What was Detective Comics #27?
----- Original Message -----
From: "Martin Baxter" <truthseeker...@lycos.com>
To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, May 24, 2009 1:20:14 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: [RE][scifinoir2] 'Golden Age' comics fetch plenty of green
I know full well what he went through, having watched my apartment go
up in flames in '95, knowing that, among the combustibles was Detective Comics
#27 and Action Comics #1.
I'll be in the corner, in a deep funk no way related to anything George Clinton
might envision...
---------[ Received Mail Content ]----------
Subject : [scifinoir2] 'Golden Age' comics fetch plenty of green
Date : Sun, 24 May 2009 15:05:24 -0000
>From : "ravenadal" <ravena...@yahoo.com>
To : scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com
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
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQdwk8Yntds
