They're Still Out There! 22 22

[Mmehdy]

1 hour ago, Gotham Kid said:

Much like Elvis.

Unlike Church, SF which were first sold to dealers whom sold them to collectors, this is more a "Billy Wright" on steroids type sale. Never before will EVERY collector have a shot at ALL 5000 plus books on a eve  playing field. Billys 367 was a taste of things like, so never before nor never again will an OO 50000+ GA comic book collection be available directly.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Mmehdy

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, jimjum12 said:

1 hour ago, N e r V said:

You forgot Betty vs Veronica…

...with Betty and Veronica I decided to pull a "Deion" and choose BOTH ... B&V were my second loves, after Gwen ... and maybe Sue (... but that may have been an oedipus thing there... ) GOD BLESS....

Well, if you like both Betty and Veronica, then how about this clip from Riverdale with "naughty" Betty singing Mad World:    

 

[N e r V]

4 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

Unlike Church, SF which were first sold to dealers whom sold them to collectors, this is more a "Billy Wright" on steroids type sale. Never before will EVERY collector have a shot at ALL 5000 plus books on a eve  playing field. Billys 367 was a taste of things like, so never before nor never again will an OO 50000+ GA comic book collection be available directly.

I stopped saying “never again” after both the Red Sox and Cubs ended their droughts.

Lets just say “likely never again”…

[N e r V]

2 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Well, if you like both Betty and Veronica, then how about this clip from Riverdale with "naughty" Betty singing Mad World:    

 

I can’t stand that song. They played it all the time I was in Arkham…

[Robot Man]

10 minutes ago, N e r V said:

I stopped saying “never again” after both the Red Sox and Cubs ended their droughts.

Lets just say “likely never again”…

You can add the Houston Asterixes to that list...

Then you got the Padres. Hell bent on their first championship. 

[Robot Man]

3 hours ago, sfcityduck said:

On the video, Matt and Brian both agreed that the MH books are superior to the Promise books.  Better structurally, page quality, and preservation.  Matt made it clear that MH is undoubtedly better than Promise (and he also gave a nod to SF), and as the chief grader for CGC he should know.  But, its a really good point that the MH did not go straight into encapsulation, so Matt's comment is talking about the well-preserved MHs. 

The area where Matt and Brian saw the Promise as far superior to the MHs was in the backstory.  I completely agree.  Far superior.  And I'm not talking about the backstory told by Heritage.  The MH story is important to comic collecting history, but it is a story a man perhaps placing his livelihood above his family and about a family relationship that seems more than a bit sad.  What kind of dad cares more about comics than his kids?  As for the Promise backstory, Matt and Brian said they are going to take their place near Okajima on backstory, and that statement by them was definitely not hype.  

Edgar Church was probably a weird fellow. Obsessive and compulsive for sure. He might not have even read them. I have examples that when you open the cover, the wet ink on the first page and inside cover are still slightly attached to each other. I immediately closed the cover to maintain the unread status of them. 

I think he bought these once or twice a week and just stacked them up. He rarely missed an issue. It was so ingrained in his behavior. 

No matter his motivation (I doubt it was financial), he assembled the most beautiful and complete collection of comics ever found. A true unicorn.

Touching story or not, it is simply mind blowing. 

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

1 hour ago, batman_fan said:

The fear of my Strawberry Shortcake collection getting out to the masses was a pretty strong pull to meet their demands.

So Greggy isn't the only one hording these books?

Spoiler

 

[adamstrange]

14 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Edgar Church was probably a weird fellow. Obsessive and compulsive for sure. He might not have even read them. I have examples that when you open the cover, the wet ink on the first page and inside cover are still slightly attached to each other. I immediately closed the cover to maintain the unread status of them. 

I think he bought these once or twice a week and just stacked them up. He rarely missed an issue. It was so ingrained in his behavior. 

No matter his motivation (I doubt it was financial), he assembled the most beautiful and complete collection of comics ever found. A true unicorn.

Touching story or not, it is simply mind blowing. 

Edgar Church wanted to be a comic book artist. 

[EastEnd1]

1 hour ago, Mmehdy said:

Unlike Church, SF which were first sold to dealers whom sold them to collectors, this is more a "Billy Wright" on steroids type sale. Never before will EVERY collector have a shot at ALL 5000 plus books on a eve  playing field. Billys 367 was a taste of things like, so never before nor never again will an OO 50000+ GA comic book collection be available directly.

The Crippen collection came out direct to collectors through Heritage in 2006 (well, at least the ones that weren't previously stolen!) and I do remember feeling pretty lucky to have had a shot, as a regular old collector, at participating in the massive dissemination.  The Crippens though were not as nice as these books.   I believe the Gaines File Copies also went direct to collectors around 1992 through either Sotheby's or Christies, but Jim Halperin acquired most of them.  

[sfcityduck]

41 minutes ago, adamstrange said:

Edgar Church wanted to be a comic book artist. 

His motivation was clearly professional.  They were reference material.  But, they were rarely used by him for that purpose. 

The weirdness is that he didn't let his kids read the comics.  That would not have blown his ability to use the comics for references, and it would have brought joy to his kids.  Instead, he locked them away.  (Unless the secret to what happened to all the Dell funny animals is he let his kids have those and they trashed them!)   I've often wondered if Church actually learned at some point that his comics were valuable.  After all, it is also strange as hell that there is just one book in the whole collection which has his name on it - and it is the Action 1.  Why?  Was it because he knew it had value and didn't want it stolen?

My theory:  Mitch killed him.  He saw the article about Mitch paying $2,000 for an Action 1, got scared it could be stolen, went to his closet, pulled the book out, signed it so he needn't worry about thieves, carefully put it back, closed the closet door, and then keeled over with a heart attack brought on by his shock at realizing the value he had.  Only for his family to find him gasping as he pointed at the closet: "$2000, $2,000, $2,000" as he died.  Not knowing better, that's what they charged Chuck for the whole collection.

[I can't wait for someone someday to relay the above story to me as fact not fan fiction.] 

Edited May 20, 2021 by sfcityduck

[sfcityduck]

2 minutes ago, EastEnd1 said:

The Crippen collection came out direct to collectors through Heritage in 2006 (well, at least the ones that weren't previously stolen!) and I do remember feeling pretty lucky to have had a shot, as a regular old collector, at participating in the massive dissemination.  The Crippens though were not as nice as these books.   I believe the Gaines File Copies also went direct to collectors around 1992 through either Sotheby's or Christies, but Jim Halperin acquired most of them.  

How did Crowley come out?

[RareHighGrade]

29 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

After all, it is also strange as hell that there is just one book in the whole collection which has his name on it - and it is the Action 1. 

[sfcityduck]

5 minutes ago, RareHighGrade said:

You're killing my story!  Too bad that New Adventure 26 has that horrible miscut, it could have been worth something.  I'll take that ugly thing off your hands for 1000x of what Chuck paid for it.  Heck, I'm feeling generous, how about 10,000x of what Chuck paid!.

Edited May 20, 2021 by sfcityduck

[RareHighGrade]

2 minutes ago, sfcityduck said:

You're killing my story!  Too bad that New Adventure 26 has that horrible miscut, it could have been worth something.  I'll take that ugly thing off your hands.

Okay, but it will cost you more than the 10 cent cover price; I will also need to include shipping fees.

[jimbo_7071]

6 hours ago, Robot Man said:

There is the Church collection and there are all the rest...

There WAS the Church collection . . . before half the books were ruined by Jon Snyder, Mark Wilson, and others.

[sfcityduck]

1 minute ago, RareHighGrade said:

Okay, but it will cost you more than the 10 cent cover price; I will also need to include shipping fees.

You drive a hard bargain, but you missed my latest overly generous offer: 10,000x of what Chuck paid.  

Damn, I'm feeling so generous, you might be able to get me to add another 0.  I'm guessing though, you might want a wee bit more than that.  LoL!

[cheetah]

3 hours ago, G G ® ™ said:

This is exactly my mindset with FH as well.

FH titles are such a different fish than everything else.  To me the true test was finding a superior structural copy with superior colors.  The best ones I ever found were a series of Church’s Jumbos between 15 and 20 that I got from John Verzyl (not surprising).

Edited May 20, 2021 by cheetah

[Mmehdy]

1 hour ago, EastEnd1 said:

The Crippen collection came out direct to collectors through Heritage in 2006 (well, at least the ones that weren't previously stolen!) and I do remember feeling pretty lucky to have had a shot, as a regular old collector, at participating in the massive dissemination.  The Crippens though were not as nice as these books.   I believe the Gaines File Copies also went direct to collectors around 1992 through either Sotheby's or Christies, but Jim Halperin acquired most of them.  

The EC's were sold directly to collectors thru Russ Cochran by mail. They were sold in sets  by title and each set was graded 1-10. Russ and Bob Overstreet went to NY to opent those books with Bill Ganies and used gloves to handle them. I think told me that it was simply amazing to see those books and unwrap them. One set was held out and a few issues like Vault #12 only had 2 copies, I do not think he had any tales of terror an#1 either which is why that books is a must have for any serious GA collectors.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Mmehdy

[Robot Man]

30 minutes ago, Mmehdy said:

The EC's were sold directly to collectors thru Russ Cochran by mail. They were sold in sets  by title and each set was graded 1-10. Russ and Bob Overstreet went to NY to opent those books with Bill Ganies and used gloves to handle them. I think told me that it was simply amazing to see those books and unwrap them. One set was held out and a few issues like Vault #12 only had 2 copies, I do not think he had any tales of terror an#1 either which is why that books is a must have for any serious GA collectors.

There was no TOT #1. There was only one VOH #1. The books were sold in sets with as many sets as the could put together. The stray copies were then sold individually. Surprisingly, there were many we consider “keys” still left over. Priced the same as the surrounding issues. I wish I’d bought more but was a young father trying to support a family and paying for my house. 

[Robot Man]