What is the IRS Collection?

Your Collectors Comic Strip for 7-3-24

The story of Aran Stubbs and the IRS Collection is a crazy bit of comic book history! But there’s more to the story than what I can summarize in six panels. After you read this new comic strip, keep scrolling to get the FULL story!

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And Now, the Rest of the Story...

I first learned about the IRS collection about twelve years ago, when a comic shop I worked for bought a collection that had an copy of Tessie the Typist from the 1950s in it with a strange Certificate of Authenticity. That certificate led me down a rabbit hole of a story about crime and comics and the infamous IRS Collection.

The Man Behind the Comic 'Con'

First off, the name IRS Collection is inaccurate. The man responsible for its creation, Aran Stubbs, was a collector for the Colorado Department of Revenue (CDR) and never worked for the IRS. Stubbs was a bit eccentric and very smart. His two loves were computers and comic books. His aptitude with computers got him his job at the CDR and he quickly rose to Chief Computer Programmer in 1990. What the CDR failed to do was a simple background check on Stubbs, because if they did they would've found his two convictions for burglary and one for mail fraud.

Stubbs was observant and quickly saw the one hiccup in the Department's system that allowed him to craft his scheme. He noticed that if someone died before filing for an owed refund from a prepaid estimated tax, that refund money would sit unclaimed forever. Stubbs figured out that he could divert the funds to himself by forcing the Department’s system to issue him a check and with the refund's rightful owner gone, there would be no one to dispute this. This action would fall through the cracks of the Department. How was that possible? The early 90s was a much different time. It was before we were all connected to the internet 24/7 and before our every move was being tracked. It was much easier for Stubbs to hide his tracks. It's estimated that he started his con in August of 1991 and he wasted no time hitting all the mail order comic book dealers around the country.

It Was Going Great Until...

Aran Stubbs became known and loved among all the comic dealers for his frequent and extravagant purchases. His goal was to own every silver age comic ever published and he managed to get about 75% of the way there as well as amassing 25% of every golden age comic! He was able to get this far without suspicion for several months because he always paid with cash, but he he made the mistake of being too confident and got sloppy.

Stubbs started to pay some dealers for large dollar books with State of Colorado issued and endorsed checks. He explained this as being a representative of a group of investors who wished to put their money into large key comic books. One of the dealers who was given one of these checks was Harley Yee of Detroit. Yee's Spidey sense tingled, so he called the Colorado Department of Revenue to find out if the check was good. The Department then discovered that the name on the check belonged to a deceased person and at this point, Stubbs' goose was cooked. Dorothy Dahlquist, a publicist with the Department confirmed that security systems were already tracking a thief inside the agency: "We knew someone was doing it. The comic book angle identified Aran."

All Good Things Come to an End

Aran Stubbs was arrested in March of 1992. He was charged and pleaded guilty to a Class 5 offense, embezzlement of public property, and it's estimated that he stole from $150,000 to $500,000. He was facing 16 years in prison, but managed to get only four years probation by forfeiting the entire collection to repay the Department of Revenue and it was auctioned off in its entirety to one winning bidder.

Who Got It???

Back in 1992, Tim Collins was a small independent comic book dealer in Colorado in his mid-twenties. He dreamed of being one of the big boys like Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics and when he heard about Stubbs' collection going up for auction, he seized his chance. Collins begged his dad to co-sign for a loan if he won and he bid very aggressively on auction day. He pulled off the win and paid $200,000 for the collection. In 1993 Collins began selling the collection and became a full time comic book dealer. It was Collins who dubbed the books the IRS Collection and made sure that "each comic will be issued with a certificate of authenticity to validate it's pedigree and unique origin from this important part of comicdom history."

And now you know the rest of the story!