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Friday, October 27

At long last – Flash #123

by Mike on Fri 27 Oct 2006 10:07 PM EDT

Well, a while back I mentioned that I had finally procured one of my most sought-after comics for my collection and I promised to write a bit more on that later. It's a good thing I waited a bit, because the original deal fell through. I had won a copy of Flash #123 on eBay for less than $100 (a lot less than $100, actually), which was considerably lower than any price I had seen in recent memory. At the 2006 Buckeye Comic Con, I didn't find a single copy of this book under $250...and the copies that are in better shape usually go for much more than that. Now the book that I won was not in the best condition (in fact, the cover was detached) but the book was complete with no missing pages and it would have looked fine to display on my "Wall of Fame." I paid quickly after the auction's end and soon after came the big day in which the issue finally arrived in the mail. But when I opened the package, I found Flash #137 instead of Flash #123. Aargh! I contacted the sellers who confirmed that they had mistakenly sent my #123 to they guy that had won the #137. I was asked to send the #137 back and assured that as soon as they received my #123 back from the other guy, they would send it on to me. Weeks passed. I had returned the #137 very quickly, but over time, it became apparent that the fellow who had gotten my #123 had no intention of returning it. After some discussion with the seller, I received a full refund for my purchase. Flash #123 had slipped through my fingers.

Flash #123
September, 1962

I knew there was at least one very big regional comic convention coming up in Detroit, so I called up Bill from Fearless Readers in Dayton to ask him to keep an eye out for an affordable copy of Flash #123 at the upcoming event. Now, I have mentioned this before, but I guess it's time to say it again: Fearless Readers is my favorite local comic shop and, quite honestly, one of the most customer friendly comic shops I have ever found in my years of collecting. So my expectations were high and I wasn't disappointed this time around, because just 2 weeks later, I got a call from Bill who told me he had procured not one, but two affordable copies of Flash #123. He explained that he had another customer who wanted the book as well, and that both copies were in comparable condition and priced the same – and just in my price range at that!

I made it down to the store a few days later to check out both copies. One was bagged and the other was a CGC-graded issue (2.0), enclosed in a sealed case of hard plastic. The bagged copy had a small piece missing out of the right bottom corner, but it looked pretty good otherwise, and I decided to buy that one so that I wouldn't have to mess with the sealed case on the CGC copy. Who in the hell wants a comic book locked in a sealed case, anyway? I like to be able to read my issues at least once before putting them away or displaying them.

While I was there, Bill also showed me a copy of "Is This Tomorrow? America Under Communism" which is a 1947 comic book that fed on America's rabid anti-communist hysteria that followed WWII. An old Dayton, Ohio-based comic series called "Treasure Chest" ran a similar batch of stories back in the 1960's or so (check out the full issue entitled "This Godless Communism" here). This stuff was really xenophobic, over-the-top material. Bill knew of my interest in this sort of thing and explained that he picked up the book with me in mind. Of course, I couldn't help but take that issue off his hands along with my Flash #123. Fearless Readers – what a store! Thanks, Bill!