Robot Man

I was hunting pulps. Not many there and the ones that were there were priced at to the moon prices. Just not even somewhat realistic. No one knows how to price them right now. But just to be safe, just display them seemed to be what was happening.

Barbie was there as was my friend The Creature!

Metro’s usual wall of drool. Actually, nothing I haven’t seen a million times before. I was there to hunt for unicorns. And no, I didn’t ask prices on the “big boy” books…

Bumped into my buddy Brad Sloan from F-VF comics. Brad was having a real good day.

Hit WonderCon yesterday.

The ship has long ago sailed on “cheap” Okajimas… Way back when they first hit the open market, I bought a handful from Ron Murrary. They wern’t “cheap” even back then but special and I knew if I passed I would have been sorry so I tightened up my belt and bought them. Worked out very well for me…

True. Dealing comics is a tough business. And guys like Bob and a few others still in the business have become a bit hardened to it. At the end of the day, many still do it not for the untold riches they reap but for the love of the medium that got them there in the first place. That and the fact that most would find it hard to work for someone else… There are still a handful of real old school dealers which I won’t mention by name. They all have their quirks and weird personalities but have lifetimes of knowledge in the hobby. Love them or hate them, they all have experience in the trenches and wonderful stories. Much more important than just getting a deal on a book. We have lost an another fountain of knowledge and experience in this hobby we all love so much.

I remember going up to his store just after he purchased the San Francisco collection. Redbeard, McLaughlin and the boys at The American Comic Book Company had all made purchases and I'd seen the books. I was up in the Bay Area visiting my cousins and stopped by the store. I asked Bob about them and he trotted out several small boxes of them. Wow, they were beautiful. They were of course priced at "Bob's prices". None the less, he had me. After some long mental mental anguish, I pulled out 5 or 6 books I just had to have. He looked me right in the eye and said "pick three". I was a little shocked and I'm sure whined a little. He was animate, no more than 3 per purchase. So I narrowed it down to three paid and left. I ended up with what I wanted though because the next day I went back and got the other 3. He remembered me and was trying to get out of selling them to me until I reminded him of what he said the previous day. I think he was glad to just get rid of me... I bumped into him at SDCC a few years later and reminded him of the story. His explanation was that he wanted them spread out so many folks could get some. I really think he didn't want to get cleaned out by one dealer asking for a discount. We didn't see eye to eye much but we both loved the medium and at the end off the day, that's probably true with most of us.

Very sorry to hear this. Like him or not over the years, he was a legend in the hobby. He truly loved the medium and gave back so much. We have lost a giant. There are just so few of the old guard left. Real sad. RIP Bob…

Probably fell asleep reading Henry Aldrich…

I never get tired of seeing all those old MAD covers! Suprised to see the Frankenstein Aurora model cover still there. All time classic!

I keep mine in hard cases under the bed but am now encroaching my wife’s shoes.

I plan to get a handful graded but storage has gotton to be an issue for me. Unslabbed pulps take up a lot more room than comics already…

Hopefully a copy of the eBay listing from David T Alexander will work for the writer’s file copy I want to submit.

Thanks Andy. I’d much rather lose a photocopy than an original COA. I never got back an original signed Gaines COA years ago.

Will CGC give ped status to a Yakima with a photo copy of the cert? I would hate to send the original and lose it like what happened to a Gaines file I sent in early. I also have a couple file copies I bought from David T Alexander that came from a writer’s files. No certificate but have the eBay listing. Would that count for a notation on the label?

I don’t actually remember seeing many there. But I’m sure there were some.

Is that all that surprising? They were cheap items for kids. We used to roll them up or stuff them in our backpacks after hitting the drug store on our way home from school on our Sting Ray bikes. No one was concerned about condition or future value then.

1938 Quaker Oats Monogram Ring. Attributed to Mr. Tracy. I am quite surprised at the closing number. A tough piece but not all that exciting. A couple of Tracy completeists must have wanted it bad. Heck, I’d sell mine for a WHOLE lot less…

A couple of cool recent arrivals from Randall Dowling’s recent paperback sales thread.

Congrats. Tough indeed! I got mine from Ron Murray @Cobbledclam at WonderCon many years ago.

Remember when no one wanted Western comics?…

An impossible task. Every time I pick 5, another one pops up I forgot about…

This lady was buying books for 2-3 cents each and reselling them for a nickle. photo from Bob Beerbohm’s Facebook page.