Quote:
Originally Posted by masraum
(Post 11935728)
You might be surprised about the comics. Of course, having the comics and getting good money for them is 2 different things. I'm assuming most of the car mags probably aren't worth a ton. I've bought some old, OLD car mags online and most were pretty dirt cheap. No idea about the surfing stuff.
|
Back in the early 80's I put a few pro surfers up at my house here during a stop on the pro tour.
One was the director of competition, an Aussie named "Fatty" Al Hunt. (all Aussies have nicknames).
He was a surf mag collector and his eBay handle was
Surf Mags. Probably had the largest collection in the entire planet!
EDIT: Just did a Google search and looks like Al found a new home for his collection!
====================
Late last month the Noosa Surf Museum at Tewantin took delivery of the world’s largest collection of surfing literature, a prize coveted by surf collectors around the world, but one that has sat in more than 400 boxes stacked floor to ceiling in a two-car garage on the Central Coast of NSW for decades.
More than 19,640 magazines across 600 titles from 41 countries covering more than six decades of surfing history since the first editions of specific surf titles began popping out of California and East Coast Australia at the dawn of the 1960s, plus a sizeable collection of books of surf fiction, guides, histories and biographies, and a secondary collection of double-up copies which, at more than 5000 magazines, is probably the world’s second biggest collection.
The collection first went to market in early 2020, just as Covid kicked in, with an asking price of $US200,000.
There was a flurry of interest from collectors in the US and Australia, but most wanted to buy full sets of particular magazines, like Surfer (1960-2019) or Surfing World (established 1962 and still going), but collection owner Al Hunt was adamant – the world’s greatest surfing reference library was too important to split.
Al stuck to his guns and his garage remained full until two weeks ago, when a very large removals truck deposited the collection at entrepreneur and collector Keith Grisman’s Noosa Surf Museum.
The sale, negotiated over the winter, was for an undisclosed price but Noosa Today believes it was just in excess of $100,000.
Al Hunt, now 72, was just a teenager and promising surfer from Sydney’s North Narrabeen when he drove to Bells Beach in Victoria for the annual Easter surf contest in 1966, sitting in the back seat of film-maker and publisher Bob Evans’ station wagon, where his feet rested on boxes of Evans’ magazine, Surfing World.
Perhaps feeling guilty about stealing Al’s leg space, Evans told him to take a copy of each edition. Al Hunt spent the rest of the 10-hour journey devouring every page. A collection that would become an obsession had begun.
By the end of the ‘70s Hunt had forsaken his surf star ambitions for a more assured career path on the administrative side of surfing’s new professional organisation and world tour, first with the International Professional Surfers agency run out of Hawaii, then with the California-based Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) which grew the tour for more than 30 years, prior to a takeover in 2013 by media billionaire Dirk Ziff, who founded the World Surf League.
Judge, administrator, statistician and go-to guy as required, Hunt was along for the ride for more than 40 years of dedicated service, which has seen him honoured by several surfing territories since his retirement in 2020, most recently adding his footprints to the Huntington Beach Surfing Walk of Fame in California.
More here:
https://noosatoday.com.au/news/04-09-2022/prized-collection-for-noosa/
