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Who remembers Robert Bell?
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Started by Robot Man,

106 posts in this topic

Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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Posted

 

 

Robert Crestohl was just as bad as Ripofsky

 

Overpriced books that were also over graded

 

I remember in 1988 I had my mom call Gerry Ross/ Robert Crestohl because they cashed my check and never sent me my books

 

Finally after my mom called, they sent me the books in grades. Not the Near Mint I had ordered.

 

Was happy to just get something I remember at the time.

 

 

Weren't Gerry Ross and Crestohl also notorious for pawning off restored books as unrestored copies? (tsk)

 

To finish my story, ordered a NM copy of FF 2 & 5

 

Paid close to $1,100 in 1988 money

 

The FF2 I received was VG

 

The FF 5 was VG restored

 

sold them both CGC sealed in 2000 for about what I paid

 

Soured on humanity ever since

 

 

Many accounts of overgrading, trimming and colour-touching have emerged.

 

My experience with him was so bad that I didn’t have any confidence in buying from American / Canadian dealers again for well over a decade.

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Ken Aldred

Ken Aldred

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I bought a few books from him back then and I would say that everyone's grading was looser back then than it is now. A mint book back then was essentially "newsstand fresh" which meant mostly glossy and no dirt or tears. You could easily have a crease (even a subscription crease was still mint). All the new comics I bought in the 60's and 70's came from spinner racks or in some cases vending machines, neither of which were as kind to books as stores are today. One example of a book I bought from him would be a Mint Conan 1 for $6, it would probably be a 9.2-9.4 today.

 

 

I ordered from Robert Bell several times. I had a standard habit when selecting books. I would decide how much I wanted to spend on a book from a title. The one that really stands out is Avengers. I wanted an old book and was willing to spend $1.50 on it. I looked at his list and for the catalog I had, I could get an Avengers 39. This meant he would list a range of issues like 39-64 for $1.50 each so I would pick the earliest one. For this particular case, the book I got would grade ~9.6. Most of the books I bought would grade in the 9.x range.

 

I ordered once from Rogofsky but mapped out many months of orders from him (each month aligned with when I got paid). After my 1st ordered I quit buying from him. Everything was WAY over graded.

 

 

That actually sounds okay, if you were consistently getting better than 9.0s. I could’ve worked with that; back then, anyway. As a comparison, the first UK dealer I bought from sent me a ‘mint’ Defenders 1 which had a previous owner’s name gouged across the back cover in felt-tip pen. The books I received were generally lacking in gloss, some creases, probably not much better than F-VF, and certainly not newsstand-fresh. Quite poor for books that were then little more than five years old. I quickly moved on to a UK mail order company called Fantasy Unlimited. At the top end, if you ordered NM/M books you would get some really nice copies, as you’ve described for Robert Bell’s service. For a fledgling 70s collector, definitely a missed opportunity.

 

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the blob

the blob

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Pretty sure I have a big stack of sticky robert bell bags I took off comics, but have set to the side for some reason. Not sure what to do with them, but I hate the idea of throwing them out. Maybe bag garage sale books in them to make them appear more vintage?

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Robot Man

Robot Man

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On 10/11/2015 at 3:30 AM, Ken Aldred said:

 

 

 

 

That actually sounds okay, if you were consistently getting better than 9.0s. I could’ve worked with that; back then, anyway. As a comparison, the first UK dealer I bought from sent me a ‘mint’ Defenders 1 which had a previous owner’s name gouged across the back cover in felt-tip pen. The books I received were generally lacking in gloss, some creases, probably not much better than F-VF, and certainly not newsstand-fresh. Quite poor for books that were then little more than five years old. I quickly moved on to a UK mail order company called Fantasy Unlimited. At the top end, if you ordered NM/M books you would get some really nice copies, as you’ve described for Robert Bell’s service. For a fledgling 70s collector, definitely a missed opportunity.

 

Back when I was buying from these guys, grading unless off a million miles was usually acceptable. There were no real published standards and just getting the opportunity to get GA books was a treat. Collecting was a lot more forgiving. Now, high prices, that was frustrating and Rogofsky was the worst. I rarely ordered from him but once in a while he was the only choice. 

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comicjack

comicjack

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Posted (edited)
21 minutes ago, Peter G said:

Was just in the doctors office in NY and the nurse called out for a Robert Bell. Is “our” Robert Bell still alive ?

Last i heard he now lives in Florida 

Edited by comicjack
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circumstances

circumstances

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21 minutes ago, Peter G said:

Was just in the doctors office in NY and the nurse called out for a Robert Bell. Is “our” Robert Bell still alive ?

He moved down to Margate (Fort Lauderdale area) at some point. I've been to his warehouse many times, but that was many years ago.

The first time I went Gary Dolgoff was there buying stuff :D

I haven't been in touch with him in a very long while.

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Peter G

Peter G

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6 minutes ago, circumstances said:

He moved down to Margate (Fort Lauderdale area) at some point. I've been to his warehouse many times, but that was many years ago.

The first time I went Gary Dolgoff was there buying stuff :D

I haven't been in touch with him in a very long while.

Based on two accounts, sounds like he is in Florida. I took a picture of this Robert Bell in the doctors office. A side by side comparison, I thought it was the same guy.  

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Bronty

Bronty

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On 12/12/2018 at 5:51 PM, the blob said:

Pretty sure I have a big stack of sticky robert bell bags I took off comics, but have set to the side for some reason. Not sure what to do with them, but I hate the idea of throwing them out. Maybe bag garage sale books in them to make them appear more vintage?

Toss them in the trash.   It’s a plastic bag!

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Ghastly542454

Ghastly542454

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Posted (edited)
On 10/10/2015 at 11:17 AM, jimjum12 said:

 

It's sad how someone can be in the right place at the right time for the opportunity of a lifetime and still blow it. In the early/mid 70's, Crestohl was a first rate source for books. It seemed like around the time he started separating by grade that the shenanigans must have begun.... but my transactions with him were good. I called him on the phone back in the 90's and he said he was transitioning into sports magazines. GOD BLESS...

 

-jimbo(a friend of jesus) (thumbs u

Crestohl ripped me off big time in the early 70’s when I was in high school. I sent him around $40 (a lot of money for me back then) for some Action and Adventure Comics between issues #200-#250 and every one of them were in absolutely horrible condition. My parents would not allow me to call him because he lived in Canada. I wrote him a letter and demanded he refund my money. In a second letter, I told him I was going to contact the Montréal police about him. He eventually sent me a letter basically telling me he was in Canada 🇨🇦 and I was in the United States and because of that, there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to him and basically go “f” myself!😡 Like someone else wrote here, it took me many years before I would buy again from a Canadian.

Edited by Ghastly542454
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lou_fine

lou_fine

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Posted
1 hour ago, Bronty said:
On 12/12/2018 at 2:51 PM, the blob said:

Pretty sure I have a big stack of sticky robert bell bags I took off comics, but have set to the side for some reason. Not sure what to do with them, but I hate the idea of throwing them out. Maybe bag garage sale books in them to make them appear more vintage?

Toss them in the trash.   It’s a plastic bag!

Yikes!!!  :whatthe:

I've got all my BA era books which I cherry picked off the shelves of the LCS in the mid-70's still shoved away into those old sticky yellowing poly bags.  :p

Are you saying that I should toss them all in the trash can even though they still look minty fresh the last time I took some of them out several years ago?  :bigsmile:

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N e r V

N e r V

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Posted
On 12/12/2018 at 5:54 PM, Robot Man said:

Back when I was buying from these guys, grading unless off a million miles was usually acceptable. There were no real published standards and just getting the opportunity to get GA books was a treat. Collecting was a lot more forgiving. Now, high prices, that was frustrating and Rogofsky was the worst. I rarely ordered from him but once in a while he was the only choice. 

Yep. I know of a number of books sold as “fines” in the 70’s that sit in the class of 9’s today. Grading was all over the place depending on the dealer.

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davidtere

davidtere

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I never ordered from Rogofsky but I ordered from Robert Bell on numerous occasions from 1969 to 1972. Bell would always request that you list other comic choices in case the one you wanted wasn't available. It seemed that I never got my first choice but that never stopped me from ordering. I was fascinated by Golden Age Comics even as a kid and because of Bell I learned about Captain Midnight and other Golden Age books that otherwise I would never had encountered. Even though I was a regular at San Diego Comic Con from 1969 on, I probably bought more GA books from Bell than at SDCC where I went specifically to fill holes in my Silver collection. As someone stated earlier in this thread, there is a dealer at the Southern Cal Comic Con (last year in Yorba Linda) that still sells comics using Bell Bags. My head almost spun off when I saw that. Good times. 

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