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OGDEN — An Ogden comic book store now has the distinction of housing one of the largest collections in the world.
Heebeegeebeez in Ogden houses more than 2-million books for their customers and employees to check out, ranging from first editions of Spider-Man to X-Men comic books — each valued into the thousands of dollars. This collection is what put them at the top of the list, and a lot of it came from one huge auction bid.
"You know, I kind of feel like a library," said co-owner Jon Pust. "Someone who's kind of protecting our history, because pretty soon, the print media will be gone."
[I feel like I'm] kind of protecting our history, because pretty soon, the print media will be gone.
–Jon Pust, Heebeegeebeez co-owner
What started as a childhood hobby has now turned to Pust's own unique take on U.S. history. Now he and co-owner Rachael Williams have one of the top three biggest retail collections in the world.
A store in Colorado and one in Florida are the other two, though Pust says nobody is quite sure who has the most.
"Even now, there are boxes that we haven't opened for the first time," Pust said.
What pushed Heebeegeebeez to the top was a huge auction buy.
"60,000 square feet, and it was stacked 30 feet in the air," recalled Pust.
"Thirty guys got together to help us unload just one of the trucks," added Williams.
There were six semitruck loads that Pust brought home from Las Vegas, much of it still waiting to be inventoried. They've already found some major gems. Still, while the numbers are impressive, these guys say the collection is about much more.
"There are humanity pieces," said Williams. "There are things that deal with the darker side of human nature. I think they've maintained, through the past 75 years of their popularity, the necessity for innocent imagination."
Heebeegeebeez has four locations, but the owners say this one alone, is what puts them at the top three for the largest retail collections in the world. They're constantly sorting through their recent auction buy — for example, they say still have about 700 boxes just of the letter "S" to organize.
