The $5,000+ Silver Age comic for a dead superhero 0

[tth2]

38 minutes ago, david20009 said:

Hi Tim.  Been a long time since chatted. You are doing Solar along with the Ducks now?  What about Magnus and Turok.

Hi David, wasn't sure if you were still in HK as I hadn't heard from you in such a long time.  Hope you're doing well.

I was never really an active Solar collector, but I managed to pick up a few issues here and there, particularly in the earlier days of CGC.  

Along with the #10 I posted earlier, here's a #11.

 

[tth2]

46 minutes ago, david20009 said:

 What about Magnus and Turok.

I used to have a bunch of Magnuses, but sold them off a long time ago.  Again, a title that I never really actively collected but just seemed to pick up here and there.

I was a very active collector of Turok, going back to the Dells, and still have my entire collection.  

Why, are you into the Gold Keys now?

[tth2]

12 minutes ago, tth2 said:

1 hour ago, namisgr said:

Yes, Tim, the entire run was mine.  As far as letting you know?  I offered the entire run of issues 1-23, 26 and 27 here on the boards on two separate occasions, and once on the Bay.  Hence, the gaps in the run on what made it eventually to ComicConnect.  Of the 17 issues sold on the ComicConnect auction, 16 went for at least 10% more (and up to 150% more) than my asking price here on the Boards.  You had plenty of chances.  

I never check out the sales threads. 

In any event, you misunderstood my meaning.  I'm not interested in buying.  Rather, I would've been able to consign a few issues to CC that would've filled a few gaps in the run you consigned.  For whatever reason, the more complete a consigned run, the more interest it tends to generate.

In any event, congratulations on a very successful auction Bob! 

[namisgr]

1 hour ago, tth2 said:

For whatever reason, the more complete a consigned run, the more interest it tends to generate.

Having sold virtually all of my high grade Silver that way, I certainly agree.  One factor is that the availability of some books brings eyeballs to the rest.  Another is the buyer's frenzy that only a run can create. 

[Gatsby77]

I think Doctor Solar # 1 (and Magnus # 1, and Four Color 596) are under-appreciated books and the Doctor Solar price was probably worth the price.

If nothing else, it validates the previous GPA price of $4,000+ -- which might otherwise have been a one-off outlier to the high side.

That said, I don't think it's "rare" in 9.4 -- yes, there's only the single (Pacific Coast) copy in 9.6,  but there are now 8 (!) 9.4s on the census. My memory is the census exploded back in 2011-2012 when it went from 3 to 7 9.4s in something like 18 months. And three 9.4s sold that year within just 6 months.

But now there are 8 in 9.4 and 1 in 9.6.

Compare to Magnus # 1 -- just 5 slabbed copies above 9.0 (3 in 9.2, 1 in 9.4, 1 in 9.6), despite its being a 1963 book.

And again, the # 5 sale was far more significant at $2,500+ for a 9.4 copy.

Of the 5 slabbed copies above 8.0 you've got:

• 2 in 9.0 (owned by me -- namisgr's former copy from his board sale of the run; the other owned by Rosland)
• 2 in 9.2 (one owned by me; the other sold via Heritage 2.5 years ago)
• 1 in 9.4 (the copy that sold this week)

Hopefully this sale will shine a light on # 5's rarity and lead to more submissions.

Edited September 1, 2018 by Gatsby77

[namisgr]

I suspect that among those 8 census entries for Solar #1 in 9.4 are a couple of resubmissions from those going after the rarified air that is 9.6.  That still doesn't change that Magnus #1 and Dr. Solar #5 are both even rarer in high grade.  No idea about the reason for the extreme rarity of Dr. Solar #5 - it could just be the luck of the draw (some ish has to be the rarest in high grade), or it could be that ish might have had a low distribution.  Who knows?

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by namisgr

[david20009]

9 hours ago, tth2 said:

Hi David, wasn't sure if you were still in HK as I hadn't heard from you in such a long time.  Hope you're doing well.

I was never really an active Solar collector, but I managed to pick up a few issues here and there, particularly in the earlier days of CGC.  

 

 

9 hours ago, tth2 said:

I used to have a bunch of Magnuses, but sold them off a long time ago.  Again, a title that I never really actively collected but just seemed to pick up here and there.

I was a very active collector of Turok, going back to the Dells, and still have my entire collection.  

Why, are you into the Gold Keys now?

 

I was pretty quite around the Boards here after I sold off all my Marvels and Barks Ducks (thanks for the help with that Tim) as the only slabs I get were some V1 Valiants (plus all 1000's of unslabbed books). 

I was still in Hong Kong though up until a year and a half ago when I moved to Singapore to launch a hedge fund with a Business School mate of mine.  Still make it back to HK about once a quarter and keep a mailing address and have kept my HK mobile number.  Think my wife and daughter want to spend fall term break there so I would likely pop up with them for part of it and we should be there for Christmas as well.

Maybe a month and a half ago I got back into getting Valiant slabs (V1 pretty hard).  I have been reading the new Valiant but other than Gold and Metal covers have basically buying anything else slabbed.  With my Valiant project I decided to go after the original Magnus, Solar and Turok books.  I won Turok 1 in the Comiclink auction and picked up #4 off of eBay.  Got Magnus 1 plus another 5 or so books and picked up maybe 10 of the Solars.  I am generally going for 9.2+ for the books but did do 9.0 for Magnus 1 and Turok 1 given their relative scarcity in high grade.  If you are ever interested in moving some of your Turok or Solar hit me up. 

[pemart1966]

Turok is a very tough series to collect completely, due to the fact that there are so many variants.  Best of luck if you decide to collect all of these.

Speaking of price variants, CGC lists 1 graded copy of #17 with the notation that it's Canadian.  Does anyone know what distinguishes it as such? Anyone own this book?

https://www.cgccomics.com/census/grades_standard.asp?title=Turok%2C+Son+of+Stone&publisher=Dell+Publishing&issue=17&year=1959&issuedate=9-11%2F59

Edited September 3, 2018 by pemart1966

[tth2]

10 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

I think Doctor Solar # 1 (and Magnus # 1, and Four Color 596) are under-appreciated books and the Doctor Solar price was probably worth the price.

 

FC 596 (Turok 1) is definitely not under-appreciated, at least not amongst Turok collectors.  It's just insanely difficult to find in NM or higher. 

I'm amazed to see that there are now 3 9.4s in the census.  I remember when the first 9.4 appeared, which was slabbed by A-1 Comics, but I decided not to buy it after it turned out to have been pressed.  I would pay silly money for an unpressed 9.4.

[tth2]

10 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

Compare to Magnus # 1 -- just 5 slabbed copies above 9.0 (3 in 9.2, 1 in 9.4, 1 in 9.6), despite its being a 1963 book.

Yup, Magnus #1 has always been difficult in 9.4.  More so than Dr Solar #1.

Magnus in general has always been more difficult in 9.4 or better than Dr Solar.   

[tth2]

10 hours ago, Gatsby77 said:

And again, the # 5 sale was far more significant at $2,500+ for a 9.4 copy.

Of the 5 slabbed copies above 8.0 you've got:

• 2 in 9.0 (owned by me -- namisgr's former copy from his board sale of the run; the other owned by Rosland)
• 2 in 9.2 (one owned by me; the other sold via Heritage 2.5 years ago)
• 1 in 9.4 (the copy that sold this week)

Hopefully this sale will shine a light on # 5's rarity and lead to more submissions.

Interesting point about Dr Solar #5, had never noticed that before, but thinking about it now, it's the one issue from 1-10 that I've never owned (other than #1 which was more due to price rather than availability).

[Gatsby77]

On 9/2/2018 at 2:32 AM, tth2 said:

Magnus in general has always been more difficult in 9.4 or better than Dr Solar.   

I agree. I've been trying to build a solid 9.4 Magnus set for seven years now.

Still haven't found # 37 in 9.4 or better.

If anyone has a line on this meager Bronze book and is willing to submit it, I'll pay $150 for a CGC 9.4 copy of Magnus # 37 or $225 for a CGC 9.6.

[david20009]

Not quite as nice as the 9.4 discussed above that I was the under bidder on but I finally got my Solar 1.  In 9.0 which I guess is fitting as it matches my Magnus 1 and Turok 1 which are the same grade.  Much lighter on the wallet as only 1,250 on eBay.

[tth2]

Congrats, nice pick up!

[the blob]

On 9/1/2018 at 12:10 PM, namisgr said:

Yes, Tim, the entire run was mine.  As far as letting you know?  I offered the entire run of issues 1-23, 26 and 27 here on the boards on two separate occasions, and once on the Bay.  Hence, the gaps in the run on what made it eventually to ComicConnect.  Of the 17 issues sold on the ComicConnect auction, 16 went for at least 10% more (and up to 150% more) than my asking price here on the Boards.  You had plenty of chances.  

 

 

The price you had on the #1 in hindsight sounds about right on the money. 20% less than the hammer price a year later adjusts for fees, etc and some appreciation.