Here in Milwaukee, this was big news: old guy sells childhood comics for 10 cents; sells for $518,000. The heartbreaker is he sold half his collection for $3500 in 1968 (which he thought was a windfall), including included the valuable Superman No. 1, Flash No. 1 through No. 6, and DC Comics' Captain Marvel No. 1 through No. 38. Reminds me of the great "Amazing Story" episode starring Mark Hamill.
~rave! http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/45806457.html 'Golden Age' comics fetch plenty of green Posted: May. 21, 2009 Here's the difference between Ralph Chicorel and most of the rest of us who bought comic books as kids. He took loving care of his comics, while we were bending, tearing and getting jelly stains on ours. We eventually tossed ours in the trash. Ralph saved his, or at least some, way into adulthood. The payoff came Thursday when the 78-year-old Menomonee Falls man sold 72 comics from the 1930s and 1940s for $518,000, less the 6% he pays the auction house. "I'm very satisfied," Ralph said afterward. "It's a strange happening this late in life." There is one painful twist to this story. In 1968, to raise the money needed to move his family to Wisconsin, Ralph sold 900 vintage comics for $3,500. That seemed like a lot of money back then, but he doesn't have the stomach to investigate what they would bring now. He thought at the time that these were all the comics he had, but he discovered another box. Ralph was in Dallas on Thursday with two of his sons to watch those so-called Golden Age comics fetch astounding sums of money at Heritage Auction Galleries. At $90,000, the top money-maker was Marvel Mystery No.&ensp9 with a condition ranking of 9.4 out of 10. The rare 1940 comic features Human Torch and Sub-Mariner in the same issue, which may not excite you but clearly thrills collectors. Then came Batman No. 1 from 1940 at $82,500 and Marvel No. 1 at $70,000. The Marvel comic was among the first purchased by young Ralph Chicorel, who at age 8 began making regular trips to a drugstore near his home in Detroit and plunking down a dime for a comic book. He continued the practice from 1939 to 1947. "I kept them in boxes. I was very careful who I let look at these comic books, even at that time," he said. "If my siblings wanted to look at them, they could. But I had to be by their side." "I remember my thinking at that time," he continued. "I relished them so much because there had never been anything like this in published form before. The color, the great color of these comic books, and the drawings, and the stories - I just couldn't get over it. I wanted to take real good care of them. I turned the pages very carefully." Around age 16, Ralph lost interest in comics and started buying movie magazines and records instead. In 1968, he was married and the father of three sons when an opportunity arose to run a WeightWatchers franchise in the Milwaukee area, which he did for 24 years until retiring in 1992. He ran an auction in his basement and sold the 900 comics, but not before listing exactly what they were. "There's so many No. 1 issues," said his second wife, Debbie, reading from a list that included the valuable Superman No. 1, Flash No. 1 through No. 6, and DC Comics' Captain Marvel No. 1 through No. 38. But no time for regrets. As the years passed, Ralph began to realize that the comics he had kept were becoming more and more treasured by collectors. He bought a fireproof safe and put them inside. Recently, he decided to sell them all. "It's the economy, the financial crisis. That's the reason. I said now it's time," he told me. A representative from Heritage visited his home and arranged to have the comics shipped to Dallas. Internet bids mounted in recent weeks, and on Thursday, the comics were sold to buyers in person, by telephone and online. Even some of the less-coveted comics brought prices greater than a whole year's salary for most people during the time that Ralph was making his drugstore runs. Green Hornet No. 1 went for $7,500, for instance. The first Hopalong Cassidy comic brought $5,500. Another 41 of his lower-graded comics are scheduled to be auctioned off Saturday. If only we all had been smart enough to preserve comics or baseball cards or early Beanie Babies. But then, of course, they would have no value. "You just never know what you want to save that might have value someday," Debbie said. "We've been cleaning our basement for years now. Ralph just keeps saving things." These days, Ralph takes pleasure in composing music and ballroom dancing. But it's what he did as a child that has brought this windfall. "I was smart," he said, "without even knowing it." Call Jim Stingl at (414) 224-2017 or e-mail at jsti...@journalsentinel.com
