Oldtimers only please

[Mister_Comics]

And now... a blast from the past.

 

Back in the 50's when I was a little kid I first use to get my comics from a WALGREENS comic rack. That was until I found a drug store closer to home. During those early years of collecting I didn't have any particular favorite title. It was kind of mish-mash buying. I remember I use to buy regularly Batman and Detective and war comics. When I discovered the drug store, SUPERS, was the name; I found out they had a bunch more titles then what was at the Walgreens. Luckly I was starting collecting right when the silverage started. At the time there were no "ages" for comics. Trying to find back issues was pretty hard then. No comic stores or cons. If you found out someone had old comics you'd have to jump at the chance of seeing what they had and maybe buy or do a trade. No comic newspaper. No price guides. When the first comic store openned in my neighborhood thats when it started getting easier to find old books. Shortly after, comic shows started at nearby malls. During those early years, just a few stores down from Walgreens there was this new comic machine that I would buy from once in a while. Back in the 50's and early 60's it seemed that comics were always around. I remember at our church bazaar there was a booth were someone sold old comics. At the nieborhood park, the house there always had comics to read. Go to any of the neighborhood stores and there were the "3 for 15 cent" books. It wasn't unusual for me or my friends to have a couple of comics rolled up in our back pocket while out playing baseball or whatever. But to find old books was a bit hard back then. Usually the only way was to find out someone had comics. But you have to remember back then there were no price guides to tell you about old books. So a lot of titles were UNKNOWN to the regular guy. Unless, if some comic you had advertised a certain book, you may not even know about it otherwise. Collecting was deffently harder back in my early days of comic collecting. Nowadays its easy to find just about anything thanks to the internet.

 

I miss the old days.

[Wrightson fan]

The first new book i ever spent my own money on would be an Avengers 139. (1975) The reason i bought it is that i saw a kid at school with a copy. The next time me and my dad were at the mom and pop corner store, there it was on the spinner rack. I paid my 26 cents, (a quarter and a penny for tax) and i was on my way. My dad already had alot of old books that i would read all the time. He had several hundred issues that ran the spectrum of old Bark's Scrooges to Dell Westerns (Shotgun Slade anyone?) to bronze DC Ghosts. However, the 139 was different in that it was MY first book, and from then on i was hooked. I would help my grandfather in his shop during the summer (he was a woodworker and built kitchen cabinets for people) and i would get a dollar a week for allowance if i helped my mom keep the house clean. I would either take my dollar, or if i saved for a couple of weeks from helping paw-paw, my two to three dollars down to Pete's Market and stake my claim to whatever books that struck my fancy. I always looked for the Avengers first, Fantastic Four second, and then whatever cover caught my eye. I think i built up a collection of almost 50 books one summer, all bought off of that spinner rack or from the one at Rhodes Book Stand. (All of this took place in North Wilkesboro, NC by the way). I still have almost all of those old books as i would carry them with me to family picnics, a friend's house, or if i stayed overnight at a cousin's house. They were a part of me and grew up right along with me. Some of them are pretty ragged now, but to me they are and will always be priceless. I can remember my paw-paw taking me to get some with my allowance, and i still remember where i bought certain issues. Paw-paw died in 1977, but i still have the books he would drive me to the store to get, hence their value to me forever. I bought books up until about 1980, and then started hitting the baseball cards hard and heavy, but i kept my books. When i was a senior in high school, i found out a fellow student and his buddy collected. I went to his house and he had a pretty impressive collection at the time. I remember he had an Avengers #1 among others, and a really awesome George Perez two page splash from the Teen Titans. I am sure it would be worth a nice sum today. Anyhoo, he got me interested in books again by letting me borrow a TPB of the Dark Phoenix Saga. This was 1984, and i was hooked again, this time for good.

I started going to Rhoades again (they were and are still in business i believe), and started making the drive to Winston Salem to the old Heroes Aren't Hard to Find. I graduated in 1985 and moved to Greensboro, NC for college and started frequenting a store called Acme Comics. At the time it was in an old diner, still with spinning stools in place and a leaking roof, which is bad for a comic shop in my opinion, but it was and still is the best comic store i have ever been to. My first convention was a show sponsored by Acme, but the only person i can remember meeting was Archie Goodwin. I remember trading my Byrne X-men to Chris Foss for a FF46, Spidey 27, Spidey 97 and another book. At the time i was not getting the better in the deal, but time has been on my side. I bought alot of my books from Jim Amash there at Acme over the years until the store moved locations and Jim went on to bigger and better things with his art and his writing. He works for Roy Thomas now on a comic interview magazine. I would go to all of the shops within driving distance, Heroes in Winston and Charlotte, Chris Foss's old store in Charlotte and to Part's Unknown that was located in Greensboro. The owner of Part's got me interested in the more artistic side of comics by bringing in true legends in the comic world to his small conventions. I was able to meet Brian Bolland, Bernie Wrightson, Al Williamson, Mike Mignola, Will Eisner, George Evans, Dave Stevens, Angelo Torres among many others. John's influnce really changed what i wanted to collect, and it is still pretty much what i collect today. I would scan the CBG every week and look for books that i needed, and could afford. Even in the late 80's i was somewhat of a grade whore, so i guess still being one means i come by it honest. My LCS, yearly shows and CBG kept me in the loop and kept me collecting. Once on-line selling came around i started finding copies of grail books that i could never find as a kid. I always hated having my list of wants and making the hour and a half drive to Charlotte only to find that certain issue missing out of a sequence of books. Therefore, the internet has allowed me to find books that i never owned but always wanted. It is like meeting an old friend when i find that certain book i have wanted for over 20 years.

I moved to Austin in 2001 and this is where i think my collecting has really thrived. There are a large number of quality comic stores and now we have the yearly Wizard World in Dallas, but i long for those old Part's Unknown shows when i go there. I honestly don't ever see myself stopping this time around. I have taken comic sabbaticals from time to time, but i always seem to come back. I just hope my baby daughter is not too embarassed by her old dad when she gets older because of all the comics stored in the house. Maybe one day she will find her own Avengers 139 on a rack somewhere.

 

 

 

 

 

[Wrightson fan]

Just another quick story about a certain comic. I used to like Richie Rich books when i was about 8 and would get a few issues here and there. I always wrote my name inside my books which i did on this particular issue of Richie Rich Dollars and Cents. Anyway, i ended up trading it to my friend for something, not sure what. A few years later, at least 4, i was at a local antique store there in Wilkesboro and they had an old stack of beat up comics. I started going through them and found a Richie Rich book that looked familiar because of the cover, but when i opened up the first page i saw my name. Well, when you are 12 and see something like this it freaks you out a little bit. Needless to say i paid my quarter for the book and took it back home. Talk about finding an old friend again, and yes i still have it.

[Ron_Nasty]

Bought them brand new off the stands, .10c and .12c. Didn't have to go looking for back issues.

[ronm3-migration]

Bought them brand new off the stands, .10c and .12c. Didn't have to go looking for back issues.

 

[BrianR]

I first started collecting in 1978 at the base exchange of the rack. Going back through my collection its amazing how many mark jeweler inserts there were. But my way of getting back issues was from GI's moving and selling their comics at yard sales. Used to take my allowance and go every weekend around base housing. Went to my first local comic book store in 1983. Used to have to hunt around at all the local stores to find back issue I needed however I had to settle for lower grades because that was all you could find. Some local stores back in the late 80's used to have cover + a quarter sales at the end of the year (those were fun). Its how I bought a lot of bronze age books. Once in a while Stores used to get in warehouse copies and you could pick through a stack of older issues and find some nice high grade books. Ebay came along and slowly the selection at the local level started to dwindle. I find a lot more books and better grades, But the fun of the physical hunt is just not there anymore. I miss going to yard sales and finding a couple of stacks of comics.

[awe4one]

Where exactly did you get the Mark Jewelers insert comics?

 

Jim

[towards2112]

Started in 73' (at U-Totems/7-11s), sold the collection in 88', started again in 90' (been going ever since).

 

East Side Book Emporium before Ken bought the place, and still

afterwards, The place just off Westheimer by the Budda Restuarant that

was near all the radio stations..damn,,, name slips my feeble mind.

Joe Schmeckle when he'd upgraded, Larry Taylor's shows, old fart...

Village Book down in the Rice U area, Nan's, Glen when he didn't have

a mad-on,

[That Ron Dude]

About 1970 I had accumulated a run of Incredible Hulks, missing only number 5, by searching around through the neighborhood and buying comics from non-collectors. The word wasn't out yet that people were willing to pay significant dough for comics.

 

The last one I needed I purchased from Howard Rogofsky, who advertised in the pages of Marvel comics and would send you a catalogue for a quarter. His prices were obscene and he was universally hated. Though he lived in the New York City area he never attended a comic convention. I bought the Hulk #5 from him, virtually in mint, for $3.50.

 

There was a comic store in Toronto run by the legendary Captain George Henderson. Though George was a cranky coot, and far worse, most of the people my age who got in to comics as collectors, artists and writers have George to thank for it. The problem with George's Memory Lane comic shop was that the prices were so low, even by the standards of the day, that the comics wouldn't stay on the shelves. FF#1 was $7.50 but I never saw a copy there. EC's were $2.00. A friend of mine bought Superman #2 from him for $50.00, in fine or very fine condition.

 

People did come around the store though, often carrying gym bags which in the style of the day held two piles of comics quite nicely. People like me would follow them out of the store like rats following the pied piper, to make purchases. I completed my Avengers run that way buying Avengers #3 for $1.75 which seemed quite pricey at the time.

[batman_fan]

I started collecting in 72. I grew up in a real small town in Indiana near the Kentucky border. We had to drive to Osgood, IN to buy books from the newstand (about 15 miles away). My mom found a second had book store in Madison, IN that I use to pick up stuff from, $0.25 each or trade 2 for 1. I picked up a lot of my Daredevils and early 0.12 and 0.15 Batman's from them. Later we moved to Wyoming and I made my first trip to Ft Collin, CO to Mile High Comics. That is when the real buying started. I did some back filling from Robert Bell and tried Robert Crestohlz (sp?) once but got screwed way too hard. The internet has made collecting more of a money game rather than a quest. If I had ~$200k, I could put together a run of Batman in a few months at the most.

[the blob]

so collecting pre-ebay/cgc makes one and old timer?? mm, I guess I think of people who collected pre-overstreet (collected, not just bought off the rack, hunted down back issues) as old timers.

 

i mostly relied on local shows in NYC and my favorite LCS, which would cut me a big discount because I spent nice chunks of money there. i usually don't look for anything in particular though. if i had, i probably would have found it at the shows that came through here, especially when they used to do bigger ones.

[the blob]

i'm definetely not in the pre-overstreet group. started in the late 70s.