Fox Comics Appreciation Thread! 20 20

[Straw-Man]

it's always a good time to post a billy ped, am i wright?

 

Edited July 17, 2022 by Straw-Man

[adamstrange]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:19 AM, Straw-Man said:

it's always a good time to post a billy ped, am i wright?

 

Yes, but did you have to post a weird one?

[bronze johnny]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:19 AM, Straw-Man said:

it's always a good time to post a billy ped, am i wright?

 

Starting to wonder if Billy Wright is an a.k.a. for Billy Parker🤔

[Straw-Man]

let me put that to rest--"no."

[Straw-Man]

here's a diff fox ped.

[Straw-Man]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:11 AM, adamstrange said:

Yes, but did you have to post a weird one?

heeeheeeheeee

[lou_fine]

Seeing that Wonderworld 5 reminds me that it's going to be time for the new edition of the Overstreet in a few short days from now FWIW.  

Any bets here if Overstreet will be correcting or will he be doubling down on his obvious top of guide valuation error for Wonderworld 3 in the still current edition of the guide.  Very obvious boo-boo on their part as they bumped up the valuations for WW 3 in all of the condition levels except for the top of guide where they dropped it down to $21,125 from the $23K price point in the 2020 guide.  

Based upon the way his valuation program supposedly works, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it actually doubles down on this error and continues to use the 2021 top of guide valuation point of $21,125 as its base for this coming year, instead of the $25K that it probably should have been. 

Well, at least it gives me another chance to post this gorgeous copy here which managed to fetched some $25,300 for the lucky consignor on its first go round way back in 2002, and possibly an even luckier buyer who was then able to purchase this exact same copy for a mere $15,525 on its second go round in 2005:    

Doubly lucky for the winner since I believe this copy was then eventually deemed to be the Allentown pedigree copy if I remember correctly and reslabbed as such.  No doubt making it worth a lot more and a sure fire winner as evident by Jon Berk's equivalent CGC 9.4 graded copy which sold for $51K on its first go round in 2017 and then resold for over $64K a few years later in 2020. 

[Spyder!]

Overstreet is a complete joke and has been for as long as I can remember. None of the books are valued correctly, all of the Fox books included.

[RareHighGrade]

On 7/17/2022 at 7:53 PM, lou_fine said:

I believe this copy was then eventually deemed to be the Allentown pedigree copy if I remember correctly and reslabbed as such.  

That's interesting, I wasn't aware of the belated designation.  Once the Allentown provenance is lost, it would be tough to reestablish it because Allentown lacks the distinctive markings that many other pedigrees have.

[lou_fine]

On 7/17/2022 at 8:38 PM, RareHighGrade said:

On 7/17/2022 at 7:53 PM, lou_fine said:

I believe this copy was then eventually deemed to be the Allentown pedigree copy if I remember correctly and reslabbed as such.  

That's interesting, I wasn't aware of the belated designation.  Once the Allentown provenance is lost, it would be tough to reestablish it because Allentown lacks the distinctive markings that many other pedigrees have.

As I had highlighted in BOLD, I am actually not entirely sure as this is based upon my memory of something I probably read or saw on these boards here.  

Although the preliminary Allentown draft portion of the writeup for the long awaited and never to be published Pedigree Book which was sent to me as a courtesy for my input on the Chinatown pedigree back in 2006/07 would tend to confirm this.  Especially since it states that the Jim Payette VF/NM raw graded copy of Wonderworld 3 was graded and slabbed as a CGC 9.4 copy, with only one copy in this highest grade in the CGC census at the time:  

http://www.cgcdata.com/cgc/search/comicid/2071/6mo

As for regaining the pedigree designation, it's definitely not unheard of as it's really up to the determination, tenacity, and patience of the buyer to trace the provenance trail of the book back through its previous owners.  Possibly made easier by the fact that chain of owner for books of this high quality oftentimes tends to be held by far few hands and in most cases, held by long time well established collectors. 

Edited July 18, 2022 by lou_fine

[Straw-Man]

[RareHighGrade]

On 7/18/2022 at 3:40 PM, Straw-Man said:

Yes, that does look like the same book, and it's a beaut.  

[lou_fine]

On 7/18/2022 at 3:44 PM, RareHighGrade said:

Yes, that does look like the same book, and it's a beaut.  

That goes double for me, and Iike I've always said, it's pretty tough to beat having an Allentown book in your personal collection.  

[lou_fine]

On 7/17/2022 at 7:53 PM, lou_fine said:

Jon Berk's equivalent CGC 9.4 graded copy which sold for $51K on its first go round in 2017 and then resold for over $64K a few years later in 2020. 

I almost wonder if some buyers in today's marketplace actually realize that it's not a crime to own a book for more than a couple of years:  

https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FPreviewCode%3D2021may%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3DWonderworld%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCB%23Item_1467075&id=1467075&itemType=0#detail

Looks like this Jon Berk Church copy of Wonderworld 3 was resold again for $57,111 in May of 2021 or at a slight loss for the owner.  If my arithmetic is right, that makes it 3 times it sold in slightly under 4 years.  I guess if this sales pattern holds true to form, the book should probably be coming back to market any month now.  

[lou_fine]

On 7/18/2022 at 3:44 PM, RareHighGrade said:

Yes, that does look like the same book, and it's a beaut.  

From a strictly historical comic book collecting POV, I think it's important that these pedigree books don't lose their provenance over time.  

Especially in the case of a book such as this copy of Wonderworld 3 since it's not from a pedigree with thousands of extant copies, but rather one from the small, but still highly sought after Allentown Collection with a total of only 135 known copies in existence.  I guess the fact that this was not a #1 issue per say, made it a whole lot easier to identify since it would not have other HG pedigree copies out there such as the Carson City, Windy City, and Denver which is the case with a book like Mystery Men 1.  

Of course, there's the Church copy of Wonderworld 3, but probably pretty much everybody already knew that the Church runs of both Mystery Men and Wonderworld's were already locked away in Jon Berk's private collection by that point in time.  Although there might posssibly be other HG copies of WW3 out there in the wild, I am only aware of one other HG copy which would be the Larson copy.  Read about it in an article on the Larson pedigree in one of the early CBM magazines authored by Dr. Pat Kochanek in which he listed some strict HG Larson's, including the Wonderworld 3 amongst others.  I guess this tends not to be the norm for most of the Larson books, as the collection was supposedly stored in a barn for decades and hence suffered foxing and other minor defects.  This would seem to be confirmed by the original Larson List as Joe Tricarchi had graded the Wonderworld 3 as a NM/M copy without any qualifying notes to detract from its collectibility.  

Would be nice to see this one hit the marketplace one day as the the CGC 9.4 graded Allentown and Church copies of WW 3 are the only known HG copies to this point in time, with the CGC census indicating a big drop down to CGC 5.5 for the 3rd highest graded Universal copy before the remaining 14 slabbed copies drop even further down to CGC 4.0 and below.  Like other HG Larson keys including the WW 3, figured these copies are probably locked away tight as a drum in private collections with the key thrown away for now at least.  Used to think that some of these Larson keys were in the hands of Kochanek himself, but probably not since I believe he switched over to original art quite awhile ago.    

[Straw-Man]

i would so love to add to my fox allentown cache.   in addition to the mm 1 and ww 3 posted recently, i have these...

Edited July 21, 2022 by Straw-Man

[lou_fine]

On 7/20/2022 at 5:23 PM, Straw-Man said:

i would so love to add to my fox allentown cache.   in addition to the mm 1 and ww 3 posted recently, i have these...

Well, that's clearly not a bad cache to have in terms of 5 Allentown Fox boxs, including the two key biggies.  

Looks like the next one you should be chasing after would be WW 7 as that issue there seems poised to become the most valuable Wonderworld in the entire run when you look at this year's edition of the Overstreet Guide, if it isn't already there in the real comic book world. 

Similar to how A-Man 22 has now jumped ahead of the long reigning A-Man 5 to become the most valuable issue in the entire Amazing-Man run.     

Edited July 23, 2022 by lou_fine

[Robot Man]

On 7/23/2022 at 9:37 AM, lou_fine said:

Well, that's clearly not a bad cache to have in terms of 5 Allentown Fox boxs, including the two key biggies.  

Looks like the next one you should be chasing after would be WW 7 as that issue there seems poised to become the most valuable Wonderworld in the entire run when you look at this year's edition of the Overstreet Guide, if it isn't already there in the real comic book world. 

Similar to how A-Man 22 has now jumped ahead of the long reigning A-Man 5 to become the most valuable issue in the entire Amazing-Man run.     

Sign of the times. With CGC grading, books have become all about the covers. Having owned both A-Man #5 and #22 raw, I can say the contents of #5 are much better than #22. But the cover of #22 is WAY more iconic and thusly, worth more. 

[Straw-Man]

On 7/23/2022 at 11:37 AM, lou_fine said:

Well, that's clearly not a bad cache to have in terms of 5 Allentown Fox boxs, including the two key biggies.  

Looks like the next one you should be chasing after would be WW 7 as that issue there seems poised to become the most valuable Wonderworld in the entire run when you look at this year's edition of the Overstreet Guide, if it isn't already there in the real comic book world. 

Similar to how A-Man 22 has now jumped ahead of the long reigning A-Man 5 to become the most valuable issue in the entire Amazing-Man run.     

i've accepted that this one will just have to do.

[Straw-Man]

looking thru the foxes in the old photo gallery, i realize i have a pretty complete spectrum of grades.   will run this in a descending order, and will choose a fave when multiples of the slotted grade to choose from.  no 9.8, so gotta start here...

Edited July 25, 2022 by Straw-Man