4GEMWORKS Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 On 1/7/2022 at 8:06 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: Hi All- I have gotten a few e-mails and thought I'd put up a general reply. I decided to sell my Four Color Collection after 20 years of working to collect it. I had the full set and was short only about 40 books that I thought were worth grading. Heritage is handling teh sale and all my books are in their hands. They will be selling them over the course of the next year or so, about 20-25 per week. For those who have posted your list of missing issues, it's a;most a certainty that those books will be put up for sale. About 125 have sold so far but there are another 1200-1300 to go. Here is a link to a press release on the sale: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/the-complete-1354-issue-run-of-dells-four-color-hits-auction/ For what it's worth, the best advice I ever got in collecting was from Josh Nathanson at ComicLink about 25 years ago when ComicLink was just building steam. He said to buy the highest grade you can afford. A book bought for $20 may be hard to resell at $10. A single highest graded copy bought at $500 will rarely sell for less and usually more. I realize not everybody can afford the price of some of these higher grade books, but do yourself a favor, if you can and try to get at least one high grade book of something that you really want. You'll never regret it. My current goal; is to collect every EC comic published in the highest grade I can afford. I'm actually closer than you might think, but like Four Color I'm at the point where what I don't have is the hard stuff to find. Good luck and contact me if you have any questions. Please note I do not have any of the books in my collection as far as Four Color goes and cannot make deals outside of Heritage at this point. Good luck and happy New year! Incidentally the Heritage Four Color sales are moving towards some of the lower numbers. Nine of the 25 issues in series one will be up for auction next week. These are difficult to find in any condition, let alone nine at once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 Well those will be fun to watch/bid on. Hopefully the overtraded Promise books will be out of the way soon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4GEMWORKS Posted January 10, 2022 Share Posted January 10, 2022 On 1/9/2022 at 11:28 PM, jmg3637 said: Well those will be fun to watch/bid on. Hopefully the overtraded Promise books will be out of the way soon Wow, the Promise books...they certainly hit the market at the right time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I closed out 2021 pretty well. completed 5 more transactions bringing in 13 of my missing issues as well as 4 more upgrades and a couple of the actual "missing Four Colors" this one was part of the last group from BLISSARD, and I saw it posted on OGWLOC facebook group today kaculler and PopKulture 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kaculler Posted January 13, 2022 Share Posted January 13, 2022 I received Four Color #761 in the mail today which completes my first hundred run. My longest unbroken run is now #695-858 for 164 issues OtherEric, PopKulture and Scrooge 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post jmg3637 Posted January 15, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted January 15, 2022 I am so close to my first first hundred group completed. I have 99 in three of them and at least 90% in all of them Great group of books 4GEM has up this week. I have bid early and bid often o many of them. Of course all of them would be amazing upgrades, but there are actually 5 that I do not yet have. Wonder for how many multiples of guide they will go for? Here is a book that would NEVER be confused as part of the 4GEMWORKS collection. Even though it plugs a nice hole in the MISSING it opens up one in the Could be Upgraded portion. In fact it was a free gift from fellow boardie Damonwad, so it will likely not actually be replaced anytime soon. Thanks again jimbo_7071, PopKulture, OtherEric and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OtherEric Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 On 1/15/2022 at 1:25 PM, jmg3637 said: I am so close to my first first hundred group completed. I have 99 in three of them and at least 90% in all of them Great group of books 4GEM has up this week. I have bid early and bid often o many of them. Of course all of them would be amazing upgrades, but there are actually 5 that I do not yet have. Wonder for how many multiples of guide they will go for? Here is a book that would NEVER be confused as part of the 4GEMWORKS collection. Even though it plugs a nice hole in the MISSING it opens up one in the Could be Upgraded portion. In fact it was a free gift from fellow boardie Damonwad, so it will likely not actually be replaced anytime soon. Thanks again It took me years to track down the two Mary Jane & Sniffles issues; I think the word is getting somewhat out these days that they're surprisingly hard to find for issues in the 400's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 Did not realize that this was such a hard issue to get, but then again I still did not have one after maybe 15 years of pursuing these Here is another of the upgrades I got in from BLISSARD. I enjoy the Photo covers especially with the big stars of the past PopKulture, OtherEric and kaculler 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4GEMWORKS Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 On 1/15/2022 at 4:33 PM, OtherEric said: It took me years to track down the two Mary Jane & Sniffles issues; I think the word is getting somewhat out these days that they're surprisingly hard to find for issues in the 400's. My experience was that he is following stretch of books is amongst the hardest run to find, especially in better than a simple VG 552 Beetle Bailey 553 Susie Q Smith 554 Rusty Riley 555 Zane Grey's Range War 556 Double Trouble Goober 557 Ben Bowie and his Mountain Men 558 Elmer Fudd 559 I Love Lucy 560 Duck Album 561 Mr Magoo 562 Goofy 563 Rhubard,the Millionaire Cat 564 Lil Bad Wolf 565 Jungle Jim 566 Son of Black Beauty 567 Prince Valiant 568 Gypsy Colt 569 Priscillas Pop 570 Beany and Cecil 571 Charlie McCarthy 572 Silvertip 573 The Little People 574 The Hand of Zorro 575 Annie Oakley and Tagg 576 Angel 577 MGM's Spike and Tyke 578 Steve Canyon OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 congrats on this round Hopefully your fantastic results will help to raise the boats of most of the rest of us who rarely play in the best copy on the census realm So happy to be liberating my images from bein held hostage at photobucket. WOuld love to be able to down load everything and close down the account by the end of the 3 month trial period Can hardly believe how easy it is to display large sorted group shots Will also be nice to add in all the images I have scanned, but never uploaded to the bucket damonwad, kaculler, PopKulture and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 On 1/16/2022 at 3:06 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: My experience was that he is following stretch of books is amongst the hardest run to find, especially in better than a simple VG 552 Beetle Bailey 553 Susie Q Smith 554 Rusty Riley 555 Zane Grey's Range War 556 Double Trouble Goober 557 Ben Bowie and his Mountain Men 558 Elmer Fudd 559 I Love Lucy 560 Duck Album 561 Mr Magoo 562 Goofy 563 Rhubard,the Millionaire Cat 564 Lil Bad Wolf 565 Jungle Jim 566 Son of Black Beauty 567 Prince Valiant 568 Gypsy Colt 569 Priscillas Pop 570 Beany and Cecil 571 Charlie McCarthy 572 Silvertip 573 The Little People 574 The Hand of Zorro 575 Annie Oakley and Tagg 576 Angel 577 MGM's Spike and Tyke 578 Steve Canyon So it turns out that I have three different numbering systems that I used over the years. First off i just called the image fc123 for example just the number but no space ( perhaps variants with a 2,3,or 4 digit number. Then I started adding the title after the number with or without a space. Finally I went with fc and a space followed by the number and then a space with the name. guess I have nearly 1000 images to adjust/fix the name on and another variant fcfs follwed by the number for the First Series. sure wish I had been able to add some of yours to the collection damonwad and OtherEric 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 (edited) On 1/11/2022 at 2:15 PM, jmg3637 said: I closed out 2021 pretty well. completed 5 more transactions bringing in 13 of my missing issues as well as 4 more upgrades and a couple of the actual "missing Four Colors" this one was part of the last group from BLISSARD, and I saw it posted on OGWLOC facebook group today I picked up an unread copy of that in the last couple of years. Bought a group of Dell and Gold Keys that had supposedly fallen behind a newsrack and sat there unmolested for years. Who knows if true but they were all pretty nice although this one was rougher than most; must have been on the bottom of the pile! Fun story. And by and odd coincidence I just saw the below image on a FB page where you could solicit the above book for sale! Edited January 17, 2022 by 50YrsCollctngCmcs damonwad and OtherEric 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 On 1/9/2022 at 10:07 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: Incidentally the Heritage Four Color sales are moving towards some of the lower numbers. Nine of the 25 issues in series one will be up for auction next week. These are difficult to find in any condition, let alone nine at once. Pretty good results on some of those Heritage books last night. I was astounded at the runup prices but even more astounded at the realized prices! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 One of my earliest Four color trades from when I went to SDCC. I got 47 Four Colors including this one. I must have traded A key book for them As I am trying to recall I am thinking it was my undercopy of B&B 28 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 On 1/16/2022 at 3:06 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: My experience was that he is following stretch of books is amongst the hardest run to find, especially in better than a simple VG 552 Beetle Bailey 553 Susie Q Smith 554 Rusty Riley 555 Zane Grey's Range War 556 Double Trouble Goober 557 Ben Bowie and his Mountain Men 558 Elmer Fudd 559 I Love Lucy 560 Duck Album 561 Mr Magoo 562 Goofy 563 Rhubard,the Millionaire Cat 564 Lil Bad Wolf 565 Jungle Jim 566 Son of Black Beauty 567 Prince Valiant 568 Gypsy Colt 569 Priscillas Pop 570 Beany and Cecil 571 Charlie McCarthy 572 Silvertip 573 The Little People 574 The Hand of Zorro 575 Annie Oakley and Tagg 576 Angel 577 MGM's Spike and Tyke 578 Steve Canyon Just the task of organizing the images is quite a bit of work. In downloading from photobucket I noticed a number of duplicate images, not additional copies , but duplicates. went through the sub folders I had set up and deleted 303 extras and now have 1234 images many of which are back covers. Still have to fix the naming of over 700 of these before I can integrate them. Then the fun part will be to fiond and integrate all of the images taken since I stopped uploading to bucket. Here are the older imagtes of the books that I have in the range 4GEM mentioned for some reason one of the books will not upload.. It looks like most of these went on my very first UPGRADABLE list Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmg3637 Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 On 1/16/2022 at 3:06 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: My experience was that he is following stretch of books is amongst the hardest run to find, especially in better than a simple VG 552 Beetle Bailey 553 Susie Q Smith 554 Rusty Riley 555 Zane Grey's Range War 556 Double Trouble Goober 557 Ben Bowie and his Mountain Men 558 Elmer Fudd 559 I Love Lucy 560 Duck Album 561 Mr Magoo 562 Goofy 563 Rhubard,the Millionaire Cat 564 Lil Bad Wolf 565 Jungle Jim 566 Son of Black Beauty 567 Prince Valiant 568 Gypsy Colt 569 Priscillas Pop 570 Beany and Cecil 571 Charlie McCarthy 572 Silvertip 573 The Little People 574 The Hand of Zorro 575 Annie Oakley and Tagg 576 Angel 577 MGM's Spike and Tyke 578 Steve Canyon Another great set of books listed Glen. I have already put in placeholder bids on many I was shocked for how much the 235 Tiny Tim went for. I think last years O had guide for an 8.0 at like 40 I tapped out somewhere in the 200s Hammered at 1000 and with vig 1200 . effectively 30x Here are a couple more that were among that last added to Bucket. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4GEMWORKS Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 On 1/17/2022 at 11:00 PM, jmg3637 said: One of my earliest Four color trades from when I went to SDCC. I got 47 Four Colors including this one. I must have traded A key book for them As I am trying to recall I am thinking it was my undercopy of B&B 28 Incidentally, you may discover that the next Lucy (#559), in particular, is elusive in high-grade. In all my years of looking I could not figure out why. I can't remember who, might have been Gene Carpenter, eventually told me that the file copies (mostly sold by Heritage) had been at the bottom of a box somewhere and suffered moisture damage and/or some other type of damage. So, the genesis, or lack thereof, foiled the ability of many or any, to get a high-grade copy. I have/had a 7.5 which is tied for top census. I'll try and upload a picture. If a high-grade copy exists it's out there in a hidden collection bought off the newsstand rack, if it exists at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4GEMWORKS Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 On 1/18/2022 at 12:23 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: Incidentally, you may discover that the next Lucy (#559), in particular, is elusive in high-grade. In all my years of looking I could not figure out why. I can't remember who, might have been Gene Carpenter, eventually told me that the file copies (mostly sold by Heritage) had been at the bottom of a box somewhere and suffered moisture damage and/or some other type of damage. So, the genesis, or lack thereof, foiled the ability of many or any, to get a high-grade copy. I have/had a 7.5 which is tied for top census. I'll try and upload a picture. If a high-grade copy exists it's out there in a hidden collection bought off the newsstand rack, if it exists at all. 558 (Elmer Fudd) only has two graded copies with the top copy at 8.0 and only two graded copies total. I wonder if that was stacked next to 559 on the bottom? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
4GEMWORKS Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Incredibly, both top census OtherEric 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagii Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 On 1/18/2022 at 3:54 PM, 4GEMWORKS said: Incredibly, both top census Love the Dell copies with that stamp 👌 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
