Fake Star Wars 35 Cent Price Variants in PGX holders bring big bucks in January ComicLink Auction

In the recent January ComicLink Auction, two altered Star Wars comic books brought big bucks.  In my opinion, it is obvious that a scammer has altered the price block on a Star Wars 1 and a Star Wars 2 regular issue book to make the books look like the much more costly 35 cent price variants.  How these two books ended up in a PGX holder makes for interesting speculation.  Perhaps the scammer submitted the books to PGX and PGX simply missed the alteration through negligence or incompetence.  Maybe the scammer is an employee of PGX who altered the books and encapsulated the books themselves.  Maybe the books were altered and sold to an innocent buyer who sent the books to PGX.   Regardless of how it happened, the end result is that two mid-range Star Wars books which should normally sell for a few bucks were altered, encapsulated in PGX holders, and sold at auction for hundreds of dollars.

I have bought many books on ComicLink and I have sold books on ComicLink.  ComicLink does a great job and I recommend them to others.  I do not think that they played any part in the scam and trust them to do right by their customers.  I do think that they should reconsider whether they want to allow PGX graded books in their auctions.   I also hope that ComicLink will cancel the auction and send the books back to the seller.

I am not sure that PGX offers a guarantee for missing alterations in their grading.  I am certain that I will not use or recommend their services.

Here is a screen capture of the listing for the altered Star Wars 1 35 cent price variant.

Here is the scan of the altered Star Wars 1 and a close-up of the label.

 

So how do we know that a scammer has turned a common mid-grade book into $705 bucks?  The dead give-away is the price block.  Here is a close-up of the altered title block which you can compare to a close-up of the title block of an authentic copy below it.  As you can see, the "3", "5" and "c" and "Ccc" are not even close.

 

 

Here is a full-comic scan of an outstanding and authentic Star Wars 1 price variant that sold for $4367 in the same auction.

 

 

In the same auction, this altered Star Wars 2 sold for $390.  It has the same problem as its PGX brother above.

 

 



 

 

Here is a close-up of the altered price block and below it a close-up of an authentic Star Wars 2 35 cent variant price block. 

 



Conan 65 in CGC 9.8 (highest graded) sets record

A very nice CGC 9.8 example of Conan 65 recently sold on ComicLink for an issue-record $825.  The last high-grade example of this issue was a CGC 9.6 that sold in May 2012 for $185.  As a comparison, a very nice pedigree example of the regular issue Suchsa News 9.8 sold for $216.

An update to the sale of the "Blank Bar" Captain America 212 price variant

CGC board member Keldog sent me a note on an additional listed sale of the Captain America 212 "blank bar"  35 cent price variant.  The sale is noted on the Quality Comix site.  I am not sure what is going on but the Quality Comix site lists a sale of the same CGC 6.0 book at $4520.

Interestingly, the book has now shown up on ComicLink with an asking price of $7000.  It certainly begs the question of what is going on with this book?  Anyone know?

GPA Price Variant Report for December 2012

Here is the GPA Price Variant Report for December 2012.  Highlights include the always popular Star Wars 1 price variant and a nice mid-grade X-Men 100 for $250.

Important ComicLink price variant sales

ComicLink does not report sales information to GPA but does often have notable sales of bronze age marvel price variants.

$210 for Astonishing Tales 35 in CGC 9.6 (one of only two highest graded).

$298 for Marvel Team-Up 46 in CGC 9.4.

$250 for Marvel Two-In-One 17 in CGC 9.6 (single highest graded).  This one was a bargain.

$115 for Omega the Unknown 2 in CGC 9.4.

Notable ebay price variant sales 2012

Here are some notable marvel bronze age price variant sales on ebay.

$1299 FN+ Star Wars 1.  Are there many other mid-grade raw bronze-age books that regularly fetch four figures?  The new Star Wars movie announcement is really adding to the demand for this book.

$425 for CGC 9.0 2001:A Space Odyssey 8

$182 for FN+ 2001:A Space Odyssey 10

$150 for Black Panther 4

$194.50 for very nice Conan 77.

$235.50 for nice Godzilla 1

$167.50 for nice Godzilla 2

$169 for Howard the Duck 14 mid-grade

$250 for Invaders 17 CGC 9.0

$232.29 for nice Marvel Tales 82.  The reprint titles are very tough particularly in high-grade and this may be the nicest that I have seen.

$199 for Marvel Team-Up 58 CGC 7.5.

$350 for Marvel Team-Up 61 in CGC 8.5

30 cent Western price variants hit the market

It doesn't happen very often, but every couple of years or so, a nice high-grade western 30 cent price variant will come up for sale.  They are always fun to watch and collector demand is always exceptional. 

$800 for the highest graded Ringo Kid 28.  CGC 9.6 is also the highest grade given for ANY Marvel bronze-age western price variant.

$766.52 for a CGC 9.2 Mighty Marvel Western 45.  This is a nice price for a very nice and underrated book.

$393 for a nice raw Kid Colt 209.

Record Price for "Blank Bar" Capt. America 212

One of the three or four known copies of the "Blank Bar" printing error 35 cent price variant issue of Captain America 212 was recently auctioned on ebay.

$3550 was the winning bid for this book which has now been added to the CGC 35 cent price variant registry set and joins the HB, westerns and war books as the hardest to find.

GPAnalysis Price Variant Report for november 2012

I always recommend GPAnalysis.com to serious collectors of price variant books, particularly high grade.  There is no better source, with the possible exception of this humble blog, for pricing information on these books.  High-grade examples of most of the books trade so infrequently that it is very hard to price them.  Forget using the Overstreet guide for high-grade price variants - it is simply not useful.  Actually, Overstreet is great if you are a buyer.  I would buy books at Overstreet prices all day every day and twice on Sunday.

Anyway, here is the price variant sales report for certified books for November 2012.

Amazing Spider-Man 156

A strong CGC 9.4 copy of the 30 cent price variant of Amazing Spider-Man 146 brought $450 in a recent ebay sale.  As a comparison, the last sale of a 9.4 copy of the regular edition brought $23 or about one twentieth of its price variant brother.  This is a record price for this book in this grade, but this shouldn't be surprising, as there is only one other sale of this book in this grade, back in 2004 for $173.  It is one of only three in 9.4 with only three examples graded higher in 9.6.  It may be another eight years before you see another up for sale.

X-Men 100

I have always felt that issue 100 is the toughest of the three X-Men 30 cent price variants.  Because it has a white cover and issues 98 and 99 have black covers, I think that X-Men 100 is generally found in higher grade than the other two issues.  Anyway, this is a very nice copy of the book for $455 and they don't come around very often so it is not surprising that this is a record price for this book in this grade.  The last time that this issue in this grade sold was five years ago in 2007 - so these are pretty rare.

Amazing Spider-Man 155

The price level for CGC 9.6 examples of Amazing Spider-Man 155 seems to be comfortably at $400+ with the recent sale of two books.  There are only two examples graded higher at 9.8 and only five copies graded 9.6.  Nice copies of the regular edition normally bring about $75, so this is a relative bargain as a price variant.

Iron Fist 5

A CGC 9.6 Iron Fist 5 30 cent price variant brought $250 in a recent ebay transaction.  Although advertised as the highest graded, it is actually the second highest grade behind two 9.8 copies of this book.  Iron Fist books have a large collector base and nice price variant examples always bring strong prices - don't get me started on the 35 cent books.

Doctor Strange 16

The single highest graded example the 30 cent price variant Doctor Strange 16 sold for $650 in an ebay auction.  White pages and a full starburst and a CGC grade of 9.8 make this the best Doctor Strange price variant that I have ever seen.  I am also certain that there is not a nicer one out there as this is absolutely as nice as they come.

Tomb of Darkness 21

The single highest example of one of my favorite 30 cent price variants recently traded hands for $750 on ebay.  It a beautiful copy of this black-covered, atomic bomb button cover, horror book which, like the other horror variants, is extremely hard to find, particularly in high-grade.

Logan's Run in Good sells for $200 bucks

Here is an example of a real sleeper book.  First, it is a very hard to find 35 cent variant of a minor title which makes it even tougher.  Second, it has a back-up story which just happens to be the first solo story of Thanos.  Thanos is going to be the main protagonist of the next Avengers movie so this is a very important book.  This is also why a beater copy of this book would bring $200 bucks at auction.  Watch what happens when the movie comes out.

Amethyst, Princess of Gemworld, DC, 35 cent price variant

I haven't spoken about them much, but there are a couple of interesting DC price variant books.  I don't know many collectors of the Amethyst title, but there are several collectors of the price variant books which is a very short series.  Recently, a CGC 9.4 copy brought $225 in an ebay auction.

Ghost Rider 24

A very nice copy of Ghost Rider 24 found by the best variant hunter of them all was recently auctioned on ebay for $282. 

Conan 75 in CGC 9.4 brings strong coin

A very nice Conan 75 brought $315 in a recent ebay auction.  It is one of only two books certified at the 9.4 level with only one book certified higher at 9.6.  This is a record price for the issue and for comparison, a 9.8 of the issue would normally fetch $50.

A very nice "raw" Captain America 214 on the "bay"

A very nice example of the 35 cent variant edition of Captain America 214 brought $585 in a spirited ebay auction.  It is always difficult to tell from the scan but the book appears to be the nicest that I have seen particularly since the highest certified by CGC is 8.5.  This book is almost certainly nicer.

GPA's Analysis of Certified Sales of Variants for September 2012

Here is a screenshot of GPA's analysis of sales of certified price variants books.  I highly recommend their service for any serious collector of high grade books.  You will notice the $2225 sale for a CGC 9.6 X-Men 98 30 cent price variant.  What an incredible book! 

I also regularly get people asking me about Star Wars 1 price variants.  As you can see, nice mid-grade copies trade for $2000 so it is unreasonable to expect that you are going to land one of the NM- or better copies cheaply.  In fact, there is enough demand that these books are on the rise again. 

Certified Variant sales as reported by GPAnalysis for the August 2012