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AndyFish

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Posts posted by AndyFish

    Is my wife right? Comics are like real estate - the more times a single book sells, the more the price inflates?

    in Comics General

    Posted

    She's right in that you stand a far better chance of making a profit in real estate or collectibles if you're able to hold on to something for longer than someone who is looking for a quick flip, but there are flippers and day traders who sometimes make a killing.   If I bought a house in my neighborhood in the 1970s as some of my neighbors did I now own a house worth about $450k going by recent market sales.   I bought my house seven years ago for $195k and it's valued at $400+ with this current inflated housing market.

    Comics as a commodity are unique because they are rarer than houses or stocks, if I want a house in a certain neighborhood and I'm outbid by another buyer I need only wait until another one comes along.  If on the other hand I'm in the market for a 9.2 BATMAN #1 there is a much smaller number of those on the market (if at all).

    IF I can stumble off topic for a second; It gets even more complicated with original art-- I laugh at the idea of price guides-- with original art you are talking about one of a kind items.  You want THIS page that I own?  You have to pay my price even if you don't think that price is fair.  That's the price.  You can settle for a different page from the same book but not THE page I have.  For example, the page from AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #124 where Jameson admits his son is the werewolf-- it's a desirable page but NO amount of money buys it, so is it worth $5 million?  It is if I own the page and I say so.

    Convince me not to sell my entire comic book collection... Or don't.

    in Comics General

    Posted

    I'd ditch the cats and keep the comics, but then I'm a dog person. ;)

    I second the thought that I've sold collections in the past and lived to regret it.   I sold my Detective Comics #29-#36 to help finance a purchase for my then wife (she's now long gone thanks).  I should have gone to a bank, I could have gotten a loan at a good rate and paid it back.  Money doesn't accumulate value anywhere near as quickly as those pre-Robin detectives did.  And I bought all of those in the late 70s early 80s so I think I paid no more than $200 for any single issue and they were all mid grade and better.   I'll never do that again, and I have a run of Batman #1-20 that will go with me to the great beyond. But money is not the motivator for you, that's a good place to be.

    I'd suggest buying one of the new fancy plastic comic short boxes (Amazon has 'em) -- they are great, they are durable and would stand up to cats.  Short boxes are a helluva lot less heavy than long boxes.  Fill three of them with titles you LOVE and then call up Ted @ Superworld or someone else who will travel to you and arrange all of the processing and shipping and hand you a pile of cash.   Don't discount some dealers not giving you a fair shake, I was with him in Chicago when he bought a large collection and it was much higher than what I would have expected a dealer to pay.  Worst case you decline the offer and you're not out anything.

    Easy peasy.

    • Popular Post
    • Popular Post

    Little Giant’s “Old School Comic Show” Concord, NH April 23, 2022

    in Comic Events

    Posted · Edited by AndyFish

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    Made the 90 minute trip up solely to say hello to son's #2 and #2 who were manning the SUPERWORLD Booth and to get my STERANKO Hardcover signed.  There's a story here, so please excuse me; I've always been a big Steranko fan but none of his reprinted works fit on a shelf in my art studio where I keep "inspirational" work-i.e. some Kirby collections, some Eisner, etc.   So I made a hardcover of all of Jim's original Marvel work, complete with a slipcover and as an edition of 1/1.   I not only love the work of Steranko, I love the guy-- he and I have a bond in that we both learned to box to get ourselves out of bad neighborhoods where bullying was the norm.   We both knew Mickey Spillane and we've got other connections as well, so it was great to spend so much time with him.  For anyone who came up behind me to his line, I happily stepped aside so he could interact with other fans but it was late enough in the day that things had slowed down.   We talked old movies, serials, pulps, art supplies, painting techniques, gallery shows and made plans to get together later in the summer.  He's the best.  Highlight for me was when he made me an official Steranko Henchmen, complete with the secret password and a T-Shirt you cannot buy.

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    The irony there is that I don't wear T-Shirts, never have.   I'm a collared shirt guy and always have been, and I don't like printed T-Shirts but if I'm going to be someone's henchman it would be Steranko.

    I made a lightning fast pass through the show, said hello to Mike Royer and checked in on my boys who had already gathered a box of books from the show which they kindly give me dibs on should there be something that catches my eye.

    On the way back my wife and I stopped at a good deli that was at the plaza with the New Hampshire State Liquor store and I picked up a few bargains there too.

    Life is good.  Little Giant is an impressive little show that seems to bring in the good stuff.

     

     

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    Is anyone else tired of comic book movies?

    in The Movie Forum

    Posted

    Big Budget CGI laden movies without an actual plot or characters of interest are boring to me, so I've not seen 90% of comic book movies.   I like a story told in around 90 minutes using actual people.   GHOST WORLD is probably the best comic book movie I've ever seen, for example.   

    To me even good CGI just looks lousy.   When the last Spider-Man movie came out with Michael Keaton I remember him showing a clip on David Letterman or some similar show, and it was The Vulture and Spidey fighting-- after it was over Keaton just sat there, clearly not excited to be promoting anything and asked why he's showing a clip that doesn't feature any real people.

    80 page Giants, 100 pagers. Superman, Batman, Olsen, Lois Lane, etc. About 30 lower grade books.

    in Golden/Silver/Bronze Age Only

    Posted

    On 11/3/2021 at 8:36 PM, DR.X said:

    Jimmy Olsen 80pg Giant G25 - #95 5.0  with light tide mark?

    BP = $

    Description - Nice square tight copy. Some light edge creases and light wear. Spine is real nice. Lower outside bottom corner B.C. has a tide mark or stain ( nothing on the pages ) by  the yellow box in the corner. See pics.

     

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    Price on this one?

    Things you had to sell (to pay the bills...)

    in Comics General

    Posted

    I had this very conversation with some good friends recently, be hesitant to sell your collectibles no matter the situation, unless you have zero attachment to them.   Thirty years ago I sold off my near complete run of pre-Robin Detectives (was missing #27 and #37 and all other non-Batman covers except for #34) and I got a good price for them at the time.   Let's say for the sake of simple numbers I got $10k for them then and paid off $10k worth of debt or whatever it was I needed the money for (I'd suspect it was now ex-wife then current wife related).

    Now if I'd simply gone out and got a personal loan from a bank and paid a reasonable interest rate I MIGHT have paid the bank $12,500 for that $10k.   Well looking at the value of those Detective Comics I probably paid $100k for that same $10k back then.    Why didn't I go to the bank?  Because I thought it would be easier than going to the bank and asking for a loan (I could have used the comics for collateral on a personal loan and I'd still have the comics).    Many years later and many dealings with bankers later and I realize it's no harder than dealing with a golden age comic book dealer and my credit score is 840 (near perfect).   

    I bring this up for the sake of a younger collector who's contemplating selling the equivalent of what I did, go a different route and you'll be better served in your later years.

    Little help with Gigantor figures

    in Comics General

    Posted

    Not sure what you're asking-- do you know what's in the box?   It says something about a car and "white iron man" -- you might be having a hard time searching because in Japan he's not called Gigantor he's Tetsujin 28-go.   With all Japanese items my first stop is always Mandarake.com-- they have a half dozen + stores all over Japan (I've been to six of them) and they have amazing DHL shipping which gets your item to the states, even during the height of the pandemic when nothing was getting delivered, in three to five days.   If you sign up for a free account with their website you can choose "english" as an option to display items on the web-page.   Expect zero help customer service wise, except for their Tokyo store they speak very little english.   After Mandarake try the Tetsujin search on eBay and I bet you'll get better results.