GL 76 -- HG Prices Still Going Up

[BLBcomics-migration]

Hi Bob,

 

I was a loyal customer of your store (Best of Two Worlds) way back when. I remember being turned onto SWAMP THING by one of your employees (Dave). He used to rap the new releases every week on an answering machine (and I'd call every week). Great store, great memories.

 

Felix

 

Over the course of 22 years 1972-1994, and maybe 13 outlets all told spread out all over the San Fran Bay Area, i must have had a couple hundred employees pass thru the doors, coming & going. Do you remember Dave's last name?

 

Yes, we did have a dedicated answering machine line shpeeling off the week's new releases.

 

We never tried to recommend turn over of any new comics which weren't truly great reads, even if a book was accidently over ordered. There was a constant pressure to sell sell sell though as i was caught up in the middle of the Direct Market and had to feed the new comics machine.

 

I miss my stores, but not that new comics pressure very week.

 

You shopped at the Berkeley outlet? SF? Santa Rosa?

 

I come out for Wondercon every year these days

[BLBcomics-migration]

so you got stuck with a heck of a lot of copies of swampy 1-19 though? I guess you still got your money back selling those at 25-50 cents each and made the real money on 20 and 21.

 

nope

 

There were not that many 1-19, under 50 of each - which is the gamble i took and won on. Most of the copies turned out to be the last bunch of months being Moore issues

 

I remember about when the Byrne Xmen just started coming out, and Joe Koch advertised in CBG he had quantities of Xmen 96 for a buck apiece. I was getting $8 each by then.

 

I called up Joe and scarfed them all, maybe 800 copies. He sent them out UPS collect to Berkeley.

 

When the UPS man delivered the boxes, that UPS guy told me the seller had called the UPS station in Oakland, trying to stop the shipment, wanting them returned.

 

I called Joe, asking what the haps was.

 

Seems Joe had been offered 2 bucks each for all of them, but had already shipped them out to me. He asked if i would ship him back a 100 of them

 

I actually do not remember what i did in response.

[r100comics]

Bob, these stories about your deals from the old days are some of the best things I have read on the boards. You should spend a lot more time in the Bronze and Silver forums !

 

Do you remember any buyers insisting upon MINT condition books back then and rejecting copies with tiny flaws, or would you say the definition of NM / MT were generally a lot looser ?

[Foolkiller]

fun thread. stepped up and paid nearly 3x guide for a slabbed 9.2 a couple of years ago when i convinced myself it was incredibly undervalued in guide. glad i did.

 

Dude -- you were smart and I was stupid, b/c I balked at the price of the CGC 9.2 back then. I win the prize for *spoon* of the year. Oh and I also balked at the $2500 Metro wanted for the GL 76 CGC 9.4 a few years back. Should have bought it.

[Nexus]

Over the course of 22 years 1972-1994, and maybe 13 outlets all told spread out all over the San Fran Bay Area, i must have had a couple hundred employees pass thru the doors, coming & going. Do you remember Dave's last name?

 

Yes, we did have a dedicated answering machine line shpeeling off the week's new releases.

 

We never tried to recommend turn over of any new comics which weren't truly great reads, even if a book was accidently over ordered. There was a constant pressure to sell sell sell though as i was caught up in the middle of the Direct Market and had to feed the new comics machine.

 

I miss my stores, but not that new comics pressure very week.

 

You shopped at the Berkeley outlet? SF? Santa Rosa?

 

I come out for Wondercon every year these days

 

I used to shop at the Berkeley location from '82 to when you closed in '87. That stretch of Telegraph Ave. was a little mecca for a comics geek with Comics & Comix down the block. When I couldn't make it out to Berkeley, I'd hit California Comic Book Co. in Walnut Creek. Definitely NOT my first choice. Anyone know whatever happened to Don DeFalco?

 

I don't remember Dave's last name, except that he was a near-ubiquitous presence. I think he was a law student. He'd begin all the weekly raps with:

 

My name is Dave,

and I'm an employ-yee

of the Best of Two Worlds

in Berke-ley.

 

C & C had a nicer, cleaner shop, but BOTW had the cooler employees. Rory (the manager) was especially cool to little runts like me. He'd flip me a freebie here and there. He knew how to keep a loyal customer! Good times...

 

Felix

[tth2]

He'd flip me a freebie here and there.

Cue gnashing of teeth by Bob!

 

This has been such a great thread!

[BLBcomics-migration]

Bob, these stories about your deals from the old days are some of the best things I have read on the boards. You should spend a lot more time in the Bronze and Silver forums !

 

Do you remember any buyers insisting upon MINT condition books back then and rejecting copies with tiny flaws, or would you say the definition of NM / MT were generally a lot looser ?

 

Thanks for the kind words

 

If there are threads on-going which some one thinks i should respond in, by all means give me a heads up - i am kind of busy running my old comics business these days, and welcome any one who wants to get on my mailing list by PMing me your snail address

 

People wanting high grade copies goes way back

 

I do remember one fellow who went thru one of those 300 copy cases of Conan #1 we got in from the Mafia hoard out of back east back in 1973/74.

 

We were selling those unread unhandled Conan #1 issues for $5 each or 5 for $20

 

The guy went thru a case, picked out four of them, then asked if we had more to look thru

 

He and i went round and round, me saying "no", i was not going to let him look thru the other case we had gotten in, there were plenty of high grades in the case he had gone thru and he should pick form there.

 

Finally, he tested my patience a little too far seeing how out of 300 copies, one should be able to pick out 5 nice copies, and i took one of the copies, ripped it in half, and told him that one was free - and i wasn't going to sell him any Conan #1 issues

 

Some people in the store applauded, some were horrified

 

I think my feelings at the time were there were maybe 50 people in the store all wanting to be helped on some level - the store on Telegraph Ave in Berkeley was usually always very busy when we opened the doors at 10 AM and remained open until 10 PM at night

 

-and this guy was thinking he could be a monopoly of my time and he hit my diminishing returns level

 

anyway, you jogged my memory

 

Towards the late 1980s when the first Batman movie from 89 was activating all kinds of interest in the comics world for a while there, going into the first couple years of the 90s, the new comics market seemed to have (d)evolved into one of condition of the books being more important than any discussion of reading them

 

It turned not so fun any more, so i stopped doing new comics, concentrating strictly on older stuff these days and researching the history

[BLBcomics-migration]

I used to shop at the Berkeley location from '82 to when you closed in '87. That stretch of Telegraph Ave. was a little mecca for a comics geek with Comics & Comix down the block. When I couldn't make it out to Berkeley, I'd hit California Comic Book Co. in Walnut Creek. Definitely NOT my first choice. Anyone know whatever happened to Don DeFalco?

 

I don't remember Dave's last name, except that he was a near-ubiquitous presence. I think he was a law student. He'd begin all the weekly raps with:

 

My name is Dave,

and I'm an employ-yee

of the Best of Two Worlds

in Berke-ley.

 

Felix

 

Jeez, i must rack my brain now, trying to remember who Dave was. If i saw him, i know i would immediately go, "Oh, yeah....."

 

Yep, i was always on the employees to clean the stores - it was a losing battle, as there was always a stream of people coming thru, as i always picked high traffic locations.

 

I have not seen Don DeFalco in maybe 15-20 years. I also wonder what happened to him

 

Do you come to Wondercon in San Fran?

 

bob

[BLBcomics-migration]

He'd flip me a freebie here and there.

Cue gnashing of teeth by Bob!

 

This has been such a great thread!

 

Actually, i was doing "Free Comic Book Day" on many a day back in the day before it got organized.

 

I placed a round spinner rack out in front of the stores, packing them up with damaged or extras i could never hope to sell. I would rather people liberate those books to read rather then they come inside to steal stuff in the stores.

 

Free Samples is something i learned as a kid helping out in my father's Pepsi Cola distribution business - I would stand in a grocery store, handing out 2 oz cups of Pepsi in the 1960s

 

I translated that wisdom to getting new readers of comic books and try to retain them as customers

 

I think comic book store owners should give out free beeies when ever any kid age 12 and below comes into any store on any day, not just one day a year

[Nexus]

Hi Bob,

 

Yes, I do go to WonderCon. I introduced myself a few shows ago and we talked about BOTW.

 

What I meant to say was that while C&C was cleaner, BOTW had more character. My first stop on Telegraph. C&C was obviously a chain. One thing I liked about them, though, was their in-house fanzine. It was edited by Diana Schultz (later, Bob Schreck) and featured contributions from local creators like Steve Leialoha and Tom Orzechowski. If I remember correctly, Mark Evanier had a column as well.

 

The stuff Rory gave away was mostly promotional items like posters or stuff you guys probably couldn't sell, so don't worry:) But it did make a real impession on me and I still shop at Rory's Comic Relief (which I like to think carries on the great Berkeley comics tradition).

 

Felix

[sckao]

I started at UC Berkeley in 1986.. so I remember all those comic shops as well!

 

(It went out of business my sophomore year unfortunately and the area has declined drastically in terms of comic book stores.)

[BLBcomics-migration]

Hi Bob,

 

Yes, I do go to WonderCon. I introduced myself a few shows ago and we talked about BOTW.

 

What I meant to say was that while C&C was cleaner, BOTW had more character. My first stop on Telegraph. C&C was obviously a chain. One thing I liked about them, though, was their in-house fanzine. It was edited by Diana Schultz (later, Bob Schreck) and featured contributions from local creators like Steve Leialoha and Tom Orzechowski. If I remember correctly, Mark Evanier had a column as well.

 

The stuff Rory gave away was mostly promotional items like posters or stuff you guys probably couldn't sell, so don't worry:) But it did make a real impession on me and I still shop at Rory's Comic Relief (which I like to think carries on the great Berkeley comics tradition).

 

Felix

 

Thanks, Felix, am glad we spoke, albeit a couple years back. Yes, BOTW definitely had more character - we had all kinds of character(s) in that place

 

BOTW's news letter i named THE LIMELIGHT

 

C&C's was called THE TELEGRAPH WIRE, which actually consisted of a lot of industry press releases and store coupons plus Diana's opines, which were always a breath of fresh air to read

 

I do not remember Bob Shreck editing the Wire, he never worked for C&C

 

And i am not worried about freebie stuff being given away - the posters were meant to be given away

[BLBcomics-migration]

I started at UC Berkeley in 1986.. so I remember all those comic shops as well!

 

(It went out of business my sophomore year unfortunately and the area has declined drastically in terms of comic book stores.)

 

I was a founder of Comics & Comix in Aug 1972. I sold out in 1975

 

I opened my own operation Nov 1976 in the Haight Ashbury of San Fran, and opened a Telegraph Ave store May 1977 - my old partners and i fought on that street for years, just half a block apart

 

In Feb 1986 the company warehouse sustained flood water damage, creating all kinds of problems

 

The Berkeley store closed Jan 1987

 

There is a very long story inside the above few lines

[Foolkiller]

I started at UC Berkeley in 1986.. so I remember all those comic shops as well!

 

(It went out of business my sophomore year unfortunately and the area has declined drastically in terms of comic book stores.)

 

I was a founder of Comics & Comix in Aug 1972. I sold out in 1975

 

I opened my own operation Nov 1976 in the Haight Ashbury of San Fran, and opened a Telegraph Ave store May 1977 - my old partners and i fought on that street for years, just half a block apart

 

In Feb 1986 the company warehouse sustained flood water damage, creating all kinds of problems

 

The Berkeley store closed Jan 1987

 

There is a very long story inside the above few lines

 

Would you ever do a brick and mortar again? Where do you see the future of such stores?

[mosconi]

Bob,

 

In regards to this mafiosa hoard of comics that eventually became the Mile High 2 collection, do you recall many Silver Age and pre-1972 DC's? I've had the impression that most books were primarily Marvel from this time period.

[Monstro]

also i was wondering, and this may be a dumb question but have all the books been sold off by now? or do some dealers like mh still have some stock from it?

[joe_collector]

And along those lines, were there different "return policies" between DC, Marvel and the other companies, and how did these evolve from 1970 to 1977 or so?

 

In regards to this mafiosa hoard of comics that eventually became the Mile High 2 collection, do you recall many Silver Age and pre-1972 DC's? I've had the impression that most books were primarily Marvel from this time period.

[BLBcomics-migration]

Bob,

 

In regards to this mafiosa hoard of comics that eventually became the Mile High 2 collection, do you recall many Silver Age and pre-1972 DC's? I've had the impression that most books were primarily Marvel from this time period.

 

My understanding is there was little DC, mostly Marvel, some issues being thousands of copies, some with none, like Conan 3 and Silver surfer 4

 

When the semi-trucks left the holding area, one of the trucks went "stray" and Chuck never got them - back in the mid 1990s, i talked with the fellow who ended up with that semi-truck load and that story will be in the history book i have been working on

[BLBcomics-migration]

also i was wondering, and this may be a dumb question but have all the books been sold off by now? or do some dealers like mh still have some stock from it?

 

It has been over 25 years since Chucks MH2 deal went down. I talked extensively with Chuck about in in Dallas circa 1995 when we were both at Buddy Saunder's Lone Star Comics in Dallas and had gone out for a long lunch (long story that as to why we were both in Dallas at the same time). He went into all kinds of detail, one dealer to two others,

 

Does Chuck still offer MH2 comic books in his offerings? I do not go thru his web site that much, just reading his news letter as most of us get a couple times a week

[BLBcomics-migration]

And along those lines, were there different "return policies" between DC, Marvel and the other companies, and how did these evolve from 1970 to 1977 or so?

 

In regards to this mafiosa hoard of comics that eventually became the Mile High 2 collection, do you recall many Silver Age and pre-1972 DC's? I've had the impression that most books were primarily Marvel from this time period.

 

Pretty much the returns policy of "honor system" affidavit returns were identical by the 1960s

 

Up till the late 1940s, full cover return was the norm.

 

Back in the mid 40s thru the mid 50s, 3/4 cover comic books are common. The top 1/4 was sliced off and returned to the publisher's main master distributor

 

By the early 1960s, an "honor system" developed. The distributor simply "on his honor", simply his word, told the main distributor how many of each he had sold. No paper trail of cover pieces to count - kind of like the Diebold voting machines is basicly an honor system, in the cosmic scheme of things.

 

This is how affidavit return fraud was so easy back then, leading to the addition of DC and Marvel to the direct market by Phil Seuling in the Fall of 1973 pioneered by the San Francisco underground comix publishers functioning as their own distributors starting with Print Mint in Berkeley when they took over ZAP COMICS with #2 in April 1968.

 

In the 70s, that "honor" system devolved as more comics speculators bought books from the ID distributors, mostly paying cash, easy to say the books were shredded, not paying the publisher

 

That is why Green Lantern Adams issues after the first few simply showed sales going down, when, rather, true "sales" were going up up up on GL (to get this back on topic)