Do GA Collectors Read The Comic Buyer's Guide? 1 1

[Dave2739]

I still have my copy of the final issue and a few favorites that I kept over the years. I'll dig 'em up and post a few pics. I still have my copy of TOS39 that I got from an ad in CBG back in 1993 for $250. Had it graded a few years ago and it came back 4.0. Not a bad ROI.

[Robot Man]

On 10/2/2021 at 3:47 PM, jimbo_7071 said:

I've heard of the CBG, but I didn't realize that it was still in print. I've never read a copy.

CBG was a game changer to collectors when it came out. A vehicle to communicate, buy, sell, and trade with people all over the country. No longer were you tied to just your local area. It was a way to get industry news and was pivotal in establishing comic fandom. 

Kind of like 8 track tapes. I know you younger people snicker at them but before them all you had was a radio in your car. Most cars didn’t even have FM radios. 

[lou_fine]

On 10/2/2021 at 5:10 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

I used to read CBG religiously. In fact, here’s an old ad I ran back in 1994.  Note the prices on the Pep 34, the Punch 12, the White Mountain copies of Weird Tales of the Future 2 and 3, and the TOS 39! I need a time machine and take a do-over on this selling decision 

Hey Clark;

Never realized that you were like the rest of us old-timers here who have seemingly been into this hobby for the longest time.  

Yeah, don't we all wish that we could have a time machine and go back to make all of the right purchasing decisions, and in your case here, the right selling decision.  

Interesting to note that you had the Church copy of New Book of Comics 2 listed in your ad here.  A bit surprised to see that one there as that's definitely not a book that's high on most GA collector's buy list.  Just wondering why you would purchase this book in the first place and do you remember who you got it from?  

Basically asking since New Book of Comics 2 was actually the first GA book that I had purchased way back in the late 80's as I decided to finally expand my collecting horizons and skipped right past the SA and straight into the pre-hero GA time period for my first stop on my journey towards GA collecting.  The reason for my interest in those pre-hero DC books came from an article by Gary Carter (i.e. DC Before Superman) which he had written for the 1983 or '84 Overstreet Price Guide which kind of ignited my interest in seeking out some of these supposedly super rare early pre-hero GA books like New Comics 2 and New Fun 2.  

Kind of sad though to see that these early pre-hero books seems to have been forgotten by most collectors, and as such, haven't really gone up much in value relative to their much more common super hero brethern who would make their appearance a few years later.  

 

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 10/5/2021 at 1:09 AM, lou_fine said:

Hey Clark;

Never realized that you were like the rest of us old-timers here who have seemingly been into this hobby for the longest time.  

Yeah, don't we all wish that we could have a time machine and go back to make all of the right purchasing decisions, and in your case here, the right selling decision.  

Interesting to note that you had the Church copy of New Book of Comics 2 listed in your ad here.  A bit surprised to see that one there as that's definitely not a book that's high on most GA collector's buy list.  Just wondering why you would purchase this book in the first place and do you remember who you got it from?  

Basically asking since New Book of Comics 2 was actually the first GA book that I had purchased way back in the late 80's as I decided to finally expand my collecting horizons and skipped right past the SA and straight into the pre-hero GA time period for my first stop on my journey towards GA collecting.  The reason for my interest in those pre-hero DC books came from an article by Gary Carter (i.e. DC Before Superman) which he had written for the 1983 or '84 Overstreet Price Guide which kind of ignited my interest in seeking out some of these supposedly super rare early pre-hero GA books like New Comics 2 and New Fun 2.  

Kind of sad though to see that these early pre-hero books seems to have been forgotten by most collectors, and as such, haven't really gone up much in value relative to their much more common super hero brethern who would make their appearance a few years later.  

 

Hey Lou. Robert Rotor of PCE was a mentor of sorts, and he talked me into it the New Book of Comics 2. Probably not my best move. But I won’t throw Robert under the bus: He also talked me into an Action 1, so there’s that. I remember the latter book being a lot easier to sell than the former. 
 

to add insult to injury, these books have entered the atmosphere, and according to this ad, I sold them for pennies back in the day

Edited October 5, 2021 by GreatCaesarsGhost

[lou_fine]

On 10/5/2021 at 5:14 AM, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Hey Lou. Robert Rotor of PCE was a mentor of sorts, and he talked me into it the New Book of Comics 2. Probably not my best move. But I won’t throw Robert under the bus: He also talked me into an Action 1, so there’s that. I remember the latter book being a lot easier to sell than the former. 
 

to add insult to injury, these books have entered the atmosphere, and according to this ad, I sold them for pennies back in the day

Hey Clark;

Now, that's definitely a name that's a blast from the past in terms of Robert Rotor of the Pacific Coast pedigree fame.  I remember his PCE ads in the CBG whereby he came up with his own grading and PQ scales for his books.  Hope you were there early enough to have snapped up some of the beauties from his Pacific Coast Collection before the rest of the marketplace discovered what he really had there in terms of the pedigree designation that would eventually be attached to these books.    Any idea whatever became of Rotor as I am quite sure he's no longer active in the comics marketplace anymore?  

I remember first talking to Rotor when I was down at one of the SD Con's back in the early to mid-90's.  Asked him if I could look at one of his books and to my wife's astonishment, that was when he pulled out a pair of what looked like white surgical gloves to wear and then he very slowly and very carefully (almost like a live bomb that was ready to go off ) took the book out of the mylar to show me while still holding it in his gloved hands.  After that, I remember walking over to Metro's table and asked Fishler if I could look at one of his books.  Without missing a beat, Fishler simply picked up the book from his table and reached in to yank the book out of the mylar and then handed it to me to look at, all while he was still talking to me.  Needless to say, my wife was totally shocked and couldn't stop laughing when I told her that Fishler's book was actually worth many times more than the book that Rotor had so carefully shown to me.    

As for the New Book of Comics 2, I guess that must have been during the heydays of CBG and long before they had the internet as even I had a subscription to their weekly newspaper back then in the 80's.  If I remember correctly, it was something like 1987 and as I was flipping through the latest copy of the CBG which I had received in the mail, saw an ad by somebody named John Snyder with some apparently pretty good references (i.e Overstreet, Geppi, etc.) in there.  Gave him a call and asked him about the HG copy of the first issue of Playboy which he had advertised for $1K only to find out that it was already gone.  Moved further down and asked him about the NM/M set of Hawkman 1 - 10 that he had listed for $150, only to get the same response.  Yep, snail mail like always and by the time I got my newspaper, anything worth buying would already be gone.   

It was then that I moved further down and saw the New Book of Comics 2 and remembered the article, "DC Before Superman", authored by Gary Carter in an earlier edition of the Overstreet Guide and one which I had read multiple times as I was fascinated and totally intrigued by these early and supposedly rare pre-hero books at the time.  John told me that he would give me a break on the $850 price (or somewhere around there) that he had the book listed for and this would be a good deal since he was sure that Overstreet was going to bump the price up in his next edition of the guide due out the following month.  I remember checking the next edition of the guide and it looks like John was good with his forecast as it was bumped up to over $1K in the next guide. 

The funny thing is that John had also told me the book was worth more than guide because top of guide at that time for that book was listed only in VF condition and he was sure this copy was nicer than that with blinding snow white pages and possibly even nicer than the Church copy.  Sad to say, that meant nothing to me at the time because coming straight in from the new Modern books, I knew pretty much zippo about Church or any of the other GA pedigrees at the time.    Like Rotor who was sort of your mentor at the time, this would change as over many late night telephone conversations during the next few years, John would regaled me with stories about the Church books and some of his many dealings with Chuck, Geppi, Overstreet, Anderson, Carter boys, etc.  Being a small-time collector with a budget unlike those other big time collectors, he was always mindful of that and guided me on how to collect high end vintage books while still on a small budget.  

Kind of ironic and sad though that the New Book of Comics 2 along with the rest of the pre-hero GA books seems to have been forgotten by today's generation of collectors as they have fallen, relatively speaking, so far behind the rest of the marketplace.  Nevertheless, I still remember receiving the book in the mail and was absolutely stunned not only by the fact that it was a squarebound 100-pager with cardboard covers which you don't often see, but also by how a book from the '30's could have survived in such superb condition over the years.  Even moreso, although the book definitely has not done as well as the books with the guys who wear their unides on the outside, I will always remember it with fond memories and treasure those late night conversations which would eventually lead me to other contacts and other vintage GA books over the ensuring several years.  

BTW:  You are definitely 110% right about the Pep 34 and Punch 12.     

 

 

 

Edited October 7, 2021 by lou_fine

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 10/6/2021 at 11:19 PM, lou_fine said:

Hey Clark;

Now, that's definitely a name that's a blast from the past in terms of Robert Rotor of the Pacific Coast pedigree fame.  I remember his PCE ads in the CBG whereby he came up with his own grading and PQ scales for his books.  Hope you were there early enough to have snapped up some of the beauties from his Pacific Coast Collection before the rest of the marketplace discovered what he really had there in terms of the pedigree designation that would eventually be attached to these books.    Any idea whatever became of Rotor as I am quite sure he's no longer active in the comics marketplace anymore?  

I remember first talking to Rotor when I was down at one of the SD Con's back in the early to mid-90's.  Asked him if I could look at one of his books and to my wife's astonishment, that was when he pulled out a pair of what looked like white surgical gloves to wear and then he very slowly and very carefully (almost like a live bomb that was ready to go off ) took the book out of the mylar to show me while still holding it in his gloved hands.  After that, I remember walking over to Metro's table and asked Fishler if I could look at one of his books.  Without missing a beat, Fishler simply picked up the book from his table and reached in to yank the book out of the mylar and then handed it to me to look at, all while he was still talking to me.  Needless to say, my wife was totally shocked and couldn't stop laughing when I told her that Fishler's book was actually worth many times more than the book that Rotor had so carefully shown to me.    

As for the New Book of Comics 2, I guess that must have been during the heydays of CBG and long before they had the internet as even I had a subscription to their weekly newspaper back then in the 80's.  If I remember correctly, it was something like 1987 and as I was flipping through the latest copy of the CBG which I had received in the mail, saw an ad by somebody named John Snyder with some apparently pretty good references (i.e Overstreet, Geppi, etc.) in there.  Gave him a call and asked him about the HG copy of the first issue of Playboy which he had advertised for $1K only to find out that it was already gone.  Moved further down and asked him about the NM/M set of Hawkman 1 - 10 that he had listed for $150, only to get the same response.  Yep, snail mail like always and by the time I got my newspaper, anything worth buying would already be gone.   

It was then that I moved further down and saw the New Book of Comics 2 and remembered the article, "DC Before Superman", authored by Gary Carter in an earlier edition of the Overstreet Guide and one which I had read multiple times as I was fascinated and totally intrigued by these early and supposedly rare pre-hero books at the time.  John told me that he would give me a break on the $850 price (or somewhere around there) that he had the book listed for and this would be a good deal since he was sure that Overstreet was going to bump the price up in his next edition of the guide due out the following month.  I remember checking the next edition of the guide and it looks like John was good with his forecast as it was bumped up to over $1K in the next guide. 

The funny thing is that John had also told me the book was worth more than guide because top of guide at that time for that book was listed only in VF condition and he was sure this copy was nicer than that with blinding snow white pages and possibly even nicer than the Church copy.  Sad to say, that meant nothing to me at the time because coming straight in from the new Modern books, I knew pretty much zippo about Church or any of the other GA pedigrees at the time.    Like Rotor who was sort of your mentor at the time, this would change as over many late night telephone conversations during the next few years, John would regaled me with stories about the Church books and some of his many dealings with Chuck, Geppi, Overstreet, Anderson, Carter boys, etc.  Being a small-time collector with a budget unlike those other big time collectors, he was always mindful of that and guided me on how to collect high end vintage books while still on a small budget.  

Kind of ironic and sad though that the New Book of Comics 2 along with the rest of the pre-hero GA books seems to have been forgotten by today's generation of collectors as they have fallen, relatively speaking, so far behind the rest of the marketplace.  Nevertheless, I still remember receiving the book in the mail and was absolutely stunned not only by the fact that it was a squarebound 100-pager with cardboard covers which you don't often see, but also by how a book from the '30's could have survived in such superb condition over the years.  Even moreso, although the book definitely has not done as well as the books with the guys who wear their unides on the outside, I will always remember it with fond memories and treasure those late night conversations which would eventually lead me to other contacts and other vintage GA books over the ensuring several years.  

BTW:  You are definitely 110% right about the Pep 34 and Punch 12.     

 

 

 

So you too owned a copy of New Book of Comics 2? Small world. And yes, that is a book that has faded from view. Prehero material was held in higher esteem 25 years ago than it is today. 
 

and I love the story about Rotor using surgical gloves to handle his books. I think Rotor got burned out on books and is now an engineer of some sort. I bought several books from him, but I don’t recall him talking about any Pacific Coast pedigree. Maybe I just wasn’t paying close enough attention