spreads

Oh okay, then if you know of it being a recent dumping and there were other people scrambling to find comics then maybe. It's hard to believe someone actually sat down and went through it looking for keys to leave some of those behind. With my find, the collection was there for a full year (I found 5 copies of SSM 64) so it's super unlikely anyone actually looked at them....

Wow, nice grab. Reminds me of that antique shop several months back where I picked-the hell out of a copper/bronze collection. Do you think someone got there and went through the books, to leave all of what you grabbed behind at $2 each? It's possible whomever dumped these books off there never had those keys....1st Series Swamp Things, DCCP 26, Transformers 1, these aren't exactly newly hot books....?

How about out of respect for the OP you drop this?

Hey if I had a set of those I would ship them to you at just the cost of shipping, but for me to store obscure stuff like this that the odd person would not want it it's easier to dump in a cheap box or get rid of it. There is a lot of good stuff that will sell, and a lot of good stuff that won't sell. Go through the copper and modern forums and read some threads on titles, you'll get an idea..

This 1000%. Anyone interested in buying collections needs to read this post. What people don't understand is how much time it takes just to go through them - I'm not even talking about bags/boards or pricing them out. I spent probably 20 hours of my time alone helping him - no idea how much time he's spent. He has the ideal setup, runs periodic garage sales out of his house so no cost and limited time in moving/storage but even with all that it's still not worthwhile. I guess if you were retired and had nothing else to do, but then you run the risk of significantly injuring yourself if you're the only one lugging that many longs around. If I could get those for basically free and get a tax write-off and hopefully donate the comics to schools/hospitals/churches, etc. I would do it. But at that it would still be a pretty significant use of my time - basically goodwill.

So, we're in Canada where the Tax Rules don't afford us that opportunity or I would glady take advantage of it. I setup at regular shows too, my cost is minimal and I was able to move a good number of dollar books marked down to 50 cents each, but these were almost all Marvel/DC. To move these indy books - and they have to have big runs of titles, not random books here and there - you have to price them in the 25-50 cents each, maybe a buck each if it's a more popular indy book (Image/Valiant). If you're overall average selling price works out to 25 cents each, it's definitely not worth the time/effort.

Two years ago I helped a friend sort through 20k independent books; he asked for my help since I know a lot more about indy books than him. The take-away was it ended-up being a colossal waste of time, and I'm pretty sure he still has the bulk of them left. He admitted to me later on that it was a mistake and he wouldn't have bought the lot (even though it probably only cost him 1-2k). I don't mind buying a collection of indys if it was a collection, that's where you see more obscure (horror) or popular stuff (dawn, caliber comics, dark horse, quality vertigo, popular chaos comics, gore, rare indys from the 80s, etc.) that you can sell, but an old store stock or former dealer makes me think they weren't able to move it. I hope that's not the case for you, but man going through 20k books and not even seeing more than a few hundred that had any kind of demand was super devastating. I just bought a small collection the other day that had a bunch of Indy garbage: Now Comics, First Comics, Eternity Comics, stuff like beauty and the beast - straight to the recycling bin! I'm curious why you wouldn't want Valiants? With that collection of 20k comics, the only saving grace was early and late issues Valiants. At 10 cents each, assuming the Valiants aren't all Turok 1s or Rai 9s, good runs of any of those titles (even the commons) and especially later issues are books that you can actually move (granted it might be at 50 cents or 1 each) but people do want them.

I think you made the right call. Just had the monthly show yesterday; as expected it was pretty horrible. I did okay in sales by having orchestrated a sale with a bunch of books I was asked for, which was nice. I also ran an X-mas sale on my cheap books and the 1000+ $1 books I blew out at 50 cents. I moved probably about 20%, which is solid!! I think moving forward I'll keep those books at 50 cents, it's cheap enough that people can pickup readers of some good titles (e.g. big runs of Web, Spec.). I don't think I'll be bringing as many boxes though, maybe drop it down to 2 or 3 now that I'm bringing more and more inventory. As I mentioned above, this show had a few dealers that attended the other show in the city. I chatted with a few guys and the organizer yesterday about not having those concurrent shows; I don't know how much of an impact it made in attendance but it's pretty stupid on their part. Honestly I can't believe we have as many people as we do that drive 60-90 minutes to setup at this show, I wouldn't.

Online advertising is nice, I've asked the local organizer to do that more - even if it's free kijiji ads. I don't know how much of this is within your control, but trying not to setup on concurrent dates of competing venues/events would be key. The monthly show I've been attending seems to keep landing on dates with similar shows and it's frustrating because it splits the attendees up even-more.

How are the spines on them? Well-known deficiency in Harby 1, out of the 10 copies I've owned I've only had one that was worth grading. And that's now that CGC has relaxed their stance on grading, 10-15 years ago a 9.8 was impossible. Also congrats on the find! To see the VEI gold means this is a pure collector of that product line....

Also just snagged a low grade ASM 129 for $50....I think my personal copy is missing pages, i'll crack it open and double check.

You want to take pain moving boxes - I live (hopefully not much longer) in a penthouse condo on the 27th floor. At least if that floor collapses it might take down our neighbors! The most I've seen in person was a Kingston dealer's home and his 300+ boxes, god shoot me if I get anywhere remotely near that level. However, maybe if this thread is still running we'll re-visit this post in five years and I'll be at 400.

So, 50-60 shorts :P....I do lift two long boxes at once and carry them down the hall, I think I partially over-exerted myself and pulled a groin muscle because I was dying in the last ball hockey game. Another off-topic rant, how and where do you guys store your books? I see having a short-box inventory as a huge plus in that regard.....

How long would those plastic boxes last? It's funny, a buddy of mine was trying to sell used long-boxes...lol it's like they're taped and beat-up, just give em away to people who want em! Would the short boxes take longer to move though? I'm looking at the 8-10 longs I'm bringing, seems like it would take longer to load/unload?

I wouldn't bring them to shows to highlight, they would get damaged/bumped during moving. As a short-box on your shelf though they look amazing.

Have you guys seen those painted short boxes? I saw a few people with them last show, there was an all-black venom box! It looked really cool....

You guys are bringing all your own tables? https://www.sellmystuffcanada.com/ I've been to three of these in Ottawa now, they're franchise-run with an established business model. This franchise is run very-well, the company is professional and they're very efficient. I've gone to four of these and bought stuff at three of them (:P), my first experience with them was when I grabbed a pile of comics for $1 a piece (second guy in the door).

1000% I'm probably going to steal this and use a few.....

Do you know the make off-hand, curious to see if it's the same one I bought? I got it for $10...it was actually listed for free but I gave the woman $10 because I liked-it. She said she used it for many craft shows and it seems pretty stable - holds the 4-5 long boxes quite well - but I have only used it for three shows. Went to a 'sell-my-stuff' content sale today, we ended up walking away with two antique pieces - one that will be re-finished and painted, the other we're leaving as is. I'm dealing with a minor injury so I probably shouldn't have been buying/moving this stuff...oh well. This company is great, I'll never forget the first sale I went to where I was snagging $1 comics left and right, lol...

This setup is awesome guys, how much additional time/space is needed transporting the materials/wall displays. You guys really have quite the inventory if NTT #2 didn't make it to the wall! On average for a show like this how many of those wall books would you sell in a day?

There's usually kids out there practicing or playing a game; I like to heckle them - P.A announcer...."and here comes the turok 1s...." The table has been pretty solid so far, it came with good reviews and only cost me $10.

It's at an arena, but the main hall was packed and there's usually about 6-12 dealers setup along the hallway to the side. I don't mind being out there, more room for people and we usually bring extra tables/setup with no renting cost. I'm sure at one point there will be space in the main hall, but until all the card guys go away....

Very nice setup, quite 'retail oriented'. Here's my rickety- setup; I was at the end with no one showing up, the nice thing is that I have a lot of space. That side folding table I brought and added $1 books. I might even be able to grab another one, but for now I want to maximize my space (includes expanding the display wall). Since my display is so $hitty compared to yours I added a cute photo of one of my cats hanging out in my hockey bag.

"tied-back-to-back, bareheaded..." I guess not having a hat back then really sucked, lol.

There's a guy locally that advertises that....search "crazy trades" on kijiji and you'll see it. He's a great guy, but I'm stunned he was able to get anyone to offer those trades. I helped him out once helping him sort through an 18k collection of just independents, that's a couple weekends I'll never get back.