Before Overstreet, just how were Comic Book Prices determined

[cloudofwit]

Did you buy this at the time it came out or later?

 

I bought it in 1965.

 

:hail:

 

Was it the 5.00 price or the reduced 1.98 price?

[plady69]

Great stuff!

 

I remember drooling over Bell and Rogofsky catalogs in the 60's and then finding RBCC and Stan's Weekly Express. I was #77 by the by! By the time Bob Overstreet rolled out the first guide, I contributed the Phantom Lady info.

 

It was definitely the "wild west" as far as grading back then. Good Fine Mint. Right!!!!

 

 

[Bunky Brian]

Chuck and Bob Overstreet would get together after a night of gin & tonic's, toss some figures into a top hat, shuffle, then Steve Geppi would reach in and pull the winning number.

 

Everyone around the campfire on that fateful day back in August 1967 cringed in horror as Geppi, hands still sticky from melted smores (that's his story and sticking with it) , grasped a loose yellow and blue stripped half-sheet of notebook paper and yelled out, "AMAZING FANTASY #15....NEAR MINT $7 VALUE!"

 

In horror, Bob Overstreet pushed Geppi off the woodpile, almost knocking him into the fire, and declared, "You don't know your azz from a hole in the ground, kid! That's FINE PLUS if I ever saw one, and I'll give you 25 cents for it, and you'll LIKE IT!"

 

And in one short week, Edgar Church would be dead.

 

Fricking funnyest post of the year!!!!!

[thehumantorch]

Chuck and Bob Overstreet would get together after a night of gin & tonic's, toss some figures into a top hat, shuffle, then Steve Geppi would reach in and pull the winning number.

 

Everyone around the campfire on that fateful day back in August 1967 cringed in horror as Geppi, hands still sticky from melted smores (that's his story and sticking with it) , grasped a loose yellow and blue stripped half-sheet of notebook paper and yelled out, "AMAZING FANTASY #15....NEAR MINT $7 VALUE!"

 

In horror, Bob Overstreet pushed Geppi off the woodpile, almost knocking him into the fire, and declared, "You don't know your azz from a hole in the ground, kid! That's FINE PLUS if I ever saw one, and I'll give you 25 cents for it, and you'll LIKE IT!"

 

And in one short week, Edgar Church would be dead.

 

Fricking funnyest post of the year!!!!!

 

(thumbs u Great thread also.

[Yellow Kid]

Early comic book prices were determined by the seller, and were based primarily on personal experience of what the market would bear. Several dealers put out lists at least by the early 1960s, with Claude Held being one of the leading dealers. Leonard Brown and I put out a list at that time and we had a great deal of success with it. We tried to determine prices by asking what we would be willing to pay for a certain book. Early in 1966, Leonard and Malcolm Willits put out what might have been the first catalog of books for sale at their Collectors Book Store in Hollywood. Included was a Batman #1 for $100 and a Superman #1 for $100. They did not have Action #1 or Detective #27, but there were a lot of other great books. If you visited the store and bought comics, Leonard had a black leatherette notebook, about 5" x 7", in which he maintained all of his pricing information. He told me that he would adjust prices as sales occurred--or didn't occur, and the notebook grew to be about two inches thick. He had a mint copy of Detective Comics #1 on display in the store for $50 and couldn't sell it, so let a good customer buy it for less after it had been in the showcase for over a year. After his death, his wife gave me the notebook and other materials relating to the store, and it is still a joy to look through it. One little story about it, and Leonard, that you might enjoy is that Leonard always did things his way. By the time that Overstreet's CBPG was first published, Leonard had been maintaining his notebook for several years. He told me that he hated the new guide because he didn't think it accurately reflected the market. For example, EC's were all priced much higher than Leonard thought they were worth, and within a few months, buyers had exhausted his stock because they were getting such a great deal. The reverse also happened. A person would want to buy a comic, Leonard would quote him a price, and the customer would complain that Leonard wanted more than the guide indicated. He didn't care. He would just tell them to buy the book from the guy that wrote the guide. He used his own notebook for pricing comics until he retired in the early 1980's and continued to base prices on sales in the store.

Richard

[WEBHEAD]

Thanks so much for the wealth of information. I'm now going through my old Overstreets ( I have 4-30+) to determine prices over the years and will post some of my findings. If you can imagine this is a long and tiring work, pawing through old price guides and "writing down" the data. However It is proving very interesting in particular determing when some of the books were broken out.

 

One thing I have discovered that amazed me was the incredible bump in prices from 1989 to 1990 due to the increased availablity of the price guide, the first Batman movie, and comic stores opening. Some books went up over 30-50% in value in one year. As much as I really am disappointed in the '90 *spoon* without the speculation the Silver Ages prices we all love would not have been reached.

 

Thanks all you early speculators!!!!

 

 

 

WEBHEAD

[Rich_Henn]

Chuck and Bob Overstreet would get together after a night of gin & tonic's, toss some figures into a top hat, shuffle, then Steve Geppi would reach in and pull the winning number.

 

Everyone around the campfire on that fateful day back in August 1967 cringed in horror as Geppi, hands still sticky from melted smores (that's his story and sticking with it) , grasped a loose yellow and blue stripped half-sheet of notebook paper and yelled out, "AMAZING FANTASY #15....NEAR MINT $7 VALUE!"

 

In horror, Bob Overstreet pushed Geppi off the woodpile, almost knocking him into the fire, and declared, "You don't know your azz from a hole in the ground, kid! That's FINE PLUS if I ever saw one, and I'll give you 25 cents for it, and you'll LIKE IT!"

 

He then stormed away, mumbling something about "I'll write my own price guide and show you loosers..."

 

Back at the campfire, Chuck Rozanski was hatching a plan.

 

And in one short week, Edgar Church would be dead.

 

Fricking funnyest post of the year!!!!!

 

(thumbs u Great thread also.

 

True. I've learned a lot today.

[Sqeggs]

Early comic book prices were determined by the seller, and were based primarily on personal experience of what the market would bear. Several dealers put out lists at least by the early 1960s, with Claude Held being one of the leading dealers. Leonard Brown and I put out a list at that time and we had a great deal of success with it. We tried to determine prices by asking what we would be willing to pay for a certain book. Early in 1966, Leonard and Malcolm Willits put out what might have been the first catalog of books for sale at their Collectors Book Store in Hollywood. Included was a Batman #1 for $100 and a Superman #1 for $100. They did not have Action #1 or Detective #27, but there were a lot of other great books. If you visited the store and bought comics, Leonard had a black leatherette notebook, about 5" x 7", in which he maintained all of his pricing information. He told me that he would adjust prices as sales occurred--or didn't occur, and the notebook grew to be about two inches thick. He had a mint copy of Detective Comics #1 on display in the store for $50 and couldn't sell it, so let a good customer buy it for less after it had been in the showcase for over a year. After his death, his wife gave me the notebook and other materials relating to the store, and it is still a joy to look through it. One little story about it, and Leonard, that you might enjoy is that Leonard always did things his way. By the time that Overstreet's CBPG was first published, Leonard had been maintaining his notebook for several years. He told me that he hated the new guide because he didn't think it accurately reflected the market. For example, EC's were all priced much higher than Leonard thought they were worth, and within a few months, buyers had exhausted his stock because they were getting such a great deal. The reverse also happened. A person would want to buy a comic, Leonard would quote him a price, and the customer would complain that Leonard wanted more than the guide indicated. He didn't care. He would just tell them to buy the book from the guy that wrote the guide. He used his own notebook for pricing comics until he retired in the early 1980's and continued to base prices on sales in the store.

Richard

 

Great post. Thanks. (thumbs u

[ciorac]

Early comic book prices were determined by the seller, and were based primarily on personal experience of what the market would bear. Several dealers put out lists at least by the early 1960s, with Claude Held being one of the leading dealers. Leonard Brown and I put out a list at that time and we had a great deal of success with it. We tried to determine prices by asking what we would be willing to pay for a certain book. Early in 1966, Leonard and Malcolm Willits put out what might have been the first catalog of books for sale at their Collectors Book Store in Hollywood. Included was a Batman #1 for $100 and a Superman #1 for $100. They did not have Action #1 or Detective #27, but there were a lot of other great books. If you visited the store and bought comics, Leonard had a black leatherette notebook, about 5" x 7", in which he maintained all of his pricing information. He told me that he would adjust prices as sales occurred--or didn't occur, and the notebook grew to be about two inches thick. He had a mint copy of Detective Comics #1 on display in the store for $50 and couldn't sell it, so let a good customer buy it for less after it had been in the showcase for over a year. After his death, his wife gave me the notebook and other materials relating to the store, and it is still a joy to look through it. One little story about it, and Leonard, that you might enjoy is that Leonard always did things his way. By the time that Overstreet's CBPG was first published, Leonard had been maintaining his notebook for several years. He told me that he hated the new guide because he didn't think it accurately reflected the market. For example, EC's were all priced much higher than Leonard thought they were worth, and within a few months, buyers had exhausted his stock because they were getting such a great deal. The reverse also happened. A person would want to buy a comic, Leonard would quote him a price, and the customer would complain that Leonard wanted more than the guide indicated. He didn't care. He would just tell them to buy the book from the guy that wrote the guide. He used his own notebook for pricing comics until he retired in the early 1980's and continued to base prices on sales in the store.

Richard

 

I sent this thead to my friend Rich (YellowKid) since I knew he was there at the time all this was happening and knew Blum as well as Leonard and Mal.

 

Rich, did you ever go into Argosy?

[bug33fouf]

Chuck and Bob Overstreet would get together after a night of gin & tonic's, toss some figures into a top hat, shuffle, then Steve Geppi would reach in and pull the winning number.

 

Everyone around the campfire on that fateful day back in August 1967 cringed in horror as Geppi, hands still sticky from melted smores (that's his story and sticking with it) , grasped a loose yellow and blue stripped half-sheet of notebook paper and yelled out, "AMAZING FANTASY #15....NEAR MINT $7 VALUE!"

 

In horror, Bob Overstreet pushed Geppi off the woodpile, almost knocking him into the fire, and declared, "You don't know your azz from a hole in the ground, kid! That's FINE PLUS if I ever saw one, and I'll give you 25 cents for it, and you'll LIKE IT!"

 

He then stormed away, mumbling something about "I'll write my own price guide and show you loosers..."

 

Back at the campfire, Chuck Rozanski was hatching a plan.

 

And in one short week, Edgar Church would be dead.

 

 

[Yellow Kid]

No, I never made it to Argosy. They weren't one of the players. I would always visit Leonard and Mal when I returned to Long Beach to see my parents. When we talked about Argosy, they hadn't even heard about the price guide until years after it was published. Steve Edrington, then Stroud and Alexander, and then later, the Book Sail were all key players.

Rich

[Mutant Manatee]

Some interesting ads from Rocket's Blast and Comicollector #30, circa March 1964:

 

Yes, these prices will make you cry.

 

(Marv Wolfman would have been 17 when he placed his ad.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Zonker]

Good ol' Howard ("Tape is Not Considered a Defect") Rogofsky.

 

The comics listed below are complete and in good to very good condition even though a few of the books may need a little repair work done with scotch tape.

[WEBHEAD]

Good ol' Howard ("Tape is Not Considered a Defect") Rogofsky.

 

The comics listed below are complete and in good to very good condition even though a few of the books may need a little repair work done with scotch tape.

 

 

 

 

 

WEBHEAD

[thehumantorch]

Early comic book prices were determined by the seller, and were based primarily on personal experience of what the market would bear. Several dealers put out lists at least by the early 1960s, with Claude Held being one of the leading dealers. Leonard Brown and I put out a list at that time and we had a great deal of success with it. We tried to determine prices by asking what we would be willing to pay for a certain book. Early in 1966, Leonard and Malcolm Willits put out what might have been the first catalog of books for sale at their Collectors Book Store in Hollywood. Included was a Batman #1 for $100 and a Superman #1 for $100. They did not have Action #1 or Detective #27, but there were a lot of other great books. If you visited the store and bought comics, Leonard had a black leatherette notebook, about 5" x 7", in which he maintained all of his pricing information. He told me that he would adjust prices as sales occurred--or didn't occur, and the notebook grew to be about two inches thick. He had a mint copy of Detective Comics #1 on display in the store for $50 and couldn't sell it, so let a good customer buy it for less after it had been in the showcase for over a year. After his death, his wife gave me the notebook and other materials relating to the store, and it is still a joy to look through it. One little story about it, and Leonard, that you might enjoy is that Leonard always did things his way. By the time that Overstreet's CBPG was first published, Leonard had been maintaining his notebook for several years. He told me that he hated the new guide because he didn't think it accurately reflected the market. For example, EC's were all priced much higher than Leonard thought they were worth, and within a few months, buyers had exhausted his stock because they were getting such a great deal. The reverse also happened. A person would want to buy a comic, Leonard would quote him a price, and the customer would complain that Leonard wanted more than the guide indicated. He didn't care. He would just tell them to buy the book from the guy that wrote the guide. He used his own notebook for pricing comics until he retired in the early 1980's and continued to base prices on sales in the store.

Richard

 

Great post. I would absolutely love to see pics and/or scans of Leonard's notebook.