jimbo_7071

Bald Subby nemesis with a Tommy Gun to bald Subby nemesis with a whip.

That book was on CConnect as a buy-it-now for a very long time prior to its auction sale. I can't remember what the buy-it-now price was, but I remember thinking it was too high. The fact that it is a Church 9.8 will keep it from going too low in the Goldin auction, but I don't think that there's much demand for that particular issue. We'll see.

Duck violating societal norms by stealing hens' eggs to duck approaching cannibalism by eating turkey, a possible indicator of psychopathy.

Spencer Keen to Katy Keene.

Naah. That book is overrated—and pretty common at that.

Sorry, but with all due respect, you're missing something that I almost thought would go without saying. A major difference between coin collecting and comic collecting is that all coins of a given type look alike. For instance, you can't tell a common Morgan dollar from a scarce Morgan dollar at a glance without checking the date and the mint mark. Comic books do not all look alike. I personally have never bought a book that was "key" because of a first appearance or origin story. I usually buy an issue if I like the cover art for that issue. For instance, I shelled out $1,865 for this Jumbo #42 because I liked the cover art—especially the way the leopard was drawn. I passed on an equally scarce issue from the same year and in the same grade (the #45 attached below) because I didn't like the cover art on that other issue. Without me as a bidder, it sold for $605—less than a third the price of the other one. Same title, same year, same characters, same cover artist, same grade, same page quality—one third the price. If I were speculating, I would have gone after the #45 instead. That one can probably be flipped for a profit. Because I paid such a strong price, I have little chance of ever breaking even on the #42 that I bought—but I like the artwork on the #42, and I find the artwork on the #45 boring. Have you ever found that a certain work of art "speaks" to you while another doesn't? Even though they were mass produced, comic books are essentially a form of art. Most comic collectors spend a lot of time looking at their comics and admiring the covers. Looking at the covers provides a type of pleasure that can border on euphoria. Do most coin collectors spend much time admiring the aesthetics of their coins? Maybe some do. There's an element of art to coins, but, like I said, all coins of a certain type look alike. Personally, I like Morgan dollars better than Peace dollars, for instance, but since Morgan dollars all look the same, I wouldn't have a preference for one date/mint over another. (I dabbled in coins briefly when I was young, but coin collecting didn't grab; me comic collecting did.)

I have never bought a c/ow slabbed book, nor would I, but I do own a few slabbed c/ow books that I submitted myself. I have only bought one o/w slab in the past 20 years. I normally stick to ow/w or white.

I bought these Dells largely for the back covers.

Living manikins to living dolls.

I cannot imagine paying that much for any artist's autograph. I have heard of artists charging $30—$50, but I never knew any were charging $250 or anywhere close. (I personally wouldn't pay 5 cents for his autograph, but to each his own.) I also didn't know that people existed who like 90s comic book art, so I learned a couple of new things today.

A

CGC has basically chosen to all but ignore writing on the cover so they can justify giving high grades to pedigrees books that have writing on them. Money talks. The name Jean is written in the word balloon; that can be written off as "pedigree markings" because several books from the pedigree have that name on them. This book also has diagonal lines drawn through the 10¢ price. No other book in the pedigree has those, so there is no way that those should have been deemed pedigree markings. (The stress line at the lower staple also should have kept it below 9.8 even without the writing, but, like I said, money talks in this hobby.)

Even when they do, the scarcer issues are not necessarily more valuable. Comic collectors only care about scarcity to a point. Most collectors will buy an extremely common issue if it has the first appearance of an important character or good cover art but will pass over a rare but unimportant issue. Some extremely scarce comics are worth next to nothing.

Big cat on a #1 to small cat on a #1.

You have to wonder how many other books are being hoarded unbeknownst to the collecting community. More than a few, I trow.

It could be, but grading seemed very loose at that time. (Maybe not THAT loose; that book doesn't look any better than 7.5.)

It seems like they haven't even required experience in the hobby when it comes to hiring graders. Do you have any idea why you were turned down? I'm not interested in becoming a grader (or moving to Florida for that matter), but I'm curious why they would turn down an experienced collector.

Reasonable people can disagree. The original question was whether collectors preferred Denver or Okajima. I prefer Okajima because the pages seem to be nicer—simple as that. "Kiss of death" might be a bit harsh, but I would expect nicer page quality in books bestowed with a pedigree designation. I do love golden age comics, but even parents have favorites among their children (even if they deny it). My favorites are the ones with fresh pages. I've had books that I bought raw come back with C/OW pages, and I wouldn't kick them out of my collection, but I've never bought a slabbed book with that designation. To me, the page quality should be front and center when determining a book's grade. I see that level of deterioration of the paper as a defect that should bring the grade down below 8.0. That ship sailed long ago when CGC decided not to give page quality as much weight as I would have preferred, so I simply choose not to spend my limited comic book funds on books with the C/OW designation.

Your wish is my command! These are all from Matt's old web site. Roughly a third of the Denver books on the site have Cream-to-off-white pages. I only saw three that had White pages (including the Doll Man).

Heritage will guarantee that no shill bidding will occur in the auction. All kidding aside, it's hard to imagine any comic other than the highest-graded Tec 27 or Action 1 being worthy of a special announcement, so maybe it's the original art to a key book.

Those two appear to have nice enough pages, but many of them have off-white or even cream-to-off-white pages according to the slabs. (The Daring Mystery #1 used to be slabbed with off-white pages, so I guess it was right on the line that was shifted in late '05 when CGC relaxed the criteria for page quality.) The changing standards make it harder to compare, but the Okajima's appear to be much fresher.

No, most of the later Okajima books (post '45) don't have writing on the cover, and those later issues also have very nice pages.

Yes.

The Denver books have crummy pages, so I'd go with Okajima. I'm one of the odd ducks who prefers the ones without writing on them.

I was watching it as well, but I decided not to bid when I saw it go over $500 (which it did with about 6 seconds left—long before I would have put in my snipe bid). I don't even value it that high long-term, but I knew it would get a strong price just because so few copies have been slabbed.