Cleveland, Ohio At the age of four or five, local collector Jamie Reigle developed a lifetime interest in Superman artifacts. He is currently 51 years old, and his collection is among the biggest in the nation.
A well-known story about lost gems served as the inspiration for the collection.
Growing up, my dad was an avid comic book collector. According to Reigle, his mother threw out all of his belongings, including the original comics, when he got married and moved out.
A father and son would search for comics at garage sales, hotel shows, and comic book stores before the internet. Reigle only read DC comics, especially Justice League, Superman, and Batman, while his brother was more interested in Marvel. His original inventory list, which he kept painstakingly on wide-ruled paper since he was five years old, is still in his possession.
Seeing Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie in cinemas in the late 1970s is one of his first Superman memories. His favorite Superman actor is still Reeve.
Mego action figures and subsequently Super Powers figures, which he had to buy at closeout prices with little allowance money, were the next additions to his collection in the mid-1980s.
When Reigle started selling duplicate items at Jamie’s Flea Market in Amherst in 1999–2000, his devotion to Superman became even more. His Superman collection increased in tandem with his salary. To finance his Superman emphasis, he eventually sold off the majority of his Transformers, Wonder Woman, Batman, and Hot Wheels collections.
With Pete Marston, whose father William developed the character, his Wonder Woman collection found a unique home. He added that after I had packed up nearly everything, I had shipped it to him for his family’s museum. A few years later, he went to Marston’s house in Connecticut to see the Wonder Woman Museum in the basement, which housed his old collection.
Finding a Superman telephone banner used during the 1987 Superman show at the Western Reserve Historical Society was one of his most memorable discoveries, together with his father James.
According to Reigle, there were initially ten banners created for the occasion; I’ve managed to locate only three of them.
Additionally, he once paid just $50 at a flea market for a Wing Victory program signed by George Reeves, who portrayed Superman in the 1950s television series, and sold it for almost $2,000.
He has also lost out on possibilities, such as a worn-out Superman trading card box from the 1940s that was valued at $2,000 but ended up fetching about $13,000 at auction. The Cleveland Comic Book & Nostalgia Show taught Reigle a difficult lesson when he was a teenager.
I sold several of my comic books to a vendor for two bucks each. He received $6,000 after turning around. He recalled that it was similar to the original Iron Man or Daredevil.
A portion of his enormous collection has been widely traveled. For over 15 years, Reigle was a dealer at the Metropolis Superman Celebration in Metropolis, Illinois. During the Smallville SuperFest Celebration, he rented a facility in Plano, Illinois, for two years. This was the same building that was used for Smallville’s Paynes Toys and Comics in the Man of Steel film.
His house has been transformed into a Superman haven today. A framed inaugural Superman issue, one of the last things signed by the superhero’s co-creator before his death in 1992, is the focal point above his couch. He even has a Superman shower curtain in his bathroom.
When asked about his day job, he responded, “I always say I’m a full-time collector because I look on different sites, local and eBay every single day.” In addition, I volunteer a lot. I grant wishes through Make A Wish. As the president of our music boosters, I oversee all fundraising efforts including the purchase of instruments, uniforms, music, and other items.
Unopened Superman peanut butter jars and a Twinkie from DC Comics’ 1987 50th birthday celebration in New York City are on display in a room off the kitchen. They used tiny individual Twinkies in a Superman box in place of a large cake. According to Reigle, the original Twinkie in my box is currently as hard as cement.
His love for his family is evident in the names he gave his sons: Alexander (after Lex Luthor) and Kalel (after Superman’s Kryptonian name, Kal-El).
Reigle continues to uphold the heritage of Superman as one of the founding members of the Siegel and Shuster Society, which was established in 2007 in response to a newspaper article highlighting the underappreciation of the superhero’s Cleveland creators. At a dedication ceremony outside the Huntington Convention Center on Saturday, the group will reveal the Superman Tribute Plaza. America’s original comic book superhero and his Cleveland creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, are honored by the privately funded $2.2 million monument, which includes a sculpture by local artist David Deming.
The Siegler and Shuster Society website is where donations can be made.
