10centcomics

Oh I love this thread and we should do a better job of keeping this on the front page! My unpopular opinion is that Phantom Lady 17 was absolutely not drawn by Matt Baker and there is no financial incentive for collectors and auction houses to investigate this. It's still an important and cool historically significant book of course!

This was a CGC 2.5 that I cracked out (as I do with all the books in my PC). As you can see it has the purple-hued background which seems to be a common defect with this book. I wonder if this is UV fading or just a production error with the ink levels being off.

A 3.0 AGS 14 listed by MCS on eBay for $2900 was delisted today, perhaps someone bought it via MCS' website. I did submit a best offer on the 4.5 PGX and I just accepted the counter-offer from seller. Little bit of a gamble with the PGX label but I've been looking for a copy with better color strike (my low-grade copy has a purple-hued background). Not sure what the white abrasion is around the dude's right fist is but the book still has good eye appeal.

Yeah it finished at $26,400! Sweet vindication for me since a few weeks ago I was savagely attacked on these very boards for paying 5K for a beater copy at the MCS auction

Yeah I picked it up to match my CL25! And I WAS feeling pretty good about the price since it finished half of what that Greek magazine did on eBay last year!

The "price-per-point" tracks with the pair of 4.5s that sold at HA in Jan 2022 and Nov 2021 (17.4k and 16.8k respectively).

Funny, I thought it went for a steal but maybe I am biased because I won the book In all seriousness, this was never going to go for 500 to 1K. A beat-up copy of this book sold on Heritage twenty-one years ago in 2001 for 1K. The CT and grade don't matter for a book like this with 15 copies on the census. It's all about eye appeal and jumping on any copy that comes to market. It's an infamous Baker cover, ultra-rare, and it's currently listed as #1 on the most valuable romance comics in Overstreet (granted that list is kinda whack). I expect the 5.0 in the Baker Auction to go for $$$$.

Starting this at 99 dollars (or even 99 cents for that matter) is totally fine. eBay has a huge reach and it looks like this book finished at a solid price. The seller definitely could have written a better item description--I have no idea what to make of this: PLEASE BID ACCORDINGLY BOOK IS FRAGILE AND A BIT FLAKY INSIDE COVER AND 1ST PAGE IS NOT NUMBERED 1A-13A IS INTACT ONE PAGE NOT NUMBERED 1B-13B INTACT FOLLOWING PAGES ARE LOOSE ONE PAGE UNNUMBERED 2-4 THRU 4C 5C-13C INTACT MESSAGE FROM PHIL & SWEET ADELINE 1D-13D AND LAST 2 UNNUMBERED PAGES INTACT On Apr-05-22 at 13:36:54 PDT, seller added the following information: NAME "FRANK" LOOKS BE BE IN PENCIL IN THE PHOTOS THE LOOSE PAGES WERE INSERTED INCORRECTLY

Here's a newly listed Promise book with a name on the cover.

Contribute it to this really interesting thread!

kobra65 sold me a Tec 64 that arrived very quickly and securely. Great communication and was willing to provide additional pics upon request. Thanks!

Wow the cover re-glossing on that copy looks terrible. It makes it look completely unnatural and counterfeit!

Thanks to everyone who has chimed in with all the different nuances of pedigree pricing. While we can dig for data points that support either side, I hope we can all agree that there is absolutely a bump associated with pedigree books when they are being marketed and sold by Heritage. The general frenzy around Signature Auctions with live auctioneers, prospective bidders being sent glossy catalogs, the slickly produced narrative...all these contribute to a higher hammer price than what you and I would get by listing them on eBay. The Promise story is an integral part of this marketing blitz. Heritage would not spend money promoting the pedigree narrative if they did not think it would result in higher hammer prices. Whereas some pedigrees are known purely known for the quality of the books, the Promise pedigree is a bit different where the central story of two brothers is a key part of its appeal (the Okajima pedigree is similar in this regard). Given all this, it would be nice to have more transparency about the story from Heritage so the community can have more confidence that no facts were fudged in order to have a more appealing narrative for higher hammer prices. Hypothetically, if it turns out that the "Promise" was never explicitly about the younger brother's comic books, wouldn't this be deceptive and unethical?

Shhh! You can't announce your targets. Interested bidders might not have known about it... like me! Thanks for the heads-up on this!

I crack open all the books in my personal collection. When I found out this wasn't the norm in the hobby, I was quite shocked! I can understand keeping books in their slabs if you plan to sell it at some point in the future. Or if you had a very high-grade that you wanted to preserve (a 9.8 modern, or a VF/NM vintage book). But for books in my permanent collection, I keep them raw for a variety of reasons: No newton rings. Books look great in Mylar sleeves and archives. No numerical grade to draw attention away from the book itself. I always thought the CGC label should be unobtrusive and on the back of the book. Slabs take up a lot of space! Most importantly, I want to read the story and see all the interior art! Reading a reprint just isn't the same. And slabbing a comic isn't quite the same as a coin or baseball card, you miss out on ~95% of your collectible when you slab a comic. That being said, I appreciate having 3rd party grading services when buying a book, especially the restoration check. But when it arrives in my PC, I crack it open and enjoy it! And no shade to slab collectors, people can have their own collecting habits and motivations. With the exception of the MF54 which I bought raw, these were once-graded books I cracked out because I know they are never leaving my collection.

Claimed per PM. Thank you!

Is there really any need to debate this? If we just cross-reference Overstreet's top SA DC books with CGC census counts... don't we get our answer or close enough? I understand others have pointed out caveats/limitations of using CGC Census but it still gives us a general idea. Title # CGC Census Showcase 4 533 Brave and the Bold 28 1371 Showcase 22 1217 Flash 105 744 Action Comics 242 535 Adventure Comics 247 485 Action Comics 252 1087 Justice League of America 1 1465 Our Army at War 83 193 Showcase 8 301 Green Lantern 1 1258 Showcase 17 307 Batman 121 765 Showcase 9 222 Lois Lane 1 270 Showcase 6 197 Showcase 13 221 Showcase 14 253 Our Army at War 81 173 Flash 106 385 Brave and the Bold 25 283 Flash 123 1174 If we want to include 1955 keys then we have Tec 225 (299 copies) and Adventure 210 (158 copies). So indeed among the top-level SA DC keys, it seems Showcase 4, Action 242 and Adventure 247 are somewhat scarce around ~500 copies each. Slightly further down the list, the scarcest books appear to be Our Army at War 83 and other early Showcases. Although very scarce, I don't think most collectors consider Sugar and Spike 1 a "DC Key."

The driving force behind the creation of a pedigree should never be an auction house or a retailer. They should emerge from the community of enthusiasts, collectors, and historians. And regardless of the source, there needs to be accompanying proof of the provenance or story. Otherwise, the financial incentive for "fudging the facts" or other shenanigans is just too high.

Sad to see those covers faded to oblivion! Put those things under museum glass or something!

Great idea for a thread. Inspired me to dig out my favorites and do a group shot of my top 5 in the PC!

Description says "Complete, unrestored." Really stretching the definition of "complete."

Oh wow, here I thought I was an A-lister because they send me their glossy catalogsI'll give them a call on Monday.

Who's to say I didn't spend on a big book either? If I had the option, I'll fly economy to pick it up, save myself the anxiety of it getting lost in the mail, and visit my family in the area

@kengoldin