It wasn't long after that Chuck published his price list of MH books in an early June 1977 issue of 'The Buyer's Guide' asking for 1.5X and 2X Mint Overstreet prices. This caused a shock wave in the hobby and a back lash against Chuck. You can see a scan of the first MH price catalog at this link:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/catalog/main.htmlYou can read about the ad and the backlash he go here:
http://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg26.htmlHere are some other known big buyers of Mile High books:
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16 17 18 19 20#16 - Gary Carter, SDCC 2016Gary M. Carter founded the AACC, (American Association Of Comic Book Collectors), was the organization's first president, and also established (and served on many) Sotheby's and Christie's grading committees.
He and his brother Kent Lane, (named after Superman characters Clark Kent and Lois Lane) sold comics via mail order by the 1970s into the 1990s.
He was one of the first purchasers from the Mile High collection buying many DC's, including most of the pre-hero DCs. Gary even mortgaged his house and borrowed all they could to get more comics from Chuck. It's said they spent $44,000. Gary’s father Nick even managed to come up with an additional $5,000 to buy more from Chuck.
While working as a U.S. government engineer from San Diego he was busy in the comics world. In the early Apr. 1991, Gary began editing and publishing
Comic Book Marketplace magazine, and then later became Editor in Chief of the
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide and the
Overstreet Comic Book Quarterly. After Overstreet became part of Gemstone, Gary returned to CBM and served as Editor through 2000. Today, Gary is the Dean of the Chabot College School of the Arts in the San Francisco Bay area.
You can read a fun 1991 LA Times profile on Gary at this link:
http://articles.latimes.com/1991-12-05/news/vw-758_1_comic-bookAnd here's an article by Lewis Forro about visiting Gary at his home in 1991:
http://pristine.webspaceforme.net/Facebook/comicbookmemories2/carter/carter.htmlYou can hear an interview with him here:
http://www.comiczoneradio.com/comic-book-marketplace.html#17 - Steve Geppi (at centre) at the 1991 SDCCAfter buying Richard Alf's mail order business in 1978, Chuck needing to raise $21,000 to buy a double page spread ad in all new Marvel Comics for nine weeks running in 1980. Rozanski sold off several key Mile High books including Batman #1, Whiz #2 and All-Star #1 to Steve Geppi who was acting as an agent for John Wesley Snyder. Later Geppi would start to collect MH books for himself an managed to buy a sizeable number of them in the 90s.
Steve Geppi (b. January 24, 1950) is a comic book distributor, publisher and former store owner. He is the owner and founder of Diamond Comic Distributors and Gemstone Publishing, as well as Diamond International Galleries and Geppi’s Entertainment Museum (GEM, now closed) in Baltimore.
Steve started out adult life as a US Postal worker in Baltimore. After working comic book conventions on the weekends for a while he opened his first Geppi’s Comic World store in 1974 and had four stores by 1981. The next year he founded Diamond Comic Distributors which eventually after buying out his competition became the biggest distributor of comics in America by 1996.
He became part owner of the Baltimore Orioles in 1993, and in 1994 (a busy year for him) purchased 'Baltimore' magazine as well as creating Gemstone Publishing Inc. to publish his purchase of the Overstreet Price guide. His Diamond International Galleries opened in 1994 which gave way in 2006 to his Geppi’s Entertainment Museum.
In May 2018 he donated more than 3,000 items from his personal comic and pop culture collection to The Library of Congress. He closed his GEM business that June.
http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1012?articleID=213163&articleID=69010Hear an interview with him here:
http://www.comiczoneradio.com/steve-geppi.html#18 - John Verzyl, owner of Comic HeavenJohn Verzyl(02.14.1961 - 03.10.2018) - Photo by Lewis Forro
Owner of Comic Heaven and long time seller at NYC and SDCC. John also consultant for the Overstreet Price Guide of over 30 years. A heavy buyer of books from the Mile High Collection.
John Verzyl started collecting comic books in 1965 and within ten years he had amassed thousands of Golden and Silver Age comic books. In 1979 he opened his Comic Heaven comics store.
John seems to be universally remembered as a very genial person happy to talk comics whenever someone approached him collecting crowds of listeners around his convention table listening to his stories.
You can read a remembrance by Bob Reyer on John with some nice photos here:
http://talkingcomicbooks.com/2018/03/15/john-verzyl-remembrance/And another patron remembers his store here:
http://pristine.webspaceforme.net/Facebook/comicbookmemories/comicheaven/comicheaven.htmlSeveral big names in comics remember John in this post:
https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/430055-rest-in-peace-john-verzyl/?do=findComment&comment=10144917https://itsalljustcomics.com/2018/03/12/the-hobby-says-goodbye-to-a-legend-john-verzyl-has-passed-away/#19 - Ron Pussell, owner of Redbeard’s Book Den - 1986 newspaperRon Pussell was working as an assistant controller at a large women's shoe importer but hated the job. It then he discovered comic collecting again. He started going to conventions and buying Timelys then Ducks and ECs. At a con he saw his first Mile High books for sale but felt Chuck was asking too much at 1.5 x OSPG. He eventually started buying MH books and not long after quit the accounting profession and became a small dealer.
Pussell bought a majority of the esoteric Mile High titles and sold them slowly through the 1980’s into the mid 1990’s. He would buy a new batch from Chuck each year at the SDCC.
Ron still sells books online on eBay.
Here is a newspaper piece on Ron from a 1986 Anaheim Register.
You can read this blog entry by Lewis Forro about visiting Redbeard's Newport Beach, Cal. store in 1981:
http://pristine.webspaceforme.net/Facebook/comicbookmemories/redbeard/redbeard.htmlhttps://www.ebay.co.uk/str/redbeardsbookdenhttps://www.facebook.com/Redbeards-Book-Den-999757880131938/#20 - Jay Maybruck, owner of Sparkle CitySparkle City was established in 1976. They employed and later partnered for a time with Paul Howley (seen in the picture here) before he left to start his own store. Jay acquired new product renting space in malls as he traveled America offering to buy any collectibles people might want to sell. You can read about the experience here:
http://mylifewithcomicbooks.blogspot.com/2009/12/my-life-with-comics-part-11.htmlSparkle City bought a large batch of Church books early on from Ron Pussell and in 1985 they placed an ad in the March 29th
Comic Buyer’s Guide (#593). This ad contained prime DC and Timely MH books. Some of the highlights include full Timely runs of Human Torch #2-34, All Winners #2-19 & 21, USA #2-17, Mystic Comics #2-10, Daring Mystery Comics #2-12 and most impressive Superman #11-68.
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21 22 23 24 25#21 - John McLaughlin, owner of The Book SailJohn K McLaughlin (Mar. 13, 1942 - Jun. 30, 2005) - I could find no picture of John, sorry.
Some estimate that John's collection held about 1700 Church books! Most bought from Ron Pussell or directly from Chuck.
McLaughlin was a renowned book and pop culture buyer and seller. He owned and ran The Book Sail until it closed in 2002. Most online call him a 'character' as Robert Weinberg says "McLaughlin was an odd character who had lots of money that he enjoyed spending on rare collectibles. The heir to a steel fortune, he lived in a stunning home in California. He owned a small book store he called The Book Sail and offered some of his most unusual items for sale at the store. His prices were outrageous because John really didn’t care if he sold anything or not."
https://www.tangentonline.com/articles-columnsmenu-284/1584-collecting-fantasy-art-6-an-art-potpourriHe might be the same McLaughlin who produced nice artwork for some fanzines in the 60s such as Warp Factor and Stardate. You can see a samples of his artwork here:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/File:Spacecon1977-10.jpghttps://fanlore.org/wiki/File:Stardateunknowninside1.jpgYou can read this odd story about his efforts to sell the original 1897 manuscript of Bram Stoker's
Dracula on a wiki entry, half way down the page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Bram_StokerThe manuscript was later sold by his heirs and it is now in a museum.
He passed away sometime in 2005 and his books were sold off. You can read all about his collection on this HA page when they along with Diamond International Galleries dispersed his collection.
https://comics.ha.com/heritage-auctions-press-releases-and-news/heritage-and-diamond-to-auction-the-mclaughlin-collection-in-baltimore-.s?releaseId=1206#22 - Ernie Gerber on rightMatt Nelson (left) with
Ernie Gerber at the SDCC in 1995.
Gerber is an indispensable figure in comic collecting history.
He invented the widely used Mylar Snug for preserving comic books that everybody in the hobby uses. He ran his own auctions selling many Mile High Collection books in the 80s.
Gerber's main claim to fame though is the two volume reference book
The Photo-Journal Guide To Comic Books published in 1989. He spent five years traveling the country photographing comic book collections and used thousands of dollars of his own money to make that book a reality including buying many of issues from the Mile High Collection. He would sell them in a 1990 auction selling 1253 MH books! He sold his last 1000 to Steve Geppi three years later. Gerber, Pussell, and Verzyl created Certificate of Authenticity for the MH books in their collections before selling them.
Comic fandom owes him a huge debt for his work done before the internet would make it so easy to collect covers of comics.
A bio of Gerber can be read here:
http://pristine.webspaceforme.net/sandvox3/comic-book-memories-2/comic-book-memories/ernie-gerber.html#23 - Dr Pat KochanekDr Kochanek wrote his own detailed history of the pedigree and printed in
Comic Book Marketplace #2-5 which you can read here:
http://cool.conservation-us.org/byorg/abbey/ap/ap07/ap07-5/ap07-509.html#24 - Bob Nastasi, owner of Amazing Comics and CollectiblesBob Nastasi, 30+ year retailer and owner of Amazing Comics and Collectibles. Bob owned many Mile Highs in the 1980’s.
#25 - Jon BerkJon Berk is known and respected throughout the comic community as not only one of the most knowledgeable collectors and historians around, but as a true class act in the hobby. Jon spent nearly a lifetime amassing a most impressive collection of vintage comics and art. Jon owns many of the Fox Mile Highs and other key runs. Generous with his collection he helped Gerber with his volumes and has contributed works for exhibit and published collections.
Hear an interview with him here:
http://www.comiczoneradio.com/jon-berk.html++++
Buyers of MH books I could NOT find any pictures of include:
Robert Pennak aka 'Perfect Pennak, who buys only the highest graded books.
Alex Acevedo founder of
Alexander Gallery in 1971. Alex was trading and selling comics and coins by the age of 12. He opened his first Madison Avenue Gallery in 1976. Besides art he was heavily involved in comics, early toys and American Indian artifacts as well. The gallery closed in Jan. 2018 but still sells artwork online.
Dr. David J. Anderson aka 'The Dentist' in in Alexandria, VA. who is known for hunting down only the highest grade books and owns many MH issues including for a time the Action Comics #1 bought in 1985. It's said he has owned MH runs of Action Comics #1-24, Batman #1-17, Detective Comics #28-40, Sensation Comics #1-30 at one time.
Joe Smejkal who owns many prime DC superhero runs.
Bruce Schwartz, owner of Astounding Comics who owns many DC issues as well. He founded Los Angeles Comic Book and Science Fiction Convention.
and
West Stephan who has about 200 at the time he wrote a nice overview of the Church book collection which helped immensely with this entry and shared it on the CGC boards here:
https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/431623-heritage-may-auction/?do=findComment&comment=10184649That's it for this batch, hope you liked them,
-Yoc