David
I have always meant to apologize for hassling your wife back then at that
Comic-Con in the 1970s!
Seriously though, I really have to admire Steve Fishler. Back at the time of
that auction, Steve and around a dozen other guys were advertising hot and
heavy that each one of them paid the "most" for top quality posters.
Well, I knew when I got these two incredible posters (never before
auctioned, excellent unrestored condition, and straight from a man who had
owned them for 50 years) that THIS would be the ultimate test of who was the
real deal, and who was "all talk".
My auctions have always been cash only, with no trades, no 6 months zero
interest, no pretend sales, etc. I made it clear before the auction that the
high bidder on either of these two posters would have to pay in full within
30 days of the auction date (and only in the world of collectibles where
almost all the top players for the most expensive posters are "collectibles
rich, but cash broke" could these be considered onerous terms).
Well the auction came, and not only did Fishler buy BOTH of these, but none
of the other "we pay most" guys even bid!
And of course I would have gone to my grave without revealing who bought
these except that Steve himself revealed that he was the buyer.
The collectibles world is filled with lots of big talkers, and huge sales
that never really happened, but these were two sales that did.
Bruce
On Sun, Mar 15, 2009 at 5:29 PM, David Kusumoto
<davidmkusum...@hotmail.com>wrote:
> ** I confess when my good-looking girlfriend (who's now my wife) and I
> first walked into Comic-Con in the 1970s (which was then held in the
> smallish El Cortez Hotel and later the Civic Center here in San Diego) -- we
> were taken aback by the geek factor, people dressed up in costumes and
> reciting every line in Star Trek, going over plot lines and Trek-ideology,
> all that jazz. *I have never been a Star Trek fan or a collector of
> sports cards, but I did have an interest in old comics and movies.* Other
> than my aversion to Star Trek and sports cards -- I confess I was still a
> little rattled that my interests were otherwise very much aligned with
> others at Comic-Con -- who seemed geeky in appearance and manner, very
> intellectual and socially awkward if they had to talk about unrelated
> subjects like their jobs or what was in the news. I seemed to need
> reassurance because I asked my girlfriend (who went only because of my
> interest, not hers) -- "do I seem that way to you?" And she said no. More
> than 30 years later, she remains above my standing, not what people expect;
> I obviously got lucky because I'm not an attractive match for her and I'm
> not rich.
>
> ** But what was funny, I'll never forget this -- one year we went to
> Comic-Con to buy more comics and folded one-sheets -- and this guy, he
> looked like the square dude who plays the NBC page on "30 Rock" -- kept
> following my then girlfriend around whenver I strayed into another direction
> in the dealer's room, peppering her with questions -- and I overheard this
> Boy Scout trying to pick her up, asking for her phone number. I guess he
> was surprised to see a girl like her at Comic-Con. (She worked at JC Penney
> at the time and eventually became a department manager at Nordstrom.) My
> then girlfriend politely declined to give out her personal information and
> then she swiveled and gave me a glare that said, "get me outta of this
> place, NOW."
>
> ** Today, Comic-Con is gigantic, with crowds of around 100,000 or more held
> at the huge San Diego Convention Center on the harbor -- and though the
> event still retains its geek factor -- it's far more inclusive, with tons of
> stuff for children and movie-related material and events going constantly.
> When Comic-Con started, its only attendees were young adults and grumpy old
> men. The trouble today is few can afford to attend Comic-Con. And I
> understand that this year's bash is already sold out. In terms of its
> impact on traffic and people crowding our streets -- Comic-Con is bigger
> than the Super Bowls our city has hosted. Every Comic-Con, locals avoid
> downtown. But now that we have a major league baseball stadium downtown,
> it's a nightmare.
>
> -d.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Sun, 15 Mar 2009 09:13:34 -0700
> From: aday_5...@yahoo.com
> Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
>
> Guilty on all counts (btw ... I finally got the beautiful woman, but
> she was born waaaay after ST left the airwaves).
>
> ad
>
> --- On *Sun, 3/15/09, David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com>* wrote:
>
> From: David Kusumoto <davidmkusum...@hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
> Date: Sunday, March 15, 2009, 2:46 AM
>
>
> (truncated)
>
> And we used to laugh because at lunch he would tell us off and on that
> any woman he might marry in the future -- MUST first know all about Star
> Trek and understand it. And oh, of course, that woman would have to be
> gorgeous. He didn't collect movie posters, but he DID collect comics and
> action figures. I bet if I drew a line connecting all of MoPo's members --
> that I would find (besides a shared interest in posters) -- a past or
> present interest in comics, sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery stuff.
>
> -d.
>
> -----Original Message-----
>
> Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 23:46:19 -0700
> From: davidmkusum...@hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
> To: MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
>
> ** I saw Fishler in person that one and only time -- and he struck me then
> as a very quiet but intense young man, almost trying to hide from any
> attention. When I tried to interview him, he was visibly uncomfortable and
> gave me only a few one-breath quotes. But everyone in the huge room was
> curious about him. "Who's the kid with all the money who looks like he just
> got out of high school?," was the general buzz. Instead of letting someone
> else bid on his behalf, Stephen flew from NY to L.A. to bid in person. That
> was a helluva sale -- and it was striking in that you got the feeling that
> Stephen himself knew he was not going to lose those two Universal horror
> posters; he had no limit. It happened at Bruce's first stand-alone showroom
> sale (Dec. 1998) -- after directing Christie's previous poster sales in New
> York. Fishler struck me as a very mysterious figure. Since then, I've seen
> him quoted many times and have learned that he has ALWAYS been a big name in
> the comic book world.
>
> ** My wife and I have always found it intriguing that so many movie poster
> collectors are hyper-intellectual guys who used to collect sports cards or
> comic books, who love sci-fi and Star Trek -- who have a high-geek factor
> that people (esp. women) can instantly spot in a crowd. For example, the
> character "Dwight" in NBC's "The Office" -- played by the hilarious Rainn
> Wilson -- is the sort of guy you'd expect to collect comics and posters, a
> guy who treats the Lord of the Rings or Star Trek-type universes like a
> religion. And so he does.
>
> ** There used to be this quiet, portly guy in his 30s who was a graphic
> designer in our office in San Diego. And we used to laugh because at lunch
> he would tell us that any woman he might marry in the future -- MUST first
> know all about Star Trek and understand it. And oh, of course, that woman
> would have to be gorgeous. He didn't collect movie posters, but he DID
> collect comics and action figures. I bet if I drew a line connecting all of
> MoPo's members -- that I would find (besides a shared interest in posters)
> -- a past or present interest in comics, sports cards and sci-fi/sorcery
> stuff. Speaking for myself, I was real INTO comic books during the first
> 5-6 years of Comic-Con before moving on to books and movies big-time.
>
> -d.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> Date: Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:36:24 -0700
> To: davidmkusum...@hotmail.com; MoPo-L@LISTSERV.AMERICAN.EDU
> From: sa...@comic-art.com
> Subject: Re: [MOPO] Speaking of Stephen Fishler...
>
> David
>
> first time I met Steve he was 12 years old looking for Fantastic Four #1
> and had the cash with him and much more.
>
> a year later he was a dealer too.
>
> Always a good friend, I know he won't be bothered by mentioning that his
> father was a liquor distributor and that should tell you everything. His
> mother is a sweet lady and Steve is a very smart businessman
>
> Rich
>
> At 04:28 PM 3/14/2009, David Kusumoto wrote:
>
> On the AP wires today, see below.
>
> [BTW, Fishler was/is a big buyer of movie posters and is loaded with $$$.
> I saw him at Bruce's huge auction held in L.A.'s cavernous Pacific Design
> Center that I covered 10 years ago for Movie Collector's World. At the time
> he was only 31 -- and he walked away with the biggest prizes of the day --
> two unbacked one-sheets for "Dracula" ($74,750) and "The Invisible Man"
> ($55,200).] -d.
>
> ----------------------
> *Rare Superman comic sells for $317,200
> *Mar 14, 5:44 PM (ET)
> By DAVID B. CARUSO
>
> NEW YORK (AP) - A rare copy of the first comic book featuring Superman
> has sold for $317,200 in an Internet auction. The previous owner had bought
> it for less than a buck.
> It's one of the highest prices ever paid for a comic book, a likely
> testament to the volume's rarity and its excellent condition, said Stephen
> Fishler, co-owner of the auction site ComicConnect.com and its sister
> dealership, Metropolis Collectibles.
> The winning bid for the 1938 edition of Action Comics No. 1, which
> features Superman lifting a car on its cover, was submitted Friday evening
> by John Dolmayan, drummer for the rock band System of a Down, according to
> managers at ComicConnect.com.
> Dolmayan, who is also a dealer of rare comic books, said he acquired
> the Superman comic on behalf of a client he declined to identify.
> "This is one of the premier books you could collect," he said in a
> telephone interview. "It's considered the Holy Grail of comic books. I
> talked to my client, and we made the move."
> Dolmayan said the client has "a small collection, but everything he has
> is incredible."
> Only about 100 copies of Action Comics No. 1 are known to exist and
> they seldom come up for sale.
> "Maybe in a booming economy, it would have done a hundred grand more,
> but in this economy, I think the price is great," Fishler said.
> The man who had previously owned the book purchased it in a secondhand
> store in the early 1950s when he was nine years old.
> He paid 35 cents.
> ---
> *Associated Press writer Adam Goldman in New York contributed to this
> report.*
>
> Visit the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
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