$84K for an FF 52?!?

[Jaydogrules]

Crazy number but alot of the super high grades are crazy right now. FF 52 is a Grail. It's from the Lee/Kirby team. It's the first AA super hero. It has great story and art. Iconic cover. And it has the movie business. First a cameo and than a solo, so BP will be in the news for quite awhile. Will they make their money back?. At that price, I'm guessing it's someone who doesn't care about the future value. I suspect they wanted the best available.

 

I'm the last to critique other posters but.... Oh wait, I agree with you.

 

Well said.

 

-J.

[jimjum12]

Crazy number but alot of the super high grades are crazy right now. FF 52 is a Grail. It's from the Lee/Kirby team. It's the first AA super hero. It has great story and art. Iconic cover. And it has the movie business. First a cameo and than a solo, so BP will be in the news for quite awhile. Will they make their money back?. At that price, I'm guessing it's someone who doesn't care about the future value. I suspect they wanted the best available.

 

I'm the last to critique other posters but.... Oh wait, I agree with you.

 

Well said.

 

-J.

 

..... and like they say...... if you get quality, you'll always have quality.... GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[Ghost Town]

I doubt the $84K copy popped as much as the 9.8 Curator. A $22K sale way back in 2012, I wonder what it would fetch today?

 

The scanner settings are a bit too bright on the new 9.8. But both books look pretty spectacular.

 

 

[DanCooper]

I doubt the $84K copy popped as much as the 9.8 Curator. A $22K sale way back in 2012, I wonder what it would fetch today?

 

The scanner settings are a bit too bright on the new 9.8. But both books look pretty spectacular.

 

 

 

Thanks for posting these Ghost Town. GREAT scans!!

 

Prefer The Curator copy - sharper corners, compare the white areas in the stamp, number and 12 cents price!

 

But, like Bronx and Jim mentioned, it is what is available at the time and buyer seeing book in person.

 

Both books are spectacular! $84K is another thing...

 

Thanks again for the scans

[Bomber-Bob]

I'm not seeing a whole lot of difference between the two but I would give the nod to the 'new' copy.

I'm seeing a little stress at the top staple of the Curator. The cover of a high grade FF52 in hand can indeed take your breath away.

[zosocane]

Crazy number but alot of the super high grades are crazy right now. FF 52 is a Grail. It's from the Lee/Kirby team. It's the first AA super hero. It has great story and art. Iconic cover. And it has the movie business. First a cameo and than a solo, so BP will be in the news for quite awhile. Will they make their money back?. At that price, I'm guessing it's someone who doesn't care about the future value. I suspect they wanted the best available.

 

All fair points, but this is a book that before 2012 (i.e., before the first Avengers movie; i.e., before the Movie Book Speculation Age) commanded approximately $150 to $200 for an 8.0 copy over a 10-year period based on GPA data. For a higher grade, desireable copy, that's basically zero to de minimis growth during that period. A similar story is told when looking at GPA sales graphs from 2002 to 2011 for 9.2., 9.0, 8.5, 7.5 and 7.0 copies. To my knowledge, FF52 was never viewed as a "Grail" pre-2012. Don't get me wrong, I love this book, but it wasn't really on collectors' collective radar screen until 3 to 4 years ago. To me, $84K is over the top for a 9.8, but I'm assuming that's peanuts for the buyer.

[Hepcat]

It's sad that the Boards can no longer comprehend buying a book for anything but a flip and profit.

 

Truth!

 

There are individuals who will pay through the nose for the "best" known copy of a comic. While a similar need isn't part of my own psychology, I recognize that there are collectors out there with a different makeup than my own.

 

In such cases though I always wonder whether without the CGC label a panel of independent observers would/could even agree which copy of the comic in question was actually the "best". That's why I personally find it really difficult to justify/rationalize the incredible spread in prices so often seen between 9.4 and 9.8 copies of the same comic..

 

 

 

[Sqeggs]

It's sad that the Boards can no longer comprehend buying a book for anything but a flip and profit.

 

Truth!

 

There are individuals who will pay through the nose for the best known copy of a comic. While a similar need isn't part of my psychology, I recognize that there are collectors out there with a different makeup than my own.

 

 

 

For me -- psychology, yes; bankroll, no!

[Bomber-Bob]

To my knowledge, FF52 was never viewed as a "Grail" pre-2012. Don't get me wrong, I love this book, but it wasn't really on collectors' collective radar screen until 3 to 4 years ago.

This can be said of so many books. Until recently, was Hulk 271 on a collector's radar screen, or New Mutants 98, or TTA 13, Showcase 30, etc.,etc.,etc. ? FF52 was always a cool book to have. It was in the iconic cover camp like Silver Surfer 4 or JIM 89. Still is.

[zosocane]

To my knowledge, FF52 was never viewed as a "Grail" pre-2012. Don't get me wrong, I love this book, but it wasn't really on collectors' collective radar screen until 3 to 4 years ago.

This can be said of so many books. Until recently, was Hulk 271 on a collector's radar screen, or New Mutants 98, or TTA 13, Showcase 30, etc.,etc.,etc. ? FF52 was always a cool book to have. It was in the iconic cover camp like Silver Surfer 4 or JIM 89. Still is.

 

Precisely my point. Hulk 271, NM 98, TTA13, SC 30 are all movie books that didn't generate serious market-wide interest pre-2012. Contrast that with tried and tested grails that have shown sustained growth over a period of several decades. Classic cover? Yes. Grail? Not until a few years ago, and it attained such Grail status only because of a movie bump.

[VintageComics]

Everyone thought the market was really taking off about 4 years ago when someone tried to embezzle $9MIL through Heritage and was setting record prices. I didn't buy it as market movement.

 

If an FF #52 CGC 9.8 is now worth $80K going forward, we have much more important things to worry about - like the cost of bread and water being out of reach.

 

This is a one off (for whatever reason) IMO and won't be duplicated.

[BarryAllen]

It's sad that the Boards can no longer comprehend buying a book for anything but a flip and profit.

 

Truth!

 

There are individuals who will pay through the nose for the best known copy of a comic. While a similar need isn't part of my psychology, I recognize that there are collectors out there with a different makeup than my own.

 

 

 

For me -- psychology, yes; bankroll, no!

 

I think it is fairly common for people to want to seek out good value (including potential resale value) when buying anything. A very small portion of our population can actually buy with wanton abandon (particularly very high value items) and even a smaller segment of that population actually does so (there are a huge number of well known rich folk that are penny pinchers).

 

While I completely agree that the concept of "buying to flip" is running rampant in the hobby today (which is hyper personified on the boards), I do not believe it is outside the realm of human behavior to question when someone pays such an obvious unnecessary premium. Particularly on a book that is not that rare and has only recently gained attention and value due to impending movie appearances.

 

:shrug:

 

People can pay for and collect whatever they want, just like other people can sit back and look at those purchases and be confused (or not).

 

[Hepcat]

Everyone thought the market was really taking off about 4 years ago when someone tried to embezzle $9MIL through Heritage and was setting record prices. I didn't buy it as market movement.

 

"Embezzle" through Heritage? How? What happened?

 

[Spiderphill]

Writing that the buyer must have more money than brains, as a couple of board members did in this thread and I've seen written elsewhere in relation to different books, is frankly disrespectful and insulting.

 

Hard as it is for some to believe, not everyone at the high end of the comic book food chain is there to reap a profit. Sometimes, one or more wealthy individuals will decide at a particular time that they'd like to own one of the finest known examples of a particular issue, and a record sale occurs. Perhaps the buyer isn't that deep into the hobby that they wish to wait around for years and have to track all of the top census copies that may be offered for sale to get a great deal. Perhaps the buyer is laundering money obtained illegally. Perhaps the buyer has enough wealth that the sale price is inconsequential to them. Who knows? One-off sales are just that, one-time occurrences.

 

Well stated and IMO, absolutely valid comments. It's sad that the Boards can no longer comprehend buying a book for anything but a flip and profit.

this

[Kevin76]

This is sale is pretty much "I absolutely have got to have it" I'm just wondering what kind of trickle down effect this will have on the lower grades.

[Sqeggs]

Everyone thought the market was really taking off about 4 years ago when someone tried to embezzle $9MIL through Heritage and was setting record prices. I didn't buy it as market movement.

 

"Embezzle" through Heritage? How? What happened?

 

 

Someone embezzled money from his firm (not Heritage) and then tried to launder it by buying comics in HA auctions. Led to a blip in prices of the books he was bidding on.

[Spiderphill]

Was this book a pedigree? I believe majority of the 9.8s are all pedigrees, no?

[DanCooper]

Was this book a pedigree? I believe majority of the 9.8s are all pedigrees, no?

 

This recent 9.8 is not from a pedigree

 

Yes, the other three 9.8s are (Curator, Boston and Don/Maggie Thompson)

[zosocane]

This $84K purchase of a not-so-rare FF52 9.8 reminds me of a line in that new Showtime series Billions, when the lead antagonist, a billionaire played by Damian Lewis, says before purchasing a $63 million beachfront home, "What good is Spoon You Money if you can't say, 'Spoon you'?"

 

[texmurphy2099]

all the books that say 'sold on behalf of the tadano organization' is from that right? I think they got the books back and then just sold them on HA again