Owner of Stolen Comic Book Collection Takes No More Chances – Sold at Auction
- by Michael Stillman
Randy Lawrence's Batman #2 (Heritage Auctions photo).
There are many ways to dispose of a book collection, some good, some bad. Randy Lawrence has experienced both. He has seen his valuable comic book collection stolen, but then it was recovered and now he is selling it and achieving high returns. It has been a trying almost two years, but if all is well that ends well, then all is well.
Randy Lawrence began collecting comic books over 50 years ago, building one of the finest Batman collections in existence. The value has been estimated at $2 million. He called it the Alfred Pennyworth Collection, “Alfred Pennyworth” being a pseudonym he used to keep his identity confidential. He kept his collection in a storage unit in Boca Raton, Florida, where he lives. That was where in early January of 2019, a thief entered the unit through the roof and made off with Lawrence's collection. Half a century worth of work was gone in an instant.
The pain must have been enormous for Lawrence. He has described his collection as being almost like children. And then there was another factor to make it even more painful. The comic books were not insured.
Finding stolen books can take a long time, or they may never be found. Lawrence was facing a bleak future. However, almost as suddenly as the books were gone, he got a break in the case. Only a couple of days later, Phillip Weisbauer of nearby Royal Palm Beach entered a comic book shop in Mesa, Arizona, with four valuable comic books to sell. He must have assumed that no one so far away from Palm Beach County would know anything about the theft and he could safely sell them. He assumed wrong. Comic book sellers, like regular booksellers, have a network, and one of the owner's of the Mesa store checked with his contacts and discovered the comics had been stolen. Weisbauer was told to come back in a few days to complete the deal and when he did police were waiting.
Unfortunately, the wheels of justice turn slowly and Lawrence did not immediately get his comics back. It took more like a year and a lawyer to get them back. Once he did have them again, Lawrence decided it was time to figure out what he was going to do with the collection. He chose the safest way to protect his investment. He put them up for sale and let someone else worry about the issue of security. So, he contacted Heritage Auctions and this past November 19-21, they included the Alfred Pennyworth Collection as part of a larger comic book sale they were holding. Lawrence, wisely, cashed out.
The highest price paid from Lawrence's collection went to a Batman No. 2 from 1940. It sold for $63,000. That would have been a great investment as the cover price was 10 cents. If you're wondering, that's a 63 million percent return. However, this was not the high point of the auction, as another Batman comic achieved the highest price ever for a comic book at Heritage Auctions and the highest price ever for a Batman comic. That went to Detective Comics No. 27 published in 1939. That is the one that introduced the Batman character to the world. That one sold for $1.5 million. That, too, had a 10 cent cover price, providing a 1 billion 500 million percent return. However, Batman is not the all-time king of comics. That honor still goes to Superman, whose first appearance in Action Comics No. 1 took in $3.2 million in 2014.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Lucianus Samosatensis. Dialogoi, editio princeps, second issue, Florence, Laurentius Francisci de Alopa, 1496. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Boccaccio (Giovanni). Il Decamerone, Florence, Philippo di Giunta, 1516. £10,000 to £15,000.
Forum, July 17: Henry VII (King) & Philip the Fair (Duke of Burgundy). [Intercursus Magnus], [Commercial and Political Treaty between Henry VII and Philip Duke of Burgundy], manuscript copy in Latin, original vellum, 1499. £8,000 to £12,000.
Forum, July 17: Bible, English. The Holy Bible, Conteyning the Old Testament, and the New, Robert Barker, 1613. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Bond (Michael). A Bear Called Paddington, first edition, signed presentation inscription from the author, 1958. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum Auctions Fine Books, Manuscripts and Works on Paper 17th July 2025
Forum, July 17: Yeats (William Butler). The Secret Rose, first edition, with extensive autograph corrections, additions and amendments by the author for a new edition, 1897. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Byron (George Gordon Noel, Lord). Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, bound in dark green morocco elaborately tooled in gilt and with 3 watercolours to fore-edge, by Fazakerley of Liverpool, 1841. £4,000 to £6,000.
Forum, July 17: Miró (Juan), Wassily Kandinsky, John Buckland-Wright, Stanley William Hayter and others.- Spender (Stephen). Fraternity, one of 101 copies, with signed engravings by 9 artists. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Sowerby (George Brettingham). Album comprising 22 leaves of original watercolour drawings of fossil remains of Cheltenham and Vicinity, [c.1840]. £6,000 to £8,000.
Forum, July 17: Mathematics.- Blue paper copy.- Euclid. De gli Elementi, Urbino, Appresso Domenico Frisolino, 1575. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Book of Hours by the Masters of Otto van Moerdrecht, Use of Sarum, in Latin, Southern Netherlands (Bruges), c.1450. £20,000 to £30,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Albert Einstein. Autograph letter signed, to Attilio Palatino, on his research into General Relativity, 12 May 1929. £12,000 to £18,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: John Gould. The Birds of Europe, [1832-] 1837, 5 volumes, contemporary half morocco, subscriber’s copy. £40,000 to £60,000.
Sotheby’s Books, Manuscripts and Music from Medieval to Modern Now through July 10, 2025
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: Ian Fleming. A collection of James Bond first editions, 8 volumes in all. £8,000 to £12,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.K. Rowling. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, 1997, first edition, hardback issue. £50,000 to £70,000.
Sotheby’s, Ending July 10: J.R.R. Tolkien. Autograph letter signed, to Amy Ronald, on Pauline Baynes's map of Middle Earth, 1970. £7,000 to £10,000.
DOYLE, July 23: STOKES, I. N. PHELPS. The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909. New York: Robert H. Dodd, 1915-28. Estimate: $3,000-5,000
DOYLE, July 23: [AUTOGRAPH - US PRESIDENT]FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT. A signed photograph of Franklin D. Roosevelt. Estimate $500-800
DOYLE, July 23: [ARION PRESS]. ABBOTT, EDWIN A. Flatland. A Romance of Many Dimensions. San Francisco, 1980. Estimate $2,000-3,000.
DOYLE, July 23: TOLSTOY, LYOF N. and NATHAN HASKELL DOLE, translator. Anna Karénina ... in eight parts. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., [1886]. Estimate: $400-600
DOYLE, July 23: ROWLING, J.K. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. London: Bloomsbury, 2000. Estimate $1,200-1,800
Freeman’s | Hindman Western Manuscripts and Miniatures July 8, 2025
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FRANCESCO PETRARCH (b. Arezzo, 20 July 1304; d. Arqua Petrarca, 19 July 1374). $20,000-30,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF THE VITAE IMPERATORUM (active Milan, 1431-1459). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF ATTAVANTE DEGLI ATTAVANTI (GABRIELLO DI VANTE) (active Florence, c. 1452-c. 1520/25). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. FOLLOWER OF HERMAN SCHEERE (active London, c. 1405-1425). $15,000-20,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. An exceptionally rare, illuminated music leaf from a Mozarabic Antiphonal with sister leaves mostly in museum collections. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Exceptional leaf from a prestigious Antiphonary by a leading illuminator of the late Duecento. $11,500-14,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. CIRCLE OF THE MASTER OF MS REID 33 and SELWERD ABBEY SCRIPTORIUM (AGNES MARTINI?) (active The Netherlands, Groningen, c. 1468-1510). $10,000-15,000.
Freeman’s | Hindman, July 8. Previously unknown illumination from one of the most renowned Gothic Choir Book sets of the Middle Ages. $6,000-8,000.