Does anybody think there is a Mile High Church like collection still out there?

[RockMyAmadeus]

but not anywhere near the level of preservation, having been unable to buy the books brand new..

 

Remember...Edgar Church was FIFTY when Action #1 came out. He was a grown man, with a career and family, who treated his things with a significant amount of care, even relative to the standards of the day.

 

Church really was a "freak" in the "accident" sense of the word. Lightning in a bottle. Even though comics were "for everyone" until the end of WWII, the truth is, the vast majority of folks who would have red them at the time didn't save them, and those who would have are either dead or were too young to apply appropriate care to their conditions (not least of which was fending off house cleaning mothers.)

 

To find another such collection, carefully amassed by an adult buyer at the time of publication, and then saved in new condition not only through their lifetimes, but the lifetimes of at least a subsequent generation, if not more, with no one having ever found out about it publicly, would be against odds that are astronomical.

 

It's been nearly 80 years since Action #1. That's too long for any but Stan Lee to still be spry enough to properly care for and still have intact.

 

Perhaps a next generation...perhaps...but the odds are completely against it.

 

The era of the Golden Age original owner is either over, or very nearly.

[Fan Boy]

 

 

I am hoping I am Edgar Church BEFORE I die.....like Mark Hamill's character in Amazing Stories.... "Gather Ye Acorns"

 

For the impatient, jump to 22:00 and watch from there....

 

 

Hah... I have that DVD set with this title! One of my favorite stories, which I'd love be THAT guy with all the treasures.

[ChrisInBaltimore]

When I lived in Wyoming, there was a story circulating about a guy that had a huge collection of comics. He'd apparently owned a store in the small town I lived, and when the store went belly up he saved everything. He was just sitting on the inventory.

 

Of course it could have been an urban legend, but I have to imagine there are people out there with extensive collections just sitting on them. They might not be as old as the Church books though.

[Fan Boy]

but not anywhere near the level of preservation, having been unable to buy the books brand new..

 

Remember...Edgar Church was FIFTY when Action #1 came out. He was a grown man, with a career and family, who treated his things with a significant amount of care, even relative to the standards of the day.

 

Church really was a "freak" in the "accident" sense of the word. Lightning in a bottle. Even though comics were "for everyone" until the end of WWII, the truth is, the vast majority of folks who would have red them at the time didn't save them, and those who would have are either dead or were too young to apply appropriate care to their conditions (not least of which was fending off house cleaning mothers.)

 

To find another such collection, carefully amassed by an adult buyer at the time of publication, and then saved in new condition not only through their lifetimes, but the lifetimes of at least a subsequent generation, if not more, with no one having ever found out about it publicly, would be against odds that are astronomical.

 

It's been nearly 80 years since Action #1. That's too long for any but Stan Lee to still be spry enough to properly care for and still have intact.

 

Perhaps a next generation...perhaps...but the odds are completely against it.

 

The era of the Golden Age original owner is either over, or very nearly.

 

True.... very true. You nailed it. This GA era is upon close to the end. But there is still the SA era with a longer road ahead. No "Edgar Church" type collections however there are smaller collections still to be discover.

[wombat]

Odd question. What would the impact to the value have been if all those comics were meticulously stored in three hole binders?

[Moondog]

There was only one Chuch collection and there will never be another. There are many, many GA collections still to be found, but they will not be as encompassing nor in such incredible condition. When I found the Windy City collection in 1978 I was amazed to see 2,000 first issues. I dream about finding another one...

[kav]

Not a Church collection but there's some Action #1's tucked away in walls and attics somewhere....in a copy of LIFE magazine in a trunk in an attic maybe

[Beige]

Yes, some in USA - and I believe one will be found in Western Europe.

 

Call it a hunch.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Can those of you who think such a repeat collection will be found, can you please explain your reasoning why? I'd be curious to know why you believe this, what your reasoning is.

[oakman29]

Can those of you who think such a repeat collection will be found, can you please explain your reasoning why? I'd be curious to know why you believe this, what your reasoning is.

 

 

I think there is always a possibility,but the probability of it happening again,not so much.

[Azkaban]

I think small finds like the Billy Wright collection but nothing like the Church collection again

[RockMyAmadeus]

Can those of you who think such a repeat collection will be found, can you please explain your reasoning why? I'd be curious to know why you believe this, what your reasoning is.

 

 

I think there is always a possibility,but the probability of it happening again,not so much.

 

The probability ended with the turn of the century.

 

The possibility is quickly passing, too, if it hasn't already.

 

The conditions were unique, and the results never even matched by what HAS been found, much less what "might be out there."

 

Like I said...breadth and scope? Sure, certainly reasonable, if not necessarily likely.

 

Condition as well? There is no chance.

 

You would have had to have someone well into their 100s at this point, to have been an adult and buying these new, or multiple generations with the same drive and goals who preserved such a collection intact, and kept such a collection private.

 

No, what we're left with now is collections that were assembled piecemeal, 20-30 years after the fact, when there wasn't much option, and you took what you could get.

 

Just like there are hundreds of coins for which "mint state" examples will never be known, so too will there never be, because there now cannot be, another collection like Edgar Church's.

 

We WILL see other, more scattered collections with some pristine examples come to light, but only handfuls, and only by quirks of fate. We'll also see second, third, and fourth generation collections, assembled carefully in the intervening years.

 

But an original owner collection that was virtually complete for everything published from 1938-1946, and preserved under near perfect conditions (and even then, Church didn't buy everything brand new)...?

 

Lightning in a bottle, never to be repeated.

[kav]

Yep

It would take someone who was buying issues off the stands like Church, then stacking them carefully. Only certain parts of the country would have the proper climate/lack of bugs. They would have to be kept even more carefully than the Church collection because if that collection had been sitting in its original spot to this day they would not be in as great condition as when Church collection was found. They would have to be kept by someone who was a hermit, never let anyone see them, and despite common knowledge have no idea they were valuable. Oh yeah and they would have to still be alive or passed on to someone who was oblivious to their existence somehow or another hermit.

A real long shot.

[kav]

If you killed Hitler then a guy named Goerle comes into power-he's sane and manages to beat us to the atomic bomb. We lose WW2 and there are no Jews left among other things.

Don't kill Hitler.

 

Remember it's not 20 years more of degradation but more like 40

[sonicyouth]

Yes, it will be found again.

 

Too many rich billionaires in New England with nothing better to do but horde tec 31.

 

I know a guy that has 5 copies of 31 in VF condition, who is only trading for specific Egyptian artifacts from KMT era.

 

I know it sounds crazy, but its the world we live in.

[kav]

No no no that's not what we're talking about......

[Aweandlorder]

Killing Hitler?

Is that another Bill O'Reilly book?

[kav]

Didn't O Reilly kill Hitler?

[HighStakesComics]

Maybe another OCD Silver and Bronze Age hoard will pop up, but 75 longboxes of pristine GA's? I'll take the under on that one.

[media_junkie]

Didn't O Reilly kill Hitler?

 

No, he didn't do the killing, but he was in the city while fighting was going on.