Kid Colt 208 sale shatters record for western price variant

It seems like it has been forever, but it has only been five years since the last Kid Colt 208 price variant came up for sale on ebay.  As part of a group of very hard-to-find 30 cent price variants that ebay seller msjackhammer listed on ebay, the Kid Colt 208 was bound to catch the attention of price variant collectors everywhere.  The book is a very solid mid-grade.  I think that the bottom right corner creasing will keep the book in the 7 range, but it would be very attractive for the grade. The auction brought $1628 for the book.  The highest graded 208 resides in a CGC 9.2 holder with another in a CGC 9.0 holder.  There are currently only five copies in any grade on the CGC census.

Here is a picture of the CGC 9.2 copy of the book.

Interestingly, at the same time, another copy of Kid Colt 208 was being auctioned on ebay.  This Kid Colt was in what variant collector's call a "hidden" auction.  A "hidden" auction is one where the seller lists the issue, but doesn't know and doesn't note anywhere in the listing that the book is a price variant.  Ebay seller, ethrift_superstore, must have been shocked when their listing for two Kid Colt Marvel Comics fetched $250 in an auction.  Hopefully, they are not going to go out and buy a bunch of similarly beaten up bronze age comics or they will take a bath on them.  However that pretty white 30 cent starburst makes all the difference in this case.  If they had correctly listed the book as a marvel price variant, I think that would have made several hundred dollars more.  Interest in this book is that high.  It is usually the last book needed to complete the 30 cent marvel price variant set.