13 years ago in 2001 an original owner collection of early 1960s Marvel and DC comic books surfaced in Hampton Roads. It was bought from the original owner, R. J. Long, by  Jerry Ringi who was the owner of the comic book store Amazing Fantasy. My friend Richard Delmer told me about it and another mutual friend, Jim Frost.

From this collection of well preserved comics we all bought some books.  Jerry  marketed the collection as the R.J. Long Pedigree collection. I was most interested in the pre-super-hero Marvel comics which is one of my favorite type of comic books. These were science fiction / fantasy books featuring mostly big monsters with funny sounding names. They were in titles like Strange Tales, Journey Into Mystery, Tales To Astonish and so on. A few years ago Richard had a few of his CGC graded and had Jim sell them on the CGC chat board for big money. 

A few days ago Richard decided to sell a few more R.J. Long books including some of the pre super-heroes. Jim listed an Amazing Adult Fantasy 12 which had been CGC graded a year ago and came back with a high 9.0 grade. Jim listed it on the CGC board at $900 with no takers. He cut the price to $800 but still no buyers came forth. I sent Jim an email offering $700 but didn’t hear back from him so I figured Richard rejected my offer. A day or so later Richard called me and agreed to accept my offer. He came over the next day, 26 March, with that book and a few others. He had another R.J. Long pre super-hero book, Tales To Astonish #30. He said if I didn’t want that one he would probably give it to Jim to get GCG graded and list on the CGC boards for more than $300. I figured the book was worth more than $300 if it was graded so I paid him the $300. Richard only sells his books when he needs money for car repairs so the next time his car breaks down, maybe I can get some more books from him.

On 12 May 2013 my comic book collecting friend Richard Delmer came over to visit since he had some comic books for sale. He had one of his few remaining pre-Marvel sci-fi / fantasy books from the R.J. Long pedigree collection, Amazing Adult Fantasy #10. He said he had paid $300 for it to Jerry Ringi who discovered the R.J. Long collection. He accepted my offer of $250 however. The only time I can get books from Richard is when he needs money for something. He still has high grade copies of pre-Marvel books Strange Tales #97 and a CGC graded World of Fantasy #16 that I would like to get. Let’s see what the future holds.