Rest In Peace, John Verzyl 6 6

[G.A.tor]

2 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Yes I attended the HA celebration afterward.  Met many boardies. Bob Overstreet was here. All the hitters were here. Whitlock from New Force, Vincent Zurzola, Borock, Haspel, Cat Conrad, Jim Halperin,  Richard from Bedrock Comics, and on and on. There was a lot of humor but a pervasive sense of loss, too

“Whitelock “ but won’t hold it against you

[Robot Man]

Sounds like you gents sent him out in style. I think he would have been happy with the esteemed turnout. 

[Cat-Man_America]

5 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Sounds like you gents sent him out in style. I think he would have been happy with the esteemed turnout. 

Absotively-posilutely! Everyone attending shared loving stories and anecdotes..  The after service get-together ...provided through the generosity of Heritage Auctions... was well attended with excellent catering.

John's friendships were far reaching.  

[PreHero]

I didn’t know John well but had talked with him briefly over the yrs at cons.  He was always friendly and helpful.    He treated customers with respect.

Before Centaurs became hot and well-known, I used to spend cons going from booth to booth asking if dealers had any Centaurs – 90% I had to tell them what a “Centaur” was and list the titles.  I’m thinking it was SDCC 2005, and I was doing my Centaur sweep, when I hit John’s table – not sure if I had seen the book on wall earlier or on someone’s reserve stack or John said someone hand pulled the book.  Anyway, I was interested, but understood it was taken.

John said he’d talk to the collector who was considering it and see if he’d let me have it.  He took my number, but I figured I’d never hear from him - he was just being polite.  Next day he called and said book was available, if I wanted it.  Don’t know if John talked buyer out of it or he changed his mind, but I made a beeline to his booth and bought it!  Price was little over OSPG, but very fair (OSPG price was lagging)!  Couldn’t believe it – both that I was able to get the book and a dealer had taken so much effort with a collector he didn’t know.

To me, that shows the quality of his character as a dealer and a person.  Glad to hear HA and community gave him a nice farewell – I’m sure he’d very much appreciate it.

[Timely]

You have not experienced Disney unless you have gone there with John. It is a totally different vacation with John & Nan Verzyl! Also in the pic (from 2005): Borock, his daughter & I.

 

 

[cheetah]

I only found out about John's death today.  I am very sad that I never got in touch with him when he wanted to talk the last time.  I met John in Chicago in 2012 or so and enjoyed my relationship with him.  We argued about the reality of pricing on books I wanted and I listened to his encyclopedic recollections of books I owned, used to own, or wanted to own.  My condolences to his family but also to everyone in this community for the loss of one of collecting's greatest characters who never graced the page of single Golden Age issue.  And John, I'm sorry for always thinking I would have a later time to get in touch.

Edited March 28, 2018 by cheetah

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

Bumping this thread. For those of us who attended the funeral, you will get this joke . . .

[sfcityduck]

That story was told by Cat earlier in this thread.  Very funny!  Telling about his high character that JV would tell that story about himself to share the laughs.

Edited February 16, 2021 by sfcityduck

[Paul © ® ⚽️💙™]

2 hours ago, GreatCaesarsGhost said:

Bumping this thread. For those of us who attended the funeral, you will get this joke . . .

Thanks for reminding me of this thread. Very humbling to re read it.

Certainly a lot people who may not have known JV or some who may not have heard of him, would benefit from reading this thread.

If there were more JVs around in the hobby today, the hobby would be where it deserves to be.