spreads

This guy needs some borat-justice. Can we find where these individuals live and throw them down a well?

I have 15 years experience in the equity markets (in both proprietary trading and at the institutional level (with over 50 billion in AUM)) .There's far too much randomness to put a small blip in a short period of market volatility to say that is causing a delay in sales. I have stuff posted online and locally and there's no direct correlation why some stuff sells quicker than others - I will never be able to figure it out. I think if you're concerned about a downtrend in the collectible markets, you should look at the gradual rising interest rate environment we're currently in. But this is a much, much longer-term affect.

Let us know, these are often the stories for great buys. Or a bunch of joke, but 20 minutes away you can't not check it out. In other news, we have purchased a home (had the inspection today); so it looks like I need to make an effort to move out some of these books I have

Turns out the buyer tonight was a regular at the shows, so I'm happy it's going to a good home since I won't be offering cheap 50 cent readers anymore.

Do you have any Vampirella variants? I sold some on ebay to a guy in Austria a few weeks ago, he had a very long WTB list (I think he was collecting the entire run). If you have some I'll give you his contact.

I remember the TWD Serbian books were super hot; I think they still sell quite well on ebay. I had no idea there were Invincible ones as well, but it makes sense...

Thanks. It is a cool-looking cover, presents well in Mylar. I priced it at $100 but I'm happy to hold onto it for my collection - I just don't see cool stuff like this often.

So I ended-up grabbing that lot yesterday; it was an hour drive back to an area where I grew-up. I chatted a bit with the guy, but not as much as I normally would have because I had to high-tail it back to an easter dinner. Great Lot; about three long-boxes worth that will be covered by 300 alone. Owner had these books for years, read from the stands. The condition as not great as most were unbagged/boarded, but he did know which books were important and those were protected. Highlights: He was a big Miller/Macfarlane guy so basically every copper-age Marvel Macfarlane was there aside from some late ASMs, and also some DC books. These three runs I haven't completely gone over yet, but I'm fairly confident what's there: X-Factor - sold run, have to go through the books but I think it has the first 70 issues or so New Mutants - complete from 1 to about 90 (too bad he didn't get the full run), includes Annuals X-Men - big run, starts in the 100s and goes into the 270s (266, 244, 212, etc. all there) I've already-stripped all the other books (lots of semi keys in there, some trades, and some sets I'll put together) and I've since advertised the rest into two bulk lots with buyers already scheduled to pick them up tomorrow. I know you guys have bigger inventories, but I'm not taking that approach of having books from each title... Oh and this book was thrown-in...he said he got it at a yard sale for a nickel - thought that was a myth! He didn't think it was worth anything in the condition, unfortunately he didn't have any more.

Those are interesting, I don't know how I feel about the esthetics of bulky plastic boxes instead of long boxes.

It's funny you talk about work; that box I sold I met the guy wearing my company's fleece. It turns out he has a buddy I know that works there....I could not agree with you more, you need to be able to network and talk to people to have an edge over other sellers. I've had people offer me deals first, just by being friendly and chatting with people. During the monthly shows I hear some guys gripe about lack of sales while they're sitting down on their chair, removed from their boxes and customers. Here's an idea...why don't you get up, say hello and be friendly with people!

Wow, gone for a day and you guys have bought-out Northern Alberta! Just to give you guys some color on the small lot, within less than two days of acquiring-it: I've already added around 40 books to my existing runs to complete their collection (I'll bag/board them tonight), have recouped 25% of my cost with one box sale with parties interested in two others. I might have 80% of my cost back in about a week's time, this lot won't be a huge profit driver for me, but the effort to adding a good stack of books I need, while also building-out inventory all in a pretty minor amount of effort makes me happy. This is probably the coolest book from the lot, I priced-it out already for the next show if I do it, but I'm more than happy to hold-onto it. EDIT: I should also mention I'm scheduled to meet a collection tomorrow out-of-town, in the short period of time between going to the gym and thanksgiving dinner. I try to make due getting by without my own vehicle, luckily this isn't a large lot....

That looks pretty amazing to me - are you an engineer, the designs are so meticulous? No suggestions for improvement it's pretty awesome. My only question is, how are you going to sort them, alphabetically starting from top left?

Ya, and to think they're still Pre-Unity books out there in dollar bins....there's enough of us out there to willing to save these books it's difficult to believe they haven't been scooped-up yet.

Wow, hard to go wrong paying 10 cents a book - and brand new bagged/boarded LCS stuff. That wouldn't work for me but I can see why larger dealers like yourself (and a few local ones I know of), however this is the type of stuff with the largest profit margins.

Good stuff - seems like a nice show. The website is very well put-together, although no guests identified yet and it's three months away?

Way to wet your whistle! So I know I said I wasn't actively buying (I'm being extra picky) but I picked up a lot of about 600 comics real cheap. It had big runs of Wolverine, Punisher, PWJ, as well as a spattering of ASM, WEB, SSM, etc. So I'm happy I'll be using it to fill holes....there were other good stuff of value in there, some old Atlas books, full runs of titles. I'll use this weekend to quickly go through what I want and dump the rest real cheap. The kicker is he had a ton of keys, including some real big books but they were stickered with some crazy prices - however knowing what he has gives me an in on the competition if I can make a play at his stuff some time down the road. Edit: in case anyone cares, certain parts of Ottawa's real-estate is white-hot. We missed out on a property last week by going in at 107% of ask and lost it by 5k Sometimes you need to buy comics to make you feel better...

I don't think it's a trap, look at what else the seller has - no comics. I think it's an example of not knowing much about the comics (there's not even a description of titles) and selling them as a lot - the person might have bought them at an estate auction or locally. I think the price is pretty good for a collector, but I don't think you'd make a lot if you tried to break them up and sell them individually.

Sir, I've been trying to tell you, you're not wearing any pants!

Well said. Some of the comments in that blog are equally insightful, 'Comic Book Guy out of the Simpsons wasn't created out of nothing, after all.'

They go up until they don't! Then he might change his tune...but like you said at that point it will be liking to the wall if you've ignored his emails.

Great story. I think this is particularly common with the older 'stubborn' generation. I wrote somewhere of an old collector that had 'guide' value in his mind 30 years ago for books, and now they had to be worth more! And when he told me no book would cost more than $10/each, he didn't have an answer when he totaled the lot value for me with a price greater than that! I think they just get confused.....

But the thing is, if you have longs sorted by one character, then the rest sorted alphabetically, your system overall will be inconsistent (and maybe confusing). I like donut's idea - straight alphabetical.

How many books advertised are not 'mint'. You'd think the pages were stuck with old lady candy, you know those red/white mints you'd see in candy jars back in the day.

If I continue to move forward with this I will need to structure my longs better also. One thing I did do to 'spice' them up was had some color labels on them, nothing fancy - like my $2 golden/silver books I had some labels on the front of the box. I have a box of keys and semi keys I was thinking of sticking on some graphics of keys, along with the era of the books they're from. Since most of those boxes cover multiple titles a quick description of manufacturer and era will be sufficient for people to quickly know what's in there. I've realized advertising is very important and probably the biggest area I need to improve upon.... Here's a label....I would have a text box too underneath to provide more info.

I don't know if you're still in touch with him but I wonder if there's any leftover comics floating around? Comics that haven't been touched since 2000 could see benefit from serious appreciation over the years. And maybe he has other stuff that had little or no value then, like gaming cards that are worth acquiring.