An Interesting Look at Overstreet's First Comic Book Price Guide 2 2

[circumstances]

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Edited June 9, 2019 by circumstances

[lou_fine]

14 hours ago, TheSurgeon said:

#7 was my first and only one for many years. For the reason you mentioned- I could spend that money on comics instead! I can’t imagine how many times I read that. I no longer have my copy. I don’t know why I would have thrown it out. Probably in my later teen age years when I stopped collecting.

Now, this Porky Pig cover was the first Overstreet also for me and I have purchased a copy every year since then.  

I was absolutely shocked that older comics were worth that kind of money and spent countless hours paging through that copy.  Needless to say, it is by far the most worn out one in my entire Overstreet run.  

Back in those early years, I always wished that I could eventually sell my books of the day for the prices that Overstreet had them listed for.  Now that I am primarily into GA books, I just wished that I could buy them for the prices that Overstreet has them listed for.  

[lou_fine]

17 hours ago, telerites said:

I have picked up a #2 and #3 but first printings of #1 have been out of my reach.  

Well, it's never too late to give it another try as it looks like Heritage has 2 of them coming up in their next auction this coming August:

 

Not sure how smart it is to have 2 of them up in the exact same auction as I believe this would only serve to dampen prices on both copies here.  Looks like the CGC 9.2 graded copy was graded recently and the consignor must be hoping for the astounding price that the last CGC 9.2 graded copy managed to fetched near the end of last year.    

Not sure if he's going to have the same luck though.    

[telerites]

3 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, it's never too late to give it another try as it looks like Heritage has 2 of them coming up in their next auction this coming August:

 

 

 

Not sure how smart it is to have 2 of them up in the exact same auction as I believe this would only serve to dampen prices on both copies here.  Looks like the CGC 9.2 graded copy was graded recently and the consignor must be hoping for the astounding price that the last CGC 9.2 graded copy managed to fetched near the end of last year.    

Not sure if he's going to have the same luck though.    

The 8.0 is a second printing.  Wonder if both are from the same consignor.

Do you remember what the print run was for his first printing?

[lou_fine]

19 minutes ago, telerites said:

The 8.0 is a second printing.  Wonder if both are from the same consignor.

Do you remember what the print run was for his first printing?

Wow, is Heritage really brightening their scans or what as that 8.0 does not look very blue to me?  

As for the first printing, I believe it was limited to only 1,000 copies as I had mentioned in my initial post that started this thread.  So, I would imagine that there's probably not too many around that would still be in relatively HG condition.  Not sure if the last sale for $9K was simply nothing more than an outlier that will not be repeated or if the prices will head right back down to the $2K to $3K that they were at several years ago.  Especially since as we all know, the comic book market has exploded since that time.  

Edited June 9, 2019 by lou_fine

[Mmehdy]

#2 for me was the first one bought but a friend of mine had #1 and we used it all the time. So important back then to establish credibility in our hobby....

[telerites]

5 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

is Heritage really brightening their scans

Yeah I think HA routinely "manipulates their scans.  I thought the same on this when I read the label that it was a second printing.

Sorry, I missed the print run you had earlier mentioned.  Thanks again for sharing the info.

 

[pastandpresentcomics]

The second print has a blue cover. My copy is a second print.

[rjpb]

My first was either #2 or #3, I'm not sure anymore. whichever one it was I recall the G-F-M price ratios were 1:2:3. "This is worth 37¢ in very good, will you sell it for 30?"

Somewhere along in the 70s I remember them changing to 1:2:4

[comicnoir]

On 6/8/2019 at 6:19 PM, telerites said:

And I retired banking on this one from my collection 

This deserves to go down in flames. What a boring cover.

[KirbyJack]

8 hours ago, lou_fine said:

 

I was absolutely shocked that older comics were worth that kind of money and spent countless hours paging through that copy.  Needless to say, it is by far the most worn out one in my entire Overstreet run.  

19 was my first, and same scenario; read it so much I had to replace it. I read my 20 a couple of times, too.

[lou_fine]

10 hours ago, lou_fine said:

As for the first printing, I believe it was limited to only 1,000 copies as I had mentioned in my initial post that started this thread.  So, I would imagine that there's probably not too many around that would still be in relatively HG condition. 

 

10 hours ago, telerites said:

Sorry, I missed the print run you had earlier mentioned.  Thanks again for sharing the info.

No worries and always happy to share what liitle info I do have.  

Actually, from a true rarity point of view, the real toughies apparently are supposed to be Overstreet #2 and #3 hardcovers which some boardies speculate might have been printed in only the triple digit amounts and possibly even only in double digit amounts.  Probably one of the reasons why they appear to be so extant and haven't really shown up in auctions as far as I am aware, as any that are around are probably locked away in private collections.   

[lou_fine]

On 6/8/2019 at 11:26 AM, Robot Man said:

I remember going to small Elks club or church basement comic shows, early SDCC and seeing GA books just laying in piles, un-bagged on tables or under a plastic sheet. The big superhero books were pricey to me. Barks Ducks and ECs as well. Usually $3-5 for horror and $5-7 for sci-fi. Under the tables were unbagged books for usually a buck apiece. I scoured these boxes grabbing PCH, Crime, Sci-Fi and “weird” books like Rulah, Seven Seas and Avons. Didn’t know much about them but they sure were cool! My $25 bucks went a long way when I spent the show on my knees. 

Your comment about the popularity of the Ducks books reminds me of my first venture down to the SD Con in the very early 90's.

I remembered there was a lot of commotion when a private collector walked in with a very small stash of books (about 20 or so) and he was apparently looking to trade them for some of the Ducks books.  He had driven all the way down from Newport Beach or thereabouts and I think Fishler or one of the other big dealers had assured him that they would have a copy of either Four Color 4 or was it March of Comics 4 which he was really trying to acquire for his personal collection.  Apparently, he was really upset as he thought they were simply trying to give him the old runaround when they didn't have the Ducks book and instead, tried to lowball him on his small stash of books.  

Big mistake on the dealers part because I believe he had a nice run of low to mid grade pre-Robin 'Tec books in there from 'Tec 28 through to 'Tec 38, save for a few issues in the middle of the run.  But the one single book that all of the dealers were really interested in and chasing at the time was a really nice looking sharp copy of the HTF Detective 1   which he had right at the top of his pile.  

Looking backwards, I bet they were all sorry that they didn't have a copy of Four Color 4 or March of Comics 4 that day.    

Edited June 10, 2019 by lou_fine

[buttock]

16 hours ago, KirbyJack said:

19 was my first, and same scenario; read it so much I had to replace it. I read my 20 a couple of times, too.

Mine was 15, and it ended up in about 20 pieces just like this.  My favorite thing to do was to imagine that I could have one book from each page, and then figure out which one to choose.  

[Cat-Man_America]

On 6/9/2019 at 11:41 AM, lou_fine said:

Wow, is Heritage really brightening their scans or what as that 8.0 does not look very blue to me?  

As for the first printing, I believe it was limited to only 1,000 copies as I had mentioned in my initial post that started this thread.  So, I would imagine that there's probably not too many around that would still be in relatively HG condition.  Not sure if the last sale for $9K was simply nothing more than an outlier that will not be repeated or if the prices will head right back down to the $2K to $3K that they were at several years ago.  Especially since as we all know, the comic book market has exploded since that time.  

The scan appears boosted ...you can tell by the oversaturated psychedelic blue, brighter on one side of the label than the other and washed out CGC trademark in center..., but the image doesn’t look as bright as scans in the previous HA comic auction.  My recollection of the second printing OSG is a light blue cover, so this isn’t too far off.  

IMO, the problem with new label images comes down to a depth of field issue which probably isn’t Heritage’s fault.  The current CGC holder has a deep well placing books on a much lower plane than the label prompting darker scanned books.  That’s why labels appear bolder, brighter and more colorful ...or billboard-like... unless the image is manipulated to better match what’s seen in hand.  The difficulty is getting the correct color and brightness balance between book and label.  That’s my two bits (old school two cents, after inflation) and I realize there’s a broad spectrum of opinions on this matter.

Apologies if this topic covers too much familiar territory.  

[telerites]

On 6/10/2019 at 12:13 PM, buttock said:

Mine was 15, and it ended up in about 20 pieces just like this.  My favorite thing to do was to imagine that I could have one book from each page, and then figure out which one to choose.  

 I did that too.  I also played the alphabet game where I would think through the alphabet and pick one title per letter.  I was trying to pick the most valuable (in similar grade) based on the entire golden age run of the title so Marvel Mystery Comics trumped Marvel Comics.  I never actually did the math so not sure if that is even correct.  Some letters were easy like A was Action Comics, B was Batman...

It was better than counting sheep to get to sleep.

[buttock]

2 hours ago, telerites said:

 I did that too.  I also played the alphabet game where I would think through the alphabet and pick one title per letter.  I was trying to pick the most valuable (in similar grade) based on the entire golden age run of the title so Marvel Mystery Comics trumped Marvel Comics.  I never actually did the math so not sure if that is even correct.  Some letters were easy like A was Action Comics, B was Batman...

It was better than counting sheep to get to sleep.

Awesome!  Definitely spent a lot of hours I was supposed to be sleeping looking through the guide. 

[Robot Man]

2 hours ago, telerites said:

 I did that too.  I also played the alphabet game where I would think through the alphabet and pick one title per letter.  I was trying to pick the most valuable (in similar grade) based on the entire golden age run of the title so Marvel Mystery Comics trumped Marvel Comics.  I never actually did the math so not sure if that is even correct.  Some letters were easy like A was Action Comics, B was Batman...

It was better than counting sheep to get to sleep.

Think ALL of us either do or have done that on occasion. Somebody posts a group shot of various books. Say they have 5 books in 5 rows. How many of you have had to choose which one in each row you would take?

Or even better, someone posts an old newsstand photo with a kid standing in front of it. How many of you have ever fantasied you were that kid with only one dime? Which one would you buy? I’m sure all of us faced that delimma more than once in real life as a kid...

Edited June 12, 2019 by Robot Man

[lou_fine]

10 minutes ago, buttock said:

Awesome!  Definitely spent a lot of hours I was supposed to be sleeping looking through the guide. 

Actually, before the CGC boards and the Carter CBM monthly magazines, I remember that I use to religiously go through the Overstreet Market Reports from the various dealers.  

Definitely not the case anymore as it seems to take me until the next guide now before I get around to finishing them off.  Case in point, the guide is due out next month and I've only gone as far Al Stoltz's report with another 10 long long pages to go.  

[Robot Man]

Or even better, someone posts an old newsstand photo with a kid standing in front of it. How many of you have ever fantasied you were that kid with only one dime? Which one would you buy? I’m sure all of us faced that delimma more than once in real life as a kid...

OK, how about a test? You got a shiny Mercury dime... What do you pick and how long does it take you?