Mad #1 CGC 9.8 Gaines File Copy On Ebay

[esquirecomics]

As many of you know, I own a CGC 9.8 copy of this book. I bought it from Heritage in 2005 or 2006 (I forget) for $32,000. Yes, it was an impulse buy!

 

One prior copy had allegedly sold for that amount as well. I have it listed for $45,000 on my site/ebay store, but while many people are watching, few offer bids. I think the most I have been offered is $38,000. Fortunately I am in no rush.

 

Anyway, when I bought my copy there were 3 copies in the census at 9.8. As most of you no doubt know, Gaines had 12 copies of each book in his vault. There are, sadly, now 5 copies at CGC 9.8. I presume those are all Gaines file copies but it is also possible that some lower graded copies have been pressed or a very lucky person really stored their copy as if their life depended upon it!

 

Also, one at 9.6, one at 9.4, 1 at 9.2 and 5 at 9.0. I haven't checked around to see if the 12 Gaines copies fall within this census data but most probably at least some of those 9.0s are generic.

 

LewisWayneGalleries is now offering one of the CGC 9.8s on ebay. My guess is that most likely this is one of the copies, or the copy (not sure how many he has), owned by Jim Halperin of Heritage. The starting price is $24,995.00. With ebay and paypal fees what they are, he would barely clear $20k.

 

Darn, wish I had waited to purchase my copy! This is a darn good price for anyone who desires a copy! I've never gone wrong with owning a Gaines file copy of the early Mad issues, and they really bring back childhood memories (i.e., the reprints from the mid-1970s when Mad used to include a smaller insert of the first ten or twenty issues in the magazine).

 

Mad #1 CGC 9.8 Gaines on Ebay

[Ze-man]

Was that your copy or theirs in the CGC Featured BOTD section recently?

 

And 5 9.8's? Yikes!

 

Whoever said timing was everything was not far off. Win some lose some , right?

 

 

Karma did you right with that Batman collection , so you are now .. even.

 

 

Ze-

[esquirecomics]

Was that your copy or theirs in the CGC Featured BOTD section recently?

 

That actually was my copy. Why CGC picked that one, I do not know.

 

And 5 9.8's? Yikes!

 

Yep, was not a happy census day for me!

 

Whoever said timing was everything was not far off. Win some lose some , right?

 

 

Time will tell Kenny, time will tell!!!

 

Perhaps I should buy Halperin's copy also and simply corner the market?

[Crowzilla]

Perhaps I should buy Halperin's copy also and simply corner the market?

 

Don't know about cornering it, but you could at least dollar cost average yours down and then next time a 38K offer comes your way you'd be ready to make a 33% profit and still have one for yourself at an even cheaper price.

[tth2]

Perhaps I should buy Halperin's copy also and simply corner the market?

 

Don't know about cornering it, but you could at least dollar cost average yours down and then next time a 38K offer comes your way you'd be ready to make a 33% profit and still have one for yourself at an even cheaper price.

I think there is something to this suggestion, if nothing else to keep the book from staying unsold at $25K and then being listed (and staying unsold) at ever-decreasing prices until the book is so stigmatized that even smart collectors will run screaming from the book at prices that they gladly would've paid a year or two ago. This is what's now known in the hobby as pulling a "National #7" on a book.

 

If I were Mark, I would've been aggressively "defending" the price of every 9.8 Mad #1 that comes to market, and be prepared to buy up every copy that falls below my "acceptable" price. Fortunately, until now he didn't have to do too much since Halperin/Heritage controlled the supply and was keeping the asking price at an above-market rate anyways. But now, with the listing of this book at a "bargain" rate of $25K, perhaps the first cracks in the armor?

 

I have to admit, though, that FIVE 9.8 copies of such a big ticket book is pretty unprecedented. Even a book with as deep a customer base as AF 15 or X-Men 1 would see its price collapse with the appearance of 5 9.8 copies.

[metropoliscomics]

Perhaps I should buy Halperin's copy also and simply corner the market?

 

Don't know about cornering it, but you could at least dollar cost average yours down and then next time a 38K offer comes your way you'd be ready to make a 33% profit and still have one for yourself at an even cheaper price.

 

I like your thinking.

 

S

[bluechip]

Darn, wish I had waited to purchase my copy! This is a darn good price for anyone who desires a copy! ]

 

 

That's presuming it goes for the minimum bid.

[Crowzilla]

I like your thinking.

S

 

You always did.

Well except that one time where we had a ten year disagreement.

[jmg3637]

I do believe that Mark is perhaps doing exactly as you have suggested. It clearly is in his best interest for the value of this book to be maintained as high as possible.

 

Of course it is also in most everyone here's best interest for the value of whatever investment in comics that they do have do be maintained. This is why I do not complain when the Annual Overstreet Guide comes out and pumps up the "value" of comics by another 5%+

 

I have actually bought extra copies of some Key DC books I saw on ebay because I thought the price was just too low and felt I could always sell the worse copy and support the price at the same time. That is how I got my 2nd ADV 247, B&B 28, Showcase 8, JLA 1 etc.

 

This potential price devastation is one of the reasons why I have never had any interest in the "BEST" copy of a book and the premium it could command. I just assume that there are more high grade copies stored away of most everything, and they may not be slabbed for up to another 20+ years , if then. I feel much more secure with mid grade books. I am very interested in getting a Mad # 1 in mid grade. I doubt that if 50 of these turned up over the next year that it would have much of a downward effect on the price unless they were sold very rapidly.

[esquirecomics]

Perhaps I should buy Halperin's copy also and simply corner the market?

 

Don't know about cornering it, but you could at least dollar cost average yours down and then next time a 38K offer comes your way you'd be ready to make a 33% profit and still have one for yourself at an even cheaper price.

I think there is something to this suggestion, if nothing else to keep the book from staying unsold at $25K and then being listed (and staying unsold) at ever-decreasing prices until the book is so stigmatized that even smart collectors will run screaming from the book at prices that they gladly would've paid a year or two ago. This is what's now known in the hobby as pulling a "National #7" on a book.

 

If I were Mark, I would've been aggressively "defending" the price of every 9.8 Mad #1 that comes to market, and be prepared to buy up every copy that falls below my "acceptable" price. Fortunately, until now he didn't have to do too much since Halperin/Heritage controlled the supply and was keeping the asking price at an above-market rate anyways. But now, with the listing of this book at a "bargain" rate of $25K, perhaps the first cracks in the armor?

 

I have to admit, though, that FIVE 9.8 copies of such a big ticket book is pretty unprecedented. Even a book with as deep a customer base as AF 15 or X-Men 1 would see its price collapse with the appearance of 5 9.8 copies.

 

I agree completely Tim. If the book were $2,500 instead of $25,000, I would have already bid, but dropping $25,000+ on a second copy of a book I already own (even if the rationale is exercising sound business judgment) would be tantamount at the moment to asking my wife for a divorce!

 

And then I would probably lose the one copy I already own as a result!

[Aman619]

Mark. In retrospect, as rare and special as a Mad#1 in 9.8 seemed ("I mean REALLY! how many can there be???"), lets face reality. Gaines put away 12 of every EC book. And Mad was the very LAST EC book, sort of like the Bronze Age of ECs. He obviously had the "hey - -get 12 perfect copies and wrap them up and store them carefully in the same old place" routine down to a science.

 

Isnt that why the Mad#1 are so plentiful in ultra HG? PLUS the noname copies ? Sorry about how it turned out. Made sense at the time!....

[esquirecomics]

Mark. In retrospect, as rare and special as a Mad#1 in 9.8 seemed ("I mean REALLY! how many can there be???"), lets face reality. Gaines put away 12 of every EC book. And Mad was the very LAST EC book, sort of like the Bronze Age of ECs. He obviously had the "hey - -get 12 perfect copies and wrap them up and store them carefully in the same old place" routine down to a science.

 

Isnt that why the Mad#1 are so plentiful in ultra HG? PLUS the noname copies ? Sorry about how it turned out. Made sense at the time!....

 

Of course I knew at the time I purchased the book that there were two other 9.8 copies, and I certainly knew there were 12 Gaines copies of every book (until whatever #). That didn't bother me. I don't know what the current census is at the moment, but I don't believe there is another issue that has so many 9.8s. They are 9.6, 9.4, 9.2, etc. But almost half of the stash at 9.8? Who would have thought the likelihood!

 

Whether the addition of new copies at HG impacts the price/value is a very interesting one subject to debate. Frankly, I view this as similar to the substantive debate on pressing with respect to how it will impact the financial value of the market. Here we have 12 known Gaines file copies of each Mad book (or even EC books in general). Not all of them have been CGC graded. When I purchased my Mad #1 CGC 9.8, there were two other copies in that grade so the book was valued at X.

 

Did the value of the book change when the two other CGC 9.8 copies were added to the census? Upwards? Downwards?

 

Can the market absorb additional new copies at such HG?

 

This question certainly impacts how I make purchase decisions for these types of books? Or at least controls how long I will hold the book before trying to resell.

[FourthWorld]

Is it possible that some of those (or in particular ONE issue) has been re-submitted several times (In the quest for the elusive 9.9), and this has skewed the census???

[esquirecomics]

Is it possible that some of those (or in particular ONE issue) has been re-submitted several times (In the quest for the elusive 9.9), and this has skewed the census???

 

Anything is possible. I certainly can't rule it out. When the 5 9.8 issues showed up in the census I asked CGC for additional data to gain a better understanding of where these copies came from, and - to some extent - confirm or deny what you suggest. I wasn't able to obtain any relevant or useful information.

[testinadical-migration]

LewisWayneGalleries is now offering one of the CGC 9.8s on ebay. My guess is that most likely this is one of the copies, or the copy (not sure how many he has), owned by Jim Halperin of Heritage.

 

Wait, are you saying that it's possible that Jim Halperin is selling comics but not on Heritage? Why would he do that?

[Aman619]

Who knew indeed, Mark. suuks. In answer to thoughts comparing this census situation to the added population via pressing, I agree, however, the demand portion obviously plays a big part. For this book, we are looking at an wxcess of riches. I dont think Matt or anyone else will ever claim to be able to create so many 9.8s. But in theorey () the principal is the same.

 

I dunno. I think the market can absorb a few more top of census Marvel keys sooner than this many Mad#1s.

[bluechip]

Is it possible that some of those (or in particular ONE issue) has been re-submitted several times (In the quest for the elusive 9.9), and this has skewed the census???

 

It's well known Gaines saved 12 copies that were basically unread and perfectly preserved. Another question might be how many of those are virtually identical in grade to the slabbed 9.8 copies -- with the main distinction being the label on the slab as opposed to differences you'd see if you pored over the book.

 

That said, you'd think the hobby should be able to handle a handful of so-called near perfect copies, or even a dozen or several dozen copies of a truly important and famous book. If it can't then there's too much emphasis on holder numbers and manufactured rarity. Even with nit-pickiness reaching an art form, there is simply no way they'll be forever able to keep down the number of perfect copies of many silver age keys -- let alone bronze age and modern age. The hobby will have to adjust to that notuion if it wants to avoid a crash. And I do not think the answer is increasingly stringent grading because that will undermine the perception of consistency. I think it will be better to accept that multiples of perfect condition copies is to be expected in some books.

 

 

[tb]

It would be interesting to know the ranking of any of the 12 copies on the original COAs. For example, if #10/12 is a CGC 9.8 it would point to a higher likelihood of 9.8s than if #4/12 is a CGC 8.5.

[buttock]

It would be interesting to know the ranking of any of the 12 copies on the original COAs. For example, if #10/12 is a CGC 9.8 it would point to a higher likelihood of 9.8s than if #4/12 is a CGC 8.5.

 

The auction states this is 12/12. By that reasoning, the worst copy is a 9.8. I think there's a high likelihood there are legitimately 5 (probably more) 9.8s.

[adamstrange]

It would be interesting to know the ranking of any of the 12 copies on the original COAs. For example, if #10/12 is a CGC 9.8 it would point to a higher likelihood of 9.8s than if #4/12 is a CGC 8.5.

 

The auction states this is 12/12. By that reasoning, the worst copy is a 9.8. I think there's a high likelihood there are legitimately 5 (probably more) 9.8s.

 

There's actually quite a bit of variation -- Overstreet was grading too fast and often didn't even look at the back cover.