jimbo_7071

Green baddie toting a blonde to blue baddie toting a blonde.

Big green baddie to big green baddie.

There WAS the Church collection . . . before half the books were ruined by Jon Snyder, Mark Wilson, and others.

I have comics in the registry, but I couldn't even tell you who's in first place, let alone second or third. Many of the nicest collections were built up before slabbing was a thing. These guys with the "highest-graded copies" don't necessarily have the nicest existing copies. They have the highest-graded copies out of the very small number of copies submitted to a particular grading company and graded subjectively. On a different day, their 9.6s might be 9.4s, and somebody else's 9.4s might be 9.6s. The loose grading of the Promise collection proves that "highest-graded" doesn't mean that much. It's way too subjective. I've been collecting since long before CGC was a glimmer in the money grubbers' eyes, so I see numerical grading to the tenths place as something of a marketing gimmick, albeit a successful one.

Guys like that are very narcissistic, but there's no doubt that they're out there. It's kind of pathetic that their lives are so empty that their self worth hinges on owning the highest-graded copy of a mass-produced comic book.

It depends. For books from second-tier publishers, the demand may be low enough that prices decrease. For DC and Timely superhero books, the effect will probably be small (except on previously highest-graded copies, which could drop in value quite a bit once they become 2nd-highest-graded copies).

It sounds like you're saying it will be a win for collectors whose collections are mostly complete and who plan to sell. I plan to do virtually no selling in my lifetime (aside from getting rid of impulse buys that don't fit my collection), and I still intend to buy the occasional book, so I wouldn't see increasing prices as a good thing. I'm not sure I buy your argument, though. The supply of high-grade books in increasing, and an increase in supply doesn't usually lead to higher prices; the opposite is usually true (at least according to what my Econ prof taught me back in college).

L. B. Cole to L. B. Cole.

I can read the headline now: "SATAN FILLS HOLE OF COMIC COLLECTOR BUTTOCK"

Atlas Subby to Timely Subby.

Matt is involved with grading? I though he was only involved with pressing. That explains a lot. Hasn't he be caught shill bidding before? I don't think integrity is in his DNA.

Large animal with a gun to small animal with dynamite.

Yeeaah . . . I've never been too keen on the way they overlook bindery tears. A tear is a tear. I don't care where it happened.

Billy's Don to Tom Brown's dolls. (I guess Straw Man was tickled by Donnie's Woody.)

The individual graders likely aren't thinking about CGC's reputation when they grade the books. They're not supposed to know whose books they're grading, but with a new pedigree collection like this one, word gets around. The graders know that Heritage has a stake in CGC, so in the back of their minds they must be thinking that they need to keep Heritage happy, even if no one in management says a word to them. Even if Heritage didn't own a stake in CGC, the fact that they're CGC's biggest customer would probably get them special treatment, which is a separate but related issue. Raw grading is subjective, but CGC was supposed to take some of the subjectivity out of the equation. They have failed. Their grading standards haven't been published, but one would hope that those standards are fairly clear, e.g., "For a color-breaking crease that is longer than one-half inch but shorter than one inch, deduct one point or grade the book 6.0 if deducting one point would take the book below that grade," etc. If a book that has had an entire corner chewed off by a rat can get a grade of 8.5, then either there is something wrong with the standards, or the standards are not being followed. CGC's reputation will suffer as a direct result of the way this collection was graded. Collectors will be talking about this loose grading for years. I have not found a single high-grade book in this auction that was graded accurately. In fact, I have not found a single high-grade book that was over-graded by only one increment. Every book has been over-graded by at least two increments and usually by three or four increments. I have never seen anything like this.

I've personally never paid more for a pedigree because it was a pedigree. Some pedigrees, like Mile High and Spokane, are fresh-looking books with nice pages; those are the qualities I'm willing to pay for. Given two books with equally nice pages and equivalent eye appeal, the pedigree wouldn't be worth any more to me than the non-ped. Some non pedigree books likely came from very nice collections that happened to come to market before pedigrees were a "thing."

Buy it next time it shows up. Most of these books will be bought by new-money people who flit in and out of the hobby like fireflies. They will tire of the hobby in a couple of years and unload their books at a loss just like Gary Keller did with the Mile High Green Lanterns. Most of them have enough money that they won't even notice.

No way.

The Promise Collection will henceforth be known as The Pancake Collection!

From what I remember, there was a high-grade (9.4ish?) copy of that issue that wasn't able to be slabbed because of an overhang. (The Crippen copy, maybe?)

Yes, it is nearly all of the books. I have looked at most of the books on HA—all of the books that had been posted as of yesterday afternoon—not just the ones posted here.

It's more than a handful, though. It's all or nearly all of the books posted so far.

Not all books in Heritage auctions are submitted by them for slabbing; most likely only the larger collections are (this one, the Billy books, etc). It also depends on what books you're buying. I'm sure they don't bother to press books that don't have a real chance of being worth X amount.

I can't point to Halperin's personal involvement, but I've looking at the Promise copies on Heritage that are graded 2—4 increments higher than what random books would get. That's proof enough that the relationship is malignant.

I think you hit the nail on the head. I'm not sure how long they've been out of the picture, though. It could be a case where they recently shopped the collection to an LCS owner who said, "These are wonderful books, so I'm going to offer you top dollar for them—$50,000 for the whole collection," and the elderly brother accepted the offer, thinking it generous.