• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Post your Promise Collection wins!
16 16

1,590 posts in this topic

On 11/27/2021 at 9:57 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

This thread holds such Promise, but so far there's only been a trickle!   

Flies remain zipped, ...there isn't even a queue at the MANNUP room door!!!  

f_885963.gif

 

Sorry, at this point, I haven’t been Man enough or crazy enough to pay the prices... Content to live voraciously through the rest of you deep pocketed investors. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2021 at 1:44 PM, Robot Man said:

Sorry, at this point, I haven’t been Man enough or crazy enough to pay the prices... Content to live voraciously through the rest of you deep pocketed investors. 

This collection has given me a new appreciation for the care that ol' Edgar must have put into selecting copies from the newsstand. Many of the Promise books seem to have funky cuts; they must represent a random sample of what was on the stands. By comparison, the Church books nearly all seem to have good, square cuts. That must not have been a coincidence. Edgar must have made a conscious effort to avoid mis-cut books, otherwise there would be more of them in the Church collection.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2021 at 10:56 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

This collection has given me a new appreciation for the care that ol' Edgar must have put into selecting copies from the newsstand. Many of the Promise books seem to have funky cuts; they must represent a random sample of what was on the stands. By comparison, the Church books nearly all seem to have good, square cuts. That must not have been a coincidence. Edgar must have made a conscious effort to avoid mis-cut books, otherwise there would be more of them in the Church collection.

Interesting question. Was he the first “mint freak” buyer? I never look at him as much of a “collector” as he bought the vast majority of his books new off the stands. The few he bought “used” were probably cover price or less.

When I see an earlier “coded” copy, I always look to the right side. Supposedly, that number might have noted the amount of copies his newstand dealer received. In many cases the number is very low. He might not have had many choices.

But to just stack them up in piles with the newest ones on top is just a little weird. I doubt he even read them.

I have a few that the ink dried from the inside cover to the first page. I suspect un-read. I was careful opening mine and when this occurred, I just carefully closed them up and didn’t read them either. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think the overall quality of production of books was better in the WW2 era versus the era immediately following that.  Paper shortages, increasing costs, etc., led to a decline in the materials and processes.  So rather than Church being meticulous about choosing a nice copy, it's more likely that he just had better copies to choose from.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You're also comparing a different cache of publishers.  Victor Fox was notoriously cheap, so a lot of his books were more poorly printed in this later era, and a lot of other publishers were trying to get in the market on low budgets.  My bet is that if you look at the DCs you're going to see routinely consistent QP.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 7:45 AM, buttock said:

You're also comparing a different cache of publishers.  Victor Fox was notoriously cheap, so a lot of his books were more poorly printed in this later era, and a lot of other publishers were trying to get in the market on low budgets.  My bet is that if you look at the DCs you're going to see routinely consistent QP.  

DC was a much larger consumer of paper and ink. I suspect that they got a much better price due to their volume. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 9:29 AM, Robot Man said:

DC was a much larger consumer of paper and ink. I suspect that they got a much better price due to their volume. 

Yeah, and they wanted a quality product also.  Dell was the same way.  They didn't skimp on the product knowing that it would hurt their brand.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2021 at 1:56 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

This collection has given me a new appreciation for the care that ol' Edgar must have put into selecting copies from the newsstand. Many of the Promise books seem to have funky cuts; they must represent a random sample of what was on the stands. By comparison, the Church books nearly all seem to have good, square cuts. That must not have been a coincidence. Edgar must have made a conscious effort to avoid mis-cut books, otherwise there would be more of them in the Church collection.

Oh yeah definitely. He knew what he was doing by choosing such nice copies. He was in his 40's during most of his collecting days. 

'Hey mister, do you have to touch every single book on the rack?". "Leave him alone, he spends like $10.00 a month here". 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 10:29 AM, Robot Man said:

DC was a much larger consumer of paper and ink. I suspect that they got a much better price due to their volume. 

Not just that. DC actually cared about quality and a professional image. Fox could care less what respectable people thought of his books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 1:05 PM, Sarg said:

Not just that. DC actually cared about quality and a professional image. Fox could care less what respectable people thought of his books.

I love his books. I have always been a little less than “respectable” I guess...:devil:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2021 at 12:56 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

This collection has given me a new appreciation for the care that ol' Edgar must have put into selecting copies from the newsstand. Many of the Promise books seem to have funky cuts; they must represent a random sample of what was on the stands. By comparison, the Church books nearly all seem to have good, square cuts. That must not have been a coincidence. Edgar must have made a conscious effort to avoid mis-cut books, otherwise there would be more of them in the Church collection.

I wouldn't be surprised if the Church Collection has miscut books, but Edgar's collection was discovered long before the advent of precise grading.  With precise grading we can overlook annoying flaws that would've perplexed collectors of an earlier generation.  We're now able to encapsulate pedigreed books with confidence and accept grade pronouncements that defy all reason.  That's progress! :sumo:

On 11/28/2021 at 1:40 PM, Professor K said:

Oh yeah definitely. He knew what he was doing by choosing such nice copies. He was in his 40's during most of his collecting days. 

'Hey mister, do you have to touch every single book on the rack?". "Leave him alone, he spends like $10.00 a month here". 

If I were betting on this, I'd wager Edgar never thumbed through comics on a rack.  He may have had a running account with either a distributor, proprietor of a drugstore or a newsstand owner who set aside copies of every new comic that arrived which he'd drop by and pick up on a regular basis, probably once a month or every couple of weeks.  Of course this is all pure speculation on my part.  Only his immediate family ...who've long since passed away... would've known his routine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/29/2021 at 11:53 AM, Cat-Man_America said:

If I were betting on this, I'd wager Edgar never thumbed through comics on a rack.  He may have had a running account with either a distributor, proprietor of a drugstore or a newsstand owner who set aside copies of every new comic that arrived which he'd drop by and pick up on a regular basis, probably once a month or every couple of weeks.  Of course this is all pure speculation on my part.  Only his immediate family ...who've long since passed away... would've known his routine.

I agree.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 10:53 PM, Cat-Man_America said:

I wouldn't be surprised if the Church Collection has miscut books, but Edgar's collection was discovered long before the advent of precise grading.  With precise grading we can overlook annoying flaws that would've perplexed collectors of an earlier generation.  We're now able to encapsulate pedigreed books with confidence and accept grade pronouncements that defy all reason.  That's progress! :sumo:

If I were betting on this, I'd wager Edgar never thumbed through comics on a rack.  He may have had a running account with either a distributor, proprietor of a drugstore or a newsstand owner who set aside copies of every new comic that arrived which he'd drop by and pick up on a regular basis, probably once a month or every couple of weeks.  Of course this is all pure speculation on my part.  Only his immediate family ...who've long since passed away... would've known his routine.

Yes you're probably right about this. I would love to know what his routine was. He probably even had a routine on how he transported them from where he bought them to his home. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/28/2021 at 6:20 AM, Robot Man said:

Interesting question. Was he the first “mint freak” buyer? I never look at him as much of a “collector” as he bought the vast majority of his books new off the stands. 

 

I thought the same about the Curator collection, when I saw that the only copy of FF #48 with good registration is the Curator copy.    It's. such a consistent issue on eye appeal with that issue, the guy must of gone well out his way to find a nicely registered copy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/27/2021 at 10:44 AM, Robot Man said:

Sorry, at this point, I haven’t been Man enough or crazy enough to pay the prices... Content to live voraciously through the rest of you deep pocketed investors. 

Yeah, tell me about it as doesn't it absolutely peeve you right off when bidders like Halperin get right in there and takes the books from reasonable dollar bid amounts right up to nutso crypto like bids.  :pullhair:  :devil:

Perfect case in point being that raw silly goofy run of Desperado westerns from the Promise Collection that came up in this past Sunday's HA auction.  When I saw this run of so-called raw NM Desperado's 2 - 7 on Saturday with all of them sitting at a reasonable bid point of $0 (except for 1 of them at something like $26), I thought there would be a reasonable chance for me to finally win one of these much ballyhooed Promise Collection books.  Figured they wouldn't actually go for much more than that, considering the rather egregious $29 minimum BP juice along with another $100+ to get the living daylights squish squash out of the books so that they could hopefully come back from CGC in a HG slab. :insane:  lol

Figured that I would give it a shot, especially with the Desperado 3 and 8 since both of these were absent from Chuck's Mile High Catalog, with the others in the run being graded by Chuck as either VG or F.  Got my hopes up as the Desperado 3 was sitting at $26 and the Desperado 8 was sitting at a still respectable and reasonable hammer price of $0 as their turn came up on the final bell.  :bigsmile:  :takeit:

Go figure as those 2 books ended up at a totally insane $960 and $1,020 respectively, with the rest of the seemingly worthless run finishing up in the same ball park at price points somewhere between $840 and $1,050:  :censored:  :screwy:

Golden Age (1938-1955):Western, Desperado #3 The Promise Collection Pedigree (Lev Gleason, 1948) Condition: NM....

 

Golden Age (1938-1955):Western, Desperado #8 The Promise Collection Pedigree (Lev Gleason, 1949) Condition: NM....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 12/1/2021 at 9:44 PM, lou_fine said:

Yeah, tell me about it as doesn't it absolutely peeve you right off when bidders like Halperin get right in there and takes the books from reasonable dollar bid amounts right up to nutso crypto like bids.  :pullhair:  :devil:

Perfect case in point being that raw silly goofy run of Desperado westerns from the Promise Collection that came up in this past Sunday's HA auction.  When I saw this run of so-called raw NM Desperado's 2 - 7 on Saturday with all of them sitting at a reasonable bid point of $0 (except for 1 of them at something like $26), I thought there would be a reasonable chance for me to finally win one of these much ballyhooed Promise Collection books.  Figured they wouldn't actually go for much more than that, considering the rather egregious $29 minimum BP juice along with another $100+ to get the living daylights squish squash out of the books so that they could hopefully come back from CGC in a HG slab. :insane:  lol

Figured that I would give it a shot, especially with the Desperado 3 and 8 since both of these were absent from Chuck's Mile High Catalog, with the others in the run being graded by Chuck as either VG or F.  Got my hopes up as the Desperado 3 was sitting at $26 and the Desperado 8 was sitting at a still respectable and reasonable hammer price of $0 as their turn came up on the final bell.  :bigsmile:  :takeit:

Go figure as those 2 books ended up at a totally insane $960 and $1,020 respectively, with the rest of the seemingly worthless run finishing up in the same ball park at price points somewhere between $840 and $1,050:  :censored:  :screwy:

Golden Age (1938-1955):Western, Desperado #3 The Promise Collection Pedigree (Lev Gleason, 1948) Condition: NM....

 

Golden Age (1938-1955):Western, Desperado #8 The Promise Collection Pedigree (Lev Gleason, 1949) Condition: NM....

What is wrong with people? Aren’t Westerns “dead”? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
16 16