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So where did you go in the 60’s if you missed an issue?
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15 posts in this topic

I’ve always wondered this. So you see ASM 7 on the shelf and love it but want to know what happened before in his story. Or you want all of his books 1-6 not to mention you realize AF15 is needed too. 
 

Where did people go? Correct me if I’m wrong but I do not believe your local comic shop was a thing back then. How did people get back issues?

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There are several good stories on here in various threads about guys who used to go door-to-door with a wagon asking for old comics.  Wish I'd thought of that.

I had precisely the OP's question when all I had was an FF #73 and an ASM #59 which I bought new and still have.  I used to have dreams about asking the local independent grocery store owner and his telling me they kept all the old issues in the back storage room and I could have all I wanted.  So far as I know, the first LCS in my town opened in the early 70s and I discovered it in the summer of 1973.  It was a weird feeling prior to that to know there were other stories about these characters but have no access to them.

Edited by MattTheDuck
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When I was five or six, one of the younger soldiers on base used to come around every few weeks with a cart full of used comics. I think they were three for ten cents but he bought them back at three for a nickel. As most were coverless, it was hard to dig thru and find  particular issues.

In the early 70s, there were a bunch of junk shops that had comics, but they weren't organized. Comic cons were the only place I knew to get back issues but around 1974 I discovered CBG and then monthly cons and shops started popping up. 

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If you knew exactly what issues you needed, I’d guess you were one of the lucky ones. Imagine being a kid trying to put together a run of ECs. The numbering and title changes must have been baffling. 
It was nice of Marvel to include blurbs like “It happened way back in Hulk #3”,  letting you know that Hulkie had his own run. As hard as comics must have been to find in 1963, it was way harder if you weren’t looking for them. 

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The OP's question was where did you go IN THE 60's when you missed an issue or you wanted an issue.  To that end, let's dispense of any discussion of how it was tackled in the 70's and answer the OP's question.

The answer is probably as simple as - it depended on where you lived.

In my neighbourhood circa 1964-67 there were a lot of kids but not all of them by any means bought/collected comics.  Sure, just about every kid had at least a few comics but they could have been Classics; war; funny animal - not necessarily stuff I collected.  In fact, I never knew anyone in my neighbourhood who collected comics besides me.  Suffice to say that I didn't do much trading.  I do remember though trading a small bag of marbles for a couple of Turok comics and a couple of war comics for Spider-Man 20 and 27.  I think that I had to go buy those war comics at the corner store because I didn't have any and that's all that the kid would take in trade.  That was the extent of it.

Basically, if I missed an issue or wanted issues that I didn't have I was out of luck.  Once I read Spider-Man 20 and 27, I wanted so badly to get my hands on more early stuff but alas I didn't see any more until I was an adult.  I had no idea how many issues Ditko had drawn, all I knew was that his style was different from John Romita's and that I liked it a lot.  

I do recall getting a few back issues at a rummage sale at my Public School and my cousin giving me Mighty Samson #1 which absolutely enthralled me.

Used books stores?  Never heard of one at that age.  Why would anyone pay for used books when you could borrow them at the library for free?  Even if there was one that I knew about, I'd have had no way of getting there and had little money to spend.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by pemart1966
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On 6/29/2022 at 8:00 PM, pemart1966 said:

Used books stores?  Never heard of one at that age.  Why would anyone pay for used books when you could borrow them at the library for free?  Even if there was one that I kew about, I'd have had no way of getting there and had little money to spend.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Comics weren't in libraries?

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I can remember the first issue of X-Men I bought was #54 at a local grocery store. There were several retail places around town that sold new comics and sometimes older books would still be on the racks. After I decided the X-Men was a title I wanted to collect, I actively looked for them wherever I went. Within a few weeks I had found a #51, #53 and #55. What was interesting to me was that some stores would keep their selections thinned out and up to date and other stores would have some books 3, 4 or 5 months old still on the rack. We did have an old bookstore in town and they had a small selection of old comic books, but in order to keep you from cycling the books back and forth once you bought from them, the owner would lop off the right lower corner so he'd know someone had already traded or sold that book to him once already and wouldn't accept it again. The image below is of one of those books, a coverless Tales of Suspense #40.

1428314421_talesofsuspense40appletonbookstore_editedA.jpg.625b414d2aa9d01ba96361cb81e600a2.jpg

 

   

Edited by Jaylam
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Comic retailer Bud Plant said for a short time in the mid 1960s you could have gotten available back issues from the Marvel offices. I don’t think you could have gotten an Amazing Fantasy 15 but maybe issues that were a few months old.

Little known is the Marvel offices sold back issues for a very short time. I don’t seem to still have it, damn it, but I got a one page sheet from them with a handful of recent titles, including an annual or two. I think they were cover price or maybe slightly more. I believe that is where my Strange Tales Annual #1 may have come from, or at least one of my early annuals. This would be 1964-65. I had several letters published (Daredevil #16, Rawhide Kid), and my MMMS name listing was in FF #40, so I was writing regularly to them. Maybe I asked about back issues.

https://www.comicbookdaily.com/collecting-community/time-to-collect/marvel-reprints/

I also read somewhere that some fans got back issues by writing to the editor of some Marvel books.

Flo Steinberg who worked as Stan Lee’s secretary sold back issues as far back as 1963.

From Alter Ego Magazine #153:

Flo sold back issues for Marvel as early as 1963. When someone picked up a Marvel comic and became instantly hooked during that “Marvel Age of Comics,” that reader would instinctively write to Marvel to seek out earlier issues. Flo was in charge of the back-issue stock and even mailed out the latest price lists—typed up by her—of back issues to prospective buyers, making her one of the earliest back-issue comic-sellers ever.

Edited by jpepx78
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Alter Ego magazine #153 showed Flo Steinberg's back issue price list that was probably from 1965 based on the Marvel titles that were not available.

So if you knew back issues were available from Marvel and your timing was right, you could have gotten all the early Marvels including the key books for a little over cover price.

back issue list.jpg

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I really never gave it a thought when I was a kid in the 60's, I bought books I did not have when I saw them (if I had the money), never gave back issues or completing runs/stories a second thought. If one of my friends had a book I liked (usually because I liked the cover) and did not have I would ask to read it or ask if I could trade for it. At the pharmacy that I bought most of my comics from they were not in spinner racks or laid out neatly on a magazine rack, they were strewed about on the bottom of the magazine rack and I had to fumble through the piles to look for books I did not have, it was a great feeling finding "treasure" at the bottom of the pile.

The only things I cared about having all of was baseball cards, I needed/wanted every card from each series, that meant that comic books took a backseat in the spring/summer.

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