Customer Reviews

Tomart's Price Guide to Radio Premium and Cereal Box Collectibles: Including Comic Character, Pulp Hero, TV and Other Premiums (Tomart's Price Guides)

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This book is a detailed description of premiums nostly obtained originally from Old-Time Radio shows and comic books. It catalogues each premium by character name (e.g., Captain Midnight, Tom Mix, Jack Armstrong), many with photographs. In addition to monochrome photos, there are also 12 pages of full-color collections of premiums by type (badges, rings, etc.) plus color cover photos of premiums. Author Tumbusch has researched the premiums diligently, which also include early television as well as radio, "premiums" from comic books and those as "prizes" in cereal packages.

In addition to listing values, Tumbusch makes a point of providing background, where possible, on the various premiums. Particularly for the new collector, the book makes it easy to identify some obscure ring or badge found at a flea market or garage sale.

The book is nearly a decade old, so the prices listed shouldn't be taken too seriously, though they might provide an idea of the relative values of premiums.

Even those not collecting such items should find the pictures and writeup of the premiums an interesting and informative perspective on the collectibles of yore.

I purchased this book used, and it arrived promptly and in new condition in all respects. It is a 1991 edition and I don't know if there is a later one. My purpose was to get an idea of what things on e-bay are worth to help me with bidding, but there doesn't seem to be much correlation between e-bay sell prices and the book. On the other hand, everything I've looked for is included the Tomart book- it is very complete and has at least given me a rough idea of where to start with bidding. Considering the age of the book's edition, I've added 15% to values shown and that seems to get somewhat into the ballpark of true values. All in all, for the price I paid, I got my money's worth.