Super Arithmetic for Super Heroes

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In this group, we know now DC Comics, which created from 1935 the super heroes including Superman and Batman. In 1956, this company is seeking to renew the genre, and creates the magazine Showcase. The idea is to test new characters for whom an issue is devoted, and who are to come again if they have the expected success.

Thus began what fans call the Silver Age of comics. The Showcase number 4, October 1956, where is The Flash, is considered as the true starting point for this new editorial feat.

The copy of this issue 4 presented by Heritage Auction Galleries on May 21 in Dallas is in mint and unblemished condition.

Here we see the full mastery of Heritage on the market for comics. They rely on a third party certificator named CGC that guarantees the condition on a scale of 0 to 10 with accurate decimal figures at the upper end. CGC provides a price guide and statistics of occurrence for the whole range. The copy of Showcase # 4, grade 9.6, has no equivalent on the market, but this arithmetic (clearly hyperbolic) is used to evaluate it at 200 K $.

By registering on the site, we have access to the actual results of the auction house for this issue. We see that it was sold thirty times at Heritage, but never in mint condition. Congrats and thanks to Heritage for this transparency in the expertise.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

The price obtained, 180 K $ including premium, is very interesting to analyze. I remind that there was no equivalent in this condition on the market.

The lower estimate, obtained by a mathematical algorithm based on a very detailed appreciation of the condition, did not include the premium, as usual. It has been just around a 20% accuracy. Let me tell you that this is a remarkable accuracy for an extrapolation. I still consider as acceptable an accuracy of 30 to 40% in these conditions.