RustyStaples

Hey all, I recently purchased this book raw on ebay. Yes, I know, incredibly risky, but I'll admit there didn't seem to be many red flags... You know, except for the fact that it was a zero feedback ebay seller. Anyhow 5 days later and this arrived. I'm pretty sure it's authentic, just would love a second opinion. The book is 16 total leafs double sided (so 32 total pages). Has all the original ads, is this a legit ASM 1? Thank you all in advance!

Here is a quick picture of a bunch of loose covers I'd love to find marriages for. I also have a zillion coverless books, and the final page to Captain america comics 3 (I imagine somebody out there is missing the first wrap and this is half of that). Please message me if anyone can help. Thanks! Edit: Detective 141, All American 25, Rangers 21, Fight Comics 1, Walt Disney comics and stories 4 and 5, Adventure Comics 87, Perfect Crime 28

Maybe so, but I think the record breakers don't provide as much data. It's hard to look at the PL 17 and make any conclusions one way or the other, it's the lower books that provide insight in my opinion. And you're right, the MLJs are scarce in grade, but I also think they're much rarer TO grade. I imagine there's a higher percentage of ungraded early MLJ non keys out there than there is phantom ladys. Heck I own a few. Even in grade.

It's difficult to figure out what caused the high prices. The three possibilities in my opinion are: 1. Overall hot market. The best evidence for this is the strong prices yielded on the non-promise books in the very same auction, the 4.5 PL at $20k+ is an impressive sale to say the least, and it wasn't an outlier. This whole session has had really strong numbers, I think the fact that the market is hot is lost on nobody, but I think it's also clear that the Promise books took it one step further. They were selling for more than just "hot market" prices. 2. Ultra high grade chasers. The best evidence for this in my opinion is the Flash run. Non-key 9.6 and 9.8 copies across the board were $15k+ with quite a few breaking $20k. 20,000 US dollars is a big hurdle for a comic, and yet these Flash books seemed able to reach incredible numbers with ease. The Flash run is the best example in my opinion because there were SO many examples of census toppers, and often by a difference of two or even three grades. If you want the best Flash books, even if you thought the whole promise collection was graded soft by 0.2, these were the nicest copies. I generally don't like to look at Timely books when talking about trends, because if there's one thing I've learned about golden age comics it's that you can't predict the price of a Timely book. Especially not one with the holy trinity combo of Alex Schomburg, Captain America, and a war cover. That said, the Timely books were also good examples of census toppers and it's hard to imagine Cap 36 (the real dark horse of this auction) breaking $200k wasn't because it was just such a beautiful example of that book, and the undisputed nicest copy. 3. Promise collection story. I think this one is responsible for a huge percentage of the juice. Example: Sub Mariner 32. The promise collection copy is a 7.0. There's 3 other 7.0s, 3 7.5s, and 2 8.5s. It's FAR from a census topper, it's just a nice copy of a great book. A 7.0 sold in April of last year on heritage for $4300. This copy gets $24,000. Not even a bump in PQ either, both OW/W. Has the market for golden age Timely books increased by 500% in one year? Were two bidders perhaps too caught up in winning at all costs thus making this an anomaly? The thing is, this wasn't an anomaly. There's almost countless examples. A non key, non bondage, run of the mill (if such a golden age book could ever be called that) Black Hood in 9.0 breaking $4k? While good copies of similar mid run Black Hoods on ebay aren't breaking $150... Here's an example, I promise it's the last one. Lone Star comics had a Catman Comics 31 for sale for a few weeks in CGC 6.5. Sold for 2600 just a few weeks ago. Promise copy in 7.5 gets $9000. But surely that 7.5 copy of a nice LB Cole cover is one of the nicest examples around, right? Wrong... 13 copies above it in the census. One wouldn't think the promise story, as great as it is, would add much juice to an LB Cole cover, maybe a war cover certainly. I think it's clearly a combination of the three. The question is, what percentage to each. I think there was alot of FOMO. That Catman 31 sounds like a bidder who lost out on one of the other Catman 9.4/9.6s and wanted to go home with something. The 3.0 Captain America 36 that's been sitting on ebay for almost a year sold within minutes of the 9.4 ending. FOMO all around. Will these sales stand the test of time? In this humble collectors opinion (which isn't worth much)... No. I predicted the final tally of the promise collection to be $7,000,000 before the auction happened. I lurk alot around here, I was surprised so many thought it would be low. I knew there would be some craziness, but I ask you, does it seem like the first appearance of a Batman villain (who isn't the joker) should go for roughly half the price of the first appearance of the Dark Knight himself? I know I'm not comparing apples to apples here, 9.6 census topper vs 5.0, but the Riddler and Batman aren't really comparable either. In conclusion, I think with the amount of money being thrown around in the hobby these days, it's getting harder and harder to compare a comic book to cash. Is Tec 140 truly worth 450k? Is Black Hood 13 in 9.0 truly worth 4000 (I'm not going to let that one go )? If we can't compare a comic book to cash, we can compare it to another comic. We can ask if the 9.4 Cap 36 should be worth 31.4 times a 3.0. We can ask if a promise 7.5 should be worth 3.6 times a 6.5. We can ask if one 9.6 PL17 should be equal to one Tec 140. All I know is there are probably alot of thrilled winners, and there are probably some remorseful ones too, but I don't think there's hardly anyone who could flip a book they bought yesterday for profit today, it will take a while. Well maybe one... All American 61, that book was a steal in my opinion.

This looks like fun, I'm in!

3.0 imo

this comic is a 9.4 as is and will be a 9.8 candidate post press IMO

7.0

Cinderella Love 25 no question

No. We negotiated a price based on the comic not having any restoration, thus blue label. We also negotiated before the deal that if the comic comes back purple we will address it then. Those were the terms of our deal. I certainly hope if comes back blue, but I don't owe the seller anything additional if it does, nor do I if it comes back 8.0. That's why I set the deal the way I did.

I couldn't agree more. I was very suspicious the book didn't seem to have color breaks along the spine and I really appreciate you weighing in, here's what I know: I have a good connection with the seller, and the providence of the collection leads me to believe there is no restoration. Of course that can be meaningless, but this collection seems to me like a bought fresh off the newsstand collection. For instance the collection had about half of the DC newsstand books from 55-62, it also had an amazing fantasy 15 stored as the second to top comic in a box, nothing bagged and boarded, and the owner of the collection left it behind in an office building after going delinquent of rent. In general that indicates to me the collection is truly original owner... assuming the providence of the collection is true and not a bunch of BS. Lastly, the seller and I have discussed what we will do if it comes back restored, they are interested to see as well, and they were open to the idea of renegotiation. That seemed fair to me. My guess: 4.5 Blue Label

Update to everyone: I have purchased this comic and it is off to by pressed and cleaned by CCS and graded by CGC. Fingers crossed!

8.0

7.5 IMO, the rightmost edge looks a tad suspect to me, I'm no expert just seems like there could be some trimming going on there

5.0 in my opinion

This is a 2.5 IMO

Thanks for all the responses everyone, just out of curiousity, is there anything specific about this book that I should be nervous about? Not just "any raw book is danger" type stuff, specific things with this book that look suspect

6.5 IMO

9.0

9.4

It is indeed. I'm sure multiple people found the same seller.

1st copy begging for a press, 7.5 2nd copy 3.0

Of course I wouldn't want do drop a huge chunk of coin on a comic in hopes it's unrestored with no assurances, but I believe these comics are currently at prices where even if they were restored I wouldn't be losing out. So in that sense, money is no object for these books. I'm just trying to get a sense of what grades the books are, that's all I ask.

Thanks for weighing in, I would normally agree though, what indicated page brittleness?

I know I posted that Showcase 4, and I imagine everyone is thinking I'm being suckered. I don't really want to say much more because I'm very excited about this deal and I have very good reason to believe that it's legit. Everyone please weigh in with what you think, I know as before this isn't the traditional use of this forum, but I think these big books are fun, and I also think there's a very high chance I buy the books, so I will definitely update with the CGC grade. Thanks everyone!