Aman619

hey, feels like an opportune time to update your lists!

Sure. But reportedly not amassed with the same zeal and competiveness as he put together his crown jewel GA copies.

Never a silver age guy apparently.. he melted his silver comics for fillings years ago!

I don’t think it’s cause moisture is locked inside, but that small “fireproof” safes walls contain moisturized materials to slow the heat from getting in and toasting the contents.These infuse the inner chamber with the moisture that can rust staples. Maybe dessicants can kelp, always a good idea, but may need too much moisture to be balanced by the dessicants .

Yeah, crazy. Let’s revisit this in 5 years and see which buyer is smiling.

Maybe, but it has one unfixable flaw since day one. Its a Marvel 1!

He always has owned the top 4!

If you ask me, this AF 15 sale is just a placeholder as highest selling comic. And the mere fact of the existence of this sale just ratchets up a handful of other comics to new estimated values far above 3.6M. Church AC 1, Allentown Tec 27, the 9.2 Tec 27, even the two 9.0 Action !s and the 8.5 Church Tec 27, plus the dentist Superman 1, and the 9.4 Batman 1, as well as the dentist Bat 1 as well. All we can do is guess at their values until they sell, but they just look better and better as sales like the AF 15 become a reality. It will be interesting what the next AF 15 9.6 goes for now. Watching the video, there seem to be 3 bidders at the end, so there should be 2 to battle it out instead an unopposed underbidder getting the next one cheap.

And, during the Sotheby’s era, restoration was touted as a way to IMPROVE your books. It was a gambit or a attempt to legitimize restoration in conics same as it is in other Sotheby’s collecting genres. Yes it took cojones in spending 40K on a comic book back, it’s the same today, spending more than anyone ever has for a stupid comic book is just crazy. Reminds me of the Steve Jobs Apple ads; Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.— Steve Jobs, 1997

This WAS covered here on the boards.

That will bring the excitement we are expecting!

3 more bids and we beat the Action 1 record. But I said this a week ago. no bids since... maybe I spooked the bidders!

AF15s black/brown cover limits HG copies compared to Spidey 1 or XMen 1 with light blue and white bkgnds. (though, again, Im amazed how many survived in 9.4 or better...) I agree that Pedigrees are usually the highest graded copy candidates, but so many no-name copies slip through time unscathed too.

Those holding HG raw copies of Action 1 and potential 9.6 or 9.8 AF15s are doing so for the same reason. The books aren’t for sale. It’s not easy to pay the fees without a sale in the near future. And some of these are old school collectors not actively slabbing, so their books are safely tucked away til some future date. And probably a bunch of other reasons..

Well, to me the better page quality copy IS the best copy… for those who care to put them under the microscope to pick any edge between them . It’s not like it’s White pages and all the rest are cream/OW. And not everyone will care cause it’s only technically the best copy. Nearly everyone at this point would want any of the copies, unless one is known to brittle or browning or rusty staples, etc. I’m sure the buyer of this copy will be ecstatic… unless the underbidder chases him far into an obscene price to win it.

yes. knowing whats out there should be in any buyers knowledge base. Knowing that theres better copies should be taken into consideration when buying the Highest Graded Copy so you aren't blindly chasing the "best". This was more of a crapshoot early with the census. You had to work out in your head whether the 9.2 highest graded copy you wanted to buy was a placeholder, or would survive as top copy. I'll say from experience that now, in 2021, its pretty rare that some of mine did survive. Early DCs are far scarcer than Marvels keys, but somehow a few higher graded copies were squeezed out of the ether! so do I think the top census copies will survive? Id have to say probably not. Specifically for AF15, Id say 50/50 theres a 9.8 out there. Perhaps if those who know of or have seen these pristine copies saw them with CGC eyes lately, they might be candidates for another 9.6 or 9.8. Or, perhaps CGC itself will view the next one a a touch better than the 9.6s. Records were meant to be broken! But I trust they won't just give out a top grade on a top book unless it earns it. the fact that theres so many 9.4 or better copies of AF15 just blows my mind really. why wouldn't there be a few more.

I seem to recall that the owner held onto it for a long time after selling the rest. Something about saving it to pay for his daughters wedding. But he sold it over 20 years ago..

So what was the final price of the 9.2? ok. I looked it up, 250k. Wow so are all 9.2s now 200k plus? What’s a 9.4 worth?

As he said. After the single 9.6 sold for 1.1m privately, and a few more 9.6s showed up the widely held opinion was that they were worth far less than 1.1m. It made sense then just as you suggest it would again with a 9.8 showing up. No one knows if there’s a 9.8 out there in the raw or in a 9.6 holder. Could be, as always with these things. Btw one of the 9.6s reportedly has OW/W pages, a notch higher than the others. Does that affect its value relative to the others? Maybe White pages might. Who knows. also we appear to be reaching a point where more copies at the top is a feature not a bug. Copies change hands more often yielding more sales data points and allows more buyers and creates competition. More so than s single HGC that sits in a collection for 10-20 years

You’re missing a digit. Serial numbers are 10 digits: invoice# (7) plus book # (3) type in the whole # and it takes you to a secret list oh NP greshams stash of shills. or some no doubt believe.

I bought most of my comics at over market from dealers. And, we don’t have a market value, never have. Dealers have always stickered their comics higher than recent sales. Many will give a discount, and sometimes you can make a big pile to get more off the total… but the prices I have always started with when buying was over “market value”. Of course I know what you mean. With RallyRd valuing the same books they just bought at 1.2 what they paid you start out underwater while they are in the black.

So what number are we using for. Worlds record sale? The 8.5 Action 1? Or some higher private sale that’s not really public ally known? Wait, I think I just answered my own question.

which he didnt have to do! : )

I dunno… valiantman has been subjected to a lot of criticism and insults too. For the longest time he just kep,replying civilly to every “No I don’t want to hear it and besides it a stupid idea so go away you Rally shill you.” I guess it’s human nature to finally snap and get a bit snarky. I think as your post reveals, his weakest argument has been referring to it in any way as collecting, especially here in the GA section. I agree it’s an investment. It’s an investment in something we all love and covet, but not really collecting. I think to him, as he has described how he’d be calling his fractional ownership of the missing keys in his run part of his collection, that’s just not how other collectors will ever see it. I get that. I’m just surprised by the adamant pushback to the idea. Except for the collectors who just refuse to admit to ANY financial interest in their collections, our comics ARE increasing in value.. every 1000 we put in is worth more than we paid. I’m all in for that, making (paper) money on something i love to collect anyway. So making money investing in comics, especially a book I couldn’t buy outright, just doesn’t seem that far from what I’ve been doing for decades, had I not been able to buy the comics I did.

Well, the protagonists were both victims of the wars. One died while that other just got stuck in a very long and very bad summer camp. and please dont take that the wrong way. Japanese interned kids have told me that while their parents were very angry to have lost their rights as citizens as well as their possessions, the little kids — as kids do everywhere — played and took it in stride… by comparison to the adults.