let's see yesteryears prices....post old Golden Age "for sale" ads !

[dgillock]

Hey all-

Haven't posted in a while, but I thought I could add something fun to this thread:

 

 

 

These ads are from respectively the November 1955 and January 1956 issues of Inside & Science Fiction Advertiser, a SF fan/adzine put together by, among others, Lin Carter. These are some the earliest "back issue" ads that I've ever seen (though I know there are earlier Pop Hollinger ads out there). Really cool to see evidence of how quickly a collector's market developed for ECs. Very scary to see that you could once buy a "MINT" collection of Adventure 1-122 for $40 or All-American 1-51 for $15.

[sacentaur]

Fascinating dmgcsr - thanks for posting that.

 

Wasn't Malcolm Willits one of the guys later associated with Cherokee Bookshop in Hollywood? I went there in my early days of collecting (circa 1980) and they had tons of great GA books.

 

STEVE (Luvin' Larson)

[dgillock]

Wasn't Malcolm Willits one of the guys later associated with Cherokee Bookshop in Hollywood? I went there in my early days of collecting (circa 1980) and they had tons of great GA books.

 

STEVE (Luvin' Larson)

 

Not sure about Cherokee, but from what I can tell from a little Google searching, he owns The Collectors Bookstore

[sacentaur]

That's what I meant...Cherokee was another (smaller) book shop down in that vicinity that used to have old comics.

 

A memorable moment occurred for me at Collectors long ago when they had 3 books in their back showcase that I really wanted: a NM Action 14, a NM Human Torch 31, and a VF+ Action 37. All the books had white pages, too.

 

I could only afford either the earlier Action or the later Action plus the Torch. Being young, naive, and stupid, I chose two books over the one. Later sold the Torch, but I still thankfully have the Action 37.

 

I still often wonder where that Action 14 ended up....

 

STEVE (Luvin' Larson)

[The Black Hand ®]

My uncle bought me an Action #3 in the sixties from Cherokee. An older collector conned me out of it a while later in a bad trade. I was about 15 or 16.

[ft88]

Here's an old Robert Bell ad that fell out of an old 70's comic I was reading/grading (Astonishing Tales 26 BTW) I like surprises like that.

 

From the price guide for sale, this looks to be from 1973.

 

Front and Back

 

I wonder where that Batman 1 ended up and if it was unrestored or not.

 

[Theagenes]

 

Wow, I got my VG+ Buck Rogers 3 & 5 recently for not much more than those prices. Not a very good return on your investment if you got those in 1973 - far less than devaluation of the dollar - ouch!

 

I guess I'm not much of a speculator. Considering the stuff I collect like Buck Rogers, Tarzan, Flash Gordon, John Carter, etc. I must be about 30 or 40 years behind the times when it comes to what's hot in the GA market, but I don't care - I dig my books!

[esquirecomics]

Not entirely what was being asked for, but a cool contemporaneous ad from 1943: