$84K for an FF 52?!?

[Dark Knight]

There's always that chance that the buyer does not pay Until it shows up on GPA, it is not quite "official" or has it been recorded already?

[Sqeggs]

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

 

Right. Those were the books. Included some Billy Wright books, irrc.

[Spidey-fan73]

Thanks Ghost Town for posting the images.

IMO, neither look like a 9.8, though the Curator is more appealing to my eyes.

The "new" 9.8's corners are rounded/abraded a bit, as has been pointed out.

IDK, if I had $84k to throw at a comic, I'd get the best AF 15 it could buy me or gamble on Capt. Carrot and The Zoo Crew making it to the big screen and monopolizing that sector of the market.

[Hepcat]

...if I had $84k to throw at a comic, I'd get the best AF 15 it could buy me or gamble on Capt. Carrot and The Zoo Crew making it to the big screen and monopolizing that sector of the market.

 

If I had $84k to throw at a comic, I wouldn't. I'd just keep adding to my comic collection by buying the comics I like the most whenever they're available at a semi-reasonable price the same way I have since 1979. With that type of money though I might eye some Green Lantern, All Star Comics, Simon & Kirby Newsboy Legion and Sandman comics from the Golden Age and some early Showcase comics, i.e Flash, Challengers, Space Ranger, Green Lantern. But not the best available copies if the prices are silly compared with the next best. And not the first appearance issues if those prices are silly compared with the second and third appearances. I'd rather have the money left over to buy several more comics, such as those marvelous Atlas war and western ones!

 

 

 

[Bronx]

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.

 

I believe the movie business has changed many a book from cool to grail depending on the casting of the character, the quality of the movie and its financial success. Thor and Iron Man were not nearly the "grails" 10 years ago that they are today. Robert Downey and Chris Hemsworth and their respective movies changed that a great deal. Chris Evans plays the Human Torch and FF 1 stays the same and maybe drops below AF15 & IH 1 as uber grails. Sometimes even just the buzz/noise generated by the big studios is enough to change the direction of a key comic overnight (Ultron!). FF52 was a personal grail of mine because of the reasons listed above. Doesn't mean its any one else's. However, if Black Panther impressed everyone in Cap Civil War and does it again in his solo movie, than watch out. If the actor and the character stink than we may have another Green Lantern. As a collector I don't like the explosiveness of the movie prices because it prices me out but as a fan, I can't get enough of it.

[KirbyJack]

...if I had $84k to throw at a comic, I'd get the best AF 15 it could buy me or gamble on Capt. Carrot and The Zoo Crew making it to the big screen and monopolizing that sector of the market.

 

If I had $84k to throw at a comic, I wouldn't. I'd just keep adding to my comic collection by buying the comics I like the most whenever they're available at a semi-reasonable price the same way I have since 1979. With that type of money though I might eye some Green Lantern, All Star Comics, Simon & Kirby Newsboy Legion and Sandman comics from the Golden Age and some early Showcase comics, i.e Flash, Challengers, Space Ranger, Green Lantern. But not the best available copies if the prices are silly compared with the next best. And not the first appearance issues if those prices are silly compared with the second and third appearances. I'd rather have the money left over to buy several more comics, such as those marvelous Atlas war and western ones!

 

 

That's what I did as I was building my collection. I passed up really nice $3 comics to buy iffy $1 comics. But I got more comics!

[Hepcat]

Granted back in 1979 three times the price used to be the difference between MT and VG in Overstreet. But three times the price is no longer the difference between really nice and iffy these days. The highest graded CGC copy (say a 9.8) often fetches three times the price of a 9.6, but in many/most cases it's tough to tell which copy you yourself prefer. This Fantastic Four 53 is a case in point. And to me the difference between $84,000 and $28,000 is a whole heap of change.

 

[KirbyJack]

Very true!

[jaeldubyoo]

...if I had $84k to throw at a comic, I'd get the best AF 15 it could buy me or gamble on Capt. Carrot and The Zoo Crew making it to the big screen and monopolizing that sector of the market.

 

If I had $84k to throw at a comic, I wouldn't. I'd just keep adding to my comic collection by buying the comics I like the most whenever they're available at a semi-reasonable price the same way I have since 1979. With that type of money though I might eye some Green Lantern, All Star Comics, Simon & Kirby Newsboy Legion and Sandman comics from the Golden Age and some early Showcase comics, i.e Flash, Challengers, Space Ranger, Green Lantern. But not the best available copies if the prices are silly compared with the next best. And not the first appearance issues if those prices are silly compared with the second and third appearances. I'd rather have the money left over to buy several more comics, such as those marvelous Atlas war and western ones!

 

 

 

That's what I did as I was building my collection. I passed up really nice $3 comics to buy iffy $1 comics. But I got more comics!

 

I did that. I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

[zosocane]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

[tth2]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

Less actually turned out to be less.

[Hepcat]

 

That's what I did as I was building my collection. I passed up really nice $3 comics to buy iffy $1 comics. But I got more comics!

 

I did that. I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

 

I always bought the best copy available until CGC came along. While the gap between NM and VG prices steadily widened from the seventies onward, it didn't really explode until CGC got going.

 

The problem I had until earlier this century was finding the titles I wanted in sufficiently good condition. I remember looking at the prices for complete Mint runs of Flash and Green Lantern comics in the Overstreet Price Guide in the early eighties and thinking "Yeah, I'd pay that, but who is it that has them for sale?" I never saw any ads in the Comics Buyer's Guide for even single issues of the early ones in NM.

 

 

 

[zosocane]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

Less actually turned out to be less.

 

If you are driven by valuation, yes, you are correct.

[tth2]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

Less actually turned out to be less.

 

If you are driven by valuation, yes, you are correct.

Not just by valuation, but a low grade collector would`ve actually benefited from having bought high grade comics back in the day because the proceeds from selling the high grade comics would translate into many more low grade books today.

 

For example, if the spread between NM and VG back in the old days was just 3X, then let`s suppose you could`ve bought a NM AF 15 for $100 back then and a VG copy for $33. So you could`ve bought 1 NM AF 15 or 3 VG AF 15s.

 

Now fast forward to day, and you`ve submitted that AF 15 to CGC and it`s come back as a CGC 9.4, which the most recent Heritage auction established to be a $450K book. How many VG AF15s could you buy for $450K? A whole lot more than 3.

[zosocane]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

Less actually turned out to be less.

 

If you are driven by valuation, yes, you are correct.

Not just by valuation, but a low grade collector would`ve actually benefited from having bought high grade comics back in the day because the proceeds from selling the high grade comics would translate into many more low grade books today.

 

For example, if the spread between NM and VG back in the old days was just 3X, then let`s suppose you could`ve bought a NM AF 15 for $100 back then and a VG copy for $33. So you could`ve bought 1 NM AF 15 or 3 VG AF 15s.

 

Now fast forward to day, and you`ve submitted that AF 15 to CGC and it`s come back as a CGC 9.4, which the most recent Heritage auction established to be a $450K book. How many VG AF15s could you buy for $450K? A whole lot more than 3.

 

But you're assuming the low grade collector could actually afford the high grade book "back in the day." Big assumption.

[entalmighty1]

I often settled for mid-grade instead of paying for a high-grade comic. In retrospect, buying the best would have been a better investment, but I chose to get more comics for less.

 

Me too. Less is more.

Less actually turned out to be less.

 

If you are driven by valuation, yes, you are correct.

Not just by valuation, but a low grade collector would`ve actually benefited from having bought high grade comics back in the day because the proceeds from selling the high grade comics would translate into many more low grade books today.

 

For example, if the spread between NM and VG back in the old days was just 3X, then let`s suppose you could`ve bought a NM AF 15 for $100 back then and a VG copy for $33. So you could`ve bought 1 NM AF 15 or 3 VG AF 15s.

 

Now fast forward to day, and you`ve submitted that AF 15 to CGC and it`s come back as a CGC 9.4, which the most recent Heritage auction established to be a $450K book. How many VG AF15s could you buy for $450K? A whole lot more than 3.

 

But you're assuming the low grade collector could actually afford the high grade book "back in the day." Big assumption.

 

Absolutely. I would have loved to start in collecting big books 25 years ago. Only problem is, I was 11 then. 50 bucks might as well have been 5,000. Same thing to me, both were an equally laughable amount of money to have.

[Gotham Kid]

FF52 9.8 asking 90K

[Silver Surfer]

FF52 9.8 asking 90K

 

These books are lovely but something tells me that this will sit there for a looooooong time.

[trmoore54]

FF52 9.8 asking 90K

 

[namisgr]

If I owned it I'd have listed it right away, too. After all, somebody was underbidder on the Heritage copy.