Pedigree Grand Auction, May 17th
Thanks to Charlie’s egging in the comments field of my last ComicLink Auction Highlights I’ve decided to cover my first Pedigree Grand Auction. Pedigree has been around for a while and they’ve produced some record sales in the past so there’s really no excuse why it took this long. There were some exquisite CGC 9.4s up for bids, let’s see how they did.
Avengers #4, Marvel Comics, (March 1964) Graded by CGC at 9.4 with White pages sold for $17,351.00 on Pedigree on May 17th. Considering the last CGC 9.6 got $95,000.00 and the last CGC 9.4 sold a month ago for $30,000.00 (that one didn’t even have White pages) I’d say we were witness to robbery. This book should not have went this cheap! Did the losing CGC 9.6 bidder go out and blow the wad on the CGC 9.4 last month? Are these the only 2 buyers out there for a high end copy of this book?
Pedigree is no slouch, they sold the CGC 9.4 Fantastic Four #1 that just sold at Metropolis three years ago of something like $210,000.00. These guys can sell books.
Will this book’s sale now affect future sales? Will buyers look at the past sales data and force the price of this book down? This is why we should not put too much stock in sales data consisting of such a small sample.
I’m going to say this caught us all sleeping. Had I known I would have asked the missus if we could refinance the mortgage? Advantage buyer!
X-Men #1, Marvel Comics, (September 1963) Graded by CGC at 9.4 with White pages did not sell because it did not meet reserve. The funny thing is that the bidding reached a staggering $127,000.00.
There have been 4 tracked X-Men #1 CGC 9.4 sales and all have cracked 100 K. This book was about to get a 25% premium on the past sales but it still was not enough. The thing looks stunning (check pic).
So what’s the story here? Was the seller testing the fences? Will it be sold privately (it’s happened before is all I’m saying)? Like the book write up said, it’s the only CGC 9.4 with White pages and neither of the 2 CGC 9.6 copies have White pages. Maybe the seller is on to something. Advantage Seller in the near future is my call.
Daredevil #1, Marvel Comics, (April 1964) Graded by CGC at 9.4 with Off White to White pages sold for $24,750.00 on Pedigree on May 17th. Here’s another gorgeous comic book (see pic).
I love how the Pedigree guys are trying to grade it a 9.8 “Exactly cut and aligned with immaculate colors, fresh off-white/white pages, exceptional ink reflectivity and a 9.8 look to it (not 9.6, 9.8!!!). I’ve looked at this book over 5 times (front and back) and still can’t find anything wrong with it. Talk about a re-submission candidate!” Talk about spreading it thick! It is a damn nice copy though isn’t it?
Someone has obviously been reading my undervalued spotlights because I’ve always thought DD #1 deserves to play up in the big leagues with the other Marvel keys!
It should be noted a CGC 9.6 copy with the same page quality also sold in this auction for $33,000.00 though the crew at Pedigree were only pumping it up to a fictitious 9.7, I guess another 9.8 would have been too obvious, “If the 9.7 grade existed this blazer would get it as NM+ doesn’t do it proper justice.” Pedigree should charge for description write ups!
I do think the CGC 9.4 overachieved during this auction; the result is a full 50% above the last recorded CGC 9.4 sale and I’m a stickler for White pages. Advantage seller!
