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Jim Frost, Richard Delmer and I (Lewis Forro) bought as many of the R.J. Long from Jerry Ringi as we could in 2001. In 2012 I asked Jim via email on the CGC chat boards to respond to my questions about his experiences in buying books from this collection. His answers are below:

Yes, I did......trying to remember. It was such a long time ago. Richard told me about the books. I recall being overwhelmed by the quality of the books he showed me and I was trying to quit drinking, so I thought going to see them would be a good activity pursue for a day off. I called Jerry and he told me some of the details and explained how he had written a small announcement in the CBG and was slabbing a few books for auction with this new Auction House called Heritage. He had sold only a small portion of the collection at the time....some to Richard, Buddy Utley, a fellow up North (ASM 4....VF/NM), and some more to a Rock Star that one of his younger customers recognized at the store. I never could find out who this was. Books that had sold at the time were most of the JIM / Thors to the Rock Star, the Flash run to a customer, many of the FF's and ASM's to various customers, and almost all of the D.C. Fantasy titles that Kirby work was in ( to Buddy). I no longer had a license, so I had to catch several buses to make the 45 mile journey. I did this probably a half dozen times over many months. Jerry had graciously agreed to let me make payments on several thousand dollars worth of books. More to follow.....

When I first arrived at the store, Jerry had a half dozen or more short boxes set out for me to see. The books I looked at first were the Pre Heros that had barely been touched.....3 FULL short boxes remained with all titles represented. Jerry had allowed me to set some on layaway but I knew that I would have to be prudent, as I still had living expenses that outweighed these books, as sweet as they were. I spent 4 hours looking at them the first day and got home late that night......the bus rides took several hours each way. The books were so nice that I made that trip many more times. He had a little bit of everything from 1955 to 1964. I wish I could still remember specific titles....but I took a couple dozen monster books, a dozen DC War, a dozen Superman, Action, and Adventures, and some various Marvel Superhero titles. Highlights were beautiful copies of ASM 9, JIM 78, 79, TTA 31, OAAW 128 (Rock's origin), and a MIS 75 that looked brand new. My love for the FF was soon reignited and many of these books were sold or traded to put together a really nice mid grade run of FF 2-35 and high grade CGC copies of FF 20, ASM 13, and ASM 15. I could have easily put together 50 thousand dollars of exceptional books if I could have afforded them. Regrets in hindsight were passing on NM copies of TOS 41-44 and not choosing Pre Heros exclusively and then keeping them until now. I was a kid in a candy store ¾lol Later I was able to buy the FF 13 from Jerry's partner, George.....which I kept for several years, selling it to a fellow in England when I upgraded.

As you mentioned, there were several books I had reserved that I failed to acquire. These were books that were ungraded and unpriced when I reserved them. After having sold so many of them to eager collectors, Jerry finally graded these and I felt his assesment was a bit too ambitious, even with the 25 % discount....so I ultimately passed. I had trade some of these to Chris Foss who loved them. Jerry's sales had stalled and his consignor needed the money, an elderly gentleman with some medical issues. I referred Chris to Jerry and he bought the entire renants of the collection for an undisclosed sum. Jerry did tell me that he warned Chris over the phone that this was NOT a collection that could be bought for 10 thousand.....so as not to waste his time....and this was a collection from which the Marvel Super hero books were already gone. He still had deep runs of DC war, Superman titles, Batman titles, Green Lantern, Challengers, and Showcase (these were stunning). Hope this helps...