Auction Highlights #75, Comic Link January Focused Auction
The Comic Link Focused Auction has just ended, all results below ended between Tuesday January 22nd and Friday January 25th.
There were no big money books offered up on this auction; ComicLink is saving those for their February Featured Auction. The top book here was a CGC 6.0 Amazing Fantasy #15; it earned a very respectable $21,250. I liked the look of this book and would call advantage to the buyer.
Marvel held 36 of the top 50 sales, DC had the rest except of a CGC 9.8 copy of Walking Dead #1. There were 5 Golden Age books in the top 50 including the #2 book Detective Comics #29 in a CGC 1.5 that earned $12,361. Again I’d call advantage buyer for picking up the 3rd ever Batman appearance and the 2nd ever Batman cover for just over 12K.
Of the top 50 sales 5 were CGC 9.9 copies of Copper and Modern Age books. A CGC 9.9 New Mutants #98 was the best of this bunch earning $4,300. This 10% trend continued through the next 50 making CGC 9.9 comics account for 10 of the top 100 sales. You know me, I call advantage seller on all these but I do admit that the market loves these books, time to get the press out!
Hey, did you catch that CGC 9.6 Night Nurse #1 fetch $519? That’s a nice 16% increase over the last recorded sale and I’m sure my Undervalued Spotlight #147 had a lot to do with this.
So why don’t we have a quick look at a few sales that caught my eye.
Showcase #6, DC Comics, (February 1957) Graded by CGC at 8.5 with White pages sold for $3,605.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 8.5 is $4,037.50.
I love this book and I actually featured it in Undervaled Spotlight #27 way back when.
This is a tough book in high grade so seeing a White Page CGC 8.5 sell for 90% of guide made real envious of the buyer. This book will have its day!
Advantage Buyer.
Daredevil #54, Marvel Comics (July 1969) Graded by CGC at 9.8 with Off White to White pages sold for $1,600.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $55.00.
The description lauds the one of only 3 angle for the grade. My question is who grades a DD #54? Not that many people is the answer because I can guarantee you there are tons of beautiful copies out there. For this money you could fly Porter Airlines out to Chicago, spent a nice weekend at a nice hotel, eat some nice Chicago deep dish pizza, pay to get into the nice Chicago comic con and over pay for a nice raw copy of Daredevil #54 and still have coffee money left over.
Advantage Seller
Batman #238, DC Comics, (January 1972) Graded by CGC at 9.4 with White pages sold $3,000.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $250.00.
Here I go again sounding off on people overpaying for the highest graded copy.
First off I refuse to believe that a 9.4 is the best grade a 1972 Batman can attain. You know how many guys are sitting on beautiful Bronze Age runs of Bats? You know how expensive it is to slab 100 comics?
Advantage Seller
Avengers #55, Marvel Comics, (August 1968) Graded by CGC at 9.8 with Off White to White pages sold for $1,350.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $110.
I feel like this is my fault, my recent Undervalued Spotlight #142 featured this book and look what happens. OK maybe the coming Age of Ultron storyline from Marvel had something to do with it too.
I’m not too sure about this one? Ultron could end up being a very important player in the Marvel U. Still there are currently 16 CGC 9.8s of this book and these 9.8s represent almost 7% of the census population and that is a ratio that is high for 9.8s (by contract 9.8 copies of Avengers #54 represent 2.2% of the census population).
Advantage Seller
Incredible Hulk #181, Marvel Comics, (November 1974 Graded by CGC at 5.0 with Off White to White pages sold for $600.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 5.0 is $160.00.
Its sales like this that make the $3300-$3400 you’d have to pay for a CGC 9.6 look like a bargain. We’ve alluded to this before, people want a copy of this book and not being able to afford a high grade copy forces you, and it seems a lot of others into the lower grades. The good news is that this shows a collecting driven price increase as I’m sure investors and speculators have little interest in CGC 5.0 copies of Bronze Age books.
Advantage Seller
So? Did you buy at this auction? What did you pick up? I’m here to pass judgment on your purchases – free of charge!
Good calls Walt. The only book that interested me in this auction was the NM#98 9.9. Knowing peoples appetite for high grades and ongoing talks of a movie… I wondered if this would make a good investment. I think the final sale price of $4300 is a bargain and if the buyer wanted to flip it now, I’m sure he could make a few bucks but hard to say where this book is going in the long term. It’s value seems to be declining and I can only speculate as to why.
Totally agree with Hulk#181… The myth is bigger than the book.
Picked up a couple 9.4 white pager Avengers and a couple cheap Sgt Fury’s.
Slim pickin’s this time around.
Walt, have you done any assessment of the CVA impact on prices?
Oh and picked up just one; Wonder Woman #200 in 9.0 which I thought presented much higher, but we’ll see what the back of the book reveals.
I wanted to do one this time around but got bogged down by the sheer referencing involved. I’m doing some homework on this now and hope to put up a separate post on the CVA Effect (if any).
Give me a couple of weeks.
You know considering nothing books in CGC 9.9 grades are getting $1500 plus it would seem a key like this should get more. This is volatile territory and I’m just not savvy enough to dive into it.
Nice to see you writing regularly again Walt.
That 5.0 cgc sure looks nice. I believe that was the buyers perception too. I’ve seen uglier 8.0’s. If My eyes don’t deceive me..advantage Buyer.
Food for thought ?
I am so late to the Dance on this one! I felt like I wrote this because everything you just said concerning high prices paid for some of these books was right on the money! I have collected comics, non-stop I might add, since 1969/1970 and a lot of these books are available in raw condition ( I sometimes hate using that term since I feel like the poor comic is standing naked and embarassed ) in high grade for a fraction of prices paid for “Slabbed” books (Another term that makes me think of Comics that have passed on and lying there on a table waiting to be prepared for the great beyond) My question is this: Can you really resell that book for what you paid for it? Half of what you paid for it? Maybe that doesn’t matter to you. I understand. I’ve over paid for books I wanted just because I couldn’t find it anywhere..but these books are so far from rare.