detective35

There was a time when I was doing some in depth searching on the history of the San Francisco's, the first owners, and the grades of them from Riley's pre-war involvement and the ones while he was in the war. It definately seems like the ones from the collection when he was in the war were on a whole, much sharper across the board. Dwight

Hi West, I was at the San Diego Con a few years back, when an guy brought a killer copy of Action Comics #23..the San Franscisco copy. Steve F. (one of the last years he attended) looked at it, showed it to me (at that time I had 8 Frisco Flash (Hawkman covers)), so I looked at it carefully and it had either the code or the Reilly stamp (or both), and the blazing white pages. Steve offered the guy a very fair price, but the guy decided to keep it. I was shocked because it was one of the earliest Frisco's that I had even seen and a killer one to boot. There are more out there, because I have had a couple of prominent collectors say that they had seen the Flash 9 and USA 7 Frisco's. Dwight

FYI, I just noticed that there are a number of outstanding war books in tonight's "Sunday night Heritage auctions". I am not a war collector, but noticed them (and at a good price so far), and some great covers, so thought I would let all the war collectors know! Dwight

I also just picked up this on eBay. [font:Arial Black]1935 ORIGINAL DOC SAVAGE CLUB BAUMHOFER PRINT IN ORIGINAL MAILER ENVELOPE (Circa. 1935)[/font] The image was taken from the 1935 Doc Savage pulp Cover "The Quest of Qui". This Street & Smith Premium was given out to people who could send in 2 Doc Savage coupons (from the pulps). I had this item before, but traded it for a Shadow item, so it is great to get another one! What is really cool is the outstanding condition of the original mailer. Dwight

The only sponsors of Doc Savage was Cystex (radio show), and of course Street & Smith. Dwight

Just picked this up from Hake's Auction. It is a rare 1934 - 11" x 14.5" - original cardboard poster promoting "The Doc Savage" radio show, sponsored by "Cystex". Dwight

I won this one from the Robinson auction. Dime Detective - May 1932 Dwight

Yes, I had a dead on NM- copy which I had offered to Steve. I had a about a dozen Amazings that looked they came right off the newsstand (as nice as any of Frank's), but I kept only one, which I will never sell. The October 1928 Amazing Stories which is one of my favorite pulp covers of all time (Classic Lion vs. Robot cvr.). It is a strict NM/M condition. Some asked me if I would consider a trade on it, and I replied that the only way that I might even consider a trade, is if I was offered an NM copy of "The Creeping Death" (I have 4 copies, but none that nice).

I was referring to the four large sets that I previously referred to in my previous posts (Adventure, Doc Savage, Amazing Stories, Weird Tales). Dwight

Oh, that would be cool. Did you get the color book at least? I did, but think of how much better it would have been to be able to see full size scans of all those pulps. I don't know why John didn't go that route instead of trying to sell a $65 catalog. I assume the cost of burning the DVDs would have been significantly less than publishing a 526 page book and I think it would have encouraged collectors to make higher bids if they could have seen large scans that showed off how gorgeous everything, apparently, is. I agree, not sure why he did not go that route either. Apparently all the sets that did not meet the reserve have been sold for the full reserve price to the highest bidders (or so I am told).

My friend will probably sell off his undercopies. BTW: The WT, Doc's, Amazings, Adventures, etc. did not hit reserve, and on the website they are no longer showing what the high bid was, it is just blank. I have seen the WT and all of Frank's pulps a number of times, in which Frank always took them out of the Mylite 2's and showed them off. Dwight

[font:Arial]I know, I was a little upset that I did not get a chance at the Amazing Stories besdsheets and some of the WT's. What was more frustrating, is that I was live bidding (via someone at Heritage over the phone) at the Heritage Auction on the one of the Shadow bound volumes (#3) from August 32 - Feb. 33 (with The Creeping Death in it). The guy doing the phone bidding did not get me bid in on time and this was just after the other guy cut the bid, bascially leaving me to win it, but he did not get my bid in on time. I am telling you, I maybe slept an hour that night because I was so angry and upset. Dwight[/font]

[font:Arial][font:Arial]The Doc Savage and Adventure MIGHT hit the next auctions, the WEIRD TALES and the Amazing Stories will not. I just got off the phone with my buddy (1292), he won the Weird Tales & the Amazings, and you can more or less count on him taking both of them. Even though nothing in this life is for certain, he will pull the trigger on the Amazings, and most likely pull the trigger on the WT. Remember, if the highest bidder wins a lot and the reserve has not been met, the bidder gets the option to buy the set (at the reserve price), if he turns it down, then it goes into auctions #2-12. The reserve on the WT is probably somewhere in the $250K range. Dwight[/font][/font]

As I was thumbing through the October 1933 Picture Play magazine, I noticed a another full page advertisement on The Shadow. This ad made the Shadow sound very eerie and frightening. [font:Arial Black] "Master of the Night" becomes part of "Blackness Iteself" "A Strange Weird Creature" "This Phantom form of Darkness" "Avenger of Crime" "Upholder of Justice" [/font] I then realized that they used some of the catch phrases in one of the rarest and most sought after cardboard advertising signs; circa. 1933. [font:Arial Black]FYI: This sign was reprinted in the 1970's and is still being sold on ebay. You can distinguish between the original and the reprints in a few ways:[/font] 1 a) The Original was produced on Cardboard. 1 b) The Reprint is reproduced on glossy paper. 2 a) The Original has an embossed oval trademark at the bottom, in the center of the border. 2 b) The Reprint has NO trademark 3 a) The Original has "Made in the USA" inked in the bottom right corner. 3 b) The Reprint does not have this written. [font:Arial Black][font:Arial]4 a) The dimensions of the original cardboard sign are: 11 1/2" x 14 1/2". [/font] [/font]

Thanks for the replies. I have known about these items for years, but it sometimes takes years to acquire them. Well, next on my list is to try and find is: 1) Another classic covered Shadow painting (by Rozen)! 2) A high grade Shadow pulp #1 (mine is VG- w. off-white pages). 3) An ultra high grade Shadow Jan.15/33 "The Creeping Death" (I have four copies but none are high grade...have the darn painting but not a killer copy of the pulp. I have been told that a couple killer copies surfaced about 15 years ago but I have yet to track them down. 4) Other rare Shadow items (posters/toys/premiums displays etc.). **Well, the thrill of the hunt continues!** Dwight

[font:Arial Black]Finally got a few RARE [font:Arial Black]SHADOW[/font] items that I was waiting for.[/font] [font:Arial Black]The Blue Coal promotional booklets are 11" x 18" w. the 1932 one being hard cover bound and the other two are heavier cardboard. The covers are worn & tattered, but the interiors are perfect on all of them. They have dozens of pages of promotional advertisements, etc. I have never seen these before, nor has anyone else, so they extremely rare and early. They are the only known early (& complete) Blue Coal saleman books to known to exist!![/font] [font:Arial Black]By matching up the images and the writing designs from the Salesman / Promotional manuals, I was able to confirm the dates of my Shadow Blue Coal Trolley Signs[/font]. "[font:Arial Black]The Goodrich Silvertown News" was put out by Goodrich in 1938. It has the color Shadow ad promoting the Radio Show and the Transcription Discs. The only other Goodrich Shadow items known to exist are locked away in the BF Goodrich Archives in Ohio. Goodrich tires sponsored the Shadow Radio Show in 1938-39[/font] [font:Arial Black]The "Picture Play" magazines are from 1932-33. Only a few contained full page ads of "The Shadow".[/font] [font:Arial Black]The Shadow Blue Coal Ring set (mailer, insert, and ring is tough to find as a complete set in nice shape). It is from the 1930's. The Carey Salt ring is from 1945 and is much rarer. The lapel pins are a little more common. The transcription disc interior design label with the Shadow image is really rare as most of them are obviously on the discs themselves. It is probably from the 1937-39 seasons[/font]. [font:Arial Black]The radio scripts are just a couple more originals to add to my collection. I have a number of the original radio scripts[/font]. [font:Arial Black]Dwight[/font]

Ryan, Not just for you, but for alot of people including me, until about a week back when I clarified things with John. BTW: Give me a call re: Amazing Stories 306-531-2211 Dwight

If John takes his time he can grade well. However, you need to examine the pics very carefully, as some VF graded books can be VF, some FN-, some VF/NM...there is a great deal of fluctuation probably because of the number of books..so look carefully at the scans. If you have concerns or just want to be sure about a book(s), give him a call and ask him to look at the book again and examine the page quality as well. Dwight

[font:Arial Black][font:Arial]It is not like ebay where an item could be at $400.00, and you put a $2000.00 max. bid in on it, knowing that it will not sell that high but wanting to make sure that you win the item. Then maybe a couple other bidders bid, and you end up getting it for $500.00 etc. In this auction, once you put your max bid in, that is your bid, and it will show $2000.00 on the site, and you are locked in at that bid, unless you call John ahead of time and tell him that you did not realize that this is what is happening. I talked with a couple of strong bidders and they had no idea that this is how the bidding was being done.[/font]. [/font] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [font:Arial]There was no error in the bidding program, just an error on the side of the bidder. This is what happened. I phoned John and let him know about the bids the guy had placed thinking that he might have done what I explained above, and right away John figured that the person might have not read the auction bidding rules closely enough and immediately emailed the bidder (which not many auction houses would have done). If this was the case, John was going to allow the guy to retract the bid and replace his bid according to the bidding regulations. [/font] [font:Arial]Yes BZ, once John contacted the guy, sometime late this afternoon, the guy retracted his initial bids, and replaced them with much lower bids[/font]. [font:Arial]Also, while I was on the phone with John, he put further explanations for the bidding procedure on each page of the auctions, (further explaining this to those who did not read the regulations carefully), further alerting everyone who might be bidding not to make the same mistake. This is now further expalined and posted on the each auction page on the website[/font]. [font:Arial]Ryan, providing that the books do not sell as complete run in auction #1, then the bidding on the individual books from the sets that did not sell in auction #1, and all other pulps that were not in these sets, will begin in auction #2. When bidding, you put in your bid, then the next person has 3 minutes to respond and place a higher bid, if he does you then have 3 more minutes to relpy. Once the 3 minutes had elapsed without a further bid, then the auction is over and you win the item (providing that the reserve has been met). This is much better than Hakes auction where they extend each auction by an hour after a bid, rather than 3 minutes. This method avoids snipes and you can sit back and decide just who is going to outbid whom, head to head. Note: You can place a bid according to the regular increments, or you can put in a max bid if you want, but do not put in a full maximum bid unless you are prepared to pay it, because you are locked in at that maximum bid[/font]. [font:Arial]Dwight[/font]

It is not like ebay where an item could be at $400.00, and you put a $2000.00 max. bid in on it, knowing that it will not sell that high but wanting to make sure that you win the item. Then maybe a couple other bidders bid, and you end up getting it for $500.00 etc. In this auction, once you put your max bid in, that is your bid, and it will show $2000.00 on the site. It is completely different than ebay. Dwight

No idea who that bidder is, but he won't win with the bids he has placed. Dwight

[font:Arial][font:Arial Black][font:Arial]Did you see that someone with clearly more money than knowledge (re: pulp pricing that is), has bid through the roof on about 6 Doc Savages, 2 Amazing Stories bedsheets, and for a Spider pulp. I mean he put some bids on Doc Savages' and Spiders' that are 3X what a NM copy has sold for. I think he got sucked in by John putting an astonomical high end estimate on some of it, he probably has a ton of cash, is not up on the prices, and just bid the high end or 10% over the high end. ie) 1935 Spider in VF (should be $300-$500..even for a file NM file copy). John's estimate was 300-$1000, the guy bid 1250.00??? The same with the Doc Savages. I should find out the guys name and sell him my Spider file copy that I bought from Frank a few years back[/font].[/font][/font]

No, I do not think that anything was cherry picked over the past three years. Frank might have done trades years ago, but not recently. Dwight

I was at Frank's house a few times and he did have 7 Shadows from the "Strasser" collection that I traded for. Surprisingly, The Creeping Death that he had graded a F-VF, I passed on, hands down. The Green color on the front cover almost looked in person like it was brownish (maybe sun faded or a poor color strike) and the book had a warped appearace to it, just something I cannot put a finger on. I have 4 copies of The Creeping Death, but do not have a high grade one, even though I have high grade copies of about 99% of all the Shadows in the run...Hmm...have the original painting, but not a killer copy...a high grade one is certainly in my gunsights, as is a high grade #1 (mine is a VG- w. ow/w paper.) Other than that, Frank really did not have alot of Shadows because he did not collect them (as a run anyway). Dwight

[font:Arial Black]Here are some more![/font] [font:Arial Black]S[/font][font:Arial Black] is for [/font][font:Arial Black]S[/font][font:Arial Black]pider[/font] [font:Arial Black](file copies)[/font]