AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 129 CGC 9.8 UNRESTORED!

Sold For: US $9,100.00 Seller: daddyyankee1970 ( 81 )

Description:
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That was the most exciting auction I've ever seen.

In a furious round of bidding it hammered out at $1,075,000 with buyer's premium.

More on this later, when I catch my breath!

To cut right to the punchline here, this is the 2nd best known copy of Action #1.

Yeah, I was surprised, too.

What about the "other" high grade copy, you ask? This is it.

Let that sink in for a while.

Stephen Fishler emailed me last night alerting me to that (remarkable) detail. I've been discussing this stuff with people for years and no one has connected the two books before now. Some people even wondered if the Kansas city copy was the "other" book. We had the story about Dave comparing two books and keeping the Church copy and we had the 8.5 copy in front of us in the CGC Gallery. I always wondered where that "other high grade" copy was and who had it. I now know that it's been hiding in plain site this whole time.

He said:

I asked Dave about it recently. The book that was later graded 8.5 is the 2nd best copy he had ever seen. He compared it to the Mile High years ago. The Mile high was clearly better.

So the anecdote about the "new" book that Dave compared to the Church copy was actually referring to the 8.5 we know and love.

This new info, of course, changes the landscape significantly both for the Church copy (now, clearly the best copy and only known 9.+ copy) and the Kansas City copy that just sold. Depending on how nice the Larson copy is, the KC copy could be the third best copy in existence. Which makes $1,000,000 seem like less of a premium price- which is probably why he had the above conversation in the first place. Negotiating a $1,000,000 comic book sale is tricky business.

I'll be reworking the $100,000 club list today. I'm going to rework the the World's Most Valuable Comics article to reflect all of these new data points (no "other" copy, the All American 16 CGC 9.4, the new Detective 27 CGC 8.0 and the Kansas City Copy.)

What a crazy week.

While we were all busy geeking out about the Action #1, the Comic Book Collecting Association Launched over at comiccollecting.org. From the Scoop article:

With a Bam, Boom and Pow, the latest news to the comic community is the unveiling of the Comic Book Collecting Association (CBCA) which publicly announced its launch on Monday, February 22, 2010. Guided by its founding principles of Fellowship, Education and Ethics, CBCA is a nonprofit international organization made up of comic book enthusiasts who share an appreciation for the history, artistic merit, and significance of the comic book medium as an important element of popular culture. Thus, not only are comic books themselves the subject of focus but also their history, the artwork and artistry and related memorabilia.

“CBCA is the largest organizational outreach relating to our hobby that this community has seen in years,” stated Steve Zarelli, a member of the CBCA’s Board of Directors. Zarelli added that everyone is incredibly enthusiastic and energized to make plans to move forward to bring these same sentiments to fellow collectors and dealers throughout the world.

Check the Advisory Board. It's a full cross-section of the industry.

The Advisory Board includes: Doug Braithwaite (British comic book artist);Dan Cusimano (owner, Flying Donut Trading Co.), Steve Eichenbaum (CEO, Certified Collectibles Group/CGC), Danny Fingeroth (former Marvel Comics editor, comic writer), Jamie Graham (owner, Graham Cracker Comics), John Haines (Rare Comics), Tracey Heft (Eclipse Paper, restoration expert); Dave Kapelka (North Coast Nostalgia), John Jackson Miller (comic book writer-commentator), Josh Nathanson (President, ComicLink); James Payette (Rare Books and Comics), Brian Peets (A-1 Comics), Dave Reynolds (Dave’s American Comics), Wayne Smith (VP, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.), John K. Snyder, Jr. (former President, Geppi’s Entertainment); Jim Steranko (comic book writer, artist, historian); Bob Storms (owner, High Grade Comics); Doug Sulipa (owner, Doug Sulipa’s Comic World), Ted Van Liew (owner, Superworld Comics), J.C. Vaughn (Executive Editor, Associate Publisher for Gemstone Publishing), Joe Vereneault (owner, JHV Associates) and Vincent Zurzolo (co-owner, Metropolis Collectibles).

The Kansas City Action #1 CGC VF 8.0 is listed as Sold on the Comic Connect site.

It's the first publicly reported sale over $1,000,000 of a comic book.

It's actually the first publicly reported sale over $500,000, but who's counting?

The price is stronger than what I feel the book is worth (by about 25%), but I'm happy to be wrong in this situation. $1,000,000 is a nice round number that will generate a lot of press. Press= good for the hobby (as long as any new people stay away from the books I want to collect )

With the speed of the sale, it's clear to me that there's a possibility that this transaction was prearranged or even consummated long before the book was even announced. Comic Connect would have been smart to do so, so as to guarantee the maximum exposure and publicity for the sale and to protect against a protracted, potentially embarrassing (if it went on long enough) $1,000,000 listing with no takers.

Here it is, the belle of the ball.

The following are two Silver Age books that I absolutely love.

Green Lantern #1 (DC, 1960) CGC NM 9.4

Green Lantern's recent meteoric rise bums me out. I was buying some Green Lanterns, and then, along came the movie blowing prices up on the really good stuff. Case in point, this book. This exact copy sold for 18,975.00 at Heritage in 2003. Recently, a 9.2 of this book sold for $30,450.00. What does that result mean for this 9.4? Hopefully some crazy number north of $50k.
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ALL STAR 9, STUNNING RARE SPECTRE SPLASH PAGE, 1942!!!

Winning bid: US $12,414.02 Seller: daytona67 ( 432 )

Description:

All Star Comics 9. FEB 1942. Page 1 opening splash page to the Spectre Story. Pen/brush and ink, 'Twice up artwork'. Inked onto medium thick board. As i'm sure all interested parties will know this is a very rare opportunity to acquire an important piece of Golden age Spectre art, i personally have never seen an earlier image than this one of the Spectre, and i don't believe it would be possible to find a better image than this stunning Splash page, i would guess that the art is by Bernard Baily as he was responsible for most early Spectre art, but please do your own research on this. It is in excellent condition overall, there is some light surface discoloration and dirt and a few corner bumps to the board. The top dialogue box is a stat and looks to be original as it's hand inked. There is a VERY small amount of white out to the lower part of the Spectre's leg in the big image and 2-3 very tiny spots in the smaller box's (please see pic), there is a date stamp on the back reading 'FEB. 1942'. The image size is approx 17.3/4" x 12.3/4". I am a long time collector and am selling a few of my pieces, some of which (including this one) hav'nt been on the market for many many years. I will be happy to answer any question's to the best of my knowledge, so please use the 'ask seller a question' button and i will do my best to help.

And the page:

Okay, maybe not the only two (you might want an All Star #8, too.) Still, this is a nice duo and Wonder Woman is a hell of a character.

Wonder Woman, to me, is wildly underappreciated by the collector community. Just like Superman and Batman she's been published continually since the 1940s and just like those two she's a huge fixture in current DC continuity.

We just need to get her a movie
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Yeah, it's restored, but who cares? Look at this book:

Not everything needs to be about big record prices. Whoever wins this will be a happy camper.

No, that's not a typo. Yeah, there's a killer #54 in this auction, but take a look at this book:

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