Robert M. Overstreet grew up as a comic book,
coin, and
Indian arrowhead collector. In the 1960s, after abandoning a project to create an arrowhead price guide, Overstreet turned his attention to comics, which had no definitive guide. Comic back-issue prices had stabilized by the end of the 1960s, and,
Jerry Bails, who had recently published the ''Collector's Guide to the First Heroic Age'', was considering creating a comic book price guide. He was contacted by Overstreet, who was doing the same thing. Bails' extensive notes, supplemented by Overstreet's study of dealer listings, "became a backbone to the
Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide". Under the auspices of Overstreet Publications, the first
Comic Book Price Guide was published in November 1970. Priced at $5, saddle-stitched and published in a print run of 1000 (a second edition of 800 was released subsequently), the book included 218 pages of listings. Among other things, Overstreet's guide included inventory lists, and it instantly became an invaluable resource tool for comic book collectors and dealers. ==See also==