Tom Reilly Collection Master List

[BLBcomics-migration]

Did Mr. Beerbohm ever deliver on his promise to publish the story of the 600K+ GA deal he initially wrote about in the beginning of this thread ? If so, where ? I'd like to read about it.

 

Nope, got off into dealing comics, other comics research, my youngest daughter got back from Afghanistan and out of the Army with PTS concepts which eats up a lot of time

 

I also moved my warehouse Dec/Jan 2007 - lots of research stuff is still in boxes

 

I have letters between some of the players in this deal

 

One of the guys who bought it just died

[BLBcomics-migration]

I only have a few Reilly books in my collection and wonder who has most of the DC stuff?

 

Erik, I have only a few Reilly books remaining, too.

 

My question would be, where are all the Centaurs??

 

STEVE

 

To me this collection has been a mystery- "more mystery than real". I have a couple, but they seem to have been dispersed without any good paper trail. They appear to be relatively hard to identify and one would think with all the Church books and other pedigrees for sale over the last few years that several would have surfaced. Have they just been dispersed so that they are anonymous books in the comicbook population? After all with several highgrade "non-named pedigrees out there", those owners and those books are also anonymous.

 

jon

 

Hi Jon

 

The "mystery" was compounded by Gerber in is book where he discusses Mile High Church stuff, and then devoted a couple paragraphs to the Reilly collection. He got everything wrong in his thoughts on it, all except he got Tom's name correct

 

They were indeed dispersed to the winds at the time - I purposely did not let any one person get very many copies - we spread the wealth at the time as it were/

 

Lamont is easy to track, they are all written on

 

The concept of Pedigree Tracking had not yet been invented

[BLBcomics-migration]

I transfered these thought patterns from the Batman 21 Reilly thread, to keep em all together so future historians have it all easier to argue about:

 

By today's standards the Reiily Tec 27 was a solid VF, maybe higher - it was a beautiful copy,

 

- this is the grade Gary Carter said it was in when he bought it from Burl Rowe when we talked about the Reilly Tec #27 back in the 1990s some 20 years after the fact and he was still editing CBM and i was submitting certain aspects of my comics research projects

 

- i still clearly fondly remember all the publicity we received on this sale back in '73.

 

- keep in mind it was 34 years ago come this May i sold it off for $2200, then the very first book in the world to break the two grand "barrier". I sold the Whiz #2 (#1) which was also very high grade for two grand a couple weeks before. But it did not go "over" two Gs

 

The ensuing worldwide AP/UPI news paper stories which stretched all the way to Germany garnered us 3 more Tec 27s within a month

 

- the collection instantly put us on "The Map" so to speak and by the end of summer, we had opened 3 more comic book stores in San Francisco, San Jose, and Sacramento,

 

and I coined the term Comics & Comix as our corporate moniker with each individual store known as "....... Comic Art Shop" which extended the original name my late partner John Barrett coined the original The Berkeley Comic Art Shot to the other three city areas we opened up in.

 

and to those of you who send me PMs re The Tom Reilly Collection" when ever i come back to these boards to discuss comics history::

 

I prefer answering all Tom Reilly communications out in the open light of day, so more people learn when my memory gets jogged?

 

If OK with you, post your PM or what you feel comfortable with onto the thread and i will answer it to the best of my memory ability, which is what i try to do re this fabulous one-in-al-lifetime collections any one could ever be blessed with

 

I wish we had had the foresight to document this collection better at the time. but please keep in mind what a school of piraña does to something which wonders into the Amazon

 

- then you might feel some of the energy which was unleashed as we offered up copies out of this collection.

 

We knew it was something special, but also viewed it at the time as simply a very nice batch of books and we had high overhead rent to pay on Telegraph Ave, and we had just put out thousands of dollars to host the first comics show in the Bay Area, where good fortune dictated this piece of history be dumped in our laps.

 

Robert Beerbohm

www.BLBcomics.com

eBay Store: BLBcomics

My Comics Dealing 40th Anniversary October 2007

 

Post Extras:

[Theagenes]

Hi Bob, Good to see you posting again!

 

I love these stories and anecdotes about the early days of collecting and fandom. I would really like to see a narrative history of the development and growth of the collecting community in the 60's and 70's. I hope that will be a section in your forthcoming magnum opus.

[BLBcomics-migration]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your history behind the Reilly collection. As a long time collector of GA books, I truly appreciate the insight you bring to these boards.

 

I have been collecting HG Supermans for about 20 years. I am a true collector with a passion for the nostalgia and artwork of the 40s and 50s. I am trying to complete my 9.0+ run of Supermans #1-100 that I began years ago. Unfortunately, this is a title that seems to have fewer pedigrees readily available.

 

I was wondering if you might shed some light on the Reilly copies from the Superman title. I saw that your list included Supes #4-35 from this collection. Do you know who owns these books?? I know Ron Pussel (Redbeard's Book Den) has the Superman #18 9.6 Reilly copy, but I have searched ALL OVER for the past 20 years, and I can't seem to locate or find any information about the remaining Supermans. Do you recall any of those books? Any idea about who had them at one time?

 

In the mid 90s, I was at a San Diego Comic Con and I saw a HG copy of Superman #2 and #3 (I can't remember who was selling them.) The dealer was claiming that the books were from the "SF collection"- However, your list does not include those earlier issues...

 

I have a true appreciation for these pieces of history, and it is my hope that where ever they are, they are well preserved and accounted for!

 

Once again, thank you for the wealth of knowledge you bring to these boards re. this colleciton. Hopefully, I can see you at one of the cons one of these days, and I am always open to hearing any info you might have about the Reilly Supermans!

 

Clayton Zeidler

PS- If you are interested... I have most of the highest graded Supermans on the census- but most of the Church Supes are also hidden away in collections. I feel the census is just the tip of the iceburg.

 

I got the above PM'd to me, Clayton PM's me back it is OK to answer this as i do most every PM i have gotten for a while re the Tom Reilly collection. I prefer that what i recollect and write about this once-in-a-lifetime deal be shared with every one so i am not writing the same stuff over and over, but that is what i seem to be doing ant way, as the same questions crop up over time, which is OK, cuz every one here is going to get this Pedigree Book we keep hearing about

 

For starters, the Reilly Superman run began with #3

 

Any claim that Superman #1 or #2 were in the Reilly collection is false

 

I believe you were referring to John Fairless who was offering up the Reilly Superman 3 and 4 for the owner who had purchased them from me in my Berkeley store back in early 1974

 

I know who bought those two books from Fairless, the former wanting them CGC'd after purchase and causing a ruckus of sorts at the time some one at CGHC thought they knew more about this collection that i do.

 

The Superman 3 and 4 were way less condition than the later ones like some of the 2nd hand Mile Highs which recently went on eBay

 

I do not claim to know very much about any other pedigree ever discovered other than listening to the war stories

 

But i do still well remember the unbridled excitement over the many thousands of books which ended up in our store beginning back in 1973, coming at us in three segments - some of the superlatives which have been used to describe BangZoom's batch of stuff rings true for utterance 34 years ago this month of April

 

One has to keep in mind that many many of the books did not have either that Reilly stamp or Gilboy distributor markings - so they were in even better shape with no writing on books whatsoever. Plays hell in IDing them 30 years later, or even the last 20 years in your case

 

They did not have an unique aroma as MH books used to have

 

Just exquisite condition

 

best

 

robert beerbohm

www.BLBcomics.com

eBay store: BLBcomics

Celebrating 40th Anniversary Dealing Comics This Oct 2007

(release of my first ad in RBCC 47)

[BLBcomics-migration]

Hi Bob, Good to see you posting again!

 

I love these stories and anecdotes about the early days of collecting and fandom. I would really like to see a narrative history of the development and growth of the collecting community in the 60's and 70's. I hope that will be a section in your forthcoming magnum opus.

 

Since i lived thru most of it beginning in 1966, the narrative re the emergence of the comic book back issue business will very much be a part of what i am compiling.

 

I talked yesterday with my co-author on the Overstreet history articles, Richard Olson, PhD, re his first comics partner Leonard Brown, who passed away a few days ago. Leonard had been Rich's friend since the late 1950s, and my friend over 35 years.

 

Leonard and Malcolm Willits opened Collector's Book Store in Hollywood in 1964. It remains what was and forever will be the greatest comic book store in the world with the widest selection in depth of any comic book store there ever will be. They were the first to stress condition over all.

 

Here is a picture i have from it from the 1960s. It was located in a former Bank of America on Hollywood Blvd and they used the walk in bank vault with a huge time lock to store the high grade good stuff

 

[adams]

can there be anymore blb excuses?

This one is/was a Classic !

[sacentaur]

I talked yesterday with my co-author on the Overstreet history articles, Richard Olson, PhD, re his first comics partner Leonard Brown, who passed away a few days ago.

 

I was saddened to hear this news the other day. Visiting Collectors Bookstore is THE fondest memory of my early (innocent) days of comic book collecting.

 

STEVE

[lou_fine]

One has to keep in mind that many many of the books did not have either that Reilly stamp or Gilboy distributor markings - so they were in even better shape with no writing on books whatsoever. Plays hell in IDing them 30 years later, or even the last 20 years in your case

 

They did not have an unique aroma as MH books used to have

 

Just exquisite condition

 

Bob;

 

Based upon your above statement and the supposedly many thousands of SF books out there, would it be likely that collectors may be sitting on SF books within their collections that they do not even know about?

 

Do you believe the SF books are still being tightly held since very few SF books have shown up in the marketplace over the years? If not, have they been scattered to the wind, and now just relegated to HG books as their SF origins have now been lost?

 

Way too may unaccounted for SF books!

[tth2]

One has to keep in mind that many many of the books did not have either that Reilly stamp or Gilboy distributor markings - so they were in even better shape with no writing on books whatsoever. Plays hell in IDing them 30 years later, or even the last 20 years in your case

 

They did not have an unique aroma as MH books used to have

 

Just exquisite condition

 

Bob;

 

Based upon your above statement and the supposedly many thousands of SF books out there, would it be likely that collectors may be sitting on SF books within their collections that they do not even know about?

 

Do you believe the SF books are still being tightly held since very few SF books have shown up in the marketplace over the years? If not, have they been scattered to the wind, and now just relegated to HG books as their SF origins have now been lost?

 

Way too may unaccounted for SF books!

My guess is the latter. Also, who knows how many SF books have been trashed since they were first dispersed in the early 1970s. They were just sold as "nice" GA books, and weren't marketed with all the pedigree trappings of the Church collection. Heck, even some Churches have been trashed by knowledgeable collectors through poor storage over the year (e.g., an attic of a house in Houston ).

[BLBcomics-migration]

I talked yesterday with my co-author on the Overstreet history articles, Richard Olson, PhD, re his first comics partner Leonard Brown, who passed away a few days ago.

 

I was saddened to hear this news the other day. Visiting Collectors Bookstore is THE fondest memory of my early (innocent) days of comic book collecting.

 

STEVE

 

One of the Players in that 600,000 comics deal was Leonard Brown. I am thinking about writing this deal up shortly, during a period of copious spare time.

 

The business model of Collector's Book Store was one of the main inspirations we used when we started Comics & Comics back in 1972

[BLBcomics-migration]

One has to keep in mind that many many of the books did not have either that Reilly stamp or Gilboy distributor markings - so they were in even better shape with no writing on books whatsoever. Plays hell in IDing them 30 years later, or even the last 20 years in your case

 

They did not have an unique aroma as MH books used to have

 

Just exquisite condition

 

Bob;

 

Based upon your above statement and the supposedly many thousands of SF books out there, would it be likely that collectors may be sitting on SF books within their collections that they do not even know about?

 

Do you believe the SF books are still being tightly held since very few SF books have shown up in the marketplace over the years? If not, have they been scattered to the wind, and now just relegated to HG books as their SF origins have now been lost?

 

Way too may unaccounted for SF books!

My guess is the latter. Also, who knows how many SF books have been trashed since they were first dispersed in the early 1970s. They were just sold as "nice" GA books, and weren't marketed with all the pedigree trappings of the Church collection. Heck, even some Churches have been trashed by knowledgeable collectors through poor storage over the year (e.g., an attic of a house in Houston ).

 

Yo Lou Fine and tth2

 

More than half a decade passed after we had sold off the initial batches of Reilly copies before the Edgar Church accumulation surfaced.

 

No one was tuned into "pedigree" concepts prior to MH

 

backing boards were not even in use as an industry standard then

 

As a matter of fact, my research indicates Mark Edmonds and "invented" the wide spread use of backing boards because of the Reilly copies

 

He and i went to Flax on Market Street in San Francisco, buying a large quantity of art board which we cut up to back many of the comics - and this was seen by Hi De Ho comics in Santa Monica

 

The following year at San Diego they had something like 20,000 backer boards for a nickel apiece - they sold out

 

The backer board for comic books industry was born thusly in the mid 1970s

 

I have been saying for many years now that many many of the books did not have neat easy to ID markings on them.

 

I am sure some copies were even read more than once and not taken care of very well over the decades

 

Keep in mind what the stuff was selling for in the 1972 and 1973 Overstreets, peanuts compared with what stuff began going for not that long later

 

Robert Beerbohm

www.BLBcomics.com

eBay store: BLBcomics

Celebrating 40 Years Of Dealing Comic Books Oct 2007 with my first ad in RBCC 47

[BLBcomics-migration]

http://koti.welho.com/apuska/Reilly/

 

I just reviewed this list of "known" Reilly books

 

do all of these have the Reilly stamp?

 

Does any one know where the Captain America #1 Reilly copy got off to? Nick Marcus and Mike Manyak got it pretty cheap along with all the other Timelys in the first third of this find.

 

C&C ended up with a complete run of Marvel Mystery beginning with #4 and extending to summer of 1945 - every issue, along with damn near everything published back then.

 

There is a LOT of stuff which has never been sent to the CGC slab factory

 

When (if) the Green Lantern 14 gets found, it has a one inch tear coming off the right side in the middle, done by one of the heirs because she did not know how to handle comic books properly

[Timely]

http://koti.welho.com/apuska/Reilly/

 

I just reviewed this list of "known" Reilly books

 

do all of these have the Reilly stamp?

 

Does any one know where the Captain America #1 Reilly copy got off to? Nick Marcus and Mike Manyak got it pretty cheap along with all the other Timelys in the first third of this find.

 

C&C ended up with a complete run of Marvel Mystery beginning with #4 and extending to summer of 1945 - every issue, along with damn near everything published back then.

 

There is a LOT of stuff which has never been sent to the CGC slab factory

 

When (if) the Green Lantern 14 gets found, it has a one inch tear coming off the right side in the middle, done by one of the heirs because she did not know how to handle comic books properly

 

That'z bizarre. The Green Lantern #14 was graded last month at 9.4, it was coded and no tear 1 inch was present.

 

West

[BLBcomics-migration]

I remember (from 34 years ago this month) the torn Green Lantern as maybe having a red cover - might be 10 11 or 13 having just checked Gerber.

 

Anyhoot, one of the higher GLs had this tear, i asked the lady (of the 2nd batch) how this happened and she mentioned she had done it herself

 

Do you have an updated list - i just noticed this list on another thread you posted on

 

it appears to be from 2005

[Arty]

I made that list. My list has only books from recent years, since I don't have old auction catalogs, everything is from net sources.

 

Just upgraded my webpage with all info I have on my database. Now it has 111 books listed.

 

Almost all of them have some king of identification marks (G, date stamp, Reilly stamp) . About 1/4 have Reilly stamp on back cover.

[BLBcomics-migration]

I made that list. My list has only books from recent years, since I don't have old auction catalogs, everything is from net sources.

 

Just upgraded my webpage with all info I have on my database. Now it has 111 books listed.

 

Almost all of them have some king of identification marks (G, date stamp, Reilly stamp) . About 1/4 have Reilly stamp on back cover.

 

Hi, thanks for stepping forward

 

Some one wrote last week the Green Lantern 14 had been ID'd re CGC'd - so, there is another one to add, i guess

 

Also, Bud Plant owns the Military 15 - he still has his book, after he, John Barrett and myself each picked one to "keep" - i forget which one i picked at the time in 1973 - ask him to get it graded

 

The trip with the Reilly books is so many of them did not have that stamp on the back cover

 

And my big query of the week is: WHO HAS THE CAPTAIN AMERICA #1 from this deal?

 

Robert Beerbohm

[BLBcomics-migration]

Not meaning to bump this to top of the stack, but some one PM'd me what Timely issues were in the collection - the very first post of this thread comprises the list i made many years ago, granted some time after the initial rush was over

 

- so, PM person, here is a parameter of the Timely issues you seek - good luck, all it takes is big bucks to land an issue or two

 

best

 

Robert Beerbohm

www.BLBcomics.com

[nearmint]

Hey Bob,

 

I'm still intrigued by the fact that you've got all the Nedor titles included in that list. CGC has never certified a Reilly Nedor, Heritage and Metropolis have never sold a Reilly Nedor, and I've never seen one in my ten years of buying Nedors.

 

For a while, I thought that perhaps someone had swooped in when you first picked up the collection and purchased all the Nedor titles, but you've often said that the books were sold piece-meal, and that no one got complete runs.

 

I know I've asked you this before, but are you sure the Nedor titles were included in the collection?

 

Thanks,

Jeff

[BLBcomics-migration]

Yes, there were Nedors - Black Terror, etc,

 

- and i was not the only one selling our stuff.

 

Late partner John Barrett and i used to go at it, because he did sell some of the stuff as runs to a few people.

 

- and even gave discounts to boot

 

- a couple times like 20% off

 

- as if we could replace these exquisite copies.

 

We had partner meetings with Bud Plant, then soon thereafter with 4th partner, the late Jon Campbell, who helped engineer Comics and Comix getting the deal. It was a group effort. Following one contentious partner-bout, it was decided that John B would not sell the old stuff any more.

 

JB would concentrate on the new stuff flowing into the stores.

 

I would handle the old stuff

 

- decompartmentalize as it were. We were learning business technics as we went along, Bud was still in San Jose State Business School. He taught us what he learned each week.

 

We got the Reillys in April, by May we hada opened up the 2nd store in San Fran - Jon C and I had been running it the first month

 

I ran it for the first 7 days to get a feel for the traffic flow, then added in Jon C to teach him, then i went back to Berkeley to handle just the old stuff there, as we had been growing quite a mountain of cool Gold and mountain ranges of Silver.

 

We built a special room inside the store we could lock up, and it was loaded with cool old stuff.

 

We had gotten a lot of deals offered our way once i sold the Detective 27 to Burl Rowe for $2200 and broke the two grand barrier on a funny book. It was the best copy i have ever seen, as in handled in my own hands - so carefully. It looked new

 

Got all kinds UPI/AP wire all over the country, into Europe as well, Germany even.

 

Now, the Reilly copies had a bit of fun with them we did - so many had never been opened before. Comic books which have sat for a spell, the powder they used to use to make the ink dry faster, well, such a comic book being opened makes a unique sound, a loud "sqwuiiiish" sound.

 

That is one reason why i began limiting people to just a couple issues after the initial piranha feeding frenzies took bites here and there out of the entire body of books

 

Well, one of the reasons

 

- so people could hear that unique sound for themselves.

 

At least more than just a few people, who, given their druthers, would have opened every one to look thru them all

 

 

I do know the late Rick Durrell, super high grade collector from early on bought a LOT of books from us at the 1973 San Diego comicon, just a couple months after we had acquired the other two thirds. He had a lot of Reilly copies.

 

which was where?, the one out at the air port hotel by the lagoon?,

 

anyway, i am side tracking myself

 

Actually, the last third debuted at the SD Comicon that year, now that i think of it, memory jogged and all.

 

The 3rd relative had to fly back from the east coast with her funny books, after getting wind what the other two sets of relatives had gotten for their books.

 

She flew out with them, showed up unannounced, though i had been saying, geeze, based on the runs we were getting, what was there, and what was not there, i kept saying,

 

"There are more books. No one had complete runs of a lot of titles like this and not have any of others."

 

I was very correct, for when all three pieces of the relative puzzle put their stashes together, and they had divvied up Tom Reilly's collection basicly by cookie cutter. They all tended to have complete type runs mostly.

 

There was some deviaton in that Nick Marcus and Mike Manyak got a few Capt Americas including the #1, but we got ALL the rest as they were in a latter batch.

 

We used the proceeds to open a 2nd store on Columbus Ave in North Beach, San Francisco, then at the end of summer, we opened up in San Jose as well as Sacramento - instant chain store operation, and we began vacuum cleaning the comic book collections as best we could.

 

Rick Durell's widow sold much/most of Rick's super high grade collection thru Ernie Gerber auctions - so if those auctions could be traced, you might find the elusive gold at the end of the rain bow, because all i am on this fabulous collection any more is a retired leprechaun

 

Last time i had two Reillys were i believe Star Spangled 24 26 i got in a collection back in 2001. It was out of a run of Star Spangled 1-70 plus Smash 18-85 and Zip Comics 27-end of Web stories.

 

In those last two titles emerged 17 Mile Highs which had been off the market since Chuck placed the single massive ad in TBG (later CBG) when Alan Light still ran it as a weekly, so when was that - 1979?

 

The guy had completed his ZIP and SMASH off Chuck's TBG ad, then dropped out of collecting. It also had a complete Marvel and a near complete Wally Wood everything, that was a neat batch of books

 

My point for bringing this up is, there is a very distinct probability there is a lot of material still in people's houses, never going to auction, never going to Florida.

 

Mr BZ is a prime example, and we are all grooving on his stuff

 

There are a lot of others out there like him i am aware of

 

- with no intention of selling and they completed their runs decades ago

 

- or took them as far as they wanted to and altered their collecting venues.

 

I have been trying to explain over the years, especially when Gerber got the info soooo wrong in his Photo Journal Guide -

 

and i got side tracked from keeping track of a great many things when the main warehouse of the comic book company i ran flooded, it contents boasting a million issues plus other stuff.

 

A lot of the books did not have the anchor - i have said that over and over.

 

Not all books will have the Gilboy Agency G (Oakland Calif) or other markings which have been observed and recorded

 

There are people out there who remember what we got in that collection.

 

People might show me copies they think are Tom Reilly copies

 

- and i could try to ID as best i can

 

- i have helped others in the past,

 

- as in ID-ing Reillies as well as pointing out copies which would be impossible

 

(as in the 1946 issues which got slabbed saying so, i believe, and i had to stand my ground saying, nope, after summer of 1945, there just was not anything, anything at all)

 

So, why no Nedors identified as such hitting the market in the markets you specified, well, don't know what to say about that.

 

It was just a couple years ago Ed Jaster came up to me at a Philly Wizard show saying Ted Van Liew had a few Reilly copies on consignment from a fellow who used to advertise in RBCC all the time, incredible ads for the time on the back covers, Mosso i think his name was - and the Reilly copies i remember looking at there, several, it was, were all early Fox issues. Fantastic Comics was one for sure. #3 was it? #7? Ted would know. They are not on that Tom Reilly list URL posted here recently from what i can see.

 

I might be wrong, but all i know is 34 years ago we were blessed with the greatest mother lode i have ever had the good fortune to acquire, for however briefly, and it put us on the map on a national basis, way more than the combined talents of John Barrett, Robert Beerbohm and Bud Plant could already get us there.

 

All 3 of us had begun traveling to comic shows, well, for me it was Houstoncon June 17 18 1967, and for them it was Dallascon in 1968 the next summer, where we met up as teen agers, wheeling and dealing comics, soon thereafter every one piling into a single hotel room to cut expenses to the bone,cutting cards for mattresses, box springs, blankets, sheets, pillows.

 

John B had dropped out of comics, gotten married, sold his collection following the disolution of their Comic World comic book store in San Jose in summer 1970.

 

- and by 1972 just two years later we had teamed up opening up that Telegraph Ave Berkeley comic book store. We had just turned 20 years old a couple months before. Kids.

 

and the next year, in 1973, not yet 21, one of the greatest batches of Gold ever to be blessed upon any one entered our lives.

 

We were blessed with being able to see almost the entirety, the enormity, of the out put of Golden Age comic books issued from the late summer of 1939 thru the summer of 1945

 

There are a lot more copies of these, and a great many other cool old comics, out there than people today realize. Witness BZ's amazing batch of funny books.

 

best

 

Robert Beerbohm

www.BLBcomics.com