It's strange that the majority magazine collectors and dealers haven't heard of Pop Hollinger. This 47-year-old retired teacher from Concordia, Kansas was the primary dealer who bought and sold old novels, pulp magazines, magazines and comic books. Hollinger ran his shop from 1939 in Concordia, during the deep economic Depression, to 1971. Whether thousands of magazine 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 during a basement underneath a grocery . 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 which were quickly becoming popular. After a couple of years, he ran a vibrant business, even expanding his business including as many as 15 to twenty outlets around Concordia. Hollinger even popularized a order service for interested buyers across the country. Selling through mail ordering made Pop realize that there was a requirement for back issues. For this purpose, he would store issues for future business. For 20 or 30 cents every week an individual could receive five or ten comics, respectively. This was an unbeatable bargain once you could buy one at the local newspaper represent 10 cents.
1939 was a special year for comic books, which featured, for the primary time, superheroes. little question he would have owned the foremost famous, such as: Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman), Detective Comics #27 (first appearance of Batman), Superman #1, Batman #1, 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 on the market.
Hollinger used radically unorthodox methods for preserving each of his books, because he knew kids could easily tear them up, and lots of mothers threw them call at the trash. Pop soon acknowledged comics didn't wear well under constant buying, selling, and trading. So, he bound the books with brown or green tape round the spine and on the within to preserve them from being torn apart. He also knew that comics were made from pulp which attracted insects, so he treated them with special chemicals that repelled them. He even took out the first staples, replacing them with new ones. Finally, he pressed them flat employing a press of his own design that exerted several hundred pounds of pressure. Today's collector or dealer would never use this method of preservation because it might ruin the book's value. Instead, dealers and collectors carefully put the books in Mylar bags and insert a cardboard backing, in order that 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 magazine publishers. Each publisher produced a minimum of 30 different ones, which totaled to many thousand different issues circulating per month! So, Pop felt the necessity to publish a comic book book catalog. Comics came altogether sorts of genres: fantasy , detective, fantasy, spy, humor, romance and lots of others. He owned numerous of an equivalent issues. So, it's no wonder he thought that selling comics might be profitable. consistent with the eBay website, his business ads stated: "Old or used comic books are worth money. We pay from 1c to $1.00 each surely old comics... Be among the primary in your community to gather old comics." during this same ad, Pop claimed to "carry an outsized assortment of each magazine 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 thrown out. to form matters worse, in 1954 many comics that were published before were recalled by the U.S. government thanks to unsuitable content for youngsters . But Hollinger persevered together with his business.
Between 1961 until he closed his business, ten years later, Hollinger began selling fresh superhero comic books created mainly by Marvel Comics. In November of 1961, Marvel published the primary issue of the "Fantastic Four"- a gaggle of latest superheroes who became very fashionable . Fantastic Four #1 started the "Marvel Age" of comics. Other "Marvel Age" superheroes were soon introduced: Spiderman, Ironman, Thor, the Hulk, Antman, and Captain America (brought back from war 2). All comic (not just Marvel) published from 1956 to 1969, became referred to as the "Silver Age" of comics. Today, many of the first issues published by Marvel are worth almost the maximum amount as those printed within the late 1930s and early 1940s.
Pop Hollinger was a rare businessman who had foreseen the worth of comic books. Who knew how he thought that comic books were useful to be read and picked up , not read and thrown away? Nobody would have thought to start out such a dealership, especially within the late 1930's during the good Depression. As a matter of fact, it might are "comical" to possess started a comic book dealership. Pop beat the chances by starting a business almost nobody would have ever considered. If you ever encounter an old comic with either brown or green tape along the spine, you almost certainly would have a classic pulp gem owned by the legendary dealer himself.
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