TEC 35 LARSON, CGC 9.2 ASKING $15K

[drdonaldblake]

this book on bill hughes site has been clened and pressed cgc 9.2 sl pro resto

 

what do u folks thnik of his asking price?

 

wot would a blue label 9.2 bring??

[LearnedHand]

Isn't this the same book that sold in Heritage Auctions about 2-3 years ago for approxiamtely $8,900?

 

Blue label? Probably in the ballpark of what Bill wants for the permanently PLOD copy.

[nearmint]

It sold 3 years ago for just shy of 9K. I've heard several people suggest that that price was a bargain, and that this book is spectacular. 15K might be a little optimistic, but not ridiculous.

 

The top 3 copies are all PLODS. The highest grade blue label is 8.5.

[Durden08]

This book is also listed in the January Heritage auction preview. It will be interesting to see what price it achieves. There will probably be some sort of reserve set I assume.

[batman_fan]

Based on the scans, it is incredible! Plus the restoration is slight and doesn't bother me.

[drdonaldblake]

it is a super looking copy

very sharp structurally with very good color

 

does anyone know if cleaning a cover affects the cover inks??

[Abrams-migration]

What is Bill Hughes website?

[nearmint]

www.vintagecollectables.net

[BlackHeartedDwarf-migratio]

ASKING $15K

Did he offer you the book privately for $15K or did he increase his price?

 

The price on his website says $17,600.

[FFB]

it is a super looking copy

very sharp structurally with very good color

 

does anyone know if cleaning a cover affects the cover inks??

 

It depends on what is used to clean it, but the professionals will use a solvent like VM&P Naphtha that does not dissolve the ink. The book will actually look better and brighter after the cleaning if it is done properly. The colors and whites will really pop, where they used to be dulled by the oil absorbed into the cover.

[Aman619]

its a very nice book... but there are better copies, unrestored out there. Harley had it on consignment years ago in SD.

[LearnedHand]

So Hughes wants full NM- Guide for a PLOD copy? Funny, PLOD copies usually go for fractions of their unrestored stablemates, but maybe Bill is unaware of this. In fairness, that's actually cheap for a typical Hughes asking price.

 

I had considered buying this (Larson) copy when it came up for sale (in the auction at which it sold for about $8,900). My reservation was that it is a permanently PLOD book, as the cleaning cannot be reversed. And it would be a placeholder until I could locate an unrestored copy. So I'd have a lot of $$$ tied up in a placeholder. And as restored books have the Scarlet Letter on them (except it's a purple label, not a red "A"), the future value of these books is quite tenuous - further making the decision to put this much money into a placeholder a bad decision for me.

 

The difficluty, is that it looks like such a sweet copy.

 

Best of luck to the winner. I cannot predict the future, so purchasing this book may, ulitmately, prove to be a wise decision.

 

LH

[nearmint]

If it sells, it was certainly a wise decision for the person who bought it at $8900.

[lou_fine]

So Hughes wants full NM- Guide for a PLOD copy? Funny, PLOD copies usually go for fractions of their unrestored stablemates, but maybe Bill is unaware of this. In fairness, that's actually cheap for a typical Hughes asking price.

 

Actually, not quite full guide since NM- guide for this book is $17,500. Works out to almost 15% off guide here. I guess what you have to really remember here is that a true unrestored NM- copy of this book would probably go for double guide or possibly even more. So if you factor this into account, the buyer is really selling it for an almost 60% discount to market price.

 

The other point to remember is that this is only slight professional resto with a simple clean and press job. This is a very important distinction since PLOD books selling for fractions of guide as you claim, are probably relagated to your franken books. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a book like this comes up as a 1 or 2 on CGC's new resto scale and collectors will look back on this 10 years later and say what a steal this book was at only $15K.

[RareHighGrade]

The question that I have about that book involves the unusual white spots on Batman's arm. Are they the result of an unusual printer's defect, or are they the result of the cleaning process? They are not on any other Tec 35 that I have seen.

[Thegoldenage]

Actually, not quite full guide since NM- guide for this book is $17,500. Works out to almost 15% off guide here. I guess what you have to really remember here is that a true unrestored NM- copy of this book would probably go for double guide or possibly even more. So if you factor this into account, the buyer is really selling it for an almost 60% discount to market price.

 

Huh? Can you translate this for me? It's 15% off unrestored guide. And this copy cannot be compared to an unrestored copy. That would be comparing apples to oranges. I am also not sure where you get the 60% discount to market price. Are you saying the book is worth 40% of the double or triple guide an unrestored copy would go for? Hogwash.

[FFB]

The question that I have about that book involves the unusual white spots on Batman's arm. Are they the result of an unusual printer's defect, or are they the result of the cleaning process? They are not on any other Tec 35 that I have seen.

 

They are the exact same white spots that Jon Berk has on his Rockford pedigree copy, so it's probably a printing defect.

[FFB]

Actually, not quite full guide since NM- guide for this book is $17,500. Works out to almost 15% off guide here. I guess what you have to really remember here is that a true unrestored NM- copy of this book would probably go for double guide or possibly even more. So if you factor this into account, the buyer is really selling it for an almost 60% discount to market price.

 

Huh? Can you translate this for me? It's 15% off unrestored guide. And this copy cannot be compared to an unrestored copy. That would be comparing apples to oranges. I am also not sure where you get the 60% discount to market price. Are you saying the book is worth 40% of the double or triple guide an unrestored copy would go for? Hogwash.

 

I don't think what you're saying makes inherent sense. The guide is just one company's opinion about what an unrestored copy is worth in a given grade, and it just as often as not has no basis in reality. The true measure of the value of any unrestored book is what it sells for in the marketplace, not at what OS lists it at in the guide (although the guide creates a situation where the tail wags the dog in many cases).

 

I don't see any problem with saying this high grade pedigree book with extremely minor restoration (only "cover cleaned" is noted on the label) is worth 40% of what the same exact book would have sold for before the solvent cleaning. A volatile solvent completely evaporates leaving no trace when it dries, so it can be said that the book is truly 100% original content with no foreign material added. Compare that to a book that has been dry cleaned and has had soiling removed forcibly and mechanically (rather than mildly and chemically), leaving smear marks in the gloss and eraser crumbs embedded in the paper fibers -- yet the dry cleaned book is still worth 100% of what it was (or even more if it is higher grade) before the cleaning.

 

The only other real difference between the solvent cleaned book and the dry cleaned book is that the solvent cleaned book has been disassembled and then reassembled. That should impact the value, but not (IMO) to a -60% extent. The book is still 100% of the book it was before restoration.

[Timulty]

Last price of this exact same book was approx 9 K in 2002. With increases since then, 15 K seems just about right.

[nearmint]

I am also not sure where you get the 60% discount to market price. Are you saying the book is worth 40% of the double or triple guide an unrestored copy would go for? Hogwash.

 

So what's it worth?