stormflora

Golden rule of monetary advice for these types of scenarios: Do not spend/live beyond your means. Hobbies are, at their core, luxuries, unless they are part of your professional work. They are not critical for daily living. Everyone can get impulsive or obsessed over a newfound hobby. It's human nature. But realizing when it becomes a problem and seeking to resolve/control it is a step in the right direction. I personally haven't been in this hobby for long (only a few months), and I'm already slated to acquire some ~500 comics across two series' runs (Chip 'n' Dale & Tom and Jerry). But I knew when I was getting in to only focus on what I actually cared about, and to also keep my budget tight in case I wanted to exit or settle. Thus, almost all of the comic issues I've acquired thus far are cheap, and expectedly, low grade. Some were more expensive than others. (I have probably spent more time and effort haggling/finding deals than actually acquiring the comics, even if cost wasn't a serious problem. This part of the journey was, ironically, rather enjoyable.) I don't believe that comics should cost hundreds to thousands per issue, but I understand that rarity and age factor into cost. However, that does not change the fact that added up, I easily spent thousands of dollars already in that small timeframe. But it doesn't faze me. Why? Because my day job already makes enough disposable income to write it off as a typical monthly luxury purchase. I can sit back, relax, and wait a month or two, and all I've spent so far will be offset to zero. Comics are, of course, not the first hobby I've randomly gotten into, nor will it be the last. This isn't the first time I've impulsively started up a new hobby and spent hundreds to thousands on it, just to stop a month or two later. Part of it is probably due to my ADD and inability to keep lasting attention, but I still buy with an objective mindset expecting something to have at least some intrinsic value to me and/or my family. Although I am using money to buy happiness (however fleeting it is), it helps me cope with life, and I imagine this to be the same case for many others. In any case, if you are getting tired of/losing money on this hobby or any others, just take a break or stop. Offload comics to recoup some of your investment (or losses, depending on how you look at it). We've all been there in life, whether it is with comics or otherwise. There is no shame, and you aren't comparing yourself to anyone else.

This happens a lot, even in other industries like construction/renovation as well. Sometimes costs/expenses turn out to be more than what the company expected, and they sure as hell are not going to take a loss for their time, so they force it onto the customer and stunt their credit if they refuse to pay the added difference.

Very true. From what I've seen, unless you're getting high-valued comics at a total steal (from someone who doesn't know how to price it/estate auction/yard sale/etc.), any sort of profit margin is likely to be offset by the time, effort, and fees/costs of acquiring the comic itself. You're better off just working overtime.

Try checking PriceCharting.com for eBay sale prices of your comics. Gives you an idea for the range of prices they've sold at in the past.

Sent! Thank you very much!

Why, thank you very much, You made my night.

Is that sarcasm, or genuine praise? I can't tell behind a computer screen If it's the latter, then thanks a bunch man, I appreciate it I guess I'm bringing some life into what is a gradually dying hobby. Or well, becoming primarily confined to the elderly audience.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/256335805201?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=37iA-xwgS2S&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=TgHbm6Z1Tcu&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY For anyone interested.

Thank you for your thorough insight and personal experience. It was fascinating reading through your story. It does seem that the cartoon characters that were catered to teenagers/adults had longer lasting power than the ones strictly catered to children. I guess that makes sense--you can still watch/read the cartoons and get a good laugh out of them as you grow older. I imagine that by the 80's or so, trends had changed and people started to move onto different things. New readers can feel daunted and pressured by the feeling that they needed to start the series from the very first issue instead of picking it up in the middle, as TPBs/compilations were not yet common (if any, for the cartoon spectrum). This would've deterred a lot of new readers who likely adopted superhero comics instead because their friends and peers had done so. So I guess subject matter was the key factor, and most of those Dell/Gold Key cartoon characters simply could not provide enough for the older audience to keep them subscribed. With televisions and movies becoming much more prevalent in peoples' daily lives, there was no lack of alternative entertainment mediums either, which was an issue during the Golden/Silver Age as not everyone could afford those. As a millennial, I can only imagine what life must have been like going through those times, and the way trends changed.

Thank you for clarifying. That's what I was getting at; I would not want to disturb someone unless it was of significant importance (or they were a friend of mine). I'll continue to wait to see whether they get back to me within the week. I'm hoping to make another order soon.

I'm not too familiar with everyone here yet, as I'm still relatively new. Is he an employee of MCS? Would it be appropriate to contact him outside of standard contact?

@shadroch Still no response from MyComicShop. Perhaps backlogged with lots of orders/e-mails. Will wait a little longer and see. I'll be reordering the faulty books anyway, but I'd still like to be reimbursed for those bad copies (instead of being forced to resell them). I'll take store credit, even.

I've got a massive collection of Chip 'n' Dale and Tom and Jerry comics, that I'll be heat pressing myself to improve the condition and grade of for my own collection. I just figured I'd have a little thread set up to show the results of my escapades. So far, I've only done one comic, after two beater comic tests. It will be a long journey, considering how long each comic needs during the cold press process. Here is the very first one: Tom and Jerry #80. Cleaned and pressed. I gave it a GD prior to the operation, and now I think it's more like a GD+.

If you don't want to send it off to someone to get it heat pressed and have the spine realigned, you could do your own makeshift fix for it. But it will take some time. Get a few clothespins/binder clips, forcefully align the comic, and then squash the spine with something heavy, with the clips outside of the clamped area. Let it sit for weeks on a shelf or something.

Yeah, as someone who leases out units in a residential building, my experience has been that newcomers (especially temporary visitors) tend to just ditch stuff they don't absolutely need before leaving. That would typically be clothing, but I've seen other regular daily use items being discarded as well, as well as electronics like laptops in some cases. Moral of the story is, sometimes you gotta Marie Kondo large collections of stuff and only keep what brings you real joy. Yikes, scary. Hired a bad company. Glad to hear that they eventually arrived safe and sound.

Rough. What exactly unfolded at the storage unit? Just some crook came in and started looting the place? Or was it a targeted collection?

IMHO, eBay will still remain one of the best marketplaces for amateur sellers to sell items of niche hobbies like comics. Forums like these... have very limited reach as you are only dealing with a few dozen members at any given time. The advent of Facebook Marketplace and its various comic book-centric groups help spread the word a bit domestically/locally, but even then, not everyone out there uses Facebook. If you've got a sizable enough collection and/or many big ticket items, then you could try Heritage or HiBid auctions. Reality is, sometimes you just have to change your strategy on eBay to focus on faster turnaround. Maybe try selling things for lower profit margins and being savvier about purchases to keep expenses low. (Hell, exiting the market altogether is also a strategy too, if you can make better income elsewhere.)

Yeah, I feel like OP should just rent a truck and move the comics over themself. It's the safest way.

If you don't take care of it yourself, you're subjecting yourself to the mercy of any mover you hire. And there will never be any sort of guarantee of safe and proper handling of goods regardless of reputation. If anything, I'd wager that bigger companies are more likely to rush things/be careless for the sake of getting more jobs done. You sure you can't just hire a family member/friend/local mom-and-pop mover?

Oh wow, thanks for the clarification! That definitely sounds interesting. It's kind of like the first Tom & Jerry cartoons which showed them living in then-luxurious conditions that were clearly out of reach to the common folk, except taken further up a notch. Why did it die in popularity after the 70's? Kids grew up and moved onto superhero comics?

Oh, I'm not buying any Richie Rich comics. I was just saying that I kept seeing them all over storefronts online, and was curious what the big deal was about it. It seemed far more common than a lot of other cartoon series from that age. I suppose having a 254-issue run does indeed speak for itself. If it wasn't good, it wouldn't have kept going for so long.

Those prices don't look cheap to me, but that's probably because I'm speaking from perspective of someone who's tackling this hobby with a tight budget. 254 issues, even at $3 each, would be $762 USD + tax/shipping/etc. That's a lot in my eyes. But probably not for most seasoned collectors. As someone who has no idea about the series, was it just as significant as Archie, in the USA?

IMO, with low value/unknown value comics that you don't care for, either slap on a $0 or $5 auction price and let it freely auto-renew each month. (The latter if you want to recoup some losses off of something you deliberately purchased.) Store it in some cold, dry room in your basement and pop in if any of them actually sell. There's bound to be someone who wants to collect a run and stumbles upon your listing. Or sell it as part of a larger lot. The $5-10 that you lost on a comic will be earned back by you in less than an hour during your ordinary day job.

Random bump, but figured I'd ask here as well. I keep seeing dozens of listings of a series called "Richie Rich", almost as frequently as I do Archie, but I've never seen or heard of the series before in Canada. Is it a super common slice-of-life series that's similar in nature and isn't particularly worth much? Another question I have is regarding Dell/Gold Key PCH comics: Why are they not worth much either?

Yeah, I wouldn't know what happened, really. I imagine that they do not put much emphasis (if any) on inspecting these low value comics beyond just a quick cover glance and perhaps skim-through. Of the eleven comics with problems, four were missing pages, and one probably had some kid cut out a chunk of page, which shouldn't be allowed for a "VG"-graded comic.