Chuck sells RED RAVEN #1 Mile High Copy and more

[500Club]

With Chuck stating that the Church books have a current estimated market value exceeding one hundred million dollars.

I wonder what have been more profitable for him?

making Mile High Comics the number one internet/mail order comic shop over the years

or

holding onto all the Church comics and selling them now?

 

He couldn't.

 

He was leveraged to the gills at the time. I don't remember exact details, but seem to recall money being borrowed to purchase the collection, and a large chunk of books sold immediately to cover this.

[Comicdey]

Well I'd still love to have the Spirit 20, 21 and 22.....the rest I can live without .

[plasticide-migration]

Talked to Chuck this morning. A few things from the conversation...

1) He had the books slabbed earlier this year to authenticate the pedigree status for his heirs.

2) He really has no intention or expectation that they will sell. He merely wanted to present them as an attention grabber for his booth in San Diego. Particularly because he will have a documentary crew filming his show experience.

3) The Red Raven 1 is a 9.0 because of a small bindery tear at the top of the spine.

(As an aside, I have never seen the Church copy but I did hold the other 9.0 before Metro bought it from Chris Foss. Structurally Metro's copy was very clean. But it was very weak in the other eye appeal aspects. Red Raven 1 is one of my absolute favorite books and I passed on the 9.0 in favor of the 8.5(slight - cover cleaned) that I presently own. I have no doubt the Church is a much better book.)

4) Prices - these are Chuck's asking prices. Remember that he has no expectation that they will sell but he will listen to offers.

Red Raven 1 - $500,000

Spirit - he has the complete run. There are a few 9.8s, many 9.6s and a few lower. $500,000 for the run.

$200,000 for the Feature Book.

 

How could the RR# 1 be graded a 9.0 when it clearly looks like a 9.4 label in the picture?

 

Because a CGC employee came on a couple pages back and said is was a 9.0.

[capt_comics]

Talked to Chuck this morning. A few things from the conversation...

1) He had the books slabbed earlier this year to authenticate the pedigree status for his heirs.

2) He really has no intention or expectation that they will sell. He merely wanted to present them as an attention grabber for his booth in San Diego. Particularly because he will have a documentary crew filming his show experience.

3) The Red Raven 1 is a 9.0 because of a small bindery tear at the top of the spine.

(As an aside, I have never seen the Church copy but I did hold the other 9.0 before Metro bought it from Chris Foss. Structurally Metro's copy was very clean. But it was very weak in the other eye appeal aspects. Red Raven 1 is one of my absolute favorite books and I passed on the 9.0 in favor of the 8.5(slight - cover cleaned) that I presently own. I have no doubt the Church is a much better book.)

4) Prices - these are Chuck's asking prices. Remember that he has no expectation that they will sell but he will listen to offers.

Red Raven 1 - $500,000

Spirit - he has the complete run. There are a few 9.8s, many 9.6s and a few lower. $500,000 for the run.

$200,000 for the Feature Book.

 

Thought it all sounded like a publicity stunt.............now we know (thumbs u

 

[Senormac]

 

 

 

I have no idea whats in the box....but of those comics showing right there.....4 of em are Police Comics

[DiceX]

Hell, I'd like to go through those boxes of fanzines behind him.

 

 

[mrwoogieman]

 

 

I have no idea whats in the box....but of those comics showing right there.....4 of em are Police Comics

 

I also see a "greggy", some kind of LOVE book over there on the right. And is that a Blue Bolt?

 

 

[Bronty]

definitely a blue bolt. one of the frazetta romance books maybe?

[Ken Aldred]

Well I'd still love to have the Spirit 20, 21 and 22.....the rest I can live without .

As an Eisner fan, the Spirit reprint books would be nice to have but, of course, these pedigree copies are priced way beyond my means - putting it mildly. To be perfectly honest, I prefer the original newspaper Spirit sections, which are first prints and in their own way feel just as historically interesting and exciting to me, and are priced much more realistically. I don't feel I'm missing anything at all.

[Monstro]

Red Raven says 9.4

[Monstro]

Don't know which thread to post this in so I'll try both.

 

If Chuck wasn't able to come up with the capitol to purchase the Church books, or if he decided for whatever reason to NOT follow the lead, or he was away on vacation at the time.

 

Who would have been next in line to buy the collection? Or would it all have been thrown away?

 

Anyone know?

[Bosco685]

If you look at the lower left-hand side, it appears the bottom bin has a copy of Will Eisner's M16A1 Preventive Maintenance Magazine just to the left of the Uncanny X-Men 137.

 

The cover art alone makes it worth having one.

 

 

 

[Mutant Manatee]

Don't know which thread to post this in so I'll try both.

 

If Chuck wasn't able to come up with the capitol to purchase the Church books, or if he decided for whatever reason to NOT follow the lead, or he was away on vacation at the time.

 

Who would have been next in line to buy the collection? Or would it all have been thrown away?

 

Anyone know?

 

I do know that several dealers were contacted by Edgar Church's family before Chuck, and none of them showed any interest in the collection. (Not knowing what was actually there, of course.) And if I remember correctly, Chuck salvaged many pieces of Edgar Church's artwork from the garbage. I do not know how many dealers they contacted before Chuck, or if the family would have continued to try to sell the books if Chuck hadn't jumped on the deal.

 

Kinda makes a person ill thinking of that collection being thrown in the garbage, doesn't it?

[Bosco685]

Kinda makes a person ill thinking of that collection being thrown in the garbage, doesn't it?

What about the ones Chuck found on the custom-built shelves next to a water line which Church never knew were damp from a small leak?

 

Tales From The Database Part IX

 

After Bruce and Burrell departed, I returned to Edgar Church's house. On this trip I brought with me some friends from Boulder who specialized in pulp magazines. They made a deal with the Church heirs for the magazines in the mysteriously empty room that I mentioned in my last installment of this story. In a shocking development, however, the middle books in the 7 foot tall, by 4 foot wide, shelving unit were ruined! The spines of all these pulp magazines were all bright and colorful, but there was a pipe running over the top of the bookshelf that led to an outside spigot. At some time in the distant past, this pipe had sprung a pinhole leak, and over the years the drops of water from the leak had run down the wall and lodged in the pulps. When we tried to pull them off of the shelves, all the issues in the middle of the individual shelves were bonded together into a huge mass of black fungus! All I could think about when I saw those books that had been destroyed was that I was so thankful that this disaster hadn't happened to all the wonderful Golden Age comics...

 

My friends, the pulp dealers, were very dismayed at this unforeseen damage, but they still obtained about 200 NM/M WEIRD TALES, SPICY MYSTERY, and SPICY DETECTIVE pulps. The heirs got another nice payment for this batch of magazines. On this trip I also paid them additional funds for the remaining reference files from the main room of the basement. Once those were all loaded, the heirs asked me if I would be interested in the contents of Edgar Church's office.

[Monstro]

Don't know which thread to post this in so I'll try both.

 

If Chuck wasn't able to come up with the capitol to purchase the Church books, or if he decided for whatever reason to NOT follow the lead, or he was away on vacation at the time.

 

Who would have been next in line to buy the collection? Or would it all have been thrown away?

 

Anyone know?

 

I do know that several dealers were contacted by Edgar Church's family before Chuck, and none of them showed any interest in the collection. (Not knowing what was actually there, of course.) And if I remember correctly, Chuck salvaged many pieces of Edgar Church's artwork from the garbage. I do not know how many dealers they contacted before Chuck, or if the family would have continued to try to sell the books if Chuck hadn't jumped on the deal.

 

Kinda makes a person ill thinking of that collection being thrown in the garbage, doesn't it?

 

Wonder if any of those dealers are still in the business, the must be kicking themselves.

[Artboy99]

If I am correct I believe it was a real estate agent who was shopping around trying to find a buyer of the collection, the family just wanted it gone and were throwing it away.

 

 

[Bosco685]

If I am correct I believe it was a real estate agent who was shopping around trying to find a buyer of the collection, the family just wanted it gone and were throwing it away.

You are correct!

 

Twenty-five years ago this week (mid-January 1977), my future wife, Nanette, took a phone call in our Boulder, Colorado Mile High Comics store. The call was from a friend of ours, who was a clerk at a Science Fiction bookstore down the street. Nanette had worked at this bookstore until she came to work at Mile High Comics. This bookstore was also the original home of the first Mile High Comics store, as I had rented their back room for two years. This friend gave her the phone number of a Realtor who had called the bookstore looking to unload a "large" batch of old comics.

[TheWatcher]

Don't know which thread to post this in so I'll try both.

 

If Chuck wasn't able to come up with the capitol to purchase the Church books, or if he decided for whatever reason to NOT follow the lead, or he was away on vacation at the time.

 

Who would have been next in line to buy the collection? Or would it all have been thrown away?

 

Anyone know?

 

I do know that several dealers were contacted by Edgar Church's family before Chuck, and none of them showed any interest in the collection. (Not knowing what was actually there, of course.) And if I remember correctly, Chuck salvaged many pieces of Edgar Church's artwork from the garbage. I do not know how many dealers they contacted before Chuck, or if the family would have continued to try to sell the books if Chuck hadn't jumped on the deal.

 

Kinda makes a person ill thinking of that collection being thrown in the garbage, doesn't it?

 

Wonder if any of those dealers are still in the business, the must be kicking themselves.

 

Ask Richard, MrBedrock, to relate the story of when he dropped in on one of those dealers

[TheWatcher]

If you look at the lower left-hand side, it appears the bottom bin has a copy of Will Eisner's M16A1 Preventive Maintenance Magazine just to the left of the Uncanny X-Men 137.

 

The cover art alone makes it worth having one.

 

 

 

 

I have a copy, still sealed. A seller on eBay had a bunch of these he was selling off a while back.

[Bosco685]

I have a copy, still sealed. A seller on eBay had a bunch of these he was selling off a while back.

 

That was me.