Sale 3033: The DC UNIVERSE COLLECTION Part II: PRE-HERO :: PBA 3 3

[Johnny545]

On 3/28/2024 at 3:12 PM, RareHighGrade said:

There were also some good deals to be had.  I thought that the unrestored Tec 5 in 7.0 for $10,625 was a bargain.  As was the unrestored More Fun #35 (one of the toughest MF issues) in 7.0 for only $3,437.  The buyers of those books should be very happy.

Absolutely - these stuck out to me as well.

[Johnny545]

New Adventure 24 and 

Adventure 37, 38 all seemed like deals to me too.

[Johnny545]

On 3/28/2024 at 3:36 PM, Johnny545 said:

New Adventure 24 and 

Adventure 37, 38 all seemed like deals to me too.

New Adventure 24 is my favorite Flessel cover so my judgment may be cloudy here.

[Yorick]

I'm looking forward to grabbing my winnings.  They WILL be cracked out as I'm looking for interior content (More Fun).

[tabcom]

[woowoo]

On 3/28/2024 at 2:20 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Sorry you missed it woo woo.
 

Is Ian the consignor? I’m sorry for my ignorance, but I don’t know the backstory 

No. He had a deal that when he passed the books would go to this person but got pressured to give them up early.

I would have loved to get the Detective 3 back for 6k

[RareHighGrade]

Did a Boardie get the Double Action #2?  I hope so.

[sfcityduck]

On 3/28/2024 at 2:18 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Oh, I’m sorry. It’s the Tec 1 you got. Great job!

I mostly got outbid on what I saw as the best books. My preference is for a grade above 7.0 and off-white or better page quality or books that are really historically interesting or rare.

Going in my eyes were on:

*Supergear (price was superhigh)

* the pre-Action 1 trio (MF 31, NA 26, Det. 15 in that order - and just didn't seem worth it but I regret not going harder at the MF 31 which came first)

* the Triumph lot (just missed it while on a call - insufficiently_thoughtful_person! Buyer scored hugely!)

Before the auction started, I had ruled out the Flash ashcan, CCA comic, S&S Science Fiction fanzine (coolest thing in the auction), the final Superman poster lot as hard for me to justify pricewise, and apparently so did everyone else except for the CCA book.  I hope Ivan pops the other three into auctions with GA superhero books where I think they will sell.

What I ended up with was modest, but fit my criteria perfectly. CGC 8.0 ow-white and full of DC history. Back in the 40s, DC sought to fight off critics of comics as being insufficiently educational or literary by creating an "advisory board" of folks who would suggest content to DC. One of them was the winner of the Nobel Prize for literature - Pearl S. Buck for "The Good Earth" about life in China. She was very concerned with promoting racial and ethnic tolerance and she clearly had an impact on DC because World's Finest and Comic Calvacade for a while carried a back-up which promoted those values: Johnny Everyman.  The first Johnny Everyman story was entitled "The Camera of Mei Lan" coming out in WF 15 (Fall 1944). That story was reprinted in a promotional comic which, according to the Indicia, was put out jointly by DC and the "East and West Association - Pearl S. Buck, President." 

So this is the only GA (maybe all ages) comic I know of inspired and jointly published by a Nobel Prize winner for literature, and it concerns the topic which made her famous - life in China. Pretty cool. Especially, since my newly acquired copy is only 1 of 2 on the Census with the other copy, a CGC 8.5, having only cream-ow page quality which makes me like my copy much better. Plus, it is a steal at the price for a 1944 DC comic in CGC 8.0 ow-w:

 

I don't know if there are many copies of this unencapsulated, but I don't care. It's a cool piece which embodies some great history relating to my Wertham/CCA collecting interests that I picked up for not a lot at all.

P.S. This banner appeared in a number of DC books of the 1940s:

Turns out, Pearl Buck may have plotted the story I just acquired. Jack Schiff ultimately wrote the dialogue, but this article is really interesting on that point:

Anyone know any other comic stories written by winners of the Nobel Prize for literature? I don't think Bob Dylan has turned his hand to comics.

Edited March 29 by sfcityduck

[Yorick]

Swimming in the shallow end!!!  I've got my water wings on. 

 

[Professor K]

On 3/28/2024 at 5:24 PM, sagii said:

It was, Congratulations to winner if anyone here 🎊 👏 

I doubt anyone here bid that high on the Tec 1. The Detective's 3 and 4 I think went low. #4 6.0 A-2 was a great price and I wished I'd have clicked at least 2 or 3 more times on it. 

One highly intelligent person gave issue 3  6.0 A-3 the one and only bid it needed to bring home. After Detective 4 bidding on the rest of the Detectives seemed to really picked up.

Quite a few of the early More Funs and New Comics sold kind of low also. Low grade, restored, but scarce books.

I wasn't going to post this at least until I got it but here it is. Hooray for me. I blacked out the price so people in the future can't see it. Not you guys. 

 

Edited March 30 by Professor K

[mwotka]

Nice wins!  Picked up a few myself. The two Flessel covers I am very excited about and have been after for a long time.  And then the New Comics 9 was just too cheap to pass up, with that roster of artists.  Already wish I'd grabbed a few more.  

[Professor K]

On 3/30/2024 at 1:00 AM, mwotka said:

Nice wins!  Picked up a few myself. The two Flessel covers I am very excited about and have been after for a long time.  And then the New Comics 9 was just too cheap to pass up, with that roster of artists.  Already wish I'd grabbed a few more.  

Nice, I wish I had a grabbed at least one each of the New Comics and More Funs.  I thought about you when the Detective 13 came up. C-1 with no color touch. I guess that's why it went higher than most of the restored Tecs. Fun little auction that was. 

[Professor K]

On 3/28/2024 at 5:10 PM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Who knew a Matt Baker cover would sneak in?

And even a cameo appearance L.B. Cole . And it went pretty high.  Pretty high? Get it? 

[tabcom]

On 3/28/2024 at 5:58 PM, RareHighGrade said:

The prices obtained for most of the pre-hero Tecs were record breakers for the respective grades.  Some examples:

Tec #1 restored .5:  $22,500

Tec #2 restored .5:  $4,062

Tec #8 restored 1.8:  $4,687

Tec #18 restored 2.0:  $5,635

Tec #23 restored 3.5:  $5,625

I don't recall ever seeing prices like these in the past.  These would have been strong prices for unrestored copies.

 

I recall a comment on the board 10+ years ago stating that one day collectors of pre-heros will disregard the label and buy the scarcity.

I used that heuristic to win three tecs.

Edited March 30 by tabcom

[sagii]

On 3/30/2024 at 12:06 AM, Professor K said:

I doubt anyone here bid that high on the Tec 1. The Detective's 3 and 4 I think went low. #4 6.0 A-2 was a great price and I wished I'd have clicked at least 2 or 3 more times on it. 

One highly intelligent person gave issue 3  6.0 A-3 the one and only bid it needed to bring home. After Detective 4 bidding on the rest of the Detectives seemed to really picked up.

Quite a few of the early More Funs and New Comics sold kind of low also. Low grade, restored, but scarce books.

I wasn't going to post this at least until I got it but here it is. Hooray for me. 

 

Congrats, super pick up! 👏 

[Moondog]

I found it fascinating that Ian created 30+ fake ashcans just to have them.  He contacted me once in the early 2000s gauging my interest in selling.  I mentioned I had doubles I would sell but he didn’t seem that interested. I just assumed he didn’t care about them, thinking that they weren’t real comics.  Very strange.

Why were there no bids on the Flash ashcan?  It should have sold for $20,000+

Also, the Cancelled Comics Cavalcade was a bargain.

[sfcityduck]

On 3/30/2024 at 8:26 AM, Moondog said:

I found it fascinating that Ian created 30+ fake ashcans just to have them.  He contacted me once in the early 2000s gauging my interest in selling.  I mentioned I had doubles I would sell but he didn’t seem that interested. I just assumed he didn’t care about them, thinking that they weren’t real comics.  Very strange.

Why were there no bids on the Flash ashcan?  It should have sold for $20,000+

Also, the Cancelled Comics Cavalcade was a bargain.

The CCC was a risk as it may have been a bootleg. Its value hinged on your view of the credibility of Ian's story.

The Flash (DC) ashcan is supercool, but it is the lowest graded of six copies  - 9.6, 9.6, 9.4, 9.4, 9.2, 9.0 - (which is a huge number of copies for an ashcan of this time period, right?) and recent sales suggested that the $20K starting price might be high, e.g.,: 2022 - 9.6 $45.6K and 2018 - 9.4 $20.3K.

So my analysis was that (1) the Pandemic pandemonium prices are over (2021-2022 prices were aberrations and are not be sustained at the high end for Promise Books as an example); (2) The 2018 book is the closest comparable and that's the second best copy not the sixth best copy; so (3) $20K was too high a starting price.  If it had been $15K I would have bid and maybe the excitement would have taken me to $20K - who knows.

The sale definitely had some bargains and some crazy high record prices. That's a good auction in my book.

Edited March 30 by sfcityduck

[mwotka]

I think the venue hurt some things, especially the ashcans and some rarities.  Savvy collectors were aware of it but had to be no where near the interest and bidders as an HA auction.  I found the auction experience off-putting, as they didn't allow zoom on the book for sale and didn't have the grade details so I was constantly toggling tabs between the catalogue and auction screen to stay up on what was being offered.  And then they didn't show the premium so was constantly trying to calculate actual sale price with the 25% premium, instead of just showing both totals like on HA.  I thought the auctioneer was kinda blah, he really could've talked up some of those items and the rarity, etc a bit more.  What's the point of a live auctioneer if he isn't going to generate more interest than automated?  And then to have the big ashcans and that Siegel/Schuster sci-fi proto-pulp at the end, those should've near the beginning.  Still, it was an enjoyable experience and fun to watch a once in a lifetime collection sell.  

[sfcityduck]

On 3/30/2024 at 10:20 AM, mwotka said:

I think the venue hurt some things, especially the ashcans and some rarities.  Savvy collectors were aware of it but had to be no where near the interest and bidders as an HA auction.  I found the auction experience off-putting, as they didn't allow zoom on the book for sale and didn't have the grade details so I was constantly toggling tabs between the catalogue and auction screen to stay up on what was being offered.  And then they didn't show the premium so was constantly trying to calculate actual sale price with the 25% premium, instead of just showing both totals like on HA.  I thought the auctioneer was kinda blah, he really could've talked up some of those items and the rarity, etc a bit more.  What's the point of a live auctioneer if he isn't going to generate more interest than automated?  And then to have the big ashcans and that Siegel/Schuster sci-fi proto-pulp at the end, those should've near the beginning.  Still, it was an enjoyable experience and fun to watch a once in a lifetime collection sell.  

All your points have some validity except I disagree with the conclusion that the venue hurt things. I don't think Heritage would be nearly as focused on promoting low grade books as PBA has been.  The catalog for these auctions is a true delight, full of great information. The "talk up" occurred in incredible detail before the auction even started. If you aren't buying the catalogs and/or reading the descriptions on Liveauctioneers well before the auction then you are ignoring key information! I check out my target books before the auction so I don't really care about the size of the picture during the auction.  While I do agree I like having the premium amount on screen, I can ballpark it quickly. And while I also agree that the auctioneer had no idea what he was auctioning, he performed his essential function really competently and, I thought, gave more time for later bidders than other live auctioneers I've seen in the comic area. I thought the auction went smoothly, was not too rushed, and did not drag. 

 

[Point Five]

Great great auction. I was traveling last week; not seeing a lot of mad bargains but still wish I'd had a go at a few of the pre-Batman Tecs. Ah well.

The finished prices as shown on the PBA auction site now *include* the BP, correct?