As I’m typing this I’m watching that Fantastic Four #1 CGC 9.2 on Heritage pass the one million dollar mark. I said at the beginning of the year that there would be more one million dollar sales in 2022 than all the combined sales up until last year. I still have a ways to go but this result gives me hope. Anyway, it is a great sign for the high end of the market.
I saw this page in Hi-School Romance #11 and I thought “boy is that nasty” then a second later I thought “boy is that topical”. Two boy moments back to back can’t be ignored so I decided to throw it in. The page is a nasty reminder of our past; to think this comic was aimed at young girl readers, sheesh.
I had a few covers fighting it out in my head for the spotlight this week and at the end of the day my soft spot for Romance Comics won out; and besides what better way to wash out the nastiness of the above page than to present its cover. Hi-School Romance #11’s eloping cover is one of my favourites.
I’m no Bernie Fuchs but even I know how to market the Archie lineup of comics better than what these clowns do. I’ll give them a few hints, way less, even close to zero Archie and way more Betty and Veronica on this ad page would have sold millions of more comics! From Life With Archie #1.
There were some cool splash pages popping up this week and while I could have featured a dozen here space only allows one and I’m going with the splash page from World’s Finest Comics #88 featuring the Joker and Luthor in one of the coolest villainmobiles ever. Those fins are sooo 1957!
Another one of our weekly internationalcollectiblesexchange eBay auctions ended last night with raw listings leading the way. I thought prices were strong across the board and I was especially impressed with the raw Flash #110 I graded a 3.0 fetching $421 USD. DC key issues have so much room to grow relative to the Marvels; it will take time but it will happen.
This is cool:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/185240004203?hash=item2b212a266b:g:NIYAAOSwO3dh0cMo
That is cool Chris, I said it a few weeks ago about these great splash pages versus the lame covers, imagine what this would be worth with that splash as the cover!
Wow, Chris, impressive that you tracked down the Jokermobile. Walter’s right, it’s great. I’m a big fan of the 1940s and 50s Batmobile too, it was always great to see it in action.
I had a lower grade Fantastic Four #1 back around 1966 or so, and did a condition trade with my friend John Barrett. John became my partner in three stories, culminating in our Comics & Comix chain of 7 stories 1972-1988.
Anyway, I gave John $1.50 to upgrade my copy to his copy, which I think was at least vg/fn and maybe even fine. We figured my copy at $4 at the time…Rogofsky was asking $12, which was considered highway robbery.
If only I’d kept it, holy smokes. A million for a 9.2, that float all the copies up a bit. I kept much of my golden age and art comics, Frazetta and such, even my monster Atlas/Marvel titles since the 60s, but sadly I sold my Marvel superhero collection around 1972. I think that FF #1 sold for about $40.
I’ve become a big fan of those Harvey pre-code romance (they are almost all reprints once the code begins, with the exception of a handful of fun Jack Kirby covers in the late 50s). They all have wild, fun, strange stories and generally above average art. Lee Elias and Bob Powell stand out.
I’d say they rank second behind Matt Baker & Dana Dutch’s St. John titles amongst ALL the pre-code romance from all companies. Stan Lee’s romance books have some stand out art, such as Vince Colletta’s wonderful early work, and DiPreta and Jay Scott Pike and Maneely once in a while, even some Baker, but the stories, not so good. Avon pushed the evelope too, but Harvey has the best and most consistent school of good work for the period.
And the Harvey’s are plentiful, with Geppis’s warehouse of books he got from Harvey. Lots for the hi-grade guys and all the average copies for the rest of us; it’s not hard finding near fine or better copies of most, raw.
Love Journal and Love Diary from Our/Orbit are also two exceptional titles. Harry Anderson, Mort Leav, Mort Lawrenced, and John Buscema. Syd Shores even did some work. “Swamp Girl,” “Love Vampire,” “Love Slave,” headlight stories, these have it all. They were edited by Ray (Rae) Herman (1920-1996), so they had a women’s angle that wasn’t bad amongst all the guys writing sillys stuff. She’s on Wikipedia, she did of good work.
The way Golden Age is doing in auctions these days, I keep wondering what the heck I’m doing hanging onto so much stuff. I just can’t imagine this bubble lasting.
But isn’t CGC way, way behind?…so playing the grading game is a long play. I think you touched on this recently; items can peak and start down in the time since you submitted a book. I have a low grade X-Men #1 that I picked up from an almost original owner collection (they found a run of X-Men in a house they moved intom in a closet). It’s out for grading and it’s been 2 months now…I did get $1990 for a raw gvg X-Men #4, via MyComicShop, and did well on all vg/vg+ raw books up through #22, the end of his run.
Thanks bud for the stories, a fantastic read!!
I just read up a little on Rae Herman, interesting stuff, I love how she was one of the only women giving advice in the advice columns of those romance comics aimed at girls, all the others were guys with female pseudonyms.
Wow the history we are exposed to on this site!!
Bud Plant
this is off topic , but , i was just reading Roy Thomas” AE 174 . in it , your letter states that you have a buddy that is writing some articles for Gary Carter . is Gary doing an online thing ? i have a complete collection of his CBM , and still love to re-read them to this day . any info would be appreciated !
Heritage auction:
Captain America #1, 9.4, San Fransisco pedigree $3.12m
Fantastic Four #1, 9.2 $1.5m
JIM #83, 9.4 $432,000
AF15# 7.5, $300,000 (doubled the value from a year previously)
Hulk #181, 9.8, $96,000 (record)
TMNT #1, 9.6 $69,000
Low’s
GXS#1, 9.8 $46,800 (previous peak $72k)
Chris – The last time I saw Gary Carter, which was pre-covid, he said he was stil editing/contributing to either the “annual” Overstreet Comic Book Marketplace, that I think comes out in print, or an online version that is also irreglular. I guess I should ask him, I’m not clear myself, obviously, what he is referring to.
Overstreet did a Guide to Batman a while back, and this is the latest, a bit more focussed than the old CBM. This links to my site and the Overstreet Lost Universes release that just came out. There was a Best of Comic Book Marketplace that came out in January. 2019 but it’s out of print now. Gary edited that.
https://www.budsartbooks.com/?s=Lost+universes&post_type=product
Gary is now collecting high grade British pulps…talk about hard to find!! But they were certainly impressive, what he showed me. Wild stuff, pretty much all new to me since, like the Canadians, they went in for new covers even while reprints stories and interior art from the Ameridan pulps.
Spider, what is a GXS? Google says its Global Security Service! Ok, got it, Giant Sized X-Men. Duhh. Sorry to be so obtuse.
I was just reading some of those same Heritage results to my buddy Mal, who’s collection has been slowly being sold off by H. A big batch of his lower grade More Funs (lpre hero and early Spectre/Dr. Fate issues) just up a couple weeks ago were his, and they went for pretty aggressive prices to. I only managed to snag one coverless issue, sigh
I am just dumbfounded on where all this money is coming from.
Honestly, seriously do you guys have any idea? Are these Dubai oil wealth or Silicon Valley corporate owners or what the heck? Who can keep investing these huge sums for book after book after book?
Chris’
I used to love Comic Book Marketplace and was even lucky enough to get an article published by Gary. Funny story. A local dealer had a copy of the Canadian edition of Mad #1 on consignment a few years back, and I made arrangements with the owner to have a decent scan made and set out to discover the story behind this particular book. I actually tracked down the wife of the original owner who used to own a shop in London, Ontario. We had a lovely, nostalgic talk about her late husband and his love of the comics. She recalled that he always saved some of the books he liked most, such as Batman and the crime comics of the era, and apparently a new humour mag tickled his fancy. Well, I finished said article and sent it off to Gary, but I didn’t hear anything for quite a long time, so I gave him a call. He was very gracious and apologized for not getting back to me, but said he would likely include my article in an upcoming CBM special issue about EC comics. I couldn’t have been happier! Then Gary asked me why I had waited so long to get in touch. “Well,” I said, “I know you people are armed, and I didn’t want to tick you off.” Gary, luckily, has a crazy sense of humour and thought that was quite funny. When I got off the phone, my wife asked me why I would say such a crazy thing to a publisher. “Old journalism trick,” I told her. “Make ’em laugh and they’ll remember you.” Works like a charm.
cheers, mel
Bud, GSX is Giant Size X-Men and the only is coming from outside the hobby from places like you mention but also from actors, you tubers, even corporations are investing in these.
Spider, the general sense I’m hearing is that most prices for the stuff that is not “special” are way down.
Bud, sorry about the typo: GSX#1
In the lower levels of the hobby: GSX#1 is down…but Hulk#181 just keeps on being the king of the Bronze age, it’s funny how books that previously tracked together have diverged. Regarding drops: even the Copper Age king ASM#300 has had some hits after that abysmal Venom movie (by the way, anyone hunting for ASM#299 or Carnage #361…start hunting now, these books have been really hit hard by the movie).
Nova#1, this thing reminds me of the Eternals books 18 months ago, I’ve never heard a single person say a nice thing about the book (Other than Walter loving the #4 for it’s Kirby cover and my love of Cockrum’s #6 & #22 covers)… I’m seeing crazy money getting paid for this unloved character.
I’m still trying to find out how ASM#101 will play out (I don’t have that book in my run), reports on the Morbius movie seem to indicate it’s another stinker!!! Could be time to swoop soon.