High Grade find from 1965!

[Scheradon]

Edit that on the FF #48. I see there are only 4 copies up. I thought when I looked last night there were 5.

[MCMiles]

Just curious.

Considering only the auctions listed and assuming all non pictured comics are in the same condition as the ones pictured. How much would you be willing to pay if you made this find? Also consider that you are bidding against others. The 55 Marvels currently listed only.

[Moondog]

These books are unsold remainders. Instead of destroying them, unscrupulous wholesalers would sell these books to jobbers out of the back room. The reason they should have been destroyed is that the wholesaler got credit for them from the publisher. So the publisher issues the credit and the wholesaler makes a few dollars under the table. This illegal practice started the first day wholesalers convinced publishers to let retailers sell magazines on consignment. Back in the 40's and 50's, wholesalers needed to cut the titles off the books or strip the front cover off completely to get credit. Sometime in the 60's the wholesalers convinced publishers to allow them to get credit through affidavit. This meant that they only had to claim what was unsold on an affidavit. No proof was required! No cutting, no stripping, no damage!

 

The famous (infamous?) Mile High 2 collection is all remainders.

 

These jobbers would then bundle and box them up and sell them to anyone willing to retail comics at less than cover price. That's why the box says that it contains 48 miscellaneous comic books and not a specific title and issue number. The retailer would buy the box of 48 for approximately 2 -3 cents each and retail them for a nickel. When I was a kid I loved buying comics for a nickel each (even though they had the titles cut off...).

 

So these books aren't pristine. They didn't come off the press and go directly into these boxes. They sat on a drug store shelf for a month, got tossed in a pile at the wholesalers, got gathered up in groups of 48 and then boxed up. The flaws in the photos are consistent with unsold books that were handled for 1-2 months on a comics rack.

 

That doesn't make them bad though. They're still real and very desirable. I wish I had found this buy. I have a bunch of 70's bagged sets that are similar to this, but certainly not as cool.

[blowout]

 

So these books aren't pristine. They didn't come off the press and go directly into these boxes. They sat on a drug store shelf for a month, got tossed in a pile at the wholesalers, got gathered up in groups of 48 and then boxed up. The flaws in the photos are consistent with unsold books that were handled for 1-2 months on a comics rack.

 

The MH2 collection proves that some books that went through this process CAN survive in pristine condition. Heck, there have been some SA books from that find that received CGC 9.8's and better.

 

[Scheradon]

This explains several old Tarzan and Three Stooges comics I have with the top half of the cover sliced off. My Aunt used to work for Woolworths and she would bring them home for me when I was a kid.

[sckao]

These jobbers would then bundle and box them up and sell them to anyone willing to retail comics at less than cover price. That's why the box says that it contains 48 miscellaneous comic books and not a specific title and issue number. The retailer would buy the box of 48 for approximately 2 -3 cents each and retail them for a nickel. When I was a kid I loved buying comics for a nickel each (even though they had the titles cut off...).

 

Thanks for the info! Fascinating stuff....

 

I was actually thrown for a second when you said 2-3 cents each because I thought that was incredibly cheap until I realized that the cover price was 12 cents...

 

So should these original backdoor distribution center sellers now be considered crooks or heroes for saving comic books from destruction... Does the end justify the means?

[Aman619]

awesome info Moondog. We aoughtta download ALL your knowledge onto Wiki for posterity!

 

Explain how the MH2 warehouse was different than these books. My understanding is that the MH2 was undistributed overstock, not collected returns like these. which would explain why the MHS were overall in better condition.... should all of these end up looking no better than the ones we have seen so far.

[blowout]

awesome info Moondog. We aoughtta download ALL your knowledge onto Wiki for posterity!

 

Explain how the MH2 warehouse was different than these books. My understanding is that the MH2 was undistributed overstock, not collected returns like these. which would explain why the MHS were overall in better condition.... should all of these end up looking no better than the ones we have seen so far.

 

The auction described in this thread also claims to be overstock and NOT books that didn't sell on the shelves.

[Aman619]

claims, sure. But he really doesnt know, does he? To him, maybe overstock is just a word, like 'NM'...

[blowout]

claims, sure. But he really doesnt know, does he? To him, maybe overstock is just a word, like 'NM'...

 

[joe_collector]

Somewhere, Matt Nelson awakes from a fitful sleep, while a comic press hums patiently...

[jduran1]

It is a scam. The feedback is bad and the pictures of the FF 48 4 copies are all the same. (but we know that) This is a sell and run like hell auction. A beer distributorship. Give me a break. This comics and been pressed and cleaned. Lets make him post a picture of all 4 FF 48s together up to his face.....................................

[HighVoltage]

It is a scam. The feedback is bad and the pictures of the FF 48 4 copies are all the same. (but we know that) This is a sell and run like hell auction. A beer distributorship. Give me a break. This comics and been pressed and cleaned. Lets make him post a picture of all 4 FF 48s together up to his face.....................................

 

 

[HouseofComics.Com]

Go pound sand...

 

Has anyone in the history of the universe ever really said that?

 

Awright - that's going into the sig-line.

 

 

 

The first time I heard that expression was around 1999 or 2000 in a MacWorld address by Steve Jobs. I can't remember who he was dealing with but said he kept after somebody about some deal and he was told to go pound sand.

 

Not sure I've heard anyone say it since...

[finecomics]

MH2 was all remainder copies as well. Don't you read Tales of the Database? Didn't Chuck get permission to purchase from Marvel & DC? I don't remember exactly, but I think your right when some of these were never distributed. Just "fell off the truck".

[HouseofComics.Com]

Right, I feel that the high grade warehouse books are the ones that generally weren't distributed.

 

Anfield and Rob did a good job describing to the seller that grading has changed significantly since the 90s.

 

Marc

[Moondog]

We may be saying the same thing regarding the MH 2 collection. These were unsold copies that never made it out of the warehouse. In other words, these books came from the printers to the wholesaler; the wholesaler never distributes them to retailers and then claims- via affidavit - that they were unsold and destroyed. He then sells them out of the back room and pockets a tidy profit with no risk - except for getting caught.

 

So the MH 2 books would only have banding and warehouse storage problems - not the same type of handling problems that these Utah books have. For instance, the choicest copies that Chuck found were in the middle of bundles. There were no bundles for these Utah books to come from.

 

The wholesalers rarely sold returned copies to retailers. That was left up to the jobbers. The wholesalers didn't want to get caught selling a 10 cent book to a retailer for 2.5 cents. They just wanted to get rid of them and usually sold them in minimums of 100 to jobbers at a penny a piece. The jobbers would then sell them for 2 cents or 2.5 cents each. The retailers then sold them for a nickel. Of course as cover prices have escalated the publishers have tried to crack down on these shady practices, but they'll never get rid of it entirely.

[FourthWorld]

ALL of the Spidey 28's at $500++ with 5 Plus days to go...looks like I will not be getting one.

[blowout]

ALL of the Spidey 28's at $500++ with 5 Plus days to go...looks like I will not be getting one.

 

Some real gambling going on there.

[Aman619]

the Power of Marketing at work!