JIMs coming out of the wood work!

[shadroch]

If you read his story on the Mile High 2 collection, the sellers also come across as subhumans, and totally deserving of what getting taken. Again, Chuck emerges as the heroic Conan of Aquisition, slashing his way through hordes of criminals and mafia types.

 

Sub-human might be a tad harsh. However,these unbathed siblings,with their crack whores and hair-trigger tempers certainly made me wonder about the wisdom of retro-active abortions.I'd wager a dollar to a donut,that those wackos are either dead or on extended vacation at our expense.

[Red Hook]

I'd rather be called a simple sub-human, than one of those...uh, whatever you said!

 

 

 

I ....think......

[qualitycomix]

By the late 1970's, I would imagine that the public at large had an idea that old funny books were worth some money.

 

I'm not so sure about this...

 

Back in the late 1970's, I bought some comics from a man who worked as a curator for a local university library. They had been donated, the library didn't want them, so they were sold.

 

As I recall, I picked up Silver Surfer #1, Marvel Feature #1, and some FF's in the 40's or 50's (all in NM condition) for the sum total of $1. Granted, these weren't FF 1 or Action 1, but I still felt I did very well. Of course, the book snob factor may have played a role in these being discounted to basically cover price.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

And what time period were those from? The SILVER age. Back then, silver age books (especially late silver) were very common.

 

Golden age books were becoming valuable and are much like what early Silver Age books are to us today.

[Fan4Fan]

By the late 1970's, I would imagine that the public at large had an idea that old funny books were worth some money.

 

I'm not so sure about this...

 

Back in the late 1970's, I bought some comics from a man who worked as a curator for a local university library. They had been donated, the library didn't want them, so they were sold.

 

As I recall, I picked up Silver Surfer #1, Marvel Feature #1, and some FF's in the 40's or 50's (all in NM condition) for the sum total of $1. Granted, these weren't FF 1 or Action 1, but I still felt I did very well. Of course, the book snob factor may have played a role in these being discounted to basically cover price.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

And what time period were those from? The SILVER age. Back then, silver age books (especially late silver) were very common.

 

Golden age books were becoming valuable and are much like what early Silver Age books are to us today.

 

[FlyingDonut]

If you read his story on the Mile High 2 collection, the sellers also come across as subhumans, and totally deserving of what getting taken. Again, Chuck emerges as the heroic Conan of Aquisition, slashing his way through hordes of criminals and mafia types.

 

Sub-human might be a tad harsh. However,these unbathed siblings,with their crack whores and hair-trigger tempers certainly made me wonder about the wisdom of retro-active abortions.I'd wager a dollar to a donut ,that those wackos are either dead or on extended vacation at our expense.

 

Hey now!

[Aman619]

But if I go to a dealer and ask for $1000 and he says that is too little, he will give me $3000, I will walk away with my collection at once and look into this further - because I will be alerted to the fact that my collection is worth well in excess of $3000.

 

exactly! Put yourselves in the Church family's shoes as you have here... Wouldnt you WANT to know you were getting 1% of the value?

[lou_fine]

keep in mind that you are quoting Chucks view of the situation. Chuck has been very defensive for many years because of his predatory actions that fateful winter. Hi slatest CBG retelling (at long last!!! ) was a dramatic epic story of one little man, living in his car, who reached down to the depths of his courage and convistioons and somehow pulls off the deal of the century!!!!!

 

be still my heart! Oh Cuck, my HERO!!!

 

What also bothers me is that Chuckles only told a portion of the story. He didn't bother to go into the part concerning the subsequent lawsuit the Church family laid against him. He also conveniently forgot to mentioned the part where he transferred all of his funds to his wife in order to avoid paying taxes on the unreported earnings from his MH sales.

 

Unfortunately, the family lost the lawsuit because Chuckles was never asked his professional opinion as to the value of the books at the time of purchase. The family simply assumed there were 20,000 books multiplied by $0.10 which worked out to a very convenient $2,000. Of course, Chuckles didn't have this kind of money and had to borrow it from Burrell Rowe who in return got to picked $10,000 worth of books based on the current OS value at the time. Heard he got complete runs of some gorgeous covers.

 

Maybe we should all petition Chuckles to tell the whole story, and nothing but the whole complete story.

[blowout]

Maybe we should all petition Chuckles to tell the whole story, and nothing but the whole complete story.

 

If you can just wait until Hell freezes over...

[Aman619]

keep the details coming Lou! I cant believe a whole new crop of Chuck defenders and by inference, Church bashers has emerged who need to hear "The Rest of the Story!" I really get frustrated so many comics collectors hear Chuck's heroic version and run with it.

[Silver Surfer]

I'd rather be called a simple sub-human, than one of those...uh, whatever you said!

 

 

 

I ....think......

 

Ever been called a "vile, inhuman reprobate".

[shadroch]

The bottom line is that when chuck was dragged into court,he won. He could have settled before time,but convinced the law was on his side,he went to court and was vindicated.You can talk all the [!@#%^&^] you want but the case was tried and he was found not to owe the family nada.

Everyone talks about how he should have done something for the family after the fact,but how many of you would lift a finger for someone who dragged you thru the judical system for years?

He was approched by someone representing the family and evidently no-one else would even look at the books.The family representitive supposedly set the price and Chuck agreed to it. If he is at fault,so are all the people who have ever hit a cheap BIN or scooped up bargins when sellers mislabled their goods. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone"

[Red Hook]

Shad, I know you live, kinda', by the lives of the great philosophers,.....but you're starting to sound like my old Sunday School teacher!

 

 

Besides, regarding Chuck.....if you're gonna' live with a high profile, and promote yourself constantly the way he does...., you have to be ready to take some criticism. It comes with the territory.

 

I think the truth comes down somewhere in the middle. Chuck is just a guy, like most of us. Neither villian or hero. Basically he's a salesman. And don't forget, he was a long-haired hippy barely out of his teens when all this happened. So we should cut him some slack for that. (Plus he was probably stoned to the gills.)

 

That said, I think that if there was just the slightest hint of a more balanced telling of the tale on his part, people would be more comfortable with what went down.

[shadroch]

I'd love to hear Mr Church's side of the story.Who do you think he'd be more pissed at? Chuck or the family who put him in a rest home and rid themselves of his lifes collection

Chuck is a hypester with few peers. Its just that when peole complain about his not mentioning the fact that he was later bought to court over the sale,they never mention the case was found in his favor.

Also,no one ever mentions that back then,the spread between HG and LG ws much smaller.I believe back then a Mint book sold for 4 times what a Good book sold for,not the 15-100 times that they now do.

[Bronty]

I agree totally.

 

On that last point however, I think the spread was 1-3 back then in the guide. But don't forget chuckie was charging five times guide, so he was realizing a 1-15 spread. Just as a point of clarification.

[FFB]

I agree totally.

 

On that last point however, I think the spread was 1-3 back then in the guide. But don't forget chuckie was charging five times guide, so he was realizing a 1-15 spread. Just as a point of clarification.

 

I thought it was 3 times guide, not five, and that people complained about paying even that much.

[Bronty]

It depended on the book. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought it was 3-6x guide, usually 4 or 5.

[jimm94]

I agree totally.

 

On that last point however, I think the spread was 1-3 back then in the guide. But don't forget chuckie was charging five times guide, so he was realizing a 1-15 spread. Just as a point of clarification.

 

I thought it was 3 times guide, not five, and that people complained about paying even that much.

 

From one of Chuck's articles about the Church colleciton:

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"After Burrell gave me the money to satisfy Alan's last-minute demands, the catalog was finally published. As can be imagined, it caused an immediate sensation throughout the comics world. No one had ever seen such a large listing of comics from the Golden Age, and the fact that they were mostly in very high grades, simply astonished people. On the down side, the fact that I had priced all the books at between 1.5X and 2X Mint Overstreet caused an even greater reaction. While all the dealers/collectors who already owned large quantities of lower-grade Golden Age issues breathed a sigh of relief that I didn't flood the market with low-priced, high grade issues, others were not nearly so positively impressed. It worked out that I received just about as many rebukes for my pricing criteria, as we received orders.

 

I am mentioning this antipathy from the collecting community once again because it dominated my life for many years after 1977. I find it incredibly ironic that so many people ask me today if I regret selling all those great Edgar Church books for a tiny fraction of their present worth. Gosh, if they could only have been in my shoes in 1977. Getting hate mail from fellow comics fans, whom you thought were your friends, is no fun. I knew what I was doing was the right thing for the market, but sticking to my beliefs came with a heavy personal price. It felt terrible to be ostracized by the very community of comics fans that I had worked so hard to make an integral part of my life.

 

Making that bitter pill a little easier to swallow was the success of the first catalog. It didn't generate huge sales, maybe $15,000 in total, but it set the stage for many future sales. Many collectors were afraid to order from us directly (there had been a couple of big comic book mail order frauds in recent memory), but they asked their local dealers to look into picking up books for them. This led to a lively wholesale business for us, where we typically sold to other dealers at 1.33X NM Overstreet. Those dealers, in turn, sold the books at prices ranging from 2X to 3X Overstreet. It was a pretty comfortable arrangement for everyone involved."

 

Link to original story

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Also of note is the following passage from his articles regarding future contact with the Church family:

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Another question I am frequently asked, is whether I have had any further contact with the Church heirs. My last visit to Edgar Church's house was in late April of 1977, three months after the comics deal was concluded. Despite their earlier haste, the Church heirs had not succeeded in selling the house by that time, and kept calling me with more collectibles to buy. In total, I believe I made six, or seven, additional trips to the house. During the last trip, I purchased a few dozen posters they had found in the attic. To help (in a small way) compensate them for the incredible bargain I received in buying the comics, I paid them about double for the posters what I would have paid anyone else. This was the same ratio I had employed when calculating what to pay them for the items in Edgar's office, and for the portion of his clippings files that I prevented from being thrown away. Those extra payments didn't come close to compensating the heirs for the value of the old comics, but since their original plan was to just throw everything away, I know they got far more out of Edgar Church's paper accumulations than they ever expected. After that last trip to the house, I never heard from them again."

 

Link to original story

[sfilosa]

Exactly how did this thread get to have pages and pages about Chuck?

 

 

Start a new thread, so I don't have to read about an even that happened 25 years ago, over and over.

[r100comics]

Exactly how did this thread get to have pages and pages about Chuck?

 

 

Start a new thread, so I don't have to read about an even that happened 25 years ago, over and over.

 

If we can add a few pages on pressing, Comic-Keys, Hulk #181, and Q.P. we will have covered every major pre-occupation on the board in a single thread !

[1962]

I thought the lawsuit of Church v. Chuck was just a rumor?