Imagine This (Part 1)

[Alawson453]

What if all of a sudden you inherited every comic you ever dreamed of!

 

guys for my 2nd Journal Entry I'm coming out swinging! This will give a little insight on part of my history in Comic Collecting.

 

The year is 1990 and i'm visiting one of my favorite places to pick up back issue comics in North Las Vegas (The Book Rack). I had been a customer at this store for well over 12 years already since my early childhood. I would ride my bike over 5 miles down a steep hill while my Mom and Dad were at work just so I could spend hours sifting through the back issue bins of comics from the late 60's and 70's.

 

It was commonplace in the mid to late 70's to find books like House of Mystery #92 in high grade in the quarter box. I found a total of 6 copies one summer Part of the reason I always went back because you never knew what you might find.

 

Now back to 1991, after talking with the owner one day he told me that he wanted to sell the store and I thought maybe he would blow out some of the leftover comics. Ok, keep in mind that this was first a used book store which specialized in trading paperback for a quarter. Well after talking with the owner he tells me that there are thousands of comics in the back room of the store that he had been just stockpiling. Ok i'm curious I take a look and could not believe what I was looking at. Over 20,000 books all stored in brown paper bags stacked up to the top of each bag with another bag over the top to make a perfect case, air conditioned for the last 20-25 years with 5-10 copies on most of all of the Marvel and DC Comics that had ever been published. Hell there were 8 copies of Silver Surfer #1 (1968) which ranged from vg to mint with 3 of the copies super high grade.

 

Ok, I buy the store! I scraped and scratched every penny I could and pulled it off. The day I take the keys I go into the back room which was now mine! I had gone through each and every bag and stack of comics and magazines till I was just totally overwhelmed. I now had every book (just about) that I had ever wanted times five, but I also had the rest of the store as well and had to manage day to day operations as promised for one year so customers could use up their trade credits for paperbacks.

 

I will pick up from this point in my next post. Hopefully this has been interesting (it's a true story).

 

See more journals by Dre

[Tnerb]

It has and I look forward to more. Do you have pictures?

[Alawson453]

I will work on pics of books I currently have both slabbed and raw. Most of the books from that collection have been over the last 20 years which provided me with a nice little side income I'm just this year starting to focus on actually building some sets and having stuff graded, but this will take some time

[Tnerb]

Do you still have the store?

[SW3D]

Dre,

 

I always dreamed of owning a comic book store... much less a book store.

 

This is like reading a fantasy come true. You're one lucky dude!

 

Why did the original owner give it all up?

 

Just curious... back in 1991... how much did the you end up paying for the whole business?

 

Do you still own any of the best of best you bought?

 

Lookin' foward to the next chapter of this tale.

 

SW3D

[Alawson453]

No Tnerb, I only kept the store open for a year after that as I had promised the owner. I really only wanted the comics to begin with and had no need for 100k paperbacks

 

Screenwriter, The original owner at that time was 77 years old and had undergone quadruple heart bypass a couple years earlier and just wanted out while he still had some time. None of his family wanted to take over the store. The price tag is the reason I say I inherited what I consider to be my Mile High version was a mere $15,000.00. Yep, that was the price for what I consider to be the greatest deal I have ever made in my life.

 

I will post Part II later this evening (time to go to work).

[surfer99]

Oh man, this is edge of you seat stuff. Like SW3D, I can't wait to find out if you still have some of the best of the best in your collection. If so, I can imagine you would be anxious to get them graded and added to your sets. Likewise, your felllow collectors would love to go on that journey with you. Keep writing!