Crowzilla

China 2013 box-office is a very different animal to China 2019 box-office, but Suicide Squad didn't play China either and still made almost $750 mil worldwide. With nearly $550 mil worldwide after two weeks, I'm sure Joker will continue to do quite well.

I know #23 has the Avengers crossover, but there are more 9.8s of 23 than any issue past #3 with the exception of 9. As the prices on these climb to the $200 mark we are seeing, I'm thinking we will see a lot more 9.8s start to get slabbed. I guess the 15 and 17 make sense as mid-run issues with under ten copies in 9.8, but issue 15 is probably the worst storyline of the entire run (at least 16 has a cool cover with the awful story) and there just hasn't been incentive to slab these books until very recently.

Are we talking domestic gross or international? It has a little ways to go for both, it's about $180 million behind the top domestic R rated film, and $250 million behind international totals. I think it will pass both, but "just about" makes it seem much closer than it is right now. Probably by the end of the month though.

Adventure 72?

I don't think anyone would argue that there aren't more AF 15s in the wild to be found. At this point AF 15 is about 15 years older than the oldest book in the Church collection when it was brought to market, and while we absolutely know there are some original owner collections older than that here on the boards, the likelihood that any of them contain a 9.4 or greater AF15 is incredibly small. Look at the Don and Maggie collection. Both adult collectors at the dawn of the Marvel Age, and Maggie was a librarian, they knew what they were doing and made an effort to keep their books as nice as possible. But it's still serendipity which ones would up 7.5 and which ones wound up 9.4. For example Hulk 3-5 were all 9.4, but the #6 was only a 7.5. Like I said, in the last 16 years, only 4 copies have been added that were 9.4 or better, bringing the average down to 1 out of every 300 graded and the percentage is dropping. As we know more than 1,200 copies have been graded in the last 16 years. I don't know where Bluechip eats dinner and sees movies, but by 1982 when the Overstreet Update came out it was already a $1,000 book in NM. No one was wandering into a comic shop in the mid-80s, plopping down $50 and walking out with a NM copy that they've forgotten about for 35 years. Any "new" NM or better copies in the future are far more likely to be known copies with known collectors than newly discovered ones. Lots more copies out there for sure, but not lots in NM or better.

I lean towards this view. When HA sold a 9.4 in 2003 there were 5 total copies in 9.4 plus the 9.6. One of the 9.4s became a 9.6, but even with all the price increases, there have still only been a total of 4 copies in 9.4/9.6 added to the census in the last 16 years. That's .5% of all universal copies, or .3% of all submitted copies. This would be consistent with Gator's finding - out of a random box of 100 copies purchased years ago, the odds are that none will be a 9.4 or better. And that was kind of my point, when the first 9.6 sold everyone said it was a crazy number. But now 8 years later it's kind of a matter of fact that it would be a million, even though there are 4x as many 9.6 copies graded. a 9.4 brings $700K two years ago when there are 5 copies in the same shape and 4 better? Name another book that would sell for $700K when it's the 10th best graded copy - the only ones that qualify are Action 1 and Detective 27. so it's uncharted territory again when one of the 9.6s finally does come up for sale.

That's what my brain wants to say also, but when a 9.2 sells for basically $600K and there are 10 higher graded ones, who knows. It's been 2 years since one of the 6(!) 9.4s sold for $700K, i think the only thing we know is that it's safe to say each of the 9.6s is worth 1 million plus.

It's just fun to look back at the listings and realize many of the books are worth their 2004 asking price.

He might have lost more on Church/Mile High copies than anyone too - maybe more than Gary Keller.

true the preferred target is an Ipad, Iphone, or some other electronic equipment. But it's happened with all sorts of collectible items. Get it, claim damage, send an empty package back to a different address and ebay has it marked as delivered. case closed.

It really looks like you are getting hit with a variation of the "same zip code scam" that has been going on with ebay/paypal for a while now. My guess is the buyer sent back nothing, and is going to send the cracked slab to CGC to be reholdered.

Well the "on sale" January 1939 issues would be Action #10 and Detective #25, so I don't think there is any question that Action #10 was the bigger seller. Also think that Action 12 outsold Detective 27 easily. Superman #1 went on sale in May and it's 1st print run was 500,000 copies alone, so it's pretty clear Superman was the main cog in their sales at that point.

Yes, of course I've known Peter for many years. We have a 1-sheet poster of Pluto's Christmas Tree that we send back and forth to each other every other Christmas to display (an item we both had wanted, and saw it together at a show, so we share rather than having to fight over it)

As Keith's best friend for 20+ years, I am definitely going to have a slanted view. The good part of the Keith story is that even when I met him in the late 80s he had already been a dealer with a great reputation since the early 70s. He and his brother Peter ran the comic section of the Paper Chase in Georgia for many years before that (anyone who lived in the state and collected comics or movie posters in the 70s-90s will remember them and their incredible stock) and Keith was one of the driving forces in the growth of the HG SA market during the 80s and 90s. His columns and rants in both the Overstreet Updates and CBM are required reading for anyone who loves comics. He was trusted and respected by collectors and dealers alike for decades - the original poster who claimed Keith stole $26,000 from him had literally hundred of thousands of dollars of books (and many thousands in cash) with him at any given time for years on just verbal deals. And I don't know of any dealers that weren't happy to send him material upfront for his inspection before purchase. The bad of his story is that a troubled marriage (and troubled step-child), combined with the launch of his mobile-vet business, led to an arrest, some false charges, the confiscation of his money and assets, and a depression that he could not find his way out of.

I love this hobby. Now to be fair, the 8.5 does seem extremely tight. But we are back to the "for $5,000 to regrade, the 9.0 I thought I saw, was most certainly a 9.4".