From the July 2008 CGC eNewsletter. Click here to subscribe.

In June of 1973, Bill Cole was watching the PBS Channel 2 annual auction. What caught his eye were two tickets to a comic book convention and, along with it three issues of Monster Mania Magazine. He bid and won a $15.00 value for only $12.00 (which he owns to this day).

Going to his first convention brought back memories of his childhood. All those books that he hadn’t seen in years. New comics at that time were selling for only 12 cents. Being a novice, he started to buy up everything in sight. From Spider-Man and Superman to Donald Duck. Of course each book had to be bagged and boarded (seems like nothing has changed over the years). As the collection grew, he started to take space at these cons and purchased the plastic sleeves for resale. In October of that year, because of the oil embargo, he decided to manufacture his own bags, since normal supply channels were not able to keep up with the demand.

His first order was for 50,000 sleeves bulk packed. This led to his counting by hand every sleeve in quantities of 100’s, which was both time-consuming and tedious. During this time, he found out that comic book collectors had two outlets to buy and sell. They were the Buyers Guide for Comic Fandom and the Overstreet Price Guide. He then started advertising in both of these publications. Sales grew, but due to time constraints of his safety equipment business and being in the Army Reserve, he needed to narrow his scope and specialize in one type of comic. So he started collecting Disney Comics, specifically Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge, both drawn and written by Carl Barks. The story lines were simple and carefree — much as he believed life should be. Later at a New York Convention, he met a dealer by the name of Steve Geppi and from there a long-term friendship was born. In the mid-Seventies, he and Geppi purchased a collection that came to be known as the Poughkeepsie Mints. There were multiple copies of the most beautiful Dell Comics that had ever been seen. Bill Cole easily became the largest dealer of Disney Comics at that time.

From then on, his name, fame, and reputation grew. Around the late 70s, he started to sell a new product called "Mylar® sleeves," a plastic sleeve that slowed comic books from turning yellow. It was so successful that in 1980, he started to manufacture his own sleeves, and later to sell just collector supplies, worldwide. It was in the Eighties that he decided to take Bill Cole Enterprises from a part-time hobby to a full-time business.

In addition, he retired from the military after 24 years of service to his country, with the rank of Major, but continues to voluntarily serve as the 4th Congressional District Coordinator of Massachusetts representing the Admissions Office for the United States Military Academy at West Point. Bill’s son, Matthew Cole, is a 1998 West Point Graduate and is a third-generation family member who served in the military.

Today, Bill Cole Enterprises, Inc, is a major supplier to hobbyists, collectors, schools, museums, and the U.S. government. They sell not only comic book supplies, but also developed a line of comic book artist supplies, which is sold through its subsidiary www.ComicArtistSupplies.com . We are 35 years old and still growing! We thank our customers for over 35 years of their support.

In honor of our 35th Anniversary, we will be running specials throughout the year. These specials will revolve around "35." It can be 35 percent off or $35.00 for 35 hours. These specials can run at any time, but will be limited to our e-mail subscribers only. Sign up today for our e-mail newsletters and specials.

This is a guest article. The thoughts and opinions in this piece are those of their author and are not necessarily the thoughts of the Certified Collectibles Group.