Mask Comics actual pricing 10 10

[Robot Man]

On 4/15/2021 at 5:25 AM, entalmighty1 said:

The narrative is always the same with stuff like this.  People confuse scarcity and availability pretty often.  Turns out there's not much that's truly rare AND desirable in the world of comics.  Copies that exist and copies that are for sale are two entirely different things.  I suspect that's kind of what happened with the Mask books, but I could be wrong.  Somebody started piling up copies as they came to market, then tried to release them back into the market a short time later, only to find out the demand wasn't as high as they initially thought.

I think there a lot of books that are scarce and rarely available. Ace books, Four Favorites, Prize, most MLJ, Speed, better Centaurs come to mind off the top of my head. Impossible and just go crazy on the better ones anytime I see them pop up. Mask seems down right common compared to a lot of these. Ship has pretty much sailed on these for me...

[entalmighty1]

16 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I think there a lot of books that are scarce and rarely available. Ace books, Four Favorites, Prize, most MLJ, Speed, better Centaurs come to mind off the top of my head. Impossible and just go crazy on the better ones anytime I see them pop up. Mask seems down right common compared to a lot of these. Ship has pretty much sailed on these for me...

For sure.  I think part of the problem with some tough GA books is the supply is so low, it keeps demand in check simply because people are unaware they even exist.  That said, even with the brief time period I've really been paying attention to Golden Age books (under 10 years), there's very few books that I would consider super tough to find.  Super tough to own is a different story.

Still waiting on my chance at a Prize 18.  

[entalmighty1]

Also @Robot Man, don't get me wrong.  I absolutely adore both Mask 1 and 2, and have copies of both (restored, thus more affordable).  I'm not trying to downplay the value at all.  Just stating they aren't as rare as the perception was initially.

 

 

[lou_fine]

58 minutes ago, entalmighty1 said:

17 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I think there a lot of books that are scarce and rarely available. Ace books, Four Favorites, Prize, most MLJ, Speed, better Centaurs come to mind off the top of my head. Impossible and just go crazy on the better ones anytime I see them pop up. Mask seems down right common compared to a lot of these. Ship has pretty much sailed on these for me...

For sure.  I think part of the problem with some tough GA books is the supply is so low, it keeps demand in check simply because people are unaware they even exist. 

Yeah, tell me about Ace Comics and especially in terms of Ace Comics 11 with the first comic book appearance of the Phantom and a book that hardly never ever shows up in the marketplace.  

Just as tough at the other end is the last few extremely HTF issues of the Ace run with those rather simple, but beautiful Phantom covers that also simply doesn't seem to show up in the marketplace.  You can definitely throw away the guide when it comes to these later Ace issues with the Phantom covers as I believe they have only shown up once in the marketplace so far with each of them selling for several hundred dollars and then only in mid-grade condition.         

[Robot Man]

6 hours ago, entalmighty1 said:

For sure.  I think part of the problem with some tough GA books is the supply is so low, it keeps demand in check simply because people are unaware they even exist.  That said, even with the brief time period I've really been paying attention to Golden Age books (under 10 years), there's very few books that I would consider super tough to find.  Super tough to own is a different story.

Still waiting on my chance at a Prize 18.  

Me too. I have never seen one or heard of one for sale. I was talking to Terry O'Neal a few weeks back. He is a big Prize collector. He was literally begging me to sell him some of my Prizes. I had to ask him why he thought I would take mere cash for any. If I sold them, I would immediately just want them back anyway...

@sagii What about you Corey? Ever seen one of these?

[Robot Man]

5 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Yeah, tell me about Ace Comics and especially in terms of Ace Comics 11 with the first comic book appearance of the Phantom and a book that hardly never ever shows up in the marketplace.  

Just as tough at the other end is the last few extremely HTF issues of the Ace run with those rather simple, but beautiful Phantom covers that also simply doesn't seem to show up in the marketplace.  You can definitely throw away the guide when it comes to these later Ace issues with the Phantom covers as I believe they have only shown up once in the marketplace so far with each of them selling for several hundred dollars and then only in mid-grade condition.         

I was referring to the Publisher Ace. (Super Mystery, Lightning, Our Flag ect.)

But, yeah, I've seen Ace #11 bring some serious dough. Always surprises me as I kind of assume The Phantom is kind of a dead character outside of those who covet his books.

 

[sagii]

11 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Me too. I have never seen one or heard of one for sale. I was talking to Terry O'Neal a few weeks back. He is a big Prize collector. He was literally begging me to sell him some of my Prizes. I had to ask him why he thought I would take mere cash for any. If I sold them, I would immediately just want them back anyway...

@sagii What about you Corey? Ever seen one of these?

Got cold feet at throwing in a bomb bid on the last one i recall seeing for sale in a C'Link auction a few years ago. Very nice copy and I had waited years for a copy (any condition) to surface. 

I understood the notion that "You'll regret the ones you let slip by more than the feeling of what you may perceive as overpaying at the time in the long run"

Regret it to this day!

[adamstrange]

8 hours ago, entalmighty1 said:

Just stating they aren't as rare as the perception was initially.

 

This is generally the case with comics without a mainstream superhero and that had a low value in the Guide.

I think it's pretty clear that scarcity is hard to determine until a book has sufficient market demand and price that 1) dealers specifically hunt it and 2) collectors are motivated to sell.

In the case of Mask 1 & 2, those have been in continual high demand for at least the last 3 decades.  Prices weren't nosebleed for them until relatively recently, but was sufficient to bring a number to light.

This situation doesn't, apart from a small number of exceptions, exist for the publishers listed below.

On 4/16/2021 at 8:36 PM, Robot Man said:

I think there a lot of books that are scarce and rarely available. Ace books, Four Favorites, Prize, most MLJ, Speed, better Centaurs come to mind off the top of my head. Impossible and just go crazy on the better ones anytime I see them pop up. Mask seems down right common compared to a lot of these. Ship has pretty much sailed on these for me...

 

[adamstrange]

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

He is a big Prize collector. He was literally begging me to sell him some of my Prizes. I had to ask him why he thought I would take mere cash for any. If I sold them, I would immediately just want them back anyway...

So true!  Money is a poor substitute for a comic book.

[Robot Man]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:16 PM, sagii said:

Got cold feet at throwing in a bomb bid on the last one i recall seeing for sale in a C'Link auction a few years ago. Very nice copy and I had waited years for a copy (any condition) to surface. 

I understood the notion that "You'll regret the ones you let slip by more than the feeling of what you may perceive as overpaying at the time in the long run"

Regret it to this day!

Oh, I understand that notion well. Took me a long time to figure it out. I understand that regret well. Here is mine, 

I hate the term, but Suspense #3 is my “grail”. About 5 years ago I went to WonderCon. The second dealer I saw had a copy on the wall. I asked to see it. It was pretty low grade. Covers were split snd tattered. Centerfold was missing. Really beat but very presentable. I asked the price. Well wasn’t cheap and I had the money. But it would have wiped out my budget for the 3 day show. So I did a dumb thing. I handed it back and asked him to hold it for 15 minutes while I called my wife. So I stepped aside and made the call. I hadn’t even noticed him, but Ritchie Munchen had been lurking right behind me. He asked to see that “book with the pages missing”. He offered a much lower price and the guy took it! I later saw him tape it up with tape and offer it for sale for triple what he had paid for it. I was crushed. Like being punched in the gut. 

So I moved on and bought a bunch of other stuff. I have no idea what I got but I knew it could have been my “grail”. Probably only chance I will ever have to own one. There are those unicorns you need to pay up for but most you can wait for. 

[october]

3 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

I later saw him tape it up with tape and offer it for sale for triple what he had paid for it.

[sagii]

29 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Oh, I understand that notion well. Took me a long time to figure it out. I understand that regret well. Here is mine, 

I hate the term, but Suspense #3 is my “grail”. About 5 years ago I went to WonderCon. The second dealer I saw had a copy on the wall. I asked to see it. It was pretty low grade. Covers were split snd tattered. Centerfold was missing. Really beat but very presentable. I asked the price. Well wasn’t cheap and I had the money. But it would have wiped out my budget for the 3 day show. So I did a dumb thing. I handed it back and asked him to hold it for 15 minutes while I called my wife. So I stepped aside and made the call. I hadn’t even noticed him, but Ritchie Munchen had been lurking right behind me. He asked to see that “book with the pages missing”. He offered a much lower price and the guy took it! I later saw him tape it up with tape and offer it for sale for triple what he had paid for it. I was crushed. Like being punched in the gut. 

So I moved on and bought a bunch of other stuff. I have no idea what I got but I knew it could have been my “grail”. Probably only chance I will ever have to own one. There are those unicorns you need to pay up for but most you can wait for. 

Ouch! 

[lou_fine]

2 hours ago, Robot Man said:

I handed it back and asked him to hold it for 15 minutes while I called my wife. So I stepped aside and made the call.

So, did the dealer NOT hold it for the 15 minutes that you had asked him to?    

Or was it because your wife had gone on for so long cc about you throwing all of your wad all on one shot, that it was well pass 15 minutes by the time you got off the phone with her?    

[Robot Man]

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

So, did the dealer NOT hold it for the 15 minutes that you had asked him to?    

Or was it because your wife had gone on for so long cc about you throwing all of your wad all on one shot, that it was well pass 15 minutes by the time you got off the phone with her?    

No, not only did not hold it. I was on the phone at the time, but I was willing to pay his full price. But, he sold it to fast talking Ritchie at a discount. 

My wife, by the way, is a rather deep pocketed antique dealer. She gets the drill. But we have an agreement. Any money that comes out of our joint account of any significance, needs to be known by both of us. 

She has never disagreed because she trusts me and and I rarely need to. I thought the dealer and I had a gentleman’s agreement. He was apparently greedy, in a hurry and no gentleman. I no longer deal with him. 

[thehumantorch]

44 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

No, not only did not hold it. I was on the phone at the time, but I was willing to pay his full price. But, he sold it to fast talking Ritchie at a discount. 

My wife, by the way, is a rather deep pocketed antique dealer. She gets the drill. But we have an agreement. Any money that comes out of our joint account of any significance, needs to be known by both of us. 

She has never disagreed because she trusts me and and I rarely need to. I thought the dealer and I had a gentleman’s agreement. He was apparently greedy, in a hurry and no gentleman. I no longer deal with him. 

Making money in the short term and losing money and reputation in the long term.

[waaaghboss]

On 4/19/2021 at 3:49 PM, thehumantorch said:

Making money in the short term and losing money and reputation in the long term.

Long term being 15 minutes, based on what I've read 

[lou_fine]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:03 PM, Robot Man said:

On 4/17/2021 at 11:43 AM, lou_fine said:

Just as tough at the other end is the last few extremely HTF issues of the Ace run with those rather simple, but beautiful Phantom covers that also simply doesn't seem to show up in the marketplace.  You can definitely throw away the guide when it comes to these later Ace issues with the Phantom covers as I believe they have only shown up once in the marketplace so far with each of them selling for several hundred dollars and then only in mid-grade condition.         

I was referring to the Publisher Ace. (Super Mystery, Lightning, Our Flag ect.)

But, yeah, I've seen Ace #11 bring some serious dough. Always surprises me as I kind of assume The Phantom is kind of a dead character outside of those who covet his books

Definitely my bad here as I thought you was referring to Ace Comics and not the Publisher Ace.  

My mind flashed back almost immediately to that late run of Ace Comics  with the Phantom covers when a few of the later issues at long last finally came up for auction and they all still managed to fetch relatively strong prices even though they were only in mid-grade, especially this final issue here:  

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/ace-comics-151-david-mckay-publications-1949-cgc-fn-65-cream-to-off-white-pages/a/122009-11004.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

A nice bright HTF Phantom cover that sold for a rather surprising $900 or at a price point that was something like 27X condition guide price.  

[lou_fine]

On 4/17/2021 at 5:03 PM, Robot Man said:

I was referring to the Publisher Ace. (Super Mystery, Lightning, Our Flag ect.)

If you are referring to Publisher Ace with titles like Our Flag, there can really be no hotter or near impossible to find book than Our Flag 5.  

It must indeed be a super rare book because both HA and CC don't show any historical sales for this book in their auction archives, although I do believe that CL might have had one in one of their previous Featured Auctions, and if so, a link to this listing would be greatly appreciated.  

 

[lou_fine]

Well,looks like we are going to be seeing some blowout record setting prices for this upcoming highest graded Mask 1 and 2nd highest Mask 2 here:  

Will be interesting to watch these 2 copies from the newly designated Promise Collection pedigree in the upcoming Heritage Signature Auction to see where they finish up, although I believe the sheer volume of books from this new pedigree just might keep prices down a bit, because there is just so much money that can go around for these books here.    

Especially since most of the other books from the early batches in this new pedigree collection have been graded into the CGC high 9's, so these 2 books here would appear to be downside outliers from a condition grading point of view.    

Edited April 27, 2021 by lou_fine

[comicjack]

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Well,looks like we are going to be seeing some blowout record setting prices for this upcoming highest graded Mask 1 and 2nd highest Mask 2 here:  

Will be interesting to watch these 2 copies from the newly designated Promise Collection pedigree in the upcoming Heritage Signature Auction to see where they finish up, although I believe the sheer volume of books from this new pedigree just might keep prices down a bit, because there is just so much money that can go around for these books here.    

Especially since most of the other books from the early batches in this new pedigree collection have been graded into the CGC high 9's, so these 2 books here would appear to be downside outliers from a condition grading point of view.    

Amazing stuff