The Heritage Nov 18th - 21st Comics Signature Auction; what a sale! I had to examine 125 outliers. That's 125 sales where our code is telling us, "Something doesn't look right here, you better take a closer look". Only one of those sales was a warning about a decrease in price! That was Brave and the Bold #68 (Batman and Metamorpho). A CGC NM+ 9.6 could only muster $288.00 (well below current Nostomania value). Poor Metamorpho just gets no love.

Let's start by focusing on one of my favorite genres, Golden Age horror books. I guess I'd consider this a 4th-tier title - Roly Poly Comic Book #14. Shock effect is there for sure - cut off a head and watch out, just ask Bill Gaines in a Senate hearing. Honestly though, this is a pretty bad cover. The letterer had one job! It was not to cram the words near the top of the word balloon and leave empty space at the bottom. The artist did a poor job of splash-page swiping from Pep Comics #32. Look at the guard's staff! How does it extend not just past his feet, but well out of "camera view". That's a neat physics trick. I suppose all of this is part of the appeal though, and wouldn't you love to have met the book's owner, Pearl? CGC notes "back cover detached". So the back cover is detached, but not the front, somehow, and yet it still gets a 3.0 - that feels a bit generous.

On to a 3rd-tier publisher and title, Dark Mysteries by Merit Publications. This is a pretty nasty cover. We've got "witches", some very hot witches. But what's up with the witch-burner? Who made him judge and jury? Self-appointed, I guess. How can a book like this net a staggering $15 grand? First of all, we all know the market is insane across the board, just go look at our Stock Index. Secondly, how many of you can say you have ever seen a copy of this book, any copy? Pretty scarce, although the CGC Census is 33, so not that scarce.

For a great example of a cool 2nd-tier publisher book, check out this copy of Weird Tales of the Future #7, from Aragon Publishing. Bernard Bailey turned in a phenomenal cover here, and personally, I can't help but think he had to have been studying the evolution of Graham Ingels' art over at top-tier E.C. This cover is certainly Ingels-esque, complete with the rich but very moody colors. So how is it that we are now seeing these 2nd and 3rd tier books out-performing E.C.s? I think I know the answer. The Gaines File Copies are both a blessing and a curse. We've got amazing high grade copies of every issue - multiples. But that also waters things down a bit as far as demand at the high end. With the examples I've shown here, an 8.0 or 8.5 is often as good as it gets, and will outperform a comparable 8.5 E.C.

This Promise Collection has poured gasoline on an already hot market. Before this, if you wanted to see certified NM/MT 9.8 Golden Age books on the market, you pretty much had to wait for a Mile High to be cut loose. Now, the excitement of a pedigree find like Mile High (deep and pristine) is fresh and new all over again, and feverish. Where do these bidders come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars to purchase comics? I'm not going to point to a key Promise Collection 1st issue for my example sale, "just" a CGC NM+ 9.6 Batman #49. Sure, cool early Joker cover, but this is a $132,000.00 comic? The same book in the same grade sold a little over a year ago for $28,800.00.

Matt Baker fans, I hope you have all completed your runs. This train just keeps rolling. All of you better sit down for this one. The CGC Census is a bit sparse at 23, but this is only a 4.5! I hear Overstreet has it tagged a classic cover, and you gotta admit it has a vibe. To think if you found this book at a show, even a year or so ago, you may only have had to shell out $100.00 or so.

Few collectors gave Archie's more than a glance, even in 50 cent bins. I wonder how many copies of this issue were passed over, or even mis-filed by dealers in bargain bins. You wouldn't know it's a key from a quick look at the cover, but inside you've got the first appearance of Sabrina the Teenage Witch, as well as Salem the cat. The difference now is, as the censuses start to fill out (including ours), you start to realize just how scarce high grade copies are for many, many books. More and more, collectors will really stretch for a finest known copy.

Closing in on ten grand for a sub-8.0 Stanmore war book? I've been going on about how grim these flamethrower covers are for quite some time (check the past market reports), so the rise in value of this "sub-genre" should not be a surprise. The problem is, good luck finding one, and you'll need even better luck finding anything better than mid-grade. This example is actually the current finest known copy.

Are you seeing the trend here? Then again, maybe we were as much surprised when a CGC copy of this book in the same grade sold for $2,151.00 back in 2008? Probably not. Back then, this was a coveted book for different reasons. It was always an oddly appealing, short-lived Atlas title. An early Comics-Code title. Again with the E.C. references, though I can't help but think maybe Atlas was sweating sales a bit, and riffing off of E.C.'s New Direction titles like Piracy, looking for a new angle. The recent appeal, however, is the same thing driving the rise of Avengers #48 and so many other comics - the Black Knight was an Avenger, he is on radar screens, and hard-core collectors and speculators have taken note. Demand is searing hot. And of course it's tough in high grade, which Atlas from this era isn't?

And so I leave you with this. The classic issue of Lois Lane where she was a black woman for a day. Additionally, the black cover makes it tough in high grade, but wow! For a little perspective, the Twin Cities copy, also a CGC NM/MT 9.8, sold ten years ago for $657.25. I'm sure many collectors and dealers are kicking themselves for books they have let go, or feel they should have bought when they had a chance. But you can't do that - who knew? As Paul Westerberg of The Replacements said, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting drunk. Exciting times for collectibles, for sure. As this train rolls on, here's to those who still enjoy comic books for well-written stories and great artwork, like the old days.