They're Still Out There! 22 22

[jimbo_7071]

1 minute ago, Sarg said:

That's great to know. I'm going to prioritize collecting Fiction House 3.0s with no color degradation. Thank goodness for completely arbitrary grading standards! 

The manipulation in the high-grade books—manufacturing 9.6s out of 8.0s, etc.—has left me jaded. I'm leaning towards sticking with mid-grade books that haven't been manipulated as much. I don't particularly like putting my collecting money into the pockets of con artists like Mark Wilson and Doug Schmell.

[lou_fine]

22 hours ago, blackterror said:

https://www.facebook.com/excitingcomics1

Here is a link to my 8.0 copy of Miss Fury 2  - I had it graded in November of 2003.

It was the sole highest graded copy for many years - and it still is one of the highest graded

copies.  My book has some issues like spine wear and soiling, but the Promise Copy has

issues too -  lower spine abrasion/split, staple pull/tear, and tiny tear in the window on the

front cover edge.

 

On 5/4/2021 at 2:54 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

Some of the books do look overgraded. This one looks like a 7.5. They're still very nice, books though.

Well, sounds as though you must be a big time customer of theirs and have an "in" with the graders then.    

If I sent in a book with those noted and clearly visible issues on the front cover, I would be lucky to even have a chance at a 7.5.    

[Mmehdy]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

 

Well, sounds as though you must be a big time customer of theirs and have an "in" with the graders then.    

If I sent in a book with those noted and clearly visible issues on the front cover, I would be lucky to even have a chance at a 7.5.    

I think grading is very subjective but overall so far from I have seen its been spot on 85% of the time. 5 years from today...my prediction...board members are gonna say "I should have bought more"....

[jimbo_7071]

12 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

I think grading is very subjective but overall so far from I have seen its been spot on 85% of the time. 5 years from today...my prediction...board members are gonna say "I should have bought more"....

I think you'll agree that the Miss Fury isn't in that 85%! Most bidders seem to put their faith in the label, though, so it will probably fetch an 8.5 price.

 

[jimbo_7071]

8 hours ago, lou_fine said:

 

Yes, when I saw the Promise Copy of this Miss Fury #2, I decided to take a quick look at the census and was rarther shocked to see that the highest graded copies were only 2 in CGC 8.0 and 2 in CGC 7.5, including one of the latter ones being your copy then.  

Checked my Mile High Catalogue and surprisingly, it would appear that the Miss Fury run was not listed in there which means that it must have been one of the runs snapped up by Burrell Rowe as partial payment for loaning Chuckles the $2K to purchase the entire Church collection in the first place, or dare we say was actually absent from the Church collection to start with.  If it was in there as part of the collection, I guess it must be held pretty tightly in the hands of a private collector because both the HA and CC archives don't indicate a single sale of a Church copy for any issues of Miss Fury.    

It's tough to say. I know that many Mile Highs were ruined when the basement of Greg Manning Auctions flooded, but I've never been able to find out which ones. I'm sure that some have been lost in other floods and in fires, too, unfortunately.

[Crowzilla]

5 hours ago, lou_fine said:

If that's the case, then I guess Burrell for some reason must have gone after only the Miss Fury run out of all of the Timely runs.  

Suprised he wouldn't have held onto any of the Cap's, Torch, Subby's, USA, etc. or the Marvel Mystery's after issue #11 then, since they (including all of the keys) are all listed in Chuck's Mile High Catalogue.  

If so, I guess the Miss Fury run must have remained intact after Burrell picked it up and stayed that way throughout until John Veryzl picked it up for his own collection then.  

Or is it possible that Church didn't really cared so much for the super heorines since it looks like his Moon Girl run only had a Fine copy of Moon Girl 7 as listed in Chuck's Mile High Catalogue?  

Chuck had sold over 4,000 books by the time the catalog came out, it's not hard to imagine at all that someone besides Burrell picked up a small Timely run by one of the first female comic artists, and that the complete run guided for under $1000 total.

[adamstrange]

Some of the second tier companies and issues starting to show up .

Edited May 6, 2021 by adamstrange

[sfcityduck]

32 minutes ago, Crowzilla said:

Chuck had sold over 4,000 books by the time the catalog came out, it's not hard to imagine at all that someone besides Burrell picked up a small Timely run by one of the first female comic artists, and that the complete run guided for under $1000 total.

Especially since Timely's Ms. Fury is a newspaper strip reprint comic, right?

[adamstrange]

"Armand" written on the cover. 

[sagii]

14 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

Some of the second tier companies and issues starting to show up .

Oh boy....

[adamstrange]

 

[Funnybooks]

5 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

"Armand" written on the cover. 

Armand is of French origin meaning “soldier”

[sfcityduck]

11 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

Some of the second tier companies and issues starting to show up .

 

Also some nice Harvey's and Better's.

[sfcityduck]

8 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

"Armand" written on the cover. 

 

I hope it is not one of the Hammer's.

 

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, szav said:

I mean is the top left corner or entire right edge of a book really that important to the grading anyway?

Absolutely hate this Covid-19 fiasco that we are still stuck in after more than a whole year as I am now way way overdue to have my eyes checked.   

Especially in my old age when my eyes must really be starting to go, because no matter how hard I look and look, I still can't see much wrong with this top left corner here at all:    

Edited May 6, 2021 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

First book in the GA portion from CL's Focused Auction last Friday which is why my fading memory can still remember it:

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FFocusedOnly%3D1%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dace%2Bcomics%2B65%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1477098&id=1477098&itemType=0

After seeing that beautiful Subby 11 above, I just can't for the life of me figure out how this book here managed to score such a high grade given all that wear around the bottom staple area and those fugly ticks running down the length of the spine and let's not even talk about those nasty corners on this book here.    

Edited May 6, 2021 by lou_fine

[fast eddie]

11 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

First book in the GA portion from CL's Focused Auction last Friday which is why my fading memory can still remember it:

 

After seeing that beautiful Subby 11 above, I just can't for the life of me figure out how this book here managed to score such a high grade given all that wear around the bottom staple area and those fugly ticks running down the length of the spine and let's not even talk about those nasty corners on this book here.    

The bald spot on my head is getting larger from all the scratching I've done,,,,,,,,,,,,,sigh

[sfcityduck]

One observation:  The most valuable comic in the June auction is not going to be from this pedigree from what I can see.

[lou_fine]

On 5/4/2021 at 5:41 PM, sagii said:

On 5/4/2021 at 5:27 PM, adamstrange said:

About 600 lots per night.

That's freaking amazing ,

But as many of us stated in hindsight unless it was Jon's wishes otherwise,  probably should have been spread out among to at least two auction

As Jon had stated during not only the runup to the auction of his books, but also many times in the years prior to that, he was only a caretaker for the books within his collection and that he would be passing them onto the next generation of collectors to look after and care for the books.  

With Jon's absolute love for the books, their history, and the hobby place as a whole, I got the feeling it was never really all about the money for him and although putting them all up in one auction might have been the least painful method for him, it was probably also the best way to get the books into the hands of as many comic book collectors as possible.  

All I know is that a lot of books fell through the cracks, and as a result, even I along with a lot of other smaller time collectors were also able to pick up some super rare Centaurs and other truly HTF GA books without breaking the bank.   

I strongly doubt that this will happen with the Promise Collection though, since it appears the auction is gearing up to extract as much money from your pocket as possible, and hence not really meant for the smaller time collector on a budget.  

Edited May 6, 2021 by lou_fine

[jimbo_7071]

47 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

As Jon had stated during not only the runup to the auction of his books, but also many times in the years prior to that, he was only a caretaker for the books within his collection and that he would be passing them onto the next generation of collectors to look after and care for the books.  

With Jon's absolute love for the books, their history, and the hobby place as a whole, I got the feeling it was never really all about the money for him and although putting them all up in one auction might have been the least painful method for him, it was probably also the best way to get the books into the hands of as many comic book collectors as possible.  

All I know is that a lot of books fell through the cracks, and as a result, even I along with a lot of other smaller time collectors were also able to pick up some super rare Centaurs and other truly HTF GA books without breaking the bank.   

I strongly doubt that this will happen with the Promise Collection though, since it appears the auction is gearing up to extract as much money from your pocket as possible, and hence not really meant for the smaller time collector on a budget.  

I have to disagree with Mitch about 85% of the grades being spot on; most of the books I've looked at closely have been significantly overgraded. It looks to me like an auction where a lot of collectors with deep pockets are going to pay top dollar for books in the 8.5—9.2 range with labels in the 9.4—9.8 range. I would strongly advise any buyer in this auction not to ever crack out the books.