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Buying Golden Age keys on the newsstand
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42 posts in this topic

3 hours ago, BB-Gun said:

My brother and I worked paper routes for extra cash and picked up pop bottles to cash in at 2 cents per each.  Comics were a dime at the drug store but 5 cents at the local Mom and Pop grocery.  After 1961, I was on an allowance which increased to 2 dollars a week by the time I finished high school.  :flipbait:

Yeah, I had a paper route too. Also mowed lawns and did yard work for people in the neighborhood. Was a hustler from an early age...:banana:

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On 4/14/2019 at 1:10 AM, fifties said:

Well, not Golden Age, but I bought a copy of Showcase #4 at the news stand in the late summer of '56 and read it.  Wasn't too impressed frankly, and gave it along with many other comics to my little brother, who of course managed to lose them all...:eyeroll:

:whatthe:     (worship)   :whatthe:    ???    doh!    :makepoint:

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When I was a teenager, I painted houses with an old-time decorator from Hudson, New York. He was a WWII vet and was in ragtime bands and the like his whole life, and had stories about the Depression and everything else you would want in a storyteller. He recalled in glorious detail buying that seminal book in the late spring of 1938 with the guy lifting the car on the cover. You know the one. He said he carried it around with him for weeks in his back pocket, reading it over and over. Him and his friends realized how big a deal it was right from the get-go. He also recalled with precision later keys like Flash 1 with stalwarts like Cliff Cornwall and and the Whip.

Bill has since passed on, but I am still friends with his son who was the president of the local Fantastic Four club before they even hit a dozen issues (even though he remained much more faithful to the Lesion over time).  (thumbsu

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1 hour ago, pemart1966 said:

:whatthe:     (worship)   :whatthe:    ???    doh!    :makepoint:

Who was to know?  And at the time, I was clandestinely getting coverless PCH books at 3 for a quarter in cellophane bags at the grocery store.  1956 coded comics didn't stand a chance against them, story wise.

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7 hours ago, fifties said:

Who was to know?  And at the time, I was clandestinely getting coverless PCH books at 3 for a quarter in cellophane bags at the grocery store.  1956 coded comics didn't stand a chance against them, story wise.

I was just kidding you (but I thought my emojis followed your story line perfectly) - yes...who was to know?  Most of those comics were "read until dead".  PCH = ?

Just out of curiosity do you remember vividly buying it?  Exactly where?  Exactly when?  Any other books of that era that you can remember buying?

It's funny.  I bought my books starting mid 60s and some I can remember EXACTLY when/where I bought them/got them and others not.

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15 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Yeah, I had a paper route too. Also mowed lawns and did yard work for people in the neighborhood. Was a hustler from an early age...:banana:

There was no lawn mowing or snow shovelling in the neighbourhood for me.  Seemed as if every second house had kids my age or close to it and if not, the adults were young and fit enough to handle the duties.  So it was scrounging 2 cent pop bottles and trying to get my 25 cents/week allowance from my dad who would always never pay it lol.  

Thank goodness for mom!  

Edited by pemart1966
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Most of my money came from shining shoes on the street corner...on a good Saturday morning I could make up to

$1.30 which pretty much took care of things for a week.  In the Summer I could make 50 to 75 cents a day.

It was a different time.

 

IMG  SHOESHINE (200 dpi).jpg

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2 hours ago, Marty Mann said:

Most of my money came from shining shoes on the street corner...on a good Saturday morning I could make up to

$1.30 which pretty much took care of things for a week.  In the Summer I could make 50 to 75 cents a day.

It was a different time.

 

IMG  SHOESHINE (200 dpi).jpg

In 1970 my dad was a Muni driver for SF and I could take the Bus for 5 cents. I would go to the comic stores on Market street and buy back issue's. I would go to the drug stores when new books came out. X-Men 101 I bought 2 or 3 copy's Defenders 1 Hulk 181 and so on great times. Than in 1980 pier 39 Bob B bomb I got my first Golden age Action 10 vg 300.00 trade but he took 6 or 7 hundred worth my book's :makepoint: I went to his store in Berkeley than went to Comix and comix down the street and found a great friend in John barret he was honest and kept all the Fantasy 15 he got for me at 200 a pop every week even threw in few TOS 39 when he had No fantasy 15 when I would show great guy wish he was still with use :frown:

Edited by woowoo
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On 4/13/2019 at 7:40 PM, TheSurgeon said:

Does anyone know of any firsthand accounts of purchasing from the newsstand at the time of publication and reading golden age keys like action 1, detective 27, marvel comics 1, etc? Are these accounts written anywhere, or recorded? I am reading “All in Color for a Dime” where one author recounts his friend buying Whiz #2 (1) off a newsstand and reading about Captain Marvel. 

Yes. I am aware of one collection that the OO (still alive as far as I know) purchased on the stands including Action 1, Marvel Comics 1, and the other keys except for Tec 27. 

A LCS also appraised a different OO collection locally in the early 2000s for insurance purposes that had well read copies of all the GA keys (not sure if the owner of that collection is still around). 

 

Edited by kimik
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5 hours ago, pemart1966 said:

I was just kidding you (but I thought my emojis followed your story line perfectly) - yes...who was to know?  Most of those comics were "read until dead".  PCH = ?

Just out of curiosity do you remember vividly buying it?  Exactly where?  Exactly when?  Any other books of that era that you can remember buying?

It's funny.  I bought my books starting mid 60s and some I can remember EXACTLY when/where I bought them/got them and others not.

I used to buy new comics at a large newsstand on a major street corner, from about 1952 to 1956.  I can't remember exactly buying that specific one, but I think it was in several that I bought at one time.  There were occasions when I was rich enough to have 20-40 cents to buy several.  I can tell you that seeing the PCH covers pre-1955 would scare the sh*t outta me, lol.  It wasn't until '56 that I got introduced to them. 

In that year, there was a little grocery store that had a black metal spinning rack which contained cellophane bags of coverless comic books, at three for a quarter, which was a good deal.  It turned out to be a better deal though, because included were some of the best PCH readers, and that's what we bought books for, to read.  Needless to say, those stories blew postcode fare outta the water.  I had stack of them, which I loaned to a "friend" in 1961, and it was the last I ever saw of them.  Years later with the advent of eBay, I was able to track down most of them, but you can see where my passion lies.  Definitely not with post code.

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I remember going to the local stationery store while in elementary school in the late 70's and buying FF's and X-men. Then started buying them at the new "comic dealer" at the flea market. I was introduced to Marvel around 5th grade. Prior to that I liked Richie Rich, Archie, and Superman. Once I discovered Marvel, it was all over for the others. I don't recall any specific issues though. I liked them all but none really stood out. I don't think any of those issues turned out to be true "keys" although the whole Byrne X-men run occurred at that time. I loved reading Origins and Sons of Origins of Marvel Comics, and Jules Feiffer's The Great Comic Book Heroes. I remember being so happy discovering someone who had Silver Surfer comics and they actually agreed to sell a few to me. Then I traded some of those for an X-men 1. Still have that all those books. The X-men 1 probably grades 1.5-1.8 but it's complete and I still love reading it. 

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I started out on primarily Batman and the DC war books. One day I saw Amazing Spider-Man #3 and that was it. Became a Marvel Zombie. I loved Spidey, FF4, Hulk, and X-Men. Bought every one on the stands. Never had any love for Thor though. Still bought the DC Bat and war titles but the Marvels and of course MAD magazine got the most of my spending money.

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On 4/17/2019 at 1:00 PM, Robot Man said:

I started out on primarily Batman and the DC war books. One day I saw Amazing Spider-Man #3 and that was it. Became a Marvel Zombie. I loved Spidey, FF4, Hulk, and X-Men. Bought every one on the stands. Never had any love for Thor though. Still bought the DC Bat and war titles but the Marvels and of course MAD magazine got the most of my spending money.

of course Mad is was the best! 

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And then there were the times you didn't have a dime to spend at the newsstand and you turned to

the corner store with the cardboard box at the far end of the counter that contained a whole other

category of collectibles for sale...The Remainder Comic.  Hey it was only a comic book you were

buying to read, not enshrine...and it only cost a NICKEL.

 

IMG  SPIRIT  (200 dpi).jpg

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On 4/19/2019 at 3:48 PM, Marty Mann said:

And then there were the times you didn't have a dime to spend at the newsstand and you turned to

the corner store with the cardboard box at the far end of the counter that contained a whole other

category of collectibles for sale...The Remainder Comic.  Hey it was only a comic book you were

buying to read, not enshrine...and it only cost a NICKEL.

 

IMG  SPIRIT  (200 dpi).jpg

My neighbor while growing up worked at a distribution center and would give me remainder comics. 

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On 4/14/2019 at 10:29 AM, circumstances said:

I somehow missed Giant Size X-Men 1, but I did buy X-Men 94 off the newsstand.

That's as close as I come!

Born about 35 years too late.

Ditto. Bought an X-Men 94 off the newstand. Wish I was born ten years earlier, except for the part where I'd be 10 years older!

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My father was born in 1930, he was raised in the small town of Sequim Washington as a dairy farmer.   The silo of the family farm is still standing near the paradise restaurant.   They didn’t have much money but his aunt worked at a local store so he would get new comics on rare occasions but would regularly get remaindered comics as a child through his early teen years.   He fostered my collecting, sadly passed in 2011, but I still recall the day I found a Superman 2 and showed it to my dad.   He was telling me the stories in the issue before I read the book.   Sadly when he went into the Navy during the Korean War his step mom did some house cleaning and gave away all his stuff.    Pretty sure his collection would be a centerpiece for mine if she wasn’t “that” stepmom.   I have a photo somewhere of my dad reading that Superman and I sold it to Pointfive years ago at my cost.    👍.   I’m sure he still has it.

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