Is something happening with the value of Action #58? 0

[Sqeggs]

2 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

I actually fished a great book out of one of Harley's boxes at WonderCon that was WAY under priced. Hard to get the best of the Yeester but it can be done.

I've occasionally picked up a book or two that he hadn't realized had taken off.  I got a nice raw copy of Phantom Stranger 2 (the 1950s series) at a bit below guide when that series had already rocketed way over guide.  

Overall, though, I've paid through the nose much more than I've gotten deals. But I don't begrudge him his high prices.  He does come up with some great books and, as I think you mentioned in the Wonder Con thread, he's got to be the hardest working guy in the comics biz. 

[Readcomix]

39 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

I'm with you.  Any copy would be a good one for me at this point.  When I asked Harley about that price, he said he had paid a lot for the copy and wasn't making much of a profit. 

I figured; kidding you. I don't doubt he sunk a lot into such a high grade copy, and that it might be worth it, but it's very much one of those "gotta be the right customer" books, I think. Richard said earlier in this chain that it doesn't sell often but there's "tons of copies" out there. I'm sure he means it relative to GA copy populations in general, but how many is tons for a DC from that era? A few thousand of the perhaps nearly half million printed? And then how many are beaters? Just being rhetorical; who knows? 

[Sqeggs]

1 hour ago, Readcomix said:

I figured; kidding you. I don't doubt he sunk a lot into such a high grade copy, and that it might be worth it, but it's very much one of those "gotta be the right customer" books, I think. Richard said earlier in this chain that it doesn't sell often but there's "tons of copies" out there. I'm sure he means it relative to GA copy populations in general, but how many is tons for a DC from that era? A few thousand of the perhaps nearly half million printed? And then how many are beaters? Just being rhetorical; who knows? 

Hard to judge these things, but there are only 30 copies on the census (some of those, of course, might be duplicates from cracking and resubmitting).  As a rough guess, I would be surprised if more than a few hundred copies have survived.  One indication of how many surviving copies there are is if we see much of a census bump as the escalation in price leads more people to slab and sell their copies. Seven of the 30 copies on the census are already 3.0 and below.

[Readcomix]

12 minutes ago, Sqeggs said:

Hard to judge these things, but there are only 30 copies on the census (some of those, of course, might be duplicates from cracking and resubmitting).  As a rough guess, I would be surprised if more than a few hundred copies have survived.  One indication of how many surviving copies there are is if we see much of a census bump as the escalation in price leads more people to slab and sell their copies. Seven of the 30 copies on the census are already 3.0 and below.

I would think that more likely too; I doubt the raw number of total copies extant is terribly high into four figures at most for any WWII era books. I would think the vast majority are in the hundreds and of course many are likely much fewer. 

[EJR]

At Wondercon,  besides the CGC 9.0 copy that Harley had, I found one other copy, a raw very low grade copy that Terry O'Neill and Jamie Graham own with an asking price of $450.  I had to pass on it because of the page quality. 

[fishbone]

A few years ago, the only "wanted" item I had in my sig line was an Action #58. Someone PM'd me and asked me why, of all things I was saying I wanted/needed, was I listing the Action #58 and sort of laughed at it. My response was that, honestly, I hadn't been able to find one for sale or in any auction and it was the only early War cover I still needed. Luckily, I was able to score a mid-grade copy finally, but even since then have never really seen it very often .......

[nearmint]

The Rockford 8.0 sold in December for $6200.  Hard to say what the 9.0 should sell for, as there are 2 higher grade copies, both graded 9.4.

[Robot Man]

On 4/3/2017 at 4:29 PM, Sqeggs said:

I've occasionally picked up a book or two that he hadn't realized had taken off.  I got a nice raw copy of Phantom Stranger 2 (the 1950s series) at a bit below guide when that series had already rocketed way over guide.  

Overall, though, I've paid through the nose much more than I've gotten deals. But I don't begrudge him his high prices.  He does come up with some great books and, as I think you mentioned in the Wonder Con thread, he's got to be the hardest working guy in the comics biz. 

That was probably the case with the book I got. I also scored with a couple other dealers on books that were under their radar at the same show. I make a practice of buying other peoples' mistakes all the time. I also put in the time/research and I box dig for the stuff people are too lazy to look for. I do pay well if I have to but enjoy those "mistakes" a whole lot more...

[lou_fine]

On 4/3/2017 at 1:35 PM, EJR said:

Harley Yee had a CGC 9.0 copy at Wondercon with an asking price of $16K! 

 

On 4/3/2017 at 4:13 PM, Sqeggs said:

On 4/3/2017 at 3:15 PM, Readcomix said:

Harley got you on commission, Tony?

I don't need a Boardwalk copy, I'd settle for Mediteranean Ave....maybe Baltic, anyway....

I'm with you.  Any copy would be a good one for me at this point.  When I asked Harley about that price, he said he had paid a lot for the copy and wasn't making much of a profit. 

Yes, still remember the raw copy of Mystery men 30 that Harley sold for something like $7,500 in one of the cons last summer, and apparently didn't make much money on that one either as he had to pay a lot for it himself. 

[sacentaur]

50 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, still remember the raw copy of Mystery men 30 that Harley sold for something like $7,500 in one of the cons last summer, and apparently didn't make much money on that one either as he had to pay a lot for it himself. 

This was at SDCC and is true - I know all three of the parties involved (original seller, Harley, buyer).

[lou_fine]

3 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

55 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, still remember the raw copy of Mystery men 30 that Harley sold for something like $7,500 in one of the cons last summer, and apparently didn't make much money on that one either as he had to pay a lot for it himself. 

This was at SDCC and is true - I know all three of the parties involved (original seller, Harley, buyer).

I forgot, what was the grade on the book?

Was it a VG / Fine or was it Fine / VF or something like that? 

[sacentaur]

Just now, lou_fine said:

I forgot, what was the grade on the book?

Was it a VG / Fine or was it Fine / VF or something like that? 

VF, give or take - a real stunner, the thing looked practically brand new (came from an old-timer's small collection, only a handful of books unfortunately).

[lou_fine]

16 hours ago, sacentaur said:

16 hours ago, lou_fine said:

I forgot, what was the grade on the book?

Was it a VG / Fine or was it Fine / VF or something like that? 

VF, give or take - a real stunner, the thing looked practically brand new (came from an old-timer's small collection, only a handful of books unfortunately).

Sounds like a real nice copy as this is apparently one of the real tough ones to find. 

Especially if you take a look at the CGC census with only 2 copies graded to date so far, and 1 of them being the Berk copy due to hit the auction block in a couple months from now.

Any idea what other books were in the old-timer's hand and did he walked them around the various dealers before settling on selling them to Harley? 

[rjpb]

On 4/3/2017 at 4:24 PM, Robot Man said:

I actually fished a great book out of one of Harley's boxes at WonderCon that was WAY under priced. Hard to get the best of the Yeester but it can be done.

I remember in the mid 90s, he was very superhero centric in his focus, and used to sell classic cover pre-code crime and horror books for around guide all the time, even when other dealers would have them at 3 or 4 times guide.