DC#

I wonder if there is challenge with “lack of complexity” or childishness in books like Mario that will hold them back long term. Golden age stuff like Four Color seem to be above this but true collectibility in bronze and newer seems to align with more modern sensibilities like elevation of anti-hero, darker stories, and more maturity overall. Only one of these covers clicks with me……probably a sad commentary on our modern society. Then again Romans jammed into the Colosseum to watch death and dismemberment so maybe it is just human nature.

No record is unbreakable (except maybe Nolan Ryan’s career strikeouts). And comparing all these box office stats across decades is really tough. Force Awakens was $248M domestic but $529M global opening weekend. Super Mario at $337M was global but also across 5 days. Based on just traditional 3 day weekend Mario domestically was under $150 which would make it third highest animated film. Even with a 5 day global it only beat Frozen 2 at 3 days by $19M from 4 years ago so with current inflation I bet that gap is closer to $10M. And adjusted for inflation A New Hope and Empire Strikes back are both around $1.9B life to date including re-releases (but even that doesn't account for growth in screens globally and new markets for American films since the late 70s. For reference - Empire's opening weekend was on an estimated 127 domestic screens. Mario is on 4,300 screens domestically). Mario won’t get anywhere close to that given current multiples. That being said - as one article put it - “Mario officially says ‘game over’ to the video game movie adaptation curse.”

True. But in this case the winning bidder only made one bid - the final bid. And their history shows they mostly only do one bid and mostly on collectibles. The underbidder had bid several times including automatic bids. Did the underbidder just put in a crazy high number in an attempt to avoid last minute snipe only to get sniped by one of those tools some buyers use to thwart all other last bids (I am butchering the explanation but hopefully you get it). I am going to watch this one - I have a feeling it might not close.

This is a crazy sale. +50% above current GPA and trounced all time high of $6k. Some funky bidding there at the end.

Laverne Collection

The Fantast 8.0 sold for $1.11M - which is not terribly far off from the March 2021 Comic Connect sale of $1.208M. But it is way, way off from the $2M that Rally reported to have received in a private sale back in January of this year. Though the article below references the prior record as Sept 2021 at $1.44M but that sale is not in GPA. I would take an ugly label if I could save $1M. https://blog.gocollect.com/rallys-batman-1-sells-for-record-2-million-how-one-shareholder-voted/

Another story from last week's Heritage auction. Two copies of TOS #39 in 8.0. One copy with bright reds, double quotes, full $0.12, blue under-table, and OW/W went for $5k more than the 8.0 with more faded red, no blue, no double quotes, and CR/OW pages. ($38.4k vs $33.6k) The peak for this book was a single sale in 2021 of $89.5k (a 8.5 went for $99k in the same year). 2022 average was $44.6k (2 sales) - so the nicer book was down 15% from 2022 while the other down 25%.

Beauty and the beholder and all of that......chipping, tanning, dust shadows, miswraps, stains..... Another way to look at this is with each AF15 being a market of one. Easy to know the relative value of a 6.5 vs 7.0 vs 7.5 - but the precise value of a particular book is based on the unique characteristics of that copy (and timing and method by which it was sold). Not sure you can say that about New Mutants #98 or Ultimate Fallout #4 as there is just not enough variability in visual appeal of books.

It ended at $117k. Here are results for 7.5 going back to 2019

March 2023 Heritage Signature Auction

In case it matters....I took no offense at any of this. You know....not even sure GPA would be happy to know I am summarizing their data in this simple but public way. Does start to get a bit gray - not quite to the level of password sharing but it is a bit more robust than just a board member commenting that the 90 day average of a book is X. And ComicLink may hate it too......

Actually - it is because GP&A no longer has the averages for those years in their summaries. Their current summary categories are shown below. They had 2020 averages until January of this year when all the dates rolled over. The older by year data is only shown as high and low with a list of all sales. There are not enough hours in a week for me to go back and try to calc those annual averages

https://www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/256987/FAMOUS-FUNNIES-210-FEBRUARY-1954-CGC-85-VF-BUCK-ROGERS

Here are session 1 results from ComicLink March Focused auction. This will be the only recap from this auction for me. I think the auction is mislabeled - any auction that goes on for 3 weeks with hundreds of pages of listings is not very focused.

Here is the price per point for the last 3 sales of each grade which in most cases goes back to Fall 2022 (includes the Ebay 5.0 that just hit in the above post). I wasn't tracking 2.0 or lower grades but I suspect the price per point is like the 2.5 and a slight premium to the other grades. So somewhere between 3.5 and 4.5 would currently be the sweet spot.

As stated above - the Clink 2.5 ended at $26.75k which is flat to the prior two sales of $26.4k (March) and $27.5k (Dec). The Heritage 5.0 ended at $50.4k which is pretty flat going back to Oct ($50.3k Dec, $48k Dec, $50.4K Oct, and $47.1k Oct).

The Supes #1 did not indicate that it had the 15% BP in the listing. So I assume the $101k is final and that is what shows on the listing going on 24 hours later. The Batman #1 also didn’t have the 15% BP in this past auction. This hybrid approach does make you double check when bidding - I have found myself getting excited at a price in the final hours before noticing the BP note.

The images I attached are still what I am seeing on Saturday morning - Whiz at $188.6k. And I waited for a hour or so last night to confirm. But that site is wonky on occasion - I have watched sales close live and the BP pops on within 10-15 minutes while some seem to take hours even if refreshing. Grab a screen shot if you are seeing something different.

Last two from the March Comic Connect

The Heritage 5.0 is at $48k already (closes on Monday). If it closes there it would basically be flat to prior 4 sales going back to Oct 2022: Oct $47.2, Oct $50.4k, Dec $48k, Dec $50.3k. I am calling that pretty stable given where we have been. Even going back to August prices were $55k and $57k.

This Cap #1 did much better than ComicLink. This is the same book in photos below - right after close before 15% premium and after adjusted for premium. There was one more book that passed the $100k mark in today's auction - it was a non-CGC slabbed FF #5 9.4 that went for $126.5K (no pics included) Here are past 4 sales of a 7.0. Captain America Comics #1 7.0 - $340k Mar 2022. Previous $186k in 2020 Captain America Comics #1 7.0 - $312k May 2022 (Heritage) Captain America Comics #1 7.0 - $201k March 2023 (Clink) Captain America Comics #1 7.0 - $300.2k March 2023 (ComicConnect)

Here is my updated chart for 2.5 thru 5.0. There is another 5.0 on Heritage this week. Feels like the range is tightening with variances in prices within a grade being very influenced by the usual stuff (appearance for grade, chipping, 1st gen slab, PQ, etc). And this includes sales that don't show up in GPA (Goldin, ComicLink)

The 3.5 on CC went for $31k which is relatively stable. 4 sales since Sept have been $31k and under. Feels like the rate of decline has slowed at a minimum in the 5.0 and under grades.

Two from Comic Connect this evening

ooops....sorry