Heritage's Next Event Auction has started posting books ! 31 31

[Black Bat]

On 3/31/2022 at 6:13 PM, Professor K said:

Now that this is over and I didn't even come close I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice there may be a very very slight resemblance to the bad guy on this cover to a certain bad tempered but often misunderstood Silver Age character we all know?  

 

I'll have a closer look once it arrives...

[tth2]

On 4/1/2022 at 5:16 AM, LearnedHand said:

For those who remember, when raw books were sold pre-CGC, even on eBay, there was no "highest graded copy" bragging rights to drive prices.

Sure there was, for pedigree copies perceived to be the best copy.  Of course prices and multiples weren't as extreme as they became post-CGC, but there could definitely be fierce competition for raw pedigree books and at the time it felt like prices for these books were crazy.

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

On 3/31/2022 at 10:16 PM, LearnedHand said:

• For those who remember, when raw books were sold pre-CGC, even on eBay, there was no "highest graded copy" bragging rights to drive prices.  

 

I remember those days with great fondness. Almost like it was a different animal, an entirely different hobby.

I do miss those days.

[LDarkseid1]

On 3/31/2022 at 6:13 PM, Professor K said:

Now that this is over and I didn't even come close I'm sure I'm not the first person to notice there may be a very very slight resemblance to the bad guy on this cover to a certain bad tempered but often misunderstood Silver Age character we all know?  

Swamp Thing?

[Black Bat]

On 3/31/2022 at 7:44 PM, Professor K said:

Oh you got that? Congratulations , it's a super nice book. Sorry I bid it up so high. 

ha ha, yeah, I actually put in pretty aggressive bids on several books then shut off the computer till it was over.  Got a few, but not the one I was really hoping for which was that Eerie 14. 

[Professor K]

On 4/1/2022 at 12:16 AM, Black Bat said:

ha ha, yeah, I actually put in pretty aggressive bids on several books then shut off the computer till it was over.  Got a few, but not the one I was really hoping for which was that Eerie 14. 

Actually I just deleted that post. I was just messin, I didn't even bid once I saw it hit 2k. Beautiful book and an Edgar Church. Real nice pick up. 

[lou_fine]

On 3/31/2022 at 1:47 PM, LearnedHand said:

 

Well, boardie "thegoldenage" and I did our part ... we sold our shared MF56 (the CGC 9.0) like a decade (or more?) ago via HA.  And I sold my under-copy (~Fine) via eBay a few years later.  So that's 2 that were not known to the hobby that are now, relatively speaking, in play.  

Full disclosure, I don't know who owns the 9 these days ... but if it does comes up for sale, I think it's def worth a look.  It has all the freshness and tightness of a newsstand copy and feels like it was never read, but doesn't have the designer comic book label or CGC distinction of being top grade to insanely jack up its price. 

   

 

On 3/31/2022 at 2:07 PM, buttock said:

I traded it last year in a moment of poor judgement.  It was a really beautiful copy.  

Sounds like such a beautiful copy that it's the type of book that I would never be able to trade away if it was in my personal collection.  

Hope you was able to acquire a book of equal importance and beauty back in return for your copy of More Fun 56. 

Talking about beautiful copies of More Fun 56, has anybody here seen or know the whereabouts of the Larson copy of MF 56?  Just wondering since I remember being part of a discussion scrum in which a noted collector was seemingly holding court at one of the SD Con's back in the mid-90's.  This was right after Overstreet finally got around to breaking More Fun 56 out from the rest of the grouping that it had been locked in with.  I remember he raved that the only copy he had seen that might be as visually nice as the Church copy was the Larson copy of MF 56, but then he went on to rant that from his own personal POV that it might only be able to fetch G/VG guide valuation since there was a coupon clipped out from one of the later backup stories. 

I guess this definitely goes to show the change in the marketplace since that time because if that Poor condition Incomplete More Fun 69 with 6 pages missing from the lead story can fetch VG/F guide valuations this past weekend, I am sure that a HG Larson pedigree copy even with a clipped coupon should in theory be able to do far better than that in today's crypto like red hot marketplace.      

[buttock]

On 4/1/2022 at 12:55 AM, lou_fine said:

 

Sounds like such a beautiful copy that it's the type of book that I would never be able to trade away if it was in my personal collection.  

Hope you was able to acquire a book of equal importance and beauty back in return for your copy of More Fun 56. 

 

At the time I was happy with the trade.  I would have been much happier trading cash instead of the book, but that's not always possible.  

[lou_fine]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:55 AM, buttock said:

At the time I was happy with the trade.  I would have been much happier trading cash instead of the book, but that's not always possible.  

Yes indeed, as for us long time comic book collectors from the old days before books were so readily available, it was always said that that cash was replaceable whereas this was not necessarily the case with some of the exquisite and HTF books that didn't tend to show up in the public marketplace back then.  

[Gotham Kid]

Cap 1 @ 1.4Mil

[lou_fine]

On 3/31/2022 at 7:11 PM, tth2 said:

Sure there was, for pedigree copies perceived to be the best copy.  Of course prices and multiples weren't as extreme as they became post-CGC, but there could definitely be fierce competition for raw pedigree books and at the time it felt like prices for these books were crazy.

Yes, this was definitely the case during the first big GA rush back in the mid-90's, as it was pretty much based upon the reputation of the pedigree back then prior to CGC.  

I remember having dinner with a table of collectors and dealers after the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening and mentioned that I had a pedigree copy (not the Church copy) of a book they was talking about at the time.  I clearly remember Greenhalgh pulling me aside and offering me $10K for the book which I thought was totally ludicrous considering the book had a top of guide value of only a bit past $2K at the time.  I told him the book was NOT a NM copy and also had siamese pages to boot which made it virtually impossible to read without damaging the book.  He said it didn't matter as he was willing to buy it sight unseen since he already had a ready buyer for the book at $15K and the buyer wouldn't care about things like that.  I ended up telling him NO because I didn't want him to use my copy of the book to rip off some poor smuck for $15K over something that was clearly not worth that kind of money.  

Edited April 2, 2022 by lou_fine

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 4/1/2022 at 4:29 PM, Gotham Kid said:

Cap 1 @ 1.4Mil

We are in record territory. The last 9.4 in 2019 went for under a million 

Edited April 1, 2022 by GreatCaesarsGhost

[tth2]

On 4/2/2022 at 5:45 AM, lou_fine said:

Yes, this was definitely the case during the first big GA rush back in the mid-90's, as it was pretty much based upon the reputation of the pedigree back then prior to CGC.  

I remember having dinner with a table of collectors and dealers after the Diamond Int'l Galleries grand opening and mentioned that I had a pedigree copy (not the Church copy) of a book they was talking about at the time.  I clearly remember Greenhalgh pulling me aside and offering me $10K for the book which I thought was totally ludicrous considering the book had a top of guide value of only a bit past $2K at the time.  I told him the book was NOT a NM copy and also had siamese pages to boot which made it virtually impossible to read without damaging the book.  He said it didn't matter as he was willing to buy it sight unseen since he already had a ready buyer for the book at $15K and the buyer wouldn't care about things like that.  I ended up telling him NO because I didn't want him to use my copy of the book to rip off some poor smuck for $15K over something that was clearly not worth that kind of money. 

Do you still have it, and how much do you think it's worth today?

[tth2]

On 4/2/2022 at 5:50 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

We are in record territory. The last 9.4 in 2019 went for under a million 

 

It's the same 9.4. 

Not a bad ROI in less than 3 years, even if the book finishes at the current bid.

[RareHighGrade]

On 4/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, tth2 said:

Do you still have it, and how much do you think it's worth today?

And can you post a Polaroid photo of it?

[lou_fine]

On 4/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, tth2 said:

Do you still have it,

Oh, come on now......................seriously, what do you think?  

On 4/1/2022 at 7:11 PM, tth2 said:

and how much do you think it's worth today?

Well, I believe top of guide is over $40K on the book now.   

Since this is the Age of Certification though and as I had stated in my post, the book was not NM and probably in the grade condition range of VF 8.0 or thereabouts, I imagine the book would probably be worth about $40K in today's marketplace.  Then again, since it is a pedigree although not a Church pedigree, it might just possibly go for north of $40K.  

[lou_fine]

On 4/1/2022 at 7:16 PM, RareHighGrade said:

And can you post a Polaroid photo of it?

Thanks for the tip as that might actually do the trick.    

I remember trying to load some pictures from my iPhone camera onto my desktop computer once and the dropdown list didn't include anything for Apple, but did have an option for something called an Agfa camera.  I guess there was no such thing as an Apple phone at the time, but they just might have an option for a Polaroid photo.    

Edited April 2, 2022 by lou_fine

[jimbo_7071]

On 4/1/2022 at 11:11 PM, lou_fine said:

Thanks for the tip as that might actually do the trick.    

I remember trying to load some pictures from my iPhone camera onto my desktop computer once and the dropdown list didn't include anything for Apple, but did have an option for something called an Agfa camera.  I guess there was no such thing as an Apple phone at the time, but they just might have an option for a Polaroid photo.    

You still use a desk-top computer? Man o man! Do you listen to Guy Lombardo on your reel-to-reel tape deck while you're typing away on said computer?

[lou_fine]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:08 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

You still use a desk-top computer? Man o man! Do you listen to Guy Lombardo on your reel-to-reel tape deck while you're typing away on said computer?

No, really only for storage purposes where I have a lot of old stuff saved there that I couldn't bother copying over to my laptop.  

Desktop was for work a few years ago where they were still working with Windows 2000 or something like that.    

Edited April 2, 2022 by lou_fine

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 4/1/2022 at 9:15 PM, tth2 said:

It's the same 9.4. 

Not a bad ROI in less than 3 years, even if the book finishes at the current bid.

Was this Verzyl’s? I sat next to his kids when it sold in 2019

Edited April 2, 2022 by GreatCaesarsGhost