Batman #1 Dick Sprang File Copy - anyone know who owns it?

[FFB]

In the June 5, 1998 Sotheby's Comic Books and Comic Art auction, the Sprang File Copy of Batman #1 was sold. Does anyone know who bought it or where it is now?

 

Here is a link to a picture of the book, along with the auction text.

[shrunkenhead]

dunno, but that's a nice-lookin' book!

[batman_fan]

I actually held this book in my hand. It was purchased by Alan at All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, AZ directly from Sprang. I was considering buying it until I saw the book. It is missing a big chip from the cover (maybe CGC would call it a bindery corner and not downgrade the condition ) ). The main reason I passed on it was the pages were cream and the cover was a little flaky, not brittle, but not as supple as I would like to have seen. The price was pretty high back then, but today seems like a bargain.

[FFB]

I actually held this book in my hand. It was purchased by Alan at All About Books and Comics in Phoenix, AZ directly from Sprang. I was considering buying it until I saw the book. It is missing a big chip from the cover (maybe CGC would call it a bindery corner and not downgrade the condition ) ). The main reason I passed on it was the pages were cream and the cover was a little flaky, not brittle, but not as supple as I would like to have seen. The price was pretty high back then, but today seems like a bargain.

 

Maybe it's not the same copy then, because the Sotheby's ad says the book had OWL 9.5 quality WHITE pages.

[Aman619]

A dealer told me about a sweet Bat#1 callled the "Bourby copy" but Ive never heard anyone ever mention it here? Anybody know it???

[batman_fan]

Definitely not white pages! And it was the same book. Alan even had the letter from Sprang in with the book. lived in AZ during his later years. Sotheby's always had the worst grading and restoration disclosure with their auctions.

[PedigreeMan]

Definitely not white pages! And it was the same book. Alan even had the letter from Sprang in with the book. lived in AZ during his later years. Sotheby's always had the worst grading and restoration disclosure with their auctions.

 

 

Wasn't our own Stevie B. part of that grading panel?

 

[batman_fan]

I rest my case..

[Thegoldenage]

I looked that book over at the auction as well. Gorgeous copy. Would have loved to own it but Bat 1's have got to be the most common key and I couldn't see spending the money on it.

 

The best story I ever heard about the Sotheby's grading committee was this one...

 

It seems that in mid to late 90's Sotheby's auctioned off a nice looking Action 1. Now keep in mind that Dan Greenhalgh was a member of the committee back then. Well, Dano won the book for some ungodly amount of money. Turns out that a page was missing from the book. I confirmed this with Dan about 5 years ago. When I asked him about it he looked at me and said "How did you know about that?" Truly a classic.

[batman_fan]

I am a HUGE Batman fan, but I couldn't agree more, Batman 1 is one of the most common Golden Age Keys. Far more common than Superman 1.

 

Also, almost all Golden Age Batman's are common, especially if you are willing to take VGs

[PUNYHUMAN]

And Captain America # 1 pretty common also,see them around alot . Still wish I owned one though!!

[FFB]

Definitely not white pages! And it was the same book. Alan even had the letter from Sprang in with the book. lived in AZ during his later years. Sotheby's always had the worst grading and restoration disclosure with their auctions.

 

Thanks for the reply, Batman_fan. How long ago did you see it? And do you know where it is now?

[batman_fan]

I saw it in the mid 90s back when I was in Phoenix. I passed so Alan sent it to a CA auction house (I can't remember the name, but they advertised in CBG newspaper, I had a bad experience with them on a book so I never bid on anything again). Whoever bought it off that auction sent it to Soethby's. I recall Alan wanting about $12k which was pretty high for a Bat 1 back then. If it hadn't been missing the big chip on the lower left of the cover, I would have considered it more, but with the page quality, etc. I passed. If the Soethby's auction listed it as white pages, maybe someone did some restoration. Remember, the book was in AZ for probably more than 30 years, so if it wasn't stored in a cool place, the heat might have beat the page quality down. I saw several collection while in AZ with real bad page quality.