$1.4m worth of rare Batman comics go missing

Rand Lawrence is the Comic Art Consignment Director at Pedigree Comics and therefore knows a thing or two about comics. Pedigree Comics does auctions of rare comic books, and right now Lawrence is warning collectors to be watchful of any new Detective or Batman comics someone tries to sell you.

They’re probably stolen.

It’s worse than that, these comics are worth about $1.4m and are from Rand Lawrence’s own collection. These were his nest egg.

Wisely, he wrote to Bleeding Cool to get the news out. He said;

I had probably the worst day today that we all fear. 439 CGC graded books were STOLEN from my indoor air-conditioned double locked storage unit. As you all know me for many years I have strived to put together the best Batman & Detective Comic collection out there. I have been the number one registered set on both titles for many years with CGC.

I know that many of you have experienced items being stolen in the past, but for me this is a first and on such a high level it’s been devastating….as this collection was my nest egg, and I had worked so hard and done without for so long to put this together that it being taken away from me this way has left me in a very bad way.

We might know who the robber is, and I am working with the police to get more information…but in the meantime I wanted to let you all know what’s going on, and to be aware if any of my books are brought to you for sale, I hope you can help me get them back as this many books coming into the market will make a splash. I don’t know if he is going to be smart enough to take them out of the slabs or will try and sell them as they are….but as I mentioned I have them all on the CGC registry and they can be identified easily. The books that were taken were the cream of the crop, and are probably valued at $1.4 million.

I am truly devastated and really need you all to be aware and keep your eyes open…as they will probably be offered to some of you sooner than later. I will send you all the list of the missing books with the cert #’s and pedigree names shortly. In the meantime if any truly high grade Bat’s or Detectives come your way PLEASE let me know asap. I truly appreciate all the help you can give, as we are all a very close knit small community and look out for each other when these bad things happen.

The ‘CGC’ referred to in the letter is probably the Certified Guaranty Company which is a third-party service that asses rare comic books for their authenticity and grade. In this case, grading refers to the condition the comic book is in.