Back in the mid-60's, I came across Adventure Comics #290 at a junk yard in South Gate, California, the town where I lived and attended 9Th grade through college graduation. This particular issue featured the Legion of Super-Heroes before they became a staple in Adventure Comics from #300 forward. I immediately recognized them from the earlier Superman comic book, The Death of Superman imaginary tale, so I snapped up that copy for probably a nickle.
Not long after, I noticed that our corner grocery store (not exactly on the corner but close to it and about two short blocks away from our house on Cypress Street in South Gate--this was before supermarkets became more prevalent) carried a bin of used comic books. The cover prices were typically 10 cents or 12 cents but, being used, sold for less. There, I discovered a whole slew of Adventure Comics featuring the Legion because they were now a regular feature (#290 had obviously been out more than a year earlier).
I began to hunt down all of the Legion comics I could find. I even discovered that the corner drug store (which actually was on the corner of Long Beach Blvd., across the street from the market) carried new comics and I snapped up a new copy of Adventure Comics #311 in which Polar Boy and the Legion of Substitute Heroes declares war on the Legion.
After many weeks and months of this modest buying spree, I had every Legion comic except Adventure Comics #305. (I was also missing a Justice League first parter of their very first JLA-JSA crossover event.) I was told by a friend that in Huntington Park, the town just north of South Gate, on East Florence Avenue, near the corner of Seville Avenue was a used books and magazine store that also carried used comic books.
But I was also told that if the owner had copies of each of these prized comics, they would not be cheap. I learned as much when I was told that they would be fifty cents a piece. I was told to write down the title and issue number of each comic I wanted and to return in a couple of days so that the owner could visit his stock in the back of the store and retrieve them for me.
Just to put this in perspective, my first job at the South Gate Rod & Gun Club as a trap boy paid the princely sum of $1.25 per hour, and I worked there on Saturdays and Sundays through my senior year of high school. So you can see that even handing over $1.00 for two comics was an expensive proposition for me, but I just had to have those two issues and forked over the money and was handed the two comics.
Before I departed, the store owner casually mentioned to me that he had a copy of Action Comics #1, and that he would let me have it for $75.00. I may have noticeably blanched at such a fantastic sum of money; but I was certainly tempted by the offer, regardless of the price.
However, it was not something I could justify, not to myself, nor especially to my mom, who never could understand how I would fork over even a few pennies for used or new comic books (I never told her about the two comics for $1.00).
Needless to say, I never found a way to come up with $75.00. And, for decades ever after, each time I have heard of some wild auction in which a copy of that comic has sold for thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and now, just this past week, $1,000,000.00 dollars, I keep thinking of that opportunity that slipped past me approximately 45 years ago.
Certainly, I might have lost it along the way, or sold it for much less at some point. However, I did manage to retain my Legion comics collection for all those years, selling it for nearly $2,000.00 before I bought my condo in Denver, Colorado, in 1997, using that money, and the money I got from selling off my record album collection as a down payment for my condo.
Anyway, it's been a nice story to tell over the years whenever I hear that someone has paid such a fantastic sum of money for an old comic book that I could have had for what now seems like peanuts. And I always wonder whatever happened to that copy that could have been mine. Who bought it? Did they manage to preserve it all these years and sell it, as did this particular owner, for a huge sum of money somewhere along the way?
OK, I promise next post to discuss the Rainbow Arc of Fire issues that I mentioned with my last post.
Not long after, I noticed that our corner grocery store (not exactly on the corner but close to it and about two short blocks away from our house on Cypress Street in South Gate--this was before supermarkets became more prevalent) carried a bin of used comic books. The cover prices were typically 10 cents or 12 cents but, being used, sold for less. There, I discovered a whole slew of Adventure Comics featuring the Legion because they were now a regular feature (#290 had obviously been out more than a year earlier).
I began to hunt down all of the Legion comics I could find. I even discovered that the corner drug store (which actually was on the corner of Long Beach Blvd., across the street from the market) carried new comics and I snapped up a new copy of Adventure Comics #311 in which Polar Boy and the Legion of Substitute Heroes declares war on the Legion.
After many weeks and months of this modest buying spree, I had every Legion comic except Adventure Comics #305. (I was also missing a Justice League first parter of their very first JLA-JSA crossover event.) I was told by a friend that in Huntington Park, the town just north of South Gate, on East Florence Avenue, near the corner of Seville Avenue was a used books and magazine store that also carried used comic books.
But I was also told that if the owner had copies of each of these prized comics, they would not be cheap. I learned as much when I was told that they would be fifty cents a piece. I was told to write down the title and issue number of each comic I wanted and to return in a couple of days so that the owner could visit his stock in the back of the store and retrieve them for me.
Just to put this in perspective, my first job at the South Gate Rod & Gun Club as a trap boy paid the princely sum of $1.25 per hour, and I worked there on Saturdays and Sundays through my senior year of high school. So you can see that even handing over $1.00 for two comics was an expensive proposition for me, but I just had to have those two issues and forked over the money and was handed the two comics.
Before I departed, the store owner casually mentioned to me that he had a copy of Action Comics #1, and that he would let me have it for $75.00. I may have noticeably blanched at such a fantastic sum of money; but I was certainly tempted by the offer, regardless of the price.
However, it was not something I could justify, not to myself, nor especially to my mom, who never could understand how I would fork over even a few pennies for used or new comic books (I never told her about the two comics for $1.00).
Needless to say, I never found a way to come up with $75.00. And, for decades ever after, each time I have heard of some wild auction in which a copy of that comic has sold for thousands, then hundreds of thousands, and now, just this past week, $1,000,000.00 dollars, I keep thinking of that opportunity that slipped past me approximately 45 years ago.
Certainly, I might have lost it along the way, or sold it for much less at some point. However, I did manage to retain my Legion comics collection for all those years, selling it for nearly $2,000.00 before I bought my condo in Denver, Colorado, in 1997, using that money, and the money I got from selling off my record album collection as a down payment for my condo.
Anyway, it's been a nice story to tell over the years whenever I hear that someone has paid such a fantastic sum of money for an old comic book that I could have had for what now seems like peanuts. And I always wonder whatever happened to that copy that could have been mine. Who bought it? Did they manage to preserve it all these years and sell it, as did this particular owner, for a huge sum of money somewhere along the way?
OK, I promise next post to discuss the Rainbow Arc of Fire issues that I mentioned with my last post.
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