Pedigree Warlock & the God of Thunder
Okay, not quite Warlock yet, but “Him” didn’t look as sweet in the title field. Last night this month’s Comiclink Focused Auction came to an end, and it as one of those rare instances that the book I most coveted also turned out to be the cheapest out of the batch. In more ways than one as well, as not only was the Thor#165 the cheapest issue targeted, it was also the least expensive of the surrounding issues of Thor’s in the auction. There were several other examples from the Rocky Mountain Pedigree last night, and I have to admit being a bit giddy at the thought of being able to add to the stack of one of my favorite issues to horde with a pedigree and for less than an extravagant price (kind of), BUT still a beauty.
G.I. Joe Vermilion Files
Last night I decided to do a quick last second (manual) Ebay search. I’ve stated in other posts how very few domestic releases of G.I. Joe are truly rare. Certainly there are (relative) pricey items, but pieces like the Defiant and U.S.S Flagg are not uncommon; indeed they are quite available, you just have to have the scratch. For this reason, I rarely get surprised by any listings, but yesterday something you don’t see everyday popped up.
Bucky Shot, No Golden Girl for Tomio
I know. It seems like I never win anything! Yesterday, the listing for the only item I was watching on Comiclink’s E-Better Auctions ended. From my perspective, the E-Better field tends to be rather uninspiring (their Focused Auctions, however, are incredible and consistently record breaking) which only one listing grabbed me (usually none do). My interest in that listing itself was an extreme oddity from my general tendencies rules in collecting. There are a few condition and structural related issues that automatically make me pass on almost (say a literal 99.9%) any purchase of an item I’m interested in. These are hard rules, and while I can’t foresee flexibility in the future for any of the others, I gave into one yesterday.
Rare Batman Intro
“This is probably the most desirable comic Heritage has ever auctioned”
That in itself is an incredible statement, as Heritage is a complete beast in the high end, publicly moved, collectible comic world. It isn’t carnival barking either, as we are talking an auction for the one of the two highest graded (by CGC) of Detective Comics#27 – the first appearance of Batman – on the planet. That doesn’t mean it’s the best copy, as that copy is regarded to be the Allentown copy owned by “The Dentist”–who also owns the best copy of Action Comics#1 (1st Superman) in the world, the Edgar Church copy (aka the Mile High Pedigree). There are also copies of TEC#27 in the Church and Reilly (also known as the San Francisco collection) that would probably grade better.
DEFIANT Pass
If you were/are a fan of DEFIANT Comics, a week ago you saw a couple of really nice items came up on ebay. This may seem semi-blasphemous but as much as I love me some VALIANT Comics, the demise of DEFIANT may sting me even more. The second chance of watching Shooter play architect to a Comic universe, and with him came many familiar faces from VALIANT including Dave Lapham and Janet (J.J.) Jackson. The former was coming off being the artist of Harbinger, which through 2 dozen or so issues was (and still is) among my favorite reads ever (you can read my review of the recent hard cover collection of the first several issue called Harbinger: The Beginning). He would come to DEFIANT and pencil Warriors of Plasm, which at first was a bit disconcerting, but as the the line’s groundwork was being laid, it grew on me and is one of the finer truly (alien) SF-element integrations I have read.
Deep Six w/ Killer Whale – Auction Miss!
When I first saw the result of this auction I was pretty pissed. Not because I’m the seller (I rarely sell anything), but because for some reason it didn’t trip my Ebay alert when it was listed! The thing about G.I. Joe collecting is that as much as I love it, if we are talking domestic releases, there are actually very few truly rare items. If you have the money, you can find and acquire just about any and every regularly produced and distributed item rather easily. After all, these were mass produced and extremely popular toys that still aren’t even 30 years old yet (speaking off the A Real American Hero line). It is for this reason that when ‘rare’ items do pop up, you will usually see very aggressive prices, as collectors try to make the most of their chance to nab a truly unique piece to a collection. One avenue for G.I. Joe enthusiasts to do this are the prototypes like the Eco Warrior Deep Six.
G.I. JOE – First Marvel Original Art!
This month’s Comiclink focused auction ended (a busy month for comic auctions in general with Heritage, Comics Connect, and Quality Comix also in play this November) a couple of days ago and while the field probably wasn’t as top heavy as some of their previous auctions, I found that it was particularly strong in offerings from some of my own collecting focuses. I have to admit that I ended up striking out on all of my hopefuls, but I still loved just seeing the headlining (for me) item–the original art for the first page of the first issue of Marvel Comics’ G.I. Joe run.
