Robot Man

And lastly, I found some cool shots of a young Mitch! These were taken at an early San Diego Con. Looks like Mitch was smooth with the ladies. Great shots of a young proud collector with his prizes. Wow, Daring #1 and Cap #3 were even hard to find back in those days. Nice hair too although I believe mine was close to my belt in those days. Glad to see you are still collecting and loving comics Mitch. These young wippersnappers sure missed out didn't they?

Next up we have the legendary Leonard Brown with a recent buy. I love this stuff still wrapped in bundles like they were ready for the trash. That wall of BLB's was mindblowing. (all top condition!) Here is his and Richard Olson's buisness card. you can tell how old it is because they were only buying comics up to 1962! Hi Rich! And last but not least, if you were one of the "chosen few" you could get into the vault at Collector's Book store with Malcom Willits. Nice stash of Batmans don't you think? (in multiples!) A side note Vinnie wasn't the first comic dealer to wear a tie althought he probably wears one better than Malcom. (Never did trust comic dealers in suits)...

Thought you might enjoy some photos from the "ole daze. First up we have I believe David Belmont. He used to be a part of the American Comic Book Co. crew with David T Alexander and Terry Stroud. Back in the day, these guys were buying up collections like drunken sailors. Wonderful stuff coming in the doors everyday. This was from a party after a big Marvel buy. (Check out the stacks next to a hammered Belmont: Here is an identified partier with a big pile of ECs!

Richard Love your Dell rack. I like how it folds flat. I have one similar that says: "Hey Kids! Comics!" at the top. I use it when I do the flea markets and put cheap comics for kids in it. They love to bend them just like well did. Funny story about your rack. I saw one like yours at a toy show once just as Theo Holstein was buying it. Damn! I bump into him all the time at shows here. He's a character but real cool to talk to. He, like many of us still "loves the stuff". Now don't bite my head off gang, I love everybody!

Hi Pat! Love your robots. They are all so different and have different "looks". A lot of the repro ones are very cool as well. Hard to tell from the originals. I'm a bit of a purist on them so I gotta stick with the originals myself. A few years back I purged my collection of most of my "spacemen" (human faces). Now they gotta have that "blank stare" to sit on my shelves.

Yeah, Howard probably used all that money he took from us fanboys for good plastic surgery... I never really ordered much from him. Like Mitch said, he would always send something else I didn't want. I had to scrimp and save for EC's then I would get a Blackhawk? WTF? I did get a lot of stuff from Robert Bell and especially Bill Thailing. My dad would yell at me for "running up the phone bill for those stupid funny books".

No, I've never had a straight jacket, sigh... I'm also missing the MAD keychain. I do have tons of pre-MAD Alfred stuff but have kind of slowed down on it in the past new years. Again, I'll post some more when I get the time.

Wow, that seems pretty harsh to me. That presents beautiful. I've thought about having mine restored but everytime I looked at it I would know and I think it would feel a little tainted. It is what it is and I love it anyway. Books with some wear tell a story and have "character". Now, high grade stuff takes my breath away. The fact that a book could last that long without some kid getting a hold of it is amazing. I guess I've always been more attracted to the "bad" girls...

Hi Gang. Yes, I will from try and keep my stuff mostly in this thread. I've got some cool ideas but just have to make the time to shoot photos and post it. "All in good time my pretties!" Oh no matter what we all say, this really is "junk" to most "normal people". If you don't believe me, take one of your favorite comics into 7-11 and try and trade it for a 6 pack... But us "abnormal" people with refined tastes know the real story.

Thanks BB. I've enjoyed seeing your stuff too. I think we have similar tastes. I know you live in PA. Some of the best flea markets in the country. I love going once a year to Addamstown, Kutztown and the area around these. Surely, you must bump into some great toys in that area? I know I've found some real cool stuff everytime I'm there. Bob

Nice book Richard but obviously not "crusty" enough for me. Is that a Reprint??? Just pulling your chain... Bob

Man those early Prize comics are so cool with Green Lama and Frankenstein. Real good contents. I'm piecing the run together a little at a time but they are hard. I think I have an Okajima and of course a "Paul" copy. If you want a real challenge, try to find the Double Detective Pulps that the Lama appeared in before the comic. I've also got the club kit! Bob

Well not technically free. I traded some other stuff for it that I didn't care about or had much into. I sure couldn't afford it now! Most of my Timelys are low grade because I spend too much money on Robots! Bob

The Dell rack is probably 1950's. A very lucky find. I have a couple more old racks I can post later. The Silver Streak photo is hand signed probably by a secretary. You have to realize, this club like many others like US Jones and American Eagle Defenders Only ran a few issues before folding. I have only seen one other of these Silver Streak pictures. Another real rare one in that picture is the Great Comics Great Zarro pin (3) issues! The Superman Action Comics ring (silver with bronze top) was a contest price in 1939. Ran in one teens number of Action comics. Maybe when I get the time I will start a thread on them if you guys want. I even have. Wonder Woman valentine for Sharon. Bob

Cat, thanks for bumping the thread. I am still figuring my way around here. I will post some cool old days photos tonight when I get home tonight and load them on Photobucket. Stay tuned! Bob

Yep it's an official "Paul" book! I remember seeing it in one of the boxes. I should have bought it but there were so many more I wanted more at the time. Glad it went to you Bill because you are a true spoon Tracy fan. Oops, I am learning. Don't say the D word. The people you bought it from are the buyers of this collection.

Oh heck yes. The last time it was full of Dells was when I first got it and took this photo. I put all kinds of paper stuff in it as well as comics. I just had it full of Christmas covers. I always try to use it for holidays. My favorite is Halloween covers.

Post a pic of it when you get it and I can probably tell since I saw so many of them. There are about 4 different styles of his name. Also some are in ink and some in pencil. Wasn't really a pedigree and the seller kept no list. Just one heck of a cool collection. I still get a little excited when I see one.

For mere Dead Presidents? Surely you jest. One thing you will learn about me is that I am THE true collector. I had to WORK for these. Being a man of modest means I had to pick and choose carefully when I got the chance at these. Here's the deal, Paul was a packrat and a bit of a wirdoh. He lived alone and moved these older books from MO. I have a couple that have his name and address filled out in coupons. He had comics, pulps, magazines, books, fanzines and all kinds of paper stuff. In short, a horder. When he passed away his family like the Church heirs wanted the house cleaned out. A local guy was the lucky benefactor of his hord. I met the seller at a local toy show about 2 years ago. He had 3 mag boxes of these cool comics. I bought a big stack of comics and nice pulps and talked the guy up a bit. He told me the story and the fact that he had a LOT more books. I called the guy weekly and got the brush off. Finally, through a friend that knew him well, he let me come over to buy some more. He had 3 or 4 more boxes and I bought a bunch more. All the while a couple of other guys were getting some as well.He told me that a month or so earlier he had sold Ed most of the Detectives and Bats (including #1). Ed also got most of the All Stars (including #8 and #36), a nice batch of America's Best, about 6 nice Caps in the #60's and a few more assorted DCs. Some where I have a picture of his score as he posted pictures in the Events section trying to lure buyers to the Long Beach Con about 2 years ago. The guy and his wife wanted to dole them out a little at a time so I didn't get to see all of them. A local toy dealer got a huge amount of mostly non-key DC's. I went for the "oddball" publishers like MLJ, Nedor and others. The toy dealer did Terry O'neil's show last year and got slammed by Jamie Grahm, Harley, Carbo and others. The couple was putting a lot of them on ebay for a while so a lot are scattered to the wind. (I recently bought an Action from a guy on ebay with Paul's name on it so they are out there). He kept most of the ECs but I got a few of them. He still lists from time to time but they are really picked through and he has nothing left of significance. It was a rough few months not knowing what I was missing but I am still happy with what I was able to get. A lot of them didn't have Paul's name on them especially after the 1940's. Paul had books all the way up to about 4 years ago. I never even looked at the SA books because I'm a GA collector. Was a fun ride though. You just don't see OO collections like that much any more. Here's a few more for you:

The Tales of Terror annual is annother one I want "put in the box" when I go. It's a pretty nice copy that I got from Moondog when he first got on ebay. Probably the most I ever spent for a comic up to that time. I laugh at the price now but then it was a lot of money for me.What make it even more special it has Crypt #20 (#1), VOH #12 (#1), HOF #15 (#1) and WS #13 (#2) contents! I will try and take a better shot of it next time I have it in hand.

Hi Skypinkblu. Yeah the Sensation Comics pin is very cool.I also have the Flash pinback too.There isn't a whole lot of GA Wonder Woman stuff. I do have an early valentine. I've yet to find the Infintate Parilysis postcard but who knows...

Yeah, the underground comics area stinks. Lots of new stuff. You have to get out into the antique area and dig to find any good stuff. I could write a book on the cool finds I've found at the flea markets. You want to find the people who found them at an estate sale or garage sale. Same with toys and advertising stuff. One of the weirdest finds I ever found there was a lady with over 100 copies of Hoppalong Cassidy #37. I asked here how much they were and she said "Do you want to buy them all?". I thought OK what the heck and said "how much?" She said "how about $20.?" I couldn't get my wallet out fast enough! One of my friends who isn't a comic guy once bought a large paper box of comics for $250. He brought them over to me to find out if he got anything good. The first couple of hand fulls were SA DC's. Nothing special but still a good find. Then I hit FF4 #3,5,6,8 to about #20, some more OK DC's then an Avengers #1 and some spotty sinle digit issues, more DC's and some early Daredevils incliding #1. There were a few early Spideys. The last handfull was a fine! Spidey #1! I about wet my pants. My friend had no idea. I offered to give him a fair price but the person_who_is_obnoxiously_self-impressed sold them to a dealer friend of his in AZ way too cheap. So much for trying to be honest with a friend. (We are still buddies anyway).

Hi Surfer Yeah, the Cap Annual is annother one of my favorites. I've owned it over 20 years. I got it in a trade. I posted a full size pic in the Timely thread. It's beat, but it's all mine! Bob

These books are for Ciorac. I know you have an obsession with "Paul" books too. Ed didn't originally find the collection. He was just one of the first buyers. I got about 100 of them after Ed. Here ais a sampling of some of the cooler ones:There were a lot of DC's Some nice Schomburg Nedors: (some not marked "Paul")

I know I can't compete with you Timely guys and won't even try. But here is one you don't see every day. I got this in a trade from a guy over 20 years ago. Don't remember what I traded for it but knew it was special even then. I might be the lowest grade copy out there but it cost me nothing and I'm just happy I got a copy at all. Now if I could only find a Marvel Mystery Annual, I could die happy...