Terry E. Gibbs

Flash vol 2, 223 Porter and Livesay from Johns's Rogues War. Bought four of the others from that arc and as much as I love 221, this is one I really coveted. Never thought it would turn up, or turn up when was looking, or not be a complete gouge,  ......but last November on ebay, I found it with two days to go in auction and got t for around $1,850.00. Zoom covers are very rare. If it had been on CAF I would have happily gone to $3k maybe more. One of my grail pages, very few left, that are not "very expensive" , as they are on many DC collectors lists.   So yeah this stuff still lands at auction, .. rarely but it does still land.

Kind of just did it. Paid maybe 2-3 times what it would go for on ebay, even if I was not bidding but best artist ever on one of my two favourite characters, one maybe the second best page (had the best). Money burned as will maybe only ever get back 3-40% but is a take to the grave page. If it is one of " those pages" you all know you will go after it, no matter who has it.

Afterwards you drink heavily to try and erase the memory of all the junk you had to go through, but you will still do it.

Saw a Showcase 4.0 had gone for $17k and thought that must be a market blip, but when scrolling through ebay, I saw it and it had a blue label but with notation " small amount of dried glue on spine". I am guessing this has been asked before, but when is that a blue label   And that explains what looked like a market dip.

Thanks

On 1/15/2024 at 2:43 AM, Jaylam said:

This copy of Flash #105 sold last night on Heritage for $4,400. That's about $1,000 higher than the last several sales and the highest for this grade since 2017 (at least from the sources I could find). However, you go to a 7.0 and there have been no sales below $5,000 since 2015. I would have liked to have had this copy because of the date stamp on the cover, but this is a little too saucy for me as this book had a pretty strong result. Congrats to whoever won it.

I saw that but have been waiting to see if it has had an effect. It looks like it has. Back in before 2014 there were strong rumors of a Flash movie and that drove up SC4 over next few years peaking in maybe late 2016. At around that time the movie was announced at SDCC as a Flashpoint story line but the movie was put off from a 2018 release until the far future as everything but the actors were going to change. That then saw a lot of SC4 bought by the speculators bleed back into the market which bottomed about 2018-19. These rumours and speculation had little effect on 105. In recent years though as the real movie moved forward, 105s were gradually being picked up. Not enough to spike it as this was over several years (unlike Marvel movie spikes which are very sudden and sharp). When the movie looked at under performing, these speculators started to dump 105. Lots of them hit the market and drove prices on mid to low grade back to around late 2016 prices. It would appear now that since November these have washed through and prices look to return to more normal levels closer to there peak. Of course the HA effect can't be discounted.

I think it varies a lot by how old you are (and health etc) and how much is your total wealth.  Right now about to hit 70 but health is excellent, but still started unloading my comics. The art will begin next year. Will probably take 6-8% to the grave, but it will be big pieces of art and slabbed comics of high value easy to sell and low value stuff that will be passed onto much younger cosplay friends as gifts.

When I was younger paying mortgages and school fees I collected only a little in comics but art was too much. Hard to justify when the bank is sending repossession threats (ran my own business - and problems happen) . Business was a success and now buy whatever I want. Note I said what I want not what others value. My stuff turns up now very seldom. Anything new will fit into either of the above categories.

Other thing is I am in Australia and buying art has been challenging pre internet.

Maybe another pertinent question would be "how much does the value of your residence represent on your total wealth. " For me that would be around 20% - with home around 250% of city average price,.or 44 times average annual  pay. So if art was at even 10%, no-one in my family would care, and my son would still threaten to shred it all when I die.

So lots of variables.

SC4 9.6 hit $900K today. Just short of $1M

On 1/9/2024 at 7:23 AM, Doc McCoy said:

I'm not so sure anymore.  I agree that it used to be that way, but these days, rep or dealer, prices have gotten so high that customer service has gone out the window and the majority of them take the attitude that you'll get it when I get around to it, no matter how much you are spending.

Comes back to knowing your own market.

Found when I started back in 2016 and I think it still applies today, that a rep is much better to work with than a dealer. The rep needs to clear volume and for the artist, for many, the number of pages just keeps on coming, so sitting on them and waiting for them to double in 2 years is not a big thing. Also found the artists to be very reasonable compared with many collectors/speculators etc. Back in 2016 I picked up a  stack from Spencer that Porter had been sitting on from early 2000s but could use the cashflow after injuring his thumb very badly. Spencer also repped Finch so grabbed a few of those and Booth was doing some awesome Flash work and he repped him as well. So for pages yet to be listed I simply asked the prices, and eventually Booth dug them out (was not too long, but when you are chasing, it seems for ever).

Same for Anabel Kirby, when Rafa Sandoval was working Flash, picked up two complete books, that were never offered to the public. Actually only two covers and one double splash was ever offered, that I grabbed. The rest were offered to me before the market. Kept cashflow moving for the artist and rep, happy client, happy rep and happy artist.

And of course some artists have sat on stuff, and you can buy direct.

When buying at auction, there is a false feeling, that you are buying at the market price. It is an illusion. Nothing beats knowing past sales and importance of content. Auction can be great, but not always.

Re Coolines you guys have no sense of humour. The Harlen Ellison script !! (Didn't anyone see it) Would that be the handful of blank pages Harlen once ran onto the stage with and handed to Julie Schwartz saying "Julie, here's the Batman script I promised you !!, sometime in the 70s-80s.

Come on, worth a laugh. (actually Harlan was talking about publishing this and many of his "unmade ideas" in 2013, it was to feature two face", and DC was talking about using it in there Batman 66, series .. talking about it ??)

Don't take this stuff so seriously, once upon a time people bought comics and art to enjoy.

and this whole thing is a total minefield of deceit and lies, they just go maybe that extra mile.

On 12/17/2023 at 12:47 AM, Rick2you2 said:

And that’s what I get for not noticing the date. Still and all, the mark-up is light.

Not really, with that part of the run content rules, and Reverse Flash is king of content. Good RF pages should be over $1K although occasionally on ebay come in lower. This sold back in 2021 for $2,640 !! A record for a Bronze Flash panel page at the time. Around the time of StarGirl TV series which featured the Shade. Also has Jay Garrick so another plus. Considering it has Jay the $1,200 on HA was a good price, Bechara is probably on the money. Plenty of these bronze Flash pages turn up but this has superior content. Other thing is the first part of the run 296- is in my mind better art. Towards the end the decision was made to cancel Barry Allen. I think around then that Carmine kind of lost interest. And obviously I spend way too much of my life invested in the life and times of Barry Allen.

and three months later I had two more. This was one I could not resist. I keep thinking I should get it restored and have a cover attached. It would be purple and the note would read, large piece attached to cover !!

On 12/3/2023 at 1:54 PM, frozentundraguy said:

Interesting. I have not had a chance to read it yet. Your comments on having the book grounded in reality and so forth makes me wonder if DC was reacting to Marvel and the impact they were having with characters who had some real issues, and arguments with their team (thinking Fantastic Four here).

Oh absolutely. By 1967 it was obvious that Marvel was killing them. The two business models were so very different. DC's editors each went in different directions. DC was in fact appealing to several different markets with little crossover. The sales figures that came in were often inaccurate and late. Hard to reflect what was working. Goodman at Marvel actually knew his books but the guys making decisions in DC, the owners above the editors,  were more interested in other parts of the business. Frankly if the merchandising of Superman, Batman had not been there the whole DC thing may have been just wound down and the creative people like Infantino and Gil Kane, Broome etc would have been poached leaving a very poor substitute to Marvel.

Very nice .. both of them

Actually think it maybe issue 7#, I think the 4 showcases smoothly lead into 105. They set the characters, the scene and 105 just flows on.

Wow that's the one.

The modest price stuff seems to be hit or miss as to whether it is a "good buy financially". Much of what are panel pages today or lesser known characters which a decade from now may not have moved at all. As each decade changes the demand curve for stuff moves. Key pages, whether artist, or character, or story or any combination should perform better value wise. In more demand now and unless the character tanks more demand later.

Personally with art and books once bought my mind has written it off as an expense. Therefore can I afford the expense - will she leave me this time ? Can my cash flow cover it ? They are the questions

I have some stuff to post but life has been a bit hectic. That 176 is the second of Andru's run. The switch from 174 onwards was quite a shock to the fans of the day, and still resonates with newer fans, with a "what were they thinking" But apparently DC thought the book was too reliant on costumed super villains and should be more grounded in reality, more human interest, explore the characters lives etc. (me thinks whoever thought that had never read, 136, 146, 147, 156, etc. ). That coincided with Carmine being put on the payroll and laying out the covers, and doing promotional art. When he was asked for his thoughts on a replacement he thought of Andru. Of course in hindsight we see how those two issues had an effect on the book,  but the owners of DC were making a whole slew of bad decisions at that time. 

The Huntress image does not line up either. Not the same cover.

On 9/21/2023 at 3:56 AM, Michael Browning said:

I think that, for the 2020-2021 period, ALL art was going up and I am seeing that settle down. I see values dropping severely in the main DC titles, but then art from series like Vigilante are soaring.

Are you talking modern DC or SA, and higher value pieces ??

Very nice eye appeal. Always nice to see another SC4. Congrats.

On 9/8/2023 at 9:57 PM, flashlites said:

 That # 102 had to be a favorite Down Under back in the day?

Yeah a great cover. Something about Diggers obsession with giant boomerangs, They turned up again in Cinfs final run. By then they were that big they were basically a space ship. As an Australian it was nice to have Digger Harkness, and Broome was pretty good and not as over the top, corny, as many other Americans have been when doing Australians.

These are some books bought recently (the top two) and two others yet to be filed. I had been chasing the boomer cover for a couple of years after I had missed it due to the listing somehow not being captured by my search !! You have to love Digger's persistence with those giant space going boomerangs. The other, the 130 edition I knew existed but in over 6 years of searching, like the 140 had never seen it. There also was a 145 but I had already picked it up and that was the 3rd or 4th I have seen. I had that as a kid and for some reason there are more of it around. Had seen basically nothing for nearly a year or more, searching every day morning and night, then wham. Four in around 3 weeks. !!   ...... and again nothing. However this will keep me motivated to keep on looking.

Nice looking 1.0

And all raw. In reading the guide this year there appears to be some pushback from collectors on mid to low grade slabs. Many think the extra cost not worth it, especially if the book has been washed, pressed gain and again. I kind of agree. Very nice collection. Also I love all the early guides before they were that swamped with moderns the early books have been shunted to the side.