About US
My interest in
comic books started in the early 1970’s when I was about 10 years old. My friends and I would go to the local
newsstand and spend our $2.00 allowance.
Comic books has just started costing 25 cents, so we each bought a few
books and shared them amongst ourselves.
Of course, my favorite along with most of my friend’s favorites were
Hulk and Spiderman. On TV, we often
watched the original Superman and Batman shows since we only had 3 TV channels
to choose from (Wow, have times changed).
As I became more
intrigued with the stories, I started to try and collect entire story lines. I did have 1 local comic book store that sold
many back issues and also mail order was an option. I quickly became educated that the old back
issues, and certainly the first appearances, were way out of my price
range. After all, $2.00 only got you so
far in the early 1970’s.
The cost of the
back issues immediately sparked my awareness that I should carefully preserve
my books as someday they may be of some value.
I no longer shared my books, and would read each story as if the book
was print on gold paper. I also started
to try and speculate which books would become value. Of course, my speculation was way off however
by 1976 I had accumulated quite the collection.
Unfortunately, during a relocation several years later the books were
inadvertently given away and lost to me forever. I was heartbroken to say the least.
Over a decade
later, in the early 1990’s my interested regained however this time as a
retailer and not as a collector. I
started purchasing in small quantities to see if I could supplement my
income. My timing was very fortunate as
I caught the upswing of the Valiant Comics surge along with the Death of
Superman and several other great story lines.
My inventory quick grew along with my customer base allowing me to retail
many great books that were once merely a dream to hold.
Today, I retail
mostly back issues that are in high demand such as first appearances, first
issues, Golden Age, and Silver Age. Most
of these are graded to avoid any customer dissatisfaction. The customer knows exactly what they are
purchasing simply because it’s graded and certified by a third party. I try hard to avoid customer dissatisfaction
that could result from unknown color touch or a misinterpretation of
grading.
Thank you for
reading my story and I hope you check back often.
Best regards
Sal