Sunny Boy

I’m not sure if this is a good sign or a bad one but lately I’ve been getting outbid on my poverty bids on sites like Heritage and ComicLink, back in February and March I was winning those poverty bids. Can I read these meager little misses as a good sign? It is certainly pissing me off, a few of those books I really wanted but really the only person I should be pissed of with is myself, I didn’t step up, I feared a deeper trough. How many gains, how many GPA green arrows do we have to see before we all decide to jump back into the game? The hobby has splintered off so much that it is now impossible to read the overall market, there are so many pockets of activity with some seeing strength, some holding steady and still some continuing to tank. Do your research, there are so many tools out there now that there is no excuse to making an ill informed purchase, you can make errors in judgement but let that judgement come after poring over a whole bunch of relevant data.

Our icecollectibles weekly eBay auction has been impressing lately, our raw lots seem to be doing very well and even seem to be getting stronger. From the “heading to eBay auction” pile I’ve picked Doctor Solar #1 as our cover of the week. I’ve always admired the Richard Powers painting, it has a great vibe that says 1962 but is also reaching out into 1967, great colors, great composition. It seems to me that Doctor Solar, Magnus, even Turok, it seems they all had that huge run up in value a decade or so ago and then hit a wall. I think a Turok movie would do the best out of the three.

Our ad of the week comes from the back cover of Airboy V7 #9, from 1950. What was the average age of Airboy readers? 50? I’m wondering how well an ad for medical insurance did for Mutual Hospitalization Insurance Co.? I’m guessing not too well. What I think was needed back then is some sort of “I wasted my money on a terrible ad campaign” insurance, I think these guys would have put in a claim.

Our Splash Page of the week comes from Detective Comics #116, Curt Swan gives us this great Boy Commandos cover that had me conjuring up Paul Macartney and Wings’ album cover to Band on the Run. Mr. Swan gives us just enough Kirby here.

Our weekly icecollectibles eBay auction closed another chapter Sunday night, I noticed our Marvel Spotlight #32 at CGC 9.6 did very well. It sold for $434, which is about a 30% increase over the last several sales of this book. Sometimes pent up demand is a part of the answer, there were 4 sales in a 13 day period in June, our copy is the 1st to hit the auction market in almost two months. I’ve said it before, timing is important.