The lifetime collection of a renowned comic fanatic will be auctioned starting this month in sales that include a $100,000-plus copy of Action Comics #1, the world’s most valuable comic.
The death of Christine Farrell in May of this year didn’t make many mainstream headlines.
But, in the comic collecting community she was mourned as a much-loved comic store owner and single-handed creator of one of the greatest comic collections, including a “Complete DC comics” collection.
Christine’s collection numbered around 30,000 comic books.
When, in the 1980s, she was profiled as a “comic crazed collector” she had amassed 8,000.
None were bought as an investment, but because Christine, from Burlington in Vermont, USA, loved comic books. She owned and ran Earth Prime Comics, in her home town for 40 years.
Christine in her home-town store. Image: Scoop.
Her obsession with comics started with Superman and Supergirl, but also took in celebrity books and romance comics.
Her greatest achievement was to assemble a full collection of DC comic from 1935’s New Fun Comics No. 1 on.
Most of her collection was assembled before the internet made searching for rarities relatively easy.
She was well known at comic sales and conventions and worked closely with Joe Vereneault, a comic dealer, to complete her collection.
Art Cloos, a comics expert told Scoop magazine: “Over time at the big shows I got to meet and talk to her, and we would go out to dinner when a show closed for the night. It hit hard to learn of her passing. The legacy she leaves behind can never be topped and comic fandom is much poorer for having lost her.”
Almost no-one ever saw the collection and Christine disliked publicity; a 2007 profile anonymised her.
On October 25 – 26, 2024 the sale of Christine’s collection will start at Heritage Auctions.
Christine’s copy of Action Comics #1 is already valued at $100,000. Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Bidding is already underway on the sale, with the best items attracting early attention to push prices into the 10s of thousands of dollars.
Topping bidding already is a copy of the legendary Action Comics #1.
The copy in the Christine Farrell Collection has been restored, so will not challenge the record prices this issue can reach.
Heritage sold a copy – which famously features Superman’s debut appearance – for $6 million in April this year.
The Farrell copy currently stands at $100,000 ($120,000 with buyer’s premium).
Also heading for high prices are Detective Comics #18, featuring a rare cover showing the character Fu Manchu that is already valued at $28,000 ($33,500 with premium); Flash Comics #1 stands at $36,000 ($43,200), and Double Action Comics #2 at $16,555 ($19,866).
All will surely go much higher before the sale ends.
This sale is the first of a series that will run into 2025 says Heritage Auctions Vice President Lon Allen.
“Her dedication was simply remarkable,” he told the Associated Press.
“She did most of this pre-internet! Now, you could put that collection together in several years if you had the money. But back then, tracking down every book took real devotion. And she did not own a single graded or certified book. They were in mylar sleeves, in boxes, sometimes in piles. It was clear that she just wanted to read these books, no matter how many thousands of dollars they were worth… This would have to be, by far, the best-assembled collection I’ve ever gone through.”
