Do you know a Fifer, or maybe just someone living in Fife, who is feeling scunnered this week? Perhaps not, but if I was in this person's shoes I'd be feeling not just a little sick myself.
Among a pile of donated items at the St Andrews Cancer Research UK shop, a sharp-eyed volunteer spotted a rare comic. It was at the bottom of a big bag of donation and turned out to be the first Beano annual from 1939.
After taking advice from publisher D C Thomson, the charity had the book sold by a specialist comics auction house.
A final rush of bids saw it sell for an eye-watering £4264 - one of the highest prices ever paid for a copy of the book.
The manager of the shop said: "We're so grateful to the person who handed it in and to Matthew (the volunteer) for discovering how much it was worth."
I would like to think that the charity made a big effort to try to trace the person who donated the items, including the annual, but I hae ma doots. They possibly didn't have a clue they were putting an item of such value into a plastic bag and giving it to a charity shop.
Let that be a lesson to us all. The more people who rake through your charity donations before they leave your possession the better.
Note: For those with a keen interest in children's annuals, there was no Dennis the Menace in 1939. He didn't appear until 1951.
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8 comments:
By the time Dennis The Menace had arrived the Beano was a childhood memory. I always resented my parent's refusal to buy the annual because I had the weekly comic. At last I know I was right.
About ten years ago I had a mint condition Man From Uncle annual, from 1964 I think. The spine wasn't even broken.
My first wife tossed it out.
Right before she tossed me out!
There you are Demetrius. Nowadays you could sue citing the Human Rights Act. :)
A close family member of ours was quite high up in DC Thomson and we used to get all the weekly comics. At Christmas we were only allowed the Broons and Oor Willie because our parents said that was enough.
Child cruelty it was!
Oh Rab. That'll teach you to take more care of your favourite toys. :)
Ah Well!
We win some and lose some don't we Dram.
The real horror is that CRUK now have another £4,000 which they can use to persecute people who enjoy tobacco!
There is that Junican. Jings, I wonder if the owner had been a smoker.
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