sfcityduck

Love that Atlas ad! Love to see more!

This is that rack that puzzles me. I can't read the writing on the picture:

There are 5p price variants out there. I have seen an old comic rack which, inexplicably to me, had a tin sign topper advertising comics for (I seem to recall) 5 cents (not 5p). The question is whether the Brits (or australians) use the cents symbol. If so, the rack was probably a comic rack advertising 5p comics.

This looks like cursive capital "J" followed by a "ul".

The first letter on that Action is a cursive J, not a cursive I. A cursive capital J starts on the right and moves left, whereas a cursive capital I is the opposite.

Do the Brits use a the cent symbol? I've seen an old comic rack that had a five cents price on the sign. Never made any sense to me.

I believe I've tracked this rack down to: Little Island Comics in Toronto on Bathurst Street, just south of Bloor.

My only thought is that Superman 1 is a Tier 1 book. It is very rare (may be only one copy above 8.0 - and that is without factoring in the multiple printings issue), super-important historically (first solo superhero book), and the top copy would likely sell for well north of any book other than copies of D27 or Action 1 (a 5.5 sold for $500k).

I love the Little Nemo cover. Didn't know it existed. This is what I like the most about this site, thread where you learn new stuff. I commented early, haven't commented since, so let me say again kudos for this thread!

Saw it on "Used Victoria" but the seller didn't want to ship it to me and he found a buyer before I could get a Vancouver relative lined up to pick it up. I ended up getting a great Gold Key wood rack with the same graphics, but not quite the same pop. See it up thread.

Oops, I left out the 1961 Dell "postage stamp" rack, one of the very coolest of all racks. I've seen one in the Northwest, and this one was posted on this site by Comicdey: These spinners, because they have eight sides, hold a ton of comics.

One of you Canadians beat me out for this Gold Key rack sold in Victoria. Man I really wanted this one:

I'll be going more in depth on Classics Illustrated, but they had a really nice looking countertop rack: Seems like the perfect way to display your favorite slabs.

Moving on, I previously posted this flyer picturing a King/Ace/Feature Comics rack: Here's an example of a similar rack for King/Magic/Ace: Personally, I love these countertop racks.

Back to Dell, there is also a sheet metal rack, basically a sheet metal version of the standard wood rack, with a single Dell sign panel. I've seen, one but misplaced the picture. I don't think it is GA though, probably 1960s. I also have seen a spinner rack with a red four sided sign that says "Dell" in white letters. That one may be 1970s. And that's about all the info I have on Dell GA racks.

About a month or so ago on eBay, Hulk 181s in the same CGC and Steve B. grade and page quality (ow/w) garnered $1,050 (after 42 bids) for the CGC and $1,225 (after 44 bids) for the the Steve B. So I think anecdotal evidence just depends on what examples you look at. Comparing the guys from Oregon and Steve B. or CGC is a joke. Steve B. and CGC share a lot of history and credibility. The Oregon company has its own unique reputation.

About a month or so ago on eBay, Hulk 181s in the same CGC and CBCS grade and page quality (ow/w) garnered $1,050 (after 42 bids) for the CGC and $1,225 (after 44 bids) for the CBCS. So I think anecdotal evidence just depends on what examples you look at. Comparing PGX and CBCS or CGC is a joke. CBCS and CGC share a lot of history and credibility. PGX has a unique reputation.

Love your Dell rack! A wooden Dell rack is at the top of my wantlist. Right now I'm making due with a Gold Key wooden rack I use to store some of my oversized comic strip collections while I figure out a comic book room setup - so I'm right there with you in liking the lack of comic sized slots: That Little Golden Book rack is supercool also!

It is harder to date Dell racks than DC racks because Dell never was part of the CCA. Dell's heyday ended in 1962 when Western took most of the licensed properties to Gold Key, but it continued limping along until 1974. I'm fairly certain that wood racks date back to the GA. Most metal racks probably post-date the GA but are 1950s (the ones with characters). And a few may even post-date the events of 1962 (the ones with just a Dell logo and no characters). Here's some examples:

As a quick digression, that rare format Dell wooden rack is very similar to a Dell paperback rack that also had dividers on the shelves: I think the wooden racks with dividers were the earliest used. I've seen a different, but equally cool, Dell paperback rack here in an SF bookstore without dividers:

Here's a pic of a rack with the extra sign added at the bottom (not Robot Man's which I think looks much better): You might notice that the bottom, not originally attached, sign has a different color scheme (blue/pink) from the top two signs (blue/yellow). I don't believe that sign was repainted because Dell used pink signs on its metal spinner racks: And a very very rare wooden Dell comic rack in a different format exists (the only one I've seen) with the blue/pink paint scheme (owned by dthompson_w-migration): So if you see a Dell wooden rack with a blue/pink color scheme, the paint is original.

Moving on to Dell. Dell has the most common of all the wooden racks: I believe that these racks were originally made without any signage at the bottom. However, some folks, including Robot Man, have added an extra sign to the bottom of the rack which, I must admit, while not original makes it look even neater.

No. But if you hunt, you can find original racks that are affordable.

Quick digression back to DC for a minute, with kudos to Robot Man again (who I hope drops by), here's a different, very rare countertop spinner, version of the DC GA rack I posted up above which I believe is owned by him: