Post your San Francisco/Tom Reilly books 4 4

[BLBcomics-migration]

here's a nice "cuz i say so" frisco y'all can jump out there to get.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BATMAN-21-4-5-VG-1944-DC-WP-TOM-REILLY-SAN-FRANCISCO-/390557318192?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item5aef07bc30

 

now, be aware, the book below, from the same month, shows what kind of markings a reilly of that vintage should have, but, hey, knock

 

 

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.

[Frisco Larson]

Bob, Jim Elsenpeter here, Hey I was wondering at what point Bob Selvig came into the picture with the Reilly books. I was able to purchase a few books (not Reilly copies), from him a year or two ago at a show (yeah, he still sets up sometimes!). I've heard it said that he doesn't like to discuss that collection, so I didn't engage it with him, but he certainly brought many Reilly copies to the Twin Cities area and some are still here to this day. For whatever reason. I have it in my head that he was involved with a third of the books with a few other partners, is that the case?

 

Additionally, did you or anyone else get any pictures of the collection back when you bought it? I've not seen anyone ask about this, so I figure it's worth asking about. I'm not asking to see proof of anything, just that it would be cool to see photos of stacks of old high grade funnybooks!!!

 

Finally, while I understand that the books are said to have never been in San Francisco, that's the name this beautiful collection has been associated with for decades and I'm pretty sure that the name is gonna stick. You might be happy to know that many of us refer to them as "Reilly copies" as well.

 

Conclusively, while many seem to be content to make fun at your expense, there are many of us that appreciate any bits of helpful knowledge that you can give and at the very least, thank you for your honest efforts. I also would like to add my best wishes for your daughters recovery!! Those of us who have children have our hearts go out to you and any other parents dealing with the illness of their children. God Bless.

[Cat-Man_America]

I don't know, guys. It was a very different time back then. I knew a guy who had 20-25 high grade copies each of March of Comics 4 and 20. Granted, those books are hardly Superman 1, but they were considered much more important books then than they are now. It wasn't impossible if you had a moderate amount of dough to accumulate a stash of books you were either in love with or thought were going to rise in value.

 

well, none of us "know." but the fact that only 1 supe has ever been slabbed at the "8" level makes me think this is probably b.s. even if i don't "know" it.

 

 

[font:Times New Roman]Excellent point, Billy.

 

I'm not going to challenge Bob's recollections, but given the expected money Supe #1 would realize it begs the question of why such a large quantity of rare, high grade books aren't better represented in the CGC census today.[/font]

[Cat-Man_America]

here's a nice "cuz i say so" frisco y'all can jump out there to get.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BATMAN-21-4-5-VG-1944-DC-WP-TOM-REILLY-SAN-FRANCISCO-/390557318192?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item5aef07bc30

 

now, be aware, the book below, from the same month, shows what kind of markings a reilly of that vintage should have, but, hey, knock

 

 

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.

 

 

[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]

[Yellow Kid]

Bob Beerbohm just called me, in spite of the fact that I have told him that I never wanted to speak with him again, because he felt his comments about Leonard Brown and Collectors Book Store were being doubted by members of the board. I have read his comments, they are replete with erroneous information, and if anyone cares about the issue, I would refer them to the CBCA articles of the past few years by Jeff Shanks and, later, myself.

Briefly, Leonard and I were partners in a mail order comic book business out of his parents house in Long Beach, CA, from about 1959-1964. He wanted to open a store, I wanted to go to grad school, so he and Malcolm Willits became partners and opened Collectors Book Store on Saturday, March 6, 1965, at 1717 N. Wilcox Ave. in Hollywood, CA. They had some tough times but things got better and better and in the 1970's, they moved into a large, former bank building at 6763 Hollywood Blvd. Their inventory flourished and the stock in the bank's time vault was incredible. As you walked in to the vault, there were bookshelves on both sides and a large table in the center. To the left were comics and to the right were pulps and movie mags. Once in a while there was a Barks painting or an Oscar or something else against the back wall. All of the comics and other material were standing upright in alphabetical order, all all of it was quality material. Lesser books were kept in a wall of boxes by the comic counter. Once when I was visiting, Leonard said, "You always liked Batman, check out that section." I found Batman #1, and then another copy, and then another copy, until I saw all twelve copies. Superman #1 was much more difficult to find, and while they would have copies now and then, they never had a large grouping of them. At one point he did buy 10 mint copies of March of Comics #20 and #41, and could have had many more but just didn't think the store needed them.

What is important to remember is that in our area, there was the attic at Cherokee Books where Burt built up a good inventory when there was almost no competition, and then there was Collectors Book Store, which ultlimately became much larger and had a much greater inventory. Relative to other stores in the country, I don't think there was anything comparable. Of course over time, other stores opened from coast to coast, some becoming quite impressive, but Collectors Book Store still had no equal until after Leonard retired.

I would add that Leonard was condition conscious from the very beginning, and all of the best books were kept in the vault, or in his personal collection. Remember it was his copy of WDC+S #1 that sold for over $100K a few years ago. Most of his other books were just as nice. I know of one other collector who bought the finest books possible from him and built an important collection, and none of them have been sent to CGC. I still have a few nice raw ones myself, as I am sure several other older collectors do.

 

[BLBcomics-migration]

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......

 

[Cat-Man_America]

Bob Beerbohm just called me, in spite of the fact that I have told him that I never wanted to speak with him again, because he felt his comments about Leonard Brown and Collectors Book Store were being doubted by members of the board. I have read his comments, they are replete with erroneous information, and if anyone cares about the issue, I would refer them to the CBCA articles of the past few years by Jeff Shanks and, later, myself.

Briefly, Leonard and I were partners in a mail order comic book business out of his parents house in Long Beach, CA, from about 1959-1964. He wanted to open a store, I wanted to go to grad school, so he and Malcolm Willits became partners and opened Collectors Book Store on Saturday, March 6, 1965, at 1717 N. Wilcox Ave. in Hollywood, CA. They had some tough times but things got better and better and in the 1970's, they moved into a large, former bank building at 6763 Hollywood Blvd. Their inventory flourished and the stock in the bank's time vault was incredible. As you walked in to the vault, there were bookshelves on both sides and a large table in the center. To the left were comics and to the right were pulps and movie mags. Once in a while there was a Barks painting or an Oscar or something else against the back wall. All of the comics and other material were standing upright in alphabetical order, all all of it was quality material. Lesser books were kept in a wall of boxes by the comic counter. Once when I was visiting, Leonard said, "You always liked Batman, check out that section." I found Batman #1, and then another copy, and then another copy, until I saw all twelve copies. Superman #1 was much more difficult to find, and while they would have copies now and then, they never had a large grouping of them. At one point he did buy 10 mint copies of March of Comics #20 and #41, and could have had many more but just didn't think the store needed them.

What is important to remember is that in our area, there was the attic at Cherokee Books where Burt built up a good inventory when there was almost no competition, and then there was Collectors Book Store, which ultlimately became much larger and had a much greater inventory. Relative to other stores in the country, I don't think there was anything comparable. Of course over time, other stores opened from coast to coast, some becoming quite impressive, but Collectors Book Store still had no equal until after Leonard retired.

I would add that Leonard was condition conscious from the very beginning, and all of the best books were kept in the vault, or in his personal collection. Remember it was his copy of WDC+S #1 that sold for over $100K a few years ago. Most of his other books were just as nice. I know of one other collector who bought the finest books possible from him and built an important collection, and none of them have been sent to CGC. I still have a few nice raw ones myself, as I am sure several other older collectors do.

 

 

[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

Edited March 29, 2013 by DavidMerryweather

[Timely]

I don't think it is ignorant of CGC to call the books in this collection what everyone else has been calling them for the past 30+ years. It may not be correct in your eyes, but it is what it is. We can't even call them the "Tom Reilly" copies because you are not even sure his first name was Tom. A name is just a name, let the books speak for themselves! (thumbs u

[Straw-Man]

I don't think it is ignorant of CGC to call the books in this collection what everyone else has been calling them for the past 30+ years. It may not be correct in your eyes, but it is what it is. We can't even call them the "Tom Reilly" copies because you are not even sure his first name was Tom. A name is just a name, let the books speak for themselves! (thumbs u

 

and, my, how they speak loud and clear.

[Frisco Larson]

 

Finally, while I understand that the books are said to have never been in San Francisco, that's the name this beautiful collection has been associated with for decades and I'm pretty sure that the name is gonna stick. You might be happy to know that many of us refer to them as "Reilly copies" as well.

 

It's how we've come to know them and it's not going to change

[Straw-Man]

like i give a sheeyit if the allentowns acutally were found in aliquippa.

[Frisco Larson]

like i give a sheeyit if the allentowns acutally were found in aliquippa.

 

Didn't you MAJOR in geography Billy boy??

[Transplant]

I would like to protest CGC calling the Edgar Church books Edgar Church (Mile High). Don't get me started on how the Mile High II books should be relabeled "Some Warehouse in NJ".

[BLBcomics-migration]

I have read his comments, they are replete with erroneous information, and if anyone cares about the issue, I would refer them to the CBCA articles of the past few years by Jeff Shanks and, later, myself.

Superman #1 was much more difficult to find, and while they would have copies now and then, they never had a large grouping of them.

 

[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.

[BLBcomics-migration]

here's a nice "cuz i say so" frisco y'all can jump out there to get.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BATMAN-21-4-5-VG-1944-DC-WP-TOM-REILLY-SAN-FRANCISCO-/390557318192?pt=US_Comic_Books&hash=item5aef07bc30

 

now, be aware, the book below, from the same month, shows what kind of markings a reilly of that vintage should have, but, hey, knock

 

 

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. -

[Timely]

Bob, do you have any "old pictures" of you with the Reilly collection?

 

Now that would be something to see.

[Sqeggs]

I don't know, guys. It was a very different time back then. I knew a guy who had 20-25 high grade copies each of March of Comics 4 and 20. Granted, those books are hardly Superman 1, but they were considered much more important books then than they are now. It wasn't impossible if you had a moderate amount of dough to accumulate a stash of books you were either in love with or thought were going to rise in value.

 

well, none of us "know." but the fact that only 1 supe has ever been slabbed at the "8" level makes me think this is probably b.s. even if i don't "know" it.

 

Do you always call BS about things you know nothing about?

[BLBcomics-migration]

Bob, do you have any "old pictures" of you with the Reilly collection?

 

Now that would be something to see.

 

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.

[BLBcomics-migration]

The Batman 21 in question by some one placed the URL for previously in this thread got attacked by a cat years ago.

 

It also has a "g" on the front cover above Robin's yellow cape.

 

Granted, VG+ is a bit much, but at the time i was going thru books which had this in it from a collection of a fellow I know bought Reillys from me, I also was factoring the utter white supple paper inside, the brilliance of the cover colors. Paper quality to me is much more important than other defects such as spine bends, etc. But that is simply my humble opine.

 

 

[Straw-Man]

I don't know, guys. It was a very different time back then. I knew a guy who had 20-25 high grade copies each of March of Comics 4 and 20. Granted, those books are hardly Superman 1, but they were considered much more important books then than they are now. It wasn't impossible if you had a moderate amount of dough to accumulate a stash of books you were either in love with or thought were going to rise in value.

 

well, none of us "know." but the fact that only 1 supe has ever been slabbed at the "8" level makes me think this is probably b.s. even if i don't "know" it.

 

Do you always call BS about things you know nothing about?

 

didn't dr. olson come in behind me with personal knowledge of the situation and indicate that they had a few supe 1's over the years, but nothing like a half-foot stack of high grade ones? and didn't bob later say he wasn't so sure about the number or grades of supe 1's in the vault? my "probable" bs call appears to be pretty decent.

 

but that avoids your question. i'd say i lean to "often" calling bs on things i know nothing about it, as opposed to "always."