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Avengers # 1 and # 4 Club
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1,087 posts in this topic

This is sort of a comic book horror story. Technically this guy would belong to the Avengers 1 & 4 club but after you learn what this guy did, some of you might kick him out of the club.

 

This story takes place in the English city of Sheffield a few years ago. A man finds a box overflowing with comics in the trash and initially doesn’t know what to do with them. He decides to keep the comics instead of throwing them out because he “thought they were lovely things”. The man, Andrew Vickers, is a struggling artist and works under the name “Stoneface” because he usually uses stone in his artwork. He learns of an upcoming art exhibition soliciting artwork with the theme of superheroes in 2013 and decides to create some artwork for it. What could he do and what material would he use? Well he has these comics that he had for ages and he thinks, “If somebody chucks things out in the skip (dumpster), they don’t generally throw things out that are worth anything”. He creates a papier-mache sculpture called The Paper Boy where he pastes comic book pages over a chicken wire frame that are covered with paste.

 

Andrew Vickers with his sculpture The Paper Boy (for your dartboard). :grin:

vickers%20paperboy_zpsavkrl5re.jpg

 

Steve Eyre, owner of the Sheffield comic shop called World of Superheroes and organizer of the exhibition, visits the gallery and sees the sculpture and initially thinks it is fantastic. Looking closer, he is shocked to find there is the cover to Avengers 1 on the inside leg. :eek:

He also owns a copy of Avengers 1. Upon further examination he says “there are six comics on this that together would be worth, even in the condition you see, 20,000 pounds ($30,000)”. “it would have been cheaper for Andrew to make this out of Italian marble because the raw materials that have gone into it could have sold for a lot more than he is going to sell this statue for.” Mr. Vickers laughs off the revelation. “To be honest I’m shocked but money has not got such a value to me. I think it is funny. I really love the idea of me creating something out of such expensive things that’s worth less. I think it’s brilliant.” :D

 

Vickers with Steve Eyre and his copy of Avengers 1.

vickers-eyre_zpsruditf1i.jpg

 

The right leg of Paper Boy.

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The legs of Paper Boy.

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Closeup of legs of Paper Boy.

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Initially I thought Vickers is a fool but after some consideration I can sort of understand his position. Vickers only lost an opportunity for a financial windfall and the comics did not cost him anything since he found them. With a shrug of the shoulders, Vickers said: “I’ll probably never sell it, but at least it’s been a great talking point.” He may remain a struggling artist.

 

The front of Paper Boy.

paperboy_zpsa1qteznh.jpg

 

If you look closely at the pictures, there are the covers to the less common pence editions of Avengers 1, 2, 4 and several Captain America comics. :cry:

If the Avengers books were intact, they could have been in pretty good condition. What other books can you recognize? Would you laugh, cry or scream?

 

There are several questions that arise. One wonders how Vickers could not know the possible value of old comics. The first Avengers movie was very popular and released in the UK in 2012. Does information travel slower in the UK? :grin:

What was the situation for the original person who dumped the comics?

 

Comic collectors are only one segment of a large collecting community which is a small part of the general population. Not everyone would recognize valuable collectibles or know their value. For those people who are not collectors, collectibles don’t matter. However the idea of finding hidden treasures fuels the popularity of garage sales, flea markets and shows like The Antique Roadshow.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2358454/Andrew-Vickers-Artist-destroys-rare-edition-The-Avengers-valuable-comics.html

 

http://jonathanpow.photoshelter.com/image/I0000hZx6eg1Jmsw

 

 

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Picked this up. Avengers #4 has been on my radar for awhile, just haven't pulled the trigger until recently.

 

Nice low grade copy with Stan Lee sig. I like the blue marker used. I know some people don't like signatures, especially Stan Lee on books he has nothing to do with, but this is one of his stories. Couldn't pass it up!

 

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And this one I've had since the 1980s.....made a trade in high school with a friend who got a huge SA collection somehow....I forget the story behind his score....anyway, he was an aspiring artist (wound up in Marvel production dept for a while) and gave me Avengers 3-19, ASM 17, a few DD's below 10 and I forget what else (that was most of it) for an OA Byrne page from Avengers 183 (an awesome page, fight scene with the Absorbing Man). 

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Looks like I have finally gained entry into this club.  Acquired both of these books on Craigslist of all places, one of those ads you think could not possibly be true but ended up being a massive score.  Bought Avengers 1-4 raw which were advertised and then ended up buying the entire collection he had inherited, about 400 books including many key silver/bronze books.  

 

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5 hours ago, 427Impaler said:

Looks like I have finally gained entry into this club.  Acquired both of these books on Craigslist of all places, one of those ads you think could not possibly be true but ended up being a massive score.  Bought Avengers 1-4 raw which were advertised and then ended up buying the entire collection he had inherited, about 400 books including many key silver/bronze books.  

 

D35850BD-FA60-4B12-AA06-4C919C77A785.jpeg

B73548C9-5444-4371-88E1-555B12838AF6.jpeg

Congrats! What a score!

 

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