Let's get the bad news out of the way first, again. Clearly many of us did not realize the extent to which the top-tier (i.e., Marvel and DC) publisher superhero series were over-inflated, and are still in the COVID-Comedown phase. This particular book stood out to me for a few reasons. First, it fell hard, with the previous CGC sale in this grade being over $4 Grand. Second, it's in that late 50s DC Sweet Spot I predicted many years ago, census-wise. There are simply very few copies in this or higher grades. Despite that, and having such a cool cover, the drop today is huge. Obviously we can't call it a Human Torch prototype, but it's still super-cool with that eerie Atomic-Age element thrown in. This flaming-person cover is the 1st appearance of Calendar Man, something I had no clue about. Granted, this is one sale for one book, so take my pricing/value commentary with a grain or two of salt.

Now for the Marvel example. In 2025, only one year ago, this same book in the same CGC grade sold for over $1,500.00. I am perplexed myself how such a cool comic book could drop off that much. Ok, sure, it's not scarce. In fact there are actually 25 CGC 9.8 copies, but look at this cover, people! You've got a pack of wolves attacking the Werewolf! And peak Mike Ploog art, so great.

Is ACG having it's day in the sun? Oft overlooked 2nd Tier publisher, American Comics Group, competed moderately well with the big boys, IMO, with their Golden Age offerings. They dabbled with it all, horror, sci-fi, western, superhero, romance, funny animal. Not a bad price here! Same book, same grade, same certification, same seller, one year prior was a mere $198.00. This makes me kinda happy. It's a cool cover, and VF 8.0 for a 1950 sci-fi book is pretty decent.

On the other skeleton hand, could the previous sale be just a fluke? Here is another impressive ACG sale. Granted, this copy is tied for Finest Known, although with two other copies, at present. And yeah, any swamp monster cover scores lots of cool points as well. But judging from other somewhat recent ACG results I've seen, we might be onto something with this publisher.

And, I'm happy to report that Undergrounds seem to be having a day in the sun too. For so long, small press undergrounds were in such doldrums that I was really wondering why nobody cared any more. Such an important historic pocket of the comic market. Keeping with the pattern here, same book, grade, certification, heck, it may even be the same copy, that sold a year ago via Heritage for only $216.00.

And, I suppose if I'm keeping with the theme I should show another over-performing, similar underground. Here you go. Another cool early 70s UG publisher, Last Gasp. Roughly a year prior once again, same certification, grade, auction house, and this time I have confirmed, the exact same copy, sold for only $264.00.

I can't help wrapping up comic highlights with one near and dear to my heart. Captain America Comics, at this point, was struggling, as superheroes were not selling well. Timely/Marvel tried to pivot here, morphing this legendary title into a horror comic! This is a tough book to find, and clearly as evidenced by this sale price, demand is higher.. than.. ever. I mean, the Red Skull was always creepy, but now he's a horror monster to boot! The guts of the comic were horror stories too! A shame you can't peek inside of all these slabbed copies to admire that ultra-cool aspect.

' How do I not include a recent $2 million dollar coin sale in my report? And NGC Certified too, how cool is that. The Heritage catalogers write a book when something like this comes up for auction, and rightfully so. Therefore I am hesitant to even try to compete with that knowledge and expertise. Go to the Nostomania detail page for this coin, and you can click on the sale, which will take you straight over to Heritage for that story. Sure I could do an AI summary of said book, but that feels kinda lousy too. I'll just leave it at this: "PCGS CoinFacts estimates the surviving population at 12 to 15 examples in all grades".

This one also caught my eye. Gorgeous 1927-S Liberty Standing Quarter, goes for over $600K dollars, wow. This coin emphasizes exactly why we needed coin split (plus) grades above MS/PR 60. This is an exemplary MS-65, and would go for more than some MS-66 specimens. I still, and will always maintain the plus grades also emphasize why the coin grading scale should have gone from 1 to 100 like any other sane grading scale. Or, 1 to 10 if you prefer, just move a decimal point!

Certified magazines are definitely on the up-tick, helped by companies like Heritage running special magazine-only auctions. We are seeing more Golden Age magazines start to surface CGC certified, titles like Film Fun, Flirt, and other cheesecake titles. With relatively sparse census numbers, collectors are perhaps leaning in too hard on the current Finest Known offerings. Wait for those data to settle out. Or, if you are a seller, cash in if you got 'em! Here is a great example. Famous Monsters of Filmland 1972 Yearbook is not a scarce issue, there will be other 9.8s around the bend. But for now, put one up for sale and you are printing money.