WOULD YOU PAY $129,000 FOR THIS MAGAZINE?

Yesterday, I posted "The Top 100 Most Valuable Magazines" list from the NOSTOMANIA collector's website. Sitting alone at the top is Pete Miller's DRAG CARTOONS #27 from May 1966. With a cover depicting Adam West as Batman and Burt Ward as Robin with the George Barris Batmobile, and a newsstand price of just 35 cents, the magazine is now apparently worth more. A lot more. Like almost 130K more. At $129,000, DRAG CARTOONS #27 is currently the "most valuable" magazine on the planet. It's value has increase over 38% in the last year. Granted, this price is for high grade copies in the "slabbed" condition so coveted by high-end collector's, but still . . .

Another consistent top-scorer is FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND #4 with the regional "ghoul's eye" sticker. However, it has recently dropped from the #2 spot to #6 with a reduction in value of almost 50% over the last year. At a price of $13,800, I think I'll wait a little while longer.

HOW MUCH IS THAT MONSTER MAG IN THE WINDOW?

HOWL STREET - With over 60,000 current registered users, NOSTOMANIA is an influential force in the still-strong collector's market. The website is open to both buyers and sellers and is helpful as a research tool, as well. The HOWL STREET JOURNAL reports that their "100 Most Valuable Magazines" reveal an interesting trend in monster magazines -- over 50% of the list are horror film magazines and about half of the hundred are Warren publications.

Pricing seems to be on the high end, but many premium items are being "slabbed" by companies like CGC, who some years ago started their own industry in grading and preserving comic books, magazines, and other paper ephemera.

Here is NOSTOMANIA'S Top 100 list, with a description of the grading structure: 

"With each pricing update we compute and show here the 100 most valuable magazines. We chose NM 9.4 as a "baseline" grade for comparison. Clearly, some of these items may not, and probably do not exist in that grade. Also, the magazines database is still in its relative infancy, so there are certainly many items not yet in the database which will join this list when they are entered."

WHAT PRICE HEIDI SAHA?

The young, teenage "model" that caught the eye of talent agent, promoter and FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND's first Editor Forrest J. Ackerman, was named Heidi Saha. Legend has it that she came to fame in the early 70's when she arrived at the Sixth Annual New York Comic Convention dressed in a skimpy Vampirella costume. Despite some prevailing negativity surrounding her attempts at grabbing the Vampi spotlight from another model, FJA was introduced to her, and whether smitten by her young beauty or in a deal that was stricly business, the result was her own magazine and 24" x 36" poster for sale in the back pages of Warren Publications.

Now, almost 40 years later, her magazine, AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF HEIDI SAHA, commands high prices on a market that's hot for these types of collectibles. HERITAGE AUCTIONS  is currently accepting bids on a "slabbed" copy that is graded 7.0 out of 10. A collector's market watchdog, NOSTOMANIA, has listed on its website the most recent graded pricing as a "blended" value averaged from several markets. One thing is for sure, it is quite certain that this rare (only about 500 copies were ever printed) collector's commodity will close at a price that is well out of the reach of many a-Monsterologist.



The HEIDI SAHA magazine listing on the Heritage Auctions website.





Graded pricing at Nostomania.