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- This column by John Cosway
is a mix of 50 years of media memories and 20 years of buying
and selling experiences via live and online auctions, flea markets,
antique stores and markets etc
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- Cosway's Corner -
Million dollar comics
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- Million dollar comics giving collectors
the last laugh
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- By John Cosway
Several generations of boys and girls who were told growing up
meant being weaned from comic books are having the last laugh
as adults.
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- Who would have thought some of the 10-cent comics they purchased
decades ago might some day fetch $1 million and more in private
sales and auctions?
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- But four early first editions featuring the debut of action
heroes have done just that in the past year and more rare comics
are expected to do the same.
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- The four $1 million superhero comic book club members are:
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 New York - Action
Comics No. 1: Two high-grade, unrestored issues of this 10-cent
1938 Siegel and Shuster comic book broke the $1 million milestone
last year. The rare comic, with Superman lifting a car on the
cover, marked Superman's debut. One issue, rated 8.5 VF, sold
for a record $1.5 million via ComicConnect.com.
The same website sold another issue, graded VF 8.0, for $1 million.
Only bout 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are believed to exist.
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 Dallas - Detective
Comics No. 27: In May of 1939, tens of thousands of comic
book readers plunked down a dime to buy this issue, which featured
the DC Comics debut of The Bat-Man. In February 2010, an unidentified
collector paid a record $1,075,500 for a rare 8.0 VF-graded issue
via Heritage
Auctions Gallery. Sources said the consignor paid $100 for
it in the 1960s.
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 Philadelphia -
Amazing Fantasy No. 15. This 12-cent Marvel comic from 1962
marked the debut of Spider-Man, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's web-crawling
superhero. It was sold by a private seller for $1.1 million via
ComicConnect.com in March. The NM+ 9.6 copy set a record for
Silver Age comics. The previous record: $250,000.
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- Original press runs are not readily available, but Rob Lamberti,
a comic collector since his childhood days in Toronto, says press
runs are only part of the equation.
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- "How many survived is the other," says Lamberti,
a fan of superheroes who grew up to become an award-winning Toronto
Sun crime reporter. "How many were lost to fires, flood,
ravages of time and conditions and just being thrown out?
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- "For issues like Detective 27, it's a matter of how
many known copies exist and their grades. Scarcity is the issue
with supply and demand. The supply of high-grade comic books
from certain eras is low. I believe there are less than 50 Detective
27s known to exist. Probably more like 25."
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- Whether the demand can be retained as the Boomer Generation
fades remains to be seen, he says.
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- Lamberti says there is no doubt the Internet has played a
major role in escalating comic book prices.
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- "Auctioneers moved in and worldwide access to the bidding
brought in people from around the globe. To date, four books
breached the $1 million mark and I expect the number to rise,
likely something from Marvel such as Marvel Comics 1, the first
Human Torch and the Sub-Mariner.
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- "But for most collectors, those prices are out of this
world. Most of us live happy lives in the $100 range."
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- He says once certain comic books become unattainable to the
vast number of collectors, they turn to other titles, creating
demand for books that once sold in the 25-cent bin.
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- Lamberti says collectors can focus on any of the ages: Platinum
Age, from 1842, with the introduction of The Adventures of Obadiah
Oldbuck; Golden Age, from 1933; Atom Age, 1946 to 1956; Silver
Age, 1956 with Showcase 4 (the first Flash since the Golden Age);
Bronze Age, 1970 to about 1985; Modern Age, 1985 to today.
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- The key to higher prices in any age grouping is condition,
condition, condition.
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- Lamberti says the "unrestored" description in sales
and auctions means "comic books that have not been repaired,
rebuilt, recoloured and a host of other restoration techniques
used to restore a book.
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- "Unrestored books in high grade obviously hold a higher
value than the same books that have been fixed up in some manner.
There are arguments about whether certain techniques should be
considered restoration work, such as flattening a book, a technique
to remove, for example, a roll in a comic. All work on a book
must be claimed, known and recorded, no matter what your opinion
is of the restoration."
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- While most comic book buyers in the early years manhandled
their comics, Lamberti provides these storage tips for serious
collectors:
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- 1 - Use at least polypropylene bags, with a cardboard backer.
Avoid using polyethylene bags, as they do not hold up well over
time;
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- 2 - At best, use acid-free materials such as Mylar sleeves,
or Mylite bags with acid-free backer boards;
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- 3 - There is also slabbing. It is expensive, but a third-party
grader sets the grade and seals it in a plastic container, theoretically
suspending the condition for life;
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- 4 - For older books, putting special acid-free sheets between
the pages may be a good idea. It protects the paper from deteriorating
because of the acids in the ink;
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- 5 - Place comics standing on end, not flat, in specific comic
boxes. Cardboard is acceptable, but the best quality is, of course,
made of acid-free materials;
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- 6 - Store in cool, dry places. No direct sunlight on the
books as sunlight will discolour the paper. Watch for bugs, they
like to eat paper.
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- As a veteran collector, Lamberti recommends the Overstreet
Comic Book Price Guide for research.
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- "It is the best resource available to the average collector.
It divides the comic eras, it defines grading and it provides
average sale prices of books. It also discusses trends in the
business, but it's written by dealers, and one has to assume
no conflict of interest is involved in the market reports."
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- As for books on the history of comics, Lamberti recommends
Men of Tomorrow: Geeks, Gangsters and the Birth of the Comic
Book.
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- "Yes, Virginia, the mob was involved in the early days
of the funnies - and a newspaper or two."
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- Lamberti, who started buying comics as a kid growing up in
the Rogers Road and Oakwood Ave. district in Toronto in the 1960s,
says there are roadblocks for Canadian collectors of WW2-era
American comics.
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- "The Second World War had a profound affect on comics
in Canada. Comics were not considered essential to the war effort
and thus were not allowed to be imported from the U.S.
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- "Canadian comic companies filled the void. They printed
stories from U.S. books, including EC, DC, Marvel and Walt Disney,
but the contents in the books in Canada didn't match the same
issue in the U.S.
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- "There were, of course, a number of uniquely Canadian
comics, carrying stories such as Johnny Canuck, the Canadian
front line soldier. But Canadian books tended to be black and
white.
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- "Further, because metal was being used to build ships,
tanks, planes and bullets, printing presses used asbestos plates
to print comics on cheap newsprint. The quality, even the colour
separations, were poor compared to the U.S. product.
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- "It wasn't until well into the 1950s that the Canadian
government lifted the ban on importing comics, which in effect
killed the Canadian comics industry."
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- (Another ban continues. The Canadian Criminal Code section
on crime comics, introduced in 1949, is still enforced by the
Canada Border Services Agency.)
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- When it comes to the value of Canadian comics, Lamberti says
he thinks people are realizing that Canadian versions of any
comic had smaller print runs, making them scarcer than their
American counterparts.
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- "I think we are beginning to see Canadian versions hold
a greater value than in the past strictly because of the scarcity
issue. In general, there's a rule of thumb that Canadian versions
are valued at about 25% less than the American version."
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- Now you would think with big money to be made from years
of dedicated comic book collecting, a donation of a collection
would be foreign to the ears.
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- But not so. Last year, Dr. Eddie Smet became a superhero
at the University of Western Ontario when he donated most of
his 10,000-plus comic book collection to the university's archives.
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- Smet, a retired Huron University College mathematics professor,
is the former owner of The
Comic Book Connection, a London, Ontario comic book shop
he opened in 1979 with his wife, Zorka.
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- "Comic books are a serious area of academic study and
this donation will significantly support those pursuits at Western
for our students," he told the London Free Press.
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- Tim Morris, current owner of London's first comic shop -
comic-book-collector.com - bought comics as a kid but didn't
become a serious collector until the 1980s.
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- Another booster of the Overstreet Price Guide for collectors
of all degrees, Morris suggests people collecting comics as a
future investment should focus on comics from the 1970s and earlier.
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- "These books will be tougher to find in good condition
as the years pass mainly because of the poor newsprint used to
create them. They will much more easily deteriorate because of
incorrect storage.
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- "As a business, we buy from older collectors and relatives
of the same," says Morris. "These people are looking
to part with their books for various reasons (death in the family
or just a need for space)."
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- When it comes time to sell your collection, do your research,
weigh your options.
And let this be a lesson, moms and dads, comic books are for
all ages.
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- Read Rob Lamberti's article on comic collecting in this
issue. Click here
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