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Who remembers Robert Bell?
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106 posts in this topic

I recently ran across a few of these old comic book artifacts.

 

How many "old timers" out there remember Robert Bell? Like Rogofski, he used to advertise in the back pages of comic books. I remember sending a SASE, getting his list and sending him a little cash (with alternates).

 

I also remember these bags. I'm sure I was one of his first customers. Up until that time I would store my comics loose in a drawer. When I got too many for the drawer, they went in stacks in the closet or in cardboard boxes. All raw and unbagged.

 

When I got these, all my good ones (AF #15, FF4 #1, ect) went right into them. I even started cutting cardboard to stiffen up the bags, Bell offered no backer boards at the time.

 

At that time, when you went to a show, there were no "dealer walls" nice books were displayed in stacks un-bagged under a large sheet of clear plastic to prevent theft. These bags really changed the comic book hobby. Like Overstreet, Bails, Gerber and Mitch, Bell belongs in the comic book "Hall of Fame".

 

Share your memories!

 

robertbellbag_zpsuof6l96l.jpg

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Yes, I remember when those starting showing up. I still had some comics in those bags through the nineties as I was slowly putting things into mylar. Those bags certainly started to give a little flair of professionalism to the hobby.

 

I also remember the thick plastic covers of the nicer books at the early seventies shows. I don't remember when I saw the first hard case but someone must have brought one to a New York show at some point.

 

These were the days when people in line to get in would be showing off un-bagged Batman comics under #10 they had brought to sell or trade!! Different era.

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I recently ran across a few of these old comic book artifacts.

 

Up until that time I would store my comics loose in a drawer. When I got too many for the drawer, they went in stacks in the closet or in cardboard boxes. All raw and unbagged.

 

What, you didn't use the Mark Evanier method of putting all your comics in a giant appliance box and then climbing in yourself and shifting stuff around and seeing what random comic would work its way to the top for you to read?

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Yes indedddy....when in the beginning of getting stuff in the early 1970s, I rezlizedd you could actually buy old comics $7 for Conan one....He had a place on Long Island. Got my Avengers 11 from him......Bob Bell bags were ubiquitous (hey, good use of vocab) I even have his check list sales list with the stuff he had.......Long time ago.....

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Ahhh, Bobby Bell.

 

One of the good guys who didn't mind shipping here. Bough a lot of books over the years, to the extent he sent me a Christmas card one year.

 

Now, the bag you've shown here, Bob, is the second "style". Here's his initial offering, note "primitive" type face lol

 

BellBag11088x336.jpg

 

Funny thing is, even when I come across an old book in a Bell bag and re-house it, I can't bear to just throw out the old bag.

 

So I now have a world class collection of old Bell bags. lol

 

Collecting is a sickness, I tells ya.

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I was in high school then making about $30 a week working on Saturdays for 10 hours. After taking about $15 and putting it in a college savings account and then spending $5 or so for the weekly comics fix that left about $10 for everything else. When I look at those prices in that perspective its a wonder that I was able to buy anything. Disney books were much more relatively expensive than today it seems and early Silver Age Marvel much cheaper. DC Golden Age was out of my league even if I wanted to buy it. Amazing Fantasy 15 for $130 vs. Conan #1 for $30; do an ROI on that!!

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If the price of 100 bags increased at the same rate as the price of a new comic they would cost $60 per now. We sell them for $5.99. Another lesson in "buy the book, not the packaging".

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