sfcityduck

So happy this exists!

The latest news from Kai (Asst. Dir. of Comics) is: "`Our next sale is the debut of the DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION, happening on November 9th! This sale will feature a selection of the best Batman comics from the collection. Keep an eye out for our online catalog going live in late October."

They use Liveauctioneers. My experience was good.

I thought he picked up the 1,300 group of OO books up in 1999, and only subbed them many years later (and maybe over time as I understand he's still not done the entire collection yet). Publicly known guys with pedigree worthy groups of OO books they haven't subbed yet are BZ and DA.

Most folks won't submit the books for grading unless they intend to sell in the short term or have no desire to read them and want to save money off the CGC fee (which keep moving up as do the high end comic prices on which some fees are based) when they do finally want to sell. So I think the key question is: Do the owners of the collections have kids who are interested in comics? Some key one's do. Absent an estate tax necessity, those kids would have no need to sell. Certainly the Verzyl family has not been rushing to sell the really big books. And DA's kid appears to be making a successful career in comics so I would guess it unlikely he'll want to sell his father's collection. Which might mean that the very biggest books don't get encapsulated for more than 20 years if ever.

Complete? Well, I guess for the books from 1947. But this 1949 Turkish version on eBay is pretty interesting. https://www.ebay.com/itm/385224381624

^This^ (1) There are the folks with unslabbed pedigrees (Mile Highs, Larsons, SF, Okajimas etc.) bought before CGC became a thing as Bob just evidenced and Anderson, Verzyl, etc. have long been the well-known examples. (2) There are folks who acquired pedigree worthy groups of comics who just haven’t bothered to sub them to CGC yet. The Chinatown story of delayed submission is not going to be unique. (3) There are the folks who were collectors at the dawn of modern fandom BEFORE pedigrees were a thing sitting on great books that are largely shrouded by the secrecy that appears common for that era of collectors. BangZoom is not alone. (4) Finally, we could see another OO die and yield a new pedigree - although I believe that is the smallest potential piece of the puzzle.

I never saw that. I am a Beatles collector. No Quarrymen singles were released. They did record a single acetate of two songs: The only copy to ever come up for auction sold to Paul McCartney for a lot of money. There are not supposed to be any others. If Bangzoom got his hands on it I'd love to know. I doubt it because I don't think he's super-rich. Maybe more likely is that he posted a copy of the first official recording put out for sale by members of the Beatles - My Bonnie and The Saints, a 1961 German only 45.

What is that?

For "so wide and complete" I think also yes. BZ's collection seemed to focus on the early GA. What was impressive were his 30s and early 40s books. It is unclear whether he obtained full runs. He was free to admit to gaps in his runs. He also said his best group of books was only 1,000 to 2,000 books. Back in the day a number of folks who started collecting in the late 50s and early 60s had extremely broad collections (tens of thousands of books). It seems a safe guess that a number of those collections are still intact. I personally know a guy who has started selling the fringes of such a collection of around 20,000 books of mixed grades (some high grade GA keys are part of that collection). A complete DC collection from inception through 2016 is coming up for auction starting next month but it is largely lower grades. A complete DC collection is known to exist in Vermont (no idea on grades - but the Action 1 looked pretty good in a video). Both of those were compiled by people who were, like BZ, collectors in the 1960s or later. And more recently there are the big spenders like Hariri who have paid a lot to get top of the line books. DA and the Verzyls obviously have large swaths of super-high grade GA comics from the 30s and early to mid 40s. I think they'd probably trump BZ's collection in terms of value at least. When you consider what OOs like Church, Larson, Wigransky (who was using some of BZ's comic acquisition tactics a decade or more before BZ did), Mezzopera, etc. did in the 30s through 50s, and what early members of modern comic fandom like Placzek did in the 60s, then I think you have to conclude that BZ's collection is super cool, but it is not historically unique. It's just a great collection. And I think there's a lot more great collections than most of us know.

If you mean are there other collectors sitting on OO groups of GA books which merit pedigree treatment but have not come to market? I think yes. DA reportedly has at least one pedigree worthy OO collection that has disappeared into his Batcave. And, correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the Chinatown Pedigree has been graded but largely not sold by the dealer who was lucky enough to stumble on it, right?

I got to agree. To me this cover is far superior to his later paintings and better than his other Buck Rogers covers (FF, WSF, and BC) especially when in color. But, I also think the best expression of his full talents are in interiors and strips where he shows his mastery of storytelling and action. Examples:

No or Yes or Not Quite. The "No": BZ is not an original owner of GA books. He didn't buy those books off the stands - he bought them in the secondary market, with the best books being purchased in the 1970s. They are like a lot of GA books bought by the guys who started collecting in the early 1960s before pedigrees were a thing - books that came from original owners but that just didn't matter back then. The "Yes": BZ claimed on this site that he could identify which books were associated with what OOs for certain groupings (he threw out five or six names). For the best books - the 1,000 to 2,000 that came from a Washington D.C. OO that BZ picked up in the early 1970s - BZ has dropped enough hints that I have identified the original owner. However, knowing an OOs name and being able to identify which books belonged to that OO are two different things. It might be that the only person who could tie specific books to that original owner is BZ himself (maybe other family members could as well depending on if they were stored in a segregated grouping by OO as opposed to by title). We could make some educated guesses based on the pics he posted, but its still a guess. If BZ (or a family member) doesn't tie down the identification, then his books would have uncertain provenance and are not pedigree worthy. The "Not Quite": Even if the provenance is lost, there's no doubt in my mind that BZ's collection would be deemed a notable "collection" if submitted to CGC. Not only are they great books, but BZ is a noteworthy fellow. The books are what they are (beautiful high grade GA books) with or without being tied to a specific original owner. And, frankly, I think the tie to BZ and this thread is like a Berk book but on steroids.

It happens to all businesses. The total premiums paid by businesses for cybersecurity insurance now exceed $10 billion (b not m). That's a lot of cybersecurity insurance policies. In 2021 alone, there were 8,100 cybersecurity insurance claims paid by insurers. That's a lot of hacks.

The one pictured below was not Zaid's (his is like mine - a five sided single wide sign). But your pic and the below rack sure look like the same doublewide three sided spinner racks. The problem is that the below rack is missing one side. And based on your pic, it looks like someone pulled the sign on the right off, probably to put on a double wide non-spinning rack, and is selling what's left. I'd probably still buy it for an appropriate price.

Hope it worked out for you.

Here what I can tell you: I have a nearly perfect CCA rack. See below. It is a mid-1950s rack that many might call very early Silver Age because it post-dates adoption of the CCA. There are not a lot of CCA racks and they are cool and collectible. My rack is a five sided spinner with a single wide sign. Yours has a double wide sign. Those are typically seen on flat double wide racks. Still, I think yours is legit. The shape of the base and patina color are identical to my nearly perfect rack and a similar one owned by Esquirecomics (Zaid). Atlas was a maker of most racks of that time period and I believe they made mine (can’t check right now). Yours is a weird almost incomplete looking L shape. But that also makes me think it’s legit for two reasons. First, If I was going to Frankenstein a rack with a double wide sign far easier to do it with a double wide rack body. You see them around.. Second, I think a beat up example of this type of CCA was posted on one of the rack threads. I would buy it.

I don’t think anyone was putting out collected editions of recently issued material until later in the 1980s. Dark Knight was the the first HC of current material I recall off the top of my head. I do recall some Marvel HC and SC Silver Age and DC HC and SC Gold and Silver coming out in the 70s.

The late 70s gave us Roger-Austin Batman, Byrne-Austin IF and X-Men and Avengers, Perez various, Golden Micronauts, Miller DD, and many other great books.

I believe the first auction is slotted for 2024.

My thoughts exactly. Oregon, where this OO’s books came from, is largely suburbs with nice spacious mailboxes and the carriers would drive their routes. I believe the comics were doubled over with a soft bend and either the mail carriers or just being packed together would cause the creases. With this OO there came a point when every book had a crease but they were otherwise in great shape. I blame a change in mail carrier.

Books before and after 137 have creases. I believe there were time periods when they may have been mailed flat - possibly when shipped with a subscription premium such as the Donald and the Boys book. But that book, and many others that I have seen that all came from the same OO, were really superior. I have seen his comics as early as 29 and as late as the 200s And I have seen issues that he owned with no crease when other of the same issue had a crease. And I have seen his books with creases and otherwise immaculate. An example: No crease same OO: Creased example of same book: https://www.ebay.com/itm/354890315672?hash=item52a11c7798:g:dt0AAOSwRZRkCpZO&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwEwFhfNtHLxNtaMo%2BUdGVbBSn1AUkSlzcsWiaHHPf5PMz7%2BICCv1rhDMSfHpQzZCZWGN%2FHMe00fEjvUaE%2BytUMw3fO%2FES%2F17WRwwM%2FFRVhvutVhpFk8kGTxEX%2FutNPwU1QCBu5WwZ0vosNaOFTpGOvYb21tULqVhs151NpLTqN1QLPaOxDqXd%2B5fyJEXR2G33SB8sLigScd5Hd7ZeIA4fzZR7WT3D04gjDHKnCmG6ljWmOdA8172NcH988JEO2FzEA%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6KosJPLYg My own theory is that there are soft crease copies because of better mail carriers.

I should have bid. I found that in the wild and sold it on Heritage. Sold it to make a point about subscription variants. Pushed Heritage to make it a big deal. The description was great: Walt Disney's Comics and Stories #137 (Dell, 1952) CGC NM 9.4 White pages. A subscription copy in Near Mint is a remarkable find indeed! This has an address printed on the back and a different ad from the one that appeared on newsstand editions. Yet it has no subscription crease! Tied with one other copy (which only has off-white pages) for CGC's highest-grade for the issue, this is just the fourth certified copy that we have ever encountered, and is quite possibly the nicest copy of #137 in existence. Carl Barks provided the cover art, and a Donald Duck story and art for this impressive duck-filled issue. Huey, Dewey, and Louie appear. Overstreet 2018 NM- 9.2 value = $215. CGC census 11/18: 2 in 9.4, none higher. Clink sale did not do the book justice. It wasn’t a Covid bounce at Heritage. It was an appreciation for a frigging rare unicorn. Best copy, better than the file copies, and it is a subscription variant. Feel sorry for the seller if he was the buyer at Heritage. Lost multiples.

Anyone know the closing price on clink for the wdc&s 137?

I get that attitude. Few people want to spend their leisure time on their work. I avoid lawyer shows or movies. But Lee does say he would read good comics and Lee also clearly did understand comic readers of the 1960s as his rapport with them was undeniable. Interesting artifact. The sense you get from those excerpts is that Stan wanted more from life than comics. Ironically, so did Kirby. He had moved to LA in hopes of maybe doing movie work. Jack and Stan were more alike than they knew.