Sid’s Luncheonette Collection

The background (as told by the collector himself Harry Banks):

During the spring of 1956 I purchased my first comic (Detective #233 – origin and first appearance of Batwoman).  That was followed by a copy of Showcase #4 (origin and first appearance of the Silver Age Flash). 

That same fall, I moved from East Orange, NJ (about a mile away) and lost those first two key books.  Sometime later in 1958, when returning home after playing baseball, I stopped in a drugstore and purchased a handful of DCs and was hooked.  I bought copies of just about all the DCs initially, but through trades over the years whittled the titles down to about 20.

My favorite store was “Jades” on the corner of South Center St and Central Ave.  “Mrs Jade” even let me read a book while drinking a fountain soda and then exchange it for a new one on the way out.  But my real zeal for comics came a year or two later when the store changed to “Sid’s Luncheonette”.  It was at Sid’s where I would amass much of my 1000 Original Owner books between 1960 and 1964, and be on hand for the birth of the Marvel Age of comics.

The books were initially stored “naked” in old cardboard boxes, then kept in dresser drawers between 1962 and 1976, at which time I purchased my first copy of the Overstreet Price Guide (#6) and put the books in plain polybags.  It wasn’t until 1981 that I began using mylites with acid-free backing boards and storing the books in comic boxes.

How so many made it to 2006 in great shape is miraculous.  Of the almost 300 books that have been professionally graded so far, fewer than a handful have less than off-white pages and many of the books rank 1st, 2nd or 3rd best in the CGC Census.

Each comic from my collection comes with a COA (created at the suggestion of my CGC Board buddies) which certifies that this book was purchased at Sid’s Luncheonette, by me personally over 40 years ago and is delivered to you after being encapsulated.  None of these books have been restored in any fashion.

Harry Banks (Burntboy)

Certificate of Authenticity (COA)

Sid’s Luncheonette Collection

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