1970's Comics Dealers...
Earlier this morning while having my first cup of coffee I ran across a discussion thread about 'Whatever happened to these 1970's Dealers?'
This discussion thread piqued my interest because of several of the names I recognized.
As a matter of fact, my first comics "sales" were to a San Diego Comic Book Dealer, Richard Alf!
Also, I bought several of the comic book bags from Robert Bell... and to this day find collections that are still bagged in those old Robert Bell Bags! Talk about great advertising! Those bags, although now yellow with age, still carry his name on each and every bag!
I also bought a few comics from Howard ('M' in Marvel Comics ads, 'D' in DC comics ads) Rogofsky of Flushing NY. Funny thing was that he, as other dealers, were not all that concerned with grades back in those days...
There was a wide variance in what you would get in the mail when your purchases came in!
Grading was still being formulated, and this was pre-internet days and no pictures were included in their catalogs. However, since the West Coast was not the center of the Comics Universe, (New York City was), I was pleased just to get them to add to my collection!
However I do remember buying some for my collection from a few dealers and then realizing that my purchases at the San Diego Comic Con in person would be better for me as a collector, as I could see and hold the comic I was considering buying right then and there. I was fortunate enough to have the SDCC in my 'backyard' so would wait each year to do my major purchases!
During the decades since the 1970's Price Guides and Grading Guides have been more concerned in grades. Back in the 1970's I was happy just to have a copy of the comic to place into my collection!
The discussion thread that got me started on this rememberance was very timely, as I will be attending the 2008 Comic Con International in a couple of weeks.
This will be the 35th Year since I first officially set up at the Con to sell and pay for my way through college. I actually starting selling there in 1972 on the last day of the Con, but it was just as a spur of the moment thing as I bought out a dealer that wanted to leave early on the last day...
Nowadays I just go with Tina to check out the many comics and pop culture programs and to pick up stock for resale.
BTW, Richard Alf, who had bought many of my duplicates issues, went on to sell out to Chuck Rozanski, Owner of Mile High Comics in Colorado, in 1978. Richard had built his mail order business into a going concern, but by then there were some major competitors in mail order including Pacific Comics (also in San Diego), Passaic Book Center and of course Robert Bell.
As you can tell by the tone of this blog post, I had a lot of fun in those days! It continued as years later I was still running around in the early 1990's carrying xerox copies of the covers of the comic books I wanted to upgrade in my personal collection at cons. Because by then 'grade' was the big thing in collecting!
) 
