Church collection value today?

[Aman619]

gee, I had a feeling it was a bit harsh... My first post of the day, and it just came to me that way...

[ghoulaid]

but at least, If the Church books hadnt been discovered back then, we'd never have heard of CHUCKIE except locally in Denver as a 1" notice in the Post about a homeless guy found frozen to death in his car down by the river....

 

I thought it was funny ... and I'm a friend of Chuck's.

[Illiterati-migration]

but at least, If the Church books hadnt been discovered back then, we'd never have heard of CHUCKIE except locally in Denver as a 1" notice in the Post about a homeless guy found frozen to death in his car down by the river....

 

I thought it was funny ... and I'm a friend of Chuck's.

 

I thought it was funny too... not harsh in the least, actually.

 

 

 

 

So take that as you will.

[Forbush-Man]

Between 40 and 50 million sounds about right to me. Good God, I'd just hate to be Uncle Chuckles, and have to wake up every morning remembering the day I pushed those books out the door. That's a very special place in hell, folks!

 

He's going into Limbo, Hell won't have him!

[Forbush-Man]

but at least, If the Church books hadnt been discovered back then, we'd never have heard of CHUCKIE except locally in Denver as a 1" notice in the Post about a homeless guy found frozen to death in his car down by the river....

 

I thought it was funny ... and I'm a friend of Chuck's.

 

I thought it was funny too... not harsh in the least, actually.

 

 

 

 

So take that as you will.

 

I thought it was funny, except it should be "..in his van down by the river..."

[shrunkenhead]

Here's something I've often wondered: Does anybody know whether or not the original sellers of the Church collection ever came to learn about the depth of their blunder? Did they every find out later what those books were going for? Do they even know they were dubbed the "Church collection?"

 

I'd be curious to know whether or not there was ever an interview with these folks years later or anything like that. I've often thought that a story about the Church collection would make for a good documentary short. Any aspiring indie filmmakers listening??

[Timely]

Simple...just add up the value of every GA book from 1937 to 1952 and then multiply that by 5 times guide. It's a simplistic way to determine the value, but with some books going for 10 times guide and some damage copies going for 1/2 NM guide and lesser demand titles going for 2.5 times guide...it should pretty much even itself out.

 

West

[Forbush-Man]

Simple...just add up the value of every GA book from 1937 to 1952 and then multiply that by 5 times guide. It's a simplistic way to determine the value, but with some books going for 10 times guide and some damage copies going for 1/2 NM guide and lesser demand titles going for 2.5 times guide...it should pretty much even itself out.

 

West

 

I'd just take the original Mile High Catalog and add the prices up. They're probably right about at today's current market!

[pjthib]

I wonder how much Chuck ended up getting for the collection. A million or so?

 

I know he says that the money from the collection allowed him to build his business. Still, the appreciation of these books has to make him second guess himself for selling the entire batch.

[october]

You know, October Fire,...You a handsom man ! No, I mean it! Yeah! I'll have another,.................................

 

Post deleated by Home Land Security !

 

 

[october]

I wonder how much Chuck ended up getting for the collection. A million or so?

 

I know he says that the money from the collection allowed him to build his business. Still, the appreciation of these books has to make him second guess himself for selling the entire batch.

 

You think he ended up getting a million for them? I was always under the impression that he sold almost all the Church books before they reached anything close to their peak. In his "tales from the database" Chuck said that

 

"In order to raise the $21,000, however, I had to sell most of the "Key" books from the Edgar Church collection. I don't remember all the issues I had to sell in order to finance that first ad, but BATMAN #1, WHIZ #2, and ALL STAR #1 were among the bigger casualties."

 

I also remeber hearing somewhere that he let the first 5-10 issues of Detective and Marvel Mystery go for 50,000 a run. If he sold the keys for so little I doubt his final profit reached even close to a million.....but I could be wrong.

[MikeS]

If it's true that he pretty much built his Mile High Comics stores on the proceeds of the sale of the Church comics - what sort of income do you think his stores have generated over 30 years? Wasn't it smarter to sell the comics back in the 70s so he could set up his stores and invest the money? If he had kept them for 30 years the amount of money they would have generated until he sold = $0.

[Aman619]

Simple...just add up the value of every GA book from 1937 to 1952 and then multiply that by 5 times guide. It's a simplistic way to determine the value, but with some books going for 10 times guide and some damage copies going for 1/2 NM guide and lesser demand titles going for 2.5 times guide...it should pretty much even itself out.

 

West

 

 

gee - - is there an echo in here?

West, you must be grading too many comics and not have enough time to read an ENTIRE thread, huh???

 

no problem.

[Aman619]

thats pretty simplistic aint it? Obviously he would have earned a living, good, bad or luxurious in order to live and still keep the comics. Anyway. the scenarios dont have to include keeping EVERY one of the comics - - just the most valuable ones.

[pjthib]

Maybe it was smarter or the right thing for him at the time. I'm not trying to call him a insufficiently_thoughtful_person or anything. But it is worth noting that he shed himself of assets that have appreciated at an incredible pace. Looking at the 1977 catalog, Action #59 is listed for $60. This book sold for $6,900 this year on Heritage. That calcs out to an annual appreciation of about 50%.

 

If he'd managed to save just 10% of the collection for himself, he would be a multi millionaire from his Mile High assets alone (on paper anyway).

[pjthib]

A million may be high. Looking at the 1977 catalog, there are an awful lot of books that are listed for less than $10. Of course even at $10 a pop, he'd be get a quarter million or so and I think the averge was probably higher than 10.

[MikeS]

thats pretty simplistic aint it? Obviously he would have earned a living, good, bad or luxurious in order to live and still keep the comics. Anyway. the scenarios dont have to include keeping EVERY one of the comics - - just the most valuable ones.

 

Yeah, it has to be simplistic since we don't have the actual numbers. What is the Mile High comics chain worth, etc? I'm sure he's done okay for himself over the last 30 years (all that pottery must be worth something) and he probably has a better standard of living because of his incredible "find" and selling them off back then than he would have otherwise.

 

I agree though - he probably wishes he kept the most valuable ones, but hindsight is 20/20, as they say. He probably couldn't have imagined they would be worth so much back in the 70s....

[shadroch]

Why doen't anyone ever call Bill Gates a insufficiently_thoughtful_person since he sold off so much of Microsoft for what would now be pennys on the dollar?

Or Warren Buffet? Steve from Metro sold a Spidey 1 that graded CGC 9.6 for under $2,000.

They are businessmen. They sell. Its what they do.

Keep in mind that Chuck used hardly any of his own money to aquirre the books.He borrowed the money and it had to be repaid asap.

Had these books not surfaced in the late 70s,todays market would have been much different from todays.

Its impossible to guess what their emergence in 2004 would have done to the market.

Had Chuck had two copies of every book,and brought this second collection out today,I'd guess bidding on the entire colection as a single lot would be in the 10 to 15 million range,if all were raw.If he tried to sell them individually,I think the market would dry up a tird of the way through.

[lou_fine]

Here's something I've often wondered: Does anybody know whether or not the original sellers of the Church collection ever came to learn about the depth of their blunder? Did they every find out later what those books were going for? Do they even know they were dubbed the "Church collection?"

 

I'd be curious to know whether or not there was ever an interview with these folks years later or anything like that. I've often thought that a story about the Church collection would make for a good documentary short. Any aspiring indie filmmakers listening??

 

As mentioned before, the family must have known that the collection was worth more than the $2K they finally manged to pry out of Chuck, since they they took Chuckles to court to try recoup some of the money. Unfortunately, they lost the courst case based upon the fact that the family had come up with the sales price and Chuck was never asked for his expert opinion as to the value of the collection.

 

In return, the family then informed the IRS about Chuck 's huge bonaza who then proceeded to go after Cuckles for income tax evasion. Unfortunately for the IRS, Chuckles was crafty enough to figure this out in advance and had laundered his money down to his family members by then.

 

As a result, every time I see Chuckles, he reminds me of nothing but a sleazy criminal.

[shadroch]

Avoiding taxes is a constitutional right,evading them is a felony.

lets see,according to you-he was upheld in a court of law and an IRS investigation turned up the fact that he had taken legitimate steps to reduce his tax liability.

What a cumbag,huh?

 

I'm quite sure you have properly recorded each and every comic transaction you've done and paid all the appropriate taxes,right?