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What is currently the hottest genre?
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94 posts in this topic

7 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Anything with a great or even decent cover. Most all genres except Classics Illustrated I think. Most of the "big" key cover pch cover books for example, are evident but now people are touting the "second tier" type covers as well. Since the advent of CGC collectors have become increasingly cover aware. 

Even for these, the original editions of some issues in high grade can go over guide; sometimes well over.  But, yeah, non-original editions in mid-grade are about as dead as they can be.  Same with nearly all post-1950 Dell books in mid-grade, except for Duck keys and a few others.  Those seem sell, although not for much over guide, I don't think.

Simon & Kirby books in nearly all genres (apart from Timely) seem pretty dead and don't seem to sell for much, given the scarcity of some issues, particularly in high grade. At one time, they were the Golden Boys of the Golden Age.  Maybe they will be again some day.  

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2 hours ago, BakerFanOne said:

I have to admit that I have ignored Fiction House and Ace for far too long.  What a mistake as some of the Rangers, Fight, Planet, Prize and Super-Mystery covers are among the best out there.  Fortunately through Rick and some of the other great sellers on the boards, I have been able to pick up a few good ones.

Prize and Super-Mystery go for multiples of guide in every grade now. Ditto Four Favorites, Lightning,  Sure Fire. Lots of these books are basically impossible to find now.

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1 hour ago, twmjr1 said:

Prize and Super-Mystery go for multiples of guide in every grade now. Ditto Four Favorites, Lightning,  Sure Fire. Lots of these books are basically impossible to find now.

Yeah - you mention some of the other great Ace titles that I will never complete as the prices have skyrocketed and the supply seems very limited.  Of course as the prices have jumped, maybe we will see some more copies come to market.  There are still a few cool superhero titles with relatively low demand, but they are getting more and more limited. 

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In my opinion, any PCH that also includes some GGA is the hottest thing on wheels right now. A prime example is Ghost Comics.

Timely teen humor is also hot.

Romance is rapidly rising in popularity. Recent Heritage auctions have had oodles of Romance comics - and they've been selling quite well.

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1 hour ago, Mr. Lady Luck said:

In my opinion, any PCH that also includes some GGA is the hottest thing on wheels right now. A prime example is Ghost Comics.

Timely teen humor is also hot.

Romance is rapidly rising in popularity. Recent Heritage auctions have had oodles of Romance comics - and they've been selling quite well.

Across genres, it's the GGA/babe factor that makes books hot. The more cheesecake , the more interest. You see this especially with crime. Take Fox crime books without a dame featured on the cover, they still sell slowly, and are mostly what you find sitting on ebay, unloved. Anything remotely GGA ( an abused term) in appearance, and they sell for over guide.

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41 minutes ago, rjpb said:

Across genres, it's the GGA/babe factor that makes books hot. The more cheesecake , the more interest. You see this especially with crime. Take Fox crime books without a dame featured on the cover, they still sell slowly, and are mostly what you find sitting on ebay, unloved. Anything remotely GGA ( an abused term) in appearance, and they sell for over guide.

Pretty apt summation for the market. Take any given PCH cover, if it's a dude getting threatened by a supernatural baddie, "meh, OK" -- swap the dude for a voluptuous lady and "whoa, must have!"

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43 minutes ago, october said:

Unless the guy's head is exploding. Or his head is melting. Or his head is getting chopped off. Head trauma, so hot right now. 

Graphic violence always has strong appeal among GA collectors: 

Checklist for "classic covers". The more of these a cover contains, the better.

Babes (preferably in bondage or under threat of violence)

Graphic violence/horror (including decapitation and burning alive)

Nazis (or better yet, Hitler)

Skulls (especially if they take up most of the cover)

Colorful villains.

Situations and stereotypes now considered inappropriate.

Superior draftsmanship, composition and coloring. 

 

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In no particular order....

  • PCH
  • Romance, but classic / headlight covers
  • General classic covers
  • Random esoteric covers (ex. fish in the face, Hitler, etc...)
  • Fiction House

I think this will partially based on what we all follow and collect.  For me, it's completely obviously what LB Cole covers have been doing in the past year - it's insane.  Books that were $30-50 not too long ago you can just add a zero to.  And this is mid-grade stuff.  Of course, anything high grade is always king but seeing low to mid-grade stuff get big money seems to be a good indicator of what is really hot.  

Also, I bet that since we just lost Ditko (  :(  ) that his stuff is trending high right now.  Thoughts???

Edited by pmpknface
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18 minutes ago, pmpknface said:

For me, it's completely obviously what LB Cole covers have been doing in the past year - it's insane.  Books that were $30-50 not too long ago you can just add a zero to.  And this is mid-grade stuff.  Of course, anything high grade is always king but seeing low to mid-grade stuff get big money seems to be a good indicator of what is really hot. 

You mean something like this Blue Bolt 105 with the classic si-fi and the usual damsel in distress cover by L.B. Cole:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/blue-bolt-105-star-publications-1950-cgc-vf-75-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7189-91019.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

A highly underrated cover that was used as a frontispiece for one of the coffee table books (can't remember which one) on GA comic books.  Certainly didn't have the same impact as the Suspense 3 frontispiece used for the Gerber Photo-Journals.

Already at well over 4X condition guide and makes me wonder where this copy will finish up at?  hm  :taptaptap:

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1 minute ago, lou_fine said:

You mean something like this Blue Bolt 105 with the classic si-fi and the usual damsel in distress cover by L.B. Cole:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/blue-bolt-105-star-publications-1950-cgc-vf-75-off-white-to-white-pages/a/7189-91019.s?ic4=GalleryView-Thumbnail-071515

A highly underrated cover that was used as a frontispiece for one of the coffee table books (can't remember which one) on GA comic books.  Certainly didn't have the same impact as the Suspense 3 frontispiece used for the Gerber Photo-Journals.

Already at well over 4X condition guide and makes me wonder where this copy will finish up at?  hm  :taptaptap:

YUP!  That's one example.  Look at the cut on that?  It's mind boggling what it's getting - and I need a copy of that and was hoping it would stay "reasonable." That's out the window.  

A closer example of what I was speaking about is this one, a copy of TRUE TO LIFE ROMANCES #23 in CGC 2.0.  Sure it's not up for grabs that often and presents well but the guide on it is $21.  Look what it went for:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/religious/true-to-life-romances-23-star-publications-1954-cgc-gd-20-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/121829-14756.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

That's over 19x guide!!!!  doh!

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Any combination of "classic cover" and rarity is white hot... especially when the grade of the book is within the top ~40% of known graded copies.

Also, higher grade copies of classics that come up often, but only in lower grades. Try picking up a reasonably priced copy of Crime SuspenStories #22 in a 7.0 or higher. There's plenty of them out there, but they very rarely surface for sale.

And, of course, the genres others have mentioned.

The fact is: We have a high demand coupled with low supply, so prices are elevated. I can't help but wonder what will happen if more folks from the main stream of alternative investments get involved. There's some really cool history here that I think is still undiscovered by many.

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On 7/24/2018 at 2:50 PM, BakerFanOne said:

Like all markets, the basic forces of supply and demand come into play.  I always believe that markets go out of equilibrium when demand outstrips supply and you see huge price gains like Matt Baker, Black Cat 50, Spider-Man 1 and then demand decreases as prices and supply increase.  

People always say collect what you like, but there are still underpriced, under appreciated genres that could see some big price gains.  Unfortunately many of those areas are in silver and bronze like Marvel Superheroes 13, X-Men 12, Eternals 1, Forever People 1 etc. . . 

If you are asking about golden age only, I do think history is a good starting point looking at books that used to be quite expensive but have not kept pace in recent years.  All Star 3 and 8, Whiz 1 well as Marvel Comics 1 are good examples of recent big risers that were dormant for years as other keys exploded.  

I also believe that spending time looking through the photo-journals and many golden age posts on the boards can highlight some cool overlooked books.  I wish I had a crystal ball so I knew what would be the next Punch 12, Pep 34, or Real Life 3, but I would only be guessing.  But the cool thing is that there is something for every taste which means Duck books may become hot again . . . Or not!

 

This gets my vote as next Pep 34. Perfectly staged with all of it: GGA, headlights, hanging, poisoning, drowning, bondage, crazed bad guy lunatic. The sheer perversity is mind boggling!

 

F9FD7428-5D4F-4F91-A1C8-630267267917.jpeg

Edited by GreatCaesarsGhost
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On 7/27/2018 at 5:27 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

This gets my vote as next Pep 34. Perfectly staged with all of it: GGA, headlights, hanging, poisoning, drowning, bondage, crazed bad guy lunatic. The sheer perversity is mind boggling!

 

F9FD7428-5D4F-4F91-A1C8-630267267917.jpeg

 No doubt a fantastic cover that has been seeing some huge price movement as with Ghost 2 and 6.  That being said, it is a shame that the redhead is a bit distant in the image as featuring her more prominently would make the cover even more spectacular.  

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52 minutes ago, BakerFanOne said:

 No doubt a fantastic cover that has been seeing some huge price movement as with Ghost 2 and 6.  That being said, it is a shame that the redhead is a bit distant in the image as featuring her more prominently would make the cover even more spectacular.  

Agreed. That said, those headlights could still poke out an eye!

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On 7/25/2018 at 11:36 PM, pmpknface said:

YUP!  That's one example.  Look at the cut on that?  It's mind boggling what it's getting - and I need a copy of that and was hoping it would stay "reasonable." That's out the window.  

A closer example of what I was speaking about is this one, a copy of TRUE TO LIFE ROMANCES #23 in CGC 2.0.  Sure it's not up for grabs that often and presents well but the guide on it is $21.  Look what it went for:

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/religious/true-to-life-romances-23-star-publications-1954-cgc-gd-20-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/121829-14756.s?ic2=mytracked-lotspage-lotlinks-12202013&tab=MyTrackedLots-101116

That's over 19x guide!!!!  doh!

I think it just shows how truly scarce a lot of these books are.  When there are very few copies around, it doesn't take many collectors to become interested in them to cause prices to soar.  Of course, with a lag we usually see more books come to market, which mitigates the price increases.  I think we've seen that with lower grade Baker St John romance books.  Even beat copies were going very high for a while there.  Then more copies of some issues surfaced and prices pulled back.  Same thing might happen with some Cole books, like this one. :wishluck:

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