Heritage's Next Event Auction has started posting books ! 31 31

[eschnit]

2 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

Yikes! I missed that. Yep, if a 3.0 went for $8K, $10K for a 4.5 does seem reasonable -- if not low! Still only 16 copies on the census, with only seven in 5.5 and above.

The prices of mid-grade Bakers seems to have been softening a bit lately. But clearly there are exceptions!

A 3.0 went for $8400, a 4.0 went for $9800 in public sales.  Each of those were scooped up almost immediately, no more than 5 minutes.  I paid well in excess of either of those numbers for a 4.5.    Let's just say less than double what the 3.0 went for, but substantially more than $10k.    I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  And I know I'm responding to the guy that probably has the best Baker collection of anyone on the planet.

 

As for the Seven Seas 4, there are 30 graded copies, but rare to see one come to light in high grade, though there are 16 5.5 or higher, how often do you see any of those copies.  Seven Seas 6 is a great book, I'm a fan,  but has clearly been left in the dust by 4.  SS 4 is probably worth 4X what SS 6 is.  There was a poll done not all that long ago.  I don't know exactly when, maybe a year ago regarding Bakers, I think the results were pretty much on point.  Seems the most popular Bakers are CL 25, SS 4, GCE  12, and PL 17.    Other Bakers are Bakers, those 4 books have their own identity and are going for multiples of the rest because of it imo.

Edited August 2, 2019 by eschnit

[comicnoir]

3 hours ago, szav said:

There seem to a lot of high grade copies of SS 4 on the census too, three 9.0s and a 9.2.

Given how many Uber high grade copies of SS 1 and SS 2 are on census too (there are non ped 9.4s, 9.6s, and 9.8s), I cant help but wonder if there was a warehouse or file copy find for these, and if there are a lot more high grade 4s locked up in collections.

3 9.0's and one 9.2 is not that many considering it's deemed a classic cover in Overstreet. I think they were graded, at least the 9.2 and 2 of the 9.0's, before OS recognized it's classic cover status. Of course collectors knew about it long before. It's almost a Tec 27 in it's niche following. That copy that just sold was the same copy sold twice on Ha. Doesn't sound like a lot of copies to me.

[lou_fine]

3 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

3 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Was it the usual typical small crowd of people at this Heritage Live Auction?  

I remember years ago when they held one of their big Signature Auction right in the middle of the SD Con.  With well over 100,000 convention attendees down there, I was expecting to see a relatively sizable crowd during the live portion of the auction.  When I walked into the room, I was surprised to see that there were barely 20 people in there and I am sure a good portion of them were Heritage employees themselves.  

Definitely couldn't complain about all of the goodies and refreshments though since there was ample to go around considering the small crowd.  

That’s the same here. 15-20 people, of which half were probably Heritage employees. 

Seems very anticlimactic 

I guess this shows us how much of a tiny tiny niche the uber high end of the comic book market really is. 

Especially when you would hopefully expect some type of leakage from the 100,000 comic book fans attending the SD Con, even more so considering all of the free food they had out there.  Not so much, it would seem.   

Edited August 2, 2019 by lou_fine

[eschnit]

17 minutes ago, comicnoir said:

3 9.0's and one 9.2 is not that many considering it's deemed a classic cover in Overstreet. I think they were graded, at least the 9.2 and 2 of the 9.0's, before OS recognized it's classic cover status. Of course collectors knew about it long before. It's almost a Tec 27 in it's niche following. That copy that just sold was the same copy sold twice on Ha. Doesn't sound like a lot of copies to me.

I think there’s a strong likelihood that Phantom Lady had a much bigger print run than Seven Seas and earlier issues in a run more copies than later issues.  Look at he number of copies of Frazetta’s run in FF, 209 far more copies than later issues.  PL 17 was at the beginning of the run compared to SS 4 which was relatively late, especially given the issues that came before.  My guess is that’s part of the reason for the disparity

Edited August 2, 2019 by eschnit

[lou_fine]

3 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

3 hours ago, szav said:

There seem to a lot of high grade copies of SS 4 on the census too, three 9.0s and a 9.2.

Given how many Uber high grade copies of SS 1 and SS 2 are on census too (there are non ped 9.4s, 9.6s, and 9.8s), I cant help but wonder if there was a warehouse or file copy find for these, and if there are a lot more high grade 4s locked up in collections.

May well be. I owned a 9.8 copy of SS 1 for a while. Not a very attractive cover, imo.

Seems as if material from Universal/Phoenix surfaced at some point, including some OA. 

A few years ago, somebody listed high graded copies of 4 and 6 (maybe also 5) on eBay at what seemed like crazy high prices. Those prices would be screaming bargains these days, of course. 

It would not surprise me at all if SS 1 and possibly SS 2 were indeed part of a small warehouse fine at some time in the distant past.  

I highly doubt that either SS 4 or most definitely SS 6 were ever part of any warehouse find given the relatively much lower number of HG copies out there.  

[eschnit]

The only uber high grade SS 6 slab is the Church.  If someone with the full run decided it was a good idea to slab the early issues but not the later ones, that would be quite the interesting choice.

[lou_fine]

On 7/31/2019 at 2:06 PM, Chicago Boy said:

Any thoughts on the MF 73 at 50k with under a day to go ?   The escalating window on this was shorter than AS 8 

Well, what is everybody's post-auction take on the final price of $72K for the CGC 7.0 graded copy of MF 73 here?  

Definitely much more than where they were going for prior to the Aquaman movie hype of 5 years ago, but appears to be a slight drop off from the $93K to $99K that CGC 8.0 graded copies were fetching on CC a couple of years ago.   Especially when you take into consideration that CC was able to fetch $74,500 in once of their Event Auctions for a not the best looking CGC 5.0 graded copy back in March of 2015.  Although that sale does appear to be a bit of an outlier when compared to all of the other MF 73 sales.  

[eschnit]

3 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, what is everybody's post-auction take on the final price of $72K for the CGC 7.0 graded copy of MF 73 here?  

Definitely much more than where they were going for prior to the Aquaman movie hype of 5 years ago, but appears to be a slight drop off from the $93K to $99K that CGC 8.0 graded copies were fetching on CC a couple of years ago.   Especially when you take into consideration that CC was able to fetch $74,500 in once of their Event Auctions for a not the best looking CGC 5.0 graded copy back in March of 2015.  Although that sale does appear to be a bit of an outlier when compared to all of the other MF 73 sales.  

Buy the rumor, sell the news 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

6 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, what is everybody's post-auction take on the final price of $72K for the CGC 7.0 graded copy of MF 73 here?  

Definitely much more than where they were going for prior to the Aquaman movie hype of 5 years ago, but appears to be a slight drop off from the $93K to $99K that CGC 8.0 graded copies were fetching on CC a couple of years ago.   Especially when you take into consideration that CC was able to fetch $74,500 in once of their Event Auctions for a not the best looking CGC 5.0 graded copy back in March of 2015.  Although that sale does appear to be a bit of an outlier when compared to all of the other MF 73 sales.  

I love MF 73. But How many people are there that collect aquaman and green arrow? I don’t watch the shows. Is there something on tv bringing in new collectors of those characters? I mean besides the aquaman movie itself?   If not,  I guess that has got to be factored in when considering the long term appeal of MF73.

[lou_fine]

On 7/31/2019 at 7:47 AM, Gotham Kid said:

On 7/31/2019 at 7:44 AM, Mr. Lady Luck said:

There are some Billy Wright pedigrees in the Summer auction. It appears that Billy Wright passed away rather young (he was only around 39 years old). Does anyone know the background on Billy and why he died so young?

https://lithub.com/the-man-who-made-millions-from-old-comics-in-a-closet/

 

Well, although Billy's heirs might indeed have made millions on his collection, it looks like the Tandano America Corporation might not have fared quite so well.

Especially if this BW copy of AS 3 which sold for $72K is any indication:

Most definitely a huge loss for them if their former employee had indeed paid $200K for this copy here after it had just sold for only $49K+ in a Heritage Signature Auction less than a week earlier.    

[Bronty]

49 to 72 is ok, it’s the 200 in between

[lou_fine]

On 8/1/2019 at 9:08 AM, comicjack said:

Someone is willing to pay a bunch of cash for that Amazing Man 22 

and will that Mask 2 hit the 10k mark 

Well, it came in mightly close at $9,600 which is definitely a pretty strong price for this copy here:

Considering all of the relatively strong prices that the Mask Comics have been fetching lately, I wish somebody would put out a nice copy of Suspense Comics 8 to see what kind of money that book would fetch in today's seemingly uber hot marletplace when it comes to the L.B. Cole classic cover books.  

Looks like this 1 of 3 highest graded copies was able to fetch only $3,107, but that was back in 2012 or long before the hot Cole phase:

Any bets that this book or any other HG copy of Suspense 8 would also be able to get close to the $10K mark in today's markedly hotter marketplace.  

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

36 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, although Billy's heirs might indeed have made millions on his collection, it looks like the Tandano America Corporation might not have fared quite so well.

Especially if this BW copy of AS 3 which sold for $72K is any indication:

Most definitely a huge loss for them if their former employee had indeed paid $200K for this copy here after it had just sold for only $49K+ in a Heritage Signature Auction less than a week earlier.    

This book has a tortured past :

https://www.rarebookhub.com/articles/2196/print?page_id=4234

 

[Ricksneatstuff]

2 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, it came in mightly close at $9,600 which is definitely a pretty strong price for this copy here:

Considering all of the relatively strong prices that the Mask Comics have been fetching lately, I wish somebody would put out a nice copy of Suspense Comics 8 to see what kind of money that book would fetch in today's seemingly uber hot marletplace when it comes to the L.B. Cole classic cover books.  

Looks like this 1 of 3 highest graded copies was able to fetch only $3,107, but that was back in 2012 or long before the hot Cole phase:

Any bets that this book or any other HG copy of Suspense 8 would also be able to get close to the $10K mark in today's markedly hotter marketplace.  

Suspense 8 in 7.5 would be 10k or extremely close. 

[lou_fine]

On 8/1/2019 at 12:07 PM, szav said:

On 8/1/2019 at 12:02 PM, Gotham Kid said:

Anyone win anything yet ?

Also 90K for TMNT. WTF.

As big a proponent of this book as I am, I have to wonder if this sale actually goes through, or if it isn’t some sort of attempted market manipulation.  Maybe someone who owns 100 copies winning his own book to try and drive up the value himself.

Especially when you consider that there's 24 other copies of this book out there in the exact samenot so HTF CGC 9.8 grade.  

Plus another 44 copies in slightly lower CGC 9.6 condition grade that's already knocking at the door and will now be highly tempted to go for some love loving and squeezeable hugs in order to see if they too can get past the door to join their CGC 9.8 graded brethren on the other side.  

Plus all of the other still raw HG copies of this book that's still out there which makes me think the purchaser of this particular copy is going to be in for a whole lot of financial pain and spanking when it comes time to sell this book here.  

[eschnit]

7 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Especially when you consider that there's 24 other copies of this book out there in the exact samenot so HTF CGC 9.8 grade.  

Plus another 44 copies in slightly lower CGC 9.6 condition grade that's already knocking at the door and will now be highly tempted to go for some love loving and squeezeable hugs in order to see if they too can get past the door to join their CGC 9.8 graded brethren on the other side.  

Plus all of the other still raw HG copies of this book that's still out there which makes me think the purchaser of this particular copy is going to be in for a whole lot of financial pain and spanking when it comes time to sell this book here.  

I’m doubtful we see that TMNT pop up for sale here.  Didn’t seem like a flip to sell kind of purchase.  After tax, $100k barely breaks even.  I’d hope it was a keeper purchase for the buyer.  Has anyone seen the WWBN 32 9.8 that went for $50k+ go up for sale since?

[lou_fine]

On 8/1/2019 at 3:04 PM, Sqeggs said:

On 8/1/2019 at 11:13 AM, Ricksneatstuff said:

The 9.0 Four Color 9 was a nice deal at $10,800.

I wish I was in buying mode right now. I would have definitely snagged that one. 

Well under guide, I think. FC 9 is a funny book (a funny funny book?). It's been a laggard for quite a while now. Combination, imo, of Barks having faded a bit, not a great cover (which isn't by Barks), not all Barks on the story, not a great story, and not a particularly scarce book. Still, that was a low price. I'd also have bid it up if I were in buying mode, which I'm also not.

I guess it sort of depends on which books you are talking about.

Based upon the initial low bidding that was taking place on these 2 not so in favor type of books, I was expecting the final results to also be on the low side:

 

Yet, both of these rather nice looking and superb HG copies were still able to fetch multiples to top of guide.  

[Chicago Boy]

2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Well, what is everybody's post-auction take on the final price of $72K for the CGC 7.0 graded copy of MF 73 here?  

Definitely much more than where they were going for prior to the Aquaman movie hype of 5 years ago, but appears to be a slight drop off from the $93K to $99K that CGC 8.0 graded copies were fetching on CC a couple of years ago.   Especially when you take into consideration that CC was able to fetch $74,500 in once of their Event Auctions for a not the best looking CGC 5.0 graded copy back in March of 2015.  Although that sale does appear to be a bit of an outlier when compared to all of the other MF 73 sales.  

The CC book for 75k was auctioned right in the sweet spot.  Perfect timing.   I’m not surprised at all with the hammer of this one , just disappointed 

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, Ricksneatstuff said:

Suspense 8 in 7.5 would be 10k or extremely close. 

Since you seem to be a fine connoisseur in this end of the market and have been for awhile now, are you aware of any potential high grade copies of this book that might grade into the 9's or thereabouts that could blow past these current highest CGC 7.5 graded copies?  

Seems to be quite a few of relatively low grade to mi-grade copies of this book in the census, but still no truly HG copy to this current point in time after virtually 20 long years of slabbing.  I wonder how much longer we will have to wait for a HG copy of this L.B. Cole classic cover book to make its appearance in the marketplace?  

Edited August 3, 2019 by lou_fine

[lou_fine]

43 minutes ago, szav said:

We'll probably just have to agree to disagree.  I'd bet money that 10 years from now this book apdepreciates more, even at the 90k bench mark, than that Startling 10 church copy.  Lets revisit this in 10 years shall we?

You really should proofread your posts before you hit the Submit button here.  

Not exactly sure what you are talking about here as we seem to be in full agreement, especially after I went to all the trouble of fixing up your little typo here.  

No worries at all and you are most welcome by the way.