Jon Englund
Downsizing? Determined to get rid of stuff you no longer need? Cleaning out a home or an estate? Stop. Know Before You Throw.
Holy Hollywood, Batman! It seems like superheroes are on everybody’s mind this summer, with a new action film coming out almost weekly. America loves superheroes and they hold a very special place in our hearts and imaginations. But preceding the movies were the all-important comic books.
Before the days of computer animation and digital (computer) drawing, comic artists would draw comic book covers and pages by hand with pen and ink. The good old days saw artists like Will Eisner (The Spirit); Bob Kane (Batman); Steve Ditko (Spiderman, Doctor Strange); and Jack Kirby (Captain America, X-Men, Fantastic Four, Hulk, etc.) cranking out enough paper on a monthly basis to level a small forest. The nature of the comic book industry was you read the current issue and then tossed it in the trash… Pow! Wham!
Well, we all know some of those old comics were stored safely away and now, decades later, they may be worth a tidy sum of cash. That’s the nature of Ephemera, the name for paper collectibles never meant to be saved. Not much survived, so the good stuff that did survive oftentimes went up in value.
The other part of the collectible equation was the original artwork created in order to produce those comic books. Since the original drawings were seldom ever sold, little of the artwork made it into the hands of the public. Yet some of the original drawings did make it into hands of the public. I recall one collection containing some of the original Superman artwork. The cover art for one single issue sold for $5,000. The old action figures in that collection? Well that’s another story.
When it comes to questions about value, or concerns about getting a fair price for items, such as your Ephemera, have a trained eye determine if there’s value before you sell, toss or donate. Call me today to help you.
Jon Englund has more than 25 years of experience in appraising and liquidating personal property, jewelry, art, collectibles, antiques, furniture, printed items and more. A Midwest transplant, Jon trained at New York University in appraisal studies. For more information, call (480) 699-1567, or send an email to Jon@KnowBeforeYouThrow.INFO.