jimbo_7071

Two heroes and one sidekick to two heroes and one sidekick; punching a bad guy in the head to punching a bad guy in the face.

Some horror books have gone up and down. Farrell and Superior were pretty hot for a few years, but a while back I noticed quite a few sales that were definitely down from the highs. I haven't really been keeping track, so they could be back up again for all I know. Atlas horror has been pretty anemic for a while—maybe because many of those covers are a little tame compared to some of the second-tier publishers? I picked up one of my favorite L. B. Cole books about 10 years ago. It had always been a popular cover, but it isn't rare, and that kept the price reasonable. I don't know what it would sell for now; I'm just glad I bought a copy when I did (and it came with the ultra-sought-after CVA sticker). There are other Cole books that I like, but I don't think there are any that I like enough to pay current prices. I don't think the L. B. Cole books will stay hot forever. A few of the best ones might, but many of his covers are just O.K. He did a boatload of covers, and not every one is a masterpiece.

For the more common books, it'll depend on what the economy does over the next couple of years. For the scarcer books, a handful of collectors competing for the same books can have a significant impact on prices. Those are the ones that are impossible to predict. They can go down quickly (like Mystery Tales did 6 or 7 years ago when one major collector died), but that doesn't mean that they will.

I see that as a book that could have a lot of volatility. I feel like the cinema world is being saturated with superhero movies, so I'm not sure whether key books will continue to get the kind of bumps that they have so far. If they do, those bumps might be temporary, so for anyone who plans to sell, timing will be everything. There's always the possibility that the movie could get scrapped or bomb, so with Adventure #48, selling now is probably the safe option for people who don't like to gamble.

Yes—I think I've "bid" on about 50 books, most of which I will probably not bid on again even if they stay cheap. In the previous auction, I was interested in some of the Timelys, but those ended up exceeding my own valuations even before the closing seconds. The one that really blew me away was the Marvel Mystery #4; I'm glad I didn't make any wagers on how high that one would go.

High-rise to impending rapid descent from a high-rise.

I'm sorry to hear this. I've long enjoyed her artwork and respected the fact that she held her own in the man's world that was comic book publishing back in the 40s. These are my only two Lily Renée covers, but I would like to pick up more eventually.

Bare-chested to bare-chested.

Well, I just checked them out. There are plenty of low-to-mid-grade raw books. There aren't too many high grade books in the mix, though. I do like to buy some raw books in that grade range so I can enjoy the interiors. (I used to read every book that I bought back when comics were far less expensive.)

I have to disagree with that. I have received back cover scans from them before, but there were more times when I requested back cover scans weeks in advance and never heard anything.

The ones I noticed were all high-grade GA. I don't look at anything other than GA, so I wouldn't notice anything about the other eras one way or the other. And I haven't been paying as much attention lately, so I don't know whether it's still going on as often. I saw it so much in 2013 that I got fed up and basically stopped buying on CLink for quite a while. (I still put in low-ball bids, but I didn't want to be very aggressive with the possibility that shill bidding was being tolerated.) In one specific case I know of a book from Worldwide's inventory that was listed on CLink's site and that I believe was shilled. I e-mailed Josh Nathanson about it, and he said that he would look into it and get back with me after he got back from vacation. That was 9 1/2 years ago and I still haven't heard back, so I guess he's taking one loooooong vacation.

Those results are not complete; they only show a sample of prior results. Sales regularly disappear from CLink almost immediately after the auctions—at the request of the buyers who want to flip the books, I imagine. I sometimes see the same books showing up repeatedly in consecutive or nearly-consecutive CLink auctions. Some could be non-paying bidder situations, but you have to wonder how many are shill bidding situations. In some cases the books I noticed sold for strong enough prices the first time that flipping for a quick buck would not have been a plausible explanation for why they would have been re-listed almost immediately.

That seems to be common. The graders' notes are not all inclusive. I had always thought that they would note rust on the staples—they used to note that on the label!—but apparently they don't do so consistently because I've seen quite a few books lately with noticeable staple rust and no mention of it in the notes. I'm noticing more and more books with rusty staples. I'm wondering whether books that were pressed 12 or 13 years ago now have rusty staples because of the humidity that the books were exposed to during the pressing process. The humidity could be a catalyst for the rust to start. It could also just be because the books are getting older and time is taking its toll.

Yep. Especially on HA. You don't have enough time to make a rational decision. That's why you sometimes see books selling for a staggering price on HA and then being sold at a loss a couple of years down the road. I've learned that there's ALWAYS another book, so I can now let books go on HA without the FOMO, but it took me years of overpaying to get there. I know that people say you can put in proxy bids in advance, but that wouldn't work well for me because I would be at risk of accidentally winning* buying more books than what I could afford. I guess I could put proxy bids in one at a time as the auction progresses. The three-minute clock on CC gives me enough time to think, so I don't mind that format. *No one "wins" a book in an auction. The auction houses use the winning/losing binary in order to manipulate people into paying more because everyone would rather be a "winner" than a "loser." Please don't fall for it. The only "winners" are the auction houses themselves (and sometimes the consignors).

True. Graders' notes help, but they're not complete. It's one reason why I won't get very aggressive on anything on CLink. For one thing, CLink seems to be where people will dump books that have back-cover problems.

One of these days I'm going to get around to pasting my green stamps into a book so I can send away for that set of TV trays.

Goddess of the Moon to Mysta of the Moon.

I never saw this thread back in 2020, but now my curiosity is piqued. I'm not a fan of restoration, but conservation that extends the life of comics? That I could dig.

I was trying to think of any males who might still be alive! Al Jaffe is the only one I could think of. He's still kicking and is 101.

Lily Renée is still alive and is 101.

So you've finally moved on from Lillie Langtry? Good for you.

Maybe he plans to buy all of the 9.2, 9.4, and 9.6 copies and send in the labels so that he can sell all 10 of his 9.0 copies as tied-for-highest-graded copies.

I want that shirt!!!

I'm speechless.

I always figured you for the Estelle Winwood type. You think you know a person.