Maybe in some markets the reprints helped with the resale value of the
EC sci-fi and horror titles for a little while, but in the long run it
took the wind out of the, um, sails. Sure, having an original is great,
but when you could buy a virtually look-and-feel-alike repro, well, it's
not like a poster where you hang it on your wall and people say
"ooooh... that's a cool poster..." and you casually mention "Oh yeah,
that's an original 1959 theater poster..." A comic book lives on a shelf
or in a box and nobody but you ever sees it. So rather than save up
their pennies to buy originals at high prices, the newer collectors
simply opted for the reprints and the market for originals got pretty
weak unless you were willing to sell for 40 cents on the dollar.
When the time came that I wanted to cash in my complete run of grade C8
and above EC sci-fi and horror collection, I couldn't get any decent
offers, either from private collectors or dealers... I even went to NYC
on a business trip and shopped them around to several of the stores in
town. Sure, they wanted to buy them, but not for anything like what I
thought they were worth (or had paid for them 10 years earlier).
Everyone I always talked to cited the reprints as the reason they were
only willing to pay what they were offering. Naturally, I didn't sell
and a year later I took a vacation out to my old stomping grounds in San
Francisco and finally located a shop where the owner was a big EC fan
and building a collection of his own. He offered me 75% of what I had
paid and I took the deal.
That was the end of my stint in comic books (except I still have all of
my DR.STRANGE issues).
-- JR
Richard Halegua Comic Art wrote:
yes indeed the original reprints of ECs were great books. They did
more to popularize ECs at first and for 2-4 years after the reprints
came out ECs were one of the most popular runs to collectors.... what
was that 1972 or so Bruce??
At 11:01 AM 1/20/2010, James Richard wrote:
Bruce,
Aha!!! So you're the culprit! You're one of the guys who first
created those damn EC reprints and cut the resale value of my
complete run of original EC sci-fi and horror titles in half!
-- JR
Bruce Hershenson wrote:
I bought my first lobby cards in 1969 from a Texas dealer named
Tannar Miles. I was making my living selling comic books, but I
never re-sold a single poster or lobby card. In 1976 I quit comics
100% and I sold all my comics, but kept my movie paper collection
(mostly lobby cards). In 1984 I "re-discovered" the hobby, and
became partners selling movie paper with my old friend Ron Barlow,
with whom I had done the very first EC comic book reprints (long
before Russ Cochran).
In 1989, I "retired" and *INTENDED *to buy and sell movie posters as
a part-time hobby (to pass time in my retirement) but that quickly
got off track, and the next year I organized the first all-movie
poster auction by a major auction house, and in the years since then
I have auctioned quite a few more posters. It is interesting that
when I started full time in 1990, almost all of the leading dealers
at that time predicted I would "hit and run" (leaving the hobby in a
couple of years), but with a very few exceptions I have far
outlasted my critics.
Bruce
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At 11:30 AM 1/20/2010, Bruce Hershenson wrote:
Guilty! I think Ron Barlow and I was the very first to do same size
repros in full color on the same paper of ANY comics. That unleashed
a flood of imitations over the decades since.
On Wed, Jan 20, 2010 at 1:01 PM, James Richard <
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Bruce,
Aha!!! So you're the culprit! You're one of the guys who first
created those damn EC reprints and cut the resale value of my
complete run of original EC sci-fi and horror titles in half!
-- JR
Bruce Hershenson wrote:
I bought my first lobby cards in 1969 from a Texas dealer
named Tannar Miles. I was making my living selling comic
books, but I never re-sold a single poster or lobby card. In
1976 I quit comics 100% and I sold all my comics, but kept
my movie paper collection (mostly lobby cards). In 1984 I
"re-discovered" the hobby, and became partners selling movie
paper with my old friend Ron Barlow, with whom I had done
the very first EC comic book reprints (long before Russ
Cochran).
In 1989, I "retired" and INTENDED to buy and sell movie
posters as a part-time hobby (to pass time in my retirement)
but that quickly got off track, and the next year I
organized the first all-movie poster auction by a major
auction house, and in the years since then I have auctioned
quite a few more posters. It is interesting that when I
started full time in 1990, almost all of the leading dealers
at that time predicted I would "hit and run" (leaving the
hobby in a couple of years), but with a very few exceptions
I have far outlasted my critics.
Bruce
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
<http://www.filmfan.com>
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Send a message addressed to: [email protected]
In the BODY of your message type: SIGNOFF MOPO-L
The author of this message is solely responsible for its content.
Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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