jimbo_7071

Your little emoji looks like he would have fun bouncing around on those things.

What books? Just curious. I guess the way to get deals is to put in low-ball bids on a bunch of books and hope that other bidders don't show up on one or two of them. The chances of getting a deal aren't great if you target a particular book. I just paid $4,850 plus tax and shipping for this one—3.7 times guide. I wanted a Novick cover in 8.0 or above for my artist type set, so I can live with the price. I'm sure the consignor was happy. I don't think the book would have gone for much more on Heritage, and the commission would have been bigger. ETA: I guess this comic predicted the future. The woman is about to become an unwilling cornea donor for the benefit of a rich old man, and there have been many reports worldwide of poor people and political prisoners in developing countries being killed in order to supply organ transplants for rich people. https://brighterworld.mcmaster.ca/articles/analysis-killing-prisoners-for-transplants-forced-organ-harvesting-in-china/

I didn't know that dealers were trying to bend the definition of "splash" page, but I'm not surprised. They also call anything that has less than 1,000 universal copies in the census "rare," so there you go. To me a splash a) has to be the first page of a story and b) has to take up the entire page.

I was watching that one myself but decided I'd rather save my money for something else. That's how I usually feel about westerns, even nice ones.

Pig to a man who strongly resembles one.

. . . unless you drop the slab.

Aren't PLODs still reviled? I wouldn't bid on a PLOD. I don't think perceptions of brittle pages will change. Dust will never be that collectible.

The dialogue on the cover is a big part of what I dislike about the book; it's very misogynistic. I also don't like books that depict realistic domestic violence. Those are the reasons why I got rid of my copy years ago. My mother was almost killed by an abuse boyfriend who broke her nose; the doctor told her that if he'd been 1/4 of an inch closer to her when he hit her, she would have died, so I have a strong negative reaction to scenes of domestic violence on books—unless the woman is about to be rescued or the artwork is drawn in such a way that it's more goofy than realistic, such as on Crime Suspenstories 22. (The realism without any mitigating sense of absurdity is why CS 19 bothers me but 22 doesn't.) People can collect whatever they want to; there are just certain kinds of covers that I can do without in my own collection.

What I'm seeing is that there's not enough differentiation between the good pieces and the mediocre pieces. The good pieces are still undervalued but the mediocre pieces are, if anything, overvalued. People are just buying "whatever" without discriminating enough. It makes me think that the OA market must be flooded with newbies.

I don't know where the "upgrade" mentality comes from. I have been collecting for 40 years and have never upgraded a book. I generally don't buy a copy unless I'm happy with it, so why would I upgrade? I do have a few books that turned out to be a little rougher in hand than what I was hoping for or that have particular defects that bug me, so I have a few books that I would upgrade were the right copy to come along at the right price, but even with those books, upgrading is a very low priority. I guess I don't think like the number-in-the-corner chasers.

Web to web.

Neither of those was my estimate. Someone else must have mentioned $82K; I'd probably be a little north of that, but not much. $100–$150 is a range that I see as possible depending on who's bidding, but that would be a very good result for the seller. The seller should be thrilled if the book goes over $100K. Coverless copies are not that hard to come by, and the pool of interested buyers is far more limited than it would be for a complete beater.

I usually bid less for file copies because I know they're not going to be very fresh. (The Harvey file copies are so bad that I don't even bid on those.)

I work in education, and from what I've witnessed, among the younger people who could be the comic collectors of tomorrow (if there are any!), Spider-Man is far more popular than Batman, who is the only D.C. character who gets any attention at all. D.C.'s Superman and Marvel's Captain America are both utterly passé. You can't deny Superman's importance to the hobby, but eventually it will only be a tiny group of comic book übergeeks who care.

I'm not in the market for any single pages or coverless copies. If I ever win the lottery (which I don't play—but I've been given lottery tickets as gifts before), then I may buy a complete Tec 27 some day. All bets are off with auction items because of bidding wars. It only takes 2 bidders to drive any item sky high. The price on the Action 1 page was bizarre. I'd be more interested in knowing where the third-highest bidder was. I suspect he or she was far below the buyer and the underbidder, but only that bidder and the auction-house insiders know for sure. The coverless copy could hit $100K or even $150, but the price that the cover sold for shouldn't be the basis for the estimate. A bigger factor is whether the bidders are collectors who want the book for their own collections or flippers who need room for a profit. I would think that the flippers would be more cautious, but who knows for sure.

That's your opinion only, for what it's worth—which is to say, nothing. That's possible, but it still has nothing to do with the valuation of a (front) coverless book. That's my opinion, also worth nothing. Complete Tec 27 covers are far more rare than coverless copies. That's not opinion, that's a fact. You can't infer the value of a relatively common item based on the sales price of a much scarcer item. That's simple logic.

I think you're getting out at the right time since you have a wife. So many baby boomers will be getting out over the next 10—20 years that moving books for good prices could start to become more difficult. It's hard to walk away from a hobby, but from a financial standpoint, it's the safe move. I've been thinking more and more about setting a deadline for myself to stop putting money in, meaning that I'd have to sell some books if I wanted to buy others.

Is that Grandpa Jones? He had a song about a dog. Sometimes I play it for my students as a joke.

Have there been other examples of covers only selling for that sort of price, or is that a one-off? If they're consistently selling for that, O.K., but it doesn't make sense to base a valuation on that sale if it's an outlier.

Youthful Hearts to Dear Lonely Heart.

Lever (in Albion) to lover 'er & leave 'er all by her lonesome.

Sam's head to Hallahan's head.

Flashlight to candle.

I subscribe to their e-mails that provide new listings, but I have yet to purchase anything. The prices usually seem higher than what I would expect to pay in a non-Heritage (CLink, CConnect, MCS, etc.) auction. There have been a few times when I've passed on books that were high on my want list because I thought the price was too high. I still check the e-mails just in case a personal grail shows up.