Crippen collection

[Goonchild-migration]

Who was the dealer who bought the stolen books?

 

I think it rhymes with Schmopolis..

 

I'm curious if when those first batches of high grade key "D" books were brought in to the NY dealer, if they looked at them and said:" Well, it's too bad someone marked up the first page on all of these books, that really brings down the grade and what we can give you." What do you think?

 

I think thats a real possibility

[The Black Hand ®]

crazy! I wonder why he would write on them like that if he had ever had plans to sell them! Also anyone else find it sort of sad that the first thing they do when he dies is sell off the collection right away?.. I hope they at least kept a couple of books or something just cause yknow

 

Not trying to make it sound like they were just waiting for him to die to sell his stuff right away or anything like that either

 

 

I Suppose though whats one to do with someone else stuff when they die and its nothing you care about ...

 

Why don't you do some reading about exactly what happened before you just make WAGs and presumptions about the family's motivation to sell or not to sell?

 

 

I mean, unless just pulling stuff out of your bum is your bag, in which case, never mind

 

Yeah you should try doing the same before running off at the mouth

 

Bravo!

[Theagenes]

I have heard that sometime after the theft the collection was moved to a new location and it was in this new location that the foxing occurred. Can anyone confirm this?

 

BTW here is a pre-Heritage auction Crippen from my collection - so presumably it is one of the stolen ones. No signs of foxing at all.

 

 

 

[telerites]

I had always wondered about this. I have quite a few Crippen books, mostly (maybe all) bought through Heritage. The story in their catalog about Davis Crippen and his collection doesn't go into a lot of detail about the books that were stolen. I have this copy of All-Good Comics #1 that I am assuming was stolen. Note the D copy pedigree but no mention of Crippen collection. I think I bought this thought Heritage as well well before the collection was sold. It had already been slabbed when I purchased it.

 

[Count]

Great read.

 

Tahnks

[nochips]

I read a contracter stole some books in the late 80s or early 90s. He would regularly sell them to Metro. They paid by check. They usually pay by check for just this reason. How would they know??? I bought a bunch of Fawcett Crippens 15 years ago....... Sold them all, fool I am!

 

It was not until recently that people discovered the theft. Actually Lon Allen at Heritage wrote he knew they were D copies the minute he saw the collection in full. He inquired how some of the books were already sold in the marketplace, the family said none of the books were ever sold... It took a bit of investigation to discover a guy working on the house cashed Metro checks for stolen Crippen books. That's what I read...........I also heard/read it was too late to sue or prosecute because it was over 15 years ago. I think those article were linked to these boards, maybe some genius can find the old thread!!

[The Black Hand ®]

Does anyone know what the biggest "D" stolen books were and who owns them? Are any still in Metro's posession?

[nochips]

These books surfaced if over 10-15 years ago. Not sure what they have from 15 years ago??? If any??

 

I never bought any from Metro, I bought them at shows and in the comic buyers guide of old.....No clue if any big books surfaced back them?

[The Question?]

 

 

 

Any member please correct me if this formulae is incorrect....

 

 

so, Crippen=Metropolis=Heritage=Pedigree

 

replete with a theft, and other "mischevious" acts attached?

 

 

 

very...interesting....

[TomG]

Here is a link to the WSJ article by Rachel Emma Silverman who I met in San Diego a few years ago. She did an amazing job piecing together the entire story in a few days. Sorry I don't have access to WSJ to post a link to the entire story.

 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB115474019645527695.html?mod=todays_us_nonsub_page_one

[cloudofwit]

I read somewhere that a "Washington Post" reporter was the one who broke the story by tracking down the guy's name who (allegedly) ripped the books off. I've never seen that Post article and did a search for it a while back. Anyone have a link by chance?...

[tth2]

Any member please correct me if this formulae is incorrect....

 

 

so, Crippen=Metropolis=Heritage=Pedigree

Okay, it's incorrect.

 

"D" was already a recognized pedigree before the rest of the collection surfaced with Heritage and people learned that Davis Crippen was the OO. Also, I don't think there was any reason to suspect previously that the "D" books that had surfaced earlier were stolen.

[lou_fine]

I'd say in the top 5 it ranks

 

Well, I would definitely agreed with you that it ranks in the Top 5 from a pure quantity point of view.

 

From an overall quality point of view, however, that would be a completely different issue. I would take the Church, Reilly, and Allentown copies right off the bat. Other GA pedigrees like the Pennsylvania and Hawkeye would probably fall in line behind the Top 3.

 

If I remember correctly, the first batch of Crippen books auctioned off by Heritage only came in with an overall average grade in the 8.2 range. On top of by, the bulk of the collection was not deemed to be slab worthy from a relative value vis-a-vis grade point of view and were simply sold off raw by Heritage.

 

True pedigree quality books are never sold off raw in this day and age and is definitely not the signature of a Top 5 pedigree in my opinion.

[The Black Hand ®]

At least a quarter of that collection deserves to be named the Crappen collection. I've also never seen so many overgraded books.

[whomerjay]

At least a quarter of that collection deserves to be named the Crappen collection. I've also never seen so many overgraded books.

 

that is because for some reason CGC doesn't seem to care about foxing or shadows.

[The Black Hand ®]

At least a quarter of that collection deserves to be named the Crappen collection. I've also never seen so many overgraded books.

 

that is because for some reason CGC doesn't seem to care about foxing or shadows.

 

Or heavy tanning and soiling and water rippling.

[143ksk]

I'd say in the top 5 it ranks

 

Well, I would definitely agreed with you that it ranks in the Top 5 from a pure quantity point of view.

 

From an overall quality point of view, however, that would be a completely different issue. I would take the Church, Reilly, and Allentown copies right off the bat. Other GA pedigrees like the Pennsylvania and Hawkeye would probably fall in line behind the Top 3.

 

I think it has to be placed second after Church in terms of quantity/breadth.

 

I agree that there are many, many Crippen books that are (relatively) low grade, however there are also many that are very high grade. So, would you rather have a pedigree that has 1000 books that are all 9.0-9.6 or a pedigree that has 12000 books of which "only" a couple thousand are in the 9.0-9.6 range?

[pennynike1]

True pedigree quality books are never sold off raw in this day and age and is definitely not the signature of a Top 5 pedigree in my opinion.

 

I wish that were 100% true. Metropolis is sitting on 100's of RAW Mile Highs, along with many other pedigree books that are not slabbed by CGC.

[tth2]

If I remember correctly, the first batch of Crippen books auctioned off by Heritage only came in with an overall average grade in the 8.2 range. On top of by, the bulk of the collection was not deemed to be slab worthy from a relative value vis-a-vis grade point of view and were simply sold off raw by Heritage.

 

True pedigree quality books are never sold off raw in this day and age and is definitely not the signature of a Top 5 pedigree in my opinion.

Well, keep in mind that a huge number of MH books from the McLaughlin collection were also sold off raw by Heritage, even though many were of NM or higher range.

 

However, I do agree that based on what I've seen, the Crippen books would rank near the top for quantity but not so high for quality. Having said that, it's important to keep in mind that the early Archie-related titles and other books like Suspense 3 from the Crippen collection didn't have to be in the 9.4 range to generate massive interest.

[pennynike1]

Isn't it fair to say that the John McLaughlin's collection and the Crippen "D Copy" collection really catapulted Golden age books, due to the breadth of the collections?

 

I can speak from personal experience that I became a golden age collector after receiving Heritage's catalogues for their auctions in mid/late 2006.