Berk Collection Auction Wins 5 5

[twmjr1]

33 minutes ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Zip 18 was one of my must haves and I thought $3500 would be a nuclear price. Little did I know it would cross $6k. 

On that topic- Has there been a recent "frenzy" over the Zips with Biro bondage covers, or is this auction an anamoly? Like Zip 12, 14, 16, 17? Thx.

[Ricksneatstuff]

15 minutes ago, twmjr1 said:

On that topic- Has there been a recent "frenzy" over the Zips with Biro bondage covers, or is this auction an anamoly? Like Zip 12, 14, 16, 17? Thx.

I think all bondage covers have been strong lately but those are especially strong.  

[G.A.tor]

12 hours ago, Electron said:

So much fun to see the wins from this incredible auction. Thanks to all who have shared! I've never done so much losing in an auction in my life... I had many "must wins" as gator would say,but got relentlessly pounded into the dust with the madness of the three minute window. Since when do mid grade Larsons go for 9X guide... Anyway, I did manage a few scraps with this one being my favorite.

 

 

You outbid me on this one! Well done

[lou_fine]

10 hours ago, tth2 said:

12 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Anyways, seeing these 4 dead drop killer books reminded me of something: 

Instead of participating in this generational and historic online global auction event and paying a shade over $75K for these 4 not to be beat books, if you had attended the greatest event in comic collecting world history, you would have had to find loose pocket change of only $4,883 to obtain these exact same 4 books.   

Seriously though, congrats again on your stupendous purchases. 

So all of these books were there in the Diamond Vault sale?

Alas, back in 1995 I was a 2nd year associate at a law firm and $4883 was less affordable to me at the time than $75K today. 

 

10 hours ago, adamstrange said:

No Church runs were part of the Diamond Vault sale.  The only Church copies available were those listed in the brochure.  It's possible that Geppi/Snyder offered Jon Church copies off to the side but those were not anything that other attendees would have been able to take advantage of.

Several of Jon's runs were purchased prior to 1995 and were important enough to be listed in Overstreet under "notable sales."

That is why my personal answer to Tim would have been Yes and No. 

I believe there were a lot of side deals that were talked about prior to the Opening and then finalized or agreed upon during that weekend.  After all, it was Super Bowl weekend and apparently some of the new big money players of the day such as Kramer and the likes made the mistake of going down South to the game instead of attending the Opening.  Side deals in terms of certain books being set aside for attendees for their first right of refusal in order to encourage them to come for the grand opening.

So, it would be a definite No in terms of the regular attendees such as myself since I did not see any of the Church Mystery Men run.  And yet every single one of them ended up being listed by Snyder as being part of the Diamond International Galleries (DIG) sale.  Not so for the Fantastic or Wonderworld Church runs which were probably acquired by Jon either prior to or after the DIG sale.

Although a man of Tim's wits and smarts could probably charm the pants off both Geppi & Snyder and be able to acquire any run that he wanted.    If not that, then with Tim's luck I am sure he would have been the lucky attendee to have been given the box with the Fox Allentown books in them during the Saturday morning feeding frenzy.  That wouldn't have been a bad consolation prize since that is about the only pedigree that might stand a chance against the Church Fox books in terms of overall condition.  The only other one that might stand a chance would be the Larson Fox books since it is a much more comprehensive collection than the Allentown Fox books.

After all, without doing any real research, if there was a head to head competition between the Church and Allentown pedigrees in terms of the Fox books, I am aware of 8 Fox books which have been graded from both pedigrees so far.  Based upon these 8 books, the Church copy is ahead on one, with another one in equivalent grade, and then the Allentowns ahead in the remaining 6 books.  I am sure there must be more than just these 8 by now since I am primarily working off a 2006 preliminary article on the Allentown books which was written for the never to be published Pedigree Book. 

For Tim, he should take comfort in the fact that his Church copy of MM 3 is the only book that finished ahead of its corresponding Allentown Fox copy that I am aware of. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

1 hour ago, twmjr1 said:

On that topic- Has there been a recent "frenzy" over the Zips with Biro bondage covers, or is this auction an anamoly? Like Zip 12, 14, 16, 17? Thx.

I think all bondage covers have been strong lately but those are especially strong.  

Yes, but still not as strong as the CGC 8.0 graded non-pedigree copy of Zip 34 with the bondage and hanging cover which has a condition guide price of only $909, but yet was able to sell for a whopping $6,800 in this auction here. 

[rjpb]

36 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, but still not as strong as the CGC 8.0 graded non-pedigree copy of Zip 34 with the bondage and hanging cover which has a condition guide price of only $909, but yet was able to sell for a whopping $6,800 in this auction here. 

Comiclink sold a CGC 3.5 back in March for $2117, and I can't recall exactly the price, but I as I remember a raw copy in about GD sold for over $1000 on ebay earlier this year, so that seems about right.

[adamstrange]

12 minutes ago, rjpb said:

Comiclink sold a CGC 3.5 back in March for $2117, and I can't recall exactly the price, but I as I remember a raw copy in about GD sold for over $1000 on ebay earlier this year, so that seems about right.

I think the fact that it was sole highest graded with a WWII cover and only 6 copies on the census made a difference.

[twmjr1]

9 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, but still not as strong as the CGC 8.0 graded non-pedigree copy of Zip 34 with the bondage and hanging cover which has a condition guide price of only $909, but yet was able to sell for a whopping $6,800 in this auction here. 

Overstreet has become pretty useless as concerns golden age books. For some other books it's still fairly accurate Not even close on GA.

[Johnny545]

10 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, but still not as strong as the CGC 8.0 graded non-pedigree copy of Zip 34 with the bondage and hanging cover which has a condition guide price of only $909, but yet was able to sell for a whopping $6,800 in this auction here. 

Huge demand for that cover and impossible to find in that grade, not a surprise at all.  Surprise that it didn't go for more if anything.

[Johnny545]

12 hours ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Zip 18 was one of my must haves and I thought $3500 would be a nuclear price. Little did I know it would cross $6k. 

Is there a better headlights cover? For me, maybe Spellbound 20 tops it.

Edited June 19, 2017 by Johnny545

[october]

17 minutes ago, Johnny545 said:

Huge demand for that cover and impossible to find in that grade, not a surprise at all.  Surprise that it didn't go for more if anything.

The only surprise is that anyone still thinks in terms of guide values with books like this. 

I won't say that Overstreet is completely useless with desirable golden age, but it's pretty close. 

Edited June 19, 2017 by october

[rjpb]

12 minutes ago, Johnny545 said:

Is there a better headlights cover? For me, maybe Spellbound 20 tops it.

I can see this being a favorite, though I'm not the connoisseur of such covers as some here on the boards , but I'll confess, this cover doesn't grab me to the degree it does others. I definitely prefer Spellbound 20, and probably a number of late 40s GGA covers as well. There are at least three Zip covers I'm more fond of, but would agree this is probably the best MLJ "headlights" cover. 

[rjpb]

6 minutes ago, october said:

The only surprise is that anyone still thinks in terms of guide values with books like this. 

I won't say that Overstreet is completely useless with desirable golden age, but it's pretty close. 

It's not even useful as a base for multiples anymore. I can remember when the hobby used such phrases as "double guide book" or "triple guide book" with some regularity, now it's just "throw out the guide". I haven't bought a guide in over a decade, and it's probably pretty useless for most GA, not just hot books. I tend to only be aware of "guide value" from auction listings that include it, including ebay.  It seems if a book doesn't sell for well over guide, it's just as likely to sell for well under as it is for close to it's OSPG value. 

[twmjr1]

17 minutes ago, rjpb said:

It's not even useful as a base for multiples anymore. I can remember when the hobby used such phrases as "double guide book" or "triple guide book" with some regularity, now it's just "throw out the guide". I haven't bought a guide in over a decade, and it's probably pretty useless for most GA, not just hot books. I tend to only be aware of "guide value" from auction listings that include it, including ebay.  It seems if a book doesn't sell for well over guide, it's just as likely to sell for well under as it is for close to it's OSPG value. 

What's ridiculous is that some books, i.e. Centaurs, sell for (x)DOZENS guide and that fact is just ignored by Overstreet. Seems like they're just being stubborn or denying reality. Another good example of such is their prices on pre-Robin 'Tecs and early Actions. Idiotic.

[rjpb]

1 minute ago, twmjr1 said:

What's ridiculous is that some books, i.e. Centaurs, sell for (x)DOZENS guide and that fact is just ignored by Overstreet. Seems like they're just being stubborn or denying reality. Another good example of such is their prices on pre-Robin 'Tecs and early Actions. Idiotic.

It seems Overstreet has always been slow to react to dramatic jumps in market value, taking a more gradual approach. 

[twmjr1]

1 minute ago, rjpb said:

It seems Overstreet has always been slow to react to dramatic jumps in market value, taking a more gradual approach. 

In other words, insisting that their "price guide" be completely inaccurate on certain books.

[Frisco Larson]

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 8:51 AM, gino2paulus2 said:

Well interesting story if we can call it that. So I bid up quite a few books to market seeing if they would stick but none of them did which I figured would happen. One book in particular however stood out to me and really spoke to me as far as a common passion that would hold the most sentimental value to me in my personal collection as JB shared that passion as well so I put all my eggs into that basket and unfortunately it was a late issue late letter book so I didn't have an option at a second choice when the dust cleared Friday night. I figured I would swing for the fence on 1 thing and I couldn't man up any further so I hit it off the warning track and it bounced into the stands for a ground rule double  

I will say this much the experience and the build up alone were well worth the wait so no sour grapes over here as its been another good year and I feel that for JB the auction went very well and that is ultimately what I wanted most. The boardie representation was phenomenal and it has been a great couple of weeks just participating. Historic if you will. I am excited to see all the auction wins and am confident I will be able to bring home a piece in the secondary market at some point in time but for now I walked away empty handed. 

Well I'm glad that despite coming away empty handed, that it was still a positive experience for you and I DO hope you acquire a book or two sometime later in the marketplace  

[N e r V]

18 minutes ago, rjpb said:

It seems Overstreet has always been slow to react to dramatic jumps in market value, taking a more gradual approach. 

I have to wonder though if the Overstreet value on something is say 1k and the market value is 3k if Overstreet started jumping its value up to the market levels would the market start reacting by raising its values accordingly because they've been "trained" for so long about Overstreets lower values? Would that 3k book now be closer to 6k or 9k because Overstreet is saying its 3k now? I don't think Overstreet has ever been accurate with respects to the FMV going back decades on most things. The only difference today is the gaps in some cases are much larger than before.

[Frisco Larson]

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 11:15 AM, RyanH said:

So it was YOU who won the POPULAR #57!!!  That was my #1 choice in the entire auction.  I was gunning for it, but I thought twice about continuing to bid it up, as I figured it would continue beyond by price range.  I love the "Larson" on the helmet, almost as if Martan's mom wrote it there so he wouldn't get his helmet mixed up with the other Marvel Men.  Congratulations on a great book... I am jealous, but stoked for you.

Thanks Ryan, this exact book has been on my mind since I first saw it in 1999 (not constantly or anything), as I find myself returning to Jon's article with the Larson list in CBM #71 several times per year. I recommend it for anyone who wishes to have the list on hand, but also for the article & color centerspread pics. Every time I reread Jon's article, it strikes me again how when you read it, you can feel his excitement & enthusiasm for this collection & the hobby itself. It's a great "spirit lifter" if you're down. This issue also has a few great other G.A based articles. I can't recommend it enough.

[Frisco Larson]

23 hours ago, RyanH said:

Just saw this, and I'm so glad I didn't bid you up.  1) you have wanted it way longer than I have, and 2) it sounds like no matter how high I bid, you would have crushed me anyways!  This cover really speaks to me for some reason.

Thank you for that  Yeah, I would've paid more for it, but how much more I couldn't say for sure. I CAN say that since I didn't HAVE to pay any more for it, that enabled me to get the 58 a little more comfortably. They're the same grade, same pq & same price in the guide, but the 58 cost me $200 more, so yeah, I'd have easily paid that much more additionally for the 57. I feel the same way about that cover. It's just one of those hard-to-describe things that strikes you when you see it. I have also always dug how either Tryg Hagen or Cecil Coop wrote Larson's name on the helmet. BTW, those are the 2 employees of the Cruetz drugstore who are responsible for writing Lamont's name on most of the books. ALL of this (and more) information can be found in Jon's CBM #71 article. I hope some folks either dig out their copies or pick some up. You'll be glad ya did!!!