Moondog

On April 18 Action Comics 1000 will be released. 80 years ago DC created 3 ashcan editions. To celebrate this incredible accomplishment I'm going to take my Action Comics ashcan out of the vault and display it at the Comix Revolution shop in downtown Mt. Prospect, IL.from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. This is only the third time in 33 years that I've displayed it. No purchase required to get a photo with it. No purchase required to hold it. No purchase required to stop and chat with me about it.

Yes.

Cool, dark and dry. 60 F. 50% relative humidity. Dark room.

Well said, and I agree with you.

Nothing was more fun than having John hold court in your booth. He'd pop over to say hi and we would start chatting. After a few minutes there would be 4 or 5 people who stopped by to listen in. Then a few more. And John loved it. He could expound on any topic: Pedigrees, Timelys, DCs - you name it. And people were drawn to him because his love for comics would just explode from him. He was the real deal. He was genuine. And he'll be missed.

When someone from the boards pops in and looks around, please post your impressions of the inventory and prices. I'm very curious to hear opinions.

We buy all books - slabbed or raw. Because we sell so many slabbed items on eBay and at shows we aren't stocking any at the moment. Look for some in the future.

I hired Jim Mortensen in 1995 fresh out of Northwestern to head the marketing efforts of the then 21-store Moondog's chain. When the industry collapsed (along with Moondog's) in 1996 Jim opened Comix Revolution in an old Moondog's location in Mt. Prospect, IL. He opened his second location in Evanston soon after. That's over 20 years ago. In all those years Jim didn't sell any vintage comics. He just didn't want to invest all the time and effort necessary to learn about old comic books when it was the art form, and the creators of today, that were his main interests. So no back issues. They just didn't fit in with his marketing plans and his idea of what a comic book shop should be. That's where I come in. About 5 years ago I convinced Jim to let me be his buyer of vintage comics. After all there were tons of old Moondog's customers still in the area and they may want to sell their collections and who better to buy them than the guy who sold them?! So for 5 years I've been buying old comics in the Mt. Prospect location and every so often filling a few requests. Enter Pete Przysiezny of Comics4Less. The national comic book selling powerhouse. I flip a lot of quality material to Pete and he keeps asking where it's coming from. I tell him Comix Revolution in Mt. Prospect - I'm their buyer of vintage comics. He suggests a meeting with Jim to discuss SELLING old comics at the shop! Whoa! So the three of us get together and lo and behold, Comix Revolution at 115 W. Central Rd. now has one of the best back issue selections in Chicago. We're just getting started. Pete brought in 25 boxes of quality SA and BA and a smattering of some nice moderns. I added a few things myself. $2 and $5 and $10 books. Tons at over half Overstreet. No kidding. With more to come. Oh, and you get a bonus too. I'll be hanging out at the shop more often. If you have quality material to sell call me at 847.707.7092 or email me at moondog100@comcast.net. We'll also be filling want lists too.

Bill Black published these back in the late 70s. He used them to promote his line of big-breasted women comics and to make a few bucks at the same time. Nothing major as to value. $5. Maybe $10 if you can find someone who loves them.

Many of you know that Dr. Steve Landman amassed one of the finest SA collections in the history of our hobby. He's generally considered to be the first (or among the first) to use bags and boards to protect his collection. About 5 years ago Steve asked me to sell his collection to finance a medical procedure he hoped would cure his rare neuropathy. Many of his books at the time were the single-highest graded examples. The collection, sold exclusively through ComicConnect, grossed over $800,000 with many books setting records. Before Steve decided to have this radical and dangerous procedure done he sought out some holistic advice and soon discovered some success at arresting the degenerative condition. Nearly 5 years later he's doing exceptionally well. He's not out of the woods but by any means, but he's slowed down the rate of decline to an amazing extent. I had lunch with Steve last week and thought I'd share this photo. He wishes everyone well and expects to be at the Chicago Con in August.

Hi Andy. You're so right. Today the Cap 1 is a 8.5. The Marvel 1 is a 9.0. I don't know about the other keys... So I'm forced to toil away at a mindless job with co-workers I hate...Waitaminnit - I am retired, play golf all the time, and have a blast selling comics part time! Life is good!

Hi Bob. Yep. Amazing that these books walked into my shop the first day I was open on September 16, 1978.

Hi Alan. My notes say, "FAIR - cover dust shadows, insides brown, bottom right corner of cover off." Sounds pretty rough for a Windy City...

I was shown 7 Wings comics today. 2, 4, 6-8, 10-11. The images I saw beforehand (front cover IPhone pics) gave me the impression they were VF. Sure I new the interiors could be brittle. but the seller was telling me how supple the pages were - "not brittle at all." So I meet the seller today, take the books out of the envelope, and my heart leaps - beautiful copies! Then my heart breaks, the spines are all split. Right on the edge of the spine. For no reason other than age. I still bought them but at a fraction of what I would have happily paid. It's really f'ing hard to find an 75-80 year old comic book in top condition. It makes the existence of the Church copies even more amazing. Thank god for Edgar Church and the collectors preserving his books.

Right. Very cool stuff.

I posted this info in a previous thread. I hope this will help. I would select an auction house that agrees to not only list your comics in a catalog but to promote them through newsletters, mailings, etc. (along with their other major consignments). The timing of auctions is incredibly important and it's common place to have them overlap. Discuss this with Heritage, ComicConnect and ComicLink. Ask them what they think of your books and how they will approach the sale. I've found that everything is negotiable regarding buyer's / seller's premiums. Since this is your first time selling tell them you hope to establish a long-term relationship - that you may be selling other books in the future - and you're hoping that they will give you a better deal than their list prices. The auction business is hyper competitive and there's no reason to settle for a snooty attitude. If you feel you're not being treated properly, move on. After interviewing the 3 houses, select the one that gives you the most comfort in the deal, the promotion and their willingness to work with you. I have used all 3 houses extensively over the years and have experienced joy and disappointment from each - but that's the auction business.

He was a mentor to me. Great guy who helped me develop my own retail style.

I've been an advisor since the mid-80s. I received this plaque for my 20th year. I also got a pretty cool watch. Not sure if they do this any longer... I don't provide market reports anymore. My last ashcan report was two years ago. They're just not changing hands often enough to provide a report. I do record the prices and when something pops I let them know.

Here are original photos from 1978 taken by the guy who sold me the Windy City collection. It's a 9.0 today that Heritage sold in 2005 for $161,000. A million dollar book? I think so...

Sweet stuff. Love it!

I've found that simple is always better when dealing with insurance companies. As long as you have an itemized inventory, you should be able to calculate the value of your slabs by using GPA. I would use the OPG for everything else. Show the adjuster exactly how you did it. If the insurance company brings in an appraiser, explain your method. If you don't have grades of the raw books, I would price all the moderns at 9.2 Overstreet, the bronze and SA around Fine. This should seem reasonable to an appraiser.

In 1996 SDCC attempted to register (R in a circle) the comic-con mark. As CEO of the Chicago Comicon, I protested their registration since we would have had to ultimately purchase a license from SDCC or change our name. The Chicago Comicon owned no assets but its name and we would have had to pay SDCC for the right to use our own name! We used TM on our logo to protect our own brand, but never attempted to register the mark since we believed it was in common usage across the country. This was big news back then, and we used the same David and Goliath tactic. We prevailed and the Trademark Office rejected their registration. A year later we sold the show to Wizard and they dumped Chicago Comicon in favor of Wizard World. Apparently that gave SDCC a green light to try again and they were awarded the mark. After the fall of Wizard World, the owners decided to become Chicago Comic Con since everyone was familiar with Comic Con but not so much Wizard World. It's interesting to see what will happen.

No need to short-change yourself. The replacement value of a 2-year old modern is going to be $2-$3. For a 30-year-old modern: $2-$3. You can't assume that any book you have is readily available for a quarter in a bargain box.