1939 DC Comics Superhero COMIC BOOK RACK -- Superman - Batman - Flash - Action

$

5,000

Sale is by Avalon Collectibles. All items are professionally graded by long-time mail-order collectibles dealer.  All items sold satisfaction guaranteed.  All comic books shipped in a sturdy box or between heavy cardboard.  Please e-mail with any questions.   ITEM DESCRIPTION:

Extremely early and interesting piece of comic book and superhero memorabilia.  This display rack is from the very beginning of superhero characters.  The superhero boom started Spring 1938 with DC Comic's Superman.  This DC Comics rack dates from Fall 1939.  It would have displayed for sale the very first year of all of the following superhero characters: Batman, Flash, Green Lantern, Spectre, Hawkman, Dr. Fate, Atom and Hourman.  This rack may even be the very first superhero advertising or display item ever.  It is very likely the first DC Comics display rack.  Additionally, it is very unusual to find any superhero memorabilia whatsoever from this early.

DATING:  No date appears on this rack, so dating it really boils down to believing that when DC first went to make a display rack to promote its product line that they would use the most current logo designs that they had.   These plaques would then be printed up in quantity in anticipation of orders for the racks.  As this rack features the logo design for Superman Comics used on issues #1-3, it stands to reason that the plaques for this rack would have been printed up before DC had the artwork for Superman #4, which has a different logo.  Superman #4 is cover dated Spring 1940, and, as was usual, would have been on the newsstands two months prior to this date, therefore January or February 1940.  As the artwork and new logo for this issue would have been prepared at least a month earlier (to allow for print production), it makes the likely date for the manufacture of this rack to be Sept.-Nov., 1939.  (Although DC uses this Superman logo again one more time on issue #9, by then the logo to Flash Comics used on this rack and only on Flash #1-7 would have long since changed.)  The date of the rack is significant as it would make it not only the first DC comic book rack, but possibly the first ever superhero display item.

RARITY:  I know of three of these 7-slot racks in existence, and, of these three, the one I'm offering here is by far in the better condition.  I also know of one 10-slot, though I'm not sure of its condition, it is of later manufacture as it features a plaque for World's Finest Comics, the first issue of which is cover dated Summer 1941.  Therefore the 10-slot rack could not have been made prior to Spring 1941, and may have been made later, though this rack uses other plaques with the same earlier logos as on the 1939 rack offered here.  As I say, plaques would have FIRST been printed up with the most-current logo design IN QUANTITY and IN ANTICIPATION OF ORDERS.  It is simply the way printing is done.  The idea that DC would have printed up plaques as the orders came in is unlikely, but the idea that DC would have printed plaques as the orders came in AND used outdated logos is not believable at all.  (To avoid any further confusion about the plaques being different, though the size of the plaques on the 10-slot are larger, the printed size of the logo is exactly the same, which only means the plaques were trimmed down after being printed on larger sheets, once again, the typical way printing is done.  Why they are trimmed variously I could only guess.  A lower grade copy of this that I owned had plaques with corners that were clipped at the wrap-around that were noticeably different from the one here.)  Therefore, I suggest that this later rack uses plaques with earlier logos for the sole reason that they already had them printed up from the time of the original order to manufacture a DC display rack in late 1939, and that the one offered here is the first and original, and the best known example of it.)

CONDITION:  I grade this rack VG/F.  It has no defects to describe and is simply showing signs of use and age to a moderate degree.  The color of the wire on the rack is a maroon with a great deal of this paint still present. 

VALUE/PRICE:  Known sales: I sold a G+ example of this rack about eleven years ago for $7,500.  A Poor grade one (as it was missing one of the plaques) sold about the same time for $2,000 by an auction entity known for Pez material and not even known for selling comic book memorabilia.  I believe that typical comic book value splits aren't really applicable here because their values are based much more on getting a copy in the lower price values, where with display items the emphasis must be much more on appearance.  Quite simply, it must display.  And it's value should be linked to its ability to display.  On the G+ example I sold it is impossible to see any of the maroon paint on the wire part of the rack.  Fading of the plaques is another major consideration.  The G+ was noticeably faded, the one offered here only very slightly so.  Also, on the G+ the two lower plaques were well mottled and rusted, obscuring the logos.  Fading, mottling, rust, and incompleteness are major defects that strongly affect the value of a comic, and I submit should all the more count against an item that must display.  You'd be much less bothered by a comic that sits in a box that had an ugly defect or was incomplete than you would about something that you must look at regularly.  While on another level, a display item that looks good has the added value of being something that you look at and enjoy on a daily basis, as opposed to something stowed off in a box.  Where a low-grade comic that's even incomplete might be acceptable, a similar grade on something that must display really isn't.  At the same time, I contend the fact that it once displayed will make it all the more unlikely to turn up in high grade.  Fading would be inevitable, as they were being used as display racks and would be out in the light or even the sun and would be bound to fade to some degree.  Also, daily use around children would have surely made them worn to some degree.  Then, after they'd finished this use, they would come to us most likely having not been ideally stored, most commonly in cellars where they would rust to some extent.  I'm not familiar with the condition of the later 10-slot rack, but of the three earlier 1939 racks, the one offered here is really the only one in collectible condition.  Though the later rack has more slots, in terms of Golden Age comics, collectors know there is really an enormous difference between 1939 and 1941 (the earliest possible date for the later rack).  This 1939 rack has all the earliest superhero comic book titles -- all anthology titles, except for Superman, the first superhero to get his own title.  

With so few known, it makes these very rare.  But then that's the problem in assessing value for this.  Typically, price values are based on previous sales of comparable items.  But THERE ARE FEW ESTABLISHED SALES BECAUSE THERE ARE SO FEW IN EXISTENCE.  What to do?  Why should rarity work against it?  (If one has sold in recent years that I am not aware of, it is not impossible that it has sold for a price lower than its full value potential largely because of this very reason -- no reported sales due to its rarity.)  In the popular collecting field of antique advertising, it is always the display items that are rarer, more sought after, and valued higher than the signs and posters.  With its nice condition and its quaint, antique look and graphics, this item satisfies the desirable criteria of display-ability.  It has the historical significance of being closely linked to the earliest of comics history and superhero characters and creators. As there is only one known (at least to me) of this first rack in collectible condition, it could not be more rare.  All of this counts to make this item to be regarded among the top pieces of comic book memorabilia -- the high-end of which now regularly hits into the six figures in price.  In fact, if you asked me, I would tell you that I believe this rack to be worth $20,000 or more.  And that it is here priced at the low-end of its potential value chiefly because of the drag that no previous sales has on it.