New 3,000 Golden Age Collection/Pedigree Revealed in CBG

[jkrk]

Multi, Welcome to the board. IF you wish to post on any message boards you will

have to learn to have a thick skin. Some posters wake up naturally hostile while others go work to become mean.

 

I read Mark's post and I really can't fault what he wrote. He was basically saying that he and his "dealer partners" couldn't steal the books from the seller that would allow them to flip the books quickly (without much effort) with a fat enough profit margin. I suspect he was not being malicious but was simply expressing the groups viewpoint. After reading your post, I suspect that your motivation is different. I suspect that you are selling off the books that you have no interest to maintain thereby lowering your investment. If you have the time to proceed in this manner you will ultimately be left with the books you really want to keep at an advantageous price..

[Darrell F]

So, we're going to see Batman 50-100 in unread, unrestored, high grade shape listed on eBay unslabbed? If they are such high grade, prove Mr. Zaid wrong and get them slabbed. The slabbing cost is peanuts compared to the value of the books in high grade.

 

I'm sure Mark would be the first to eat crow if you produced 50+ books from before 1954 that were slabbed CGC 8.0 or better.

Please learn to read people. It has been stated that the buyer is said to be meeting with Steve Borock and Mark Haspel "the first chance I get to discuss a possible pedigree"

 

I have no idea on the grades of the book but read the thread.

[Foolkiller]

So, we're going to see Batman 50-100 in unread, unrestored, high grade shape listed on eBay unslabbed? If they are such high grade, prove Mr. Zaid wrong and get them slabbed. The slabbing cost is peanuts compared to the value of the books in high grade.

 

I'm sure Mark would be the first to eat crow if you produced 50+ books from before 1954 that were slabbed CGC 8.0 or better.

 

sort of what I was intimating as well by my comment. Otherwise it's a very nice score and a nice collection. Mark wasn't saying anything disparaging at all -- just that he disagreed that it was a Ped or HG. If they are truly high grade and he's wrong about what he saw -- then you will have made a fortune and proved him wrong.

 

I would love to see the books either way.

[dem1138]

Purely from an objective perspective, I fail to understand how selling 200 HG Golden Age books purchased in 1968 for $200 that could now be sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in profit is somehow rectified by buying a collection of comics today for a price that every dealer who saw them passed on and has been described as close to "retail."

 

It would seem to logically dictate that the way to make good, so to speak, on your former indescretion, would be to find a collection where the owner was ignorant of the value of the collection and you were able to resell that collection at an enormous profit.

 

But as indicated, this was an instance where the owner clearly understood and possibly even overvalued the collection.

 

Regardless, congratulations on purchasing a phenomenal Golden Age collection. If your reasons for purchase were motivated beyond profit, then the purchase itself is its own reward. Clearly, the dealers who viewed the collection were solely interested in profit and found that there wasn't enough potential there.

[infinite_comics-migration]

He was basically saying that he and his "dealer partners" couldn't steal the books from the seller that would allow them to flip the books quickly (without much effort) with a fat enough profit margin.

 

Or any profit at all?

Remember, F-D said "The guy who bought it isn't going to make a whole lot on this, if he paid significantly more than we offered. Buying at retail is no way to go through life."

 

We all know that dealers can't buy at retail and stay in business...

[Harvey Dude]

Mark wasn't saying anything disparaging at all -- just that he disagreed that it was a Ped or HG.

 

Of the books sold to date, I have to agree with Mark's assessment. Of course, the best of the collection is yet to come or it may not be for sale.

 

[langur88]

the dealers who viewed the collection were solely interested in profit and found that there wasn't enough potential there.

 

[the blob]

yup, esquire's comments would seem to make this a less likely pedigree scenario if we're talking about a bunch of VG to Fine books (not to mention him saying it shouldn't be a pedigree...), which is probably why the buyer is ticked off.

 

because you pedigree jokers will buy a slabbed VG pedigree book over a higher grade one because it's a "pedigree". whoop dee doo I say.

 

How come nobody will buy my slabbed, but totally unverified, Walt Gibson pedigree books? He actually did something in/for the comics industry and they're the highest graded slabbed examples!!

[CKB]

So, we're going to see Batman 50-100 in unread, unrestored, high grade shape listed on eBay unslabbed? If they are such high grade, prove Mr. Zaid wrong and get them slabbed. The slabbing cost is peanuts compared to the value of the books in high grade.

 

I'm sure Mark would be the first to eat crow if you produced 50+ books from before 1954 that were slabbed CGC 8.0 or better.

Please learn to read people. It has been stated that the buyer is said to be meeting with Steve Borock and Mark Haspel "the first chance I get to discuss a possible pedigree"

 

I have no idea on the grades of the book but read the thread.

 

If you think I post without reading the whole thread you are sorely mistaken.

 

Do you know the criteria for convincing Steve and Mark to make a pedigree? I don't. I am pretty sure it involves a complete list of books with preliminary grades and the books have to be original owner.

 

If Steve and Mark say "No" for whatever reason, why not still slab the books that are so minty fresh? Remember, this sale did not happen yesterday. There have been books being sold for some time.

 

I see no reason for the buyer to take offense with Mr. Zaid's comments if he has the books to back up his opinion of the collection. No one is going to care what Mark thinks if the book is in a slab with a 9.0 white on it.

[multicynic]

If it LOOKS like a DUCK, it probably IS a DUCK. Decide for yourself.

Thanks again for all the great comments. You made my day. There will be a real nice Captain Marvel #32 listed later tonight for any Captain Marvel fans out there.

Jack Juka

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230019136943

[Warlord]

Just saw the Market Report in the latest CBG. The feature was on a 3,000 original owner golden age comics collection recently purchased by a collector for resale. CGC, Heritage, and Pedigree Comics were all mentioned as being consulted about the purchase of the collection. Sounded like quite a few significant issues in very high grade, the story said the collector spent his life's savings to buy it!

 

So is this news already out and I'm just the last to know, or is CBG breaking the story?

 

is there a link?

Nope.

I checked cbgextra.com and saw nothing there.

[Warlord]

 

Hello,

 

I have been collectiing/buying and selling golden age and silver pedegree (Mile High, San Francisco, White Mountain etc.) comics for the past 15 years.

I had a chance to see the books and was astounded by the size of the collection, with a large number of them being very high grade.

 

Were these pics of some of the comics you've purchased from this collection? I missed the pics! Can you rehost them?

[MCMiles]

Sounds like a great collection. I for one am happy for you and hope you enjoy the comics. It is a dream come true for most of us real comic book fans out here. Like I said in an earlier post. If you aren't going to loose money and you love the comics, then who cares what you paid for them. I don't think Mr. Zaid intended to insult you, although I personaly would have used a little more discretion when describing the collection. Sort of like if two guys ask out the same girl, and the guy that misses out says "well she was ugly anyway". A.) Sounds like jealousy wether it was true or not. B.) Insults the other guy and his new girlfriend

 

I think, with the impact of ebay, CGC, and well advertised auction sites, the days of the dealer buying collections at low percentages of retail value are eventually going to be gone. Many can sell their collections on their own or consign the collections rather than sell at 50%. Even the folks that want to just dump all at once and not make the effort to sell can realize more by finding a serious collector to purchase. For instance, I guarantee I can pay more for a collection than a lot of dealers because I don't need to sell the books in order to eat, and I have enough faith in this hobby to feel safe investing in these gems at pretty high percentges of value. I can also lower my investment in the good stuff by selling off the stuff I have less interest in. Not to mention, even if I loose money, I enjoyed the comics. I bought them because I love them.

[robyx-migration]

Any Disney Ducks in this collection?

 

r

[multicynic]

Any Disney Ducks in this collection?

 

r

 

Nothing to quack about. Email me and if I come across some I'll let you know. Thanks.

Jack

[coolJ]

How about More funs?

[multicynic]

One more thing before I hit the hay (slang for go to bed to all you city slickers). In retrospect, I may in fact been a tad harsh on Mark Zaid today and if I was I apologize. He and I share many similar interests besides comics (history being one of them) and I've always thought a lot of him. I guess everyone's concept of grading is different. The poster a few threads ago said it best about commenting on someone's else's choice of girlfriends in his remarks.I guess I felt like I had "married" those books ( I certainly spent a FORTUNE) and didn't take too kindly to someone suggesting that she was less than perfect when it meant the world to me. Anyway, I'm very happy I bought it and plan on doing my darnest to keep Superman or Batman. Maybe both. OK, maybe just the WW2 issues. The comics really are very nice though and have exceptional paper quality. With two kids in college though, things can change at any time so stay tuned.

Sincerely Yours,

Jack Juka

[esquirecomics]

Let me take a moment and provide some clarifications about this collection.

 

At no time did I ever intend to disparage either the collection or its current owner. Even though it appears most, if not all of you, have recognized that, I will say it for the record. I am grateful to Jack for having posted his last comments.

 

He purchased a GREAT collection. It was an amazing sight to see long box after long box of this OO owner collection that was primarily amassed during 1939-1956, with the key years of approximately 1949-1956. I was like a kid in a candy store. It was well worth the 8 hours driving I undertook in one day to simply view it. I am sure Flying Donut can back me on the sentiments I expressed to him before I was there, while I was there and after I was there.

 

I was contacted by the woman brokering the deal for the family. As I recall the OO had died about 7 or 8 years earlier in his late 70s or so and his children thought it time to sell the collection. The family did not know much about comics though they had participated in helping create some of their father's collection. There were probably 1500-2000 comics from the late 1980s and early 1990s that they had bought for him. The usual stuff. These were obviously in HG but I never paid attention to those. Those were gravy. You all know the resale value.

 

I brought with me several Overstreet Price Guides (I believe five in number dating back to 1993 or so) as well the Overstreet Grading Guide. I went through every box and every book, plus I knew what was in the collection even before seeing it. I arrived around 11 am and stayed until about 6 pm or so. Did I thoroughly examine every single book by taking them out of their bags and looking through every page? Of course not. I closely examined the best of the best, and casually examined the covers of the remainders to get a general sense of the grades.

 

Did I say the collection was impressive and just darn cool to go through?

 

The biggest hurdle was arriving at a price. As is customarily seen in this day and age the owners thought it was worth far more than it was. My recollection was they thought it could be worth up to $1,000,000! If the books had been 9.0 and above it would have been. The OO had apparently told his family that someone had offered him $100,000 for the collection about 10-15 years ago so they thought it must be worth several times that now.

 

I sat down with the broker and identified for her the key books in the collection. I walked her through the price guides and the grading guide and showed her examples of different grades so that she could determine grading and guide pricing. I also tried to educate her on the difference between the guide values and true resale values. I especially wanted to make sure that the family did not get ripped off by any dealer (there were those who tried). For example, the OO had a kick-butt set of Mad Magazines from about 1-100+; some of which were in really nice shape. But sad to say Mad Magazines don't often sell for guide value, nor do many of the ECs (and, unfortunately, I know that from personal experience though I love them nonetheless). And as much as I love Captain Marvel and it was an amazing sight to see basically a full run, they don't generally sell very well either, except to Timulty (sorry, couldn't resist!).

 

Now, understand that when I was looking at this collection I was doing so as a dealer and for the sole purpose of trying to resale it. I had two other dealers working with me. We would have culled it of some of the books we really liked but otherwise the rest would be sold. The collection has some great runs and some really obscure books that cross the spectrum: superhero, adventure, animals, romance, science fiction, etc. We had no doubts that all of the books would sell. What price and when was the issue.

 

We came up with a low and high estimate of the retail value of the collection (which I shared with her), and we made several offers that had cash and/or consignment involved. And we explained why we believed the amount in question was fair - from a dealer's perspective. From what I understand we offered the highest amount from the dealers. I specifically noted to the broker that if they could find a collector to buy the collection, they would obviously do much better, and I told her not to hesitate to contact me should she want any free advice. We parted very amicably (in fact, the broker's boyfriend was a federal law enforcement agent from an agency I have sued so we had some interesting conversation). I made absolutely no efforts after that one day to obtain the collection. Jack later contacted me and told me he was the lucky guy who purchased it, and we had many positive e-mail conversations about the collection and other interests we share.

 

As far as grades, I have my opinions of what I saw. Jack holds some different opinions. Doesn't bother me. Perhaps CGC will hold different opinions from us both. I certainly know I don't always agree with what CGC or other dealers say about grading. All I know is I have no regrets for not purchasing the collection from a dealer's standpoint. From a collector's standpoint I would have LOVED to have owned it. But my wife would have killed me to have spent that kind of money (and I know what the basic final price was), not to mention the 22 or so long boxes involved that would have filled a room. It was very clear to me that Jack was extremely happy with his purchase then and I am glad to see he remains so now. I told him specifically that he should keep the books he loves, discard the others if he needs to, but if he can hold on to the books and not immediately sell them I had little doubt he would do fine over time. I simply didn't have those options available to me.

 

One thing that was special about this collection was its history. That is important to me on a personal level as this one person kept so many books from his childhood into his adulthood simply because they meant so much to him. I enjoy owning those types of books because I share that feeling for them.

 

Jack purchased a fantastic collection and I was happy for him then, and remain happy for him now. I wholeheartedly encourage everyone to peruse his auctions and see if there are books for you, especially because the OO had many great estoric books as well as nice runs of some key titles. Whether low, mid or high grade, I have little doubt that the books will not find someone who desires them.

 

BTW, no More Funs. I would have snagged those!

[benz]

So everything is cleared up...no one meant any harm to each other...I am sure Mark would wish the buyer of the collection the best of luck in selling those books. I think the buyer is having some of it CGC ed also ...now what's left is for all of us to bid on it

Interested to know of the history behind the OO though

[joe_collector]

Sort of like if two guys ask out the same girl, and the guy that misses out says "well she was ugly anyway". A.) Sounds like jealousy wether it was true or not. B.) Insults the other guy and his new girlfriend

 

Nope, it's more like if a guy asks a girl out, she says yes, but only if you take me to the most expensive restaurant in town. He declines, but his friend agrees, then the first guy says "Nice rack but kinda ugly, and no way she is worth a $300 dinner tab".