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Ashcan on Hakes upcoming auction

Started by batman_fan,

37 posts in this topic

JJBEE2001

JJBEE2001

Posted
Posted

As Mark mentioned earlier, the opening bids can be pretty high on Hake's (I guess it's essentially like starting off at your reserve), but there's usually not a lot of competition. I saw 2 Superman rings on there - one ended at $6325 with 2 bids & the other ended at $172.50 with only 1 bid. I think the highest number of bids I saw anything close at was 3. I think the sellers would have done better on Ebay. confused-smiley-013.gif There were a few rare books that didn't even get 1 bid - again probably due to the high opening price.

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action1kid

action1kid

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They say there are only 20 rings in exsistence but there are always 2 or 3 availible per year every year.It never fails.Thats why I did not radar in on this one.I am positive the estimate is wrong, as the ONLY people that ever say it is Rare are the people selling one.

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JJBEE2001

JJBEE2001

Posted
Posted
They say there are only 20 rings in exsistence but there are always 2 or 3 availible per year every year.It never fails.Thats why I did not radar in on this one.I am positive the estimate is wrong, as the ONLY people that ever say it is Rare are the people selling one.

 

27_laughing.gif There's a lot of books (especially on Ebay) like that. I've seen people call a book "rare" or "scarce" even though there's 4-5 to be found for sale. You have to watch the market for a year or two to get an accurate feel as to scarcity.

 

Whenever you do find one of those rings & grab it, post it here for us to enjoy! thumbsup2.gif

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esquirecomics

esquirecomics

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I contacted Hakes about the grading issue and description. They modified it. It now reads:

 

Strange Adventures July August 1950 DC Comics Ashcan. In order to copy write the title, DC created a tentative version of what the new book would look like. These proto-types are called ashcans and are one-of-a-kind finds. To get the ball rolling for the Strange Adventures title, DC used the cover art from All-Star Comics #47 (June July 1949) with the October 1948 issue of Detective Comics inside. The cover is black and white. The cover is detached and the interior has the publishers info (indicia) cut from the bottom of the splash page. It is not uncommon to find the indicia removed from some ashcans. The cover is a ¼" bigger than the actual comic inside, causing some stress and wear across the top. Still, the cover is very bright and reflective. Taking all this into consideration, the book has an overall appearance of FN/VF. The pages are off-white.

 

I neglected to read the revised description carefully when I posted it because it was irrelevant to me as I was going to bid on the book regardless. But this bold text above to the best of my, and others who know more, knowledge is misleading at best or just simply untrue at worst. It is my personal opinion that this text was included to minimize the defect in the book by making it appear to be far more common than it is. It is not common at all. Does the defect exist in other ashcans? A very insignificant number. I find this troubling because, IMHO, it causes me to have to think long and hard about the accuracy of the other comic book descriptions. But maybe that is just me.

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Moondog

Moondog

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I think the prices were low on these 2 books because this is the 3rd Intimate Confessions to hit the market in the past 3 months or so (hopefully no more will pop up) and the Strange Adventures just sounds (and the scans make it look) like a bad copy.

 

I sold this book 6 years ago for $2,500. The cover wasn't detached at the time so obviously the owner didn't store/handle this book properly, and to my knowledge this is the only book with the indicia clipped out.

 

I'm very happy that my friends scored these at such reasonable prices!

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tb

tb

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> BTW, if anyone hasn't received a copy of the actual catalogue, all the raw books were graded by Dave Anderson, DDS.

 

I took note of this comment and wanted to give credit to Anderson and Hake's. I either bought or have personally inspected most of the top Disney books in Hake's January auction and have been very happy with the results. Every single book I've seen was accurately described and graded with a consistent trend towards undergrading where there was any doubt. I've read other people's posts about negative experiences with DA and wanted to share my own observations (based on my purchases both through his eBay auction and Hake's). I buy many raw books from Metropolis and am happy with their service, but DA's grading is significantly(!) tighter than theirs.

 

tb

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JJBEE2001

JJBEE2001

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I also saw the comment that he graded the raw books before I bid. The ashcan I won was raw, so I was eager to see how it actually looked. It was graded as VF/NM, but my first impression was NM-, so I agree that his grading seems to be very conservative. It's a nice (& rare) surprise to get a book and think it's actually better than as advertised. thumbsup2.gif

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