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Howard Rogofsky
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139 posts in this topic

I guess I was spoiled by having Cherokee Book Shop nearby in Hollywood, where I could go thru millions (well, maybe hundreds) of boxes of vintage comics and pick out the ones I wanted. It was a wonderland. Why buy unseen thru the mail when I had that Cornucopia at my fingertips. And then there was Burt Blum, the comic seller there, sitting at his desk with his hippy hair and incense burning...giving deals to poor kids who asked for them.

 

Or, I could go a few blocks away and be insulted by the guys at Collector's Bookstore, where I had to ask for a specific issue instead of looking thru boxes of un-bagged comics. That was a pain...

 

And a little later, I could go to Bond Street Books and be insulted by Steve as I asked about comics. lol Choices, choices...

 

Ah...the good old days...

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And then there was Burt Blum, the comic seller there, sitting at his desk with his hippy hair and incense burning...giving deals to poor kids who asked for them.

 

 

So that's who Blazing Bob copied his approach from!

 

No, wait, BB doesn't give deals to poor kids, so never mind. :D

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And then there was Burt Blum, the comic seller there, sitting at his desk with his hippy hair and incense burning...giving deals to poor kids who asked for them.

 

 

So that's who Blazing Bob copied his approach from!

 

No, wait, BB doesn't give deals to poor kids, so never mind. :D

 

:o

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His catalogues were of an impressive size for the era he operated in.

 

 

6d236e041f91636194f7cb99be625d9f058b313a.jpg

 

No one or two page "flyer" catalogues were these.

 

 

And that typeset... :ohnoez:

 

And those prices... :ohnoez:

 

Those prices were outrageous in 1969! We never bought from Howard because we couldn't afford it back then; when you only had $5. to spend on comics (this was the mid seventies) you would look to other sources in the Buyer's Guide to stretch your limited collection dollars.

 

Which raises an interesting point.

 

I bought a lot of books from Howard and Robert Bell "back in the day". Why didn't I go the Buyer's Guide route?

 

Tyranny of distance. I had a subscription to the Buyer's Guide, but they were always sent surface, taking 6 weeks to get here (when sent at all) and all the "deals" were long over by the time I got the mag.

 

Oh, and forget phoning - International calls were horrendously expensive back then.

 

Howard and Bob sent me via air mail their catalogues. I distinctly remember not even remitting the cost of posting them initially (pointless sending a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope from my end).

 

They took a pretty cheap punt, and although I knew they were more expensive I also knew they were therefore likely to have what I wanted still available.

 

Worked well for years. I remember Bob Bell had the option to pay an additional dollar and he'd "express process" the order.

 

Back then, I'd get the books 15 days after posting the bank cheque in US funds usually drawn on the Chemical Bank.

 

Exchange rate was fantastic then too - $US1.00 =$AUS0.67. So a $US10 comic cost me $AUS6.70.

 

I'm starting to ramble, but I know I kept the Bell and Rogofsky lists. Just can't find them lol

 

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Howard, and Robert (Bell) had been issuing sales lists for a few years prior to Alan Light putting out The Buyers Guide. Gordon Love had been putting out Rocket's Blast Comic Collector for a few years already as well. And TBG must have been just ahead of Overstreet's white first price guide, by a year or so.(The blue version being the 2nd printing.)

 

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I guess I was spoiled by having Cherokee Book Shop nearby in Hollywood, where I could go thru millions (well, maybe hundreds) of boxes of vintage comics and pick out the ones I wanted. It was a wonderland. Why buy unseen thru the mail when I had that Cornucopia at my fingertips. And then there was Burt Blum, the comic seller there, sitting at his desk with his hippy hair and incense burning...giving deals to poor kids who asked for them.

 

Or, I could go a few blocks away and be insulted by the guys at Collector's Bookstore, where I had to ask for a specific issue instead of looking thru boxes of un-bagged comics. That was a pain...

 

And a little later, I could go to Bond Street Books and be insulted by Steve as I asked about comics. lol Choices, choices...

 

Ah...the good old days...

 

The problem for me was I was a kid and couldn't drive there. So I had to wait until my dad had biz in Hollywood and he would drop me off for a couple hours with 5 bucks.

 

I wasn't a fan of Collector's Books either. Kind of snotty and didn't want to help me much.

 

I got along pretty good with Steve at Bond Street. Best prices in the area and he would save me stuff I wanted. I got my More Fun #52 from him. (you really don't want to know what I paid). Hint it took me a summer of saving most of my lawn cutting money.

 

Yeah, the good ole days. LA has never had such good comic shops since. All in a couple block radius too.

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Anybody ever deal with Claude Held or Bill Thailing? Both good guys. The problem with the Buyer's Guide and mail order dealers for me was I lived on the west coast. By the time their catalogs arrived to me the best stuff was already sold. Couldn't make long distance calls either or my dad would whoop my butt if he found out. So it was always "list alternates" and cross my fingers.

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Anybody ever deal with Claude Held or Bill Thailing? Both good guys. The problem with the Buyer's Guide and mail order dealers for me was I lived on the west coast. By the time their catalogs arrived to me the best stuff was already sold. Couldn't make long distance calls either or my dad would whoop my butt if he found out. So it was always "list alternates" and cross my fingers.

 

Yes and the mail system in those days was very unreliable (yes worse than now!!) I remember being very sick in 7th grade (1972-1973) and two issues of the weekly Buyer's Guide showed up on the same day. This was great because I was sick and could read them but not much of a testament to the reliability of the mails. Those were the days of the three section Buyer's Guides. Sometimes 100 pages of tiny ads! Of course with $2. to my name on a good week it was tough to stretch the coin.

 

Later, I did manage to talk my Dad into buying Four Color 386 (Scrooge 1) in mint and I still own it and it's a great book. That cost $125 in 1977 I believe.

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Anybody ever deal with Claude Held or Bill Thailing? Both good guys. The problem with the Buyer's Guide and mail order dealers for me was I lived on the west coast. By the time their catalogs arrived to me the best stuff was already sold. Couldn't make long distance calls either or my dad would whoop my butt if he found out. So it was always "list alternates" and cross my fingers.

 

Claude was a very fair grader and price..thumbs up

 

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Anybody ever deal with Claude Held or Bill Thailing? Both good guys. The problem with the Buyer's Guide and mail order dealers for me was I lived on the west coast. By the time their catalogs arrived to me the best stuff was already sold. Couldn't make long distance calls either or my dad would whoop my butt if he found out. So it was always "list alternates" and cross my fingers.

I never dealt with Bill Thailing but one of my friends here used to live in Cleveland and worked for Bill sorting books. He has told me stories of Bill basement and all of the comics and magazines stored down there (apparently Bill was also very much into selling UFO magazines). Bill's basement did not have very good drainage so as the snows melted he could have flooding issues. He used comics to soak up the water.

Bill gave this piece of Jack Davis art to my friend as a Christmas present in the early '60s...

alt1-Davis.jpg

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My dad would have kicked my for asking... "Funny books are a dime son!"

 

I had a very similar experience at a flea market as a kid when someone had stacks of Superman from the forties for 1 dollar each! My Dad yelled, "One Dollar! They should only be a dime!" I never let him forget that story as prices continued to escalate!

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I can remember being 14 or 15, saving 25 bucks and mailing cash to Rogofsky, or Crestohl or any number of guys who used to advertise their catalogs in Marvel comics in the '70s. Does anyone remember listing "alternates" on an order form? Hah! Funny, I always sent cash and always got the book. Good-Fine-Mint!!

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Still a good deal by today's standards.

 

So if you're a kid (say 16-18) back then wanting that (then) over priced Action #25 at $25.00 you'd be doing about 12 hours of labor somewhere. That kind of effort by a kid today wouldn't buy much in the back issue piles at my (San Diego) current rate of $10.50 per hour. Even if you're in a city that's at $15.00 an hour minimum you're reaching for low fruit in back issues.

 

 

Much, much harder to collect (and live) in today's world vs 1970.

 

The 1940's/1950's were the Wild West of comics collecting.

The 1960's was the beginning of the taming of the Wild West thanks to collectors becoming aware that they weren't alone.

The 1970's was the establishment of our current modern market thanks to Overstreet and a number of dealers of the era pushing to attain respect (and money) in the field.

 

Everything after that like pro auctions and CGC entering the market is a matter of refinement to the hobby.

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