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Complete book = added value?
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Started by jhm,

22 posts in this topic

jhm

jhm

Posted
Posted

I know the Golden Age comics market pretty well, but unfortunately I'm not familiar with OA.

I recently stumbled upon the complete OA story for Classics Illustrated #73 from 1950. The cover isn't there, but all 44 pages are present. The quality of the art is solid, but it's not the most exciting art.

It looks like single pages sell on the Bay for around a hundred bucks. But I'm curious to know:

  1. Is it all all rare to have the complete story?
  2. Does having the complete story increase the overall value at all?
  3. Any idea of value?

Thanks in advance for any/all help.

- Jeff

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The Voord

The Voord

Posted
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, jhm said:

I know the Golden Age comics market pretty well, but unfortunately I'm not familiar with OA.

I recently stumbled upon the complete OA story for Classics Illustrated #73 from 1950. The cover isn't there, but all 44 pages are present. The quality of the art is solid, but it's not the most exciting art.

It looks like single pages sell on the Bay for around a hundred bucks. But I'm curious to know:

  1. Is it all all rare to have the complete story?
  2. Does having the complete story increase the overall value at all?
  3. Any idea of value?

Thanks in advance for any/all help.

- Jeff

I have a complete EC book of interior art for 'Picture Stories from American History' No. 2 for sale if you're interested in Golden Age stuff (this one from 1946, when the company was known as Educational Comics).  Link to all scans:

http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=61078

Edited by The Voord
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hmendryk

hmendryk

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Posted

I agree with Mr. Machismo. Particularly on the value of a complete book vs breaking it up. This is not just generally true with comic book art but has also been true of Chinese album paintings, Japanese wood block books and old scientific books with lithographic illustrations. However I would warn that if you try to sell the individual pages for your book you may find that there are not that many collectors interested and it may take some time before you manage to sell them all.

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Hekla

Hekla

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Posted
34 minutes ago, hmendryk said:

.......However I would warn that if you try to sell the individual pages for your book you may find that there are not that many collectors interested and it may take some time before you manage to sell them all.

I've looked into/purchased a few complete stories and this is my observation as well. My 2 cents is that having a complete story makes owning the OA more attractive (i.e. a package deal) but probably not more valuable considering the sum of its' parts. As an appreciation of the art & story, however, it is way cooler reading a story in OA format than in a published book.

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Sideshow Bob

Sideshow Bob

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Posted

There was an auction a couple years ago for the complete interiors of Batman #227, at Doyle's of all places. The pages started getting broken up last year. I expect the seller is going to do better with the individual pages than he would selling the book as a total. Even though its a Bats book, the attraction there is on the Adams cover, not the inside which is somewhat ho-hum. 

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BCarter27

BCarter27

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Posted
7 hours ago, Sideshow Bob said:

I expect the seller is going to do better with the individual pages than he would selling the book as a total.

Definitely agree on material like that. Big Two headline superhero stuff will usually do better and, more importantly, sell through when broken up. Everything else... it's going to be hard to move those D-level talking heads pages in the issue.

If the OP feels strongly about breaking up a low-demand book for sale for whatever reason, I would sell it in reverse order... worst pages first, best pages last... one page every week or two.

Or better yet, sell or trade it to a dealer who doesn't mind sitting on the inventory for a long stretch.

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PhilipB2k17

PhilipB2k17

Posted
Posted
23 hours ago, Hekla said:

I've looked into/purchased a few complete stories and this is my observation as well. My 2 cents is that having a complete story makes owning the OA more attractive (i.e. a package deal) but probably not more valuable considering the sum of its' parts. As an appreciation of the art & story, however, it is way cooler reading a story in OA format than in a published book.

I don't have that much insight into this, but, I wonder if having the complete book for a KEY comic makes a difference (say X-Men #1), as opposed to a run of the Mill book. I could see there being a PREMIUM for something like that, which would not otherwise be true for regular complete stories. But, I am not sure.

Who is the artist on the OP's Classics iIlustrated book? If it's by a name artist, it would probably do better sold piecemeal.

 

 

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PhilipB2k17

PhilipB2k17

Posted
Posted (edited)
23 hours ago, BCarter27 said:

For a low-demand book like this, I wouldn't break up the issue. You will never sell the lesser pages. Better to keep it in one lot.

I think it depends on the artist. Who drew it? If it's a name artist, it may actually do better broken up.

UPDATE: Looks like the issue was illustrated by Alex Blum? http://comics.lib.msu.edu/rri/crri/classi.htm

Edited by PhilipB2k17
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JadeGiant

JadeGiant

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Posted
6 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

Looks like there are a few Alex Blum complete Classics Illustrated's out there. 

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=1260344&GSub=170072

http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=20554

http://www.comicartfans.com/galleryroom.asp?gsub=61628

First one is for sale - an inquiry would give you this collector's asking price as a reference

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malvin

malvin

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

I don't have that much insight into this, but, I wonder if having the complete book for a KEY comic makes a difference (say X-Men #1), as opposed to a run of the Mill book. I could see there being a PREMIUM for something like that, which would not otherwise be true for regular complete stories. But, I am not sure.

Who is the artist on the OP's Classics iIlustrated book? If it's by a name artist, it would probably do better sold piecemeal.

 

 

I've never seen a premium when stories/books are sold complete.  People sometimes says there should be, but I don't believe those people have actually seen it, nor are they willing to pay a premium if it presented itself.

In general, I can't recall any other situation where if you buy higher volume, unit prices go up, either in this hobby or anywhere else in life.  

OK, I just thought of one specific instance, when you are buying up houses in a block in order to build condos, I suppose in that case, each individual house is worth more because together you could make a killing building a 10 storey condo.  But I have not seen that in OA.

Malvin

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PhilipB2k17

PhilipB2k17

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, malvin said:

I've never seen a premium when stories/books are sold complete.  People sometimes says there should be, but I don't believe those people have actually seen it, nor are they willing to pay a premium if it presented itself.

In general, I can't recall any other situation where if you buy higher volume, unit prices go up, either in this hobby or anywhere else in life.  

OK, I just thought of one specific instance, when you are buying up houses in a block in order to build condos, I suppose in that case, each individual house is worth more because together you could make a killing building a 10 storey condo.  But I have not seen that in OA.

Malvin

I'm sure that's true in th vast majority of instances. But, what about the complete art to a Major Key book? 

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malvin

malvin

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Posted
3 minutes ago, PhilipB2k17 said:

I'm sure that's true in th vast majority of instances. But, what about the complete art to a Major Key book? 

I revert back to what I originally said.  Has anyone seen this happen, and/or is there anyone is a position to buy a major key book that will back up their words with cash and say they will pay more for a complete book than individual pages?

 

Malvin

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PhilipB2k17

PhilipB2k17

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11 minutes ago, malvin said:

I revert back to what I originally said.  Has anyone seen this happen, and/or is there anyone is a position to buy a major key book that will back up their words with cash and say they will pay more for a complete book than individual pages?

 

Malvin

I have no idea. That's why I raised it. 

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