A “news” article on Global discusses a comic collection on auction this weekend in Vancouver.
It’s one of Canada’s largest comic book collections.
Sixty thousand comics that were amassed over four decades by an East Vancouver man who doesn’t want to reveal his identify.
Did they speak to anyone before making this broad proclamation? I’ve sold my own collection twice that was around 15,000 comics. That’s really not a lot of comics for someone who’s been collecting for decades. If 375 comics fit in a long box that’s 160 comic long boxes. Here’s the highlight of the collection.
The restored incredible hulk No.1 from 1962 is one of the big ticket items.
“The original unrestored [one] in this condition would cost you probably over $100,000,” says Jeremy Dodd with Able Auctions. “This one would go for about $10,000.”
Sadly one of my favourite comic sites Robot 6 ran this story with the included headline “one of Canada’s largest comic book collections”. For shame.
It’s a good collection and has a strong representation of serious collecting, but it doesn’t sound like anyone in comic retailing was consulted.
This collection of comic books (all 60’s and 70’s) would easily be in the top 1% of private collections in Canada. Most people that own this quantity of old comics own a store or are planning to open one.
To assemble a collection like this you would need to purchase 30 books a week, every week, for 40 years! This requires alot of time, space, and money.
I did have trouble with the math in both the global report and your post.
1. He must not be planning on selling most of this collection if he is only going to get approx. $250,000. That is only $4 a book for the entire collection.
2. My long boxes only hold 225 books (bagged and boarded). Most serios collecters do this if they have valuable books. Thats over 260 long boxes and alot of space (understanding wife required).
Bottom line. I don’t think Global was off base to call this one of the largest collections in Canada. If they meant private collecters.
Question for Walt. How many private collecters does he know that have over 60,000 60’s and 70’s comics in it.
Honestly I don’t know anybody with 60,000 comics. Our Shop might have 60,000 but 95% of these are bargain bin comics.
Looking at this collection and seeing the way the highlights were features here I’d gamble a guess that the good stuff runs out pretty quickly and that the bulk of the stuff is just common books in average grade from eras that are not kind to common books in average grade.
Again I’m only speculating based on the Global clip but I’d guess that 90% of this stuff is ho hum at best.
The $250k estimate tells you as much, put aside a $10K (or less) touched up Hulk and a few dozen other nice books (the Avengers #1 looked rough)and you get into books you are paying 50 cents each for in bulk, some even a dime each for.
Yeah, there is volume but the collection looks void of quality.
I know a few Canadian collectors with more value in one small comic box.
Still, a quarter million clams will make a lot of chowder!
Checked out the auction site and found this information about the collection.
·Over 20,000 comics from the Bronze and Silver Ages
·Long runs of almost all main title Marvel and DC comics
·22,000 comics from the 2000’s almost all unread NM/Mint
·900 trade paperbacks in NM/Mint, many out of print
·200 CGC graded, many of them documented single highest/highest graded copies on the planet
There’s the breakdown of 60,000 comics and explains the estimate. 22000 comics from 2000 on sell for $0.10 – $0.25 in bulk, and 900 trade paperbacks won’t fetch much unless they’re NM Firesides.
Unfortunately no auction results on the site and the links to lots and catalogue don’t work.
I found this site with a post auction report http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/…bc-comic-book-auction-vancouver.html The restored Incredible Hulk #1 netted $6500 for the 2 brothers, who netted $200,000 for the who collection. It appears Able auctions were working with a 15-18% commission rate. I was following the auction on the weekend as I had interest in a sharp looking Journey In to Mystery #2 that went for around $500. The Hulk went for a little over $7700.
The story confirms the pricing of the books. Still a pretty nice pay day for those 2 guys.
I’d like to know what they got into the stuff Mike. Hopefully they were buying in the early days and not off the rack because just their off the rack stuff in the 2000s would have cost them over $70K.
Still it’s like getting back 30 years of coffee money!!!