To BONE or not to BONE....that is the auction....

Escaflown4 · Post by **Escaflown4** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:37:22 am

Anyone wanna speculate how much this auction can shoot for?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BONE-COMICS-1-55-CO ... dZViewItem

siren3-4 · Post by **siren3-4** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 11:45:22 am

WTF . . .

That's an insane auction . . .

SnotDrip · Post by **SnotDrip** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 2:45:56 pm

siren3-4 wrote:WTF . . .

That's an insane auction . . .

5-8K?!

JohnnyRnR · Post by **JohnnyRnR** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 3:32:42 pm

I saw that a few days ago. It is nuts. Let alone the Bone first printings, which while easier to get than they were originally, are far from either common or cheap, but this is the first time I've ever seen Thorn: Tales From The Lantern, for sale or even at all .

No idea what this could hit.

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:12:51 pm

What the hell possesses someone to put together a collection such as this in the first place?

And then sell it on eBay?

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:32:13 pm

The reserve is $25,500. The guy's shooting for a dream price, but he's not going to come near that. He also says he'll consider the high bid "if it's near enough" (of course, ignoring that that's against eBay policy.)

It's a double edged sword (there's that phrase again)....on the one hand, he's got a set of books that is unmatched, and unlikely to ever be assembled again...on the other, however, he's singlehandedly flooded the census with all his books, and, where someone might pay a HUGE premium for a book where there's only 1 or 2, they may not be as willing when there are 6 or 8 or 10, especially when the books are known to be concentrated in one set of hands, and it's a known difficult book to get in very high grade.

Case in point, Bone #9 had a single copy (9.4) on the census up until the latest update....now it has 6. Of course, 5 of them are in this one auction, but potential buyers for the book aren't going to want 5 copies, generally.

And, when he DOES sell them individually, the numbers on the census are going to work against him...even though they are almost entirely his numbers.

From my experience, he would have been better off simply getting one "set" graded at a time, to take full advantage of census rarity.

That's not to scoff at this auction....it's tremendously impressive, and the result of a focused dedication over many, many years. And, of course, Thorn is a book you are going to see maybe once every 5-10 years from now on.

I had a discussion about this on another board when another Bone lot, the best lot ever offered until this one, sold two months ago:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bone-1-To-10-Cartoo ... dZViewItem

A couple of the people debating it just did not understand the unique qualities of this series, stating that there was only one Bone #9 on the census because it wasn't valuable enough to slab, that no one cared about Bone enough to slab them, and one of them said that he could "easily put together 3 sets of CGC'd Bone 1-10 first printings, in as high or higher grade, for less than that auction sold for within 6 months."

I tried...in vain...to explain all the reasons why (which I won't go into here, but I can, if anyone would like) that was just not possible, and the ins and outs of "highest on the census" and "only one on the census", but it fell on deaf ears. I tried to explain that, unlike most Marvel, DC, and especially Image books of 1991-1993, no one is going to be able to produce 10, 20, 30 copies of ANY issue of Bone published by Cartoon books in 9.8, and that 9.4 is going to be "the obtainable high grade" for a typical copy beyond #2, and that 9.0 is going to be "the average" nice copy that someone can get for these books.

Suffice it to say that the census numbers that this fellow got....and I've been corresponding back and forth with him about it....bear up my argument. If this guy, who is clearly the most dedicated Bone collector on the planet, and who clearly understood the grade issues involved with this book, could only get a handful of 9.8s, a nice chunk of 9.6s, and the vast majority 9.0-9.4, then no, no one's going to be able to easily assemble, from raw stock, a high grade set of Bone #1-10 first printings.

I can't wait to see what the final bid is. I'm sorely, sorely tempted....

Lightning Strike · Post by **Lightning Strike** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:32:16 pm

Escaflown4 wrote:Anyone wanna speculate how much this auction can shoot for?

http://cgi.ebay.com/BONE-COMICS-1-55-CO ... dZViewItem

Wow, simply beautiful. I love Bone, and if I was rich, I'd be all over that. My guess? Somewhere in the 5k range.

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:32:34 pm

Tim Petty wrote:What the hell possesses someone to put together a collection such as this in the first place?

And then sell it on eBay?

Insanity.

Or Asperger's Syndrome, I forget which...

Dr. Solar · Post by **Dr. Solar** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 4:52:12 pm

Wow. That is an impressive set.

If I was ridiculously ridiculously rich I would buy it.

Alas, however, I am not.

siren3-4 · Post by **siren3-4** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 5:59:07 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:
Tim Petty wrote:What the hell possesses someone to put together a collection such as this in the first place?

And then sell it on eBay?
Insanity.

Or Asperger's Syndrome, I forget which...

cobra_commander · Post by **cobra_commander** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:49:06 pm

Quick. Somebody give me $26,000

cobra_commander · Post by **cobra_commander** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 7:49:51 pm

So I can buy something else with it

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon Oct 15, 2007 8:01:40 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:The reserve is $25,500. The guy's shooting for a dream price, but he's not going to come near that. He also says he'll consider the high bid "if it's near enough" (of course, ignoring that that's against eBay policy.)

It's a double edged sword (there's that phrase again)....on the one hand, he's got a set of books that is unmatched, and unlikely to ever be assembled again...on the other, however, he's singlehandedly flooded the census with all his books, and, where someone might pay a HUGE premium for a book where there's only 1 or 2, they may not be as willing when there are 6 or 8 or 10, especially when the books are known to be concentrated in one set of hands, and it's a known difficult book to get in very high grade.

Case in point, Bone #9 had a single copy (9.4) on the census up until the latest update....now it has 6. Of course, 5 of them are in this one auction, but potential buyers for the book aren't going to want 5 copies, generally.

And, when he DOES sell them individually, the numbers on the census are going to work against him...even though they are almost entirely his numbers.

From my experience, he would have been better off simply getting one "set" graded at a time, to take full advantage of census rarity.

That's not to scoff at this auction....it's tremendously impressive, and the result of a focused dedication over many, many years. And, of course, Thorn is a book you are going to see maybe once every 5-10 years from now on.

I had a discussion about this on another board when another Bone lot, the best lot ever offered until this one, sold two months ago:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bone-1-To-10-Cartoo ... dZViewItem

A couple of the people debating it just did not understand the unique qualities of this series, stating that there was only one Bone #9 on the census because it wasn't valuable enough to slab, that no one cared about Bone enough to slab them, and one of them said that he could "easily put together 3 sets of CGC'd Bone 1-10 first printings, in as high or higher grade, for less than that auction sold for within 6 months."

I tried...in vain...to explain all the reasons why (which I won't go into here, but I can, if anyone would like) that was just not possible, and the ins and outs of "highest on the census" and "only one on the census", but it fell on deaf ears. I tried to explain that, unlike most Marvel, DC, and especially Image books of 1991-1993, no one is going to be able to produce 10, 20, 30 copies of ANY issue of Bone published by Cartoon books in 9.8, and that 9.4 is going to be "the obtainable high grade" for a typical copy beyond #2, and that 9.0 is going to be "the average" nice copy that someone can get for these books.

Suffice it to say that the census numbers that this fellow got....and I've been corresponding back and forth with him about it....bear up my argument. If this guy, who is clearly the most dedicated Bone collector on the planet, and who clearly understood the grade issues involved with this book, could only get a handful of 9.8s, a nice chunk of 9.6s, and the vast majority 9.0-9.4, then no, no one's going to be able to easily assemble, from raw stock, a high grade set of Bone #1-10 first printings.

I can't wait to see what the final bid is. I'm sorely, sorely tempted....

This is a very informative post. Thanks. I learn so much reading things like this.

Escaflown4 · Post by **Escaflown4** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 7:47:08 am

Welcome back ZWH. Yeah the most valuable book in that lot is definitely Thorn. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that book was originally only sold at the campus bookstore where Jeff went to school right? It's definitely one book that is almost impossible to find anywhere.

cinlach@aol.com · Post by **cinlach@aol.com** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:19:30 pm

i think your right about thorn...both jeff smith and frank cho used their college campus to get their books started.

jeff's was (i think) sold in the bookstore, while cho's "university 2", which is now known as "liberty meadows", was serialized in the school paper.

interesting fact on jeff smith...he's been drawing bone and thorn since he was a child. the story is literally a lifetime's worth of work.

andrew · Post by **andrew** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:33:15 pm

any ideas on how many copies of thorn there are?

siren3-4 · Post by **siren3-4** » Tue Oct 16, 2007 12:56:16 pm

. . . is there something dirty about the title of this thread . . .

siren3-4 · Post by **siren3-4** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 10:11:10 am

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:
I can't wait to see what the final bid is. I'm sorely, sorely tempted....

If you were to win this Bone auction . . . I guess you could say that your bone collection is . .

. . . complete

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:44:30 pm

(pssst....hey Esca....can ya please fix the title of this thread....? It's putting my OCD into a tailspin...either that, or title it "fo dems wats collects Bone"...that would work, too.

)

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:46:19 pm

siren3-4 wrote:
ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote:
I can't wait to see what the final bid is. I'm sorely, sorely tempted....
If you were to win this Bone auction . . . I guess you could say that your bone collection is . .

. . . complete

My bone collection will be complete only when I run out of ground space.....

Dr. Solar · Post by **Dr. Solar** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 3:46:46 pm

yuh dun be complainsin now, does yuh, boy?

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 4:38:46 pm

I got a bone you can collect....

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:22:53 pm

Tim Petty wrote:I got a bone you can collect....

I keep my bones in jars on a shelf....wanna add yours? Keep in mind, my collection would be permanent.....

Tim · Post by **Tim** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 5:26:52 pm

ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote: I keep my bones in jars on a shelf....wanna add yours? Keep in mind, my collection would be permanent.....

Nah, the shipping charges would be astronomical.

siren3-4 · Post by **siren3-4** » Wed Oct 17, 2007 7:30:47 pm

Tim Petty wrote:
ZephyrWasHOT!! wrote: I keep my bones in jars on a shelf....wanna add yours? Keep in mind, my collection would be permanent.....

Nah, the shipping charges would be astronomical.

hey wait a minute . . . are you guys talking about penis . . .

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To BONE or not to BONE....that is the auction....

To BONE or not to BONE....that is the auction....

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