Lost collections

[The Black Hand ®]

Reading the thread on safety deposit boxes got me thinking about the loss of a collection to flood, fire and other natural or man made disasters. I remember reading about the Van Buren Collection, which had part of it's numbers lost to fire and smoke and water damage, although a lot survived. I also remember hearing about the fires in the Oakland hills in california. I believe Teddy Dang lost a lot of comics when his house burned down. Doeas anyone know of other major losses?

[AtlasT]

My mother threw out all my comics when I was 11 years old!

[The Black Hand ®]

Mine threw out all my Playboys.

[AtlasT]

You're fortunate; they're easier and cheaper to replace.

[Jeffro.]

Mine threw out all my Playboys.

 

Mine threw out my bottle cap collection. She stepped on them one too many times.

[ciorac]

The Indian Reservation collection apparently burned to ashes before Gary Carter had a chance to obtain them all. At least, that is what he told me.

[jmg3637]

The collection that I bought about 15 years ago might have ranked up with some of the great finds of the silver age except for a few reasons:

 

1)The guys Mom threw out one box of books which of course happened to have the best books AF15 and the first few Spidey's as well as the first few FF4's The oldest DC's etc. It still had almost a full run of Daredevil with extra #1's, a full run of Avengers with extras of 1 & 4 etc.

 

2) the books were moved around a couple of times and were stored OUTSIDE in a shed. During a heavy rainstorm maybe 5% of the books were damaged some of those quite severly.

 

That said it still had over 17,000 books many in the VF+ range and I have been selling and trading portions of that off for years after raiding it for my own collection.

[lou_fine]

The Indian Reservation collection apparently burned to ashes before Gary Carter had a chance to obtain them all. At least, that is what he told me.

 

Bill;

 

So what part of the Indican Reservation collection is left?

 

Any idea how extensive trhis collection was in the first place, type of condition, background story, etc.., since the marketplace has heard virtually nothing at all about this collection after all these years.

[maxstuf]

Is there any information available on the books that might have been damaged or lost during the Flood at Greg Mannings offices in New Jersey around 2000-2001?

[ciorac]

The Indian Reservation collection apparently burned to ashes before Gary Carter had a chance to obtain them all. At least, that is what he told me.

 

Bill;

 

So what part of the Indican Reservation collection is left?

 

Any idea how extensive trhis collection was in the first place, type of condition, background story, etc.., since the marketplace has heard virtually nothing at all about this collection after all these years.

 

I wish I could remember more. Gary told me the tale at his house about 12 years ago. I didn't take any notes, in retrospect I wish I had. I believe it was quite extensive, encompassing much of the golden age.

[batman_fan]

I here Joe Dungan had his collection burn up. Rich Evans could confirm this. Not sure what all was in it.

[Detroit MIke]

I have a lot of books that Jerry Bails tucked away in the seventies. He sold many on consignment through a local shop called Comic Tech (now closed) in the early 90's. If he held them a little longer, there would've been a Jerry Bails pedigree. But, it was never to be.

 

Books I own include many high-grade Marvels from the "picture-frame" era, such as Avengers 93, Fantastic Four 116, and Marvel Premiere 1. The oldest issue I picked up was a Showcase 55 in NM+ (which I sold long ago). Jerry had at least 5-10 copies of every major Marvel issue, from the seventies, that seemed significant when it hit the newsstand. It really hurts knowing that the books I have might fetch 2 or 3 times more if the pedigree had been officially recognized. Plus, Jerry's name deserves to be associated with the nice books he cautiously preserved.

 

I spoke to Jerry around 2000, when I bumped into him at Gotham Knights, in the Detroit area. He said he had sold all his books. He might have had a couple left that he didn't want the world to know about. This isn't technically a "lost" collection in the physical sense, but it is a loss in other terms.

[G.A.tor]

I here Joe Dungan had his collection burn up. Rich Evans could confirm this. Not sure what all was in it.

hello all...

Joe Dungan of Now and Then collectibles in TX was a good friend of mine in the early 90's...in fact, he sold me (and then later bought back) most of my Batman 1-100 run I put together in the early 90's...I lost track of him 10 years ago, and actually asked Ricky Evans 2 weeks ago if he had heard from him, and all Ricky recounted was that he was out of the comics biz...I will have to inquire further

rick

[jimm]

A couple I know of. An older gent I work with recalls his basement full of comics being thrown out by mom at age 12 in 1955. I can only imagine what was in there, not that it would have survived until now but who knows, he's still upset enough to remember. I recall reading of a big time dealer losing thousands of books in an 80s flood we had in this area a couple. Beerbolm (sp) possibly?

[maxstuf]

We all dream of finding that basement with comics from a collector who had been hoarding them for 40-50 years....

 

 

[ft88]

Another Neat Stuff find?

 

Pretty cool though

[FFB]

A couple I know of. An older gent I work with recalls his basement full of comics being thrown out by mom at age 12 in 1955. I can only imagine what was in there, not that it would have survived until now but who knows, he's still upset enough to remember. I recall reading of a big time dealer losing thousands of books in an 80s flood we had in this area a couple. Beerbolm (sp) possibly?

 

Beerbohm lost something like a million comics (mostly stuff from the late 1970s and early 1980s, if I recall) and a bunch of original artwork in that flood.

[Weird Paper]

I here Joe Dungan had his collection burn up. Rich Evans could confirm this. Not sure what all was in it.

hello all...

Joe Dungan of Now and Then collectibles in TX was a good friend of mine in the early 90's...in fact, he sold me (and then later bought back) most of my Batman 1-100 run I put together in the early 90's...I lost track of him 10 years ago, and actually asked Ricky Evans 2 weeks ago if he had heard from him, and all Ricky recounted was that he was out of the comics biz...I will have to inquire further

rick

 

I knew Joe pretty well, also. Off and on since the early 80s. His store was here in SA. He shut it down probably almost 10 years ago. I think he's sold all his comics, but I've heard he still shows up at the local collectibles shows from time to time with pulps. I probably haven't seen him in eight years, but I know others who have.

Since he shut down his shop, we really haven't had an LCS in town that has anything resembling a decent Silver age stock, let alone Gold. Too bad.

 

I think John Fairless lost a bunch of comics, including multiple copies of Adventure 247, in a fire way back in the early 80s.

[Crowzilla]

We all dream of finding that basement with comics from a collector who had been hoarding them for 40-50 years....

 

 

Bah!

These comics are all being pressed - everyone one of them should get a purple label for being restored.

[Detroit MIke]

I went to a basement like that last year. Unfortunately, the books were quite well-read and beat. I did buy the coverless Hulk 181 for $5. That covered my wasted time.