The David Toth Collection

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As we've been apparently joined by Andrew Toth, the son of David Toth, I'd like to use this thread to welcome Andrew to the boards and serve as a forum for discussing the Toth books and asking questions of Andrew.

For those that don't know about the Toth collection, it's an amazing collection of books that has had HG collectors of early SA DC going nuts since they started selling on Heritage since the spring of 2008. Here's Heritage's press release on it:

DC Comics Featured In David N. Toth Collection Auction

Published April 23rd, 2008

 

 

 

Dallas, Texas: The best copies known to exist of some of the most beloved comics of the Baby Boomer generation will be sold at auction May 22-23 by Heritage Auction Galleries as part of the David N. Toth collection, valued at over $300,000.

 

The first appearances of the Justice League of America, Supergirl, Batgirl, and the Legion of Super-Heroes are among the key issues to be auctioned. Most date from 1957-1963.

 

“Condition is everything to the comic collector,” said Jim Steele, Chief Comic Cataloger for Heritage. “You can find these comics in average shape pretty easily, but some of these had never been reported in true Near Mint condition before, as comics weren’t typically seen as ‘collectible’ until the mid-1960s. Back in the late 50s/early 60s, they were primarily entertaining - and disposable - reading for kids.”

 

“Most of these comics come to auction with some frequency, but to have the best copy we’ve ever seen of each, together in one collection, is truly awe-inspiring,” Steele said. “High-grade books from this period are extremely hot right now, so we expect quite a bidding frenzy to take place as soon as this auction opens!”

I'll start off with a few questions for Andrew that have been running around in my head since the collection first surfaced:

1. I still haven't picked up a real pattern in the books except that David apparently liked Superman a lot. What was his collecting modus operandi? Or was it really just random except for a few core titles that he clearly collected regularly?

2. What exactly is in the collection, and how much more remains to be brought to market?

3. Were you or your father active in the comic collecting hobby in recent years, or was it more like learning all about the hobby in the course of researching the best way to sell his collection? Was your father ever an active collector again after the period when he accumulated the bulk of the collection?

Please pass on our appreciation to your Dad for being a careful collector back in a period when nobody was being a careful collector. I hope he understands what an absolute revelation his collection has been for collectors who focus on DCs from the late 1950s to early 1960s.

First thank you tth2 I was sorta thinking the same thing about having a thread devoted to everyone’s questions. But I didn't want to be presumptuous and start it myself and I didn’t want to flood the JLA thread w/ all the questions.

I’ll try to be as concise as possible I know you all have a lot of questions. My dad and I have been reading the boards for the past year and have marveled at some of the stories you guys come up with. (thumbs u

one of my couple of Toth's....a real beauty!

1. My dad grew up in a small town, Granite City Ill (not Canada )on the east side of the river from St. Louis. He would buy them at a five and dime store that his mom worked at. He knew when the new ones were coming so he was always there on that day. Mainly superhero as you’ve guessed but it was really anything he could get his hands on. He always tried to get the one’s from the middle of the stack so they wouldn’t have twine creases.

2. Currently about half of what we gave to Heritage has been sold but they only took about 1% of the entire collection.

3. My dad collected regularly from about 1955-68 took a short brake while at college and started again in 73-81. I started in the early 90’s (I was one of the kids that got hooked on Marvel Cards) when my dad and I joined forces and collected just about everything until 05’. Just got to darn expensive w/ all the darn variants.

1. My dad grew up in a small town, Granite City Ill (not Canada )on the east side of the river from St. Louis. He would buy them at a five and dime store that his mom worked at. He knew when the new ones were coming so he was always there on that day. Mainly superhero as you’ve guessed but it was really anything he could get his hands on. He always tried to get the one’s from the middle of the stack so they wouldn’t have twine creases.

 

2. Currently about half of what we gave to Heritage has been sold but they only took about 1% of the entire collection.

 

3. My dad collected regularly from about 1955-68 took a short brake while at college and started again in 73-81. I started in the early 90’s (I was one of the kids that got hooked on Marvel Cards) when my dad and I joined forces and collected just about everything until 05’. Just got to darn expensive w/ all the darn variants.

 

Wow!

Here's my book from the collection;

I should have bought a couple of the DP's in the Nov. auction, but completely flaked out

Currently about half of what we gave to Heritage has been sold but they only took about 1% of the entire collection.

This is great news, especially if the remainder of the collection is preserved as nicely as the books sold already through Heritage.

Here's a Toth book I purchased from Heritage:

Is the bulk of the collection post 73? Trying to see what lies ahead.

Also...Any Wonder Womans?

The rest of the collection to be sold is still mainly late silver early bronze w/ some ungraded early silver sneaking in there.

And yes there is a long run of Wonder Womens, I'm not sure why they havn't come up in the auctions earlier. Maybe just Mid-grade not sure

Welcome to the Boards. (I guess I better go read the JLA thread.)

Did your Dad ever search out back issues when just starting out or were purchases only off of the news stand?

1. My dad grew up in a small town, Granite City Ill (not Canada )on the east side of the river from St. Louis. He would buy them at a five and dime store that his mom worked at. He knew when the new ones were coming so he was always there on that day. Mainly superhero as you’ve guessed but it was really anything he could get his hands on. He always tried to get the one’s from the middle of the stack so they wouldn’t have twine creases.

 

2. Currently about half of what we gave to Heritage has been sold but they only took about 1% of the entire collection.

Were there any Showcases or Brave & Bolds in there? There've been some fabulous Flash that have been sold by Heritage so far, but is there a complete Flash run, particularly going back to #105? Same question for Green Lantern. There've been some fantastic issues, but nothing close to a complete run and no apparent order in which issues have appeared so far.

Is this just a case of Heritage picking the best copies first, which could be slabbed without pressing, and the other books have appeared out of order because of delays from the pressing and slabbing process?

3. My dad collected regularly from about 1955-68 took a short brake while at college and started again in 73-81. I started in the early 90’s (I was one of the kids that got hooked on Marvel Cards) when my dad and I joined forces and collected just about everything until 05’. Just got to darn expensive w/ all the darn variants

Wow, that's amazing. At what point do Marvels start coming into the collection, or does it stay all DC? What are his plans to sell the rest of the books?

Since other people have posted some of their Toth books, here are 2 of mine.

Andrew, did Heritage or CGC talk to your dad about getting a pedigree designation on the collection? If not, I think you should seriously consider it. I strongly believed that just the books that have been provided to Heritage merit pedigree status, but if that's the just the tip of the iceberg of a huge collection of similarly high quality comics, it seems to me there's no question that they should be considered a pedigree, and the books that have been sold so far shouldn't get lost in the shuffle.

I don't think in the early days he looked for back issues. He was only 11 or 12 when he started and once they were off the newstand I think that was the end of them.

Yes Heritage mainly picked off the Cream of the crop, so to speak, to sell first and they were waiting on some insight on what could be pressed.

When he started collecting again in 72/73 it became a DC/Marvel collection. Before that it was all DC/Dell. We did not consigne many of the Dells I think most have already sold.

Yes one of our chief reasons for selling was the hopes that we may get a Pedigree designation. But thus far we've been declined. So all you guys help us petition to get there.

Green Lantern & Flash are two of my dad's favorite characters. Unfortunately their runs both started mid way. Flash started w/ 122 at least he got in before the major key and GL starts at 8. I asked him once way he didn’t have earlier ones and he thinks maybe the store just never got them.

There are B&B and Showcase runs but in the beginning he would only buy them if it had a character he liked if not he’d pass. So there are some early holes but it gets complete pretty quick.

The rest of the collection to be sold is still mainly late silver early bronze w/ some ungraded early silver sneaking in there.

 

And yes there is a long run of Wonder Womens, I'm not sure why they havn't come up in the auctions earlier. Maybe just Mid-grade not sure

Cool and thanks.

So far about 10 Wonder Woman books have come up for sale and that is why I asked.

The rest of the collection to be sold is still mainly late silver early bronze w/ some ungraded early silver sneaking in there.

 

And yes there is a long run of Wonder Womens, I'm not sure why they havn't come up in the auctions earlier. Maybe just Mid-grade not sure

 

Cool and thanks.

 

So far about 10 Wonder Woman books have come up for sale and that is why I asked.

There was a total of 110 cosigned starting w/ #70 pretty solid from 156-274

Andrew,

Were there any pre hero marvels in the collection?

Hi,

Are their any nice runs of DC Sci-Fi from 1955-1960 -- such titles as House of Mystery, Tales of the Unexpected, My Greatest Adventure, Strange Adventures, and/or House of Secrets?

Thanks,

Bill