ComicConnect's Next Event Auction has started posting books ! 21 21

[Aman619]

new HBO Green Lantern series in the works... unless it was canceled again..  sooner tor later they will try again with GL as one of DCs classic characters.  O love Showcase! Its really taken a back seat to all of Marvel for decades.

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 3/17/2023 at 5:50 AM, DanCooper said:

The "Microsoft Copy"??

Gotta love these marketing gimmicks! It wasn't good enough that this was already the Bethlehem copy and in its defined pedigree slab/label as such!

Heritage does the same thing. There was a thread recently in Comics General on a "Kane Collection" and it's provenance/story. Not much further info came out of that.

I don't mind the additional historical info. It's great to know the origin/provenance of a book, but these auction houses don't provide any additional background. I don't get physical copies any longer of auction catalogs, so I don't know if it these are expanded upon there.

It's ironic that Heritage will not put in the listing any information which might explain its cultural value -- such as "first appearance of Spider-man" -- but they will include the name of a former owner.   

[MrBedrock]

On 3/10/2023 at 6:01 PM, lou_fine said:

On 3/10/2023 at 3:16 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

On 3/10/2023 at 3:12 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Every one of those pages would sport a purple label, so there’s that

No would be the conserved blue/grey label.

Makes absolutely zero sense that a clear and visible makeover on every single page would be conisdered as Conserved while a barely visible tiny color touch on just the cover would be considered as full on Restoration with the much dread PLOD label.    

Leaf-casting is completely reversible with water.

[woowoo]

On 3/17/2023 at 1:24 PM, MrBedrock said:

Leaf-casting is completely reversible with water.

 guess I can't read my Action 1 in the bathtub, or it will disappear Thanks Mr. B

[lou_fine]

On 3/16/2023 at 12:45 PM, buttock said:

Master 21 in decent shape with nice paper and no ugly dust shadow is a rare offering.  The Supe 14 in 8.0 just sold on HA and may be a reasonable barometer of the GA market.  I forget what else stood out to me in this day's auction.  

Well, you are clearly a collector with top notch excellent taste if you are into both Master 21 and Superman 14.  

Sadly, I have always loved the cover for Master 21 with their nice color combinations, but was never ever able to come across one in nice enough condition when I was into my big collecting phase back in the day.  

For some reason Master 21 seemed to have dropped down the chart somewhat when it came to collector demand for awhile, but nice to see that it's getting some long overdue appreciation now as evident by this CGC 6.5 graded copy selling for $11,611 last night.  

As for Supes 14, looks like it's still flying sky high since it had risen from some $5K or $6K when I started this post before my better half dragged me off to her doctor's appointment and seemingly endless grocery shopping     and now finally back home to see that it's closed at $19K:  

https://www.comicconnect.com/item/982268

BTW:  What 8.0 sale are you referring to that Heritage had just done, since I checked their auction archives and the only recent CGC 8.0 sale that I could find was for $16,200 back in April of 2022 when the majority of the comic book marketplace (exc. the GA at least for now ) was supposedly on the last legs of its pandemic peak?  

Have always loved this cover and actually listed it as one of my Top 5 GA covers for a CBM survey back in the 90's, along with a couple of other I guess unknown covers back then (i.e. 'Tec 31 and Punch 12) as I was the only fool at the time to have included either of those two covers as part of their Top 5 list.     

As for Supes 14 and a funny story, I remembered meeting up with Mark Wilson back in the late 80's at a Denny's resturant to pick up some book which I can't remember now.  After we had completed our transaction and our meal, he then pulls out this absolutely stunning copy of Supes 14 for me to take a look at and I just couldn't believe how gorgeous it was with the solid deep black cover and the eye-popping colors like the book had just come off the printing press.  He asked me to take a look at it and when I said it was absolutely gorgeous and stunning, he then asks me to take a much much closer look at the book and then I point out some area near the bottom of Superman's left foot and he said "Yes", he had done a tiny seal or color touch there (can't remember which now) but that nothing else had been done to the book.  Since I was still unsure, he told me to take the book back home and if I decided not to take it, just ship it back to him, and if I decided to keep it, just to send him the $600 or $800 or whatever it was to him.    

All I can say is that knowing Mark's reputation, he must have scrubbed and cleaned that book multiples times to get it to absolutely "shine" like that to the point that I just couldn't find it in myself to ship it back to him in the end.  That's the advantage of being a long term collector though, as time can oftentimes heal some of your purchasing mistakes.      

Edited March 18, 2023 by lou_fine

[Black Bat]

This Venus 19 jumped 24k in 2 years!  

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by Black Bat

[comicnoir]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:13 PM, Black Bat said:

This Venus 19 jumped 24k in 2 years!  

Of course it did.

[mstrange]

On 3/17/2023 at 7:13 PM, Black Bat said:

This Venus 19 jumped 24k in 2 years!  

 

Edited March 18, 2023 by mstrange

[lou_fine]

On 3/17/2023 at 2:45 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

I haven't been paying attention to prices, but if low-grade copies are selling for that much, that's insane. They must have gotten hot, but I can't see that sort of price as a good value.

I wouldn't touch a Fox book right now; it's silly for those books to be selling for the prices that they've been fetching lately.

Now, if you are referring to the CGC 5.0 graded copy of Mystery Men 6 here, that's not really that high at all as it went for only $1,678 which is not even double condition guide.  

Then again, if you are referring to the CGC 3.5 graded copy of Mystery Men 2 that sold for just over $6K, I would tend to agree with you more.  

Definitely a beautiful brightly color very early robot cover, but has this book vaulted ahead of Mystery Men 3 to move into the second most valuable issue in the Mystery Men run and a spot which was long held by MM 3?  Especially since CGC 3.0 to CGC 3.5 graded copies of MM 2 have now seen multiple sales in the $6K to $7K price range (or up to 9X+ condition guide value) over the past couple of years, with the only outlier being the CGC 3.0 copy that sold for $5,040 at Heritage in August of 2022.  

Especially since the Heritage archives (no sales in this condition range in the CC archives) indicates the last CGC 3.0 sale for Mystery Men 3 was for only $2,280 back in November of 2020.  Looks like the HA archives indicates that copies of MM 3 in CGC 4.5 and CGC 4.0 managed to hit only $5,160 and $4,800 in May and December of 2022 respectively.  Wow, lower graded copies of MM2 selling for higher prices than higher graded copies of MM 3 on a seemingly consistent basis.  Go figure that!!!    

[Dark Knight]

So which one of you guys won it? Crazy price!!!

[lou_fine]

On 3/17/2023 at 1:24 PM, MrBedrock said:

Leaf-casting is completely reversible with water.

Except that it's still so gosh darned fugly looking and so much like obvious restoration staring right back in your face even though it technically isn't any longer.  

Well, at least according to the boys at CGC with their revised definition of what now constitutes Restoration and Conservation. 

[tth2]

On 3/17/2023 at 12:03 PM, adamstrange said:

PL 16 is definitely not by Baker.  Just look at the hands.

The girl has hands?! 

[MrBedrock]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:48 PM, lou_fine said:

Except that it's still so gosh darned fugly looking and so much like obvious restoration staring right back in your face even though it technically isn't any longer.  

Well, at least according to the boys at CGC with their revised definition of what now constitutes Restoration and Conservation. 

Some interior leaf casting really looks great, and when done correctly- at least to my eyes - looks way more natural than the frankenbooks resulting from heavy cosmetic resto.

[Professor K]

On 3/17/2023 at 11:42 PM, lou_fine said:

Now, if you are referring to the CGC 5.0 graded copy of Mystery Men 6 here, that's not really that high at all as it went for only $1,678 which is not even double condition guide.  

Then again, if you are referring to the CGC 3.5 graded copy of Mystery Men 2 that sold for just over $6K, I would tend to agree with you more.  

Definitely a beautiful brightly color very early robot cover, but has this book vaulted ahead of Mystery Men 3 to move into the second most valuable issue in the Mystery Men run and a spot which was long held by MM 3?  Especially since CGC 3.0 to CGC 3.5 graded copies of MM 2 have now seen multiple sales in the $6K to $7K price range (or up to 9X+ condition guide value) over the past couple of years, with the only outlier being the CGC 3.0 copy that sold for $5,040 at Heritage in August of 2022.  

Especially since the Heritage archives (no sales in this condition range in the CC archives) indicates the last CGC 3.0 sale for Mystery Men 3 was for only $2,280 back in November of 2020.  Looks like the HA archives indicates that copies of MM 3 in CGC 4.5 and CGC 4.0 managed to hit only $5,160 and $4,800 in May and December of 2022 respectively.  Wow, lower graded copies of MM2 selling for higher prices than higher graded copies of MM 3 on a seemingly consistent basis.  Go figure that!!!    

Yeah under 2k for any early 5.0 Fox is a good deal. That was a real nice book.  I noticed that too, MM2 selling for more than #3. I don't think thats gonna last but who knows. 

[lou_fine]

On 3/17/2023 at 10:07 PM, Professor K said:

Yeah under 2k for any early 5.0 Fox is a good deal. That was a real nice book.  I noticed that too, MM2 selling for more than #3. I don't think thats gonna last but who knows. 

Clearly my bad then, but that trend does seem to have held pretty consistently for the past 2 or 3 years now.    

Oh heck, since it's a Friday night heading into a weekend, let's go real crazy here and say it's really all about Mystery Men 7 then.  

Come on now, don't they have any unrestored Universal copies of this book here as I just took a look at the Heritage archives and out of their top 7 dollar value sales for this book here, 6 of them were restored copies with the only unrestored being a RAW Good condition rated copy that sold for $3,346 or somethng like 10X condition guide value back in August of 2017.  Looks like the most recent sale and their high water mark was for a Restored CGC 2.5 graded copy for $3,360 or almost 7X condition guide value for a rather less than visually appealling RESTORED copy only a short couple of weeks ago back on February 27th:  

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-cgc-apparent-gd-25-slight-c-1-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122309-17635.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Besides the Jon Berk Church CGC 8.0 Universal copy which CC sold for over $13.5K back in 2017, it looks the only other recent sale CC has had was for a Restored (there's that word again) CGC 4.0 copy that they  sold for $4,150 back in March of 2022.  Just took a look at the CGC Census and it appears that there are only 11 Universal unrestored copies of this book graded and slabbed to date so far, with the Church copy the highest by far as the other remaining 10 unrestored copies are all graded in CGC 4.0 condition and below.  So, I somehow highly doubt we will be seeing any half decent unrestored copies of this book making its way to market anytime soon.     

[Professor K]

On 3/18/2023 at 2:17 AM, lou_fine said:

Clearly my bad then, but that trend does seem to have held pretty consistently for the past 2 or 3 years now.    

Oh heck, since it's a Friday night heading into a weekend, let's go real crazy here and say it's really all about Mystery Men 7 then.  

Come on now, don't they have any unrestored Universal copies of this book here as I just took a look at the Heritage archives and out of their top 7 dollar value sales for this book here, 6 of them were restored copies with the only unrestored being a RAW Good condition rated copy that sold for $3,346 or somethng like 10X condition guide value back in August of 2017.  Looks like the most recent sale and their high water mark was for a Restored CGC 2.5 graded copy for $3,360 or almost 7X condition guide value for a rather less than visually appealling RESTORED copy only a short couple of weeks ago back on February 27th:  

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/mystery-men-comics-7-fox-1940-cgc-apparent-gd-25-slight-c-1-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122309-17635.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Besides the Jon Berk Church CGC 8.0 Universal copy which CC sold for over $13.5K back in 2017, it looks the only other recent sale CC has had was for a Restored (there's that word again) CGC 4.0 copy that they  sold for $4,150 back in March of 2022.  Just took a look at the CGC Census and it appears that there are only 11 Universal unrestored copies of this book graded and slabbed to date so far, with the Church copy the highest by far as the other remaining 10 unrestored copies are all graded in CGC 4.0 condition and below.  So, I somehow highly doubt we will be seeing any half decent unrestored copies of this book making its way to market anytime soon.     

Yeah that is something how all but the Church are such low grades. You would think the 1st Blue Beetle cover would have been saved by more people. With the MM 2 & 3 I just was thinking with such a classic cover #3 over time would sell for more, like in the future. I know I want one. 

[lou_fine]

On 3/17/2023 at 11:58 PM, Professor K said:

Yeah that is something how all but the Church are such low grades. You would think the 1st Blue Beetle cover would have been saved by more people.

Well, even if it's the first Blue Beetle cover, have you taken a look at the cover artwork and that might to explain why as it's certainly no Fine or even Tuska.    

Just checked the Grand Comics Database and the cover is listed as Charles Nicholas which is supposedly the pseudonymous for a few of the artists working in the Eisner & Iger Stdios at the tie.  Never know, it just might have been some fledging newbie at the time like Jack Kirby.  

 

On 3/17/2023 at 11:58 PM, Professor K said:

With the MM 2 & 3 I just was thinking with such a classic cover #3 over time would sell for more, like in the future. I know I want one. 

I guess you haven't heard the latest in terms of robot covers being the new skeleton/skull or dripping flesh covers for 2022 and 2023.    

[Professor K]

On 3/18/2023 at 3:47 PM, lou_fine said:

Well, even if it's the first Blue Beetle cover, have you taken a look at the cover artwork and that might to explain why as it's certainly no Fine or even Tuska.    

Just checked the Grand Comics Database and the cover is listed as Charles Nicholas which is supposedly the pseudonymous for a few of the artists working in the Eisner & Iger Stdios at the tie.  Never know, it just might have been some fledging newbie at the time like Jack Kirby.  

 

I guess you haven't heard the latest in terms of robot covers being the new skeleton/skull or dripping flesh covers for 2022 and 2023.    

As well as the real Charles Nicholas.  I thought that too about Kirby after I read that first sentence, he did use that name I believe for the comic strip. Probably not but could be. Oh yeah robots, not quite Skull level popularity but somewhere in between Skull and Injury to the Eye level. 

[adamstrange]

Mystery Men 2's cover feature is Rex Dexter of Mars.  Not a great name (neither is Blue Beetle or Green Mask, for that matter), but as a sci-fi feature with spaceships, ray guns, robots, jet packs etc. it's always going to have a wide appeal.  Mystery Men 3 had a darker color scheme and an earthbound, second banana hero who is posed more like a female fashion model.  While it's a great cover because "Lou Fine", I've never thought of it as a great Lou Fine cover, even though I've seen all the premier copies (Allentown, Church and Larson).

[lou_fine]

On 3/18/2023 at 1:21 PM, adamstrange said:

but as a sci-fi feature with spaceships, ray guns, robots, jet packs etc. it's always going to have a wide appeal.

Exactly, and the main reason why I love this Mystery Men 2 cover plus the fact that it is a much brighter colorful cover as compared to MM 3.  

Although a much darker cover, probably the main reason why I also love the Blue Bolt 105 si-fi theme cover  except for all of that unnecessary wording, sidebar, and exploding word ballons at the top which certainly takes away from the cover image.