Auction Highlights #77, Comic Link May Featured Auction
The Comic Link Featured Auction has just ended, all results below ended between Tuesday May 21st and Wednesday May 23rd.
This was a good auction with a nice mix of books. The top 50 comics by price had 23 from the Golden/Aton age (all pre code). There were 9 Marvel Keys (basically FF#1, AF #15 and X-Men #1 multiple times).
The top 2 books cracked $50K, a CGC 1.8 Superman #1got $53,510 and a CGC 8.0 Fantastic Four #1 got $51,002.
Lots of Golden Age Keys were here, aside from the Sups #1 there was a Flash Comics #1, Archie #1 and a Batman #1. Grade and page quality kept a lid on prices though.
The highest ranking Bronze Age book was a CGC 9.8 Hulk #181; it came in at 28th place fetching $7,966. A CGC 9.6 TMNT #1 was the best performing Modern Age book, the 1984 comics earned $6,911.
OK so let’s look at a few results.
Four Color Comics (Series 1) #1, Dell Publishing (September 1939) Graded by CGC at 9.0 with Cream to Off White pages sold for $6,266.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.0 is $13,800.00.
This sale price represents 45.4% of the guide value, this means eather the guide is way wrong or the buyer got a way deal. I’d like to think the later.
Here is a book from the late 1930s in very high grade, it launches what still stands as the longest running title in comics history issue wise, it features a character still popular and it is super scarce.
This book will have its day.
Advantage Buyer.
Marvel Mystery Comics #4, Timely Comics (February 1940) Graded by CGC at 4.5 with Off White pages sold for $5,555.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 2.5 is $4,275.00.
Gah!! I lost this book in the last seconds. I went in early at $4950 and thought I stole it when I looked with 2 minutes left and the price was stuck at $4600.
“Wow, I’m about to own the 1st Sub-Mariner cover”! Wrong!
I like the grade on this book, own a solid piece of comic book history by spending just the chump change in your pocket.
Advantage Buyer
All-Negro Comics #1, All Negro Comics, (June 1947) Graded by CGC at 7.0 with Cream to Off-White pages sold $6,925.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 7.0 is $7,150.00.
This is one cool book, and its super rare especially in higher grades like this one. I can’t remember ever seeing one but I don’t get out much these days. Anyway this book has obvious U.S. historic significance and must be on a whack of want lists.
I was surprises that it sold for just below guide. I figured the pent up demand would have pushed this much higher.
This is a safe place to part 7 grand.
Advantage Buyer
Brave and the Bold #28, DC Comics, (February/March 1960) Graded by CGC at 6.0 with Cream to Off-White Pages sold for $4,401.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 6.0 is $1900.
This is movie hype talking is what this is. We have mid grade book with poor page quality fetching almost 2.5 times guide?
This book is drying up fast and I know everybody wants one but I just thing this is too much, too soon.
Let’s just hope the movie is not a dud.
Advantage Seller
Marvel Super-Heroes #18, Marvel Comics, (January 1969) Graded by CGC at 9.6 with White pages sold for $3,481.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $115.00.
OK come on! Seriously!
This book fetched 30 times guide. OK I know the guide no longer applies to this book thanks to movie news travelling faster than guide issues but I still think this is crazy.
You are now paying the same for a 9.6 1st Guardians as you are for a 9.6 1st Wolverine.
Advantage Seller
Iron Man #55, Marvel Comics, (February 1973) Graded by CGC at 9.6 with White pages sold for $2,400.00. The Overstreet price guide value for this comic at 9.2 is $340.00.
What the heck is going on here?
This book in 9.6 was settling down to $1700 then all of a sudden a sudden spike, one last month got $1951 and now this one gets $2400.
Too many of these still out there, I think the seller got lucky and hooked on to 2 guys that really liked the White Pages and the nice centering?
Advantage Seller
So? You pick up anything?
Walter – Thanks for a good review. I always learn from you. Seems like some solid Golden Age comics are not quite coming up to guide and some crazy money is chasing Movie related Marvel and DC comics. Why? Is this a temporary anomaly?
Here are some thoughts, but I may be wrong.
1. The bad economy has drained part of the investor money supply. In a good economy, more casual investors would invest in affordable mid grade comics. This would provide upward preasure on prices. In a good economy, more high end investors would enter the market, driving prices much higher than where we are at today. So in this economy it is not surprising that some great Golden Age comics are barely getting guide.
2. The movie and pop culture phenominon are drawing more speculators that like this as a fun alternative to stocks and view it as potentially more profitable. New young comic collectibles converts are entering our hobby as a response to their modern pop culture interest. This is driving the price on those titles upward. Most of these new investors don’t have the same appreciation and respect for old Golden Age titles which they have never heard of.
Movies have always generated interest and they help to sell stuff… so no, this is not temporary. It has, and always will be this way. Therefore, this is the norm… nothing abnormal about it. Why? Because people follow TRENDS. Fashion is the attraction.
1. There is no one “entering the market”. This is part of the problem. Rich guys are still rich and they have no problem picking up high grade big books like AF#15’s. Small fry like me focus on books under $1k because that’s what I can afford, and mid keys have also been rising. The stuff that’s suffering are the over rated, over valued stuff. Books that should never have been so expensive, so quick to begin with. Golden Age books get less attention because people who grew up with these are dead… or dying.
2. No one in their right mind would consider comics as an alternate to stocks. It’s all about the “chase” and having bragging rights. For every Action#1 there’s Microsoft, Qualcomm, Iomega and Starbucks just to name a few. I’m heading you off at the pass because people always reference Action#1 as a good investment… Yeah right!… easy to do in hindsight… I passed on Google at $20… I had Apple pre split at $30. There’s plenty of Action#1’s and Det#27’s in the stock market too.
Again, there’s no phenomenon here. CGC books are all about speculation… otherwise what purpose does the slab serve? Of course most young people don’t appreciate old stuff. That’s what being young is about. How many kids listen to Frank Sinatra, Diana Ross or Nina Simone?
CGC is about speculation but it’s also about knowing the condition of an expensive comic before you buy it – pretty helpful if you buy online or on ebay or anywhere, in fact, given how much it matters in relation to value. Don’t see why Iron Man #55 won’t keep going up until it’s on a par with Hulk #181, because Thanos is the bomb! And if Rocket Racoon on screen lives up to the standard of previous successful Marvel films, he will be MASSIVE!
Collecting comics is all about buying what one finds exciting. As someone who has re-entered the hobby after a nearly twenty year hiatus, I find that I cannot afford the many popular key Golden and Silver Age keys in any condition. While I didn’t grow up during these ages, I do appreciate their importance. It’s just that I have to stick to a budget in order to still have fun in this hobby. So the Bronze, Copper and Modern Age the comics are within my budget. On the other hand, I don’t think I would spend thousands on these recent comics, either. That, too, is just silly. But if I can shell out $6.00 on an Amazing Spider-man #360 and it doubles in value in 10 years, then I think that’s pretty neat. I am not above saving enough to be able to by my personal holy grail, ASM #121, of course…but I guess that’s what separates the rich from small fry like me. They can afford to buy what they want. I don’t begrudge them b/c I can’t compete with them in the first place.
Collectors who love the hobby have been able to find some great deals over recent years as the troubled economy has driven many comic values down on non-key issues. However, I imagine that pop culture popular titles/ characters will get more expensive as growing demand catches with supply. The over abundance of Bronze Age titles may be temporary in some cases as as new interest is creating previously unexpected growth in the investor base. Ms Marvel 1 is a Bronze Age example where supply of 9.8 is low and where an amazing movie appearence in Avengers 2 could create great demand and upward price pressure.
I disagree with a few points Charlie.
1. There are people entering the market, you and I entered the market a couple of decades ago and I see young collectors entering the market all the time. These new collectors will have a learning curve, some will buy 3 things, get burned and never be back others will amass collections over the next decade that will make our combined collections look like a starter kit.
2. More than a few people I know have parked some money into high end comic books, most have done well. They bought these books not as collectors but as investors so comics fall into the same category as other collectibles/art like paintings, coins etc. People with money like to spread risk and it is not uncommon for someone wealthy to hold wealth in real estate, stocks, precious metals, currency, art/collectibles and so on. Comics are not the stock market just like real estate is not the stock market but comics can be investments, lots of comics, not just AF #15.
3. Each generation has a tendency to assume that the pop culture of their time will die with them. It is not as simple as that, there is a large grey area here. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been wrong in writing something off as done only to see the thing shoot up in value way past the point I thought it could go to. Perhaps this happens to things we saw lots of when we were younger and perhaps we can’t grasp how these things can get the money they get now. So we say things like “it won’t last” and “get out while you can” only to see the items keep appreciating in value. This is a great topic for a “Market Trends” post. I’ve already started to work on it. Hope to have it posted soon.
Walter – I think the Lone Ranger is an interesting area for speculation. I know these comics were produced in large runs, so the over supply has perhaps exceeded demand in the past. However:
1. Enough time has passed that I bet some issues are hard to find in high grade.
2. The Lone Ranger was a very popular pop culture character for a long period of time.
3. Some of the Dell and Gold Key painted cover art is impressive.
4. If the summer Lone Ranger movie is as good as the trailer, this could revive pop culture interest in this sleeping hero. Casting Johnny Depp as Tonto could be a mistake, but I am betting it was a really smart decision.
Hey Peter can we name any pop culture icons that have been successfully resurrected? Would Lone Ranger be the 1st? It would be great to see the Lone Ranger become popular again and I’d love to know if anyone can name some such success stories. To take the exercise further, what other old defunct pop culture properties actually have a chance at a successful revival?
I was very sad to see the over budget John Carter movie financially crash and burn barely breaking even. Although I did enjoy the movie well enough myself. I thought the Green Hornet movie was a travisty. I see your point.
How about Zorro? Weren’t those movies a success? Not sure though if they revived any comic book interest.
The 1981 Lone Ranger film was a failure. However this time around, Disney is producing the 2013 movie. The Pirates of the Carribean script writters prepared the inital script. I think we can hope. Let’s wait and see.
What other old defunct pop culture properties could succeed you ask? I really don’t know.Magnus the Robot Fighter? Buck Rogers? Flash Gordon? If Conan was ever done right, maybe? Could you ever make Tarzan interesting to today’s audiences? Some of these defunct properties go back to around the 1930s era. Would you have to move these characters to the 21st century or keep them in their era?