lou_fine

Not sure about your Google search, but I puched it in and it had a link to this archived 15-page thread on these very CGC boards here entitled "Wizard's 100 Greatest Covers: https://boards.cgccomics.com/topic/24551-wizards-100-greatest-covers/#comments

Hey Steve; It's great to finally see you posting on these boards once again as it's been a exceedingly long almost years since your last post here. You should definitely pay no attention to what some of the overbearing boobirds tend to say at times and just simply spend more time educating the rest of us here and also let us vicariously enjoy your wonderful collection through your posts here once again.

Hey Peter; Yes, those Flanagan covers are another thing of sheer and absolute beauty. Do you have any of the Adventure issues from the post Flessel Aventure covers up to #39, and if so, which ones are you missing from your collection?

spot on.....but the bigger the badder they are...the more they can get away with! Now, now now.................let's NOT turn this into another thread on the Over PROMISE and Under Deliver pedigree collection of books.

Not sure about an official merger or anything like that, but isn't there already some kind of "indirect" or small partial ownership linkage between Heritage and the umbrella CCG group (now taken over by Blackstone) where CGC falls under?

It does. I would need an unrestored copy of New Comics #2 in at least mid-grade, which doesn't exist. I would have to title the thread: "The New Comics run in grade (except for #2)." Hey Peter; What an absolutely amazing and complete run that you have here of probably one of the two toughest early DC pre-hero runs and ALL in one place for all of us to view and salivate over. I guess you still haven't come across a nice enough copy of New Comics 2 to fit into this collection of yours yet. Looks like the CGC census prior to this year had been sitting at only 5 Universal copies for several years running with the last one added being a CGC 0.5 Poor condition copy back in 2016. Then this PBA CGC 2.0 graded copy was added in February of this year with another CGC 2.0 graded copy added just this past month in March. Looks like we having a "feast" of New Comics 2 now, but still nothing above a CGC 2.0 condition grade yet, with a total of 3 copies tied for this highest grade for now. Best of luck to you in terms of finding a nice copy of New Comics 2 to complete your New Comics run, although I suspect there might be a bit of competition out there if one ever does surface.

Well, all I can say is that you guys must have either been dawdling for an awfully long time or rushing along at the pace of a crippled snail, as this book came back to market for 3 consecutive years running after its initial sale for $20,700 back in 2004. Like baseball I guess you are given only 3 strikes before you are out of the game. I still remember the discussion on the boards at the time as it couldn't hit the Reserve of $16K in 2005, or the reduced Reserve of $12K in 2006, and then even failed to hit the bargain basement Reserve of only $11,500 in 2007. Totally shocked me as I thought it was an absolutely gorgeous copy of an much underappreciated Fine classic underwater submarine cover scene and yet nobody was willing to pay even half of what it had gone for back in 2004. I thought the book had eventually managed to find a buyer in the end, but not sure if it did or not in the end. I will say though that if it is bring consigned by the original buyer and this is the 4th try for them to unload this "sprialling in value" book here, I will be more than happy to take the hit and meet their new reduced Reserve price for this Church copy of National 7 and let their long suffering pain finally come to an end.

Yes, especially if you compared it to this nicely presenting CGC 3.0 graded copy that CC was able to fetch back in March of 2017: https://www.comicconnect.com/item/684452

Yep, totally agree with everybody here that this is definitely a shocker of a price for this book here. Not a PCH collector myself, but considering that there's 40 graded copies out there already and this copy here is only tied for the highest graded copy with a total of 7 copies in CGC 8.0 and above, price of > $50K definitely seems to have a lot of exuberance built into it. I guess it's got the best of both worlds here in terms of the skeleton and the Devil hinself on the cover. Almost makes this supposedly harder to find skeleton cover more of a steal of a deal at an asking price of $25K OBO, especially considering that this copy here is the SINGLE highestgraded copy with only a totall of 11 copies in the census and only 3 copies in CGC 8.0 and above. Then again, since it's from back in 1942 it's not considered to be part of the more highly desired PCH genre, but just more a run of the mill book from the far less exciting and more mundane GA time period: https://www.ebay.com/itm/116130997786?hash=item1b09f2661a%3Ag%3Az-4AAOSw1LxmDf34&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=711-53200-19255-0&campid=5338846873&customid=a22a8105-fe85-4cdf-b597-b1507c180dd9&toolid=10049&gck=a22a8105-fe85-4cdf-b597-b1507c180dd9

Are you saying that the Universal CGC 2.5 graded copy went too low or that the Restored CGC 1.5 graded copy sold for too high, especially considering that the restoration was flagged as C-5 for Extensive and Poor Quality?

You must mean this nicely presenting CGC 2.0 graded copy of this rather HTF beauty here: I actually thought Jon Berk's 7.0 graded copy was right up there when it first sold for $38,500 at CC back in the summer of 2017. Shows what little I know as it then was resold at CC as a CGC 7.5 graded copy for just over $54K in 2019 before being resold a third time for $69K a few years later in 2022. Any bets that the current owner of the second highest graded 7.5 Berk copy along with the owner of the single highest graded CGC 9.0 copy of this book must be simply ecstatic with the sale of this much lower 2.0 graded copy for a rather whopping $43,200. Unlike highest graded copies of more recent books where the appearance of other copies in similar or even higher grade can "kill" the value of your book, it's nice when copies in even lower grade condition not only reinforces the price which you had paid for the book, but in fact continues to push the book's valuation up even higher.

I would tend to agree although I would have to say that I am a bit biased since I've always liked the 'Tec 29 cover image plus the fact that it's an earlier issue with the 2nd Batman cover and also a bit tougher to find than the 'Tec 31. Then again, maybe it's the tendency for me to prefer the underdog over the fan favorite as I prefer the Phantom Lady 23 over the PL17, the Blue Beetle 52 over the BB 54, the Seven Seas 6 over the SS 4. etc. Higher than the $66K figure it fetched for sure, but not quite sure if I would say 6-figures yet for a CGC 3.5?

Yikes is right, but I imagine it's all about the so-called "classic cover" image in this issue here as I very much highly doubt you would see this kind of pricing result on virtually all of the other issues in this Speed run.

He didn't say that, did he? That would mean either: a) He's admitting they didn't grade them correctly and/or held off giving deserved 9.9's b) They've lowered their standards now. An except from a post in another thread here on the GA boards which I had just made since I am too lazy to rewrite my post from scratch:

Not sure why you would think this as it should clearly be evident by now that the whole concept of their business model as envisioned by the CCG ownership group is to to find different ways to convince their customers to send the exact same book back in for additional revenue streaming services time and time again. From strictly a business POV, this makes perfect sense as why would a business want to sell a product only once and be done with it if they can resell it multiple times to their customers who are happily lining up with their wallets wide open to pay for it. Think back to when pressing and other forms of what were then thought of as restoration were first outed on the boards here back in 2005.....................as long as you can show your customers that there's a potential magical pot of gold at the end of the CGC rainbow, they'll come running in droves. And just like what we saw during the Covid time periods, not only will they come running, but they'll even be willing to wait countless months for their books to come back from CCS and CGC as long as they think there's money in there for them to scoop up. So, why would it be any different this time since it looks like CGC has now given them another opportunity to make even a whole lot more money with this latest scam scheme here? Too lazy to dig through the now nearly 500 pages of posts in the ASM 252 thread to find that interview, but the part I didn't quite understand was Matt leaving the impression that there must be some 9.9's hidden there in amongst the 9.8's due to the sheer volumes. Kind of left me with the impression that 9.9's were not part of their standard normal grading process even though it has always been listed as one of the grades in their grading standard. Especially when he mentions that a 9.9 pre-screen will require much more time and more work on the part of the grader, and I assume hence a much more costlier service which the submittor will now be paying for. So, puzzled as I am not sure why we have to pay for a second much more costlier service for them to determine if your book actually qualifies for a 9.9 grade when I thought they were supposed to have been be doing this all along in the first place? Yes, although I got the impression that this service would really be trying to target the MA market with all of those countless 9.8's just waiting to be resbmitted back to them at even bigger dollars, you know that a 9.9 single highest graded copy of an older key and very visible book with a huge quantity of already graded 9.8's (eg. say a GSXM 1 with over 250 copies already in 9.8) would be the ideal book to promote and hype this new service that they are about to bring to the marketplace. Especially since it means more money for all parties involved who are willing to play along as the game gets ramped up to an even higher level.

I would tend to agree with you here, especially if the CGC 9.9 pre-screen service that Matt was talking about in his interview actually gets implemented. As Matt had alluded to in his interview, with so many 9.8 copies of a particular book in the census, surely there should be some 9.9's in there. Although I believe he was referring to Modern books, any bets that it wouldn't stop the speculators from trying to pre-screen their BA or CA 9.8's for a possible higher grade given the dollars that we are probably talking about here. As for the value of a CGC 9.9 GSXM 1 if more copies come into the census and marketplace. Remember that CGC 9.8 graded copy of Iron Man 30 that was at the time the single highest graded copy and the "only 9.8 in the Universe" that CC was able to auction off for $15K back in 2016. Let's just say that unlike GA books when additional copies of a truly HTF rare book in any grade comes into the marketplace and usually supports the original price paid, as additional copies of Iron Man 30 in CGC 9.8 came into the marketplace, the price went downwards pretty quickly and now there are 6 copies of Iron Man 30 in CGC 9.8 and nowhere close to having anybody willing to pay 5-figures for one of them.

I think that was a joke someone made. I’ve never used the ‘service’ but it currently says they don’t do it for 9.9s or 10s. Sounds as though you guys missed that interview with Matt which they had buried somewhere in there on that monstrous ASM 252 swap scandal thread. Like others have posted on this samme topic in the General Forum, this sounds like the perfect marketing promotion for CGC and at a convenient time just as they are apparently on the verge of announcing their CGC 9.9 pre-screen service.

And yet, the CGC Census Population report says it was updated yesterday on March 26 as regularly scheduled every Tuesday. I guess you are saying that although the census is updated every week, it is really updating data retroactively from a couple of weeks ago?

Any bets that this will be the first of many to come as this will be perfect promotion and timing for CGC's introduction of their CGC 9.9 pre-screen program as per Matt's interview a few months ago just before they got side-tracked with the whole ASM 252 holder scandal. Like Matt had alluded to in his interview, a very time-consuming and I guess this means a very costly one for submittors and one which the CCGownership group surely hopes they will still line up for as Matt says there surely must be some hidden 9.9's in amongst all of those 9.8's.

You think CGC will have it updated in their Population Census Report by then because it's not in their census which was just updated yesterday? With this now one and only single highest graded CGC 9.9 copy (for now at least), will we by mere co-incidence be seeing the introduction and promotion of CGC newest revenue stream being introduced into the marketplace, namely their CGC 9.9 pre-screening service that Matt was talking about implementing before they got side-tracked with all that nasty Spidey 252 holder tampering scandal stuff? Like Matt said in his interview, the CGC 9.9 pre-screen service will be a very time consuming and hence costly service to the submittor which I guess means much more money rolling into the coffers of the CCG ownership group as he said there are surely some hidden 9.9's buried within all of those 9.8's. No real surprise there as along as you are willing to pay for the service, but I always thought they were already supposd to be grading a book 9.9 if it was truly a 9.9. Why do we need to pay them a second time and at a much higher rate if we want to see if the book qualifies for a CGC 9.9 grade? The only real surprise is that this CGC 9.9 grade was given to a book being auctioned off by CC and not to one being auctioned off by Heritage.

Pretty high you think? Yes, I also thought it was a pretty strong price, especially considering that it had the much dreaded and often deadly "Brittle Pages" PQ designation.

That's why Lois divorced him in that one comic story. Didn't read that story, but are you saying it's because Lois wanted to be on top?

Well Sir, clearly you've got great taste in books as I knew that Jon had held this book back from his initial big auction back in 2017 and was hoping to be able to snag it whenever it did come available. Absolutely love the colors on this book here along with its relatively rarity, but just was not willing to go over a hammer bid of $2K for it, considering that it was Moderately Restored. Now, if it was only Slightly Restored for such a rare book, then that would have been a different story. Of course the other bidders like you would have also been willing to go much higher then. Anyways, big time congrats to you on winning such a beautiful book and I am sure it will be a wonderful addition to your collection for a long time to come.

Well, not as bad as it used to be from a relative basis at least as Vancouver has now dropped down a notch in the rankings to the #3 least affordable city in the world to the from the #2 spot which has now been taken over by Sydney, with these two cities flipping positions on a regular basis. Nowhere close to where @tth2 who used to reside in Hong Kong which has always taken the top spot in the world by a long shot. Not sure about this Affordability Index measurement since it's apparently based upon a ranking of 92 global cities and simply takes the median price of a house in the city and divides it by the gross median income of the household pre-tax. So, I guess you are lucky if you live in a city like Pittsburg which has a index of 2.7 since anything under 3 is considered to be "affordable" while Vancouver is sitting at 13.3 and the Gold Medal loser (i.e. Hong Kong) comes in at a whopping 23.2 where anything over a 5 multiplier is considered to be "severely unafforable".

Well, I guess it all depends on your definition of a "mansion" as this is what $2.48M or $80K over asking got you here back in 2016: