Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or book

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Hawkeye
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Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or book

Post by Hawkeye »

Looking through a few old books in an antique shop the other day, and I found a lovely old 'bookmark', which was a one of those envelopes you used to get when you picked your photographs up from the printers. It was from Timothy Whites & Taylors, photographic chemists. I got it for nothing when I asked the shop owner, as I didn't want the book.

It reminded me of when I used to visit an old bookshop in North Shields, and old Bob the owner used to have just heaps of books, comics and odds and ends all over the place, so you could have a real good rummage and usually find some little gem. I once found a run of TV Century 21 from no1 to no 20 in a big heap in the corner and got them for £1 each if I remember rightly.

Anyway, he was always telling me stories relating to his books and one in particular I thought was really interesting..........

He was called out by a gentleman whose father had recently died and wanted Bob to have a look through his fathers book collection with a view to getting rid of them all. I think Bob just bought them out of sympathy, but he told me that he got them back to his shop and having a quick look through, found what seemed to be a 'bookmark' which was an old railway ticket. It turned out to be a ticket for a Robert Stephenson steam train, and Bob sold it at auction for a few hundred quid.

I bet there have been some great finds by some of you out there ?

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koollectablz
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by koollectablz »

Well my dad was a comic/book dealer and he always had us go through everything he bought to check for stuff between the pages as well as to check for missing pages, cut out coupons etc

A few things I remember finding (this is out of literally checking thousands upon thousands of books/comics/mags):

Original art to the comic itself
One pound notes and even in one case a huge white five pound note being used as bookmarks
Pressed flowers (quite common, but still like treasure from the 1880s!)
Hollowed out books
Letters

But the one thing I remember the most and one of the best finds ever (to me) was that I used to collect Rupert the Bear and I bought a NM copy of the 1953 annual from a London based dealer - only fault was 'inscription on first page'. Pricey at the time but it was really exceptional condition, so I could overlook the inscription.

Get it home and looked at the writing on the first page only to discover the inscription was from my nan to my mother.

Where it had been for 30 years before it made its way back to my family I'll never know, but...

Happy days indeed.

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Adam Eterno
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Adam Eterno »

koollectablz wrote:
Get it home and looked at the writing on the first page only to discover the inscription was from my nan to my mother.

Where it had been for 30 years before it made its way back to my family I'll never know, but...

Happy days indeed.

What a fantastic find. Being from your Nan to your Mum makes the book almost priceless!

Phoenix
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Phoenix »

Not in the same ballpark but some years ago I bought, I think from an advert in Book And Magazine Collector, a run of issues of The Rover from 1938. In one of them I found a flyer advertising the first issue of The Beano. Needless to say, I've still got it.....somewhere.

Lew Stringer
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Lew Stringer »

Hawkeye wrote: I bet there have been some great finds by some of you out there ?
A squashed wasp in a Beezer Book. Not exactly great. Binned it.
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Phoenix
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Phoenix »

Lew Stringer wrote:A squashed wasp in a Beezer Book. Not exactly great. Binned it.
I would have done that too, Lew. Presumably you kept the book though.

Lew Stringer
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Lew Stringer »

Phoenix wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:A squashed wasp in a Beezer Book. Not exactly great. Binned it.
I would have done that too, Lew. Presumably you kept the book though.
:lol:

No, binned the book, unread. The squashed wasp had been a big 'un and made quite a mess across the two pages.
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philcom55
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by philcom55 »

Not a comic, but I discovered a squashed bluebottle in a book of Parish records from the 16th century while I was researching my family tree. Amazing to think that fly must have met its fate one sunny day at the time of Henry the Eighth! :)

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Adam Eterno
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Adam Eterno »

I bought a run from 1-20 of very fine 2000AD comics from the US at a great price 5 or 6 years ago. They advertised the free gift spinner still with #1 so imagine my joy when I found the gifts to #2 and #3 still within the comics and had never been removed from the day of purchase.

Hawkeye
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by Hawkeye »

Have you got the bluebottle now? You could probably sell it on ebay !!

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stevezodiac
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by stevezodiac »

A couple of years ago I picked up a 60s paperback of the Mugger or Cop Hater by Ed McBain inside was a 1960s Milky Bar warpper obviously used as a bookmark, I still have it. Some of my Comic Cuts type comics from a hundred years or so ago have Cadbury's flyers inside them.

comixminx
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by comixminx »

Adam Eterno wrote:
koollectablz wrote:
Get it home and looked at the writing on the first page only to discover the inscription was from my nan to my mother.

Where it had been for 30 years before it made its way back to my family I'll never know, but...

Happy days indeed.

What a fantastic find. Being from your Nan to your Mum makes the book almost priceless!
What a lovely story!
jintycomic.wordpress.com/ Excellent and weird stories from the past - with amazing art to boot.

DavidKW
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by DavidKW »

This reminded me:

A while back I brought A Princess Gift Book 1964 and inside I found a plastic lemon & lime freeze drink wrapper made by "Thompsons" inside (what's best known as "Ice Pops" these day; they were revolting as I remember too).

Did find a small yellow splodge neat it which spread over a handful of pages, but not enough to spoil the strips. And no I didn't dare lick it to see what it tasted like in 60s!

Did once also buy a comic with some bits of minced beef in the centre. Have since got a better copy of that particular comic (a 1965 June & SF).

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stevezodiac
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Re: Comic or book finds, or should I say finds in comics or

Post by stevezodiac »

That reminds me I have some Girl's Own Papers from the 1890s with dried flowers inside them. I presume the aforesaid flora is over a century old. I always wondered if Kew Gardens would want them to see what they absorbed, air quality wise, a century ago.

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