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

[MrBedrock]

On 11/20/2021 at 6:38 PM, RareHighGrade said:

This is a strange market.  It's interesting to compare some of the sales in this HA auction.  The 9.0 white page Church copy of Flash 42 (second highest graded copy on the census) went for $3,720.  By comparison, a non-pedigree 6.0 light tan page copy of New Adventure 14 (4th highest graded copy) went for more, $3,840. 

Whoever bought that Flash 42 is obviously a genius.

[RareHighGrade]

On 11/22/2021 at 3:57 PM, MrBedrock said:

Whoever bought that Flash 42 is obviously a genius.

Why am I not surprised.  Congrats.  

[twmjr1]

Fantastic 3 0.5 $14,400. ZERO POINT FIVE. Yep. Holy Toledo.

[szav]

So much for CCs 3.0....this is in preview now.  

 

Edited November 23, 2021 by szav

[Larryw7]

On 11/21/2021 at 2:34 PM, batman_fan said:

members of the jury, I submit to you exhibit 1

Yeah, but great stories!

[Point Five]

On 11/23/2021 at 12:02 AM, twmjr1 said:

Fantastic 3 0.5 $14,400. ZERO POINT FIVE. Yep. Holy Toledo.

You rang?   

If you want crazy, I can bring the crazy. Per GPA, the $14,400 actually represents a *drop* in the 0.5-incomplete-no-back-cover market.   

 

[Point Five]

And for that price, the new owner could have gotten SIX Fantastic Comics #22s in 0.5-incomplete-no-back-cover and still had enough left over for dinner. (Attention, bargain hunters!)  

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FPREVIEW.ASP%3Fcode%3D2021oct%26session%3D2%26pg%3D4%23Item_1519598&id=1519598&itemType=0

 

[sagii]

**NOT MY BOOK**

Not a signature auctions item but HA nonetheless.  Copies in this range usually capped in the 5 to 6k range. As I pointed out in the Looney Thread, collectors are realizing these characters have been mainstays for decades (say what you will of Space Jam 2), it was still released this year, so big money is still being funneled into the franchise. That cannot be said of countless characters from the 30's to 70's that were household names at one time. No movie has had the desired results from the studios since 2019, and the opening weekend and streaming numbers were very healthy.

I'm so happy to see this,  long time coming, and I need to stop waiting around for the 'right' copy,

[Flex Mentallo]

On 11/22/2021 at 11:57 PM, MrBedrock said:

Whoever bought that Flash 42 is obviously a genius.

If only I were that tall smart.

[LearnedHand]

On 11/21/2021 at 6:54 PM, buttock said:

I agree.  I don't understand why Mask 1 & 2, which seem to be an order of magnitude more common, outperform this book.  

Totally anecdotal ... not counting the copies that have come up for on-line auction, in my 40+ years of collecting, going to CreationCon, the Seuling and Greenberg shows, SDCC, NYCC, ChicagoCon, Baltimore, MegaCon, and many other East Coast shows and comic shops all over the country, I’ve seen maybe 12 total unrestored/collectible condition copies of Suspense 8 for sale.  Comparatively, I’ve seen maybe 3 unrestored/collectible condition copies of Mask 1.  

Having said that, I think Overstreet adjusted Mask 1 based on the two mid-grade copies that came to auction via HA that sold for many multiples of Guide; in one case, 22x Guide. I spoke about the 22x Guide reported sale in my then-current market report, as it was astonishing ... at least to me. 
 

[Ryan.]

Great use of punctuation. 

[lou_fine]

On 11/24/2021 at 1:00 PM, LearnedHand said:

Totally anecdotal ... not counting the copies that have come up for on-line auction, in my 40+ years of collecting, going to CreationCon, the Seuling and Greenberg shows, SDCC, NYCC, ChicagoCon, Baltimore, MegaCon, and many other East Coast shows and comic shops all over the country, I’ve seen maybe 12 total unrestored/collectible condition copies of Suspense 8 for sale.  Comparatively, I’ve seen maybe 3 unrestored/collectible condition copies of Mask 1.  

Having said that, I think Overstreet adjusted Mask 1 based on the two mid-grade copies that came to auction via HA that sold for many multiples of Guide; in one case, 22x Guide. I spoke about the 22x Guide reported sale in my then-current market report, as it was astonishing ... at least to me. 
 

It's a good thing you qualified your statement to exclude copies coming into the auction marketplace. 

Especially since I believe we've seen copies of Mask Comics 1 show up in almost every single major comic book auction from the big auction houses during the past few years, which has probably given Overstreet enough reinforcing sales to allow him to raise the valuation by such a significant margin. 

Not so much the case with Suspense 8 yet, as there have been far fewer on-line auction sales of this Cole classic book during the same time period, although a few copies have now finally started to make their way into the marketplace during the past year.  So, it's possible that Suspense 8 might be following in the same footsteps as Mask 1, except just a couple of years behind.    

Edited November 26, 2021 by lou_fine

[LearnedHand]

On 11/26/2021 at 12:11 AM, lou_fine said:

It's a good thing you qualified your statement to exclude copies coming into the auction marketplace. 

Especially since I believe we've seen copies of Mask Comics 1 show up in almost every single major comic book auction from the big auction houses during the past few years, which has probably given Overstreet enough reinforcing sales to allow him to raise the valuation by such a significant margin. 

Not so much the case with Suspense 8 yet, as there have been far fewer on-line auction sales of this Cole classic book during the same time period, although a few copies have now finally started to make their way into the marketplace during the past year.  So, it's possible that Suspense 8 might be following in the same footsteps as Mask 1, except just a couple of years behind.    

 

True ... but I do think the reason we're seeing more Masks coming up for sale in the past few years in the on-line auction marketplace is more a function of the HA reported 22x Guide sale (CGC 5.5 sold in 2019 for $24k).  Until the recent Promise copy sale, only 3 unrestored copies were sold through Heritage in almost 4 years.  And, historically, it wasn't an expensive book.  So, given its rarity, there was really no incentive for any hobbyist to want to part his/her copy - until that HA 22x Guide sale helped establish the "new market" value for this book, and incentive.   

Suspense #8, however, at least in my experience, is different.  It has an aura of being something rare, special, and perhaps the swan-song of L.B. Cole's prolific body of cover work.   I can tell you that in ~25 years, I've seen first-hand maybe 2 or 3 copies in the VF or higher grade range, with astronomical asking prices.  In fact, it's never been inexpensive, even if (at least in my exp) it turned up a little more frequently at shows than the Mask.  As such, and given the historically higher prices for the Suspense #8, I don't think the level of incentive is the same for folks to sell their copies of Suspense #8 as with the Mask #1 - but I do hope you're right.

[szav]

On 11/26/2021 at 5:55 PM, LearnedHand said:

 Until the recent Promise copy sale, only 3 unrestored copies were sold through Heritage in almost 4 years.

For Mask 1 were also 6 or 7 notably high sales on ComicConnect in the last 2 years, though all in the 1.0 - 6.0 range, but pretty much all for exceedingly high prices.. a raw fair for $2900..a CGC 6.0 for $14,000, a 4.5 for $17,000.   Although they don't have a searchable archive on CLink, as I recall there were just as many.  I recall several selling on ebay during that time period.

I'll grant the OPG is terrible in general now, but I don't think they upped the price on Mask 1 based off a handful of HA sales alone.  I think there may have actually been fewer Suspense 8s for sale at auction during that time period, but I don't know if that's due to rarity or price, or just pure randomness.

 

[lou_fine]

On 11/26/2021 at 4:55 PM, LearnedHand said:

Suspense #8, however, at least in my experience, is different.  It has an aura of being something rare, special, and perhaps the swan-song of L.B. Cole's prolific body of cover work.   I can tell you that in ~25 years, I've seen first-hand maybe 2 or 3 copies in the VF or higher grade range, with astronomical asking prices.  In fact, it's never been inexpensive, even if (at least in my exp) it turned up a little more frequently at shows than the Mask.

It's certainly nice to see a fellow collector from the days prior to CGC when these kinds of books were still being sold raw at conventions. 

Definitely not the case anymore in this current marketplace as books like Mask 1 and Suspene 8 would now in almost all cases be sold only when graded and slabbed, and usually in some type of auction format setting, whether it be on eBay or with one of the 3 big comic book auction houses.  

Interesting to say that you've seen a few raw copies in the VF or higher range back in the day, because unlike the Mask 1 which does have higher grade copies (albeit restored), there had so far been zero copies graded to date (either unrestored or restored) of Suspense 8 in above CGC 7.5 VF- graded condition to date, until this Promise Collection copy graded at CGC 9.2 came along this year.  Makes me wonder if the HG copies, if there are any others actually in existence, are still locked up in private collections, and if so, hopefully we will see them come to market someday.      

[jimbo_7071]

On 11/27/2021 at 5:41 PM, lou_fine said:

It's certainly nice to see a fellow collector from the days prior to CGC when these kinds of books were still being sold raw at conventions. 

Definitely not the case anymore in this current marketplace as books like Mask 1 and Suspene 8 would now in almost all cases be sold only when graded and slabbed, and usually in some type of auction format setting, whether it be on eBay or with one of the 3 big comic book auction houses.  

Interesting to say that you've seen a few raw copies in the VF or higher range back in the day, because unlike the Mask 1 which does have higher grade copies (albeit restored), there had so far been zero copies graded to date (either unrestored or restored) of Suspense 8 in above CGC 7.5 VF- graded condition to date, until this Promise Collection copy graded at CGC 9.2 came along this year.  Makes me wonder if the HG copies, if there are any others actually in existence, are still locked up in private collections, and if so, hopefully we will see them come to market someday.      

L. B. Cole was massively popular long before slabbing was around. I know one guy whose focus was L. B. Cole covers as early as the 1970s. (He still has his collection, but his books are not high grade.) L. B. Cole had a big enough following early enough that there are many copies of his books locked away in private collections. You may have to wait a while before the nicest ones come to market, though. Call it a hunch.

[lou_fine]

On 11/26/2021 at 5:32 PM, szav said:

For Mask 1 were also 6 or 7 notably high sales on ComicConnect in the last 2 years, though all in the 1.0 - 6.0 range, but pretty much all for exceedingly high prices.. a raw fair for $2900..a CGC 6.0 for $14,000, a 4.5 for $17,000.   Although they don't have a searchable archive on CLink, as I recall there were just as many.  I recall several selling on ebay during that time period.

Although I certainly do remember the copy of Mask 1 that @LearnedHand was referring to that sold at back in 2019, it indeed was really more the sheer number of low to mid-grade copies of Mask 1 that ended up on the CC and CL auction sites during the past few years that rather kind of suprised me.  

Especially when I had always thought Mask 1 was supposedly a book that simply didn't come to market that often.  Seems like it was not only me, but also a couple of other esteemed boardies here that also had this same impression, as evident through their earlier posts as noted below:  

On 4/17/2021 at 10:35 AM, entalmighty1 said:

Also @Robot Man, don't get me wrong.  I absolutely adore both Mask 1 and 2, and have copies of both (restored, thus more affordable).  I'm not trying to downplay the value at all.  Just stating they aren't as rare as the perception was initially.

 

 

On 4/27/2021 at 5:18 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I love Mask, but looks like it may turn into one of those books that is offered in every single auction.  There’s a couple in Clink right now, and one in High Grade Comics. Could be this is a temporary thing, given the recent elevation to nosebleed prices. Or could be their appearance in the market may diminish.  It’s a who knows. 

But right now I put the books in the category of Bat 1: you can always find one or two on the market. 
 

 

Edited November 28, 2021 by lou_fine

[Ryan.]

I prefer this over Suspense 8 

[Gregd]

On 11/28/2021 at 11:44 AM, Ryan. said:

I prefer this over Suspense 8 

Need this in my collection 

[lou_fine]

On 11/28/2021 at 8:44 AM, Ryan. said:

I prefer this over Suspense 8 

To each their own, but I would much rather prefer the Suspense 8 myself because I think the dark black cover sets a much more mysterious and moodier image as compared to the bright red cover on the Startling Terror Tales 11.  

In addition, I also believe the Startling Terror Tales is based in part upon the Suspense 8 since it came out some 7 years later.  But most important of all, I also believe that the Suspense 8 is a much tougher book to find as compared to the Startling Terror Tales 11, especially in grade.     

Edited November 28, 2021 by lou_fine