BLBcomics-migration

There used to be. As I have written before the firm i was head honcho of Best of Two Worlds sustained a warehouse flooding Feb 1986 which destroyed the better part of a million comic books, some 3000 pages of original comic art, some thousands of bay Area concert posters, other stuff including much/most of my carefully built up archive of newspaper clippings, comics convention flyers, membership badges, program books, etc; most all my archive of events and such inside my comic book stores post selling out from Comics & Comix in 1975 plus a lot of photographs - most all destroyed About a decade ago Chris Pedrin mailed me a file he had which included C&C's first merch bag which had the ultra cool Bobby London logo plus listing out the four stores on it. I have recollected most of the stuff pertaining to that Berkeleycon 73 which Chris had a bit in there including the metal Greg Irons three day pass, and a one day Spain pass plus the Kim Deitch flyer which was also an ad in the Bay Guardian. Am still seeking the Dave Sheridan flyer amongst other items. plus Chris had in there Newspaper clippings relating to the 73 Berkeleycon plus some of the ones he had seen regarding the sale of the Tec #27 to Burl Rowe for $2200, then a world's record which held until i believe IIRC John Snyder broke it a couple years later when he paid $4000 for an Action Comics #1 which was the next plateau which garnered national media attention re "insane" prices being paid for a comic book. Basicly what I had along those lines prior to Feb 1986 was no more. i have just one pic from my days of daZe with Comics & Comix. Some one somewhat recently gave me some pics of the first couple days getting my second solo owned store opened in May 1977 at 2512 Telegraph Ave as well as the Pogo with Lantern logo in the window of my first solo store at 1707 Haight Street. Just coming across them again a couple of these I have posted in to my Facebook pages of Robert Beerbohm and BLBcomics. I have been able to reaccumulate at most another half dozen pics of the era. Am always eagerly hoping for more as at this stage of my life, nostalgia re those earlier days 40 or so years ago A former employee wrote me she is mailing me a larger file of Best of two Worlds "stuff" which hopefully includes all the materials from when I hosted Frank Miller at his very first store in Berkeley signing back on Dec 21 1981 four days after Daredevil 181 debuted. Some 4000 people came thru, which became the largest comics festival record for some time. Once upon a time Frank Miller was a "hot" draw, especially when he was working out the Elektra Saga. Why he felt compelled to kill her I have never understood, though I did listen to his explanations at the time.

I hear you but Im not going to call Bob a liar either. He could be right, he could be wrong. I cant see valuing that batman very high either way esp given that I dont agree with the grade The Reilly collection surfaced 40 years ago this next month during Easter week end. At that point in time Reilly had died summer 1945 which was only 28 years previous. They sat untouched by humans that first segment. They have moved all over the place in the last 40 years. One is pre-supposing that ALL buyers of ALL comic book collections were extremely careful with ALL their books. There are innumerable ways books end up getting damaged. Also depends how they were stored, etc. plus how there were treated by the reader collector. I knew a collector once who had immaculate zero stress on spine comic books, no bent corners, etc. White type paper, but he also liked to read his comics while eating babeque potato chips. Consequently, the grease from the chips went in to otherwise NM/M type comics. There are many more examples possible such as some one dies, and their books stored in a garage which is less well insulated than some one's actual house. There came to be adhered a thin layer of what I call "garage grunge" on them over the course of a decade or so they were in there. Otherwise perfect type copies become less so. The Reillys I presently have listed in my eBay store all came from one guy who bought them from me back in 1973 inside the Berkeley store. The Batman 21 in question got attacked by a cat. It also has a "g" on the front cover above Robin's yellow cape. Granted, VG+ is a bit much, but I also factoring the utter white supple paper inside and the brilliance of the cover colors There is also a Shadow, a Crack Comics, some others. I know the circumstances they were under coming out of a garage which I am not going in to here. Maybe later on. [font:Times New Roman]What you're saying makes sense, but knowing how passionate HG collectors are, if you're spending money on a rare book in grade (whether in 1973 or 2013) there is added impetus to preserve it in that condition. High grade copies aren't treated cavalierly by collectors who spend the extra bucks on 'em, at least that has been my experience then as now.[/font] I agree, the few Reilly comics presently in my eBay store I do not care if they ever turn over. I relist them at rate of 3 cents per item per month. All I seek to establish is the size & scope parameters of what this collection once contained. Every thing else is ultimately so much B S to bandy about. There are close to 50,000 other comic books in my 4000 square foot warehouse i am much more interested in selling off. re High Grade and how it gets treated, one must simply go back 40 years in to a different mind set. The comics were not that expensive. Look at 72 and 73 Overstreets to see what types of prices stuff was bringing. Some of the Reilly copies such as Whiz 2 (#1), Detective #27, etc I was able to sell for a lot more than "Guide" - but in the main, many many of the super hero sold for a bit above at 1.2 Guide, and in cases of the non super hero type stuff, less than guide simply to turn them over to free up cash to buy more super hero. the collections flooding in after the media coverage when Burl Rowe agreed to $2200 on the Reilly Tec #27 meant a constant need for more money to buy more books. You guys know how that game works. -

[font:Times New Roman]Now this makes a lot more sense, not that Bob's recollections came off as disingenuous! Awesomely impressive and entirely plausible on all counts. Thanks! [/font] (thumbs u Richard just informed me earlier today of these CBCA articles on Leonard Brown, Collector's Book Store, et al. plus he did a nice write up on Leonard in an Overstreet a few years back. Am going to scope out the CBCA articles later this week end. Am looking forward to learning about a man i called friend and he called me same, though others knew him intimately better than I. Up until his death he would come thru SDCC each year one day with Chuck McCrary and one other fellow, stop in my booth for a spell, take a load off, remark each year how he knew less and less of the dealers there as the years wore on I do not claim to be expert on Leonard Brown minutae, after all, Rich knew him since 1959, I do know I was in that walk in time vault twice brokering a couple large deals i did not have bucks for, for which Leonard paid me a 10% finders fee. First time being 1970 or 71, a friend and myself had driven out from Nebraska for the first of the many LA shows set up at. I did not inspect their inventory closely in that vault, being more tuned in on the 'deal" at hand each time, being silently awestruck by the sheer mass of early comics filed upright as if they were books in a library spines out very tightly packed. One could see spine colored, and and since I had a Superman #2 at the time, could make out its red spine. I could make out yellow color to the swath of #2 red, as well as a large inch batch of #3 to its right. That was forever branded in my mind. Whether the #1 issues were all high grade, i do not know, but it stands to reason every issue of a book like that would be in the time vault. Was the #1 batch exactly six inches, was the #2 almost a foot? Maybe a little less. Hard to say, but there were more than a "few" Superman #1 in that row of comic books. And a lot of #2, #3, #4, #5 etc. I also remember seeing a couple rows of high grade perfect spine Spider pulps against the back wall in that time vault the second time I was in there.I was really into collecting Spider pulps at that time among others. This was the following year in 1972 before we started Comics & Comix. after August 1972 once we formed the store on Telegraph Ave in berkeley and had access to better cash flow concepts, we absorbed everything coming in and I had no need to broker larger collections. I did ask Richard on the phone this morning to post on to this thread re the innards of the time vault, for which i thank him for that. I also asked himif he knew of any pic of the inside of that walk in bank time vault they housed their main treasures in. My understanding is no such photo is known to exist, but i could have misinterpreted. It would be great if there was. Back in 2006 07 08 09 10 I was making a lot of errors from pain induced bone on bone disintegration of both hip joints. What ever Richard thinks I did which he still harbors ill feelings about I do not remember, and what ever it was I publicly apoligize as I work towards rebuilding a once flourishing comics business which was destroyed during that years long ordeal. I aplogize to every one who got upset with me then. It is what is is.

Hello Jim Thanks for bringing up Bob Selvig. Here is a partial chronolgy as I have pieced it together in the past I will share here: 1) last couple hours Sunday of Berkeleycon 73, an older couple comes up the elevator with a pallet loader an ASUC building engineer had let them use having had seen the media coverage. The large pallet is covered in boxes of NM/M comic books from the 40s 2) Nick Marcus and Mike Manyak had been covering the reg table those last couple hours. They take it upon themselves to quickly go thru each box, lifting nothing but Timely issues out of this batch including capt America #1. They proceed to buy ALL these Timelys for the princely sum of a buck each. They have written about their actual inventory list else where in the past. Some one else can hunt down that data. They have lamented in the past in print there were zero Marvel Mystery issues as well as inexpicible gaps 3) Right before they literally run out of the building from the 2nd floor of ASUC, Nick pokes his head in the busy dealer's room and yells, "There is a huge batch of Golden Age out here some one walked in" - and they escape running as fast as they can, leaving the reg table unguarded. So much for various levels of respobnsibilty they displayed that day 4) We had our Comics & Comix tables running along the wall along the left side windows cuz we fronted all the bucks to host the show. I heard Nick, came out to see the hub bub, there were already more vultures circling. 5) Bob Selvig (MN), David Belmont (NY upstate) were already there, i forget who had a stack of comics in their hand also trying to buy them from this old guy named Doctor Arnheim. There were other guys also beginning to try to look thru the boxes as well 6) I walk up with the #2 red cover Overstreet, the newest one at the time. #3 came out a few weeks later IIRC. In order to try to blast the competition out of the water, I hand Dr Arnheim the Guide, saying he should sell them at a percentage of this book, not to accept any more offers right then and there 7) Dr Arnheim proceeds to ask me what a Capt America #1 is worth. I flip to the CA page, show him, he proceeds to get visably pissed off upset. He mentions quietly he just sold it for a buck to, well, I already mentioned who got all the Timelys 8) Arnheim proceeds to pack it all down, is going to go back to his car with the books, I place in his hands my comic book store business card and that #2 Overstreet Bob Selvig and David Belmont proceed to wait after the show trying to make sure they get in on this deal - 9) the next day post show there is a sort of "Keystone Kops" race out Arnheim's house in Moraga. Arnheim had been looking thru Overstreet, was unsure if he and his wife would sell as that much money would place him in to a higher tax bracket 10) We proceed to wait for Arnheim to get back in touch with us. One more day passes, then two. Selvig and Belmont are holed up in a local $6 a night motel getting antsy. 11) Arnheim finally re-contacts us on the 4th day, the books are brought in to our Berkeley store, they are added up at NM Guide, and we pay 40% of Guide. 12) Selvig and Belmont pony up a third each as well. We then spent several hours making out $200 stacks, $100 stacks, $50 stacks, then piled up everything else 13) We proceed to 'cut high card" to see who got "first" pick. I forget who went first I recall there being a Mystery Men #1 every one was ga-ga over at the time. None of us had ever seen one, or, at least, had never had one. That was the first book picked, i forget who ended up with it 14) round and round the picks went. It is something like 5 AM at this poimt when we got down to the 'cheaper eveything else" stacks 15) we are all very tired, almost giddy from the experience we were all going thru 16) In order to speed it all up, we simplyput everything in alpha/numerical order and then dealt them out in to three stacks like a brand new deck of cards 17) soon there after Bob Selvig became a partner in LA in American Comic Book Company with David Alexander, Terry Stroud, Cark Macek. IIRC correctly John C Wilson out of Atlanta Georgia was a partner in there for a while also. It was a different "age" as they say re all sorts of stuff going on. Suffice to say, at some point Bob Selvig moved back to Minn Minn and got out of the comics trip. Burnt out from "too much Hollywood" is all i will say. 18) a few weeks later Part two of equal size walked in to our Berkeley store, I bought all the books from that batch for our firm. We paid 60% of 1972 Guide as #3 was not yet out 19) a month or so after that Part Three of equal size walk, ditto re my buying teh entire 3rd batch as well. We paid 60% of the then brand new #3 guide which had just recently arrived. This was the younger lady with a couple small kids who may or may not have been from New Jersey as some one else wrote in this thread. All I truly remember about her was she was from the east coast and had driven her portion of the comics from the estate back out to Berkeley. 20) All I know is CGC being declared final arbiter God on this collection is not so smart on the face of it. The comics could easily be re-slabbed with the designation of "Tom Reilly" on them. It was Ron Pusell who first coined them "Frisco" copies simply because guys like me were bringing down this high grade from the Bay Area. Back then, as now, many people see Southern Calif as LA and Northern Calif as Frisco. Frisco evolved in to San Francisco. CGC displays igorance. The historial record should be fixed, but I have less than zero power clout in this hobby any more. Must have been doing some thing correctly for the Overstreet people to invite me back year after year since first invited in Oct 1996 by John Snyder to present proper state of the art comics history therein for over 15 years now. Ultimately, all I am pointing out is how wrong some are to pontificate they might be "expert" in this collection. The above is the "Reader's digest" gist of how it came down. Take it or leave it, whom ever you may be reading this, entirely up to you. I hope this helps out those interested in this collection. In the mean time, I am actually more interested in accepting reasonable offers on what i have for sale by clicking on the web site URL www.BLBcomics.com in order to help heal my oldest daughter Katy. My e Bay feed back seems to indicate buyers are happy in the main with what they are scoring from me. Thanks for reading, back to work i now go......

I hear you but Im not going to call Bob a liar either. He could be right, he could be wrong. I cant see valuing that batman very high either way esp given that I dont agree with the grade The Reilly collection surfaced 40 years ago this next month during Easter week end. At that point in time Reilly had died summer 1945 which was only 28 years previous. They sat untouched by humans that first segment. They have moved all over the place in the last 40 years. One is pre-supposing that ALL buyers of ALL comic book collections were extremely careful with ALL their books. There are innumerable ways books end up getting damaged. Also depends how they were stored, etc. The Reillys I presently have listed in my eBay store all came from one guy who bought them from me back in 1973 inside the Berkeley store. There is also a Shadow, a Crack Comics, some others. I know the circumstances they were under coming out of a garage which I am not going in to here. Maybe later on.

Beginning with cover dated late 1941 issues, virtually every thing seemed to be in this collection. There were also9 comic books then not yet in Overstreet. There is also the concept which i continue to gently stress that MOST of the comic books in this collection did not have any sort of markings on them front or back covers ie most likely will never be inventoried classified as Reilly copies. There is a lot of stuff still locked up in private collections which have not seen the light of dealer day for many decades. As the population which collected in the 60s 70s 80s continues to progress towards getting older, we shall see more people selling, and more estates continue to offer up their treasures from grand kids inheriting, etc I have no dog in this mind game some wish to persue re the Reilly collection. The selling prices of NM/M 1939-1945 comic books are beyond my ability to score under my present circumstances. All I am seeking is to establish the historical record as best is possible as there are a lot of misconceptionsabout it when honest folk ponder the BS in places like Gerber's Photo Journal guides, Dark Horse's Between the Panels article titled San Francisco Collection, etc Did I stop as a 21 year old busy with partners of equal age back in 1973 to do geneology study concepts on this guy Reilly and/or his relatives? Nope, there was no need until years later when Gerber did that splash on Edgar Church in his Photo Journal Guide. Gerber stuck in a few other pedigree mentions almost as an after thought running off what he thought in his head with less than zero actual research. More like a space filler than anything else. I know I quizzed Gerber at the time re his data on the Reilly collection being so wrong. He sort of shrugged at the time, he had tried to do good. He also simply wanted the project he had invested so much in to to be over and get it printed He was struck at how much brighter the colors photographed off Church and Reilly copies than other comics - or so it seemed to him with his early 1980s technology at his disposal. I also think his Scarcity Ratio Index, predicated on the less than 300 names, of which I am listed therein, of the collections he photographed the covers on. Once upon a time some collectors took that data to heart trying to figure out what was "rarest" out there to collect. But I digress..... Between the Panel's article sez around 1000+ Reilly comic books based on Mike Manyak's statement. I do not have my BtheP book handy right this sec. This is consistant with him only being privy to seeing, and approximating in the late 1990s, the first batch which showed up at Berkeleycon 73 ASUC building in the last couple hours on the last day of the first Bay Area comicon. Gerber on page A-12 in Vol One doubles that to 2000, and the actual count, factoring three separate batches is around double that again.

There is a teeny binery clip lower left corner, is what what brings this down in CGC eyes? There is nary a blemish any where else. Colors remain bright, it has been taken care of over the decades by loving owners, to be sure. My latest batch of Reillys, ones with out the anchor, with out the distributor markings, and MOST of the vast majority never had any thing on them can be accessed typing in Reilly in the search box clicking on to my web site URL below. The crying shame of it all looking back is we never made up a list. We had so many early books floating in and out there never was time and/or need to for a long time. The neat thing is it did exist just as I say it was in all its massive high grade glory, and I got to have quite a few thousand fun mid 39 thru 1945 comic books all looking this Adventure come thru my fingers, grading & pricing out each one, finding homes for them as we were in expansion mode moving towards having four stores by the end of that summer. There were always more collections walking in the door those first years as we gained more and more publicity. Thousands of original owner collections came in. Like the day a lady from a church bizarre came in on a Sunday afternoon with a complete high grade replete with cover overlaps untorn white type paper Frank Robinson went ape mess over run of Weird Tales mid 1925 thru late 1937. Every issue, Asked me if a buck apiece was too much for them. The Reilly one was simply the largest neatest one. There have been many large batches of nice books show up obviously. People get carried away with "pedigree" mystique. A few are worth the effort. Reilly copies are part of that small true club. There were neater collections surface out of LA which Leonard Brown and his first partner Richard Olson PhD partner were vacuum cleaning startin in 1959 being comic book dealers. Later Rich went on to university earnign his PhD and Malcolm Willits became Leonard's partner. Their move in 1965 to becoming Collector's Book Store soon made them the best comic book store ever existed. There was a Feb 1966 newspaper article on them replete with leonard holding a Superman #1 and Batman #1 which i saw in the in Omaha World Herald which made me want to become a comic book dealer collector. This article went "viral" in the media back then. The collections which came in were enormous in size and scope. Larger than anybody even today. They were the bench mark we were striving to attain with that first Berkeley store. After talking with Leonard's first partner Richard Olsen once again today, who also co-wrote the articles on the origins of the comics with me and others which have run in Overstreet for many years now, who refreshed some details for me, circa 1970 they moved to inside that old BofA bank in Hollywood replete with a walk in time lock vault. I know how huge their inventory became because Leonard let me in the time lock vault and i saw what was in there. I had come to him with a "deal" he paid out $20,000 on that year circa 1971 which he paid me a ten percent finders fee. One could measure almost half a foot of high grade Superman #1, almost foot of high grade #2, etc. This was mainly just the high grade stuff. The comics were on the left, rare movie stuff on the right as one walked in. The comics were sorted out and on the shelves "library style" ie standing up spine out. One could tell from the spine "color codes" as the numbers progressed. That said, Reillys are still pretty cool. Wish i had the bucks to collect some of them back. Maybe one day, but right now, in the here and now, being all healed up working my comics business again, my oldest daughter Katy needs my help recovering from this insidious thing the doctors call Stevens Johnson Syndrome. There is some neat stuff one can click on to scroll thru out of my web site address below in the sig line. if you have a moment and the spirit moves you this week end if you have a spare moment, I would be appreciative helping her back. Thank you.

May I ask why you took the Star Spangled #24 down? I had picked out a Detective Comics from the early #70s with Simon & Kirby Boy Commandos. We had made a point it would not be an "expensive" one - Bud's issue which he hung on to was Military Comics #15 with its Reed Crandall "Three Witches" Blackhawk story telling an EC kind of tale This was some time in to when the collection had been surfacing on us, as we realized the scope of it and realized we might want a souvenior of sorts.

Interesting story re this one as well. About 13 years ago I was contacted by a fellow in Illinois who had his collection for sale. He had all the Marvel runs: FF, AmSpi, X, etc and was a huge Spider-man fan hence, he also collected back in the day a few Golden Age runs: 1) Zip Comics for The Web 27 thru 38 2) Star Spangled for Tarantula which he did 1 thru 85 and he liked Jack Cole a lot, but could not afford Plastic Man, so instead he collected Smash 14 thru the end at 85. He had gone back a few issues to pick up the first Ray issues as well he had four Reilly Star Spangleds, a few Zips, a few Smash also had about 20 Edgar Church issues of Smash This Star Spangled is one of those i got from his collection Seems back in 1973 he had come thru our Berkeley store and bought some issues from me back then. he also had ordered and completed his Smash run off Chuck's single catalog placement in TBG way back when which formed the basis of the semi-master list of what the Church collection had contained. I have been seeing Reilly copies off and on for literally forty years come thru my fingers. I know my Reilly copies when I see them. They were my children for a while. If any one is interested, there is a fun tale which occurred at Bud Plant's house in the mid 90s when I began passing thru there on a semi-regular basis coming back out for Wondercon. Involves myself and Steve Geppi picking out his Reilly comic book out of all his comic books. Seems there was a moment in time when Steve was at Bud's house finalizing the former buying out the latter's distribution business. What? 1989 or so? Afterwards, they retired to one of Bud's comic book rooms and began going thru Bud's Golden Age collection. Steve is flipping thru boxes, stops at a book, looking at its front cover, declares "this is a Reilly copy" or some such Bud, incredulous, said, "How can you tell?" Steve said the look, etc - reasons unimportant right this sec I piped up, "Bud, I could tell also, just by looking at it" Bud remained skeptic, as we went to the same room, I began flipping thru his Golden Age collection After X number of boxes, I stopped at a book, said, "this is it." Bud was amazed, asking me also, "how can you tell?" I had stopped at the same exact comic book Geppi had See, when we bought all that collection, each of us partners decided it would be way cool to keep one book each for ourselves. Ask Bud about this, he should remember.

Interesting story. His estate only had a handful of Reilly's, less than 10. it is what it is - Clay did what he did. The books never got sold during his life time. Wonder why that is as he surely needed money, especially towards the end of his life battling what he was medically wise. He knew I would instantly recognize what he perped - especially coupled with trying his end run around us to try to make the media declare him a partner in Comics & Comix It was a long time before he was allowed back in to close proximity

the collection began mid summer 1939 - was spotty in 1939, also aspects of 1940 as well as 1941 did not have every number. for example, I distinctly remember no Marvel Comics #1, not MM #2 #3 - it began with #4 onwards complete run into the summer of 1945 From 1942 thru summer 1945 it was virtually one of every comic book printed - or so it seemed at the time. There were comic books in it not as of yet then listed in Overstreet as even known to exist.

Clay Geerdes is a sore spot within the annals of Comics & Comix. He was twice as old as us at the time back in the day. He once worked for us for a spell post Berkeleycon 73 involvement. Interesting story of sorts: Once he began working for us as a clerk behind the counter of the Berkeley store, there began appearing articles about our company in various local news papers. The first one mentioned Clay as being a "partner" inside Comics & Comix. when we quizzed him on that, he said the reporter must have gotten confused then a 2nd one appeared voicing the virtues of collecting comics and buying them from our stores - funny thing, it mentioned Clay as being a partner as well Clay actually said that reporter must have made a similar misunderstanding mistake as well then a 3rd one appeared, then a 4th - both also mentioning Clay as being a "partner" of the firm At this point we called these reporters to ascertain data our company lawyer asked us to acquire Reporters were to a person quite open with, nope, not a mistake on their part On direct advice of our company lawyer, we then immediately fired Clay. if we did not, those news paper articles would make him a de facto partner since we did not then as of yet have a "contract" between us actual partners. We henceforth had one drawn up - and also officially incoorporated inside the state of California. Regarding Clay's "portion" of the Reilly comics He never bought any - he never had that kind of money. He never bought any from me. he thought us younger "kids" not as smart as he My understanding is there are Timely Marvel Mystery issues as well as others Clay stole them - pure and simple, evidently shipping them off to Lincoln Nebraska where they were kept hidden for a very long time. Probably what ever statuate of limitations on this has long run out, possibly a moot point, as it were, i do not know the law per se on this concept I long ago sold out from Comics & Comix in 1975 so maybe I would never have a dog in that fight. I went off in to my own solo store operations But I stress: Clay never had that kind of money. He was perpetually broke. Most every comic book store ever in existence has suffered thru internal employee theft pilfered a little bit at a time. One of the reasons we made that "Golden Age" room out of the art show wood from Berkeleycon 73: Theft concepts, both internal and external.

Hi Bob, you mentioned the Superman #4 is still in his collection, did he send it to CGC? Is this it? I have zero idea and or inclination to learn who has sent any of their books in to the Comics "Guarantee" Corporation which guarantees nothing I do remember it had a couple rounded corners. This looks to be it. I remember the #3 being even lower in grade.

Hi Bob, you mentioned the Superman #4 is still in his collection, did he send it to CGC? Is this it? I do not keep up with who submits funny books to CGC nor will I ever. I remember it having a couple rounded corners. Sure looks like it. He might very well still own it. He could very easily have had ot slabbed. It is also entirely possible this person upgraded his collection as he has been on a quest for near perfect to perfect copies on the run all his life. Then again, he also knew when he bought them at the time from me, as I informed him thusly back in early 1974, these were the last two books from this particular collection. He had heard about the high grade nature of the Reilly copies at the time and wanted somet thing from it. At the time he bought #3 and #4 they completed his run from #1 to current. It has been a year or so since I talked with him. My memory of the Superman #3 was even lower grade than this copy.

Hello "Cheetah" As I have begun stating, there are two main levels to this seemingly (to others) mythic collection: 1) the who where whys thereof it I leave it to others to being comics detectives tracking down that what you and others deligently seek out. Commendable work. I was told he was killed in a kamikaze attack in the Pacific summer of 1945. His parents then pretty much sealed his room until their death in Dec 1972. In the least they left it as he had left it when he left for World War Two Mayhaps he was not in the Navy per se. Maybe his first name is not Tom rather some derivative there of. Arnheim is a name Scott Maple threw out to me as the doctor who was the husband of the relative who actually inherited one third of the estate of the parents when we were talking about this in the 90s when it came up in conversation in his Sacto home. Scott was hired by me personally to work in the Berkeley store with the older stuff and became our manager of the Sacramento portion of Comics &Comix's operation beginning in late 1973 when we opened our 4th location there on J St near the state government area. He was the one who suggested we move it over on to K St open air maill. When Bud Plant forced changes on Comics & Comix in the late 80s when he bought out John Barrett's percentage via manipulations by his general manager Crittendon, all the 2% guys like Scott were forced out as well. Scott currently works for the state of Calif in Sacto. He is very much reachable to pick what ever nuggets of memory might further such info quests. its size, depth, scope of sheer inclusiveness This is the aspect which most concerns me regarding proper historical record. I know what I know. Three equal size in count batches totalling over 4000 comic books most all in unread NM/M condition with extraordinary white paper brilliant glossy covers. Almost none of the books had ever been opened. I figured this out when the books made a unique popping noise due to the drying powder on the cover inks kind of sticking to the outer wrap pulp paper. We made a ceremony about it when we "popped" the last book which had not yet been opened to gaze inside. It is this very collection which allowed me to gain an instant grasp of the innards of the comic books of the era. They were virtually "all there" especially from late 1941 thru the summer of 1945. Seemingly everything in unbroken runs. The printed record to date in two comics history books is, to put in one word, wrong. No one actually connected to aspects of the collection knows who or where Gerber got his nonsense he printed as an afterthought in his PhotoJournal Guides. Steve Duin and Mike Richardson performed less than zero due dillegence when they made their Between the Panels book. This is where umbrage comes from in this humble circle. CGC is not any sort of "final" say in determining provenence of comic book collections. That is simple arrogance on whomever deems themselves an expert there on the historical nature of the scope & size of this collection if it does not come from persons who were "there" when any given collection surfaces and is dispersed. The collection came in three parts: April, May and then late June/early July soon before that year's San Diego funny book trip. Legendary high grade collector Rick Durell bought large swaths of this third batch as upgrades is what I remember. We were making a push to open San Jose and Sacto by mid summer after opening that 2nd store in late May at 720 Columbus Ave near Washington Square in San Francisco. Rick's collection was sold by title groupings via auction thru Ernie Gerber auctions. New Jersey sticks in my brain where the lady who came back out from the east coast lived. Unsure of which state, however. I remember her as a younger person. Not the sister of the original "owner" - more like a grand daughter. She had young kids. How many i do not remember Very much hungry for money - as much as possible to be squeezed from it. We were happy to oblige in order to obtain this :missing link" which filled in quite nicely all the missing holes and runs of titles which I had figured out should be there based on what had already been purchased. Do I wish we had made up an inventory list of some sort at the time? In a word, yes. They were selling so fast and briskly there was no need to advertise them. Soon after they were bought, I restricted any one buyer from buying more than two or three out of this collection in order to "spread the wealth" in order to make as many collectors as happy as possible. The collection was milked for as much dollar value as possible. We had expended something like $27K for all three batches. We were very much in to key-stoning principles at the time as we sought to build a business in order to take over the retail comics world of the Bay Area. Such is the fantasy way in the minds of 21 year olds seeking to conqueor their "universe" when one is younger, still obtaining the knowledge which leads to (hopefully) wisdom I also distinctly remember the very last two books sold out of this collection were less than VF/NM copies of Superman #3 and #4. I also very much remember who bought them in January 1974 when he first hit the Bay Area. Those two books still reside in his complete Superman run. His Superman #1 was bought from Jerry Bails for $800 in 1971 and was Edmond Hamilton's personal copy. The Reilly copies were dispersed to the four winds back that first year. All issues were gone by Jan 1974. Comics & Comix now had four stores spread out 100 miles in four counties - funded in large part by this one collection. I have a query to the "powers that be" in that where did the Detective Comics #27 come from that Heritage auctioned off for over a million dollars? Might it be the copy I sold for $2200 back May 1973 to Burl Rowe who in turn later sold it to gary & Lane Carter? There is a fun trail for some comics detective to attempt to track down its long journey thru time since it left my hands almost 40 years ago now

the AP or UPI coverage which saw hundreds of articles as far away as Germany on the Detective Comics #27 selling for more than $2000 was about the Tec #27. The finding of this collection was not "newsworthy" in any sense of the word. the articles as ran listed both seller out of Berkeley Calif and buyer out of Houston texas by name. You have misinterpreted what was written. If my fault with not having enough clarity, my apologies.

Barry set up at a lot of the earlier shows before "life" pulled him in other directions. He set up at that World SF show in Oakland. He was also one of the three dealers set up at "Cotati Con" in one bar there, the "talking room" was another bar down the block. Low key it was. John Barrett and I drove up to it. Memory now sez that one was just after Berkeleycon by a few weeks World SF shows in the late 60s in the early mid 70s saw verbal clashses some times from SF purists who resented upstart comics collectors "invading" their turf. This led to more and more comics shows starting up across the country. Kind of like comics people pick on the 21st century version of San Diego etc as the presence of actual comics shrinks each year. Well, at least the vintage section there.

Bay Area Comic Con Chronology Berkeleycon 73 AUSC UC-Berkeley campus John B, Bud P, Robert B, hosts Berkeleycon 74 ASUC UC-Berkeley campus Nick Marcus, other hosta BayCon 75 Berkeley Clairmont Hotel Tom Orzechowski & John Watson BayCon 76 Sheridan Palace, San Fran, Orz & Watson, Parrish mural in news. Was just exchanging FB thoughts with Tom Orz re their BayCons just yesterday. He says they picked classy joints on purpose as we fought to gain respect for comics as a medium to read & enjoy much less collect Then they stopped and new guys took over the energy BayCon 77 Sheridan Palace, San Fran, Sal Diechera, Parrish mural in news hotel, Jeanette Kahn first comicon, Neal Adams, Alex Nino, more BayCon 78 Jack Tar Hotel on Van Ness, Sal Diechera, Amazing Adventures and so forth he did BayCon until he stopped when he went off to do fan Stand with Joe Collabella as that main show energy evolved to the consortium who named it Wondercon who ran the main Bay Area event until they in turn sold out to San Diego concerns who deemed it better (i guess) to move it to Anaheim, no matter what they say, there is life in the Bay Area after Moscone center, but what do i know.......but i digress.. Add to this short list off top of my head toss in 1) a tiny three dealer "show" in Cotati north of SF on way in & around Santa Rosa 2) some abortive attempts in San Jose late 70s, then regular shows after that There was a World Science Fiction Convention 1968 at the Leamington Hotel in San Fran which you may be confusing with as a comicon. many comics fans went to it like late friend Barry Bauman, cat yronwode, many others.... Comics were a pimple on the "read end" of SF fandom back in those days of daZe. Kinda like Star Trek fans were looked down on at later comicons around the country once you get in to the late 70s in to early 80s. Same sort of snooty by some, for what ever reason evades me cuz I liked it all - if it was good. After that first Berkeley con in 73 Bud Plant and I, then "college era" room mates living in San Jose growing some sort of comics business as partners for a few years there, looked at each other and basicly said to each other that after all the bucks were expended to make it happen, many thousands of dollars we fronted along with John Barrett in the mix as well, with Mike Manyak, Nick Marcus, Clay Geerdes, Jon Campbell, Scott Maple, others, and then the receipts came back in from dealer tables, program book ad revenue, and fan attendance tickets sold, we managed to break even and a bit on top. Whew! We figured out we netted 50 cents an hour and vowed never to host another thing like this ever again, semi-joking. This was said when were tearing down the "adults only" art show area Bud and I constructed with help from his engineer dad IIRC at the top of the stairs on the second floor off to the left. All that ply wood and two by fours became the wood for the special Golden Age room we constructed to house the vintage stuff from theft. Some days 10,000 people might flow thru, other days not so many. The Golden Age room housed all the higher end more valuable stuff once we got this Reilly collection in and went H o l y S h i t this is some great stuff as even more stuff began to flow in. then with the publicity off selling Tec 27 for $2200, the collections literally flooded in. All sorts of original owner collections were coming out of the wood works as it were. Within a month of selling that Tec 27 for $2200 to Burl Rowe in Houston, we had three more Tec 27 issues (all lesser shape) come thru. Hundreds of 60s Marvel & DC collections. Hundreds of older people selling us their 30s 40s 50s comics, pulps, Sunday pages. Being west coast. there were a lot of retired folk who had saved some of their animation work for the LA studios from the 30s onwards. Major Disney artist finds were made in the 70s. We got our share. There was a constant influx of stuff. But back to the original thought pattern as we tore the art show plywood and 2x4 pieces apart: to my knowledge neither of us ever has again. Though I did a few one day free admission dealers shows in that same room in ASUC bldging to combat Creationcons then incoming every three months which would wipe out that sort of cash flow, but that is a tale from the early 80s a decade later of recovery See, we decided we paved a way to raise the consciousness of comics in teh Bay Area. Friends inside the SF Chron & Examiner helped make pre publicity happen which resulted in a few thousand coming thru, many were UC-Berkeley college students whom we funneled towards our comic book store down Telegraph Ave a few blocks a away just one block past Moe's Books. We wanted to concentrate instead on increasing buying power by increasing the number of stores which we proceeded to do over the course of the next six months opening three more: SF at 720 Columbus near Wash Square, SJ near the campus, Sacto first on J St, then moved to K St Mall. Plus we began to publish comic books as well distribute the new UG comix. no time to host shows Larry Lowrey bought his very first Big Little Books from me that first Xmas of 1972. Some time later he came out with his Big Little Book and related material index price guide. hope some of these thoughts fills in some gaps on the energy acquiring the Reilly collection in all its three large segments allowed the firm of Comics & Comix to expand expotenially in all directions pretty much at the same time for some time. fun days. that was then, this is now right about now my actual real life concerns are more wrapped up in getting Katy healed. Any body feel moved and or want to read more, simply buy a comic book by clicking on the web site below. Are you not entertained? -

well, if you bought vintage comic books inside 2512 Telegraph Ave then it is a 99% certainty you bought em from me - I am some times bad at names, but always remember faces. Too many tens of thousands of people have I talked with about comc books over the past 45 years. we opened up late August 1972 just a couple weeks following the first El Cortez hotel San Diego comicon. Bud Plant, myself and a few other comics crazies had spent the summer doing the first comicon "circuit" of some 8 shows around the country beginning in June at Oklahoma City where Will Eisner was G of H at his 2nd show, following his being at his first one, a 1971 NYC show Phil Seuling hosted (which i was also set up at) Early on by Nov 72 my partner John Barrett and I decompartmentized our activity so he ran the "new" stuff aspects and I ran the "old" out of print aspects of our growing business. This is why I was the head old comics buyer for what grew to be Comics & Comix until I sold out in 1975 and went back to college for a little while before getting back into comic book stores full time in November 1976. This is why I know this collection so intimately - one of many thousands purchased over the years.

Yeterday was taken up scanning and posting some 40 new vintage comic books in to my e Bay store. In addition got some 30 orders packaged and mailed in the morning before USPS closed for Saturday. That said, there are (at least) two main levels in play here regarding my postings about this fabulous collection which was stumbled upon literally 40 years ago in April 1973: 1) who was the "owner" gleaned from talking with the three distinct sets of heir relatives who split up an estate in to even thirds some time between death of the young man's parents in Dec 1972 and the first third surfacing in April 73 at Berkeleycon 73 we co-hosted in the ASUC Building on the UC-Berkeley campus which was the first comicon ever held in the San Fran Bay Area. this is the portion of the story where I learned what i could at the time from heirs who passed on what they thought they knew during the time frame of purchase of their comic books. I welcome any and all to conduct the geneology research in to the who and where of the original "owners" of this collection. The names (Tom) Reilly and Arnheim are the ones one has to play with. I am unsure of (Tom) being the first name. I was told, and I have written this many times before for many years, here in CGC thread talking "boards" and else where on the net as well as at comic book shows all over the country the story I got the young man for whom these comic books were being bought enlisted in the Navy in Dec 1941 post Pearl Harbor. His parents lived in Piedmont california He was killed in a kamikazee attack in late summer 1945 out in the Pacfiic His parents began buying one of each comic book being printed which came thru some (unknown) magazine retail location in the Piedmont East Bay area (hence, Gilboy Agency being the distributor) from the point in time he left until they learned of his death They kept his room sealed untouched until their death (for unknown reasons) in Dec 1972 Three distinct sets of relatives inherited and split every thing down the "thirds" in what ever fashion they did which I was not interested (at the time) in learning. I asked each of them questions reagrding this collection as we went thru the books, adding them up, negotiating the many thousands of dollars (even then!!!) it took to acquire. If memory serves correctly we ended up paying out something like $27,000 all total for all three batches. 40% of 72 OPG for batch #1 60% of 72 OPG for Batch #2 60% of 73 OPG for Batch #3 John, Bud, myself were literally 21 at the time in 1973. The wisdom of learning more, of asking the right questions to elicite much needed data for use by historians decades later was not yet part of a 21's consciousness. If I knew then what i know now...... This last thought leads in to where I am bored and lose patience with self-proclaimed "experts" who think they know more than me about this collection: 2) its size and scope of the sheer number of titles and their numbers is the only aspect where I take umbrage concerning self-proclaimed "experts" who were not there, there were well over 4000 comic books all told in three distinct batches. Maybe as many as 4500 altogether., who think they know more than the main guy who was blessed by good fortune to being able to handle dispersing them to collectors who swarmed over them at the time to the point we never even got a list made up as they were turning over too quickly. That first third Doctor Arnheim and his wife brought in on a pallet loader the last hours of the last day on Sunday of Berkeleycon was all we knew about for a few weeks. Then we were asked if we were interested in buying more from another relative. This 2nd relative was "local" to the Bay Area. I think the Reilly Whiz 2 and Tec 27 were in that second batch as I know for sure they were not in the first batch otherwise i do nto see Nick Marcus and Mike Manyuk passing up those two keys irregardless if they were not "Timely" comics. The timing of when Burl Rowe bought both of these becomes key in sorting out that because of the media coverage I went after, after watching all the hub-bub swirling around Bruce Hamilton, Theo Holstein and Mitch Mehdy regarding the energy released when Bruce brought to Berkeleycon Gene Henderson's childhood copy of Action Comics #1 he had just paid Gene $1000 for. Theo's $1500 offer was written up in a post berkeleycon article in the SF Examiner Monday after the show. Because of this article, Bruce scored another Action #1 which is the actual Action #1 Theo bought, then flipped to Mitch for the $1801.26 he paid Bruce for it when he got cold feet post sale the ensuing publicity I garnered our then single solitary comic book store at 2512 Telegraph Ave, especially when UPI or AP ran nationwide newspaper articles on my selling the Reilly Detective Comics #27 for $2200 was "news" which mentions both seller and buyer (Burl Rowe) in the articles. We got three more Tec #27 issues in that month as a result of the newspaper articles nationwide. It also got all the way to mention in newspaper in Germany. At that first Comics & Comix store we got wind of the germany newspaper article pick-up when German collectors got ahold of us wanting to buy this or that comic book. One of them mailed in a clipping of that article in German There were evidently hundreds of newspaper pick-ups of the AP or UPI article on the $2200 Detective #27 all over the country. Comic books worth more than two grand? Outrageously stupid is what some "civilians" thought back then. Comic books as a legit hobby was a whole different ball of wax back then coming out of the 60s as we entered the 70s. We had literally thousands of collections coming in as a result of the publicity. But based on the first batch Dr Arnheim sold us, then the second batch, filling in the mental blanks of what we had gotten and what was NOT there, I knew, ie heavily speculated, there had to be MORE to this collection. Some where in all this swirling madness circa the third batch walked in from the 3rd relative. I remember her being a younger woman who lived on the east coast. She had heard about the big bucks we paid her relatives for their portions and came in to get as nuch as possible out of them. She had a guide, the 73 OPG had just come out, wanted 60% of NM Guide for it all, or she was going to walk it around to see who might pay more. I mean "walk it around" in the sense of writing all the ads in the Overstreet to see highest bidder potentials. She was comfortable askign us first because I had been so up front putting an Overstreet in to the vision of both earlier sets of relatives. We did not try to take advantage like the buck each purchase of the Timelys out of the first batch. Most ALL of my original files on this collection purchase and a host of other aspects of media coverage of comic book dealing I had been carefully culling and collecting since the mid 60s were destroyed in the Best of Two Worlds warehouse flooding scenario Feb 1986. The first clipping I had collected was one from Feb 1966 out of the Omaha World Herald with a picture of Leonard brown holding Superman #1 and Batman #1 and saying vintage comic books were worth big bucks. A few months later I sent $1 off for RBCC from GB Love from his first Marvel classified ad , got my first issue #45 and began placing first humble little ad in RBCC #47 Oct 1966 age 14, but I digress as I am wont to do when jogging these memories of dealing comic books and related stuff now for literally 45 years The Best of Two Worlds warehouse flood was almost 13 years post ipso facto the Reilly comic book collection score and literally thousand of bought collections later. It is not an idle boast when I state BTW's warehouse contained literally a million comic books by Feb 1986. One score alone was $18K for 80,000 comic books when I bought out Joe Collabella of his comic book holdings when he and Sal Dicheara began Fanstand sports stuff chain of mall stores. They topped out at 20 or so locations before Target, JC Penny's, WallMart, etc stomped them out........ but I digress again, and for that I apologize. I have been recollecting said media articles ever since. Many hundreds have I re-accumulated and am still on that quest. There was literally a million comic books in BTW's warehouse space at 64th & Hollis in Emeryville, just down the street from the original Print Mint publishing warehouse which took Zap Comics national summer 1968 thereby truly creating the Direct Market for comic books in America. Now, back on "topic" re your questions, and and all aspects of WHO was the owner(s) over the years before I got the books to handle I welcome any and all research to figure it out What is not in question is the size and scope of this collection. I know what I know, MOST of this collection had no markings what so ever. One aspect to hunt these down all these years later is check out the (cold) trail of Rick Durell who bought a major chunk from us at the 73 San Diego Comicon held out at the air port while upgrading his collections. When Rick died, his widow sold his collection out thru auctions Ernie Gerber was conducting back in the day pre-Photo Journal Guide publication. It is said Rck's collection enabled those ground breaking books to get printed, but that is a tale for another day. Rick was a famous "high grade" collector at the time back in the day. Every one in to collecting comic books knew Rick or knew of him back then. I had been collecting Rick Durell letters back in the mid to late 90s I will be scanning and posting on to my Blog I am going to be cranking up the volume on as I sort out my archives in this 4000 sqaure foot warehouse everything is currently housed in following the half decade long medical debacle some of you may be aware of I am finally healed from. The pain is gone and I can see clearly again. There is going to be a wealth of comics lore spanning the 1840s thru the 1980s there as I get the "spare" time to focus on said activities like learning how to present it well. That is dependent upon my getting cash flow ahead of the game of life. Katy's ongoing current thing has placed me thousands of dollars behind an eight ball of sorts to bring her back to "normal" Back to work i go scanning more comics in to my e Bay store as well as filling in-coming orders. This is what I "do" seven days a week, now having shipped comic books and related material in to some 36 countries world wide now. Hope some of this helps some of you place some of this in to proper perspective as we get ready to celebrate its discovery 40 years ago next month in April -

Thanks for the kind words. Most of my time is taken up with figuring out how to help get Katy healed up from this insidious thing which has reared up over and over these past months. About the only thing I can help with is trying to lift the depression levels. This thing she is dealing with has also proven expensive as the weeks roll by, and if I am not dealing directly with her, am scanning & posting new vintage comics & stuff in to my e Bay store which i ask people who care about Katy on some level to simply buy a book out of there to help me help her. That said, when one gets older, bout all one has are the memories of fun days of youth growing in knowledge in one's chosen field which hopefully leads to a bit of wisdom to share. I have no dog per se in this particular collection I sold most of its initial parameters back in the day. Now 40 years ago beginning next month in April

here is an expando ebay PM I sent to West Stephens this morning as a reply to him asking me to submit books to CGC I know to be out of the Tom Reilly collection. Am also adding a bit to it here and there to flesh out further thought patterns presented here as I ran out of words being only able to post 1500 characters there: Hi West, Katy is improving daily, long struggle she is going thru on a few levels, six times for hospital stays since Xmas, thanks for the kind words re her. Most of my cash flow these past months ends up going towards her healing from something insidious doctors call Stevens Johnson syndrome. Now, re CGC. was that you who posted the Military 22 on that CGC thread, right? I do not keep track of connecting the dots of stage names to real names. Evidently I had clicked on years ago for response on this thread to come my way. Saw a prompter in my g-mail, hence my reply there. The earlier ones in Dec were right in the middle of Katy's first horrific attack which was a ten day stay beginning a few days before Xmas. I will not ever take another single book to that corporation. Not ever since some one at CGC damaged jerry Bails' All Star 8 popping that staple irregardless it evidently had a tiny spot of color touch at the bottom of the bottom staple. And the psycho attacks which came at me in 2007 on those CGC boards when I brought up the damage when i was not getting any behind the scenes satisfaction still rankles in this noggin. Any one else is free to submit all they want to. Bottom line is because of this i think that corporation to be a fraud perped on this hobby. That said, i claim zero expertise in any "pedigree" collection except one concerning the size & scope of the books which came in three separate distinct batches from three different groups of relatives once the parents had died in Dec 1972. Tom Reilly comic books. First batch April 1973. Second batch May 1973. Third batch late June to early July 1973. Each batch was equal in size count. This Doctor Arnheim informed me the comic books were counted up and dealt out like cards. None of them had any inkling of "worth" so there was no rhyme nor reason as to what ended up with which batch of relatives. The young man whose parents bought all these comic books did not live in San Francisco. Doctor Arnheim said they lived in Piedmont which is the other side of the Bay so yes, if there was a Tom Reilly out of San Fran, he was definitely not the one attached to this fabulous once in a life time comic book find. This is another reason why calling them "San Francisco" copies is simply stupid. The San Francisco moniker was thunk up by Ron Pussell (Redbeards) who, as an LA guy, saw everything in northern calif as "Frisco" cuz I was bringing down books from this collection to LA and SD comicons. So were others who were acquiring them from me as the vintage comics aspect of Comics & Comix. We made a special "Golden Age" room in the back of the Berkeley store to house and protect this phenomenal collection of from potential thieves In those earlier days of daZe Ron was always calling them "Frisco" copies to differentiate them from "Mile High" copies as he wanted to spend his pop's real estate bucks at the time on only the best of the best. John Barrett ran the "new" comics aspect of C&C. he did not know or understand the back issue aspect of the business. He never really did. Bud Plant was busy getting business degree at SanJose State, hence, was almost NEVER in any of the stores for months at a time back during my tenure as a full partner in Comics & Comix, a name I thought up once we got to four stores. An alternate name is Arnheim which Scott Maple brought to my attention, then an employee of mine inside the Berkeley Comics & Comix store, brought up when he and I were reminincing (sp) nostalgic about this and other aspects of origins of Comics & Comix as the first comic book chain store operation in history. He always remembered the collection as Arnheim copies. Scott remembers Arnheim being the doctor, husband of one of the actual heirs. It was Arnheim who related to me the story of the young man whose these were his comic book collection upon my prompting to acquire the "back story" of the whys wherefores of this massive amount of comic books mostly all in absolute stunning unread white paper glossy bright "mint" condition like the day they were priinted. When we were first opening up each book they gave off an unique popping kind of sound. We soon figured out it was the "quick dry" powder used on the cover stock as the comics came off the printing presses at the rate of some 30,000 an hour back in the day. We funded expanding in to four stores spread out 100 miles in four northern Calif counties off the proceeds of this collection. We also tried expanding into publishing off the cash flow of this collection starting out with The First Kingdom by Jack Katz. But I digress..... I am not going to ever again get in to "debates" over the size and scope of this collection which was performed on those CGC threads five years ago. Gerber has it almost completely wrong other than the name and the concept Comics & Comix was some how involved. He messes up the concept of the first batch Manyak mentions being approx 1500 comics. Gerber mentions it walked in to the C&C Berkeley store. Yes, but there were two large batches from two dfferent sets of relatives a couple months apart which "walked" in. The 3rd batch had to come all the way back from the east coast. She was blown away the earlier two sets got so much money for just "funny books" Dark Horse Between the Panels got most of its story from Mike Manyuk, he and Nick Marcus "stole" all the Timelys out of the FIRST batch of 1500 books for a buck each including the CA #1 which stolen from them back in the 70s. His quote therein about size only takes in to account the FIRST batch which is ALL he ever saw. The Marvel Mystery run of #4 up thru late summer 1945 was in the 2nd or 3rd equal size batch of approx 1500 books each. The Reilly Tec 27 was the FIRST comic book to sell for more than $2000 at $2200 to Burl Rowe then of Houston Texas. Set a world's record in June 1973. I sold it. Parts of me says the supposed million dollar heritage sale a while back was this Tec 27. Burl said he later had sold it to Gary & Lane Carter. When I asked Gary about it in the 90s, he said he did not remember who they sold it to. No one was keeping track of "pedigree" wildly_fanciful_statement until Gerber splashed the Edgar Church collection in one of his Photo Journal Guides. Gerber placed utter falacy in his book re the Tom Reilly collection other than the name and mention of Comics & Comix. Plus IIRC he mentions the Lamont Larson collection The Whiz 2 (#1) sold out of this collection for an even $2000. I sold it. I know what I know, and with all due respect every one else can pontificate all they want with themselves concerning the narrow slice of life known as Reilly comic books. MOST of the 4000+ did not have the CGC brand of markings this fool of a firm insists are the only criteria on which a book came out of this collection. I am tired of repeating that concept. Bored by "experts" who were not there is more like it, actually. My integrity was impugned by insufficiently_thoughtful_persons when I discussed Reilly comics in the CGC threads half a decade ago now. I do not have the time much less the inclination to get in to such verbal abuse ever again. Not about Reilly comics. Not here. Not any where. i hope this helps out with those inclined to sort out a story in their heads I remain intimately aware of simply by being the guy who co-negotiated purcahse of the first batch along with the late Jon Campbell, whom we later made the 4th partner in Comics & Comix. as well as being the guy who added up the numbers and negotiated the purchase of the 2nd and 3rd segments which "walked in to" the Berkeley Comics & Comix store at 2512 Telegraph Ave just a couple blocks down from the UC-Berkeley campus. Forty years ago next month - whew....... BLB

Nice book, evidently I am on this thread as I just got a notification of this posting. Calling these books from the Tom Reilly collection "San Francisco" copies on the CGC slab label is plain ignorant, more like stupid, and demonstrates such stupidity on the part of this CGC firm. Also, most, and mean MOST, of this collection of approx 4000 comic books in toto did not have either any Gilbot front cover markings and/or the anchor stamp on the back. But what do I know, I only was the main buyer and the main seller of some 7/9s of this collection back in the day when it was discovered literally 40 years ago in 1973 next month in April, though techincally Easter Week End. Also, if the Tom Reilly copy of Military Comics #15 ever surfaces, it was stolen from Bud Plant, so he told me a year or so back.

The bottom pic is of a original art dealer who ran a firm he called Creative Services. he advertised in RBCC, TBG Robert Beerbohm

FANTASTIC work West!!! I can't tell you how helpful this list is!!! I'm positive there are more out there and when I can give you exact issue numbers, I will. This may take me some time, but I WILL have some info for this list in the future (thumbs u Came on to retrieve some earlier research, but as I was getting ready to depart, I came across this thread. Will state this once again: MOST of the Tom Reilly comic books had neither the Reilly stamp, nor had any Gilboy type pencil distributor notations. I wonder what part of this statement some of these self-professed experts do not understand about this simple concept. Contrary to what one poster here wrote, Bob Selvig and David Belmont were only involved in the first third, NOT the 2nd third, NOR the 3rd third. The final third showed up right before the 1973 San Diego Comicon as that relative lady had come back across from back east after she learned what crazy big bucks we paid for the first two thirds. Most of that third went dow to SDCC at the show held at the air port that only year. Burl Rowe (Mr Bedrock got his first job there at Camelot in Houston IIRC) bought the Reilly Whiz #2 (#1) from me over the phone for two grand. A week later he popped $2200 for the Reilly Detective Comics #27. The later book became the first comic book in history to sell for more than two thousand dollars. We garnered a ton of AP/UPI type wire service stories from this sale. Within a month we had bought three more Tec 27 issues as a direct result. I note there are zero Fawcetts in this list. I know otherwise. There were long runs of Fawcetts as well. Ask Burl Rowe who bought the Whiz One and Tec 27 - personally, i think that big bucks Tec 27 Heritage auctioned off not that long ago might be the Reilly copy. It was not "mint" but close to it. The late Rick Durell (LA) was a major buyer of the books from the last third. Some of you may be aware of him, most of you probably are not. When he died Ernie Gerber auctioned off Rick's collection of super high grade comic books. He then used that money to print his Photo Journal guides. This list is bogus on the face of it, it is woefully incomplete. The collection was sold off some 40 years ago as I write these words. Lots can change in the storage concepts of comic books over such a time span. The Reillys I have listed in my eBay store were stored in a hot & humid (in the summer) garage for 8 years following the death of the fellow who had purchased them from me in 1973. Like layers of an onion, outer stuff not so well preserved, the inner layers of boxes were much fresher. This collection was completely mixed up from too many "friends" claiming to be helping the person who inherited the holdings. It is what it is. Sincerely, Robert Beerbohm DBA http://stores.ebay.com/BLBcomics