Huge Golden Age Comic Auction in Pawnee, Oklahoma

[HouseofComics.Com]

Cool thread, thanks for posting.

[JazzMan]

I guess I'll have to stop by Duncanville once again. This time, I hope you have those Rampaging Hulks I've been asking you about last couple of times.

[Artboy99]

120 bucks for a running 1960 Thunderbird is a pretty good deal as well.

 

[G.A.tor]

whoever paid 6K for that lot of all flash paid about 6x fmv

[FlyingDonut]

The buyer who bought the coverless lots will make out extremely well. There were no other bargains to be had.

[Shark]

whoever paid 6K for that lot of all flash paid about 6x fmv

 

The #4 and #13 in that lot were Showcases so that made it a bit more palatable but yeah they still overpaid for that lot. And the Showcase #4 had extra staples added to it. It was a GD- at best.

[rjpb]

120 bucks for a running 1960 Thunderbird is a pretty good deal as well.

 

By far a better deal than any of the comic lots. Some of those seemed like a reasonably good deal depending on condition, but others were insane. Those two GA crime lots would only be worth it if the average condition was at least VF. Looks like selling your GA comic collection in random lots in an auction in the middle of nowhere beats selling them individually on ebay or heritage.

[comicalgems]

I wonder how it is that the Tulsa crowd missed this one but people in Texas and Missouri picked up on it.

[rjpb]

whoever paid 6K for that lot of all flash paid about 6x fmv

 

The #4 and #13 in that lot were Showcases so that made it a bit more palatable but yeah they still overpaid for that lot. And the Showcase #4 had extra staples added to it. It was a GD- at best.

 

The high bidder was onsite, so there's really no excuse for paying that much.

[DvilleBookstore]

The buyer for the Flash Comics lot was the phone bidder, not someone on-site.

[Shark]

I wonder how it is that the Tulsa crowd missed this one but people in Texas and Missouri picked up on it.

 

I did a little research prior to the auction. Pawnee is roughly the same distance from Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Wichita, Kansas. The auctioneer ran a Craigslist ad in Oklahoma City but I didn't see that same ad in Tulsa or Wichita. Maybe DvilleBookstore can chime in on how he found out about it. I didn't check the Dallas Craigslist though.

[DvilleBookstore]

Somehow they got my name and store address and sent me a full color brochure about the auction but the comic info was a small picture of Superman #100 and a couple of sentences saying they had 3000 Golden Age comics. I was also told by another comic dealer that could not attend the auction about it. He was told by a California based dealer so the word got out.

[rjpb]

The buyer for the Flash Comics lot was the phone bidder, not someone on-site.

 

I guess they mixed it up in their result listing. The buyer must have seriously overestimated the potential of the Showcase 4, it would have had to be a VG to make the lot worth anywhere near that

[rjpb]

It's clear the auctioneers didn't know what stuff was worth, they bury books like Thrilling 41, Phantom Lady 13, and Showcase 4 and then sell some cheap Duck book individually.

[DvilleBookstore]

Absolutely. They should have highlighted the Human Torch's, Sub-Mariner's, Young Allies and others before that. They should have broken that Romance and Pre-Code Horror lot up as well. I thought that was going to work in our favor but we just couldn't get near the hero books.

[rjpb]

It's a strange phenomenon when GA comic lots go for more than the individual issues would cost, and it seems unlikely that someone is buying just to fill in holes in a collection. I've seen it happen on ebay plenty of times. Not long ago I recall tracking a lot of half a dozen decidedly low grade DC hero books, but early enough to be worth in the low hundreds individually. In investigating the potential value, I realized the seller had bought them all separately on ebay over the previous month or so. Sure enough, he sold the entire lot for about 60% more than he'd paid separately.

[porcupine48]

[FineCollector]

The phone bidder was a collector out of Texas who I won't name. He paid extremely healthy prices for what he won, which was just about all the hero lots. If the prices are still posted, look at the Captain Marvel/Whiz/Master comics lots.

 

I don't know the man, but in his defense, there's a huge divide between the going rate on a site like C-Link, and the asking price from some dealers (including some boardies). No one priced fairly ever has many issues for sale at one time.

 

I don't mind overspending at an auction. I tell myself it's "conservation," because I know I'll handle the books better than some indifferent antique dealer.

[rjpb]

The phone bidder was a collector out of Texas who I won't name. He paid extremely healthy prices for what he won, which was just about all the hero lots. If the prices are still posted, look at the Captain Marvel/Whiz/Master comics lots.

 

I don't know the man, but in his defense, there's a huge divide between the going rate on a site like C-Link, and the asking price from some dealers (including some boardies). No one priced fairly ever has many issues for sale at one time.

 

 

True enough, there are plenty of professional dealers on these boards who will pay what many consider FMV for books that with their broader customer base and perhaps a bit of patience they obviously feel they can make a profit on, and not co-incidently they tend to be dealers that everyone respects, evidence that taking care of customers reaps rewards.

 

But some of the prices in that Pawnee auction made no sense at all.One of the crime lots sold for about $175 a book, and there were maybe 3 out of 31 books worth anywhere near that in the entire lot in VG, and only one of those worth 2 or 3 times that in. Unless they turned out to be high grade, most probably wouldn't sell for more than $50.

[Bookery]

Somehow they got my name and store address and sent me a full color brochure about the auction but the comic info was a small picture of Superman #100 and a couple of sentences saying they had 3000 Golden Age comics.

 

I got the same brochure... here in Ohio!