The Return of ComicLink Canadian Whites

The last ComicLink featuring a collection of Canadian “Whites” was this past February and, in the end, commanded some eye-opening prices for these scarce books. There we had about three dozen books,  most in mid-grade to better. In my opinion even 6.5 and up should be considered “high grade” for these scarce Canadian wartime comics, given that so few are found in this condition.

This month’s auction, even though it has almost double the amount of books (61), has them in mostly in lower grades. Almost a dozen of them are incompletes (0.5) because of a centerfold missing or a rectangular coupon cut out of the front cover. I’ve done a summary of the books on offer in a chart form anchored on condition, going from the lowest to the highest.

ComicLink’s April Featured Auction Canadian “Whites”

Now, I can understand sending a book off to be slabbed if you didn’t know that a centerspread should have been there, but why you would want to slab a book with a “ bullet hole in the centre of its forehead” is a little beyond me. Perhaps the scarcity of these books still demands it.

Another dozen or so books are still below the minimal accepted collecting grade of 2.0 for defects such as spine splits and detached covers.  Two books have some restoration and five others are green “qualifieds” because they are in relatively good shape except for the cover coupon defect or a missing centerspread, though I still don’t understand how CGC gets to a qualified 7.0 for the Wow Comics 14 with cover coupon missing.

Here’s the culprit. The inside front cover of these Bell books had a coupon for comic hero sweater crests and you had to save up 12 of these to send off for one of these crests described in the center spread of these books. I’ve yet to see one of these sweater crests but I’ve seen this coupon promotion, and others like it, take a bite out of the Bell books we are chasing and make them that much harder to find in solid conditions.

All in all, just about half the books have solid defects in them. If I were to win any of these books, I’d probably have them cracked within the first minute so that I could read them and examine their contents, though I might hesitate on the qualified grade books.

About half of the books fall in the range 2.0-6.5 with one, Grand Slam-Three Aces 49 which is a relatively common book, being an 8.0. I’d still crack the dozen books that are 2.0-2.5 and keep the ones that are 3.0 and up, slabbed.

There is one curious book in this auction called Great Stories for Children that is unnumbered but with a date of 1943. ComicLink calls it a “Canadian White” but the CGC symbol has no indication that it is Canadian at all. It has that “two-colour look” of a WECA book, but I’ve never heard of the publisher, Parents’ Magazine Inst., and never seen any remote reference to this book. I think ComicLink has it wrong here.

There are a few things to watch for in the final outcome of this auction:

1. Will the amounts realized by the complete books in this auction stay in line with the strong showing of the books in the last auction. If they do is this the establishment of a strong trend upward in the price of these books. If they don’t, was the last auction an anomaly?
2. Will the incomplete and very low grade books have any strength at all and how will their prices compare with the better grade books offered?
3. Which book will come out on top of the heap in the final prices realized?

For all of you looking to grab a lower grade copy just to get one into your collection, this maybe the best opportunity. These books will not come up often again. You can find the auction and judge for yourself here.  Of note is the fact that a few of the comics such a Wow 22 ($132), Three Aces 5 ($110), Grand Slam 56 ($185) are already over $100.

Since the auction ends on Thursday (the 24^th) of next week, my blog will not appear until Friday morning to allow me to share the auction results with you.