Dealer photos back in the day

[nearmint]

Gary

It has been a long time, hope all is well with you and the family.

 

Seeing a lot of familiar "faces" reminds me of not only the many conventions but of the days at Christie's.

 

There is a thread unto itself.... the grading committees.

 

I am sure many are not aware that part of the genesis of CGC were the Grading Committees at Christie's and Sotheby's.

 

These came out of necessity as the major houses had a "buyer beware policy" that required potential bidders to view items and bid based on their opinions with no assurance as to grades. This put us in a tough position as those running the sales were asked to grade all the books putting the burden squarely on us!

 

The solution in order to give collectors assurance, was to establish a committee made up of 10 "experts" half dealers half collectors. Every book was graded by all parties and the average grade assigned.

 

This was done without pay and we had some of the great times in terms of conversation and camaraderie.

 

I will throw some names out there but Gary was there for one at least!

 

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

[porcupine48]

This thread has made my day!

[Flex Mentallo]

Gary

It has been a long time, hope all is well with you and the family.

 

Seeing a lot of familiar "faces" reminds me of not only the many conventions but of the days at Christie's.

 

There is a thread unto itself.... the grading committees.

 

I am sure many are not aware that part of the genesis of CGC were the Grading Committees at Christie's and Sotheby's.

 

These came out of necessity as the major houses had a "buyer beware policy" that required potential bidders to view items and bid based on their opinions with no assurance as to grades. This put us in a tough position as those running the sales were asked to grade all the books putting the burden squarely on us!

 

The solution in order to give collectors assurance, was to establish a committee made up of 10 "experts" half dealers half collectors. Every book was graded by all parties and the average grade assigned.

 

This was done without pay and we had some of the great times in terms of conversation and camaraderie.

 

I will throw some names out there but Gary was there for one at least!

 

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

 

OMG Jeff - it feels like yesterday, not 14 years ago!

[nearmint]

Crazy, ain't it? Time flies...

[mrmyst]

I did one Christie's committee with Jon Berk, Ted VL, Ed Jaster, Dan Greenhalgh and a couple other guys...jeez such a long time ago. A lot of work and a lot of laughs, too.

[adamstrange]

 

OMG Jeff - it feels like yesterday, not 14 years ago!

That was 23 years ago

[Flex Mentallo]

 

OMG Jeff - it feels like yesterday, not 14 years ago!

That was 23 years ago

 

Brain hurt!

[50YrsCollctngCmcs]

I remember going down to a hotel ballroom in either Hollywood or Beverly Hills to look at books for a big auction. It was either the late eighties or early nineties. They had most of the Golden Age keys on display so it was a real treat. Does anyone remember that or what auction that was?

[Joe AllStar]

A couple of possibilities.

 

In conjunction with San Diego we had a booth that displayed many of the key items. However, it could have been a Howard Lowery Auction if it was LA proper.

[Joe AllStar]

Christie's 1992

 

[Ze-man]

 

Reading a Golden Age Green Hornet in 1966. This photo was taken for the Joliet Catholic High School's student paper. They did a story on weird freshman with strange hobby...

 

What, no "Fresh Cut Produce" photos?

 

I heard THAT was the place to be for comics.

 

 

 

Fun thread btw.

[Joe AllStar]

Bitter sweet....prior to an auction we held a preview party, I was proud to have convinced Carmine Infantino and Joe Simon to attend for their first public appearance in nearly 20 years. They are joined by the great Mort Drucker who rarely did a public appearance. This was probably 1992.

 

Some fun guests in the back if you can ID them.

 

 

[Primetime]

Gary

It has been a long time, hope all is well with you and the family.

 

Seeing a lot of familiar "faces" reminds me of not only the many conventions but of the days at Christie's.

 

There is a thread unto itself.... the grading committees.

 

I am sure many are not aware that part of the genesis of CGC were the Grading Committees at Christie's and Sotheby's.

 

These came out of necessity as the major houses had a "buyer beware policy" that required potential bidders to view items and bid based on their opinions with no assurance as to grades. This put us in a tough position as those running the sales were asked to grade all the books putting the burden squarely on us!

 

The solution in order to give collectors assurance, was to establish a committee made up of 10 "experts" half dealers half collectors. Every book was graded by all parties and the average grade assigned.

 

This was done without pay and we had some of the great times in terms of conversation and camaraderie.

 

I will throw some names out there but Gary was there for one at least!

 

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

looks like CGC grading by Steve and Jim

[G.A.tor]

Gary

It has been a long time, hope all is well with you and the family.

 

Seeing a lot of familiar "faces" reminds me of not only the many conventions but of the days at Christie's.

 

There is a thread unto itself.... the grading committees.

 

I am sure many are not aware that part of the genesis of CGC were the Grading Committees at Christie's and Sotheby's.

 

These came out of necessity as the major houses had a "buyer beware policy" that required potential bidders to view items and bid based on their opinions with no assurance as to grades. This put us in a tough position as those running the sales were asked to grade all the books putting the burden squarely on us!

 

The solution in order to give collectors assurance, was to establish a committee made up of 10 "experts" half dealers half collectors. Every book was graded by all parties and the average grade assigned.

 

This was done without pay and we had some of the great times in terms of conversation and camaraderie.

 

I will throw some names out there but Gary was there for one at least!

 

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

 

OMG Jeff - it feels like yesterday, not 14 years ago!

24 years

[Flex Mentallo]

Gary

It has been a long time, hope all is well with you and the family.

 

Seeing a lot of familiar "faces" reminds me of not only the many conventions but of the days at Christie's.

 

There is a thread unto itself.... the grading committees.

 

I am sure many are not aware that part of the genesis of CGC were the Grading Committees at Christie's and Sotheby's.

 

These came out of necessity as the major houses had a "buyer beware policy" that required potential bidders to view items and bid based on their opinions with no assurance as to grades. This put us in a tough position as those running the sales were asked to grade all the books putting the burden squarely on us!

 

The solution in order to give collectors assurance, was to establish a committee made up of 10 "experts" half dealers half collectors. Every book was graded by all parties and the average grade assigned.

 

This was done without pay and we had some of the great times in terms of conversation and camaraderie.

 

I will throw some names out there but Gary was there for one at least!

 

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

 

OMG Jeff - it feels like yesterday, not 14 years ago!

24 years

 

Still feels like yesterday!

[Silver Surfer]

Famous pic of Cherokee Books 1965 one of the first stores devoted to comics. If I recall this was a newspaper article.

 

 

I have seen this picture before and its amazing. Stacks and stacks of presumably mint condition early comic books. What a rush it would be to spend a whole afternoon flipping through those piles.

[Rip]

I haven't seen that one before!

[sfcityduck]

I've seen that picture. But what causes me pause about it is the Action 1 on the table. These days people speak about their being hundreds of Action 1s. But, I used to hear back in the 70s their just weren't very many (I've seen quotes as late 1980 claiming there were only a dozen or so). Clearly, either a lot of Action 1s came out of the closets and attics in the 1980s onward or there were people buying nice Action 1s back in the 60s and 70s who just never let on what they had.

 

Pictures like this (and the revelation of collections like Bangzoom's and seeing old ads for Action 1s) make me think its the former. I wonder how many guys have been holding on to Action 1s they bought in 1980 or before?

[markseifert]

But what causes me pause about it is the Action 1 on the table. These days people speak about their being hundreds of Action 1s. But, I used to hear back in the 70s their just weren't very many (I've seen quotes as late 1980 claiming there were only a dozen or so).

 

I've paid attention to this in the fanzines/publications of the 60s/70s era, and this phenomenon has always interested me as well -- as you say, the publications of that era leave you with the impression that there might be a handful in existence at best.

 

You virtually never saw an Action #1 listed for sale in the 60s era fanzines (and I have looked through a bunch). Being fair, you didn't see too many of the other big books listed very often either -- though I did recently run across a 1968 for-trade listing from guy wanting to trade a Detective 27 for a Detective 38 or Submariner 1. Wonder if the fellow ended up regretting that one. But books of that nature were often held back as trade-bait at the time, if they were mentioned as being available at all.

 

One of the earliest "listed" Action #1 sales I am aware of offhand is a high-profile (for the day) Rex Miller Auction from 1972. Miller bought the cover of Comic Buyer's Guide #22 (then TBG, of course) to advertise the auction, and listed it on a few interior pages. In addition to the Action 1 (which he called, "The rarest known collector's item"), he had a big batch of other early Golden Age on offering.

 

Note that this would have been prior to the famous and well-publicized Bruce Hamilton / Theo Holstein / Mitch Mehdy chain of events which I believe took place in 1973 and has of course been well-discussed on this board by now. Mitch told the media at that time that there were about 9 copies in existence, and no doubt that was picked up and repeated by other media outlets for years to come. But I think there's also little doubt that the publicity kicked off by this event brought copies out of closets and onto the market during that period. There is also a comment or letter from Hamilton around this time in the pages of RBCC that has him discussing the extreme rarity of Action #1 as well, that I need to track down again some day.

[Crowzilla]

I'm sure I recall photos of the graders with their white gloves on.

 

I was on that first grading committee for Sotheby's - first time I ever worse gloves while handling comics.

Afterwards Jerry made the graders some nice presentation boxes with copies of the catalog, our gloves, a bunch of photos of everyone and the event (all taken by my then-wife) and some other cool stuff about the auction. A very cool and unexpected keepsake from the auction.

 

Here's a couple of photos I have stored online from I think 91. Top is from DragonCon, lower is from San Diego.