AF 15--1.1 milliion--which would you choose?

[stinkininkin]

So you are given 1.1 million dollars on the condition that you can only buy either a high grade AF 15 comic book, or the original art to the cover of AF 15 alone, which would you choose?

 

I know. Stupid question over here on this side of the tracks, and yet we're still the red headed step child niche hobby to the slabbed comic book side of things.

 

What a world.

 

Scott

[Bronty]

I can't imagine it even being a thought? I would think just about anybody even most of the pure comic guys would pick the cover

 

To me its worth several times what the book is worth. Assuming it exists and that the major ga covers dont, I think that its the best single page of comic OA in the hobby.

[g-man]

cover

[delekkerste]

I can't imagine it even being a thought? I would think just about anybody even the pure comic guys would pick the cover

 

To me its worth several times what the book is worth

 

I don't know about that. This is a nostalgia-driven hobby and people remember reading the book (or a reprint/TPB of it), or saving up to get a low-grade copy of it and admiring that unusual dark brown cover, which you don't necessarily get with the art. I imagine a lot of people would rather own the highest graded copy of that book vs. the cover art alone.

 

That said, I'm not one of them. I think the cover would be a unique piece in its own right, and I personally don't value very highly the difference between this 9.6 copy and the multiple 9.4s out there - certainly not in this age of chicanery and maximum potentialization via the press (not saying this copy has been, but not saying that some copy in the future couldn't be either). I'd rather have the art. Now, if you had asked me whether I'd take the OA to the cover of Action #1 or the MH copy of Action #1, I'd take the latter in a heartbeat, as I imagine most people would.

 

Also, just because someone paid $1.1M for this book doesn't mean that's what it's worth now if nobody else will pay that amount. I just think it's a bit krazy to be paying hyperinflationary prices before we actually get any hyperinflation! I hope the buyer has money to burn and really loves the book. I mean, if you offered so much that even Eric Roberts couldn't say no, you overpaid.

[Nexus]

The second highest graded copy of AF #15 is the White Mountain pedigree copy which graded out at a 9.4. That sold in 2008 for $227K, a then-record price for a Silver Age book. Let's assume a ratchet effect as a result of this $1.1M sale for the 9.6 and say the 9.4 would sell for $500K now (that's extremely generous, btw...some are saying it would sell for $300K).

 

The difference in market value between the two books is $600K. (The actual difference between the two copies being whatever microscopic defect as detected by CGC.) For $600K, you could get yourself a world-class OA *collection*.

 

What's the most ever paid for a graded JIM #83? More or less than this?:

 

http://comics.ha.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=7023&Lot_No=93146

[Bronty]

I can't imagine it even being a thought? I would think just about anybody even the pure comic guys would pick the cover

 

To me its worth several times what the book is worth

 

I don't know about that. This is a nostalgia-driven hobby and people remember reading the book (or a reprint/TPB of it), or saving up to get a low-grade copy of it and admiring that unusual dark brown cover, which you don't necessarily get with the art. I imagine a lot of people would rather own the highest graded copy of that book vs. the cover art alone.

 

That said, I'm not one of them. I think the cover would be a unique piece in its own right, and I personally don't value very highly the difference between this 9.6 copy and the multiple 9.4s out there - certainly not in this age of chicanery and maximum potentialization via the press (not saying this copy has been, but not saying that some copy in the future couldn't be either). I'd rather have the art. Now, if you had asked me whether I'd take the OA to the cover of Action #1 or the MH copy of Action #1, I'd take the latter in a heartbeat, as I imagine most people would.

 

Also, just because someone paid $1.1M for this book doesn't mean that's what it's worth now if nobody else will pay that amount. I just think it's a bit krazy to be paying hyperinflationary prices before we actually get any hyperinflation! I hope the buyer has money to burn and really loves the book. I mean, if you offered so much that even Eric Roberts couldn't say no, you overpaid.

 

Well scott's postulation was you get 1.1m and you have to spend it on one of those two items. So the hyperinflationary price is irrelevant. The number was shocking for sure but the point is just which would you prefer.

 

I totally agree that the difference between the 9.6 and the 9.4s (and 9.2s and 9.0s........) isn't great enough to make it worth what the cover is worth, at least in my eyes. I think a lot of people would see it that way? Its not an unattainable book. One could use scotts 1.1m to buy the cover AND buy a lower grade copy of the book and have both in one's own personal nerd paradise

 

Since the MH action 1 is the best by a wide margin, and the #1 book in the hobby, I'd take that over the A1 cover art too. But with AF 15 it is a very different set of circumstances. The book is very attainable, very many nearly-as-good copies are out there. But there's only one cover. And its well drawn, features the character very prominently on the cover, and you couldn't ask for a more classic pose. And its kirby.

[Nexus]

Also, just because someone paid $1.1M for this book doesn't mean that's what it's worth now if nobody else will pay that amount. I just think it's a bit krazy to be paying hyperinflationary prices before we actually get any hyperinflation! I hope the buyer has money to burn and really loves the book. I mean, if you offered so much that even Eric Roberts couldn't say no, you overpaid.

 

I agree with this as well!

[Bronty]

Also, just because someone paid $1.1M for this book doesn't mean that's what it's worth now if nobody else will pay that amount. I just think it's a bit krazy to be paying hyperinflationary prices before we actually get any hyperinflation! I hope the buyer has money to burn and really loves the book. I mean, if you offered so much that even Eric Roberts couldn't say no, you overpaid.

 

I agree with this as well!

 

yeah that last line was a good one gene I was thinking the same myself when I heard about the sale

[oakman29]

The artwork,no brainer.

[comix4fun]

I can't imagine it even being a thought? I would think just about anybody even the pure comic guys would pick the cover

 

To me its worth several times what the book is worth

 

I don't know about that. This is a nostalgia-driven hobby and people remember reading the book (or a reprint/TPB of it), or saving up to get a low-grade copy of it and admiring that unusual dark brown cover, which you don't necessarily get with the art. I imagine a lot of people would rather own the highest graded copy of that book vs. the cover art alone.

 

That said, I'm not one of them. I think the cover would be a unique piece in its own right, and I personally don't value very highly the difference between this 9.6 copy and the multiple 9.4s out there - certainly not in this age of chicanery and maximum potentialization via the press (not saying this copy has been, but not saying that some copy in the future couldn't be either). I'd rather have the art.

 

 

 

Buy a 4.5-5.5 copy for well under $10k and frame it right along side the OA to the cover...nostalgia and rods and cones problem...

[DarkKnightReturns]

OA

[batman_fan]

Depends on how much white out is on the cover and if it has any stats

[Solar]

I'd take the cover and never look back. AF15 is a common book and I'm not enough of a condition freak to pay the difference between an 8.5 and a 9.6.

 

Now if the question was the Action #1 cover art vs the Mile High copy, I'd have to think long and hard...

[jjonahjameson1]

IAlso, just because someone paid $1.1M for this book doesn't mean that's what it's worth now if nobody else will pay that amount. I just think it's a bit krazy to be paying hyperinflationary prices before we actually get any hyperinflation! I hope the buyer has money to burn and really loves the book. I mean, if you offered so much that even Eric Roberts couldn't say no, you overpaid.

 

Given how Avengers1, one of the lower end Silver Age Marvel keys just sold for $100K in 9.4, is $1.1M really a hyperinflation amount?

And when the first time Action 1 cracked $1M, it was the most paid for a Golden Age book by a very healthy amount, but was very quickly proven to be the new 'norm' by subsequent sales of Golden Age books for $1M+.

 

Who knows, maybe this is the new Silver Age norm?

[clemso]

Never mind the cover, heck, i'd take the AF 15 interiors for $1.1 mill

[comix4fun]

Never mind the cover, heck, i'd take the AF 15 interiors for $1.1 mill

 

 

At $100k a page there's probably some folks that would not mind that deal.

[Bronty]

I would take the interiors over the book too.

[comicdonna]

[Bronty]

that splash is magic, isn't it? beautiful

[comicdonna]

It sure is. I bet it would sell for big bucks.