| Comics
Buyer’s Guide -
June 22, 2001 Issue #1440
Biggest
CGC run auctioned on eBay
Lot includes slabbed ‘X-Men’ #1-66, #94-200, more;
$24,000 + offered so far
As recently as CBG
#1433, this column has inquired as to the likelihood of compiling a comlpete
run of Comics Guaranty Corp.-granded copies of a longer series. Collectors
learned what was possible in late May, when the longest complete runs
of CGC-slabbed comics ever to appear on eBay opened for sale.
On May 26, Ideal Collectables
of Honolulu, Hawaii, offered 180 CGC copies of X-Men in grades ranging
from 9.8 (NM/M) to 5.0 (VG/F), with more than 135 in grades of 9.2 (NM-)
or higher. The set included every original X-Men issue from #1 to #200,
excluding 20 issues from the reprint stretch of #67-93.
At press time, with
two days left to go in the auction, $24,645.67 was the high bid. At this
point in the auction, more than 20 different bidders had already placed
a total of 63 bid on the lot. Thirty bids are required for eBay to flag
an auction as "hot."
Collector John Inouye
had consigned the lot to Ideal, a firm specializing in sports-cards, comics,
toys and anime, said Ideal Collectables President Tony Yamada. Yamada
founded the company with David and Michael Inouye in 1998.
"As a complete
run graded by CGC, I would think that any collection would gain incredible
value," Yamada said. "The hidden cost involved is really tough
to calculate, making any kind of valuation nearly impossible." (Grading
alone for 180 issues would have run several thousand dollars, even at
CGC's least expensive service level.)
John Inouye described
himself as a longtime collector of high-grade comics who had, through
buying from CBG and Overstreet advertisers, accumulated for himself and
his investors a massive inventory including two complete runs of X-Men
from #1-200.
Inouye endorses CGC's
service, although he said he did not come to that view immediately. "Recently,
I sent in over 2,000 comics from my personal collection to CGC,"
he said. "At first, I was very dissappointed in the grades that my
books received. I felt CGC had done me an injustice. However, after talking
to them and furthering my knowledge about comics grading, I realized CGC's
standards are what's best for the industry. With an impartial third-party
grading service, I no longer have to depend on the seller's standards
of grading 'his' books, nor do I need to worry about 'restored' books
as well."
Bids had still not
surpassed Yamada's reserve price at press time. "It's really been
a lot of fun putting these runs together, and we're so glad that everyone
in the comics industry is enjoying these auctions as well," Yamada
said. "It's only a shame that if the run does not sell, we'll be
breaking up the collection."
Final results of the
auction will appear in CBG #1441.
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