Diamond Galleries -- The Vault Opens 0

[lou_fine]

I was wheeling in the boxes! Working off a debt to Diamond.......

 

 

: )

 

Aah......so you was one of the very very lucky few that had access to the actual Vault itself.

 

Did you get a chance to cherry pick any of the books before wheeling them out for everybody else.

 

Since you was wheeling out the boxes, is it true that only about half of the books made it out to the so-called feeding frenzy as there was just not enough time for everything? I believe Martha's portion of the collection never made it out of the vault.

 

 

[adamstrange]

[Sqeggs]

I see that John Berk posted in this thread, although it sounds as if he may not have bought anything. 

[adamstrange]

He avoided the crowds of the Saturday Morning Massacre and was able to purchase some books in a side room with the assistance of the DIG President, Jon Snyder.  I think it may have been the Mystery Men run but Jon has a million stories and I have trouble keeping them straight.

[lou_fine]

6 hours ago, Sqeggs said:

I see that John Berk posted in this thread, although it sounds as if he may not have bought anything. 

 

6 hours ago, adamstrange said:

He avoided the crowds of the Saturday Morning Massacre and was able to purchase some books in a side room with the assistance of the DIG President, Jon Snyder.  I think it may have been the Mystery Men run but Jon has a million stories and I have trouble keeping them straight.

Yes, Jon did indeed purchase the Mystery Men run, although I am not sure if this was done on a Friday or a Saturday.  Most probably done over both days with an expression of interest on Friday followed up by a closure of the deal on Saturday.   

I know he did pick up the Larson copy of Thrilling Comics 3 since I initially had that book in my hand to purchase.  Jon asked if he could have that copy since it was one that he needed to fill a gap in his run.  Worked out in the end for me though since I was able to subsequently pick up the absolutely gorgeous Larson copy of Thrilling Comics #1, courtesy of Robert Rogovin. 

[Yellow Kid]

It was an amazing weekend.   About 30 dealers and a few select collectors were in attendance.  Steve gave everyone a nice red tote bag filled with goodies, including a set of Gerber's books.  There was a grading experiment where three books were passed around the room and everyone graded them.  I thought the results were amazing as the spread of grades was several points.  I gave a slide show on the Yellow Kid as it was the 100th anniversary of his first appearance in Pulitzer's The World.  A photographer took everyone's picture and the became the first set of Overstreet Advisors published in the Guide.  Steve took us all out to dinner at his favorite place in Little Italy.   And anyone who saw the feeding frenzy the next morning  will never forget it.  People were grabbing books, and even stacks of books, after they had been wheeled out and placed in the middle of the room.

[lou_fine]

On 2/26/2005 at 10:24 AM, adamstrange said:

Quote

and has everyone noticed how many of these copies of Geppis big books had work done to them? Or were they Overstreet's copies...I cant remember!

 

Overstreet bought a lot of restored copies. Probably to keep costs down, probably because he didn't mind too much on big item, and probably because he was sold some that had undisclosed restoration.

Unfortunately, it would also appear that many of the big books from the DC and Timely in Jon Berk's collection also appears to have been either restored or conserved. 

Aside from the reasons that you had already mentioned, another possible one is that for quite a few years there, restoration was something that was seen as adding value to an unrestored book, similar to how pressing is seen as adding potential value to an unrestored book in today's marketplace. 

[Readcomix]

The Black Terror #1 still looks like a bargain at $600....

[lou_fine]

15 hours ago, Readcomix said:

The Black Terror #1 still looks like a bargain at $600....

Well, since that was 22 years ago back in 1995, the prices on all of the books would look like a bargain today. 

Since the condition guide price for the Black Terror #1 was at only $310 back then, the brochure listed price of $600 might not seem like such a bargain after all. 

[PUNYHUMAN]

If you come across a copy expect to pay way more then that . The guide is a guide, that's it.

[Readcomix]

18 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Well, since that was 22 years ago back in 1995, the prices on all of the books would look like a bargain today. 

Since the condition guide price for the Black Terror #1 was at only $310 back then, the brochure listed price of $600 might not seem like such a bargain after all. 

Geez, Lou...I'm being a bit silly

Point is, then or now, Black Terror #1 looks like the Mediterranean Ave of this Monopoly board.

That said, some of those books are basically kinda flat at best, considering the 22 years (Tec 225, World's Best #1). But obviously more than not would be considered bargains today.

[lou_fine]

9 hours ago, Readcomix said:

On 3/9/2017 at 10:38 AM, lou_fine said:

Well, since that was 22 years ago back in 1995, the prices on all of the books would look like a bargain today. 

Since the condition guide price for the Black Terror #1 was at only $310 back then, the brochure listed price of $600 might not seem like such a bargain after all. 

Geez, Lou...I'm being a bit silly

Point is, then or now, Black Terror #1 looks like the Mediterranean Ave of this Monopoly board.

That said, some of those books are basically kinda flat at best, considering the 22 years (Tec 225, World's Best #1). But obviously more than not would be considered bargains today.

To be honest and looking back now, virtually all of the prices for the comic books pictured and listed in their brochure were relatively reasonable. 

It was the prices for the piles of books that were pulled out and set aside for Steve and Bob to priced out later that went through the stratosphere and became relatively unreasonable.  And I guess we would have the East Coast Triumvirate to thank for that and how they subsequently handled the Terrific 5 transaction.   

[Readcomix]

21 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

To be honest and looking back now, virtually all of the prices for the comic books pictured and listed in their brochure were relatively reasonable. 

It was the prices for the piles of books that were pulled out and set aside for Steve and Bob to priced out later that went through the stratosphere and became relatively unreasonable.  And I guess we would have the East Coast Triumvirate to thank for that and how they subsequently handled the Terrific 5 transaction.   

I would love to have beers with you and hear these stories! I was not there; I'm just looking back at the brochure. How cool that must have been.

[lou_fine]

On 2/24/2005 at 10:23 PM, lou_fine said:

Idiotic mindless person that I was, I spent the first hour taking that stupid tour of the Diamond facilities and munching on the goodies without realizing that all of the books on display including the ones in the library were all for sale.     By the time I clued in to the fact that everything was for sale, Fishler and his East Coast gang had already scooped up all of the books. 

 

On 2/25/2005 at 6:48 AM, Aman619 said:

 

they made huge piles of books to buy, but as you know, they only ended up with the ones that were priced the next morning. As things go with Geppi sometimes, a deal for the stacks of other comics they pulled just never got done... Geppi has a lot of irons in the fire and time is short before he gets pulled in another direction.

 

On 2/25/2005 at 4:13 PM, adamstrange said:

 

Just to clarify, most of the comics listed in the catalog itself sold that night. What aman619 is referring to when they brought out a large portion of Overstreet's collection on Saturday morning for a limited audience. The stacks of books picked out by some of the dealers was too large for Geppi to price at that time. He priced what he could and sold those, but didn't get around to pricing/selling all of the large stacks.

Adam;

Since we have now seen pictures of the gorgeous Church copy of Wonderworld 7 from Berk's collection, do you have any idea who was the lucky collector to be offered the Allentown copy of Wonderworld 7 in advance of the Gallery opening?  I believe that Snyder was setting aside certain classic cover books to collectors as a enticement for them to come out and attend the opening.

I believe that Wonderworld 7 may possibly have been one of the books set aside since I don't remember it being in the Fox box that Vereneault was lucky enough to get.  Of course, it may also have been one of the Fox books that Vereneault might have offer to me to pick, but ended up throwing back and going for the earlier issues instead. 

[adamstrange]

5 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Since we have now seen pictures of the gorgeous Church copy of Wonderworld 7 from Berk's collection, do you have any idea who was the lucky collector to be offered the Allentown copy of Wonderworld 7 in advance of the Gallery opening?  I believe that Snyder was setting aside certain classic cover books to collectors as a enticement for them to come out and attend the opening.

It was sold to a Boardie who will hopefully see and respond with the exact sequence.  It was sold again shortly after the opening to another Boardie and then re-sold a couple years later into the collection where it still resides.

[sacentaur]

9 hours ago, adamstrange said:

It was sold to a Boardie who will hopefully see and respond with the exact sequence.  It was sold again shortly after the opening to another Boardie and then re-sold a couple years later into the collection where it still resides.

Adam is correct, as usual - the collector (local to me) has other Allentown Fox books as well. He is not a boardie, and is not really active in the hobby that much anymore.

I have the Larson Wonderworld 7, raw (never slabbed) fyi.

[lou_fine]

40 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

10 hours ago, adamstrange said:

It was sold to a Boardie who will hopefully see and respond with the exact sequence.  It was sold again shortly after the opening to another Boardie and then re-sold a couple years later into the collection where it still resides.

Adam is correct, as usual - the collector (local to me) has other Allentown Fox books as well. He is not a boardie, and is not really active in the hobby that much anymore.

I have the Larson Wonderworld 7, raw (never slabbed) fyi.

Well, based upon the route that the book took, as based upon Adam's post, I can guess at a couple of the individuals involved. 

Any chance the current owner, who shall remain nameless, will be passing the Allentown Fox books onto the next generation of collectors anytime soon?  Especially since he does not appear to be into the hobby that much anymore, or are they locked away as a future nest egg for him to draw upon? 

[sacentaur]

1 hour ago, lou_fine said:

Any chance the current owner, who shall remain nameless, will be passing the Allentown Fox books onto the next generation of collectors anytime soon?  

None - they are keepers for him.

[lou_fine]

33 minutes ago, sacentaur said:

2 hours ago, lou_fine said:

Any chance the current owner, who shall remain nameless, will be passing the Allentown Fox books onto the next generation of collectors anytime soon?  

None - they are keepers for him.

Ahh......the signs of a true collector. 

Any other significant books of note within his personal collection, since I assume he would have more than just the Allentown Fox books? 

Like for example, the long lost SF Nedor books which appears to be as much a mystery as the Church copy of Suspense 3 was until this past week.  

[batman_fan]

7 hours ago, sacentaur said:

Adam is correct, as usual - the collector (local to me) has other Allentown Fox books as well. He is not a boardie, and is not really active in the hobby that much anymore.

I have the Larson Wonderworld 7, raw (never slabbed) fyi.

You have the Larson WonderWorld 7