Christine Farrell - DC Collector RIP 10 10

[TheLexLuthorCollection]

On 9/23/2024 at 8:19 AM, LearnedHand said:

I would say there is a third difference - and it’s also a reason some people think she was purposely “hiding” her collecting: she was like a lot of collectors that also fly under the radar - interested in collecting out of love of the material (artwork and stories), not the sought-after ancillary fanfare that drives some people. She wasn’t on this or other public forums needing constant validation for her hobby activities.  She was a known collector to people here in New England, and respected for her unbelievable accomplishment. 

Besides Levine and Farrell, we should also keep in mind the "Selling Superman" Watts collection that was announced with some fanfare almost two years ago.  That hugely extensive collection contains a Superman #1 CGC 7.0 unrestored but I am not sure what other GA's are there.  Watts apparently was a relatively obscure and eccentric collector and his heirs had apparently decided to create a 4 part, 200 minute documentary of their eccentric father/collector.  The first showing of that documentary will occur on October 16.  To my knowledge, most of the GA's from this collection have not been sold but will presumably be offered for sale in the near future.  I am a DC Golden Age collector but I feel this delay by creating a documentary was a miscalculation.  Unless there are some amazing GA keys in the Watts collection, the Farrell collection has "sucked all the oxygen" in the room while the long, drawn out marketing efforts of the Watts collection has caused interest in Watts to sputter. 

[Yorick]

On 10/4/2024 at 7:33 AM, TheLexLuthorCollection said:

the Watts collection

Is it a complete DC collection?

[sagii]

Great stuff. See Christine has some important books outside of DC as well coming up 

[Telegan]

On 10/4/2024 at 9:33 AM, TheLexLuthorCollection said:

Besides Levine and Farrell, we should also keep in mind the "Selling Superman" Watts collection that was announced with some fanfare almost two years ago.  That hugely extensive collection contains a Superman #1 CGC 7.0 unrestored but I am not sure what other GA's are there.  Watts apparently was a relatively obscure and eccentric collector and his heirs had apparently decided to create a 4 part, 200 minute documentary of their eccentric father/collector.  The first showing of that documentary will occur on October 16.  To my knowledge, most of the GA's from this collection have not been sold but will presumably be offered for sale in the near future.  I am a DC Golden Age collector but I feel this delay by creating a documentary was a miscalculation.  Unless there are some amazing GA keys in the Watts collection, the Farrell collection has "sucked all the oxygen" in the room while the long, drawn out marketing efforts of the Watts collection has caused interest in Watts to sputter. 

That collection was huge (around 300,000 comics), but I don't think it focused on Golden Age.  It did have high(er) grade Superman #1, Detective Comics #27, Batman #1, AF #15, Marvel Comics #1, Incredible Hulk #181 (I think a 9.8), etc.  It's called the "Fantast Collection".  Also, a lot of those books have already been sold or are selling (I saw Harley Yee with boxes of them last November at Collectors Summit as well as pics of him selling them at other shows).  The Batman #1 was sold 2 years ago or so for over $1 million.  The Tec #27 sold for around $1.7 million.  I don't know which other big ones have sold from the collection.

Edited October 4 by Telegan

[TheLexLuthorCollection]

On 10/4/2024 at 11:07 AM, Yorick said:

Is it a complete DC collection?

No.

[sfcityduck]

On 10/4/2024 at 4:32 PM, TheLexLuthorCollection said:

No.

I was thinking about this whole complete collection thing. For the publisher oriented collections a complete Timely/Atlas/Marvel collection has to be easier than a complete DC collection but I've never heard of anyone going for it. Has anyone? Many complete Marvel SA collections.

A complete EC collection is probably the easiest of the GA challenges. A lot of people have done it. Some more than once. Dell seems doable. Classic Comics has been done I think.

I tend to think a complete Centaur collection might be the hardest. Several folks have done it, but a lot of hard to find books, and some very savvy collectors have given up.

I don't know what else would be harder. MLJ maybe? Harvey seems unlikely. Fawcett probably pretty easy. Quality and Fiction House I'm sure have been done.

And then there are theme collections. PCH - got to be hard. Romance - I don't think it has been done but can it? Some really hard Romance books. Complete SOTI referenced books - done once and the crux book is a serious impediment to anyone doing it again. Four colors - been done. Probably all Disney comics as well. Yeah ... I'm thinking romance would be the hardest theme collection to amass.

 

 

[Dr. Love]

On 10/4/2024 at 8:27 PM, sfcityduck said:

Romance - I don't think it has been done but can it? 

At least twice, for the most part.  Because at the end ranges it gets a bit harder to define what is romance. 

But Michelle Nolan and Dan Stevenson (who she lists in her credits within Love on the Racks) would be the answer.  

I've defined the romance universe as exactly 5,846 books.  Not one book more or less.  It's basically Michelle Nolan's set with some minor differences.  I got 59% of the way and threw in the towel.

It looked like this.  If you had never seen more than 2 or 3 romance comics together in one place before, if that much - and then walked into this setup where every single comic in every single box was a mid to high grade romance - it was absolutely mind blowing.  And that was true for comic veterans who had seen it all.

Edited October 5 by Dr. Love

[buttock]

On 10/4/2024 at 9:40 PM, Dr. Love said:

At least twice, for the most part.  Because at the end ranges it gets a bit harder to define what is romance. 

But Michelle Nolan and Dan Stevenson (who she lists in her credits within Love on the Racks) would be the answer.  

I've defined the romance universe as exactly 5,846 books.  Not one book more or less.  It's basically Michelle Nolan's set with some minor differences.  I got 59% of the way and threw in the towel.

It looked like this.  If you had never seen more than 2 or 3 romance comics together in one place before, if that much - and then walked into this setup where every single comic in every single box was a mid to high grade romance - it was absolutely mind blowing.  And that was true for comic veterans who had seen it all.

You really should have pushed to 69%

[Robot Man]

On 10/4/2024 at 8:40 PM, Dr. Love said:

At least twice, for the most part.  Because at the end ranges it gets a bit harder to define what is romance. 

But Michelle Nolan and Dan Stevenson (who she lists in her credits within Love on the Racks) would be the answer.  

I've defined the romance universe as exactly 5,846 books.  Not one book more or less.  It's basically Michelle Nolan's set with some minor differences.  I got 59% of the way and threw in the towel.

It looked like this.  If you had never seen more than 2 or 3 romance comics together in one place before, if that much - and then walked into this setup where every single comic in every single box was a mid to high grade romance - it was absolutely mind blowing.  And that was true for comic veterans who had seen it all.

Wow Andy, that’s a Whole Lotta Love!

 

[Robot Man]

On 10/4/2024 at 8:27 PM, sfcityduck said:

I was thinking about this whole complete collection thing. For the publisher oriented collections a complete Timely/Atlas/Marvel collection has to be easier than a complete DC collection but I've never heard of anyone going for it. Has anyone? Many complete Marvel SA collections.

A complete EC collection is probably the easiest of the GA challenges. A lot of people have done it. Some more than once. Dell seems doable. Classic Comics has been done I think.

I tend to think a complete Centaur collection might be the hardest. Several folks have done it, but a lot of hard to find books, and some very savvy collectors have given up.

I don't know what else would be harder. MLJ maybe? Harvey seems unlikely. Fawcett probably pretty easy. Quality and Fiction House I'm sure have been done.

And then there are theme collections. PCH - got to be hard. Romance - I don't think it has been done but can it? Some really hard Romance books. Complete SOTI referenced books - done once and the crux book is a serious impediment to anyone doing it again. Four colors - been done. Probably all Disney comics as well. Yeah ... I'm thinking romance would be the hardest theme collection to amass.

 

 

A complete PCH collection is REAL tough. So many books and publishers going back to the early ‘40’s. And at today’s prices forget about it.

I have collected them over 50 years and at best am about maybe 80%. When I first started most were well under $10. Many (other than ECs) were as little as a buck. And a lot of lawns needed to be cut to buy a pile.

I know of a few real big collections. But never heard of a complete collection. 

[Bronty]

hard to even agree on what a PCH set is

[VintageComics]

On 10/4/2024 at 11:27 PM, sfcityduck said:

Timely/Atlas/Marvel collection has to be easier than a complete DC collection but I've never heard of anyone going for it. Has anyone? Many complete Marvel SA collections.

John Verzyl, apparently from scratch, assembled the entire Church Timely collection minus 6 or 7 books, the last I'd heard when I spoke to John while he was alive.

Quite a feat to assembly the Timely run alone, but from one of the most desirable Pedigrees? Wild.  

Not sure if all Timely books were present in the Church Ped, though. 

I have no idea whether he managed to complete the collection finally, or if Rose and John Jr. did. 

[lou_fine]

On 10/4/2024 at 1:23 PM, Telegan said:

That collection was huge (around 300,000 comics), but I don't think it focused on Golden Age.  It did have high(er) grade Superman #1, Detective Comics #27, Batman #1, AF #15, Marvel Comics #1, Incredible Hulk #181 (I think a 9.8), etc.  It's called the "Fantast Collection".  Also, a lot of those books have already been sold or are selling (I saw Harley Yee with boxes of them last November at Collectors Summit as well as pics of him selling them at other shows).  The Batman #1 was sold 2 years ago or so for over $1 million.  The Tec #27 sold for around $1.7 million.  I don't know which other big ones have sold from the collection.

Isn't this the collection where the father was compiling the collection on his own and stashing them away in a huge "vault" in his house?  

Correct me if I am wrong here, but with American tax laws I believe the family would end up with a non-taxable firtune here since there would be no capital gains taxes owing due to the so-called "step-up" process they have in the good old U.S. of A.    

Much better than up North in Canuckle Land where everything is considered to be a deemed dispositation upon death and subject to immediate and egregious capital gains taxes.   

Edited October 5 by lou_fine

[Telegan]

On 10/5/2024 at 4:37 PM, lou_fine said:

Isn't this the collection where the father was compiling the collection on his own and stashing them away in a huge "vault" in his house?  

 

Yup.

[rob_react]

On 10/5/2024 at 5:22 PM, VintageComics said:

John Verzyl, apparently from scratch, assembled the entire Church Timely collection minus 6 or 7 books, the last I'd heard when I spoke to John while he was alive.

Quite a feat to assembly the Timely run alone, but from one of the most desirable Pedigrees? Wild.  

Not sure if all Timely books were present in the Church Ped, though. 

I have no idea whether he managed to complete the collection finally, or if Rose and John Jr. did. 

I remember one or two coming up for auction over the years and wondering how on earth he didn't already have them!

[rob_react]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:54 AM, Robot Man said:

A complete PCH collection is REAL tough. So many books and publishers going back to the early ‘40’s. And at today’s prices forget about it.

I have collected them over 50 years and at best am about maybe 80%. When I first started most were well under $10. Many (other than ECs) were as little as a buck. And a lot of lawns needed to be cut to buy a pile.

I know of a few real big collections. But never heard of a complete collection. 

The definition is almost as hard as the collecting challenge 🤣

[woowoo]

On 10/5/2024 at 2:22 PM, VintageComics said:

John Verzyl, apparently from scratch, assembled the entire Church Timely collection minus 6 or 7 books, the last I'd heard when I spoke to John while he was alive.

Quite a feat to assembly the Timely run alone, but from one of the most desirable Pedigrees? Wild.  

Not sure if all Timely books were present in the Church Ped, though. 

I have no idea whether he managed to complete the collection finally, or if Rose and John Jr. did. 

Did not really know there are Church Timelys and I been doing this for 50 years.

[VintageComics]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:29 PM, woowoo said:

Did not really know there are Church Timelys and I been doing this for 50 years.

Really???

Maybe because they've been locked up for years and are never on the market. 

The Marvel #1 is rumored to be near perfect, and when it was offered to Verzyl, he looked for a defect to get a discount and couldn't find one. It's rumored to be a 9.8

[woowoo]

On 10/5/2024 at 8:38 PM, VintageComics said:

Really???

Maybe because they've been locked up for years and are never on the market. 

The Marvel #1 is rumored to be near perfect, and when it was offered to Verzyl, he looked for a defect to get a discount and couldn't find one. It's rumored to be a 9.8

Ya I knew about the Red Raven 1 and Marvel 1 but did not know there were a lot more thought there was only a hand full,

I know Johns Cap 1 after few times submitted made it to a 9.8 but it's not a Church guess I only like DCs 

[VintageComics]

On 10/5/2024 at 11:59 PM, woowoo said:

I know Johns Cap 1 after few times submitted made it to a 9.8 but it's not a Church guess I only like DCs 

That was the Allentown. 

On 10/5/2024 at 11:59 PM, woowoo said:

did not know there were a lot more thought there was only a hand full,

Someone else with more knowledge can probably comment on how many Church Timely's there are.