jimbo_7071

Of all the books listed, you snagged the one that had far and away the best eye appeal. Congrats.

One interesting book this go-round is the Four Color 16 (Mickey Mouse Outwits the Phantom Blot). It has me waxing nostalgic for the days when it was still considered an important book—before superhero books were the alpha and the omega of collecting, so to speak. I hadn't looked at the census number for that book before. I never considered it a scarce book, but it appears to be fairly scarce in high grade despite being extremely common in lower grades. (I'm guessing there are some nice raw copies locked up in private collections because it's the type of book an old-timer might hold on to.)

Front cover stamp in the upper left corner to back cover stamp in the upper left corner.

Whip to whip.

I think that modern ones are in a massive bubble unless you can identify the rare few that are completely under the radar that will become sought after in the future. Back in the 40s and 50s, virtually all comic books were purchased in order to be read, which is why those books are scarce and collectible. Even in the 80s you had quite a few people buying comic books to read. Over the last 30 years, though, the vast majority of comic books sold were immediately bagged and boarded as collectibles. Long term, the demand is not going to be there for those books. The only thing driving prices up on modern books is speculation. That bubble will eventually pop. There aren't many comic books published in the last 30 that I would pay more a dollar or two for raw. (Most I just wouldn't buy, period.)

Hieroglyphics to hieroglyphics.

Bandaged toe to bandaged foot.

Love triangle to love triangle.

I don't think most Promise book sellers are looking for a profit. If you can get out from under a Promise book without taking a loss, that's a win!

Why would they be auctioning off a judge's body parts anyway? I wouldn't bid a penny for something like that.

Having looked at hundreds of scans, I've only seen a few high-grade books for which I agree with the grade (based on the front-cover scans). Most of the high-grade books appear to be over-graded by about three increments. The mid-grade books don't seem to have gotten as big of a bump. Other pedigrees have enjoyed soft grading, too—a pedigree bump is nothing new—but CGC outdid themselves with these books. I wanted some examples for my collection, so I went ahead and bought a few of them despite the high prices and soft grading. I'm not in a hurry to pick up any more.

Some of the prices paid the first time around were ridiculous. I laughed out loud when I saw that someone had paid $21,000 for a copy of Saddle Justice #6. I actually laughed so hard that I had to wipe the tears from my eyes just now. When I look on Heritage, though, it lists the book as "Not Sold," so I guess the buyer backed out.

With a sought-after cover like that, I don't pay much attention to the census. Many copies of that book—many of the nicest copies—have no doubt been locked up in private collections since before CGC existed.

Everything that he said is true about 80s/90s/2000s/2010s drek, which are the comic books that most casual readers have, if they have any.

Where were you twenty years ago? I had quite a few Eisenhower silver dollars that I ended up spending.

Painting to comic cover made from a painting.

Rug to combover.

Gray paving stones to colorful paving stones.

Cat in trouble to panda in trouble.

I agree, but with the Cap #37 today, the problems were all with the back cover. The front cover looked outstanding. I don't think a 3.0 with average eye appeal would have come anywhere close to that price.

Spear to spear.

It could, but the rusty staples will hurt it. If I could afford to buy a Cap #1 in 4.5, I would wait for one that didn't have rusty staples. (I remember considering going after 8.0 that ended up selling for $40,000 back in 2000 or 2001. That would have been a pile of money for me back then, but I sure wish that I had gone for it.)

Grinding wheel to Jeep wheels.

Green octopus to gray shark.