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This is my wife when we started dating in 1978. Her by my side, supporting and encouraging me for 25 years of our lives is a huge part of my success of GI Joe collecting.
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Don Levine, the father of GI Joe, One of the original creators of GI Joe. .
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Sam Weston, one of the original creators of GIJoe
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Don Levine holding the first prototype box for GIJoe
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Sam Petrucci, One of the original creators of GI Joe.
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Janet Downing, One of the original creators of GI Joe.
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Jerry Einhorn, One of the original creators of GI Joe.
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Sam Petrucci, one of the original creators of GIJoe
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Neil LaSala, Sam Weston-One of the original creators of GIJoe and me
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Some of the original creators of GIJoe
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Some of the original creators of GIJoe
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Sam Weston, Neil LaSala and me.
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Sam Speers, one of the original creators of GIJoe
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Don Levine showing Jonathan the first GI Joe prototype.
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Unfortunatley, I have no photos of any of the folks from my swapmeet and doll show days.
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In my early days of collecting I met lots of great people. I would like to pay tribute to the following people, collectors, dealers and businesses who played a memorable role in my collecting experience.
Artie and Linda Rickun ,
Matsu & Massaaki- two collectors of Japan,
Shimpa- a Japanese collector who owned a shop in Japan called Super Freaks ,
Peter Fritz ,
John Diccio ,
Linda Miato ,
Paul Denero ,
Bill Summers ,
Claudia Nagy ,
Joe Romero ,
Mark Perez ,
Ted Hake ,
John & Connie & Wesley Mclndoe , Mike Sweeney of Tell It To Sweeney Larry and Grace Eisenstein
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In my early days of collecting I met lots of great people. I would like to pay tribute to the following people, collectors, dealers and businesses who played a memorable role in my collecting experience.
Bill Smith of Wellington Square Antiques, Tim Miller ,
Mike Stannard of Toys n’ Stuff ,
Keith of Gasoline Alley,
Roy Sharon of Caroyns Kiddie Corner, Suzette Wills & Mary McFarland of Adopt A Doll,
Steve Stegman of Boomer Belia,
Chic A Boom ,
Ann & Marvin Henderson of Anns Dolls,
Sony Ballard of Sunnies Funnies,
Dave Tyrell & Melissa Friedman & Patty and Harry Kleinman and Billie Tyrell all of Doll Emporium,
Joseph Stewart,
Andrea “Peanuts” Podley,
Richard of Loves Saves The Day,
MR. Arthur-AKA Arthur Sandburg of Big Toyland,
Scott Leva & Jim McPherson ,
Jim & Paul Warren ,
Tim “Dr. Seusse” Melton
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In my early days of collecting I met lots of great people. I would like to pay tribute to the following people, collectors, dealers and businesses who played a memorable role in my collecting experience.
Joe Castro,
Jim McGough ,
Sara Kopy ,
Randy & Sue,
Ann & Judy of Collectible Toys,
Nancy & Eddie Sweet of Sweets Stuff, Gary Sohmers of Wex Rex Collectibles, Darrows Fun Antiques,
Dennis,
Ben Massie of Lets Talk Toys,
Tom Frey ,
Doug Wright ,
Joe Blitman ,
Melony Kaviat ,
Pete and Linda Torres ,
Gloria Yorkubaitus ,
Ed Gannon ,
Jeff & Maria of Cecil and Beanie, Valarie & Dave Kelly ,
Celeste Ligmal of Precious Memories,
Gerry & Ed DeBolt ,
SONO
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This is the first guide I found with Joe info. According to this book, the avarage going rate for a GI Joe in 1983 was $20. However, I was paying about $5 each on average at swapmeets.
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Hal Fowler, the first GI Joe collector I met. Hal was a movie studio nurse. We did our first trade at Paramount studios.
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The All American collectors show in Glendale CA was one of the first shows I went to, to buy Joes. I would wait at 4AM in the morning till 8AM to pay $40 early bird entrance. George Cross and his wife were allways the first and second in line and I was third. George is the promoter of the Pomona Car swapmeet.
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In the 1980's, Collectors United was the driving force for finding other GI Joe collectors and sellers.
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Vincent Santelmo and I in NYC in the 1980's. No, Vincent did not punch me, I got stabbed in the nose with a knife by someone else.
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Roddy Garcia and I. Roddy was known as the formost boxed Joe collector of the 1980's.
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Bill Siddens and I. Bill is the hobbies true king of GI Joe vehicles.
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Lila Ayala and I. Lila is the princess and baroness of the hobby of collecting GI Joe.
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In 1989, Lila Ayala contributed imensely to our hobby by introducing this book at the GI Joe convention in Omaha, NB.
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Artie Rickun. Introduced to me by Hal Fowler. Artie was the king dealer of GI Joe. In the early 1980's he bought a warehouse full of over 15,000 vintage boxed and packaged GI Joe and accessories. Artie and his friends were tin toy collectors. To them, I was known as the plastic guy...
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Susan and Paris Manos. Susan helped me aquire my complete collection of 60's Ken dolls.
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Susan and Faiths Omaha show for GI Joes 25th anniversary. June 8,9,10, 1989.
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Newspaper article about the sucess of the Omaha show by Faith Wagner and
Susan Manos
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MVC-011S
Eva and Bobby Thompson. Eva produced the first ever GI Joe convention in Dallas Tx.
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MVC-013S
Mark Cole. The first and finest customizer of accesories for GI Joe. Use to buy GI Joes from JC Penny in bulk to use as target pratice. Had more GI Joes than anyone on the planet earth.
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Michale Zarra was first to send detailed sales and want lists.
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These are 2 polorid pictures sort of sliced together showing both sides of the garage getting ready for habitation.
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These were my cars at the time(today I have a real hummer H1 and an Escalade). This is a 1974 Cadillac Eldorado and a custom 1969 Corvette convertible. You can see the dioramas hanging over the cars on boards and GIJoe boxes in the background.
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First known article about GI Joes was by George Geary. Collectorrs talked about the photo of all the joes in a footlocker all the time. This was a 4 page article in Spinning Wheel magazines May 1983 issue.
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My business cards I made throughout the years to help me find GI Joes.
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At the Glendale All American toy show, I met a dealer named Lynn Becker. This is a note from Lynn Becker telling me about Artie Rickun who had a store in Milwaukee called Noahs Ark. Artie had over 15,000 original GI Joe sets in packages.
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Artie Rickun had a store in Milwaukee called Noahs Ark. Artie had over 15,000 original GI Joe sets in packages. This is a note from Artie Rickun listing SOME of the GI Joe sets he had, the prices he wanted and on the far right my bumber of how many I bought.
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Otrher side of note from Artie Rickun listing the GIJoe sets he had and prices he wanted and how many I bought.
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This is Paul Denero and I. Paul lived in NJ. 20 years ago Paul was a well known collector of toys with tons of vintage Joe stuff that he would sell me.
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This is Jess "Jessie" Catano. Jess was one of the first local collectors I met while Joe hunting at the swapmeets. Jess collected every toy from the 60's and inspired me to do the same.
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