This has always been an interesting topic for me. It started with a discussion about the Mile High/Edgar Church Wonder Woman #1 being bought by someone unknown to the hobby more than 40 years ago and never resurfacing. The early dispersal of the San Francisco/Tom Reilly books also lead to some similar speculation. So! The topic of today’s video is some books that we know that exist (or in the worst case scenario existed at one point), but are currently whereabouts unknown.

Wonder Woman #1 Edgar Church/Mile High Copy

FWIW, there are a bunch of holes in the Mile High Catalog Wonder Woman listings. Assuming Edgar bought full runs, which he did with mostly everything else, the original catalog was missing 1,5,6,8,9,11,14,15 and 19 from the first 24 issues, so they all were sold before the catalog was put out. Since then a few have shown up, so they’re not all missing.

#5 CGC 9.4
#9 CGC 9.6
#14 CGC 9.0

What hasn’t shown up is the #1 which, considering the overall quality of the Church collection and the condition of the rest of the books in the Wonder Woman run, could be expected to be among the best copies in the world. There is a CGC 9.4 in the census and 9.0s have sold for $291100 in Dec 2016 and $226878 in Aug 2017. It’s not a stretch to imagine that the Church copy would be at least a 9.0 and would be worth $4-500,000. If it’s a 9.4? It’s absolutely a $1,000,000 book.

The story as I’ve heard it is that as Chuck was bringing the collection into the store, somebody came in, saw it, commented that they’d always wanted a nice copy, bought it and left. Never to be seen again. Which is kind of crazy, if you think about it, since like… the Sensation #1 (NM+, by the way) was listed for $1000 so this was at minimum high three figures. That’s a pretty hefty impulse buy for a comic book in the 1970s.

Where is it? Is it forgotten in a drawer or closet somewhere? Is it still in existence, even? Is it still high grade? Did a mouse use it to make a home? Will it ever surface? If it does, will it be identified as the Church copy?

This is why this kind of speculation is fun. There are so many variables at play.

San Francisco/Tom Reilly Copies of Batman #1 (9+) and Detective Comics #27 (8+)

There are other Reilly copies that were sold off in the 1970s and have disappeared from the hobby. I chose these two because I love Batman #1 and Detective Comics #27 a super duper lot. They’re also two of the most valuable books in the hobby!

San Francisco/Reilly copies are incredibly nice- comparable to Church copies. So… we can expect great things from these books if they ever show back up!

The story is Tom Reilly started buying comics in the 1930s and when he went away to WW2 asked his parents to keep buying them. He was killed in the war and his books remained unread until they were discovered in the 1970s and went out into the market.

I have anecdotal grades for these two books- The Batman #1 is supposed to be 9+ and the Detective Comics #27 is supposed to be 8+. If those grades held up they would both be multi-million dollar books.

If these showed up I think they would be identifiable because of the undecipherable, but recognizable “Tom Reilly” stamp.

I’m interested in doing more research on this pedigree as I prepare myself for my comic book pedigree tier list video series (which will kick off over the next few weeks, I think)

A Pair of Detective Comics Mysteries<

Does this section cover two books? Or three? Or… maybe one? This is a mystery I have yet to solve. For the sake of this video, We’ll call it two since the title talks about five books and one of the books in this section is not exactly missing, just mysterious.

Let’s talk about what we know. There are records of two copies of Detective Comics #27 that would be multi-million dollar books.

The first is what I’ve long called the “Other High Grade/FN 68 Copy,” a book which is the first known $100,000 sale (not trade) selling for $101,000 in 1993.

The second is a CGC 8.0 graded copy of Detective Comics #27 that sold very early in the CGC era.

Let’s look at both and then tie them together in a decade old mystery.

The "other" high grade copy of Detective Comics #27

I've had this book pretty definitively quoted as being a 9.*. Interestingly, it was listed as only a FN68 in the 24th edition of the Overstreet Price Guide. I'd love to know why there's such a discrepancy. Still, the people I've talked to about it (including one of the people who owned it) say it's an extremely nice book and for many years it was described as the second highest graded and best possibly available if it were to come up for sale (the Allentown copy not being available in any universe.)

In that same guide it was listed as having sold twice in 1993- once for $81,000 then again for $101,000. The latter figure, I believe, makes this the first documented $100,000 sale.

I don’t know the current location of this book.

Mastro Detective Comics #27 CGC 8.0

This one is crazy since it’s not just a question of “well, it was sold back in the 1970s so of course it’s missing.” At the dawn of the CGC era, in 2001, a sports memorabilia auctioneer Mastro (who were later investigated by the FBI, that’s fun) sold a CGC 8.0 copy of Detective Comics #27 for $278,190.00. We assumed it then just went into a collection. That was until I got the following comment on my site:

“I had and in theory still have a deal to buy the Detective 27 CGC 8.0. It's very disturbing to me but the collector who owns the book claims that he can't find it. Does anyone here believe this? If it was stolen or lost in a fire I would have an easier time dealing with it. What do you think the book is worth?”

This anecdote was backed up in the Daily News of all places as Mastro was in the papers because they were being investigated by the FBI and the commenter was mentioned in print.

This one is documented as “missing.” Which is super shady and/or weird.

And then there is the Detective Comics #27 CGC 9.2

I do not know where this book came from. I've spoken to several people and gotten differing opinions on this book's origin, from several people who normally know these sorts of things. Additionally, absolutely no one wants to talk about this book on the record. So, I speculate…

I think there are four reasonable possibilities for this book. The fourth is a new idea that I just had, ten years after this book showed up in the census.

• It's an unknown book, freshly graded.
• It's the "other high grade copy" (see #7) resurfacing 20+ years after selling for $101k.
• It's the "missing" Mastronet copy returned from its vacation and pressed up to a 9.2. Looking at the scan that follows and checking the grading notes it's a possibility. It was graded harshly at the time (just look at it!) and had some pressable defects (non-breaking "finger creases", etc.) so it's entirely plausible that it's this new 9.2. "Non-breaking finger creases!" That's like a big "press me" alert flashing in your face when you read grader's notes.
• It’s both! The FN68 copy could easily have been graded early on, gotten an 8.0 before pressing was as common as it is now, and then returned from its “missing” status as a 9.2. Why had I not thought of this idea before? It would collapse three of the most valuable comics I’ve tracked over the past decade into one, which is crazy, so maybe that’s why? I don’t know, but it’s quite possible.

So there you have it- a bunch of million dollar comics out there that are missing, or are at least mysterious!