My First Comic book Auction. 1991 2 2

[lou_fine]

On 7/23/2023 at 3:19 PM, DanCooper said:

He spent $4,675 for a copy of "Funnies on Parade," a 1933 compendium of newspaper comic strips featuring characters like Popeye and Mutt and Jeff. "It was one of the neatest things I bought," he said."

 

On 7/23/2023 at 5:04 PM, action1kid said:

At that time Funnies on parade was considered the first comic book which I’m sure he knew.

Not exactly sure what you mean by "at the time" as I guess I am part of the comic book collecting generation that has and will always consider Funnies on Parade to be the first Modern Day version of the American comic book as we all know it today.    

As such, I believe it is a highly underappreciated and subsequently also a highly undervalued book in today's marketplace, especially realtive to its historical importance in the comic book medium.  From my personal POV, the value of this book was negatively impacted going forward when Overstreet segregated his guide into different sections and this resulted in Funnies on Parade being banished into the much lower profile Promotional section of his guide and out from the regular General comic book section of the guide where everybody goes to check for valuations.  The other factor that has hurt its valuation is its relative rarity as the last copy to be graded and slabbed was back in 2018, with the last copy to be auctioned off at Heritage all the way back in 2014 and the last copy auctioned off at CC was a mid-grade copy in 2019 for something like 5X its condition guide value.    

Although there are some here who believe that The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck from 1837 should more accurately be considered to be the first comic book, I guess I am not part of that school of thought.  It doesn't even have the same design or layout format to the comic book that we know today, and if we go there, why not go back even further back to the drawings from the cave men way back in the Stone Age then.  

[DanCooper]

On 7/24/2023 at 9:30 AM, tth2 said:

I distinctly remember a picture of the winner with the book in some Overstreet publication at the time

Might be thinking of this pic? - on the cover of Overstreet Comic Book Price Update #21 - Anderson holding the Detective 27 (sorry, bad photo quality. Taken from an ebay listing)

 

[Moondog]

On 7/13/2023 at 8:49 PM, Aman619 said:

That was one amazing day! Historic!  Comic books at Sothebys!  Top o the world, ma!

anyone else recall “coo coo” spoken out loud after a particularly high crazy purchase price?

I picked up a couple books… wish I’d bought a lot more. There was a run of Actions, 101-200. Anyone know how nice they really were grade wise?  Or are they still raw?  Sold for 10K.  But maybe it was two lots at 10K each…

Yeah, a landmark day for comics.  Chrisitie’s followed shortly after.

[DanCooper]

On 7/24/2023 at 11:26 AM, Moondog said:

Yeah, a landmark day for comics.  Chrisitie’s followed shortly after

Gary, I remember seeing you for the first time, at that very first Christie's East auction on Halloween 1992

Knew you were a serious bidder, in a suit and tie, nodding your head silently to bid to the auctioneer on all the high end stuff!

I turned to the person next to me and asked quietly "Hey, whose the guy in the Brooks Brothers suit and tie, bidding on the Frazetta?"

The response - "That's the MOONDOG!"

Edited July 24, 2023 by DanCooper

[Robot Man]

The Sotheby’s auction was pivital in the hobby. Was the first to realize record high prices for comic books. Got the attention of a lot of folks who looked down their noses that cheap children’s literature. Without it, it might be a long time if ever that major auction houses would ever feature comics and comic art. Maybe a blessing or maybe a curse to most of us. But historical none the less. 

[tth2]

On 7/25/2023 at 12:00 AM, Robot Man said:

The Sotheby’s auction was pivital in the hobby. Was the first to realize record high prices for comic books. Got the attention of a lot of folks who looked down their noses that cheap children’s literature. Without it, it might be a long time if ever that major auction houses would ever feature comics and comic art.

Did it really change that much for our hobby?  To my knowledge, after a few years the major auction houses dropped comics and OA and haven't featured them since.  At least not American comics/OA, as I can't remember if those huge Herve Tin Tin OA sales were with Sotheby's, Christie's or Bonham's.  

The real gamechangers for this hobby were 3rd party grading and superhero movies.  

[adamstrange]

On 7/24/2023 at 12:10 PM, tth2 said:

Did it really change that much for our hobby?  To my knowledge, after a few years the major auction houses dropped comics and OA and haven't featured them since.  At least not American comics/OA, as I can't remember if those huge Herve Tin Tin OA sales were with Sotheby's, Christie's or Bonham's.  

The real gamechangers for this hobby were 3rd party grading and superhero movies.  

The auction houses dropped comics because the market didn't grow substantially enough to be a significant unit compared to their standard art and antiques. The market was in a lull, which is why various players pushed third party grading. 

Grading and movies are much more obviously important to where we are today.  I doubt very many collectors today even know there were auctions.

[action1kid]

On 7/24/2023 at 9:41 AM, lou_fine said:

 

Not exactly sure what you mean by "at the time" as I guess I am part of the comic book collecting generation that has and will always consider Funnies on Parade to be the first Modern Day version of the American comic book as we all know it today.    

As such, I believe it is a highly underappreciated and subsequently also a highly undervalued book in today's marketplace, especially realtive to its historical importance in the comic book medium.  From my personal POV, the value of this book was negatively impacted going forward when Overstreet segregated his guide into different sections and this resulted in Funnies on Parade being banished into the much lower profile Promotional section of his guide and out from the regular General comic book section of the guide where everybody goes to check for valuations.  The other factor that has hurt its valuation is its relative rarity as the last copy to be graded and slabbed was back in 2018, with the last copy to be auctioned off at Heritage all the way back in 2014 and the last copy auctioned off at CC was a mid-grade copy in 2019 for something like 5X its condition guide value.    

Although there are some here who believe that The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck from 1837 should more accurately be considered to be the first comic book, I guess I am not part of that school of thought.  It doesn't even have the same design or layout format to the comic book that we know today, and if we go there, why not go back even further back to the drawings from the cave men way back in the Stone Age then.  

I agree with you the comic book in it’s more modern format should be considered the first comic book. If my memory serves me correctly, say going Back 30 plus years ago Funnies on parade was considered the first comic book.( a give away) Famous funnies series 1 was the first comic book “sold” (in stores) and famous funnies #1 was the first news stand comic book..  Then the duck came into the picture ( more an actual book) and f@&ked things up. Lol

 

 

 

 

Edited July 25, 2023 by action1kid

[action1kid]

On 7/24/2023 at 10:25 PM, action1kid said:

I agree with you the comic book in it’s more modern format should be considered the first comic book. If my memory serves me correctly, say going Back 30 plus years ago Funnies on parade was considered the first comic book. Famous funnies series 1 was the first comic book “sold” (in stores) and famous funnies #1 was the first news stand comic book..  Then the duck came into the picture ( more an actual book) and f@&ked things up. Lol

 

 

 

 

I actually meant the Yellow kid , sorry

[Moondog]

On 7/24/2023 at 10:52 AM, DanCooper said:

Gary, I remember seeing you for the first time, at that very first Christie's East auction on Halloween 1992

Knew you were a serious bidder, in a suit and tie, nodding your head silently to bid to the auctioneer on all the high end stuff!

I turned to the person next to me and asked quietly "Hey, whose the guy in the Brooks Brothers suit and tie, bidding on the Frazetta?"

The response - "That's the MOONDOG!"

Hahahaha!  This made my day!  But I wasn't bidding on the Frazetta - I was bidding on Ogden Whitney's Herbie! 

[lou_fine]

On 7/24/2023 at 9:10 AM, tth2 said:

The real gamechangers for this hobby were 3rd party grading and superhero movies.  

FTFY...............after this past weekend, I heard this book was now going for well into 5-figures, if not 6-figures by the time it's all said and done:  

https://comics.ha.com/itm/silver-age-1956-1969-/romance/barbie-and-ken-1-dell-1962-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-pages/a/40208-81004.s?ic4=ListView-ShortDescription-071515

Especially since Barbie had such a big opening weekend to even leave old webhead himself way behind eating his own cobwebs. 

Why.............who in their right mind would want to have a copy of a crashing AF 15 with thousands of slabbed copies already out there and multiples showing up in every single auction when you can have an unique one of a kind single highest graded copy of the truly HTF first issue of Barbie.