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June
2002 Market Report
In
the June 2002 Catalogue we sold 98% of the lots offered with our U K section highlighted
by a worn but complete Oor Wullie first edition (1941) which made £756.00 and
a rare Broons At The Seaside jig-saw in battered box and two pieces missing which
sold for £484.00. Some bidders told us that this item was only rumoured to exist.
We
also offered some Beezer comics, issues 1-20 from the 1950s, which were in Very
Fine to Near Mint grades and professionally bound in four volumes. £484.00 took
them to their next careful owner. Another high price of £332.00 was given for
a Very Fine copy of TV Century 21 No. 1, which also contained its free gift Special
Agent Decoder.
Comic
artwork is an area which has been growing steadily over the last ten years and
Dudley Watkins work, whenever it is available, is keenly collected. Just such
an item featured in our catalogue in June when an early Desperate Dan piece from
the Dandy No 55 of 1938 realised £750.00.
We
featured for the first time a piece of pulp fiction cover art by the great artist
of that genre, Reginald Heade. Entitled 'White Slaves Of New Orleans' this voluptuous
study went to an American collector for £1573.00. In the late Forties artists
were often paid extra for doing the lettering as well and Heade duly obliged!
Due to this successful sale, one further piece has been consigned to our next
catalogue in late August.
Our U S section showcased Spider-Man and bidding was strong, backed up by the
hype and success of the newly released movie. A cents copy of Amazing Spider-Man
1 in Good grade made £457.00 and a Very Good pence copy £499.00. ASM #16 [vfn]
cents reached £209 with #19 [vfn-] attracting £121. The Silver Age continues to
generate huge attention with the highlight of this section, a Fine pence copy
of X-Men #1, realising £786.00.
As
prices of Silver Age cents copies in high grades continue to escalate, we have
several American customers beginning to buy pence or "export" copies. These UK
destined issues, printed from the same plates, in the same place and at the same
time as their cents counterparts have always sold at a discount in the UK, the
perception being that they would never be traded in the States. Perversely, they
are much rarer with only three or four percent of the total print run being re-priced
for UK distribution.
Our
X-Men #1 as a cents copy guides at fifty percent more than it realised in its
rarer pence format above -- way of the world or brilliant purchase?...Only time
will tell.
Malcolm
Phillips
Director
Comic Book Postal Auctions, Ltd.
