1st significant mail order transaction.

[aardvark88]

What was your 1st MAJOR mail order sell/buy comic related transaction? Could be cgc or pre-cgc related.

Mine was back around 1981 when I sold Albert Moy (NY) his 1st big mail order purchase of 22 J Byrne orig comic art MTUp pgs. I took all his ice cream money that month b/c he was still in hi-school working for an ice cream outlet at $4/hr.

Share your stories fandom.

[hogations]

1st mail order transaction was with Gerry Ross many years ago - I chose him because he was Canadian and I saw his advertisements in comic books on a regular basis. Big mistake!

 

At least I don't see his ads anymore

[aardvark88]

Very 1st mail order buy was around 1974 when I ordered 4 Marvel posters from NYC. Marvel sent my Cdn int'l mo. back b/c I overpaid them. In the early 70s, Canadian funny money was worth MORE than the US greenback. I wish those days would rtn. Funny how Cdn Pamela Anderson in the movie Barb Wire would insist on being paid in Canadian funds for her kills b/c in the future, Cdn $ was worth more than US $. But that was FICTION.

[comicinvestor-migration]

My first buy was through R Chrestohl (sp?) mainly because he was a Canuck. I stayed with the NM/M options after getting some VF/NM comics I disagreed with (even as a kid!) and after I sent in a few regular NM/M orders (staying with Bronze mostly), I seemed to get a nice supply of super high-grade books.

[Guest]

I always saw those Ross ads as well. The 'Comic Master'.

 

I was tempted to buy from him, but never did. Probably a good thing as nobody here had too much complimentary to say about him on the Gerry Ross thread.

[Hensley300]

Hmm, mine was with East Coast Comics. Ordered a regular supply of GI Joe's and Transformers. Read and reread many times.

[CosmicBob]

Mine was also with Ross, in January of 1990. I bought some Caps that I've now sent in for CGCing, well see what sorts of grades they come back with!

[Crackandpresstoan11]

I bought a number of books from Mile High in around '82-'83, one of which was an X-Men 142 in nm condition (exept for the hole that went through the entire book). I'm sure Mile Highs grading has gotten better over the years...............

[Hensley300]

Dont bet on that one Tom

[hogations]

If you poke around the other threads, I'm sure you'll many who will beg to differ!

 

I used to buy/trade from them many years ago - they were a little inconsistent then, but I've heard they've gotten worse. However, I've heard you can get some good deals from them when they have their 40% discount sales on their website.

[supapimp]

ross,cresthol....checkout my thread i started back in july. my first was mile high comics, i remember trying to save up $7.50 to cover the minimun order, this was back in 1980 and it was for x-men 137. one of the greatest issue/story ever.

[PovertyRow]

I rarely did/do mail order. Had Outer Limits, New England Comics (a few locations), Million Year Picnic, That's Entertainment and several other shops all an hour's drive or less, and all of them with stock back to the Golden Age. Now that I am in San Francisco mI eel like I am in a comic desert. Wondercon has been a godsend. Haven't made it to San Diego Con yet.

 

My first one was a disaster from 4-Color. Ordered an FF48 and a Spotlight 5 - this was in the mid 80's. Both were listed as NM. The 48 was trimmed and the Spotlight had black Magic Marker touch on the cover that, of course, bled through very noticeably. Along with this was a Weird Science (forget the number) that was a VG-F that had bad mold.

 

Now I order mainly from those I know and who know me. I will ocassionally buy from ebay but very rarely. Grading variables are so great that I'd rather wait, hit a store or a con, and see what it is I am buying.

[fingfangfoom]

Robert Bell was the recipient of my first mail order in 1976. A nice stack of Daredevils between #20 and #40 at $2 each and a free(!) poly bag...with Bell advertising on the flap of course. Such a deal. Hugh O'Kennon was next and I although I always ordered a catalog, I never bought from Rogofsky(sp?). Lone Star received the bulk of my mail orders in the late 70's and early 80's. X-men 94 for $6 in NM

[greggy]

I believe that I bought my first mail order books through Mark Wilson from World's Finest in the mid-1990s. Don''t recall what I bought from him!

[aardvark88]

Poverty,

R u referring to Robt Rogovin, 4 Color Comics in NYC? Metropolis' buddy? Surprised they would ship u garbage in the mail. Their comicon display is always choice in San Diego.

[supapimp]

[Larryw7]

My very first comics related mail order transaction was for the FAMOUS FIRST EDITION of Detective #27, and then for several other Limited Collectors Editions from DC and Treasury Editions from Marvel(I had to order these, they received very sparse distribution in Philly).

 

My first mail order transaction from a dealer was with a guy named Dave Hunt(I may be remembering the first name wrong). He advertised in many bronze age books, and his catalogue was a dime. I ordered a BATMAN ANNUAL #5 in Mint for about three bucks(!), and a SUPERMAN ANNUAL (forget the number)in VG for about two dollars. Being ten years old, I read the mint Batman annual to death and the cover eventually fell off the book! But I sure did enjoy the hell out of it.

[mr_highgrade]

Don't recall the first...But here are a few...David T. Alexander...Robert Cresthl...Ted Van(something) from Boston I think...JR Comics...Steven Sullivan (back in 94) is that you Sully?...Mike Sihock (Spidey # 7 NM in 94) came back CGC 9.2! ...Ken Stribling...Verle G. Willis...Bob Storms...Richard Frazier...The Neverwhere Den...Mike Krammer...Michael Maxim...Keith C (Pimpy's buddy)...J & S Comics.

 

[drbanner]

I'm not sure if it was my first, but I remember ordering some relatively expensive (for my age and income - anyone else a paper boy?) comics from "Ross/Cresthol" as advertised in the Marvel books (remember that they basically advertised every issue in every grade), and thinking "Wow, these are neato!".

 

Years later after getting back into comics I ordered some stuff from Gerry on the rec.arts.comics.marketplace (racm) newsgroup. It turned into a major fiasco where my credit card was charged, I didn't get the books for like 2 months, had to return most of them due to overgrading (ahh...the ignorance of youth!), and didn't get my refund for another 2-3 months. During this time there were several "complaints" posted to racm about him, so needless to say I was pissed off.

 

Shortly thereafter he returns to racm, to which myself (and others) responded with our, uh, 1st-hand experiences. He called me out, so I emailed him and told him to call me if he wanted to discuss the matter, or that I would be happy to meet him at Heroes Con (he attended the previous year so I actually did meet him before). He ended up calling me and apologizing (making excuses is more like it) and sent me a couple Gold Key file copies as a gesture of goodwill. Well, here I am, that's my sad story, and it ain't good, is it Gerry?

[AlphaOmega]

One of the first major puchases I made was from Howard Rogofsky around 1981. Howard rarely provided grades for his books and if you were lucky, he gave a brief description. I bought a bunch of cheap FF's for a few bucks apiece and also nabbed a Silver Surfer #1 that he had listed in a few of his previous catalogs. I paid a princely sum of $27 for the SS #1 and to my surprise, it arrived in VF/NM condition. Of course the package took four weeks to arrive and was beat to hell

 

During the early 80's, if there was a mail order comic dealer, I bought books from them: J&S Comics, Robert D Chresthol, Gerry Ross, Four Color, along with dozens of fly by night dealers. I grew up in the middle of nowhere and mail order was my only outlet. I remember one time buying a run of FFs from #23 to #55 through the mail from a store that was going out of business. They were half price (about $10 each at the time) and cost me around $240 total. They must have been the store owners personal stash because every one was VF/NM and quite a few were dead on NM

 

All of this talk about mail order comics reminds me of something that probably no longer exists in mail order comics: the dreaded alternates. For those that have never experienced this, when you ordered books from many dealers, you wern't guaranteed that they would be in stock. To keep from having to return your money, many mail order dealers would ask for a list of alternates books to send in place of the out of stock ones. It was always a bummer to order that NM copy of Iron Fist #14 and instead get an alternate of Strawberry Shortcake #1