jimbo_7071

There would be no reason other than a loss of interest. You don't have to be wealthy to feel that way about your books. I'm far from wealthy, but I would have no reason to sell any books unless I decided that they aren't a good fit for my collection. I don't need the money for anything because aside from basic necessities, the only thing I spend money on is comic books.

We've had quite a bit of inflation that has to be factored in, too. $100,000 in 2022 dollars is not the same as $100,000 in 2019 dollars—far from it.

I like the ones that have a full splash page. I'd never seen your clown one before. This is the only one I own:

Who did your girlfriend's tattoos? I was thinking of getting some work done.

One thing I've learned is that most of the younger collectors would rather own a copy of an extremely common Bronze key than a rare but obscure GA book. They don't care that a book is extremely common; they still want a copy. I'm the opposite. If there are 80 or 100 copies of a book in the census, I lose all interest, regardless of how "important" the book is. If this trend continues, we could get to the point where all of the monetary value in the hobby is concentrated in a comparatively small number of Marvel and DC books while everything else spirals to zero.

I think that the original buyer did the prudent thing by cutting his losses while there was still quite a bit of hype around the Promise Collection. I won't be surprised if that book sells for a grand two or three years down the road.

So is it safe to say that they grade newer books more harshly than GA books? I only collect GA and the occasional early SA book, so I wouldn't know.

I think the point he's making is that current grading is targeting defects that could be pressed out, which appears to be true to some extent. If he has books that have finger bends and NCB spine ticks, those might grade lower. Books like that would get their original grades or higher if they were pressed, though, which is the whole point. CGC wants people to get their books pressed. It's a significant revenue stream. Even if they're pressed by a third party and then re-submitted to CGC, that's still extra revenue. Having looked at innumerable slabbed books over the past 22 years, I certainly wouldn't say that grading is tighter overall—quite the opposite, in fact. Grading was a little inconsistent from day one, which is to be expected when you have different teams of graders, but overall, grading has gotten looser. They changed the way they treat tape, and they might penalize tanning more, so I guess they're tighter on those particular defects. And like I said, there's more of a focus on hammering pressable defects so that books get pressed and resubmitted. However, on almost any other defect you could mention—edge tears, spine wear, color-breaking creases, writing on the cover—CGC has gotten looser. Every other book in my collection would probably get a higher grade today on a straight resubmission (without pressing).

Especially when we've paid for highest-graded copies that are only highest-graded because some of the nicest copies have not been slabbed. People were paying crazy prices for some of the highest-graded Timely superhero comics even though very few of the Mile High Timely superhero books have been slabbed. Once they are, many of those Promise copies will become second-highest graded copies overnight. I'm almost always content with an 8.0 with nice pages. If I ever bid on a highest-graded copy, it's because it's the only high-grade copy I can find. I usually try to avoid highest-graded copies.

MLJ 6.5 off-white-to-white to MLJ 6.5 off-white-to-white and August of '41 to August of '42.

Roy, do you know whether the Church Supes 1 is the first printing that has the house ad stating "Coming Soon," or is it the reprint that has "On Sale Now" in the house ad?

I think that many of the books were tightly graded in the early years, but in many cases collectors and dealers have spotted the very tightly graded ones and resubmitted them, with or without pressing. So I'm not so sure that the population of old-label holders that's still out there contains especially tightly-graded books. There are some out there, sure, but I think it's a mixed bag at this point.

I'll have to hunt for that thread—but not tonight!

Was there ever any importance to a pedigree beyond the actual condition of a book? Mile High copies were selling for three times guide in the 80s because they were much fresher than the books that most dealers were calling near mint. From what I remember, dealers would call any book that would today would be an 8.0 with cream pages and tanned covers near mint, and the Mile High books were much fresher and nicer. Nobody ever cared whose basement they had been stored in. It was all about the appearance and freshness.

I also don't know which one is rarer, but the period was supposedly added during the run (and they put it in the wrong place), so you could think of the version without the period as the "original."

Well, the period is easy enough to see on the Batman 1. I do wish that the period/no-period copies were broken out separately in the census. I think it would be of interest to collectors to know how many of each had been slabbed and in what grades. For me, it would just be to satisfy my curiosity because I won't be owning a copy of either unless I win the lottery (and I don't play).

Is the Mile High copy a first printing?

It seems really odd that CGC would not distinguish between the printings. It would seem obvious that the one that says "on sale now" is the reprint. One comparable example that came to mind was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, since there were a few printings of that copy. It looks like a second printing recently sold for around $4,000 in 9.4, whereas a first printing in 9.4 sold for $36,000 a couple of years ago, so the first printing is going for at least nine times as much. I can't understand how CGC could justify not differentiating between a first printing and a reprint when we're talking about such an important comic book. I don't swim in that part of the pool anyway, so I have no skin in the game, but it seems odd.

My guess would be that if Dave Anderson doesn't own the Church copy, it's because he doesn't want to own the Church copy, so his copy must be better. But many of the best copies of these key books were probably locked up in private second-owner collections fifty years ago, so there may be several copies out there that are nicer than the 8.5. But weren't there two printings of Supes #1? I thought that I had read that somewhere, but if there were two printings, CGC doesn't seem to distinguish between them.

I understood your post. My point was that there are far fewer collectors willing to spend $20K, $30K, $40K than there are people willing to spend $10K. Even in that range, to number of prospective buyers is going to drop the closer you get to $50K. I don't believe that there are anywhere close to 10,000 collectors willing to spend $50,000 on a comic book. There might be, and probably are, 10,000 willing to drop $10K on a comic.

I don't think the number is on the scale that you're suggesting. I think it's a fairly small pool of collectors that are paying $50K and up for books. I would be surprised if there are even a million total comic book collectors worldwide. Maybe 10,000 people would be willing to spend $10K on a personal grail? I think the number of prospective buyers probably goes way down as the prices get much higher that than. I consider myself a pretty passionate collector, and I doubt that I would ever spend that much on one book. If I did, it would have to be an amazing deal on a personal grail.

Aliens invading Earth to Earthlings invading an alien world.

Coming up from the ground to coming up from the ground and instantly regretting it.