Grug Greyskin wrote in Second Print Wood Grain:While I agree the background added some interest, I think the price was probably driven more by the very strong condition of the set. I think if a comparable condition 1st print came up it would fetch in the $20K range regardless of pedigree at the moment. Conversely, if this set had issues, like a beat up box etc, it might have only gotten half of what it did.
That set definitely was top condition but I do respectfully disagree. I'm fairly new to this though, so what do I know
Chances are we could find out sooner than we think what would happen - seems to be a lot of pretty good stuff coming up all of the time and with records being set pretty regularly on Rares, you're probably going to be right on this one. I say chances are because, seeing high prices realized sure has a way of unlocking those collections.
The thing that has surprised me has been what low grade, high value books (modules, etc) realize. My background is more antiques, coins, stamps, etc so it's been pretty eye opening to me. I've seen it plenty of times in high value Modern Comic Books but I assume many times that it is just an inexperienced buyer or someone with a "gotta have it now, I don't care about the price" mentality.
On that note, I'm very curious to see what that 1st print 3 book set without box in Fair condition goes for tomorrow.
Thanks for the reply to my comment