts here] are thinking about what they could do with those kinds of resources. What equipment and methods they could explore. What university and museum conservation experts they could consult with. Revolutionary? No. Evolutionary? Yeah, probably. And it doesn't have to be as drastic as 8.0->9.0. What's the Cage Action 1 worth in a 9.2 holder? Think you could get it there if I gave you $250k? How about if I gave you $500k?

Are you conflating the "DA was offered X" story with the story about how Geppi offered $1M in an ad for a NM Action 1? Could be wrong, but I half presume that's how it got started. Certainly, you could do the A+B=C math and make an assumption that the offer was directly made.

I'm a big proponent of logical thinking, and this comment makes no sense. Fishler is a dealer. As such, why would he keep paying more for books than his customers could ever come up with? He clearly knows people he believes will some day pony up even more than he paid. Someone should track the twists and turns the "Dave turned down $x million for the Church Action 1" legend has taken over the years, as I'm pretty sure it's a 15+ year old story by now (and commonly associated with Geppi as the offerer, back then), and the commonly-repeated number has jumped from 1 to 2 to 5 million with the times, since I first heard it. Not that I doubt he's turned down astronomical sums for the book (and for his others), since everybody knows who he is and that he has it.

If the slabbing is leading up to a public sale, it is logically timed in prep for the November HA or CC auctions. If you miss that window and it's public, you're basically looking at Feb for a major venue. Any possibility that this is part of the major collection that HA is bringing to market from a collector outside the US? (nothing super high grade listed yet, but there is a Pep 22 7.0)

Except for four years ago. Consistently we know who is number 1. I agree that Action #1 has been the top book in the hobby, but you keep saying ever and right here you're saying "grades being equal" I'm just pointing out that the biggest week in the hobby's history saw a Detective 27 outsell an Action #1 in the same grade. That's just one exception to what you're saying, but it's one we really shouldn't ignore. Yep. And there are other recent comparison points that suggest that Tec 27 has at least a debate-worthy claim on the top spot. Here are 6 of the top 11 all-time confirmed sales on Rob's list: Detective Comics 27 CGC 8.0 2010/02/25 $1,075,000.00 Action Comics 1 CGC 8.0 2010/02/22 $1,000,000.00 Action Comics 1 CGC 6.5 2011/06/01 $625,000.00 Action Comics 1 CGC 6.5 2010/08/01 $575,000.00 Detective Comics 27 CGC 6.0 2010/04/01 $575,000.00 Detective Comics 27 CGC 6.5 2013/02/23 $567,625.00 I'm cherry picking, obviously, but still... 6 of the top 11 (publicly known) sales, ever. Can you say definitively from that data that Action 1 is the clear-cut winner? I think probably you can't.

Er, wow. Stunning and an amazing provenance. Don't know as much about this area as I'd like, can someone fill me in on the HPL contributor copies and how they came to market? How many are there?

pretty strong price all things considered.. that's what a nice 2.5 might go for. I really don't get the Kane premium at all. The guy is all but a pariah as far as I'm concerned given what he did to Bill Finger, etc. Give me a 2.5 all day long. Here's the thing about that, to me... one could say that about countless important figures in comics industry history. Most don't dislike Action 1 because Donenfeld and Liebowicz used it as an impetus to push the Major out. Warren Angel was a pretty suspect character and seems to have been the force behind pushing Cook & Mahon out, but we don't dislike Centaurs. Likewise Victor Fox, Martin Goodman, etc. [fwiw, I did a write-up talking about that aspect of these books ] That's not to say disliking Kane as a person is invalid, because it certainly is a valid response to what we know about him. But if you're a collector and enjoy the historical aspect of collecting, you often have to take a warts-and-all approach to what you consider important in the context of the history of the business.

Ah man, that is nice it would be mind-blowing.

I bet this sale will bring out another copy sooner or later.

Oh wow. Super nice.

Many, many modern comics have been printed on equipment developed in Heidelberg.

Oh, you must let us know when that's out...

Awesome. That's a great looking 4.5. And yet another key 1939 comic that has just turned 75 years old.

Those are super cool.

...And then there's the 4 foot x 8 foot Schomburg original painting that was recently discovered in an Oregon "fish-viewing station". Super fun story: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/steve_duin/index.ssf/2014/01/steve_duin_an_alex_schomburg_o.html

Is this one of the infamous Harry Donenfeld magazines...?

I wonder about that too, and yet low-quality newsprint-interior/newsprint-cover stuff like the late-era nickel/dime weekly story papers circa 1900-1930 don't seem all that tough by comparison. Although, , some of that stuff is smaller, which probably makes it somewhat less likely to get torn up. So maybe you're right.

. Ah, ... as he was in Toronto... the Cap Annual interiors are b&w, right? That might explain it.