Okajima pedigree 25 25

[Robot Man]

There are several collections where the original owners coded their books. Cripppens come to mind. Why? Who knows. I don’t code my books but I put a tiny, light pencil mark in most of them. Mostly in case they were ever stolen. I have even on occasion inadvertently, bought some of them back. 

[Robot Man]

Here is my un-coded 1943 camp book. Steve Ritter told me it was the earliest one he had seen. He photographed it for the "pedigree book"...

[path4play]

9 hours ago, jabats said:

I was hoping this 1943 Okajima book would go under the radar, as the bid price was quite low when it entered the live auction.

It didn't end up going totally under the radar, as the price escalated quickly in the live auction, but I'm still happy with the purchase.

I have several 1944 Okajima books, but this is the earliest by a significant margin. No camp codings, but a signature.

... Would 1943 be considered a "camp book" or a "camp era book"? Am I correct that some of the other camp books lack the codings as well (especially the earlier ones)?

 

 

 

The camp opened Aug '42, with majority of population peaking Nov '42.

By my tracking from this thread your book is among the earliest known (5th).

3/30/1943				Red Dragon Comics #7
8/27/1943				Startling Comics #24 "Okajima" "1P"
9/1/1943				Captain Marvel Adventures #28 "Okajima"
9/1/1943				Catman #21 "Okajima"
9/14/1943				Sparkler #26 "Okajima"

Edited March 11, 2019 by path4play

[path4play]

20 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Here is my un-coded 1943 camp book. Steve Ritter told me it was the earliest one he had seen. He photographed it for the "pedigree book"...

Pic?

[Robot Man]

2 hours ago, path4play said:

Pic?

Ooops...

[mwotka]

I was very lucky to run across an Okajima Indians 14 in one of Harley's many miscellaneous boxes yesterday.  It is a post-camp copy, but my first, and I'm super-psyched to own one.  The whole idea of this pedigree and the history absolutely fascinate me as much as any nugget of history in comic-dom.  This one has the front and back coding and the certificate, but was de-slabbed.

 

[path4play]

1 minute ago, mwotka said:

I was very lucky to run across an Okajima Indians 14 in one of Harley's many miscellaneous boxes yesterday.  It is a post-camp copy, but my first, and I'm super-psyched to own one.  The whole idea of this pedigree and the history absolutely fascinate me as much as any nugget of history in comic-dom.  This one has the front and back coding and the certificate, but was de-slabbed.

 

Nice find!!

[Robot Man]

1 hour ago, mwotka said:

I was very lucky to run across an Okajima Indians 14 in one of Harley's many miscellaneous boxes yesterday.  It is a post-camp copy, but my first, and I'm super-psyched to own one.  The whole idea of this pedigree and the history absolutely fascinate me as much as any nugget of history in comic-dom.  This one has the front and back coding and the certificate, but was de-slabbed.

 

Great snag! It wasn't in any of his west coast inventory at WonderCon or I would have grabbed it too!

[miraclemet]

On 2/28/2019 at 10:00 AM, SushiX said:

is it normal to have 2 stamps Nov 11 44? mine has 1 on front cover and 1 on the back...

there are occurances of the 2 stamp markings on late 44 early 45 books (date stamps, no distributor marks)

[miraclemet]

1 hour ago, mwotka said:

I was very lucky to run across an Okajima Indians 14 in one of Harley's many miscellaneous boxes yesterday.  It is a post-camp copy, but my first, and I'm super-psyched to own one.  The whole idea of this pedigree and the history absolutely fascinate me as much as any nugget of history in comic-dom.  This one has the front and back coding and the certificate, but was de-slabbed.

 

she really loved ficition hose books!

On 3/11/2019 at 9:12 AM, jabats said:

One "mystery" to me...

1. If Okajima herself signed her name, why is it sometimes spelled "Okagima" and other times "Okajima"?
2. Yet the signatures all appear to be in the same handwriting. If the person signing the books were actually selling the books to Okajima, why wouldn't that person consistently spell her name right? And why would that person "code" her books?

1. the difference betwen the signatures comes down to a small difference in  how the letter j is formed, sometimes it looks a little more like a g. Remember we are talking about someone who probably learned english second after japanese, and learned english curisve after learning kanji in terms of how to write her name. So I think we can allow for the possibility of her occasionally mis scripting her name.

 

[jabats]

9 hours ago, miraclemet said:

she really loved ficition hose books!

1. the difference betwen the signatures comes down to a small difference in  how the letter j is formed, sometimes it looks a little more like a g. Remember we are talking about someone who probably learned english second after japanese, and learned english curisve after learning kanji in terms of how to write her name. So I think we can allow for the possibility of her occasionally mis scripting her name.

 

Makes sense. Thanks for solving the mystery for me!

[buttock]

12 hours ago, mwotka said:

I was very lucky to run across an Okajima Indians 14 in one of Harley's many miscellaneous boxes yesterday.  It is a post-camp copy, but my first, and I'm super-psyched to own one.  The whole idea of this pedigree and the history absolutely fascinate me as much as any nugget of history in comic-dom.  This one has the front and back coding and the certificate, but was de-slabbed.

 

I'm proud to say that I deslabbed that book.  

[Robot Man]

Ran across this 2000 article by Ron Murray about the finding of the Okajima collection that I thought might be of interest.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2019 by Robot Man

[deadleg]

Thanks for posting this @Robot Man! Seeing my Action #74 listed in the article is cool. I like knowing the the journey that a comic I own has been on and how many different hands it’s been exchanged in prior to my ownership. 

[path4play]

Any lucky boardies pick up the two books from the Clink auction last night?

[path4play]

I'll take that as good news - non-boardies anteing up nice premiums on the most special pedigree of all.

 

[patmcq]

On 5/30/2019 at 9:30 PM, path4play said:

I'll take that as good news - non-boardies anteing up nice premiums on the most special pedigree of all.

 

I did.  Whiz 56 8.5.  

[path4play]

On 6/6/2019 at 11:21 PM, patmcq said:

I did.  Whiz 56 8.5.  

Congrats - I have the Wow (Mary Marvel) and Captain Marvel Jr. Okajima war bond covers.  I think you have a winner. 

Edited June 8, 2019 by path4play

[entalmighty1]

7 hours ago, szav said:

Was kinda wondering what was going on with all the hype and high prices for the camp coded books lately, and had been meaning to post in this thread asking.  Then this goes for $1,800, not even a camp era book.  Granted it seems to be a tough issue to find and this is the current highest graded (though probably not a safe one at 8.5).

How much of this price was that its Rangers 59 and how much was that its the pedigree?

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/rangers-comics-59-okajima-pedigree-fiction-house-1951-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages-only-the-second-copy/a/121925-17764.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyBids-101116

I have no idea, but I'm going to post an interesting Okajima in the marketplace, probably today.  We'll see how fast the hype train is moving.

[eschnit]

8 hours ago, szav said:

Was kinda wondering what was going on with all the hype and high prices for the camp coded books lately, and had been meaning to post in this thread asking.  Then this goes for $1,800, not even a camp era book.  Granted it seems to be a tough issue to find and this is the current highest graded (though probably not a safe one at 8.5).

How much of this price was that its Rangers 59 and how much was that its the pedigree?

https://comics.ha.com/itm/golden-age-1938-1955-/adventure/rangers-comics-59-okajima-pedigree-fiction-house-1951-cgc-vf-85-off-white-to-white-pages-only-the-second-copy/a/121925-17764.s?ic16=ViewItem-BrowseTabs-Auction-Open-MyBids-101116

I think part of this is the term Rick coined last week, so many see themselves as “dealectors”.  Everyone sees the same aspects with this book.  It’s a beautiful cover with great color strike, we don’t see often, desirable pedigree, highest graded, hot genre.  But it’s not a key.  It’s not a classic cover.  It’s not a camp book.  It’s not safe at 8.5 as highest graded of 3.  It doesn’t stand out as much different from a bunch of other books on the run or from the publisher.  So, I think you have a desirable book with a lot going for it that deserves a multiple to Overstreet.  20x all in, probably not.

I felt like if I had been willing to stretch to $1000 on it, I would’ve given myself an out for stretching relative to fair value because I liked the book.  But maybe a lot of folks felt that way.  In the end, a book is what people will pay.  It’s a beautiful book I’d love to own, just thought that was a bit much.  That said I’d love to own it.