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Post by masterofquackfu on Sept 16, 2017 9:05:23 GMT -5
Ah...the good 'ol spinner racks. How I miss them. It was always great as a kid to go into a convenience store or department store and see those racks filled to the brim with comic books. I think of some of the times...times that stand out like snapshots from the past.
- I remember looking at an issue of Rom in 1985 at a spinner rack with the Eurythmics new song, "Would I lie to you?" blaring out into the store.
-I remember seeing an issue of Crystar that stayed on the spinner rack forever. I swear, they kept that issue on the rack for months. I remember that each time I went back it would be more damaged than before(creased and folded). I sometimes wonder whatever happened to that poor book. Certainly, it would be the equivalent of book abuse...hehe. An inquistion of sorts.
-I remember my parents stopping at a gas station during a road trip sometime in 1977(I believe)...and I begged them to buy a comic book from spinner rack for me. It was an issue of Black Panther and he was hanging from the side of a cliff.
I'm sure that I'll think of some more, but those are some off the top of my head. Let me know about any of your tales about the Rack. Thanks.
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Post by pinkfloydsound17 on Sept 16, 2017 9:25:36 GMT -5
I wish I was alive when comics were sold everywhere on spinner racks. I have always wanted to buy one too for my basement. Someday I will...someday.
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Post by codystarbuck on Sept 16, 2017 10:15:23 GMT -5
Most of my early days involved spinner racks or newsstand displays. The only problem with them was if more than one person was browsing and it turned into a fight as to which way the rack was going to move or not move!  Thing I always found was you had to flip through each pocket, as clerks would stuff different comics in them. Sometimes the gold was to be found buried behind other, lesser comics. I still recall when a lot of paperback books were sold via spinner racks. You had the pulpy men's adventure thrillers, sci-fi and fantasy books and just general fiction displays. If memory serves, it was that kind of display where I first found Splinter of the Mind's Eye, the first Star Wars sequel story (apart from the comics). We were desperately waiting for a follow-up and here was Darth Vader on the cover, squaring off against Luke and Leia. This had to be good! My main source of comics, in childhood, though, was not a spinner rack. A market, in a nearby town, had a newsstand, with a metal magazine rak bolted on the end. It was there they displayed the comic books, while the newsstand had the adult stuff and things like the Warren titles. That is where I got things like the original Wolverine mini-series (Claremont & Miller) and the Great Darkness Saga, as they came out. The town was about 5 miles away and I used to bike over there, pick out some comics and get a snack and a cold drink, then pedal back home, all over country roads. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 16, 2017 10:41:49 GMT -5
Thing I always found was you had to flip through each pocket, as clerks would stuff different comics in them. Sometimes the gold was to be found buried behind other, lesser comics. And thus created spinner rack spine. It seemed to be even worse with the rare perfect-bound books, which were already more expensive, and already had more issues with their spines than saddle-stitched books. |
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Post by kirby101 on Sept 16, 2017 10:58:17 GMT -5
Spinner racks. Early 70s, I would take my bike to two or three stores, drug stores, 7/11s; and check to get all the books due out that week ( Marvel and DC had a schedule for which Thursday of the month things would come out). And occasionally discover something new, like Gold Keys Dagar or a Charltan with cool art.
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Post by batusi on Sept 16, 2017 11:26:36 GMT -5
I remember those spinner racks from the grocery stores and also the local drugstore. Back in the mid 70's when comics were a mere 25 cents each, the local drugstore used to have an incentive which was buy 5 comic books for $1. I would go there with $4 or $5 and come out with 20-25 comics! I miss those days.
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Sept 16, 2017 11:45:13 GMT -5
Was trying to remember where the spinner racks were when I was buying most of my comics before college.
The first comics I bought were from a spinner at Harry's a grocery store in Heyburn. I didn't buy a lot of books there, because it was out of the way.
In Rupert there were spinners at the Rexall drug on the square, at the Safeway and at B&B Market (a small local grocery/convenience store) and Motley's (a grocery store) had a few comics on a newsstand and it was there that I bought the cellophaned Marvel Giant-Sizes and the few Treasury sized books I bought.
In Burley there were spinners at the Rexall Drug, at the Circle-K convenience store, at the Safeway and at the Safeway.
The closest place to buy comics from here now is either in Boise (155 miles) or maybe Pocatello (about 70 miles).
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Post by batusi on Sept 16, 2017 13:38:11 GMT -5
Was trying to remember where the spinner racks were when I was buying most of my comics before college. The first comics I bought were from a spinner at Harry's a grocery store in Heyburn. I didn't buy a lot of books there, because it was out of the way. In Rupert there were spinners at the Rexall drug on the square, at the Safeway and at B&B Market (a small local grocery/convenience store) and Motley's (a grocery store) had a few comics on a newsstand and it was there that I bought the cellophaned Marvel Giant-Sizes and the few Treasury sized books I bought. In Burley there were spinners at the Rexall Drug, at the Circle-K convenience store, at the Safeway and at the Safeway. The closest place to buy comics from here now is either in Boise (155 miles) or maybe Pocatello (about 70 miles). Yeah, I remember the oversized Treasury books in the grocery store, they were located on the shelves with the regular magazines, they wouldn't have fit on the spinner racks. |
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Confessor
CCF Mod Squad
Not Bucky O'Hare!
Posts: 10,215 
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Post by Confessor on Sept 16, 2017 14:56:29 GMT -5
I never saw a spinner rack full of comics here in the UK growing up. Comics were always placed on the magazine shelves, along with all the other softcover publications. I saw spinner racks of toys and paperback books back in the 70s and 80s, but never comics.
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Post by Phil Maurice on Sept 16, 2017 15:26:41 GMT -5
For me, it was 7-11's spinners in Bridgeport, MI and Harrison, OH from '76 - '79, traveling by bicycle like a million other kids at that time.
We moved to SoCal in March of '79, and it was 7-11 again, the one on Diamond Bar Blvd. That rack yielded my first Miller Daredevil (167), ROM, and the Wolverine mini.
In 1980, I discovered a used bookstore in Pomona that had Silver Age Marvels (cue choir of angels). ASM #26 ($4) and TOS #43 & #63 ($3). Still have them.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 15:42:29 GMT -5
There is a Country Store of where I go to get my Comics and a Root Beer Float for a dime and I usually spend my allowance for 1 Comic Book and a Root Beer Float and come home with a nickel; and you guess it all DC and Marvel Comics (were on a spinner rack and he has a half dozen of them) and I usually go there on a weekly basis to get my comics. Fun times those days when I was a kid merely 50 years ago. Time flies.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 18:20:49 GMT -5
I could usually walk or ride my bike to 7-11 and hit up the spinner rack, in the two hours between the time when I got out of school and my mom got home from work.
Of course in those days I was just as likely to grab a pack of baseball cards.
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shaxper
CCF Site Custodian
Posts: 22,874
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Post by shaxper on Sept 16, 2017 21:57:19 GMT -5
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Post by Icctrombone on Sept 16, 2017 22:13:48 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 22:45:40 GMT -5
Vintage spinners usually sell for between $300-$500 around here, depending on condition, so $120 is fairly reasonable  When the shop in my town closed last year, he was taking offers for fixtures, so I put in a bid of $150 for his Spinner, and was told he already had a bid 3 times that and had one buyer basically said he would beat whatever the top offers was by $100 to make sure he got it. -M |
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