ComicConnect and ComicLink August auctions 8 8

[lou_fine]

On 8/31/2018 at 9:19 PM, adamstrange said:

On 8/31/2018 at 4:01 PM, lou_fine said:

Surprisingly, still not much action (if any at all) on this classic Robot cover even though it's only a couple of hours away now.  

Wonder if it's due to the fact that there's been a marked increase in the CGC census (even in uber HG condition) for many of these classic covers from the late 40's time period, whether it be Nedors, Fiction House, etc.?  Or more possibly, I imagine it might be due to potential bidders just keeping their powder dry for now and waiting for the critical 3-minute extended time button to be hit.  

Interesting to note that there also appears to be quite a few other nice looking Startling's that will be ending this evening.  But definitely not much in terms of the HTF Centaur line in this go round here this week.  

$64,000

Yes, I was actually watching this one along with some of the other Startling's when my better half came into the room to see what I was looking at.  

She was actually wondering why I was looking at this robot cover book because her attention was much more focused on some red dinosaur cover that kept going near the top of the screen before it would disappear back down as it very very slowly grind its way up from something like $50 up to $250.  Must have hit every single bid incremental step along the way as she actually found it quite fascinating.      

Go figure that as the big red dino probably reminded her of her little red sports car or something.  

 

 

[lou_fine]

On 9/1/2018 at 5:09 AM, MustEatBrains said:

Anyone here pick this one up?

 

On 9/1/2018 at 5:58 AM, Ricksneatstuff said:

I wanted it but tapped out around 4.  

Great book.  

 

On 9/1/2018 at 6:21 AM, MustEatBrains said:

I was at 3777.  Someone wanted it bad for sure.

 

On 9/1/2018 at 6:25 AM, Ricksneatstuff said:

Awesome book with not much sales history. I had no idea where it would end up

Rather a bit surprising since the CGC census indicates a total of 28 graded unrestored copies, with many of them in the higher mid-grade range up to the current high of 9.0 NM-.

Nonetheless, this copy here here has quite a bit going for it in terms of being a first appearance and origin issue, near classic cover image, along with the fact that it is the highest graded copy for now.  Not sure though if a sale of this magnitude in terms of its end result will draw out even more nice copies of this book.  

[grube09]

Picked up a few in these recent auctions.  Got into a bidding war for the Suspense #11...I would've dropped out earlier, but it was Friday night and liquid courage was in full effect 

 

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, grube09 said:

Picked up a few in these recent auctions.  Got into a bidding war for the Suspense #11...I would've dropped out earlier, but it was Friday night and liquid courage was in full effect 

 

 

 

Now, that's a classic "devil" of a cover for you to be picking up here.  

Looks like you managed to get it at a more reasonable price point as compared to the less classic Suspense 10 which also topped out at over $4K.  

Edited September 3, 2018 by lou_fine

[grube09]

32 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Now, that's a classic "devil" of a cover for you to be picking up here.  

Looks like you managed to get it at a more reasonable price point as compared to the less classic Suspense 10 which also topped out at over $4K.  

Thanks!  I am definitely happy to be bringing this LB Cole home 

[jhm]

18 hours ago, grube09 said:

Picked up a few in these recent auctions.  Got into a bidding war for the Suspense #11...I would've dropped out earlier, but it was Friday night and liquid courage was in full effect 

 

Love this book - congrats on a great pickup!

[mrmitchgro]

On 9/2/2018 at 12:47 PM, lou_fine said:

You are absolutely 100% right on your point here as this was the one book that I really wanted to win in the auction, but did not.  

From my personal point of view, this is the absolute best of the GGA art covers in the Wings run.  This book was seemingly stuck at the $1,550 price point prior to the end of the auction until I finally decided to throw something higher in there.  Was hoping that this CGC 9.4 highest graded copy would peak out somewhere around $3K since the last 9.4 (slightly nicer looking one) sold for $2,390 on Heritage back in 2011 when there were only 2 copies in this grade.  Now, with a much higher total of 6 copies in this 9.4 grade along with 36 others graded copies and many of them in the relatively high end, I was hoping this would keep a lid on the prices.  I guess in a way, this $4K was a reasonable price as the Heritage copy sold when the top of guide price was at only $330 and top of guide for this year is at a much higher $1,300 price point.  

I probably would have bidded higher than the $2,800 or thereabouts when I dropped out except I kept thinking about the raw what should have been a Fine+ copy except for some vertical crease defect that I had picked up from Metro for only $60 years ago and finally decided that I didn't really need the upgrade.  

Big congrats on your win here of what I considered to be a truly iconic cover.  

I was a late bidder on this one as well, though I was not the underbidder. Nice pickup @jhm!

[lou_fine]

13 hours ago, mrmitchgro said:

On 9/2/2018 at 10:47 AM, lou_fine said:

You are absolutely 100% right on your point here as this was the one book that I really wanted to win in the auction, but did not.  

From my personal point of view, this is the absolute best of the GGA art covers in the Wings run.  This book was seemingly stuck at the $1,550 price point prior to the end of the auction until I finally decided to throw something higher in there.  Was hoping that this CGC 9.4 highest graded copy would peak out somewhere around $3K since the last 9.4 (slightly nicer looking one) sold for $2,390 on Heritage back in 2011 when there were only 2 copies in this grade.  Now, with a much higher total of 6 copies in this 9.4 grade along with 36 others graded copies and many of them in the relatively high end, I was hoping this would keep a lid on the prices.  I guess in a way, this $4K was a reasonable price as the Heritage copy sold when the top of guide price was at only $330 and top of guide for this year is at a much higher $1,300 price point.  

I probably would have bidded higher than the $2,800 or thereabouts when I dropped out except I kept thinking about the raw what should have been a Fine+ copy except for some vertical crease defect that I had picked up from Metro for only $60 years ago and finally decided that I didn't really need the upgrade.  

Big congrats on your win here of what I considered to be a truly iconic cover.  

I was a late bidder on this one as well, though I was not the underbidder. Nice pickup @jhm!

Well, since the "W" is right near the end of the alphabet with the Wings ending quite late on a Friday night, shouldn't you guys all have been either out getting an early start on the long weekend or in bed sleeping by then.  

If the two of you had only done your part, I would have been able to pick up the book from the boys at CC/Metro at a much lower price point.  

[lou_fine]

On the topic of Suspense Comics, I was wondering if anybody else had noticed this sale of Suspense Comics 10:

Makes me wonder if the seemingly almost 2-decades long slumber which these Suspense book have been in is finally over as this copy here managed to fetch $4K or what amount to 2.5X condition guide?  Or is it because the L.B. Cole cover books are also starting to pick up on the cover-centric wave that has been gaining strength during the past few years?  Definite signs of strength here since the Suspense Comics 11 with the classic Devil cover pictured above also went for a relatively strong price at $4,800 or just slightly over 2X condition guide.  

Or is it something to do with the auction venue which I highly doubt in terms of Heritage which normally gets pretty strong prices?  Not so much the case the past several years during this apparent Suspense slumber with prices running usually around guide and many of them seemingly on a slight downward trend.  For example, the CGC VF 8.0 Davis Crippen copy of Suspense 10 originally sold at Heritage for $1,434 and then was resold a full decade later in 2016 at a lower price point of only $1,075.  Maybe, the high profile sales of both the Penn copy and Church copy of Suspense 3 during the past couple of years have help to revive collector interest back into this Suspense run once again?  

Absolutely glad to see these seemingly under appreciated L.B. Cole Suspense books finally getting their day in the sun again.  Would also absolutely love to see a nicer copy of either the extremely HTF Suspense Comics 4 or Suspense 8 with the classic spider cover come to market since I believe both of these books are virtually impossible to find in grade.  

 

 

Edited September 5, 2018 by lou_fine

[Knightsofold]

On 8/30/2018 at 2:55 PM, batman_fan said:

Sounds like it even looks though there is a new Wonder Woman in the works and last one was really good (I thought). 

I think AS#8 would do much better if Wonder Woman was on the cover, and if there weren’t the other 2 grail worthy Sensation comics #1 and Wonder Woman #1

[mrmitchgro]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Well, since the "W" is right near the end of the alphabet with the Wings ending quite late on a Friday night, shouldn't you guys all have been either out getting an early start on the long weekend or in bed sleeping by then.  

If the two of you had only done your part, I would have been able to pick up the book from the boys at CC/Metro at a much lower price point.  

Who says I wasn’t at the bar bidding on my phone? I’m actually surprised I didn’t go higher  

[lou_fine]

9 hours ago, mrmitchgro said:

11 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Well, since the "W" is right near the end of the alphabet with the Wings ending quite late on a Friday night, shouldn't you guys all have been either out getting an early start on the long weekend or in bed sleeping by then.  

If the two of you had only done your part, I would have been able to pick up the book from the boys at CC/Metro at a much lower price point.  

Who says I wasn’t at the bar bidding on my phone? I’m actually surprised I didn’t go higher  

Well, it's obvious to me that you didn't get to the bar soon enough then, otherwise you should have been passed out already by the time they got anywhere close to the "W's".  

[jhm]

17 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Would also absolutely love to see a nicer copy of either the extremely HTF Suspense Comics 4 or Suspense 8 with the classic spider cover come to market since I believe both of these books are virtually impossible to find in grade.  

I wonder if there's any high grade Suspense 8's out there. Census shows 4 at 7.0 and 3 at 7.5, none higher.

With highest graded being a 7.5, I have a tough time imagining the best graded copies commanding crazy prices... but this market shocks the hell out of me all the time!

I hold this 7.0 that I'd LOVE to upgrade, but I fear that may be a near-impossible task.

[G.A.tor]

2 hours ago, jhm said:

I wonder if there's any high grade Suspense 8's out there. Census shows 4 at 7.0 and 3 at 7.5, none higher.

With highest graded being a 7.5, I have a tough time imagining the best graded copies commanding crazy prices... but this market shocks the hell out of me all the time!

I hold this 7.0 that I'd LOVE to upgrade, but I fear that may be a near-impossible task.

There are several really nice high grade copies out there for sure that I’ve seen. But doubt they are coming to market anytime soon. 

[Red84]

On 9/3/2018 at 10:05 AM, grube09 said:

Picked up a few in these recent auctions.  Got into a bidding war for the Suspense #11...I would've dropped out earlier, but it was Friday night and liquid courage was in full effect 

 

One of my favorite covers!

[lou_fine]

2 hours ago, G.A.tor said:

5 hours ago, jhm said:

I wonder if there's any high grade Suspense 8's out there. Census shows 4 at 7.0 and 3 at 7.5, none higher.

With highest graded being a 7.5, I have a tough time imagining the best graded copies commanding crazy prices... but this market shocks the hell out of me all the time!

I hold this 7.0 that I'd LOVE to upgrade, but I fear that may be a near-impossible task.

There are several really nice high grade copies out there for sure that I’ve seen. But doubt they are coming to market anytime soon. 

Are you aware of any other pedigree copies of this book or is the Church copy about the only one out there?  

From just looking at the Heritage archives, it would appear that they have all pretty much hit the open marketplace during the past 15 years or so, with some of them multiple times.  The only obvious exceptions to this would be the rare HTF Suspense 4, the Suspense 8 with the much in demand classic spider cover, and not sure why, but also Suspense 10.  

Wonder how good Chuck's grading was when it came to the Suspense run because he had 6 of them graded as NM+.  Looks like the 5 of them that has been graded and shown up in the Heritage archives indicates 3 of them (i.e. Suspense 2, 7, & 9) as being CGC 9.4, the Suspense 1 as a CGC 8.5, and the Suspense 12 as a CGC 9.0. Maybe the Suspense 8 might just slot nicely in there between the Suspense 7 & 9 as a CGC 9.4?