Digital Comic Museum
General Category => Comic Related Discussion => Topic started by: bminor on January 09, 2013, 12:20:43 PM
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Anyone have any interesting stories about finding old comic books?
Perhaps a near miss. You know the story, if you had just come over two weeks ago, my Mom just threw all mine out!, etc...
I remember going to a rummage sale when I was a teenager in the late seventies and buying a few comics, Archies, etc. nothing to exciting.
Got home opened up the Archie and it had a coverless X-Men #2 in it.
The book still resides in my collection.
B.
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Nobody has any fun interesting stories???
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I've never been 'comic book' lucky that way B.
*sigh*
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Okay, I will tell you the story of how I got many of my old comics. In 1969/70, when I was out of college and in my first "real" job making "real" money, I was overpaid and under expensed. I had extra money every month and every other month I would take a weekend and drive to Los Angeles and go to the Cherokee Books, Bond Street Books, and Collectors' Bookshop and pile up pre-code comic books in stacks two to three feet high. This was before the Price Guide and I would offer to pay $1 per book and usually they would accept my offer. I would write each store a check for $200-$300 and go home with 500+ comic books. Thus was the JVJ collection built up (painfully) weekend by weekend, 400 mile jaunt by 400 mile jaunt. You can't say I didn't work for those books...
Then there was the time my 1958 Chevy didn't make it back and I ended up spending the night on the floor of a Chevron station in Santa Maria before finding a Greyhound Bus Station the following morning and wending my way home VERY late for work. Such a "find" that was.
Those were the days. And those were the finds. (|:{>
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A used book store, when I was in the army in the late 70's, got in a box of comics. I got first look. I got the 3 Showcase issues of Challengers as well as some IW reprints for $2 each as well as Howard the Duck #1 for $5. Not as great but at Heroes Con a few years ago I go my Sparkman #1. Yeah it is one of my favorite books. Of course there have been those great ebay finds that is just not the same.
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Wow, narf,
I think those Chals were a heck of lot bigger bargains than the Howard the Duck!
I did recall a super and true CB "FIND" that I made in 1968. Back then, my buddy Pat Price and I had a comic book "shop" in his garage on the weekends and a couple of days after school. I was at San Jose State, but Pat went to Palo Alto High and there was a write up on the shop in the Stanford newspaper - Stanford being in Palo Alto. Well, the following weekend, one of the professors came in with a box of comics to sell us: ECs! Mostly science fiction books, but some of the war and horrors, too. We had wrangle about the purchase price as every article of the day was, of course, "comics are worth so much money!" But we got a good deal and then we almost came to blows about how to divvy them up, because we certainly weren't going to sell them. They still form the core of my EC collection. So that's a real "FIND" in the truest sense of the term.
(|:{>
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Yeah the ironic contrast of paying more for Howard the Duck than those great Challs. I do not come close to your scores Jim. One of my students was telling me today that his uncle gave him a box of comics. In the box an Amazing Fantasy 15. He told his uncle and the uncle is to go over tonight and check out his mistake. I suspect it may be a reprint or a mistake on his uncle's part. He said his uncle has a display of several valuable comics so the uncle knows comics. Not to say he could not have accidently let one get past him. Nice of the kid to let him know it was there not just run off and sell it.
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Something Found:
In our neighborhood when I was a kid, there was a large scrap paper & metal yard. The owner & his workers would collect & bind these items for shipping out. This was wartime 1940s. The owner would let the neighborhood kids rummage around the place for stray items of interest to take home. One day a newspaper from 1898 with headlines about the Spanish-American war caught my eye. As I remember it, the newspaper was white, smooth, & complete. I took it home to keep, more as an 'ancient' relic than to read. News of my find must have got around the neighborhood, because a few days later an 'older' kid (I must have been 7 or 8) offered me $5 for it (to show it off in his history class). That was a lot of money then, maybe $200 today! Turned out he was one of the few 'rich' kids in our area - his father owned a music store. I hated to part with that newspaper, but loved the comics it would buy.
Something almost found.
On our way to a picnic one day in the early '60s, I spotted an out-of-the-way antique shop. Always on the prowl for comics, decided to take a quick look. Proprietor said that just a few hours ago he had sold a box of old comics that had been standing around for a long time. Asked if he could describe some of them, he said "most were about some flying guy in a red suit."
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In about 1976 or so saw a ad in the local free shopper.
Some guy had some comics he was getting rid of.
As a teenager I had just gotten my check for about $90 for being a janitor in a local Clinic.
I must have called that guy and said that I would be over asap.
Went over and he had about 300 silver age DC's.
Mostly all from the late fifties to the mid sixties.
In the bunch, Green Lantern, 2,3,4, 40, etc.
JLA 2,3,4, etc.
Flash, including the first appearance of GA flash, #123,
Bunch of Batmans, Detectives, Action, & Superman, Adventure...
They were read copies, but in o.k. condition.
I endorsed my meager payroll check and was a happy guy.
I have often wondered over the years why he did not buy any first issues...
Well all still reside in my collection.
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I always like to tell the story of my BIG finds. I had only two good finds- once in 1966 and in 1969.
In 1966 I was working my way through college holding down two part time jobs and a Saturday job at a bookstore near the college. The bookstore owner asked me to look for large lots of comics for his general comics bin that he had at the store. On a summer trip to my future wife's home, I found an office supply store that had a huge stock of comics. Acting on behalf of the store owner (as well as his money) I bought every one of the comics at about 2 cent each ( there were about 1,000 - 1,200 comics). As a reward for finding the comics my bookstore employer allowed me to pick out as many of the comics I wanted for 2 cents each. That was the core of my Dell Four Color Comics collection. The best part of the deal was only having to work three weekends to pay off the debt. In the group of comics that I bought was Tally-Ho - Frank Frazetta 1st comic work. I later traded the Tally-Ho to another collector for a large # of Carl Barks Disney Comic and Stories.
In 1969, while in Tech school at Shepard Air Force base in Texas, my wife and I were at a local mom and pop store when someone brought in a box of books to trade. The store owner bought all of the books for 2 cents each ( it was the 1960s and there was no price guide!!! ;-). I looked in the box and offered 4 cents each for all of the comics. I know they thought I was crazy but they sold me the comics. The bank account was slimmer than when I was in college, but the box contained Marvels. There were three copies of Amazing Fantasy 15 and a lot of #1 Marvel issues. If only I had kept the Amazing Fantasy's ..sigh..but they were traded ... that's what we did IN THE DAY ; - ). I was able to increase my collection and I was able to make money on the comics during our lean years after I was discharged from the service.
I still have a lot of the comics from these finds and have enjoyed them over the years. It's a lot harder finding good comic scores now, but I still search old stores and auctions. You never know........
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No. :'(
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Just because I find it a most fascinating bit of trivia, cbpop,
did you know that Tally-Ho was printed at least THREE times. I have two of the three and have see the third. The indicia changes as does the dimensions of the comic in at least two of the printings. The struggle for war time paper supplies was pretty fierce and was apparently on-going.
FWIW. (|:{>
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Thanks for sharing your story CB - I can picture the moment you learned what was in that box... must have been like being hit by lightning. And if some of them make it onto DCM they'll make that day all the better for all of us.
:)
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Hmm, good finds stories. How about going into a trading card shop that has a small dollar bin of comics and finding about 8 60's Marvel annuals & the 2nd-5th Punisher appearances in Amazing Spider-Man in VG+ condition, then when the owner sees you're actually looking at the older books they bring out a pile of silver DC in G-G+. Wound up spending about $40, got 20+ 10c DC books; Superman and Action and Batman and Adventure and Superboy among them; including the first Lori Lemaris story and (in the 12c category) the original Superman Red-Superman Blue story.
That was earlier today. Well, Yesterday now. Posting late because I've been busy reading. ;D
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So it can still happen! I have seen most shops like that want at least guide value, which is far over ebay available prices, or some want guide value for mint regardless of what condition it is in.
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In 2011, I visited a antique shop and found a box of comics. I thumbed through them and picked a few I liked.
When I took them up to the register, the owner said "You can take the whole box for $25." Even at that moment, I knew it was a good deal.
When I got home, I soon realized that every comic in the box was from the summer of 1973.
In all, I got 114 comics for 21 cents each!
Here's the whole story (and a complete list): http://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/what-a-haul-nice-finds-at-an (http://captaincomics.ning.com/forum/topics/what-a-haul-nice-finds-at-an)
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In 1979 I responded to an ad in a Chicago newspaper from a man selling comics from the 40's and the 50's. I went to his house. He had 7 paper grocery bags filled to the top with comics, laying flat in the bags. On the top of each bag, there was an amazing comic. For example, on one bag there was a G+ copy of Batman #5. On another was the a Crypt of Terror 17. All the bags had some really strong book on top.
He insisted that each bag, regardless of content, was $100. And (wait for it) you couldn't look through the bag. The only thing I had to go on was his word that the bags were definitely worth the price. I convinced him that, as total strangers, that was a little hard to swallow. I managed to get him to let me look at the second copy in each bag. More EC's, Fiction House, great stuff. Reasoning that he had advertised stuff from the 40's and 50's, and that I "knew where he lived" (hey, it's Chicago!), I gambled that he was legit.
I only had $400 on me!! Now I had to choose 4 out of the 7 bags using voodoo mojo. I can only imagine what I left behind. All said and done, I ended up with about 200 incredible books (Superman 76, I kid you not, first Weird Science, real early issues of Planet Comics--it was amazing). I should have thought to ask him to look at what I was leaving after I made my selections, but who thinks clearly in those situations?
I remember the experience so vividly. Incredible and nerve wracking.
--David
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Incredible story David!!!
Nerve wracking story even today!
I remember going the the Salvation Army story on Nicollet Island when I was really little, about eight years old or so. Downtown Minneapolis, this would be 1966.
I remember vividly seeing this large box brimming with comics.
But to this day I can't remember a single one of those comics.
A very frustrating memory.
On another note. Has anyone ever gone to a rummage sale and found the mother lode. Tons of old comics all in excellent condition and really, really cheap. You are enjoying the experience and satisfaction of discovery of this fantastic find. Going through all of them, cataloging them all.
Everything is just fine, you have never been happier in your whole life, ever.
Then you wake up and realize it is just a dream!!!
This has happened to me several times over the years. Boy is it a bummer!!!
B.
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Not comics but I was at an auction and there were two paper grocery bags of puzzles. This was about 25 years ago and there was a variety with many TV puzzles like Charlie's Angels and Eight is Enough. There was also a 1950's Hopalong Cassidy puzzle. I placed several puzzles on top of the Hopalong and got the puzzles for only a few bucks. I sold Hopalong for $50 shortly after. I just got rid of the TV and other puzzles. Those TV puzzles are probably worth something now.
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Great reading here gang. Keep'em coming!
:D
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So it can still happen! I have seen most shops like that want at least guide value, which is far over ebay available prices, or some want guide value for mint regardless of what condition it is in.
Yes, it can still happen. I have Geo as a partial witness; we were in the shop last week after we had met for lunch. We saw the stack with the Marvel Annuals, but it was in a drawer underneath the main dollar bins with a clear front. The owner wasn't in, and when we asked what the status was the person working wasn't sure since the owner wasn't in, and they suggested we try later.
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My first comic was a reward for being a good boy at the dentist. My mom said I could have any one from the rack, and I picked TUROK SON OF STONE (Dell, #5) because, of course, it had dinosaurs.
My dad worked as a baggage loader at the railroad terminal and brought me home out of town newspapers like THE NEW YORK JOURNAL-AMERICAN, NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWS and even TORONTO STAR WEEKLY, because our hometown papers didn't carry Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Brick Bradford, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Johnny Hazard or Smilin' Jack, all of which became favorites of mine. I'm currently buying the hardcover reprints of most of those strips (do wish somebody would reprint BRICK and JACK though!)
I remember looking for a new Kirby monster book in the drug store and saw something titled "The Fantastic Hour." It wasn't entirely unheard of to issue a one shot comic with a book length story, especially when movie adaptations were common, so I didn't realize until I got it home that it was the first of a new superhero series called, you guessed it, THE FANTASTIC FOUR.
A couple years later I told my cousin about an advertisement for two new Marvel comics. One was called THE AVENGERS and the cover showed a JLA-like teamup of Thor, Iron Man, The Hulk, Ant-Man and The Wasp; the other showed only the logo, X-MEN. My cousin accused me of making it all up because Marvel would never copy DC like that.
When our town's first comics shops opened, I walked in when the owner was out and had left his wife in charge. I saw a copy of ALL-STAR COMICS #21 lying on the counter and asked her how much. She said, "Oh, it's a 10cent book ... I'm supposed to ask for more than cover price. Is 25cents okay?" I slammed a quarter down, took the book and never went back for fear the owner would demand it back. It must have been worth about $25 at that time.
Not comics, but another memorable experience was finding a bookstore whose basement was filled with tables with stacks of old comics and pulps. All the really good ones were taken, but I did find a run of STARTLING STORIES with Captain Future short stories by Edmond Hamilton. Hamilton and his wife Leigh Brackett became my favorite SF writers.
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Yes, it can still happen. I have Geo as a partial witness; we were in the shop last week after we had met for lunch. We saw the stack with the Marvel Annuals, but it was in a drawer underneath the main dollar bins with a clear front. The owner wasn't in, and when we asked what the status was the person working wasn't sure since the owner wasn't in, and they suggested we try later.
Yep, I can back that story up. By the way Eric did you go back and ever check it out after that?
Geo
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I guess mine was going to the second-hand bookstore down in Kermit, Texas in 1964 and seeing two different copies of AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #1, each for a nickel. I bought one. No, I don't still have it.
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My dad worked as a baggage loader at the railroad terminal and brought me home out of town newspapers like THE NEW YORK JOURNAL-AMERICAN, NEW YORK SUNDAY NEWS and even TORONTO STAR WEEKLY, because our hometown papers didn't carry Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers, Brick Bradford, The Phantom, Mandrake the Magician, Johnny Hazard or Smilin' Jack, all of which became favorites of mine. I'm currently buying the hardcover reprints of most of those strips (do wish somebody would reprint BRICK and JACK though!)
Here's a web site where you can buy original Smilin' Jack art and reprint books from Zack Mosley's daughter:
http://www.smilinjackart.com/sales.htm (http://www.smilinjackart.com/sales.htm)