Michael Rorrer said his great aunt once mentioned having comic books she would one day give to him and his brother, but it was a passing remark made when they were boys and still into superheroes.
Ruby Wright gave no indication at the time - and she died last February, leaving it unclear - that her late husband's comic collection contained some of the most prized issues ever published. The 345 comics were slated to sell at auction in New York on Wednesday, and were expected to fetch more than $2 million.
Rorrer, 31, of Oxnard, California, discovered his great uncle Billy Wright's comics neatly stacked in a basement closet while helping clear out his great aunt's Martinsville, Virginia, home a few months after her death. He said he thought they were cool but didn't realize until months later how valuable they were.
Rorrer, who works as an operator at a plant where oil is separated from water, said he was telling a co-worker about Captain America No. 2, a 1941 issue in which the hero bursts in on Adolf Hitler, when the co-worker mused that it would be something if he had Action Comics No. 1, in which Superman makes his first appearance.
"I went home and was looking through some of them and there it was," said Rorrer, who then began researching the collection's value in earnest.
He found out that his great uncle had managed as a boy to buy a staggering array of what became the most valuable comic books ever published.
"This is just one of those collections that all the guys in the business think don't exist anymore," said Lon Allen, managing director of comics for Heritage Auctions, the Dallas-based auction house overseeing the sale.
The collection includes 44 of The Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide's list of top 100 issues from comics' golden age.
"The scope of this collection is, from a historian's perspective, dizzying," said J.C. Vaughn, the guide's associate publisher.
Once Rorrer realized how important the comics were, he called his mother, Lisa Hernandez, 54, of League City, Texas, who had divided them into two boxes. She sent one to him and kept the other one at her house for his brother. Rorrer and his mother then went through their boxes, checking comic after comic off the list.
"I couldn't believe what I had sitting there upstairs at my house," Rorrer said.
Hernandez, who works as an operator at a chemical plant, said it really hit her how valuable the comics were when she saw the look on Allen's face after he came to her house to look through the comics she had there.
"It was kind of hard to wrap my head around it," Allen said.
Rorrer said he only remembers his aunt making the fleeting reference to the comics when she learned that he and his brother, Jonathan Rorrer, now 29, of Houston, liked comic books. He said his great uncle, who died in 1994 at age 66, never mentioned his collection.
The Action Comics No. 1 - which Wright bought when he was about 11 - is expected to sell for about $325,000. A Detective Comics No. 27, the 1939 issue that features the first appearance of Batman, is expected to fetch about $475,000. And the Captain America No. 2 with Hitler on the cover that had caught Rorrer's eye? That's expected to bring in about $100,000.
Allen, who called the collection "jaw-dropping," noted that Wright "seemed to have a knack" for picking up the ones that would be the most valuable and managed to keep them in good condition. The core of his collection is from 1938 to 1941.
Hernandez said it makes sense that her uncle - even as a boy - had a discerning eye. The man who went to The College of William and Mary before having a long career as a chemical engineer for DuPont was smart, she said. And, she added, Wright was an only child whose mother kept most everything he had. She said that they found games from the 1930s that were still in their original boxes.
"There were some really hard to find books that were in really, really great condition," said Paul Litch, the primary grader at Certified Guaranty Co, an independent certification service for comic books.
"You can see it was a real collection," Litch said. "Someone really cared about these and kept them in good shape."
QUESTIONS
1 How much is a set of valuable comic books expected to fetch at auction?
2 Where did they come from?
3 When were they purchased?
Answers
1. $2 million
2. Private collection of Billy Wright
3. Mostly from 1938 to 1941
国际英语资讯:Yemen parliament convenes for 1st time after 4 years of conflict
体坛英语资讯:Chinese footballer Ji ready to embrace challenges in French league
国际英语资讯:Death toll rises to 3 in aircraft collision in Nepals Lukla airport
坐着吃饭比站着香?要想减肥请站着吃饭
国内英语资讯:China to further expand financial sector opening-up: deputy central bank governor
国际英语资讯:Sudans opposition demands transfer of power to civilian govt
The Wisdom of Robot 机器人的智慧
国内英语资讯:Premier Li signs revised regulation on govt information disclosure
国内英语资讯:Xinhua Headlines: Beijing opens service sector wider to foreign capital
国际英语资讯:IMFC pledges to take joint action to mitigate risks, enhance resilience
体坛英语资讯:New coach for Wu Lei with Rubi set to leave Espanyol
怎样知道被人利用了?
国际英语资讯:Cuba collaborates with Kenya to find kidnapped Cuban doctors
国内英语资讯:Chinese State Councilor stresses crackdown on IPR infringements, counterfeits
“超级真菌”在美爆发,致死率高达60%,中国已确认18例
体坛英语资讯:China thrash Myanmar 5-0 at soccer Silk Road Hua Shan Cup
国际英语资讯:Japan says ready to help ease tensions in Mideast
体坛英语资讯:China wins Four-Nation Womens Soccer Invitational crown
娱乐英语资讯:Iconic music festival opens in Poland
2019年6月大学英语四级作文范文:提升幸福感
马斯克的SpaceX测试了最新的飞船火箭
体坛英语资讯:Chinese coach hopes PSG striker Wang Shuang physically fit for France World Cup
国内英语资讯:China-CEEC participants vow to provide level playing field for foreign companies
体坛英语资讯:Chinese shuttlers steamroll past Malaysia Open semifinals
国内英语资讯:Australian medias attack on China groundless: spokesperson
体坛英语资讯:French Open: Top seeds advance to third round, no Chinese player active in singles
国内英语资讯:Chinese premier demands increasing support to people relocated for poverty alleviation
国际英语资讯:Portugal willing to host some of migrants stranded in Mediterranean
国内英语资讯:Xinhua Headlines: Why Belt and Road Initiative is anything but debt trap
为了劝人们少用塑料袋 这位杂货店主给塑料袋印上尴尬字眼
不限 |
英语教案 |
英语课件 |
英语试题 |
不限 |
不限 |
上册 |
下册 |
不限 |