Notes

we buy comics Edmonton
It's strange that most comic book collectors and dealers haven't heard about Pop Hollinger. This 47-year-old retired teacher from Concordia, Kansas was the first dealer who bought and sold old novels, pulp magazines, magazines and comic books. Hollinger ran his shop from 1939 in Concordia, through the deep economic Depression, to 1971. Whether a large number of comic book dealers today have or never heard of Pop Hollinger, they follow in his footsteps: selling, buying and trading them.

Mr. Hollinger started his business selling periodicals in a basement underneath a grocery store. He sold most anything he owned, including classic paperback novels published by Pocket Books for 25 cents each. Soon, he grew his business, selling used pulps, paperbacks, magazines, and comic books. He specialized in comics that have been quickly becoming popular. After a few years, he ran a captivating business, even expanding his business which included as many as 15 to 20 outlets around Concordia. Hollinger even popularized a mail order service for interested buyers across the country. Selling through mail ordering made Pop recognize that there is a demand for back issues. For this purpose, he'd store issues for future business. For 20 or 30 cents weekly a person could receive five or ten comics, respectively. This is an unbeatable bargain when you could buy one at the neighborhood newspaper stand for 10 cents.

1939 was a special year for comic books, which featured, for the very first time, superheroes. No doubt he would have owned the most famous, such as for example: Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman), Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman), Superman #1, Batman #1, Wonder Woman #1, All-Star, All-Flash, Timely Comics (future Marvel Comics) and Fawcett Comics. These "Golden Age" comics became "super" sellers. But there have been also many other others available.

Hollinger used radically unorthodox methods for preserving each of his books, because he knew kids could easily tear them up, and many mothers threw them out in the trash. Pop soon found out comics did not wear well under constant buying, selling, and trading. So, he bound the books with brown or green tape around the spine and on the inside to preserve them from being torn apart. He also knew that comics were manufactured from pulp which attracted insects, so he treated them with special chemicals that repelled them. He even took out the original staples, replacing them with new ones. Finally, he pressed them flat utilizing a press of their own design that exerted several hundred pounds of pressure. Today's collector or dealer would never use this method of preservation because it would ruin the book's value. Instead, dealers and collectors carefully put the books in Mylar bags and insert a cardboard backing, so they won't bend or tear. Even so, Hollinger deserves credit for creating his own method of preserving them.

By 1942, there have been roughly 50 comic book publishers. Each publisher produced at least 30 different styles, which totaled to several thousand different issues circulating per month! So, Pop felt the need to publish a comic book catalog. Comics came in an array of genres: science fiction, detective, fantasy, spy, humor, romance and many more. He owned so many of the same issues. So, it's no wonder he thought that selling comics could possibly be profitable. In comic store Canada with the eBay website, his business ads stated: "Old or used comic books are worth money. We pay from 1c to $1.00 each for certain old comics... Be among the first in your community to collect old comics." In this same ad, Pop claimed to "carry a large assortment of every comic book published."

Unfortunately, in 1952 Hollinger's supply took a turn for the worst. A flood had come through his area of the state, flooded his stores, and ruined thousands most of his inventory. Sadly, most of them had to be trashed. To create matters worse, in 1954 many comics that were published before were recalled by the U.S. government due to unsuitable content for children. But Hollinger persevered with his business.
Here's my website: https://www.thedragonstail.ca/