batman_fan Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Tape is not a defect. :: Tape is simply a statement of man's inner conflict with man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kazoo Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I live in the city and would have loved to attend -- didn't see publicity for this anywhere. I got some emails from Anthony's mentioning the one-day show but when I went to Carbo's website there was nothing there about it! I checked other online sources, local dealers like Tomorrow's Treasures ... nothing. I assumed it had been canceled and maybe Anthony's site hadn't updated. Bummer, would have loved to have been there. Surprised Carbo didn't promote it more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Tape is not a defect. :: Howard is indeed a living legend. I remember getting a warning from my mother about getting ripped off from mail order - went ahead anyway and ordered. Enjoyed receiving packages with 15 - 20 stamps plastered all over them. I seem to remember Howard getting out of the comics biz and heavily into the TV Guides near the end... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted December 11, 2016 Author Share Posted December 11, 2016 Tape is not a defect. :: Howard is indeed a living legend. I remember getting a warning from my mother about getting ripped off from mail order - went ahead anyway and ordered. Enjoyed receiving packages with 15 - 20 stamps plastered all over them. I seem to remember Howard getting out of the comics biz and heavily into the TV Guides near the end... TV Guides and other magazines. You can see boxes of them in some of the photos I posted at the beginning of the thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robot Man Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 I remember Phil and Lenore Levine from NJ were deep into TV guides. They probably worked with Howard. They had a TON of stuff. I wonder what ever happened to them? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duffman_Comics Posted December 11, 2016 Share Posted December 11, 2016 Here's a link to a post that concerns Phil: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=1645622&fpart=1 A little time before you got to the Boards, Bob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N e r V Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 You "youngsters" have no idea what it was like to collect in the "old days". You had used book stores, small local comic cons and those little ads in the middle of your current comics with ads from Howard, Robert Bell, Bill Thailing, Richard Alf and a few others. No big comic cons, no CGC boards, or internet. You would send away for a catalog with an SASE (self addredd stamped envelope) and wait for the catalog. It would come in the mail and you would read through marking down what you wanted. You would then send cash and list alternatives and wait. Being on the west coast, I would usually get my second choices or my money back. I was buying ECs and when they mail man came with that package my hands would tremble to see what I got. Condition wasn't the issue, just getting the books was what mattered. Howard was by far the priceist of the group but he had the stuff. You want it you pay that $5. for a random issue of Tales from the Crypt in vg and be happy. Glad to see he is still kicking. I would have loved to meet him and hear his stories. He is a legend. Thanks for the photo Tony, and your report. I am told he is pretty camera shy. I know TricolorBrian has posted and old photo of him "back in the day" at Cherokee books. Maybe he will see this and repost it again. Carbo, the king of merchandising. Just gotta love the guy, I do. Would have been fun just to go and meet Howard. Don't forget those miles to walk in the snow on your way to school too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N e r V Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 (edited) My family had collector's around in science fiction when Weird Tales was a new mag and we still have a couple of original owner collections in the family that started in the 1940's. Fans of the silver age collecting era had it as easy as collector's do today when comparing the original golden ages of collecting. Just sayin' Edited December 12, 2016 by N e r V Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mmehdy Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Howard helped establish that comic books were valuable early on in the early days of comic book collecting.. but he was always the highest when it came to prices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HouseofComics.Com Posted December 12, 2016 Share Posted December 12, 2016 Tape is not a defect. :: Tape is simply a statement of man's inner conflict with man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted December 13, 2016 Share Posted December 13, 2016 Very cool thread. I would have loved to attend that show. The days of Howard Rogofsky and Robert Bell (and Bell Bucks!). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted December 13, 2016 Author Share Posted December 13, 2016 You "youngsters" have no idea what it was like to collect in the "old days". You had used book stores, small local comic cons and those little ads in the middle of your current comics with ads from Howard, Robert Bell, Bill Thailing, Richard Alf and a few others. No big comic cons, no CGC boards, or internet. You would send away for a catalog with an SASE (self addredd stamped envelope) and wait for the catalog. It would come in the mail and you would read through marking down what you wanted. You would then send cash and list alternatives and wait. Being on the west coast, I would usually get my second choices or my money back. I was buying ECs and when they mail man came with that package my hands would tremble to see what I got. Condition wasn't the issue, just getting the books was what mattered. Howard was by far the priceist of the group but he had the stuff. You want it you pay that $5. for a random issue of Tales from the Crypt in vg and be happy. Glad to see he is still kicking. I would have loved to meet him and hear his stories. He is a legend. Thanks for the photo Tony, and your report. I am told he is pretty camera shy. I know TricolorBrian has posted and old photo of him "back in the day" at Cherokee books. Maybe he will see this and repost it again. Carbo, the king of merchandising. Just gotta love the guy, I do. Would have been fun just to go and meet Howard. I remember that in one of his early catalogs -- might have been the first one I received -- he had a Fantastic Four 1 listed for $12. My friends and I were flabbergasted that anyone could expect to sell a copy at that price. I had a copy of FF 1 that I had received in trade for an AF 15 (I know, I know, but in those days, we ranked FF 1 as the more desirable book). I offered it to my friends at the bargain price of $10, but no takers! Most of us only saw $10 at our birthdays or Christmas or as the result of painstakingly accumulating money from odd jobs. I used to water a neighbor's garden twice a week for $0.50. So parting with $10 for a comic wasn't something we would consider. Most of us bought some $1 or $2 books from him, though. I remember buying several S&K issues of Real Clue Crime Comics from him. I think I may still have them in a box somewhere. Their condition went from Fine to a taped up FA/GD. I think it was from Howard that I bought a beat to hell copy of Boy Commandos 1 that I still have. He said it was eBay that finally drove him out of the mail order comics business. He said neither he nor Gail had the computer skills to sell online. He couldn't quite remember the year he mailed out his last catalogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri-Color Brian Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 (edited) Tricolor has been in CA for 2 weeks and just saw this. Yes, I have a photo of Howard behind Cherokee Book Shop taken about 1973 when he was loading boxes of comics into his station wagon. At first he didn't want his picture taken, but his dad said, "Let the kid take your picture", so he did and here it is. Just terrific and amazing. It's a terrific picture...you can trust me on that... If anyone doesn't understand the "terrific" and "amazing" references, just listen to our President-elect talk sometime... Edited December 14, 2016 by tricolorbrian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thehumantorch Posted December 14, 2016 Share Posted December 14, 2016 This is a great thread. I love hearing about early dealers, collectors and collections. Saving this history is important. I fondly remember ordering mail order. Getting the cataloger, picking books and alternates because someone often beat you to your first picks, sending a check, waiting to see what actually arrived. It was slow and it was unpredictable but it was sure fun when that package arrived after a month of waiting. And that was my only real option as I'm far from the center of any universe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DanCooper Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 One other thing I asked Howard about on Saturday was where he came up with idea of placing a middle initial (usually a "D." or an "M." as in "Howard M. Rogofsky") in his mailing address in ads for catalog requests. Of course, the "D." was used to identify if the ad was placed in a DC Comic and the "M." if placed in Marvel. I thought Howard was going to tell me he saw it used somewhere else and decided to use it or he read about it in some kind of marketing/advertising book. Nope. He said he came up with the idea by himself! He also relayed that he used other initials (like an "X") in other non-comic book ads he advertised in to tell the origin of the catalog request. A real gauge as to where one should properly allocate funds for advertising. He truly had a keen sense of business tactics back in the day! Not surprisingly, Howard said ads in Marvel Comics, by far, produced the most catalog request responses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tri-Color Brian Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Hmmm...since I didn't buy Marvel comics at that time, I guess I saw his ad in a DC...and I bought one book from him...a Superman 74 in about VG. I wasn't impressed with it for the $2.50 I had to spend, so I never bought another. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cat-Man_America Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 Hmmm...since I didn't buy Marvel comics at that time, I guess I saw his ad in a DC...and I bought one book from him...a Superman 74 in about VG. I wasn't impressed with it for the $2.50 I had to spend, so I never bought another. I first saw his ads in Marvel publications. My experience was somewhat more fortunate than your's apparently. The first book I purchased from one of his SASE catalogs was a sweet copy of Plastic Man #10 in NM or better (not bad for a 20 year old book at that time). Also, I don't recall ever ending up receiving an alternative choice. Most of my purchases after the PM were EC horror comics which I was just getting into at the time. Luck was with me as every book I bought from Howard was in better condition than advertised ...his VF listed copies were usually NM or better... shipped between several pieces of flexible gray cardboard and wrapped in brown sack packaging. Note: My luck must've extended to postal handling being better back then too! Alas, I sold or traded my 60's era collection around the time I got into purchasing Church books from Mile High's Chuck Rozanski (mid-70's), but I can't recall ever having had any issues with the condition of books bought through Howard & Gail's catalogs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
N e r V Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 His catalogues were of an impressive size for the era he operated in. No one or two page "flyer" catalogues were these. And that typeset... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chadwick Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 His catalogues were of an impressive size for the era he operated in. No one or two page "flyer" catalogues were these. And that typeset... And those prices... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
50YrsCollctngCmcs Posted December 15, 2016 Share Posted December 15, 2016 His catalogues were of an impressive size for the era he operated in. No one or two page "flyer" catalogues were these. And that typeset... And those prices... Those prices were outrageous in 1969! We never bought from Howard because we couldn't afford it back then; when you only had $5. to spend on comics (this was the mid seventies) you would look to other sources in the Buyer's Guide to stretch your limited collection dollars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
