TheLexLuthorCollection

About 10 years ago, I saw a Golden Age Action Comics graded 9.0 on e-Bay. I asked the seller for the grader notes. When he saw the notes, he was surprised that it indicated that there was a slight dab of glue which was not noted on the Blue label. When he contacted CGC's top grader, he was puzzled and could not confirm whether the book had glue or not. Eventually, the seller decided to resubmit the book for pressing and regrading. The book came back as a 9.2. The label did not indicate any glue and I did not ask about the revised grader notes.

Thanks for your recommendations. I will certainly look into these dealers

The jump in grade from 7.0 to 9.4 for the Okajima book certainly sounds mind boggling but the 7.0 looks to me that it was under graded. Personally, I find that the grading companies provide a valuable service despite the recent reholder scandal and this issue with the Okajima book. I don't trust any dealer to grade a book accurately. The temptation to over grade is too great and every sight unseen purchase that I have made has been a disappointment. With most of the premium stuff being sold at auction and through the internet, I welcome companies such as CGC.

Swagglehaus (Mickey Finnegan) on You Tube actually covered this suspicious sale recently. He suggested that perhaps there may be some money laundering going on. Automatic Comics (Ryan) on You Tube also noticed exorbitant prices being paid for "run filler" DC books on Heritage. For example, 2 weeks ago, he pointed out three Teen Titans issues at 9.8 selling for between $12K- $21K each. A few months ago, he pointed a Superman #35 CGC 7.5 selling for $5K and a Superman $45 CGC 6.0 selling for about $4k. Something was definitely off with all these sales given that it takes "two to tango" to reach these prices so it can't be just one "dumb bidder". It should be noted that Heritage is not obligated to report auction transactions to the IRS which tends to give some credence to Swagglehaus' suggestion that money laundering may be at work.

My guess is that it was a different person. Many of the Promise Books that recently came back for re-auction were DC Books. With the exception of the grail books like Superman #1 and All Star 8, the Golden Age DC's in the current auction are largely mid-Grade or less. Folks who buy 9.0+ graded books like the Promise Collection would not have mid-grades in their collection to sell.

I noticed that the book was recently listed on Steve Ritter's Worldwide Comics website. In April 2022, the book was acquired for $3120 at HA. At the time, the book graded at 9.2. It looks like the book was pressed and re-graded to 9.4. For the current HA auction, the seller (Steve?) sold it for $4200. Of course, there is the seller's premium and press and grading charges. Still a tidy profit.

Most of the books that have been identified by CGC as part of the reholder swap scam are newer books were there are a huge number of high grade books which makes the swapping much easier. The Showcase #4, however, is extremely rare to find in high grade (especially for a 9.6) and a swap would be very difficult. With that said, when I take a close look at the scan, the top left corner is not close to perfect and there is spine wear. Not sure if it is a 9.6 and it may have been over graded.

Hi Dwight, I apologize but I did not mean to come across as condescending. Rather, I was interested in trying to fill in some blanks in the backstory of the collection. In particular, the silver age Marvels. At the time of my purchase, Calvin was not interested in selling them or the Green Lanterns. A few years ago, I did ask Matt Nelson of CGC why the Slobodian's were not classified as a Pedigree by CGC. What he told me was that Calvin's collection was not all original owner copies which disqualified the collection from being called a Pedigree. Your mention of Calvin also having acquired some Larson's and Cosmic Airplane books supports Nelson's comments. Although, my guess is that the vast majority of the Slobodian collection was purchased by him off the newsstand and to disqualify the whole collection does seem to be a bit harsh. Anyway, based on what you said, it all fits. No, I am not Ron F.

You may have handled some of the DC Slobodian books that I sold. I bought the DC collection directly from Calvin Slobodian in 1976 through an ad that he placed in The Buyer's Guide (I may still have copies of my correspondence with Calvin). I still have the Action Comics, Superman, Superboy and World's Finest books but I sold the rest a few years after acquiring them. As I recall, for the Showcase books, Calvin only sold me the Flash and Tommy Tomorrow titles. Mr. Slobodian, at the time, wanted to keep the Jack Kirby Challengers of the Unknown and the Gil Kane Green Lantern books. Anyway, it is great learning more about this amazing collection. I should have kept the Showcase #4 :-( Thanks.

For a $10K and $100K book, CGC charges $400 and $4000 respectively for grading. Surely, CGC can afford to put the expensive books in more secure slabs. A $1M book would cost $40K to grade and deserves more than a cheap, plastic slab. Keep the current slab for books under $5K.

Around 1975, I purchased most of Slobodian's DC collection including the Showcase comics. Showcase #4 was at best a 7.0. I no longer have it since I sold it years ago.

I agree that reholders need to be regraded. I also agree that the slabs need a more secure design. But isn't it odd that a $3M book has the same slab as a $10 book? Given the amount of money that we are talking about with expensive books and the cost of grading these expensive books, CGC should offer different slab designs for different book values. Surely a $5000 book deserves a much more secure slab design than the $10 book.

Anyone notice the prices realized from the recent Heritage auction of the Joker Collection of Robert Ben Garant? It had 4 Promise books including Detective Comics #124 and #149 which originally sold for $120,000 and $102,000 respectively in June 2021. However, on Thursday these books sold for $40,800 and $26,400 respectively. That is a $ loss of $154,800. Neither of these books are keys. I am not aware of other six figure Promise books that realized such % losses. Not a great day for Mr. Garant and a demonstration of the risk in having a dedicated auction in one's name.

Can anyone tell me who is Brulato?

I thought a Superman #1 CGC 7.0 sold at Goldin a few months back? What made that sale remarkable was that the same copy sold also at Goldin previously for about $2.5M. Anyone know if this is the Goldin copy?