Warren Phillips was working as a camera technician when he started selling antique cameras, used magazines, and framed car advertisements at Christchurch’s large Riccarton Market. The popular market is held on Sunday mornings at Riccarton Park Racecourse and is organised by the local Rotary Club.
Warren’s source of car ads was magazines of the ’60s and ’70s, such as Playboy and The Saturday Evening Post, in which US automakers would regularly take full-page ads to announce new models. Australian magazines such as Wheels would have similar spreads featuring the latest Holden or Falcon.
At this time, one of the major players in the city’s second-hand book and magazine market was Tommy Redden, who, under the ‘Ringo’s Book Exchange Shop’ logo, ran a stable of ill-lit establishments where paperback novels and glossy girlie magazines were sold.
A huge appetite for print
The shops, run by casual staff, made good money, but, equally important, they were a venue where Tommy bought stock. He bought, or swapped two-for-one, very large numbers of all types of books and magazines, anything printed, really – Ace Double books, and magazines such as New Zealand Woman’s Weekly, The Listener, Penthouse, Health and Efficiency, Amazing Stories science fiction, and, especially, Playboy. A 1974 article in Christchurch’s The Press claims that Ringo’s was turning over 300,000 books and magazines a year.
Tommy purchased inner-city properties within the four avenues – leaky, rundown, and prone to break-ins and fires,
