How did speculators obtain multiple copies of comics in the 60s? 3 3

[Tony D]

In 1968, when Marvel expanded their line of comics by giving Ironman, Captain America, Hulk, Submariner, Nick Fury Agent of Shield and Doctor Strange their own titles, I bought multiple copies of each of the first five issues of those titles. Fifteen of the first issues, ten of the second and five of the next three issues. I also bought fifteen issues of Silver Surfer #1, Captain Marvel #1, Not Brand Echh #1 and those same multiples of each of the next four issues. I had previously bought ten issues of Tales Of Suspense #63 which was the Silver Age origin of Captain America and some other issues which I thought might appreciate in value.. These were all purchased at news stands in Brooklyn, NY where I lived. I sold or traded some of them eventually to obtain other comics I wanted and when I sold the majority of my collection in 1989, I still had a good number of those books.,

[jimjum12]

My friend Richard bought exactly one copy of everything starting with ASM 3 ….. and read them nearly to the point of disintegration. He did save them all, however. He didn't buy his second copies until years later. GOD BLESS...

-jimbo(a friend of jesus)

[RockMyAmadeus]

7 hours ago, kimik said:

Based on a number of OO collections I picked up in the mid to late 00s, there was some level of speculation on the 1968 Marvel #1s/#100s. These the collections had 4 - 6 copies left of the #1s (e.g. Iron Man, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer, Nick Fury) and #100s (Captain America #100 and Hulk #102) after the OOs had traded some over the years. One collection I was able to land from an intermediary had 8 - 12 copies of Surfer 1-18, Subby 1-20 or so, Iron man 1-20 or so, Nick Fury 1-15, Cap 100 - 120 or so, Hulk 102 - 120 or so, DD 40 - 60 something, Conan 1-7 and Sgt. Fury issues from that timeframe. The intermediary said he started with 20 copies of each book and had already slabbed and sold off a bunch, but he needed cash fast for another deal. The OO had speculated on a few Marvel titles from 1968 - 1970, buying 20 of each. The books were all beautiful - I slabbed 200 of them hitting 40 something 9.8s (I think it was 44 or 45), 50 some 9.6s, 80 or so 9.4s, and just under 20 9.2s without pressing (I still have a spreadsheet with the serial numbers just in case I can find them someday for a press). The only better book I hit in 9.8 was a copy of Surfer #4 (the person I bought the leftovers from said he hit 2 on his submissions), but it was a fun and weird (I have no idea why the nothing DD and Sgt. Fury runs were in there instead of ASM and FF) mini-collection to buy nonetheless.

Yes, but HOW did he obtain them? That's the question of the hour.

Did he buy them from the newsstand new? Did he buy them on the aftermarket? If they were in such nice shape, can we assume he bought them brand new? If so, did he buy them all at one place, or did he have to visit multiple outlets? Where was he from, etc?

[RockMyAmadeus]

4 hours ago, Tony D said:

In 1968, when Marvel expanded their line of comics by giving Ironman, Captain America, Hulk, Submariner, Nick Fury Agent of Shield and Doctor Strange their own titles, I bought multiple copies of each of the first five issues of those titles. Fifteen of the first issues, ten of the second and five of the next three issues. I also bought fifteen issues of Silver Surfer #1, Captain Marvel #1, Not Brand Echh #1 and those same multiples of each of the next four issues. I had previously bought ten issues of Tales Of Suspense #63 which was the Silver Age origin of Captain America and some other issues which I thought might appreciate in value.. These were all purchased at news stands in Brooklyn, NY where I lived. I sold or traded some of them eventually to obtain other comics I wanted and when I sold the majority of my collection in 1989, I still had a good number of those books.,

So you had to visit multiple newsstands? You weren't able to purchase all of these copies at a single vendor? Did you buy all available copies at each place? Were you ALLOWED to buy all available copies, or could you only buy 1 or 2 at each place?

Thanks!

[RockMyAmadeus]

Another question:

Today, it's easy to find out what's coming up from virtually every publisher, often months in advance. A quick Google search and you have it at your fingertips.

In the 60s, I imagine it was much, much tougher, especially for new titles that no one knew about.

So, aside from "coming attractions" ads in comics...and the intuitive manner of #86 following #85, etc...how did buyers discover what was coming out soon? Was there any other way?

 

[kimik]

14 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Yes, but HOW did he obtain them? That's the question of the hour.

Did he buy them from the newsstand new? Did he buy them on the aftermarket? If they were in such nice shape, can we assume he bought them brand new? If so, did he buy them all at one place, or did he have to visit multiple outlets? Where was he from, etc?

All I know is that he bought them new. I am not certain whether he had to visit multiple newsstands, but my guess would be yes. The only other option would have been ordering from one of the local retailers where he bought books. I did meet a couple of old collectors (i.e. collected in the 60s and sold their collections late 70s and early 80s) who did have their local pharmacy order books for them and set them aside so it did happen. 

The most interesting story from one of them was about the time he and buddy, both big Lovecraft and REH fans, drove down to the US in the mid 60s (I can't remember the exact year) to drop in on Arkham House. I met him at a local store in 2005 or 2006 when he was selling off the books - he had some cool items signed by some the writers and artists. He said that they had a great time with August Derleth the day they were there and he showed me some of the books that they picked up and/or were given that Derleth signed. 

It was interesting to spend a couple of hours chatting the early days of comic collecting with him (he belonged to a comic collector "club" in university in the early 60s). He sold off his GA collection in the early 1970s when he was starting a family since prices were "getting so high" (he said he had all of the GA keys and pretty much complete runs for every Timely, DC and Fawcett title) and then his SA collection in the 80s. He kept all of his hardcover books though. I passed on most on them since I do not collect books, but I kind of wish I had bought them now since they were in immaculate shape - he did have a couple of Gnome Conan HCs in beautiful shape that I did snag since I was completing the set at the time. 

[RockMyAmadeus]

8 minutes ago, kimik said:

who did have their local pharmacy order books for them and set them aside so it did happen. 

That's the information I'm looking for.  How that pharmacy was able to order books, and by what mechanism did they accomplish that (which I know you're not claiming to have the answer to.)

[kimik]

2 minutes ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

That's the information I'm looking for.  How that pharmacy was able to order books, and by what mechanism did they accomplish that (which I know you're not claiming to have the answer to.)

I would have no clue about that, unfortunately. Growing up in rural Alberta, I used to have one of the grocery stores in town bring in books for me instead of doing mail order from a store in Edmonton (I did that for a bit until their packing went down hill and every shipment had corner damage). Most weeks they would not put the new books out until I had a chance to cherry pick the best copies first. 

[PUNYHUMAN]

There was speculating going on in the early 1960's.  I recall Bob Beerbohm talking about purchasing multiples of Hawkman #1 , Daredevil #1, etc. back then. There  was a big time collector named Barry Bauman I think bought a lot of books thru a distributor. Mitch Mendy would know, he knew Barry. Maybe you can get Mitch to chime in. Hey Mitch, are you out there?

[HouseofComics.Com]

I thought Barry was more of a golden age seller? His stock mainly came from buying out a used book store in Sacramento, as well as Holmes Books in downtown Oakland.

[bc]

9 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

So you had to visit multiple newsstands? You weren't able to purchase all of these copies at a single vendor? Did you buy all available copies at each place? Were you ALLOWED to buy all available copies, or could you only buy 1 or 2 at each place?

Thanks!

I would visit several newstands/grocery stores/gas stations (basically anywhere I could get to that sold comics). Started off pre-driving age on my bike with one of those front basket racks to hold the books. After I could drive, the radius expanded so I could get more copies. We didn't have an LCS, so this was all thru normal retail channels at cover price.

Not once did any owner ever stop me from buying every copy of an issue. In fact, I think they were glad to take my money!

[PUNYHUMAN]

50 minutes ago, HouseofComics.Com said:

I thought Barry was more of a golden age seller? His stock mainly came from buying out a used book store in Sacramento, as well as Holmes Books in downtown Oakland.

He was a Golden Age collector. But, he was into Silver Age at that time also. He and Bill Dubay, Rudi Franke put out a fanzine also .Yancy street.

[Jaydee]

I actually found a guy in Iowa 5 years a go.  He was a painter, house builder in the late 60's early 1970s with 4 to 8 each of some Silver goodies. Silver surfers, Giants sized and stuff, Tales of Asgards.  mostly big books but some Tales of ... or Starnge tales he had 4 Boxes and milk crates with multiples ended about 1973-74 ( No No IM 55, ASM 129, HOS 92...) But SS full runs. He used Comic books as Wallpaper designs and Probably destroyed Hundreds of thousands of dollars in books designing little Timmy Johnsons room in Des Moines.  I bought all silver surfers from him multiples only graded 2 sold low graded ones SS1 got a 6 but ss 4 got a 7.5.  I may be grading 2 and 3 

[Mmehdy]

As I recall, the really first big mutitlple speculation book among collectors was Conan#1...I can remember the SF comic book company having a 3 copy limit on that book, that was unheard of at the time especially for the earierst comic book shop I can remember in SF. Barry Baluman went striaght to the distributor and got ...I have refered to this story in the past 1000 conan #1's...he died in a car accident, but he was a very early dealer setting up in Berkleley CA  book store basement, the first sort of comic book dealer before any store..I remember getting FF1 for 10 bucks in that basement...1967 ist. I myself speculated on the early Kirby DC issues and went to the distributor himself...strange he always wanted cash....

[Chicago Boy]

Howard The Duck 1, Nova 1, and She-Hulk 1 were my off the stands speculation as a wee youngster

[aardvark88]

6 minutes ago, Chicago Boy said:

Howard The Duck 1... were my off the stands speculation as a wee youngster

For some reason, I never saw Howard Duck #1 or even Omega Man #1 on the Vancouver, BC newsstands. Grabbed extra What If #1 and Spect Spider-man #1 from the Wed. grocery store release dates. My older brother was part of the KISS army so grabbed 10 copies of Marvel Comics Super Spcl #1 with real KISS blood then traded them all off for other vintage comics.

[Chicago Boy]

3 minutes ago, aardvark88 said:

For some reason, I never saw Howard Duck #1 or even Omega Man #1 on the Vancouver, BC newsstands. Grabbed extra What If #1 and Spect Spider-man #1 from the Wed. grocery store release dates. My older brother was part of the KISS army so grabbed 10 copies of Marvel Comics Super Spcl #1 with real KISS blood then traded them all off for other vintage comics.

ah yes !  What If #1 was also a part of my booty.  I seem to remember Peter Parker the Spectular Spider Man as well

[Tony D]

20 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

So you had to visit multiple newsstands? You weren't able to purchase all of these copies at a single vendor? Did you buy all available copies at each place? Were you ALLOWED to buy all available copies, or could you only buy 1 or 2 at each place?

Thanks!

There were several news stands I frequented and sometimes the books were not all in the best condition at one news stand. If I had to go to another news stand, it was not much of an effort because in Brooklyn they were at every train station and there were numerous stands along the main Avenues. There was never a problem buying multiple copies, although I got a few strange looks and comments occasionally about buying multiple copies of the same book. In my neighborhood in Brooklyn, new comics came in from the distributor on Tuesdays and Thursdays in bundles tied with string. The comics on the top and bottom of the bundles were generally not in the best condition due to how tightly tied they were. I got friendly with a couple of the owners  and they would let me cut open the bundles to find the best condition books before they were put out for sale.

[VintageComics]

On 9/12/2018 at 8:59 PM, zosocane said:

Fascinating.  Could it be said that Marvel in some ways had a hand in fueling the very earliest comic book speculating in 1968?  Meaning, did the publisher (i.e., Martin Goodman and/or Stan Lee) know that teens/college kids were starting to speculate?  Look at the covers of Iron Man #1 ("BIG PREMIERE ISSUE"), Sub-Mariner #1 ("BIG PREMIERE ISSUE"), Captain America #100 ("BIG PREMIERE ISSUE"), Silver Surfer #1 ("BIG PREMIERE ISSUE"), and Iron Man and the Sub-Mariner #1 ("SPECIAL ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME ISSUE") ...    

I would say that Marvel helped fuel it with those blurbs but they were only capitalizing on something that was already underway by the late 1960's, judging by accounts in this thread.

[VintageComics]

14 hours ago, PUNYHUMAN said:

He was a Golden Age collector. But, he was into Silver Age at that time also. He and Bill Dubay, Rudi Franke put out a fanzine also .Yancy street.

I hadn't heard about Yancy Street but a quick Google search shows that it was already circulating in the mid 1960's (1965 for the copy I saw), showing that fandom was already underway by that time.