Comics good as gold

Photo: Peter Meecham

Gotham Comics' Jeremy Bishop with rare comics worth thousands of dollars.

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THE PEOPLE pounding the pavements above are oblivious, but under the streets of central Auckland lies a vault holding comic books of such worth that they have been brought out of their secure holding only three times in the past eight years.

The four Batman comic books and one Detective Comics book are wrapped in plastic, and one is even in protection nicknamed the "fortress". To comic book fans, these are the holy grail – and they could be worth up to several hundred thousand dollars.

The hype over comic books was reignited last week when, in the US, a rare, high-quality copy of Detective Comics #27, which marked the first appearance of Batman in 1939, sold for $US1,075,500 ($1.5 million), the highest price ever paid for a single comic. Just days before a Superman comic had sold for $US1m ($1.4m).

The Detective Comics series was where Batman and his sidekicks first appeared before they got their own spin-off comic series.

New Zealand has its fair share of collectors possessing rare and expensive comics, but those involved in the "secret squirrel" hobby seldom speak publicly about their collections.

But in the aftermath of the record US sale, a private Auckland owner, who did not want to be named, last week revealed part of her collection to the Sunday Star-Times through spokesman Jeremy Bishop, manager of Gotham Comics in South Auckland.

All of her comics were printed in the early 1940s and are worth tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands of dollars – if the right buyer came along. The current owner has owned them for about 12 years, but wouldn't discuss where she had got them or what she had paid for them.

The collection, housed in a secure vault in central Auckland, includes Detective Comic #38, in which Batman's sidekick Robin makes his first appearance. It was issued just 11 months after the one that sold for more than $US1m and would have a starting price at auction of about $18,000, but could reach many times that figure.

Bishop said the value of a comic varied hugely based on its condition, rarity and – in cases such as Batman's debut – the finer details of character and plot. Estimating prices was an inexact science, as the mood of bidders on the day of an auction could make a big difference.

Also in the collection are number 1, 2, 3 and 4 of the spin-off Batman comics. While not as valuable as the earlier Detective Comics, Bishop says they would have a combined price of upwards of $44,000.

Bishop, who has managed Gotham Comics for about eight years, said these particular comics were rare and a big deal in a place like New Zealand.

The recession had not affected comic book sales and instead made buyers more keen on getting the best books, he said.

- © Fairfax NZ News