A lot of decent stuff coming on the Auction block 5 5

[Sqeggs]

On 9/16/2017 at 1:29 PM, Zolnerowich said:

On 9/15/2017 at 1:54 PM, Sqeggs said:

That auction completely slipped my mind.  A book I had my eye on slipped away well below what I would have paid.  Oh well, it's not as if I haven't been spending enough lately. 

I was gonna say you haven't been spending enough lately. That Seven Seas 6 was supposed to kickstart the new and improved Sqeggs Sqellection. 

It would have if you had only come across with that loan liked you promised.

 

[Silver Surfer]

2 hours ago, tth2 said:

ah, i see.  for me, it's like there were the auctions in 2013 and 2014, which if i recall correctly was after a pretty long hiatus, and then 2017.

this is because i can't see books on comiclink because they've blocked me and everyone else in china and hong kong, and i don't look at pedigree anymore.

the 2015 sale on heritage was a cbcs book, so i kind of disregarded it, although now that i think about it, i should have just equated their 9.6 with cgc 9.4, so i guess i was aware of that one.

Really? 

[ThothAmon]

8 hours ago, tth2 said:

Not even once a year in 9.4.

I've read and re-read this sentence and I still can't understand it. 

I could!  

[Zolnerowich]

1 hour ago, Sqeggs said:

It would have if you had only come across with that loan liked you promised.

 

Check your Swiss bank account.

[lou_fine]

52 minutes ago, Silver Surfer said:

3 hours ago, tth2 said:

ah, i see.  for me, it's like there were the auctions in 2013 and 2014, which if i recall correctly was after a pretty long hiatus, and then 2017.

this is because i can't see books on comiclink because they've blocked me and everyone else in china and hong kong, and i don't look at pedigree anymore.

the 2015 sale on heritage was a cbcs book, so i kind of disregarded it, although now that i think about it, i should have just equated their 9.6 with cgc 9.4, so i guess i was aware of that one.

Really? 

Yes, rather surprising!

Is this similar to how Google, Youtube, and some of the other major Western sites are blocked in China?  Maybe this is why one of the other board members said that they could not bid on Heritage while they were in China at the time of the auction? 

[Silver Surfer]

Its Roy's fault!

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

17 hours ago, tth2 said:

Yeah, that little company named Ali Baba puts buyers and sellers together through faxes and phone calls.

So you live in Hong Kong, how interesting.  Is there any comic interest there, or are you a lone wolf in the wilderness?

[Sqeggs]

2 hours ago, Zolnerowich said:

3 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

It would have if you had only come across with that loan liked you promised.

 

Check your Swiss bank account.

[tth2]

8 hours ago, Silver Surfer said:

11 hours ago, tth2 said:

ah, i see.  for me, it's like there were the auctions in 2013 and 2014, which if i recall correctly was after a pretty long hiatus, and then 2017.

this is because i can't see books on comiclink because they've blocked me and everyone else in china and hong kong, and i don't look at pedigree anymore.

the 2015 sale on heritage was a cbcs book, so i kind of disregarded it, although now that i think about it, i should have just equated their 9.6 with cgc 9.4, so i guess i was aware of that one.

Really? 

Yep.  Comiclink was apparently subject to cyberattacks from China, so their ISP said the best way to deal with it was to simply not allow any internet access from China (which apparently also included Hong Kong).  So that's what they did.

I asked Josh why Heritage, ComicConnect, eBay, HighGrade, Pedigree, etc. didn't seem to have the same issue, or didn't have to resort to the same unbelievably unsophisticated defense, since I never had any issue in accessing their websites or auctions.  Never got an answer.

I used to buy quite a bit from Comiclink.  I bought my 9.4 Adventure 247 from them, among many other books.  It was pretty stunning how casual they were about blocking me out and not being willing to try to find a solution.   

[Gotham Kid]

@tth2

Proxy surfing ?

Edited September 19, 2017 by Gotham Kid

[tth2]

7 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yes, rather surprising!

Is this similar to how Google, Youtube, and some of the other major Western sites are blocked in China?  Maybe this is why one of the other board members said that they could not bid on Heritage while they were in China at the time of the auction? 

No, HK is not behind the Great Firewall.  I can access literally all internet sites in the world except Comiclink.  Their blunderbuss defensive technique was really mindboggling.

Heritage is accessible from China, by the way.  I've accessed their site from China.  Plus, they have some massive coin customers there.    

[tth2]

7 hours ago, fleepunyhumans said:

So you live in Hong Kong, how interesting.  Is there any comic interest there, or are you a lone wolf in the wilderness?

Not much.  Lots of local interest in Chinese and Japanese comics, but very little interest in American comics, even with the massive popularity of superhero movies.

There was another collector here for a while, who was also on the Boards, who built up and then sold a virtually complete Marvel SA collection in 8.5 or better, but I think he's left.

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

28 minutes ago, tth2 said:

Not much.  Lots of local interest in Chinese and Japanese comics, but very little interest in American comics, even with the massive popularity of superhero movies.

There was another collector here for a while, who was also on the Boards, who built up and then sold a virtually complete Marvel SA collection in 8.5 or better, but I think he's left.

Don't get me wrong, I know Hong Kong is one of the premier spots on the face of the planet . . . But How are you able to acquire comics in such a remote spot?

[lou_fine]

29 minutes ago, fleepunyhumans said:

1 hour ago, tth2 said:

Not much.  Lots of local interest in Chinese and Japanese comics, but very little interest in American comics, even with the massive popularity of superhero movies.

There was another collector here for a while, who was also on the Boards, who built up and then sold a virtually complete Marvel SA collection in 8.5 or better, but I think he's left.

Don't get me wrong, I know Hong Kong is one of the premier spots on the face of the planet . . . But How are you able to acquire comics in such a remote spot?

I don't believe that Tim is the type of collector that goes down to the LCS to buy his weekly fix of MA comics. 

He's much more the type that would have accounts set up with Heritage and CC whereby he could snap up quality vintage books like the Church copy of Mystery Men 3 which he got in the Jon Berk Auction. 

Edited September 19, 2017 by lou_fine

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

I don't believe that Tim is the type of collector that goes down to the LCS to buy his weekly fix of MA comics. 

He's much more the type that would have accounts set up with Heritage and CC whereby he could snap up quality vintage books like the Church copy of Mystery Men 3 which he got in the Jon Berk Auction. 

 

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

I don't believe that Tim is the type of collector that goes down to the LCS to buy his weekly fix of MA comics. 

He's much more the type that would have accounts set up with Heritage and CC whereby he could snap up quality vintage books like the Church copy of Mystery Men 3 which he got in the Jon Berk Auction. 

Thanks lou_fine. It all makes sense now . . .  I think secretly you boardies are all super heroes

[scooter99]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

I don't believe that Tim is the type of collector that goes down to the LCS to buy his weekly fix of MA comics. 

He's much more the type that would have accounts set up with Heritage and CC whereby he could snap up quality vintage books like the Church copy of Mystery Men 3 which he got in the Jon Berk Auction. 

Hmmmm, I don't know Tim personally, but I suspect he accumulated much of his collection when he was in the states.  Eagle eyed best copy available.   Like I said, I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess. 

[lou_fine]

On 9/17/2017 at 0:20 PM, fleepunyhumans said:

No, I got a 4.5 Science 2 from Heritage.  I was overseas when the Heritage auction for the MH copy finished.  I contemplated hard between the MH Science 2 and the Tec 35, and right or wrong, saw a brighter future for the Tec 35.  They have no internet access in China(its still a communist country, believe it or not) so I was forced to leave high bids before I left. Well,  I missed on the Tec 35, and now wish I'd bet the same money to the MH Science 2. Oh well.  

It's rather unfortunate that you ended up missing out of both of these all-time classic books.  Especially in terms of the Science 2 which certainly doesn't come along everyday when you are talking about the Church pedigree copy of the book.  Although I do believe you probably placed the right bet since the 'Tec 35 is more widely collected and known as it is GA DC mainstream, while the Science 2 is much more of a true comic collector's type of book and hence limited to more of a niche market relative to the 'Tec 35.  But that's just my opinion even though I am a Fox collector, but not a Science 2.    Oh yeah, I guess I am also a pre-Robin 'Tec collector since I also have some of those issues, but just not a 'Tec 35. 

Actually, I am quite surprised that you cannot bid on the Heritage website when you are in China since I believe they have one of the highest internet penetration rates in the world.  From being in China myself several times a full decade ago, I found their cell phone technology to be light years ahead of what was available over here at the time.  Another thing that I am surprised at is that apparently the reason why Apple Pay is so successful in the U.S. is that the credit card system (apparently until very recently) did not have tap capability or even chip enhanced security which has been a feature on Canadian credit cards for several years now. 

 

On 9/17/2017 at 0:20 PM, fleepunyhumans said:

I'm about at the end of my buy cycle.  I'm going to put away the books and try TRY to unplug from the comic world and forget the whole thing.  I'll peek out again in a few years, if all goes according to plan, and see what's what.  

I feel blessed to have been in the comic hobby.  It's the best hobby EVER

+1

Most definitely the best hobby ever, at least from my own very biased personal point of view. 

Sorry to hear that you will be taking a break for awhile from the comic book buying world.  Totally understandable though since I kind of took an extended break from buying expensive vintage comic books myself for about 20 years.  Especially when the nice quality books started to pass my $1K threshold limit back in the mid 90's.  But in a sense, I never really left because I still kept track of what was happening in the marketplace, and hopefully, you'll continue to do the same also.  Especially since you certainly don't need to be a constant buyer in order to be a true comic book collector. 

[lou_fine]

On 9/17/2017 at 0:37 PM, fleepunyhumans said:

And yes, you're right:  Worlds Finest never does get much respect, does it?

+1

Surprisingly, this lack of respect also used to apply to the Wonder Woman books before they finally managed to get some heat from the movie and related media hype that started up a few years ago.  In a way though, they still seemingly don't get a ton of respect since the majority of their non-key, non-classic cover books still barely goes for guide, and in some cases sell only at a big discount to guide, as evident to many of the WW lots in this just completed CC auction.  Like everything else in this supposedly hot marketplace, everybody seems to be after only the keys and classic covers with not too much love for the others. 

 

On 9/17/2017 at 0:37 PM, fleepunyhumans said:

I personally think that was a colossal mess up with CL and CC finishing at the same time.

+1

Most definitely as it's already difficult enough to jump back and forth between the CC auctions that are supposedly ending and then "not ending" due to their continuing 3-minute extensions.  And now you are also asking us to open up additional windows to keep track of auctions ending on CL at the same time. 

If I was a consignor in this auction and the book which I had consigned sold for quite a bit below recent market prices, I would definitely be a bit perturbed with the situation here.   

[tth2]

2 hours ago, scooter99 said:

Hmmmm, I don't know Tim personally, but I suspect he accumulated much of his collection when he was in the states.  Eagle eyed best copy available.   Like I said, I don't know for sure, but that would be my guess. 

I accumulated some of my collection when I lived in the States, but not that much.  Most of the time I lived in the US, I was either a kid, a college student or a law school student, so I didn't have much money.  

Fortunately comics were a lot cheaper back then.

It's really unbelievable how much prices have risen, relatively speaking.  When I was in law school, the WM AF 15 sold for what seemed like an insane $40k.  But the annual salary of a 1st year associate at a major law firm in Washington DC at the time ranged from $50-80K, so it was less than a full year's salary, and thus within the realms of possibility.  

Fast forward to 2017, and although law firm salaries have escalated at a healthy clip (I can't believe how much snot-nosed kids straight out of law school get paid these days), a 9.4 AF 15 is multiples of what a 1st year associate would make and most definitely not feasible unless the kid is independently wealthy.

Edited September 19, 2017 by tth2

[Crowzilla]

5 hours ago, tth2 said:

Not much.  Lots of local interest in Chinese and Japanese comics, but very little interest in American comics, even with the massive popularity of superhero movies

That can't be correct. Mitch tells us all the time that it's the Hong Kong billionaires who are rushing to buy these books because of the massive popularity of superhero movies (except for Wonder Woman of course, and that is if they can pry them away from the hands of the Russian oligarchs).