How much of a premium do creators’ personal copies fetch? 2 2

[jimbo_7071]

There's an assumption in your question. You asked, "How much of a premium do creators' personal copies fetch?".

The way that question is worded makes it sound like you're taking it for granted that they fetch some sort of premium. Some of them might, but your first question should have been, "Do creators' personal copies fetch a premium?".

My answer would have been, "It depends." It depends on the book, it depends on the condition of the book, it depends on what creator owned the book, and it depends on who is buying the book. I wouldn't pay a premium for any creator's personal copy of a comic book—prior ownership of a comic simply doesn't matter to me—but in many cases a collector who admires a particular creator would likely pay a premium for that creator's personal copy of a comic.

Prior ownership of a comic clearly does matter to some people. The Larson copies prove that: some board members have stated they they are willing to pay more for those copies because of the backstory even though those comics often have heavy foxing, rust on the staples, or both.

Edited June 19 by jimbo_7071

[jimbo_7071]

On 6/1/2024 at 5:24 PM, BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES said:

Tried to bid on a couple personal copies yesterday but hadn't recently tried to bid in the last seconds on comiclink and forgot how clunky it is.  You start your bid and a new screen comes up asking you to confirm but the screen has no clock or bid count.  So you don't know how much time you have or whether the bid you're contemplating has already been exceeded.  And if you make a bid that falls short you can't just quickly place another bid.  You have to react and then hit the effing back button, let it load, move your mouse to the appropriate spot and type in a new number (and again, you have nothing showing you how much time is left and what the current bid is)  

You're preaching to the choir. About 11 years ago I tried to put in a bid on the Central Valley copy of Planet Comics #4 on CLink, and even though the clock told me that I had 7 seconds left, the bid did not go through in time. (My bid was significantly higher than what the book ended up selling for.)

[Robot Man]

On 6/19/2024 at 6:04 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

There's an assumption in your question. You asked, "How much of a premium do creators' personal copies fetch?".

The way that question is worded makes it sound like you're taking it for granted that they fetch some sort of premium. Some of them might, but your first question should have been, "Do creators' personal copies fetch a premium?".

My answer would have been, "It depends." It depends on the book, it depends on the condition of the book, it depends on what creator owned the book, and it depends on who is buying the book. I wouldn't pay a premium for any creator's personal copy of a comic book—prior ownership of a comic simply doesn't matter to me—but in many cases a collector who admires a particular creator would likely pay a premium for that creator's personal copy of a comic.

Prior ownership of a comic clearly does matter to some people. The Larson copies prove that: some board members have stated they they are willing to pay more for those copies because of the backstory even though those comics often have heavy foxing, rust on the staples, or both.

I personaly like having certain creator owned and pedigree books in my collection. At least one that I feel significant. Like a Stan Lee or a Larson. They are a part of comic book history. I rarely have overpaid for them. Just cool to have.

[pmpknface]

I have 2 books from Stan's personal collection, but they are trades and can't be slabbed.  One is a tpb bound in a HC.  They are among the favorites in my collection!  I don't know what I'd sell them for, except maybe nothing - as in NFS!  

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 6/19/2024 at 6:04 AM, jimbo_7071 said:

There's an assumption in your question. You asked, "How much of a premium do creators' personal copies fetch?".

The way that question is worded makes it sound like you're taking it for granted that they fetch some sort of premium. Some of them might, but your first question should have been, "Do creators' personal copies fetch a premium?".

My answer would have been, "It depends." It depends on the book, it depends on the condition of the book, it depends on what creator owned the book, and it depends on who is buying the book. I wouldn't pay a premium for any creator's personal copy of a comic book—prior ownership of a comic simply doesn't matter to me—but in many cases a collector who admires a particular creator would likely pay a premium for that creator's personal copy of a comic.

 

The fact that you, personally, would not pay a premium for a book should not mean that someone else is being presumptuous about whether there should be any premium at all, especially in light of the evidence that copies have sold for premiums, and the questioner is showing they have some interest if only by virtue of asking "how much?"

I can tell you there are many things I see people buying and expressing interest in things which would never have interest in buying.  And those quite likely include things you have paid premiums for 

But if somebody asked me whether those things you purchased have value I would not say they are being presumptuous to think they have any value at all.

Your correction feels like you're presuming the person is asking whether you, personally, would pay a premium. 

 

 

Edited June 20 by BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES

[jimbo_7071]

On 6/20/2024 at 6:16 PM, BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES said:

The fact that you, personally, would not pay a premium for a book should not mean that someone else is being presumptuous about whether there should be any premium at all, especially in light of the evidence that copies have sold for premiums, and the questioner is showing they have some interest if only by virtue of asking "how much?"

I can tell you there are many things I see people buying and expressing interest in things which would never have interest in buying.  And those quite likely include things you have paid premiums for 

But if somebody asked me whether those things you purchased have value I would not say they are being presumptuous to think they have any value at all.

Your correction feels like you're presuming the person is asking whether you, personally, would pay a premium. 

 

 

Hardly. I simply don't believe that every creator-owned copy would necessarily sell for a premium. Many creators don't have much of a following.

[BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES]

On 6/20/2024 at 4:10 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

Hardly. I simply don't believe that every creator-owned copy would necessarily sell for a premium. Many creators don't have much of a following.

Same could be said for all the reasons people collect something.  Be it pedigrees, pristine mint books, rare books, unrestored books.  There is always the presumption that the person asking the question likes the book for other reasons and wondering if it goes for a premium if it has additional attributes.  The person asking the question is clearly not a person who knows nothing about the hobby and has no ideas what things are worth generally without the premium of being a creator copy.

If someone were to ask how much of a premium he should expect to pay for a desirable book in 9.8, would you tell him he's asking the wrong question and he should first ask whether ANY book in 9.8 should ever go for ANY premium at all?   

I doubt that you would put it that way in regard to attributes you feel personally are worth a premium. 

 

Edited June 20 by BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES

[jimbo_7071]

On 6/20/2024 at 7:49 PM, BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES said:

Same could be said for all the reasons people collect something.  Be it pedigrees, pristine mint books, rare books, unrestored books.  There is always the presumption that the person asking the question likes the book for other reasons and wondering if it goes for a premium if it has additional attributes.  The person asking the question is clearly not a person who knows nothing about the hobby and has no ideas what things are worth generally without the premium of being a creator copy.

If someone were to ask how much of a premium he should expect to pay for a desirable book in 9.8, would you tell him he's asking the wrong question and he should first ask whether ANY book in 9.8 should ever go for ANY premium at all?   

I doubt that you would put it that way in regard to attributes you feel personally are worth a premium. 

 

Have it your way.

Edited June 21 by jimbo_7071

[Readcomix]

On 6/19/2024 at 11:18 AM, Robot Man said:

I personaly like having certain creator owned and pedigree books in my collection. At least one that I feel significant. Like a Stan Lee or a Larson. They are a part of comic book history. I rarely have overpaid for them. Just cool to have.

I’m in this camp too, generally.

Anecdotally, I had the Opportunity to acquire some of Joe Sinnott’s personal copies of books, and after choosing my keepers I shared the others in the sales forum on the boards. The Atlas war books were mostly grabbed very quickly, and while I think everyone appreciated the provenance, I believe the real driver was Joe kept his comp copies in nice shape, and many would be contenders for high grade. Of course, solid mid-grade Atlas war can be tough enough to come by.

Joe’s Archie file copies also got taken up pretty quickly, but in that case they were all back issues that Joe had purchased in low grade just to have a sample of his own work, not complimentary copies that he received in new condition. Of course, those were much cheaper books ($5-$20 range) and I think provenance was the driver there, as they were an affordable piece of comics history. (Joe signed all his personal copies the same way, on the margin of the first page of each story he worked on in each book. So books can have from one to four signatures.)

His Charlton romance file copies were a mix of comps (sharper books) and self-purchased back issues (lower grades) and from that mixed-grade bag, only the sharp books were grabbed quickly. Again, another niche where high grade is uncommon, and even mid-grade is pretty high  — Charlton romance.

I did buy a “from the collection of Jerry Garcia” EC horror book, and I probably paid a premium there akin to a pedigree, but Garcia’s entire collection was carved up at auction (in lots) by just a few collectors, and collectively they have not further disseminated many of the books, so they don’t become available too often.

[Robot Man]

On 6/22/2024 at 7:13 PM, Readcomix said:

I’m in this camp too, generally.

Anecdotally, I had the Opportunity to acquire some of Joe Sinnott’s personal copies of books, and after choosing my keepers I shared the others in the sales forum on the boards. The Atlas war books were mostly grabbed very quickly, and while I think everyone appreciated the provenance, I believe the real driver was Joe kept his comp copies in nice shape, and many would be contenders for high grade. Of course, solid mid-grade Atlas war can be tough enough to come by.

Joe’s Archie file copies also got taken up pretty quickly, but in that case they were all back issues that Joe had purchased in low grade just to have a sample of his own work, not complimentary copies that he received in new condition. Of course, those were much cheaper books ($5-$20 range) and I think provenance was the driver there, as they were an affordable piece of comics history. (Joe signed all his personal copies the same way, on the margin of the first page of each story he worked on in each book. So books can have from one to four signatures.)

His Charlton romance file copies were a mix of comps (sharper books) and self-purchased back issues (lower grades) and from that mixed-grade bag, only the sharp books were grabbed quickly. Again, another niche where high grade is uncommon, and even mid-grade is pretty high  — Charlton romance.

I did buy a “from the collection of Jerry Garcia” EC horror book, and I probably paid a premium there akin to a pedigree, but Garcia’s entire collection was carved up at auction (in lots) by just a few collectors, and collectively they have not further disseminated many of the books, so they don’t become available too often.

The Garcia books were sold in large lots by genre and titles in a Garcia property auction by a LA auction house. There were only a handful of bidders and they were spread out among the bidders. The bidder on the CSS sold off all of his on eBay. They went for good money. I know the buyer of the humor lot. There were duplicates of about 5 or 6 of them. He sold me the dupes and kept the rest. To the best of my knowledge, the other original buyers have not sold any and have kept them intact. So yes, they are quite hard to find. And most are lower grade copies. 

What was interesting is that CGC despite of impeccable documentation, refused to grade with a “collection of Jerry Garcia” label so they were done by the “other guys”.

I don’t consider these creator copies but from a well known personalities’ collection. Some thing that interests me as well.