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

[Professor K]

On 9/27/2024 at 4:23 PM, Point Five said:

With Fantastic Comics #22 getting $17K for a 1.0 I'm not sure this one takes the top slot. I do love it though, and regret not manning up for an affordable copy. 

 

Oh yeah that one. Plus a few more I'm pretty sure. Well if there was a Best Hilter Cover poll I think CatMan 20 would get my vote. 

[lou_fine]

On 9/26/2024 at 7:02 AM, tth2 said:

Given that most dealers back then were paying only 50% (or less) of Guide for books, it wasn't unreasonable to be outraged when they were trying to charge 2X Guide.  Just by charging Guide, they were already doubling their money.

Skip right to the next post if you've already heard this old long boring story of my first trip down to the SD Con back at the start of the 90's.  

Yep, clearly remember those fond fun-filled days when it was still possible to pick up nice GA books for around Guide prices or thereabouts.  Remember being at Jon Warren's (i.e. Editor of the Overstreet Price Updates at the time) small table at the back of the Con where he had one box of nice books for sale.  Flipped through the box and pulled out nice bright sharp HG copies of Cap 29 and Cap 31 for $500 a pop since the Cap 29 was guiding for just a shade over $500 that year while the Cap 31 was guiding at just a tad under $500.      

Being the GA newbie that I was at the time, I passed on the two Marvel Mystery issues from the same time period because they just seem to be not as bright as the Cap's and with a "busier" cover image along with some writing on the covers.  The guy behind me in the line-up who's a boardie that sadly no longer posts on the comic threads here grabbed the two Marvel Mystery issues after I was done and who later asked me why I didn't also take those two Marvel Mystery books.  I told him that I thought they weren't in quite as nice condition as the two Cap's which he agreed with and I also felt the covers were "gloomier" as compared to the Cap's.  He then pointed out the "G" codes on the two covers and explained to this newbie here that these were the Tom Reilly San Francisco copies and that I really shouldn't have passed on them as they were pedigree copies.  Bumped into him near the end of the Con and he told me that he had traded one of the SF Cap's to another collector for the Larson copy of Exciting Comics #9 with the first Black Terror.  Sad to say with the SF books being one of the few samples of a true GA pedigree which I do not have in my personal collection, and one that I now envision never having given the going rate for GA pedigrees in today's marketplace.      

Not a total bad story though since I did end up with two absolutely gorgeous GA Cap books for my personal collection and also astute enough to avoid falling for the hype of what was supposedly the hottest book down at the SD Con that year.  Yep, the year that almost every dealer down there had a copy, if not multiple copies of the supposedly so-called rare Retailer Platinum Edition of Spidey 1 that had just come out recently and they were trying to pawn them off for $1,000 a pop.  I still remember showing my two Cap's to a dealer who said that I had just made a big mistake by turning down his Spidey 1 offer because I would never see it for $1,000 again since the Toddster was the hottest thing going in comics and nobody's going to remember, let alone want to pay for those Cap books once the GA collectors have gone to that big comic shop in the sky.  I have to admit though that he was right that I would not see the Spidey 1 at $1,000 again because the Overstreet Guide had it valued at something like $350 in top of guide the following year and it has now zoomed all the way up to $410 in this year's edition of the guide some 30 plus years later.  I guess those old time GA collectors must still be alive and kicking today since the top of guide for those two Cap books are now over $18K and I suspect they would have no problem fetching more than that (assuming they are unrestored of course) in today's marketplace, while I would probably be lucky to even get guide for the Spidey 1 today if I had one.    

Edited 3 hours ago by lou_fine

[RareHighGrade]

On 9/27/2024 at 8:52 PM, lou_fine said:

Not a total bad story though since I did end up with two absolutely gorgeous GA Cap books for my personal collection. 

Lou, now that you have grandchildren, please ask one of them to show you how to post these two books, along with some of your others.

[lou_fine]

On 9/27/2024 at 9:09 PM, RareHighGrade said:

Lou, now that you have grandchildren, please ask one of them to show you how to post these two books, along with some of your others.

RHG, no problemo and will do for sure once THEY get the hang of it, since the eldest is four years old and the youngest is 4 days old.