PBA galleries auctioneers new collection 40000+ Every DC 9 9

[Ameri]

On 7/9/2023 at 12:57 PM, Ian_Levine said:

It is indeed rare but I actually had two copies.

Thank you for confirming that!  By the way, I want to also thank you for producing two of the greatest disco hits of all times, High Energy and My Claim To Fame. I can't tell you how many times I've listened to these and I always get that warm and fuzzy especially the violins in the middle of My Claim To Fame. Fond memories of my nights on the dancefloor! 

[Telegan]

Glad to see Mr. Levine posting on here. I hadn't heard of this collection/story until I first read this thread.  Always up for learning more about the people involved in the hobby and not just the comics themselves.  While I love GA comics now (newcomer), what put a smile on my face even more was when I read of the music background and how he collab'ed with some of my favorite acts from the 80's and on MoTown-style music (David Ruffin?!), as well. But that's left for another forum/thread.  lol.

I can't even comprehend a focused collection like that on that scale.  Truly crazy.

[Mmehdy]

On 7/9/2023 at 3:09 AM, Ian_Levine said:

I am deeply grateful for your lovely kind words

Let me add your collection is and still is the Top DC collection in the world, book by book or inch by inch you are a true original comic book collector for life. I was wondering you opinion on the DC omnibus editions and how they have restored the issues to an amazing state. There is for example a upcoming omnibus edition of the silver age Superman coming in December called "superman the silver age omnibus Action 241-265 and superman 122-137 on Amazon  for only $90. It gives Silver age collectors a chance to catch up on these lost classics. Do you ever buy the JLA Omnibus 1/2? Your thoughts on them if you did.

Thank you for reappearing on these boards, you experience and comments are historically significant to life long collectors like myself.

Edited July 10, 2023 by Mmehdy

[LDarkseid1]

Aww inspiring collection to say the least! Found this old photo. Just unbelievable.

[Ian_Levine]

On 7/10/2023 at 5:39 AM, Mmehdy said:

Let me add your collection is and still is the Top DC collection in the world, book by book or inch by inch you are a true original comic book collector for life. I was wondering you opinion on the DC omnibus editions and how they have restored the issues to an amazing state. There is for example a upcoming omnibus edition of the silver age Superman coming in December called "superman the silver age omnibus Action 241-265 and superman 122-137 on Amazon  for only $90. It gives Silver age collectors a chance to catch up on these lost classics. Do you ever buy the JLA Omnibus 1/2? Your thoughts on them if you did.

Thank you for reappearing on these boards, you experience and comments are historically significant to life long collectors like myself.

Thankyou. I have so enjoyed hearing from you. I have not followed the new releases at all not since 2015.

[Bronty]

On 7/9/2023 at 11:17 AM, Ian_Levine said:

Thankyou for this. In the past I succeeded in making a lot of enemies on these boards

You were pretty possessed in that time frame and there wasn't a lot of conversation had that wasn't about you or your collection, and that can get a little grating.    Imagine a friend that talks about themselves about themselves only and really never inquires or seems to give a crepe about anything going on with anyone else other than themselves.    We've all had a friend like that; its hard to relate to them after a while.   

Your friends in your quest you had something in common with; there was an exchange of ideas/information/money, what have you.    I'm not sure there was always an exchange on the boards back then, it was mostly in one direction.

The achievement is amazing and you should be rightfully proud of having climbed the mount everest of complete dc collecting, but from the overall story it also seems a cautionary tale.    I wonder if you wouldn't have been happier keeping the scope of your goal just a little more easy to achieve so that selling things off wouldn't have been necessary and so that, well, you wouldn't burn out?     I know the DC 52 thing disgusted you but I also get the sense that the keeping up the collection was in some ways a real burden.   However, from some of your other comments about your personality perhaps that's just how things were meant to be, there are things about our natures that really can't be controlled and you had a burning need to complete the quest so maybe it just is what it is.

[Mmehdy]

On 7/11/2023 at 8:04 AM, Bronty said:

You were pretty possessed in that time frame and there wasn't a lot of conversation had that wasn't about you or your collection, and that can get a little grating.    Imagine a friend that talks about themselves about themselves only and really never inquires or seems to give a crepe about anything going on with anyone else other than themselves.    We've all had a friend like that; its hard to relate to them after a while.   

Your friends in your quest you had something in common with; there was an exchange of ideas/information/money, what have you.    I'm not sure there was always an exchange on the boards back then, it was mostly in one direction.

The achievement is amazing and you should be rightfully proud of having climbed the mount everest of complete dc collecting, but from the overall story it also seems a cautionary tale.    I wonder if you wouldn't have been happier keeping the scope of your goal just a little more easy to achieve so that selling things off wouldn't have been necessary and so that, well, you wouldn't burn out?     I know the DC 52 thing disgusted you but I also get the sense that the keeping up the collection was in some ways a real burden.   However, from some of your other comments about your personality perhaps that's just how things were meant to be, there are things about our natures that really can't be controlled and you had a burning need to complete the quest so maybe it just is what it is.

interesting comment on quests....once you get there and you are looking out on top of the mountain...its a very different view. First having 2K of comics vs say 40K is a lot harder to hang on too. The facts speak in the favor of Mr Levine...as when he sold them, he gave a condition which I believe is unique in any type of comic book sale that I have ever heard of. He sold the collection as a discount  as long as he could keep them for life. At the time going with good faith and belief , this would be a true comic book collectors dream..after he passes why not give it to another collector who would keep it as a collection, rather than breaking it up into little pieces for maximum profit. I would say this is the ultimate act of a true comic book collector and of course never been duplicated since. Mr Levine in my opinion is one the greatest comic book collectors I have known about, along with Russ Cochran (art), Bruce Hamilton, etc. This supreme act on this one of a kind  collection  needs acknowedgement and support from out  of our collectors community. When it came time sell, he did not do what 99.9% of the collectors on this board would do. Nuff said.

Of course nobody knows the future, and plans while perfect have to change as conditions and life throws us into situations when never contemplated. So in the end, here we are, with an  lower rung auction house spreading them out, selling the impossible when that first book gets sold, graded, piled up and sold to the highest bidder,never to be duplicated again. But nothing lasts forever, and for those moments when he was on top of the mountain and his decades look quest...those will not be forgotten.

 Finally, his stopping in 2015...well how many collectors on these boards "read" and I mean really  read that 2015 DC everything stuff. We cherry pick. Rather than doing that he chose to draw a line in sand and say I will not be exploited as true comic book collector on this rebranding to sell more #1 issues...I say to Mr. Levine you got at the right time and place with the benefit of hindsight.

 Finally Bronty, you comment " it was mostly one direction" and I respond in this way....when you are focused, relentless and purposeful in achieving what has never been done before, inch by inch, book by book...you have to be in order to accomplish the impossible.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Mmehdy

[Bronty]

On 7/11/2023 at 1:44 PM, Mmehdy said:

interesting comment on quests....once you get there and you are looking out on top of the mountain...its a very different view. First having 2K of comics vs say 40K is a lot harder to hang on too. The facts speak in the favor of Mr Levine...as when he sold them, he gave a condition which I believe is unique in any type of comic book sale that I have ever heard of. He sold the collection as a discount  as long as he could keep them for life. At the time going with good faith and belief , this would be a true comic book collectors dream..after he passes why not give it to another collector who would keep it as a collection, rather than breaking it up into little pieces for maximum profit. I would say this is the ultimate act of a true comic book collector and of course never been duplicated since. Mr Levine in my opinion is one the greatest comic book collectors I have known about, along with Russ Cochran (art), Bruce Hamilton, etc. This supreme act on this one of a kind  collection  needs acknowedgement and support from out  of our collectors community. When it came time sell, he did not do what 99.9% of the collectors on this board would do. Nuff said.

Of course nobody knows the future, and plans while perfect have to change as conditions and life throws us into situations when never contemplated. So in the end, here we are, with an  lower rung auction house spreading them out, selling the impossible when that first book gets sold, graded, piled up and sold to the highest bidder,never to be duplicated again. But nothing lasts forever, and for those moments when he was on top of the mountain and his decades look quest...those will not be forgotten.

 Finally, his stopping in 2015...well how many collectors on these boards "read" and I mean really  read that 2015 DC everything stuff. We cherry pick. Rather than doing that he chose to draw a line in sand and say I will not be exploited as true comic book collector on this rebranding to sell more #1 issues...I say to Mr. Levine you got at the right time and place with the benefit of hindsight.

 Finally Bronty, you comment " it was mostly one direction" and I respond in this way....when you are focused, relentless and purposeful in achieving what has never been done before, inch by inch, book by book...you have to be in order to accomplish the impossible.

 

I would agree with the idea that you have to have a personality capable of tremendous focus.   That's a given.     However I think my comment stands  

 

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bronty

[Bronty]

On 7/11/2023 at 1:44 PM, Mmehdy said:

interesting comment on quests....once you get there and you are looking out on top of the mountain...its a very different view.

Absolutely.   

In the past I've found that when I completed sets, that last book... felt a little hollow, if anything.   There was no longer anything to chase. 

Then, with no way to engage with that run anymore once its done - no ebay or auction house listings to check, no list to check over, no packages in the mail.....   it gets a little boring.    Putting the set together is the fun part.    Having it is just... well, they are all there.   Okay.

Edited July 11, 2023 by Bronty

[MrBedrock]

Hi Ian.  Please tell us more about yourself.

[buttock]

On 7/11/2023 at 3:26 PM, Bronty said:

Absolutely.   

In the past I've found that when I completed sets, that last book... felt a little hollow, if anything.   There was no longer anything to chase. 

Then, with no way to engage with that run anymore once its done - no ebay or auction house listings to check, no list to check over, no packages in the mail.....   it gets a little boring.    Putting the set together is the fun part.    Having it is just... well, they are all there.   Okay.

I hate this part about collecting.  It's always the chase, and you're never fully satisfied.  On the other hand, it's always fun.  

[MrBedrock]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:53 PM, buttock said:

On 7/11/2023 at 4:26 PM, Bronty said:

Absolutely.   

In the past I've found that when I completed sets, that last book... felt a little hollow, if anything.   There was no longer anything to chase. 

Then, with no way to engage with that run anymore once its done - no ebay or auction house listings to check, no list to check over, no packages in the mail.....   it gets a little boring.    Putting the set together is the fun part.    Having it is just... well, they are all there.   Okay.

I hate this part about collecting.  It's always the chase, and you're never fully satisfied.  On the other hand, it's always fun.  

The trick is to think of your collection as a whole, as opposed to each individual run. That way things are never completed. The pursuit is never-ending.

[Johnny545]

On 7/11/2023 at 4:15 PM, MrBedrock said:

The trick is to think of your collection as a whole, as opposed to each individual run. That way things are never completed. The pursuit is never-ending.

Excellent advice.

[Microchip]

On 7/12/2023 at 9:15 AM, MrBedrock said:

The trick is to think of your collection as a whole, as opposed to each individual run. That way things are never completed. The pursuit is never-ending.

Even having the entire DC collection had to of had its nirvana moments.   

One of us reached enlightenment 

[tth2]

On 7/12/2023 at 6:53 AM, buttock said:

On 7/12/2023 at 5:26 AM, Bronty said:

Absolutely.   

In the past I've found that when I completed sets, that last book... felt a little hollow, if anything.   There was no longer anything to chase. 

Then, with no way to engage with that run anymore once its done - no ebay or auction house listings to check, no list to check over, no packages in the mail.....   it gets a little boring.    Putting the set together is the fun part.    Having it is just... well, they are all there.   Okay.

Expand  

I hate this part about collecting.  It's always the chase, and you're never fully satisfied.  On the other hand, it's always fun. 

Just make your quest to own only 9.6 or better copies of a GA run.  I guarantee that the chase will continue forever! (unless it's an EC title) 

[Ian_Levine]

On 7/11/2023 at 11:48 PM, MrBedrock said:

Hi Ian.  Please tell us more about yourself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Levine

[Microchip]

On 7/12/2023 at 7:59 PM, Ian_Levine said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Levine

On the comics front, what are you reading these days?

[MrBedrock]

On 7/12/2023 at 4:59 AM, Ian_Levine said:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Levine

More than that.

[Bronty]

On 7/12/2023 at 8:20 AM, MrBedrock said:

More than that.

Maybe he can tell us about the part of the wiki article that he linked which discusses him having been outed in 2017 for selling bootlegged collectible records.   🤔 

Or maybe not because clearly he will just enjoy the attention.   I’m logging off 😂 

Edited July 12, 2023 by Bronty

[electricprune]

On 7/11/2023 at 5:26 PM, Bronty said:

Absolutely.   

In the past I've found that when I completed sets, that last book... felt a little hollow, if anything.   There was no longer anything to chase. 

Then, with no way to engage with that run anymore once its done - no ebay or auction house listings to check, no list to check over, no packages in the mail.....   it gets a little boring.    Putting the set together is the fun part.    Having it is just... well, they are all there.   Okay.

Upgrade. Sell undercopy. Repeat.