Has anybody noticed the incredible amount of great comics that have been offered for sale on the big auction houses these past few months? This is only a personal perspective and feel, I don’t have the graphs to prove it but to me it seems that Heritage, ComicLink, ComicConnect and even our icecollectibles eBay auctions, all seem to have had better stuff up on auction lately. Its been a good stretch for buyers, I myself had taken a stab at a few personal grails, only to come up just short each time (note to self – grails usually are not bought at bargain prices). I think the lack of an army of speculator bidders means more of these recent sales will stay embedded in personal collections, which is something the hobby needs. I’m hopeful that as this excess speculator inventory gets soaked into the collecting hobby we will see some stabilizing in prices and, heaven forbid, maybe even some value increases.
Our “going to eBay auction” stack of comics keeps growing and I keep sifting through looking for the next batch of auctions. I found our Cover of the Week hiding in plane sight, it was with some other Wonder Woman issues from the sale era but Irwin Hasen’s fantastic cover to Wonder Woman #68 was the clear winner for me. Somebody needs to count how many times Wonder Woman has been tied up on the covers of her flagship run. I can guarantee you that there are collectors out there trying to snag every bondage cover that exists in the run, I wonder if they’ll make that a “registry Set” over at CGC. I believe the 1st cover that has her tied up was Wonder Woman #24, copy of #68 would have been an early example
Our Splash Page of the Week comes from Love – Super DC Giant #21, who wouldn’t want to read “I couldn’t be faithful”, it was a great story by the way… Tony Abruzzo gets art credits for both pencils and inks. Super DC Giant #21 is a great book and its super tough to find in high grade which makes sense because all you want to do when you pick it up is read and read and read.
Our Ad of the Week comes from Our Love #4, it was the green ink that caught my attention. The ad says that “Nobody Loves the Hulk” is a great new rock song, I had to find out if it was, and guess what, it was! Are the Traits still touring?
Our latest weekly icecollectibles eBay auction ended last night, there were some great books that sold through including a beautiful Amazing Spider-Man #151 CGC 9.6, it closed at $727 USD. This a strong price for a CGC 9.6 Spidey from this era and its all about the scarcity of grade. CGC 9.8s are next to impossible to get on this book with rare sales consistently hitting $5,000 USD. A CGC 9.6 becomes the best best thing and at least slightly more reasonable in price. Our copy’s $727 beat the last recorded sale of $616, a positive market result. FYI a Spidey #152 at CGC 9.6 sells for $100, again, scarcity of grade.
Walter, if I had a $1 for everytime I am underbidder, let along getting blown out of the water on my Golden Age bidding. I sometimes wonder why I bother spending the time prowling the Heritage Sunday nite auctions, to often get nothing at all. I’m not a cheap so and so, I know I have to be aggressive, but there’s so often someone more aggressive…so, so often. I tend to agree, a LOT of great books have been coming on, such as Christine Farrell’s collection and several others, some scrarce early Gold, even Centaurs, and lots of ECs. Higher prices have bought out a lot of pre-code horror and Atlas material, although low grade Atlas remains in relatively low demand.
Wow, I typoed my own name! Sheesh.
Love the WW cover, love the Hulk song, loved the original Clone Saga and its best cover. Whew… think I’m all outa love to go on!
Thanks for sharing the love Gerald, and Bud – where did you typo your name??
From Bud Planr…. Haha, just going thru my garage this weekend for low rent books in collections I had piled up that I bought and never dealt with—you know how that is. A buddy and I (John Stephenson, Worlds of Wonder Comics) pulled books for his Whatnot offeringsand $1 boxes for my shows—and a few gems, Dave Stevens covers and a nice Elfquest/Fantasy Quarterly that is worth grading. After he got home, John found a really nasty copy of Detective #225 stuffed into a box sideways, one of the boxes where he took then entire box without going thru it first. Its’ poor at best, and I sure didn’t put it there, I just preseved it for several years! Its on my want list, but I think its too beat up even for me….
Come on Bud, grab that Tec #225, great story behind it and its a place holder til you get a better one.