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Christie’s Copies?!?!

Started by akaSteveRogers,

13 posts in this topic

comicparadox

comicparadox

Posted
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Christie's and Sotheby's both had a brief foray into comics auctions in the early 1990s. Apparently not too successful, because the dollar values were relatively paltry. Jerry Weist was one of the curators, and at one time several of the Overstreet advisors, including a few Boardies, gathered to grade a number of books.

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the blob

the blob

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I bought a number of books from Ritter that he had bought from a 1995 Christie's auction from the estate of Walt Gobson (creator of the Shadow). For a brief period some of the heavy books like AF 15, etc. were being sold at Christie's auctions.

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rob_react

rob_react

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Christie's and Sotheby's both had a brief foray into comics auctions in the early 1990s. Apparently not too successful, because the dollar values were relatively paltry.

 

Huh? Sotheby's set many record prices* and the auctions ran annually for (I believe, I'd have to check the catalogs) 9 years. they then moved them onto eBay for another two or three years. Christies was less successful, but still did them for 3 or 4 years.

 

 

Prime example: the White Mountain AF15 selling for a then obscene 39k.

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comicparadox

comicparadox

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Christie's and Sotheby's both had a brief foray into comics auctions in the early 1990s. Apparently not too successful, because the dollar values were relatively paltry.

 

Huh? Sotheby's set many record prices* and the auctions ran annually for (I believe, I'd have to check the catalogs) 9 years. they then moved them onto eBay for another two or three years. Christies was less successful, but still did them for 3 or 4 years.

 

 

Prime example: the White Mountain AF15 selling for a then obscene 39k.

 

My point was that in comparison to million dollar paintings, it wasn't worth their time to continue the auctions. When they discontinued them, that was indeed their stated reason. Hence the "relatively" qualifier. For most of us who collected at the time, the auctions were real eye-openers, so I agree that the pricing was, for comics, noteworthy.

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spider9698

spider9698

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For what it is worth, a friend who had knowledge of the big auction houses reported that the comic and comic art collectors were notorious non-payers. They said 90% of their billing department resources went to track down dead-beat comic collectors, which amounted to a small percentage (less than 10%) of their accounts receivable.

 

Again, this is a friend's report not mine.

 

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namisgr

namisgr

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I spoke at some length with Steve about these books at the NY show. Back in '97, Christie's auctioned off in large lots an original owner Marvel collection. As Steve explained to me, the early sixties keys from the Christie's collection tended to not be very special, and prospective bidders would look through issues 1,2, and 3 and decide not to bid on the lots. Turns out that from 1964 to the early Bronze Age , this was a fantastic collection. Without alot of competition in the auction, Steve was able to acquire runs of DD, Thor, Nick Fury, Strange Tales, Captain America, and Astonishing Tales, and scores of these books graded out at 9.4 - 9.8 with excellent page quality. Simply put, they're stunning, and Steve believes the collection compares favorably with the Boston and Oakland collections that are also focused on that time period.

 

Here's one of mine:

 

NickFury11.jpg

 

 

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tth2

tth2

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I spoke at some length with Steve about these books at the NY show. Back in '97, Christie's auctioned off in large lots an original owner Marvel collection. As Steve explained to me, the early sixties keys from the Christie's collection tended to not be very special, and prospective bidders would look through issues 1,2, and 3 and decide not to bid on the lots. Turns out that from 1964 to the early Bronze Age , this was a fantastic collection. Without alot of competition in the auction, Steve was able to acquire runs of DD, Thor, Nick Fury, Strange Tales, Captain America, and Astonishing Tales, and scores of these books graded out at 9.4 - 9.8 with excellent page quality. Simply put, they're stunning, and Steve believes the collection compares favorably with the Boston and Oakland collections that are also focused on that time period.

 

Here's one of mine:

 

NickFury11.jpg

 

Nice book, Bob. Of course, the biggest problem at the time was that except for the keys, late SA and BA went for peanuts. Just look at Greenhalgh unloading the vast majority of the Winnipeg BAs to Doug Schmell in 1996 or 1997 for almost nothing, because it just wasn't worth his time to sort, grade and price. I can see how the auction houses just wouldn't have considered it worth the hassle, no matter how nice the books were.

 

To me, the incredible prices commanded by non-key late SA and BA continues to be the most surprising development since CGC started up.

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