They're Still Out There! 22 22

[lou_fine]

16 hours ago, lou_fine said:

On 5/8/2021 at 7:59 AM, sfcityduck said:

Comparing those two books, I'm beginning to think this is a marketing promotion by CGC to encourage everyone to resubmit their books to take advantage of the new grading standards being established by this collection.

From my own personal point of view, I think if I have a HG copy of a GA book from this later time period, this would probably be the absolute worst time to be sending it in for grading. 

I believe this lowered grading standard that you are seemingly seeing is probably part of an undisclosed business agenda that is limited solely to the Promise Collection.  As a result, if you submit your HG GA book into CGC for grading right now, they will probably be taking you and your book behind the woodshed and applying some heavy punishment grading to it. 

Although it might not be necessary by now, but I will repeat my advice or word of warning to you here anyways.    

Based upon what was sent to me last night, it is never a good idea to try to jump on board the CGC grading train when it is already loaded up to the hilt with the Promise Collection books and also barreling down the tracks at full maximum speed.  The chances of you and your HG GA books from this same time period being able to successfully maneuver this leap is probably slim to none and you and your books will sadly simply get crushed to smithereens under the wheels of the oncoming CGC grading train.    

[Flex Mentallo]

30 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

Somewhere there are Hawkeyes with fake Church codes laughing hysterically.

A sentence that could not possibly be understood by anyone outside the hobby!

[lou_fine]

22 hours ago, buttock said:

These shenanigans are nothing new. 

Is this really nothing more than a case of the kettle calling the pot black, except the pot in this case is much much bigger and blacker?  

These current shenanigans are nothing new in the sense that back in those days, those types of activities were seen as ADDING VALUE to a book as even clearly stated in the Overstreet guide at the time, and not so much as destroying the value of a book.  

Yet decades later, knowing full well has has taken place in the past and that we should all know better by now, shenanigans and manipulations not only continue to this point in time, but are instead encouraged and institutionalized to the point that you and your book are actually severely penalized in terms of having your book graded if you choose not to partake in these manipulative games of theirs.    

Edited May 12, 2021 by lou_fine

[jcjames]

2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

No idea why you would be asking me since I am a collector who prefers to keep all of my books raw and don't participate in this whole grading fiasco and CPR game that's taking place.  

Better to ask the parties that's actually involved such as the gang over at Heritage, the boys over at CGC and CCS, and possibly the consignors although I suspect they (sad to say) just might not know what's being done to Junie's much loved and treasured books that he had asked his brother and family to take care of and which they very obviously and lovingly did for the past 75 years.  

"Third-party grading".... with in-house pressing to increase the value of the item (which of course they have no monetary interest in). 

 

[N e r V]

1 hour ago, buttock said:

Do yourself a favor and don't ever ask anyone about Dave's history of manipulating books 

They weren’t manipulated they were orchestrated (it just sounds better like he was making them more musical 🎼 🎵 🎶 )…

[N e r V]

59 minutes ago, MrBedrock said:

Somewhere there are Hawkeyes with fake Church codes laughing hysterically.

 

27 minutes ago, Flex Mentallo said:

A sentence that could not possibly be understood by anyone outside the hobby!

I see no reason reason to be snotty and bring your sports bias into this…

 

 

[cheetah]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Although it might not be necessary by now, but I will repeat my advice or word of warning to you here anyways.    

Based upon what was sent to me last night, it is never a good idea to try to jump on board the CGC grading train when it is already loaded up to the hilt with the Promise Collection books and also barreling down the tracks at full maximum speed.  The chances of you and your HG GA books from this same time period being able to successfully maneuver this leap is probably slim to none and you and your books will sadly simply get crushed to smithereens under the wheels of the oncoming CGC grading train.    

Most likely your books will be delayed by three to five months and you will still pay expedited fees.

And not get the grades you want.

[MatterEaterLad]

These books are absolutely MIND-BLOWING, let me get that out there first. I'm glad they're entering the marketplace.

But I don't completely buy the backstory.

I'm sure there's some truth there, but in the same way that all of these books have been worked on to increase hammer prices, I suspect the marketing of this collection has had some work done as well. No photos of the brothers. No last names. No indication of where they were purchased or how they were stored so that a book in an attic for 70 years can have no foxing and appear unread. Anonymous consigners. These will generate big money and some lottery winners want to remain anonymous, I get that. But not celebrating the brothers and their service by identifying them seems odd.

[sfcityduck]

20 minutes ago, MatterEaterLad said:

These books are absolutely MIND-BLOWING, let me get that out there first. I'm glad they're entering the marketplace.

But I don't completely buy the backstory.

I'm sure there's some truth there, but in the same way that all of these books have been worked on to increase hammer prices, I suspect the marketing of this collection has had some work done as well. No photos of the brothers. No last names. No indication of where they were purchased or how they were stored so that a book in an attic for 70 years can have no foxing and appear unread. Anonymous consigners. These will generate big money and some lottery winners want to remain anonymous, I get that. But not celebrating the brothers and their service by identifying them seems odd.

Anonymity makes more sense if the consignor who is winning the lottery is not a relative of the brothers.  But, even so, people want to stay anonymous when they win a lottery for good and legitimate reasons.

[cheetah]

26 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

Anonymity makes more sense if the consignor who is winning the lottery is not a relative of the brothers.  But, even so, people want to stay anonymous when they win a lottery for good and legitimate reasons.

I do hope it’s not a case where someone paid a pittance for the collection and stands to make a small fortune reselling it.

[Mmehdy]

23 minutes ago, cheetah said:

I do hope it’s not a case where someone paid a pittance for the collection and stands to make a small fortune reselling it.

Great chance..if you look at past Ha Signiture Auctions with around 2000 items its probably an average of around $10 million given current market conditions. If you use that valuation then with 5000 books at 2.5 times is  25Million. I dont care if you are Bill Gates...that is a fortune...even in 2021.

[Robot Man]

3 hours ago, MrBedrock said:

Somewhere there are Hawkeyes with fake Church codes laughing hysterically.

There are dark places in fandom where we are forbidden to trod...

[jimbo_7071]

1 hour ago, cheetah said:

I do hope it’s not a case where someone paid a pittance for the collection and stands to make a small fortune reselling it.

In this hobby, that would be par for the course. Most of the guys out there now make Jay Maybruck and Ernie Gerber look like campfire girls.

[tth2]

9 hours ago, innocuous said:

 

Sometimes an underline for emphasis is just an underline for emphasis. 

[tth2]

9 hours ago, Scrooge said:

You know, the more I think about this, the more amazing it gets. Let everyone of us think back to the time we picked up books on the newsstands. The idea we could pick half of the new books on the shelf is just ridiculous, esp. when you think that this was a newsstands circa 1949 -

Exactly.  I used to fight with my Mom just to be able to spend an entire $1 on comics, and this was in the 1970s when they were 20 cents.  

[tth2]

7 hours ago, Chief1332 said:

Wondering if only the immediate family was buying the books...  Were purchases assisted by more extended family members...  Did the local community help out at all...  Having a family member serving in the 40-50's was absolutely no joke.  Todays military is so different.  Looking forward to hearing the entire story as told my family members if possible.

From the story we've heard so far, it doesn't sound like his family was buying books for him while he was gone like Tom Reilly.  They were "just" books that he was buying by himself for himself as a teenager until he enlisted for Korea, and no books were added afterwards. 

[szav]

5 hours ago, MatterEaterLad said:

But I don't completely buy the backstory.

Call me a wildly speculating uninformed cynic but I'm starting to wonder too. I guess there's still three weeks left till the first auction so who know's what sort of marketing HA still has in store, and maybe the family is somehow involved and really does just want some privacy.

But anyone who knows anything about GA comics knows there can be massive value in a compelling pedigree story.  Just look at the random camp era Okajima's in mid grade that go for literally 10 times what equivalently graded non pedigree books go for, or Church books which go for double what equivalently graded non pedigree books even in super high grade go for, or 4 to 5 times value for lower grade junk books.

If this collection belonged to my family, or a relative, and there was some amazing story like the older brother holding on to these for 70 years until his death despite knowing their value, I'd take a loan against some of the expected winnings and produce a documentary about it, try to get some articles published etc and drum up the hype prior to the first auction.  

Now I know HA are the experts and maybe they've gotten a read from enough mega-whale collectors that there's no need to do this, but as close as we are now and as little info is out and as vague as the info has been, I'm currently more inclined to think this is the story of a dealer/collector who got a hold of these books some years or decades ago, and that the family of the OO is long since removed from what's going on right now.

Edited May 12, 2021 by szav

[Mmehdy]

8 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Are you talking about then or now with the current pandemic still in place and record high unemployment with many businesses still shut down?  

And yet we have stock markets at record highs, housing prices going through the roof, and people throwing millions at NFT's, sports cards, and not too far behind are our much loved and treasured comic books.  

That is a real issue Lou...will the crazy speculators go after the "finest" condition wise GA OO collection. Well first they have to have the brains to realize that All-Winners #21 in 9.8 is a miracle in and of itself that it exits today...OO..that is my favorite books so far, great read, cover, condition. Can they separate  that book for the 300/500 books coming on board this auction time?.. They have money, but do they have skill....it takes a savy collector to be able to navigate  thru that many GA gems. Now, they could hire someone like Mr. Bedrock to advise them...I do not think they are that smart or want to put the time and effort it is to do the necessary research to figure out that All Winners #21 9.8 is priceless and it is.

 I think down the road 2 thousand books later, they will or might and buy everything that hits the market, but not today.

It is a GA collectors privilege to just look at the scan of that book, they are looking for widgets. They could get smart...but I bet not right away...we as TCBC's have the advantage now......

Edited May 12, 2021 by Mmehdy

[adamstrange]

1 hour ago, tth2 said:

Exactly.  I used to fight with my Mom  

What's your win-loss record? 

 

[Scrooge]

40 minutes ago, szav said:

If this collection belonged to my family, or a relative, and there was some amazing story like the older brother holding on to these for 70 years until his death despite knowing their value, I'd take a loan against some of the expected winnings and produce a documentary about it, try to get some articles published etc and drum up the hype prior to the first auction.  

You would. Other people prefer privacy. I would not want to invite any publicity, not for fear of people looking to hit the family for money but simply b/c I like to keep most things private