Recent Action #1 Sale

[Comicdey]

so IS 200K a good price for a 4.0 unrestored Action #1 ??

 

How much of his 200K coul dhe recoup tomorrow if he put it on sale? Thats a good test of its "true retail value".

 

My first reaction is no, he paid way too much considering how other high grade GA keys have fared lately. Hard to think that the seller wouldn't be happy if the buyer said $150,000 and that's it.

 

There are people out there that could afford to buy each and every Action 1 on the market at any given time. So what's a good price.....I guess whatever you can sell it for at the time. Were there other VG unrestored or better copies available for fractions of $200,000 when the buyer purchased this book? That would be an obvious sign of a bad purchase, if a better copy was readily available at the same time for a fraction of the price.

[tth2]

It gets a tad more outrageous when you consider that in the past two years or so a 3.5 and a 3.0 blue label each sold for under 50k in Heritage.

 

Correction: The two Actions were 2.5 and 3.0, and the 3.0 sold for 58k.

 

 

Take a look at those books. They look loke total compared to this one. All unrestored Action 1s in Heritage archives except 5.5 copy seem overgraded.

Of course. Everyone seems to be forgetting the big tear under Superman's cape on this one. This book is definitely better than a 4.0, but for the tear! Some people like books that look great except for one major defect, whereas other people prefer books that have lots of small defects but no major one. I personally don't like big tears.

[adamstrange]

It gets a tad more outrageous when you consider that in the past two years or so a 3.5 and a 3.0 blue label each sold for under 50k in Heritage.

 

Correction: The two Actions were 2.5 and 3.0, and the 3.0 sold for 58k.

 

 

Take a look at those books. They look loke total compared to this one. All unrestored Action 1s in Heritage archives except 5.5 copy seem overgraded.

Of course. Everyone seems to be forgetting the big tear under Superman's cape on this one. This book is definitely better than a 4.0, but for the tear! Some people like books that look great except for one major defect, whereas other people prefer books that have lots of small defects but no major one. I personally don't like big tears.

 

Big tears? You don't like microscopic perturbations!

[tth2]

i think you would have an extremely hard time convincing anyone that trimming is conservation under any circumstance

The only circumstance that trimming might constitute acceptable conservation would be to cut away moldy paper.

[october]

 

Big tears? You don't like microscopic perturbations!

 

[Sal]

i think you would have an extremely hard time convincing anyone that trimming is conservation under any circumstance

The only circumstance that trimming might constitute acceptable conservation would be to cut away moldy paper.

 

at that point, it's time to throw the book away. or sell it

[tth2]

Big tears? You don't like microscopic perturbations!

I'd probably make an exception for an Action #1.

[Aces]

Sweet book!

Clearly a 6.0 - 1.0 for the tape damage and - 1.0 for the tear under the cape.

[Aman619]

boy, dont you guys just love a good Action 1 thread! I know I do!

[Aces]

It gets a tad more outrageous when you consider that in the past two years or so a 3.5 and a 3.0 blue label each sold for under 50k in Heritage.

 

Correction: The two Actions were 2.5 and 3.0, and the 3.0 sold for 58k.

 

 

Take a look at those books. They look loke total compared to this one. All unrestored Action 1s in Heritage archives except 5.5 copy seem overgraded.

 

Agree!

The 3.0 was weak, and the 2.5 was the moldy piece of c r a p book right?

This one is a sure 4.0.

[rob_react]

boy, dont you guys just love a good Action 1 thread! I know I do!

 

My favorite kind (other than Detective 27 threads of course )

[lou_fine]

Nice looking book. Amazing to think that if I have 195K to blow on a copy of Action #1, the best I can do is a VG copy.

 

Im sure the above statement is referring to an unrestored copy.

 

I'm sure it is. What I do not understand is how a restored 7.5 that was probably an unrestored 4.0 to begin with gets repaired and looses $150,000 in value. In what world does that make any sense?

 

West;

 

Off topic, has anybody ever heard of the movie, "The Color Purple".

 

Well, actually ..................not quite so off topic after all.

 

Seriously though, maybe the answer is closer to home then you think. You are probably thinking of the old days and comparing them to the current times:

 

Pre-CGC: Restored Value = Original Value + Resto Factor

 

CGC: Restored Value = Original Value + Resto Factor - Impact of PLOD Label

 

I think that about covers it.

 

Lou

[esquirecomics]

You don't know what you're talking about, and you're misinterpreting what I said. I particularly do not appreciate the implication that I "hosed" a customer b/c he had the money to burn. That is not how I do business.

 

I compiled sales data for Action #1s dating back 20 plus years. That included both private and publicly known sales. That included CGC grades, auction grades, page quality if I knew it, history of the book if I knew it, etc. I provided it all to him in advance of the sale. I provided every Overstreet value dating back over the entire period of the book's existence to the buyer. I gave him analysis of the percentage increases from year to year not only on the Guide but also on some sales if I knew it was the same book.

 

I made it perfectly clear to the buyer that the asking price was high on the retail side. I could not have been more completely upfront with the buyer. That is how I do business.

 

If you think that book would sell for $60k, you're completely unaware of the marketplace of this book. Tell you what, go find me 5 of them and I will give you $300,000 in cash immediately.

 

As far as my Heritage statement, I and many others have said it repeatedly that the fact that Heritage has flooded the market with expensive HG books turned it into a buyers, not a seller's, market. Prices were driven down on many expensive books b/c there is not enough cash to go around for each auction. Sure there are some books that reached record prices, but many books sold, especially in 2002-2004, and then with the Parrino auctions, at very low retail prices. Heck, even at dealer prices b/c there was ample room to buy from one Heritage auction and then sell it soon afterwards for a profit. I wasn't implying by the word "skew" that Heritage was manipulating data and perhaps it was a poor choice of words. I was referring to the fact that Heritage data does not accurately reflect the market value as it was out of sync with many other sales before and after.

 

Mark, I have been in this hobby for 30 years and completed my run of Action Comics nearly 10 years ago. I know where there are 9 unrestored copies of Action Comics 1 in Connecticut and Rhode Island alone. None graded and none known to the hobby at large. I found the Spokane Collection and was there when two other major Golden Age collections were uncovered. So please spare me the lecture about knowledge of this hobby. I will concede however that 60k is too low. The 3.0 sold for 58k two years ago. I am sure it would go for more now.

 

You educated the buyer about his purchase? Probably. But anyone with any brains could see from some simple research that the book you sold is worth nowhere near what you guys sold it for. My guess is that this is another JP type buyer who thinks he got a great deal. He did get a great deal. If he waits 10 years.

 

Like I said earlier, you didn't do anything wrong by selling the book at the price you did. You sold it for what he would pay. That's called capitalism, and I applaud you and Bechara on your sale.

 

I wasn't being critical of your past history, just your current statements in this thread. Your comments and mine now speak for themselves.

[drdonaldblake]

this sale makes the lost valley tec 1 for $40k look even more like a super bargain buy (which it was!!!!!

 

was there a Lost valley action1 ??

[nearmint]

I think this is worth mentioning again...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jkrk]

1)Was Mark Ethical in the transaction? I'm sure he was.

 

2)Is the book overpriced? I suspect that this purchase will prove to be relatively poor (versus other Action 1 sales) for a very long time. Then again as I was shorting stocks in the late 90's they went up further than I expected. I was constantly being told that high quality common stocks were always good investments. I guess they said the same thing in 1929 (only took 24 years to get even) and 1966 (only took 16 years to break even). I couldn't believe the prices then but the buyers proved to be smarter than I was (for a while). Time will tell. After 20 years of trading you'll have to forgive my cynacism.

 

MY thoughts:

 

A)keep a copy of the picture just in case the book appears in the future as a higher grade without notes.

 

B)Perhaps an advertised sale like this one is needed to create interest and reprice many of our books against a benchmark. For example, Is the MC 1 in VF+ now valued at $300,000? How about DEtective 27? The VG must be valued at 150,000? Create the illusion, advertise, and perhaps PT Barnum can work some magic? I guess we still need buyers to pay the price to verify that this sale wasn't a fluke? In the end how much did the advertising really cost?

[nearmint]

keep a copy of the picture just in case the book appears in the future as a higher grade without notes.

 

I'm fairly certain it's been burned into my retinas.

[Timulty]

I would be impressed if it were a Whiz Comics #1.

[adamstrange]

Big tears? You don't like microscopic perturbations!

I'd probably make an exception for an Action #1.

 

Tears ... or microscopic perturbations?

[adamstrange]

boy, dont you guys just love a good Action 1 thread! I know I do!

 

Got a link?