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Dan DeCarlo comics....what's the story?

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I'm wondering if anybody can fill me in on the possible reasons for the recent upsurge in auction prices for Dan DeCarlo comics. I'm talking crazy prices, where comics I'd usually see selling for $20 are selling for $150 to $400.

 

It's even happening within the same month! Case in point -- look at these two auction results for similar copies of Millie the Model #78. I've seen other Dan DeCarlo comics also go for strangely disparate prices recently, where the exact same issue goes for $200 one week and goes for $15 the next week. (Are alien beings visiting the planet just to buy his stuff, then leaving for a few weeks at a time before coming back to buy more?)

 

Sherry the Showgirl, Showgirls, Millie the Model, My Friend Irma, Jetta, etc... What's the story? (Okay, I understand why Jetta goes for big bucks... I've watched for those and they really are rare... But the Millie the Model stuff seems common enough that the $150 price tags don't make sense to me at all.)

 

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That's an interesting example with the $150 and $15 Millie sales. You know what that tells me? The buying pool is VERY thin and VERY dedicated. Two guys want that issue. The first copy gets bid to the moon. The next copy goes for peanuts because one of the two big buyers just got his and is no longer in contention.

 

Similar to what we have seen in bronze horror, top census magazines, and higher grade silver age war comics in the past.

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That's an interesting example with the $150 and $15 Millie sales. You know what that tells me? The buying pool is VERY thin and VERY dedicated. Two guys want that issue. The first copy gets bid to the moon. The next copy goes for peanuts because one of the two big buyers just got his and is no longer in contention.

 

Similar to what we have seen in bronze horror, top census magazines, and higher grade silver age war comics in the past.

 

+1 -- if a seller of material like this, cross your fingers that you get lucky, and get two determined bidders to engage each other. :)

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You know what that tells me? The buying pool is VERY thin and VERY dedicated. Two guys want that issue.

 

I can not speak to all Decarlo issues but as someone who buys Millie books I never know if I'm going to pick up a reader copy for $50 or watch two people explode a price to the stratosphere.

 

Although I will disagree with the OP that these books are common. Are there common Millie books yes there are tonnes of them on the bay, are there issues that are not at all common (random number under 80) and start bidding wars when they come up YES! Then the other copies of the same book come out of the wood work and sell for normal price.

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I watched a slightly ratty VG copy of Spiderman #90 hit something like $150.00 or so on I believe a mycomicshop auction. You could just as easily clicked on Ebay or another site and picked up a raw or CGC 9.0 for that or less. Makes no sense. Their auctions along with Ebay and others aren't really the real market value.

 

That said, Millie's rise are probably slightly tied to Archie's over the last few years and issues #18 up to maybe 105 or 110 are very in demand in decent shape.

 

 

 

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I'm wondering if anybody can fill me in on the possible reasons for the recent upsurge in auction prices for Dan DeCarlo comics. I'm talking crazy prices, where comics I'd usually see selling for $20 are selling for $150 to $400.

 

It's even happening within the same month! Case in point -- look at these two auction results for similar copies of Millie the Model #78.

155885.jpg

Not sure this example is the best illustration. That looks like the exact same book. Looks like the winner of the first 152.50 auction

 

is the seller of the second 15.50 auction.

 

Either they took a real bath by buying and trying to resell so quickly, or...draw your own conclusions. (thumbs u

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155907.jpg.e5c2506d5e60af0cb0d5658a5088afbe.jpg

155908.gif.58e4225036e47eff9745eaa936545547.gif

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The bidding wars on some of these comics are insane, these guys seem to have very deep pockets paying hundreds for rag copies. But a lot of these comics come up for sale once In a blue moon, I have needed Millie #82 and 83 for a LONG time now. Last time I saw one of them for sale on eBay....it exploded for over 100 and I lost interest. One day I will find the two issues I need....but I am not in a rush.

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Not sure this example is the best illustration. That looks like the exact same book.

Definitely the same book. I don't know how I missed that (d'oh!).

 

I'll have to go back and see if some of the other uneven prices (for the same issue) I've seen in the past couple months are also the same book.

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I'm not sure why some explode in price and others don't. I do know the following things:

 

1. They are very early and cool Marvel comics. Heck, even the issue 51 referenced above is from 1954.

 

2. The artwork is cool and represents the genre quite well

 

3. It's Stan Lee and Dan DeCarlo, and Stan Goldberg. All very talented creators

 

That's just three reasons off the top of my head

 

 

 

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