How did you hunt for back issues pre-internet days?

[joeypost]

I bought my first back issues from Richie Muchin. He sold out of an old white van at the Aqueducts flea market in Queens, NY.

 

I later moved on to shows and purchased/traded with a small group of local collectors in high school.

 

Did not buy my first book off of ebay till 2002.

[alecholland]

There was a time when the internet didn't exist?

[Rommin]

There was a time when the internet didn't exist?

 

 

[Dick Pontoon]

Ahhh... Memories, like the corner of my mind...

 

Technically, my first back issues were recent ones came from friends, but were already off the stands, like FF 160 and MTU 26. Shortly thereafter, I was buying books like FF 165 from the local convenience store spinner rack. (Still got it. The comic, that is, not the spinner rack.)

 

Before I knew how to acquire back issues, my dad - a contractor who built houses - brought me home worn copies of Tec #365, Blackhawk #153 and Strange Tales #91 from a stack he'd found in a basement. I was overjoyed yet mortified that he didn't just take the whole pile. Of course, when he got back there after I'd expressed my dismay, the rest were gone. (Why didn't they just sit there like the stack of Playboys and Penthouses we used to find in some weird fort in the woods?)

 

The first back issues I bought (Marvel Tales #1, FF #48-50, ASM #44 and #45 plus Origins and Son of Origins) came from Bill Cole’s old shop, the Comic Kingdom. From Bill I found out about the local monthly show (The Sunday Funnies at the Boston Howard Johnson's and run by Don Phelps, if memory serves). I know Nik used to go to that show, too.

 

I did the bulk of my buying there. The few comic shops that existed at that point always seemed pricier than the show. I did do some buying at the Million Year Picnic in the 80s after I’d been away from the hobby for a while. Mail order always seemed like a shoot; I wanted to be able to see what I was buying.

 

While I'm taking a trip down memory lane, another fond one I have is getting Marvel Super Heroes #56 and ASM #153 in my Xmas stocking. Still got those, too.

 

I joined ebay in '99, but I think it was at least a year or two before I started buying comics there.

 

[precodekeith]

1. The Comic Buyer's Guide

2. Classified ads in local papers

3. Local and "Jubilee" comic shows/cons (anyone remember Jubilee?)

4. Flea Markets/ Garage Sales

5. The LCS

 

Those were the days!

[scottish]

It was Mile High Comics for me in most cases - thankfully I was buying mostly current back issues so grading wasn't a huge concern.

[chromium]

Good thing I've only been collecting since 2002 otherwise it would have been impossible for me... without the internet, without this board I still would probably only have those 75 comics from the late 70's early 80's I bought as a kid at the newsagents in the UK

[Bomber-Bob]

The Comic Buyers' Guide. From there I would make a connection with different dealers and get on their mailing list. In the early 1990's there were many LCS

available with back issues.

I never did the garage sale thing, I don't like to get up early !

 

[dupont2005]

before the internet it was impossible for me to do much back issue collecting. there was only one comic shop within at least 60 miles of my house. i was too young to drive so not much going out of town for comics. and even if i did, comics were expensive back then. i remember i wanted the old mag sized elfquest run but i would have never been able to afford it even if every issue was at my lcs. i did order from milehigh once with the mail order slip. no back issues though, they were all current.

[RockMyAmadeus]

Shops, Conventions, Mail Order.

 

Mail Order and Conventions were a Godsend, because I could find books I wanted, and wouldn't have to pay top guide for everything.

 

Which, of course, Land of Nevawuz, Halley's Comics, and even Clay's Comics charged.

[nearmint]

In the mid-70s, most of my back issue purchases were at the Orange County swap meet. I did buy a Superman #131 from Robert Bell through mail order. Local shops started appearing in 1980s, and I was a frequent visitor of Fantasy Illustrated in Garden Grove, CA, about a mile south of Disneyland. That's where I had my sub for new books, and where I first started buying Golden Age. Dave Smith, the owner, turned me on to the Comics Buyers Guide, which opened up my comics world considerably. Every week, the day I came home and found the new issue in the mail, I'd spend a few hours pouring over every ad, and there were always a lot of them. It was in CBG that I was introduced to all the major players in Comics. I started calling Steve Fishler, just to see what he'd picked up lately, and bought several Golden Age Actions from him. I bought Church Actions from Ray Belden through a CBG ad, and more from Ernie Gerber from an ad he placed after the Photojournal came out. I started going to the San Diego Convention in 1981, and haven't missed a year since.

[precodekeith]

...oh, and I left used paperback/book stores off my list! Those were sometimes great places to find back issues on the cheap!

[KolmarAvenue]

It was lcs's and local shows mainly as well. Also, as a 12-15 year old with next to no money, these would be done mostly by foot or bus with the occassional parent driven excursion. Flea markets were also big, nothing like a bunch of dusty books laid out on decrepid old wooden tables! This was mainly in the 80's-early to mid 90's.

 

Also the occassional comic ad like mile high or nec?

 

I also remember when I first started going to the rec.comics message boards before I had html and picking up books in the interwebs neolithic age.

[Mister_Comics]

The year was 1959. Me and my friend Rodger planned out this comic swap meet. He was in the Scouts. I was into comics. We somehow convinced the school to let us run this sway meet. Mostly because Rodger was a scout and they had their meetings at the school. So the school let us do it. When the day came it was held in the school gym. We had tables all set up and just about all the kids in the neighborhood brought what books they were going to trade. No money was involved. Just trading. I remember seeing all kinds of old goldenage comics. Picked up some great books that day. Traded away some great books too. But we were kids and didn't realize how collectible comics would become someday. We did this comic trade thing one more time about a year later in the same gym. After that the school wouldn't let us do it any more. Instead the school did something simular but it was called a "white elephant sale". There were some comics at these. Usually for sale for 5 or 10 cents. But it was nothing like our comic swap. Anyway; that was one of the ways us kids got old comics before any computers were around.

Let see someone top that.

MC

[RockMyAmadeus]

The year was 1959. Me and my friend Rodger planned out this comic swap meet. He was in the Scouts. I was into comics. We somehow convinced the school to let us run this sway meet. Mostly because Rodger was a scout and they had their meetings at the school. So the school let us do it. When the day came it was held in the school gym. We had tables all set up and just about all the kids in the neighborhood brought what books they were going to trade. No money was involved. Just trading. I remember seeing all kinds of old goldenage comics. Picked up some great books that day. Traded away some great books too. But we were kids and didn't realize how collectible comics would become someday. We did this comic trade thing one more time about a year later in the same gym. After that the school wouldn't let us do it any more. Instead the school did something simular but it was called a "white elephant sale". There were some comics at these. Usually for sale for 5 or 10 cents. But it was nothing like our comic swap. Anyway; that was one of the ways us kids got old comics before any computers were around.

Let see someone top that.

MC

 

Awesome story. Perfect for a soundtrack. Here's one that works:

 

 

 

I wish I was buying comics in 1959....

 

 

[Mr. Zipper]

In the late 70s, a local flea market had a guy with a comics table. Bought my first real "old comic" there for $2 if I recall correctly. FF 32 -- Death of a Hero! -- which I still have to this day.

 

I did one mail order from an ad in the back of a comic in the early 80s - FF 52 from Crestohl/Ross when they were 1,000,000 Comix. It's been almost 30 years, but I still clearly remember receiving the book in a padded brown envelope (all the way from Canada!) and tearing it open on on the kitchen table. It seemed like it tooks months to get the book from the time I sent in my mail order form. But to a kid, a week seems like months.

 

Pre-1990 it was primarily the LCS (Electric City Comics in Schenectady) or small local cons held at the Turf Inn in Albany.

 

In the 90s, I subscribed to CBG and bought a lot of books from ads - J&S in Red Bank and SNE. J&S always had good sales on lots. Wish I focused more on grade and pedigree back then, but I was an accumulator in those days. I was more concerned with completing runs than grade.

 

Never had much luck at garage sales. Although, my Mom once came home from an estate sale with a nice stack of 12 cent DCs that she got for almost nothing. Green Lantern 59, a few JLAs and Batmans... all in nice shape. Still have all of them to this day as well.

[Mr. Zipper]

The year was 1959. Me and my friend Rodger planned out this comic swap meet. He was in the Scouts. I was into comics. We somehow convinced the school to let us run this sway meet. Mostly because Rodger was a scout and they had their meetings at the school. So the school let us do it. When the day came it was held in the school gym. We had tables all set up and just about all the kids in the neighborhood brought what books they were going to trade. No money was involved. Just trading. I remember seeing all kinds of old goldenage comics. Picked up some great books that day. Traded away some great books too. But we were kids and didn't realize how collectible comics would become someday. We did this comic trade thing one more time about a year later in the same gym. After that the school wouldn't let us do it any more. Instead the school did something simular but it was called a "white elephant sale". There were some comics at these. Usually for sale for 5 or 10 cents. But it was nothing like our comic swap. Anyway; that was one of the ways us kids got old comics before any computers were around.

Let see someone top that.

MC

 

My Dad tells a similar story. In the early 50s, all the kids would buy one or two comics and then swap when they were done reading them. No one could afford to buy more than one or two books at 10 cents a pop.

 

Once a book made all the rounds, the last kid to read it would then sell it to a kid named Milton Zapolski who would pay a few cents and keep the book.

[alecholland]

The year was 1959. Me and my friend Rodger planned out this comic swap meet. He was in the Scouts. I was into comics. We somehow convinced the school to let us run this sway meet. Mostly because Rodger was a scout and they had their meetings at the school. So the school let us do it. When the day came it was held in the school gym. We had tables all set up and just about all the kids in the neighborhood brought what books they were going to trade. No money was involved. Just trading. I remember seeing all kinds of old goldenage comics. Picked up some great books that day. Traded away some great books too. But we were kids and didn't realize how collectible comics would become someday. We did this comic trade thing one more time about a year later in the same gym. After that the school wouldn't let us do it any more. Instead the school did something simular but it was called a "white elephant sale". There were some comics at these. Usually for sale for 5 or 10 cents. But it was nothing like our comic swap. Anyway; that was one of the ways us kids got old comics before any computers were around.

Let see someone top that.

MC

 

Great story!

 

My father-in-law was talking to me about my comic collection the other day and told me that when he was a kid in the 50's, there was a general store up the street from him that did something very similar.

 

Kids could take in used comic books and trade them for any other used comics for a penny each. He also sold new comic books, but my father-in-law said the store owner had thousands of used comics. He said he got 15 cents for his weekly allowance and would take 5 comics and 5 cents of his allowance and go to the store to trade. His favorites were Blackhawk and westerns. I told him those are the kinds of stories that make me wish time travel were possible.

[AtlasFan]

From the seventies to the nineties, my 4 main sources of back issues were Comic Conventions, Comic Shops, Dealer catalogs, and The Buyer's Guide For Comic Fandom (TBG). Picked up some really nice material from each source, and each was alot of fun.

 

TBG/CBG and catalogs were especially important during the nineties, as newly unearthed highgrade collections first came to market through these avenues, including the Green River, Massachusetts, Northland, Winnipeg, Slobodian, and Golden State collections. I've still got a few issues of TBG and catalogs from Motor City, Harley, World's Finest (Mark Wilson), Marnin, Teddy, Hauser, Showcase NE, Four Color, and Goblin's Den that today are amazing for the inexpensiveness of their high grade Silver and Bronze. I was fortunate enough to pick up small handfuls of examples from each of these pedigree collections, but too naive/stupid and too poor to buy the quantity that I now wish I had!

 

Never had the pleasure of attending a Sotheby's or Christie's auction, but love hearing stories about them.

 

I remember the GOBLIN's DEN -- really nice HG stuff -- they advertised in the CBG quite often...anyone know what happened to them?

 

Getting back to the ancient days of collecting...

CBG offered the best variety. If you had an overnight subscription, they would advance you a copy of the latest issue a day or so before the general public got theirs..this gave you a small window to get a jump on calling to inquire about a book for sale!

 

My want list process:

 

First, I would compile a list of sellers I liked from the ads in the CBG, current comics, catalogs, business cards collected at Cons, or the front/back of the GUIDE. I would enter these sellers into DBASE 3 database table and then print out mailing labels.

 

I would then print my want list on post cards and mail them out every month or so to that distribution. I later started sending faxes. Now, I have a more sophisticated email distribution system...the Internet has sure made it easy for me...and unfortunately easier for everyone else!

 

I will say that it was more of a challenge to actually find something back then.

Ah the good ol' days...

 

Bill

[nocutename]

Awesome stories everyone thanks for sharing. Update on mine own: I went to another LCS about 20 minutes away today. They had tons of back issues and selling them at crazy low prices. It kinda makes me sad to see them go for so cheap and the owner taking huge losses. Anyway, find a couple more Harley Quinns but no Batman Adventures.