Raging Against The Grading Machine + Lanterns | 04
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It’s been a few weeks, my bad! Life, you know? But while I was gone a couple things of note happened in the hobby.
Firstly, a PSA 7.0 copy of Amazing Fantasy #15 outsold not just a CGC 7.0, but a CGC 7.5 as well. The CGC 7.0 sold for $115k on Comic Book Addiction and the CGC 7.5 sold for $144k on Heritage Auctions. The final number for the PSA 7.0 on Goldin Auctions was $149.3k. Ever since PSA entered the comic side of the hobby collectors have firmly planted their flags in CGC territory. I took advantage of this early on as I saw books in PSA slabs going at ridiculous discounts, specifically I picked up a copy of a PSA 9.4 White Pages X-Men #130 Newsstand for $135. The CGC FMV of that book in the same grade has been sitting comfortably at $250 all year long. Truthfully, I don’t understand the hesitance, lack of trust, or whatever you want to call it, towards PSA Comics. PSA is one of the most, if not the most, respected authenticator in collectibles overall. My perspective has been that regardless of a company’s specialty, they are massive corporate entities who find themselves in some sort of controversy each year forcing collectors to find the value in authentication vs. authenticity. That being said, my grading habits came to a screeching halt in 2025. My slabbed buying slowed down significantly unless it’s a notable key book. Though, I have recently considered reopening my submission account as my stack of high-grade keys is starting to pile up, and I think buyers do prefer to pay the premium for guaranteed grades over the gamble of a raw book. I’m not sure how this paragraph went from FMV analysis to consumer habits to rage against the machine, but maybe all those things are more closely tied than I think. To conclude this thought, I don’t think one company is necessarily better than the rest, so if I have a chance to buy a book at a discount because it’s in one company’s plastic instead of another company’s plastic, then I’m probably going to do that. And if you’re a raw-only collector, I am glad that these conversations don’t affect your buying habits one way or the other.
Okay, secondly! Lanterns dropped. At the time of this writing, 2 episodes have released and I am HOOKED. This is the first DCU project that has my full attention. Superman (2025) was incredibly underwhelming for me and sits at the bottom of tier lists next to the likes of X-Men: The Dark Phoenix and Suicide Squad (2016). But the mystery and Sci-Fi of Lanterns is so good, and the writing absolutely delivers. Kyle Chandler & Aaron Pierre’s performances as Hal Jordan & John Stewart are fantastic. Honestly, I was critical of this show months before it even came out. From the casting of an older Hal to the original trailers where everything was brown and muted, I was very hesitant, but this show delivers. If you haven’t checked it out yet, I highly recommend it. Honestly, I have no clue what’s going to happen next. I’m not well read in Green Lantern, so I have no idea what arcs or story lines to even point to to theorize on what will happen, I’m just here for the ride.
All right, that wraps it up for me this week. If you’re curious what I’m sipping on, and what was pictured for this week’s post, I’m at a local café sipping on a Papa New Guinea anaerobic single origin espresso. If all that sounds like a lot of mumbo jumbo, it's just a complex (pretentious) way of saying the beans all come from one singular farm in PNG and are processed anaerobically which brings out explosive flavors in the coffee. Nerdy stuff. Next week I want to dig into Invincible a little bit, I’ve been catching up on my reading and recently got through some crazy reveals.
I appreciate those of you who have made it this far. Thanks for reading!
P.S. Two episodes of Lanterns have dropped since I wrote this, if you’d like my thoughts on Ep. 3 check out The Comic Room Pod from this week here.
Hoping to be back in a good rhythm of writing now. See y’all next week!