tth2

Turok o' the day:

Don't disagree, but in the case of GA in particular, the best book often IS a pedigree.

Slabbed B&B 25s at 20 paces, of course.

Gorgeous!

True, although query how many of the truly NM copies got further beat up as they got passed around in the 60s and 70s, particularly with no bags or boards, and generally more casual handling because of the more lax grading standards. So very very true. I lost a lot of respect for one of the top US collectors after seeing some of the file copies he sold me as "NM" which were VF at best. Having said that, a lot of file copies survived very nicely! If you go to the Ducks thread in the GA forum, quite a few of the books I've posted were file copies, even if only a few are indicated as such. List what you've got and asking prices!

Wow, that's a great cover!

Billy, I agree with you that more Ducks survived in HG than most other non-mainstream titles, but I would also be willing to bet that in many cases the file copy is still the best copy out there. File copies, like copies from the top pedigrees, simply never moved or circulated until they got discovered, which is why they stayed in such great shape. Copies that got passed around, at garage sales and conventions, even where people had the best intentions in preserving them, generally don't have the same level of preservation. I hope that there are indeed lots more HG copies out there, though! I'm curious as to when this "discovery" of Carl Barks took place. 60s? 70s? I know by the late 70s and early 80s, his work had already broken out and prices had already moved significantly (relatively speaking).

Congratulations, and on the WDC&S too! Hopefully we can see these in the Ducks thread too?

Scrooge, I'm flattered that you put me in such rarified company! Like Adam, I'm just about on 20 years of collecting (well, "serious" collecting, I've been buying comics and consciously trying to preserve them for 30 years or so), so I'll assume I'm qualified to respond. Due to the artificial constraints I've placed on my collecting (i.e., only seeking ultra-HG copies and focusing on pre-1964 DC SA, Ducks and Turoks): 1. my collection is not very extensive, 2. I'm still looking for lots of books, 3. I'm unsatisfied with the current state of my collection, and 4. therefore, my collecting goals still have not been accomplished In a sense, this is all intentional, because I purposely limited myself to picking up only ultra-HG copies in order to present a real challenge and preserve the thrill of the hunt. I don't collect oddball genres like westerns, romance and humor, or smaller publishers, which generally seem to be the categories of comics that are difficult to find in any grade. The titles I collect are relatively mainstream, and therefore pretty much can be found in middle and lower grades without too much difficulty. Therefore, placing this limitation based on grade keeps it fun and challenging, although sometimes I get stressed about the lack of progress and whether I'm chasing after mirages (i.e., whether some of these books even exist in ultra-HG). Also, it's bloody expensive! Having said this, I am a completist by nature, and I imagine there will come a point someday where I accept that a true NM copy of a book simply might not exist, in which case I'll fill in that hole with the best copy I can find, with hopes of upgrading later. So I don't think I'm going to need any new collecting goals for a while yet. If jumping forward in 10-year increments doesn't do it for you, then I agree with Adam's suggestion that jumping forward (or backward) in 1-year increments would definitely be a worthy new goal, because the breadth of your goal encompasses many of those impossible-to-find-in-any-grade types of books.

Only one way to find out...

Since I'm out of 10 cent Flashes, back to the Turoks we go. Dunno what that weird white mark on the right edge is, it's not on the comic.

Until Aman gets his slabbed!

Kick-[#@$%!!!] books, Harry. I look at my store-bought comics from the early to mid-70s, which would be equivalent to what you were doing in the late-50s and early 60s, and not one of them has survived in anything remotely approaching the condition of your comics.

Don't want to be left out of this TTA love-fest:

Billy, that's exactly right. And, because it was viewed as a kid's book by the "serious" superhero collectors, few people in the mid-60s and 70s started preserving issues of Dennis from the 50s and early 60s. I think the same holds true for almost all kid's books that were targeted for a younger audience. If you think about it, the number of Ducks and Harveys in HG would be miniscule but for the discovery of their respective file copies. Actually, even the number of GA HG superhero books, including the mainstream DC and Timely titles, would be miniscule but for eccentric collectors like Edgar Church and odd historical circumstances like the Tom Reilly collection. As you get into the period from the late 40s to the early 60s, when there are fewer pedigree collections of consistently high quality, it's incredibly difficult to find HG copies of even the mainstream superhero titles. This period, of course, happens to be the era when Dennis came out, so it's not surprising that HG issues are hard to find and perhaps don't even exist. The only pedigree we've seen containing Dennises is the Bethlehem run that Joe has, and Bethlehem is notorious for its lack of consistency in terms of grade. So unless there are file copies of Dennis out there, or copies of Dennis in the White Mountain pedigree or other pedigrees that spanned the 50s, or unless new pedigrees containing books from the 50s (including Dennises) surface, I don't have high hopes for HG copies being found.

That cover definitely does not raise him in my esteem!

Scrooge, very cool cover, thanks for posting. The contrast of the purple character in the foreground against the red colored character in the background definitely heightens the sense of depth. Also a little surprised about the artist. If you just showed me the purple character, I would've given odds that it was Gil Kane. The dynamic posture, depiction of his head from a 3/4 behind angle, and linework, particularly the folds in the sleeve, really seem Kane-like.

That's right, forgot about that! Congrats, Scott, on adding to your portfolio of pedigrees! Don't forget to post the COA for us! On a serious note, Dallas is a super nice guy and had some VERY nice books.

Congrats, Scott!

Actually, I was NOT the insane insufficiently_thoughtful_person who actually won the eBay auctions when those books went up for sale. Being naive at the time, my "aggressive" bids ended up being about 1/5 of the final prices once the big boys (Dallas Stephens, Roter, Wilson, Nathanson and the actual winner, a private collector) piled in. I'd never seen anything like it. I just happened to be the very happy person who happened to be hanging around when this private collector later decided to exit comics and asked me if I'd be interested in buying the books from him. With a vengeance. Prices are almost back to where they were during the 1997 bubble, and just about 100% above where they were 2 years ago when things bottomed out during SARS. You can't touch a nice 1000 square foot flat in a nice area for less than US$1.2 million right now, and really big luxury properties are absolutely insane. Has your wife been talking with MY wife? The similarities are uncanny!

Of course, that "one" above 8.5 happens to be a 9.6! If Robert Roter would just let his 9.4 GL #5 go at a non-insane price, it could join the rest of its 9.4 early GL brethren in Hong Kong! It would look so nice sitting between the #2 and the #7...

Jon Juan! Where do they get this from?

tth2; Somewhere in there I believe you answered your own question. Books are usually slabbed only for the express purpose of obtaining a higher value when placed into the market for sale. HG early SA DC's are seen to be extremely rare relative to HG Marvels and most likely not placed into the market by their owners since they cannot be easily replaced. Hence no reason to have them slabbed at this point in time. I beleive this is the exact same reason why GA collectors are not having their HG GA books slabbed. With HG SA Marvels, I believe it is a completely different story as virtually any book (with very few exceptions) can be replaced as long as you are willing to pony up the cash. Since HG early Marvels are viewed as replaceable, this results in less of a reluntance to placed them into the market and therefore, more and more of them being slabbed in order to cash in on the current high market values. Very true Lou, and if it were only 1 year after Ron broke his issues out I definitely wouldn't be asking the question. But it's 4 years later, and nada. During the same period of time, some HG copies of other early SA DCs (GL, Atom, JLA, Showcase, B&B, etc.) have slowly seeped out into the market. I would have expected that the simple passage of time and the law of averages would cause SOME HG issues of Flash to slowly dribble out into the census, if for no other reason than the 3 D's: death, divorce, debt. Is it just a statistical anomaly? And don't underestimate the power of money. When books start becoming worth "real" money, that translates into real material assets or real improvements in lifestyle, and the temptation to sell becomes greater. The guy who I bought some great GLs from said the books had simply appreciated to the point that it made a genuine difference to him: he could take the proceeds and make a decent downpayment on a really nice car. Similarly, perhaps some serious DC collectors want to buy a house, or upgrade to a better house, or put their kids through college?

The cover art, man, the cover art! I only obsess about grade when it comes to my own comics!

Gorgeous!