Golden Age Find: 1955 Brer Rabbit Kite Fun Book CGC 9.8 (x7)

[Kite_Fun_Books]

Hello All,

 

Just a little story to tell. I am a Kite Fun Book fanatic. The 1955 Kite Fun Book features Brer Rabbit. It is the year after the famous Donald Duck tells about Kites, and it is a little obscure. It rates a Gerber 7 (25-50 copies exist), but is a little more common than that.

 

Over the years about one copy a year seems to hit the market. About 5 years ago Bedrock Comics had a small find, I think 4 copies. Their best was a CGC 9.4 SCE which sold on ebay for a little over $400, I think. I bought 3 from their website at the same time. My 8.5 & my 7.5 came from them, I think. Also from SCE I have picked up two recently, one from Overstreets collection and another from Diamond. Both of those just came back with 9.2 today from CGC.

 

As far as PG&E, the other utility they were identified with, my best until recently was a 3.5. Two other copies are on ebay now, may have come from the recent find. Heritage sold a 9.2 last year for $418 also, maybe from this find. Earlier this year a group starting coming on the market and this is the story of that.

 

Someone back east started listing a PG&E Brer Rabbit about once a week. After a few weeks of winning, I got the first few and they were NICE. I contacted them to find out how many they had and bought the majority.

 

It looks like way back in 1956 (were they were distributed) one class didn't get theirs. Instead the ended up in a box of the teachers stuff were they remained for 50+ years. Were talking about approximately 30 copies here. After 50 years, it is my understanding that they found their way to an antique mall where the person I bought them from was picking them up and transfering them to ebay. From there, the majority came to me. It looks like they were all kept together in a pile, held together with rubber bands. The top and bottom copies have impressions from the rubber band, but the copies in the middle....

 

Well, I carefully selected seven and sent to CGC. Today they came back. All 9.8s. All White. If you asked me last year I would have said I didn't think any remained in existance this nice. I have bought several lots over the years of different Kite Fun Books left over from teachers, mostly from the 1970s. Very hard to find 9.8s. When Heritage sold off the Random House Archives only about 10 of the 240 or so Kite Fun Books rated 9.8, mostly from late 1970s.

 

So here they are for the first time. Two are going in my collection, one for the PG&E collection and one for the Finest collection.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[comicdonna]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[AGGIEZ]

AWESOME! Seriously, what was your reaction when you found out the grades? OR did you know this was coming? Great find!

[Kite_Fun_Books]

I was floored. I was the underbidder last year trying to get the 9.2 from Heritage, so I was hoping for at least one 9.6 which would put to bed ever having to upgrade. Didn't think this was possible. The next 9.8 Kite Fun Book doesn't come around until 1969. GOLDEN AGE DISNEY !

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

If only they had been piles of Pirate's Gold or Mummy's Ring or Frozen Gold!!

 

I can dream, can't I??

[BustedFlush]

They're out there.

Nestled in the dark.

Waiting.