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Who remembers Howard Rogofsky?

Started by The Black Hand ®,

69 posts in this topic

sartre

sartre

Posted
Posted

I grew up in Queens... Both Howard and Robert Bell were in Queens as well... I have a very strong memory of my mom and I traveling on the 7 train to visit Robert Bell's store in Woodside. It was a rainy Saturday morning .. his store was street level... very dingy and smelled of comics. Lots of Silver age number one issues were suspended by clothespins on cords overtop. Its was the first time I saw comics in plastic bags. I was about 8 or 9 and had no money, didn't buy a thing... my mom said the comics were too expensive... Aggggg

A little while later my Dad splurged and wrote a check out to Howard ... I ordered a early golden age Flash issue, I think it was a number 7... Instead Howard sent an

All Winners #21 ... a pretty nice copy with clean transparent tape down the spine... My first Golden Age comic... I wonder where that exact golden age book is now... I sold my collection just before I went into College in the 70's... Started re-collecting when my kids were young in the 90's.. Howard added a lot of excitement to a generation of kids then...

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

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As a kid he was a mystery... no one ever saw him... He had a PO box .. no store...

Hope he's doing well...

 

Seem to recall reading in a thread awhile back that Howard Rogofsky was featured on an early fandom panel at last year's NYCC. Sorry that I was unable to attend. His catalogues were an integral part of my early fandom.

 

I ordered my first GA comics from Howard back in the late 60's. The first GA comic I ever bought mail order from Howard was a NM copy of Plastic Man #10 (green cover, Plas lined up against a football team made up of criminals). Think I paid $6 for it. Every time I'd order sending an SASE and by return mail receive a folded up catalogue of his latest inventory. Whenever ordering he'd always request customers to list alternatives to cover books sold. In retrospect, with the time lag, no internet and long distance phone calls being very expensive it was the most logical way he had of conducting nationwide business.

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Tri-Color Brian

Tri-Color Brian

Posted
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He's aged a little... lol

When I took that 1974 pic of him he didn't want to pose, but the older man with him (his dad?) said "Aw, let the kid take your picture...", so he did...

He was loading that station wagon with boxes of comics he had just bought from Burt at Cherokee...obviously to resell at higher prices on his list.

 

We didn't call him Howard Ripoffsky for nothing...but compared to today, his prices were great... hm

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

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He's aged a little... lol

When I took that 1974 pic of him he didn't want to pose, but the older man with him (his dad?) said "Aw, let the kid take your picture...", so he did...

He was loading that station wagon with boxes of comics he had just bought from Burt at Cherokee...obviously to resell at higher prices on his list.

 

We didn't call him Howard Ripoffsky for nothing...but compared to today, his prices were great... hm

 

What's amazing is I haven't aged a day during that time!

 

I bought some books from those early catalogs but my friends and I marveled (and sometimes DCed) over who was paying those outrageous prices. FF 1 for $12 sticks in my mind. I wish I had hung on to some of those catalogs.

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50YrsCollctngCmcs

50YrsCollctngCmcs

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There was a stall at Collingswood Auction in New Jersey that had back issue comics priced at Rogofsky prices. This was in the early to mid 70's. They were ridiculously overpriced for the day. I don't believe they were associated with him but they must have used his lists to price books. No one else around priced that high.

 

Over at Englishtown Auction, Herman Neuberger had stacks of back issue Marvels from about '65 or '66 forward priced more reasonably (most less than $1.) These were clearly books that were somehow never distributed and God knows how he got them. He kept a lot of us buying those early Marvels at good prices for many years and he would dole them out a little at a time like a drug dealer, He sure had us coming back every week. I built my TOS and Cap run through him and have most of them still.

 

I never bought from Rogofsky; his reputation as being overpriced was well known and talked about quite a bit.

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

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With Howard, you were also rolling the dice on condition. If I'm remembering correctly, his early catalogs would say something like "Books are in good or better condition. Don't expect mint books. I don't consider tape to be a defect."

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jerome34

jerome34

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Somewhere around 1965, I sent him a list of my Doc Savage pulps (about

120 issues) that I was thinking of selling. If I remember, he offered me $15

for the lot and I was to pay postage sending them.

 

I still have them.

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Tri-Color Brian

Tri-Color Brian

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With Howard, you were also rolling the dice on condition. If I'm remembering correctly, his early catalogs would say something like "Books are in good or better condition. Don't expect mint books. I don't consider tape to be a defect."

 

That's funny...I don't consider tape to be a defect either...as long as it's neatly taped... :baiting:

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Sqeggs

Sqeggs

Posted
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With Howard, you were also rolling the dice on condition. If I'm remembering correctly, his early catalogs would say something like "Books are in good or better condition. Don't expect mint books. I don't consider tape to be a defect."

 

That's funny...I don't consider tape to be a defect either...as long as it's neatly taped... :baiting:

 

Tape is the least of the problems with your books! :makepoint:

 

Actually, you have many great books ... particularly those stealth Reilly copies. :cloud9:

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BB-Gun

BB-Gun

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Read your bio and you know what? I did the same thing but earlier, after my draft lottery number came up #27. All I can say is at least we had those collections back then and enjoyed them. I remember buying FF1 and Avengers 1 and Spidey 1 right off the newstand.I remember having boxes and boxes of silver age and a few stacks of golden age and if I didn't blow it then by selling I would have screwed it up some other time and some other way.I'm thankfull for those memories and glad I have what I have now.Still, there's nothing like the memory of lounging in your bedroom with a couple of comic book buddies, knee deep in Superboys and GL and JLA and spidey and just geeking out on a rainy day back in the early sixties before life hit the fan.

 

I spent many an afternoon reading my Marvel comics and talking to my friend, George, about DC golden age compared to Marvel. I only had a few golden age back then. Life did hit the fan in the late sixties but the memories are still golden. :headbang:

 

I always thought Howard had fair prices. I purchased a few things from him with no problem. The Ableman Bookstore in Detroit was the only bad dealer that I ran into. Even that wasn't too bad. Condition of their comics was poor but descriptions weren't too bad.

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batman_fan

batman_fan

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Posted
I was one of the lucky one's 15 years ago to actually go to Ed's house and buy comics from him in person. I guess I didn't make a real great impression because I've never been able to do that again. lol

 

(Actually, he's just a very private person and prefers to do business thru the mail.)

 

Me too :banana:

 

of course that was after he checked with his brother Tom and Tom referred to me as "money in in bank"

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Dave2739

Dave2739

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I know that he went by "Howard D. Rogofsky" in DC titles and "Howard M. Rogofsky" in Marvel books. I assume he did this as an early form of market analysis. What other publishers did he advertise with? And did he use this same technique with those other publishers, such as "Howard A. Rogofsky" in Archie books?

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woowoo

woowoo

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I remember Howard quite well having bought my first books from him in 1965 at the tender age of 13 and as a matter of fact, he is still active dealing old comic books.

 

Little known fact is he comes to San Diego Comicon every year armed with want lists.

 

He always stops by, we chew the fat, talk about old times, he buys some stuff and moves on to the next booth. He must be pushing 60 by now, no longer living in Flushing, and is on my catalog mailing list. Anybody want to get in touch with him?

 

robert beerbohm

http://www.blbcomics.com

 

I still remember buying your Action 10 vg for 300.00 pier 39. You took 800.00 in trade Bob. :roflmao:

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