OrangeCrush

42 minutes ago, F For Fake said:

I never buy statues with the intention of selling them, I just have collecting ADHD, my interests bounce around a bit, so sometimes I decide to channel funds from one piece into something new. I can only imagine what it must have looked like dragging all of those blocks of styrofoam away. Geez louise.

Yeah, I can understand that as I am really the same way.  I collect a LOT of different things, but never all at the same time. As you stated, I just kind of bounce around between all of my various collecting hobbies as time goes on. There is really no method to the madness. My interests just kind of shift randomly depending on the various collectibles being released on the market or various things that wind up popping up on eBay, Kickstarter, etc. My wife is a big collector as well so we go to a lot of estate sales and storage bin auctions and the items that wind up being at some of those sales/auctions can get me collecting in a particular market again. I do have some hobbies where investment plays a role, but statues are definitely not one of them and the quality of statues has risen so dramatically in the last 4-5 years that I highly doubt I am going to reach a point where I want to get rid of any of them due to the quality. The house fire we wound up having in 2008 did a LOT of purging for me. That is really one of the only good things that came from that fire as I likely would have wanted to sell many of my older statues due to that large increase in quality we have seen. Many of those older statues would have just looked terrible next to these newer pieces that are being released. Sideshow's Thanos is a perfect example. I don't care how much statues continue to improve in the future, I just can't see myself ever looking at that piece and thinking that its just not good enough anymore. That's really one of the main reasons I was capable of throwing away those boxes. The statues I own now are just so amazing looking that I just can't see myself ever wanting to get rid of them due to quality. Another example is Harbottle's Red Sonja. I have serious doubts if I will ever see a better rendition of that character. Again, some of the pieces that have been released these last few years are just so amazing looking that the chance of me ever wanting to sell them is really at the slim to none level.

And worse come to worst, you can still sell a statue even without the box. Your just going to take a hit on the overall value.  I figure as long as the statue is in mint condition and you have all the accessories, you will likely lose around $100, maybe $150 tops for not having the styrofoam and brown shipping box. 

6 hours ago, F For Fake said:

 

Man, that takes some resolve. I am THIS close to doing it on some of the SST pieces that I'm 99% sure are lifetime keepers (My DC ladies, my Alien legendary busts), but I am so capricious with my collection, you never really know when I'm going to decide that I don't collect X anymore, so I sell all of my X so I can start buying Y or Z. But you're absolutely right, those PF boxes are enormous and eat up a lot of real estate. I was able to stash all of the boxes for my mid-sized pieces (Batman Black & White statues, Hot Toys, etc.) in tubs in the rafters of my garage. Gets them out of the way but leaves me the option of hanging onto them should I one day decide to sell.

Trust me, it was a LOT harder than I described it. I dropped them off at this recycling drop off that is like 4 miles from my house and I was literally going back and forth in my head as to wether or not I should continue to go through with it the entire time I was dropping them off and it took 5 trips in total to drop them all off. And that entire night, well into the next day, I was tempted to drive back and pick them all back up again, but once I got past the first couple days I really started to stop thinking about them and roughly a week later I was really content with my decision to get rid of them. I was literally at the point where I had very little space left so I had to choose from one of 3 options. I could stop collecting altogether and just be content with what I had, I could sell some of my old stuff to make room for new stuff, or I could toss a bunch of empty boxes that were taking up a huge part of my basement. Obviously, I chose the last option. I could also have gotten a storage bin, but spending X amount each month to store a bunch of empty boxes just didn't sit right with me. 

Investment plays no role in my statue purchases and I really have no plans on ever selling any of them. If I get my way, my son will be figuring out what to do with them when I am dead and buried. So the boxes really were disposable for me, but it was still EXTREMELY hard throwing them away. Again, I did keep the art boxes. I just broke them down flat and stored them in between some other boxes we have down in our basement. And the system I came up with for storing the various extras for my statues, which I explained in my last post, is actually VASTLY superior to keeping them stored in thier original boxes as not only are they better protected in the pick and pluck foam, but their also much easier to get too now. I can now get to any of my statues extra's in less than a minute, where as before I would have had to dig through all of the boxes to find the right box, open it up, pull out the piece I was looking for and then put all the boxes back again. It really is a great system and there is plenty of room left for future statue purchases.

1 hour ago, Cocomonkey said:

I've been looking for the 75 Years of DC Comics book, which is annoyingly out of print. I have the Marvel one, which I greatly enjoyed, but still need to find the DC one to go along with it.

Yeah, I own the Marvel one as well. Both are amazing books. Unfortunately for new buyers, both are now oop so your likely going to have to spend at least $200-$250 if your looking to get a near mint copy that still has the storage box in near mint condition. That being said, if getting the XL version is not a big deal for you, Taschen has just released a new version of the 75 Years of DC Comics book that you can find for around $60. Its got the same number of pages, but the dimensions of the book are smaller. The new edition is roughly 9" x "13 with 720 pages. The XL version is roughly 12.5" x 18" with 720 pages. 

9 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

Vampirella's are really getting more popular by the day !

Yeah, Dynamite has really done an amazing job with both Vampirella and Red Sonja since buying the rights to those characters. Popularity for both characters is really at an all time high. Amazingly, Sideshow has sold 9000 Red Sonja Premium Format statues in the last couple years and that doesn't include the new Red Sonja Premium Format statue that is currently up for sale and the newest Red Sonja statue is an absolutely beautiful statue so I have no doubt that statue will sell out in short order as well. So by this time next year its likely Sideshow will have sold roughly 13,500 Red Sonja Premium Format statues in a roughly 4 year period. Given that those 3 statues cost $380, $550, & $560, those are pretty impressive sales figures. And Sideshow has done very well with Vampirella statues as well. 

I am a HUGE Vampirella fan and my complete Vampirella magazine collection was one of the things I lost when we had our house fire in 2008 so it was really satisfying when I finally finished replacing that collection. And I actually purchased higher quality issues this time around. If I had gotten my initial collection graded, the average grade would have likely been in the 6.0-7.0 range. I have no doubt that all of my current issues will wind up with at least 8.0 or higher. Its definitely going to take some time to get them all slabbed and graded which is why starting that slabbing/grading this year is one of my biggest priorities in regards to my collecting hobbies.

10 minutes ago, NoMan said:

I would argue that Gerhard Steidl of Steidl Books is the world's greatest printer/publisher of books. We're splitting hairs here, but….

Its close, but IMO Taschen has a better overall selection, but that's purely subjective. Both are amazing publishers. 

7 minutes ago, NoMan said:

By "great toilet reading" I just meant it was handy size for the bathroom while seated upon the throne. It was in no way meant to be construed as the book being sh*tty quality or artistically speaking. I don't think that book featuring the woman with the saddle would be handy for toilet reading. 

I understood what you meant, after all the titles for those books are "The Little Book of..." and are only around 4" x 6" in size. They really are the perfect size for bathroom reading. I certainly don't want to read a Taschen XXL book while I am sitting on the toilet, lol. 

41 minutes ago, ComicConnoisseur said:

There books that go oop have good value on Ebay.

Yeah, especially their limited editions, which can get EXTREMELY expensive. I own a few of Taschen's limited editions incuding Gisele Bundchen, Naomi Campbell, HR Geiger, & Dennis Hopper: Photographs 1961-1967, but most are just too expensive for me. And a couple that I really wanted just sold out before I could order a copy including Norman Mailer's Moonfire limited edition, which comes with a lunar rock and a storage case that looks like the LEM, and Norman Mailer’s Marilyn Art Edition. So bummed I missed getting those at retail pricing. Here are pics of those 2 editions. 

And while I would have ABSOLUTELY LOVED to have been able to buy Helmut Newton's SUMO book, it was just way too expensive. 13,000 pounds or $18,194 is a bit above my budget, lol. That book is amazing tho. It now holds the record as the biggest art book ever produced. Its 20" x 27" and is 464 pages. It comes with its own metal stand that has "Helmut Newton" engraved on the front. Here are a couple of pics. 

So basically when that book is open, its 3' 4" wide. And it had an edition size of 10,000 and sold out extremely fast. Just goes to show there are a lot of art book collectors in the world that have VERY deep pockets. I could easily spend $100,000 right now in their limited edition section. Just so many amazing books. Again, IMO Taschen is the best art book company in the world. Have yet to see their equal. 

1 hour ago, NoMan said:

Taschen has put out a line of little books each covering a Marvel superhero and team. Finished the Spiderman book and just started the Avengers book. Lots of photos of covers, OA, miscellaneous ephemera. tracing the history of the character or group of characters . Great toilet reading.

Taschen is by FAR my favorite art book company in the world. Their XL and XXL series of art books are absolutely brilliant. They really put regular art books to shame. And I have seen those books your referring to on Taschen's website, but don't own them and have never seen them in person. I know they have one for Batman, Superman, Captain America, The Avengers, Fantastic Four, and Amazing Spider-Man. Here is the link to Taschen's main page for comic/graphic design books. 

https://www.taschen.com/pages/en/catalogue/graphic_design/all.htm?crt_page=1

I do own Taschen's 75 Years of DC Comics: The Art of Modern Mythmaking, which is part of Taschen's XL line and is an amazing book. I also own Taschen's The Marvel Age of Comics 1961–1978 & The Bronze Age of DC Comics and both are great books as well. And for those that like pin up art, I highly recommend Taschen's The Art of Pin-up, which is part of Taschen's XXL line. Its BY FAR the best book ever made on pin up art and is absolutely MASSIVE. Its 11.5" x 15.5", is 546 pages and weighs 15 pounds. Taschen's XXL books are so big that they come with thier own cardboard storage box with plastic handle. 

11 minutes ago, Shawnismaximus said:

Personally I would organize the Marvel Premiere books with the super hero, and not with the other Marvel books. I know your pain though, It can get tricky sometimes figuring out where to put stuff. 

I would start pulling the Superman and Green lantern books as you wish you had from the start. Would it take long to go through what you've already done and pull all the Super-man & Green Lantern stuff?

Another tip, I just organized my own fairly large collection and I made my own makeshift sorting tabs by taking a comic backing board, slapping a sticky-note to it so it pokes out the top, and writing down the character on it. If I have ten or more comics of a specific character I'll make the makeshift sorting tab, and stick it alphabetically among my other makeshift sorting tabs. If I have less then 10 comics, I just place it roughly alphabetically in my misc-DC or misc-Marvel boxes. 

If your going to go the do it yourself route in regards to dividers/tabs, its best to just tape 2 comic boards together so one of the boards is roughly 1" higher than the top of the comics. Then just use scissors and cut the top of the board so it resembles a tab, just like you see with the plastic dividers from companies like BCW. That winds up being much more sturdy than post it notes, which I have also used in the past. I have pretty much tried every method possible in regards to homemade tabs/dividers and sticky notes just don't have the longevity that 2 comic boards have. 

28 minutes ago, the blob said:

The sad thing is I have a garage I organized with a buddy 6 or so years ago when his wife was on vacation with their kids and he was unemployed and it has now been filled to the brim. Garage cleaning organizing, however, needs a nice string of 3-4 rain free days though.

I wish I was able to utilize my garage in regards to helping with various storage, but we just don't have the room. My wife and I are big outdoors people, as is our son to a somewhat lesser extent, and our garage is basically our storage bin for all of that cr*p. we have 4 mountain bikes, 3 road bikes, 3 kayaks, 4 sets of ski's, 2 snowboards (my son), 3 backpacks, etc. The walls of my garage look like you walked into an REI store. And I keep my 98 Supra stored in there most of the year as Michigan is just not the state to leave your cars out in the weather, at least not if you want them to last a long time. I actually think were going to go back to renting a climate controlled indoor 10" x 10" storage bin. That way we can clear out a lot of the stuff we don't use on a regular basis. 

Ah, 1st world problems lol.

6 minutes ago, the blob said:

I have hit the point where I dread hitting a box where I have like 100 unbagged/boarded moderns mixed in with other stuff. soooo many comics to sort and no way I'm finding another nyx 3 in there. This is what buying 15 - 60 comics a week for 13+ years from my local shop's cheap-o box is doing to me... 

I estimate I have triaged about 20% of my collection thus far.

I know, I should have taken pictures of the update

Right now I have individual boxes of big marvel characters I am sorting into .. spiderman/spider titles, wolverine, misc. x-men titles, captain america, thor, hulk, DD, surfer, fantastic four, defenders, avengers, titles that start with "marvel"...needless to say I have filled up multiple spider, avengers, and X boxes, and the others mentioned are almost full. I have some stacks that aren't big enough for a box yet..iron man, power man, conan, deadpool, star wars, .. a miscellaneous marvel odds and ends box and a few piles that are themsed ("cosmic" stuff like captain marvel, infinity gauntlet), a stack of ghost rider/dracula, and several others

DC is boxes of batman stuff (multiples filled thus far) and everything else, which was probably a mistake as I should have had superman and green lantern get their own boxes.

A box of undergrounds..deciding what is an actual underground vs. an indie is tough sometimes.

Boxes of magazine comics/mads, etc.

Boxes of misc smaller publishers - Image, Valiant, Dark Horse and indies (all mushed together for now)

Boxes of "misc old" -- basically anything from GA to early 80s that doesn't fit into the above.. Will eventually break down by charlton, gold key, dell, etc.

I am filling these boxes and getting them out of the room and lined up against the wall in the hallway best I can so that I can have breathing room in the sorting chamber. They are not organized out there, but I can see what theme is in each box at least.

Pulling some expensive books to the side and "ebay this now!" books so they don't get lost in the mess.

Nothing is sorted or indexed/databased within any of these boxes yet. That will take eons.

Preliminarily, I need to buy about 500-1000 bags and boards. All I have left are like 75 GA bags and boards.

Often I am torn about where I should go. For example, I have a Doctor Strange pile (which is shared with a few other characters like Warlock, etc..don't ask why)... but I am sticking his Marvel Premiere issues in the "Marvel box" for now, ditto red sonja (which is in the conan pile right now), but she had all those marvel feature books, marvel spotlight son of satan/ghost riders and on and on. Shouldn't all the GOTG books be together, including the Marvel Presents 70s series? And isn't Marvel COmics Presents really just a Wolverine title? Ultimately the Star Trek books from all publishers will be in the same place, doesn't that make sense? Ditto star wars and several others that span multiple publishers?

 

I also (importantly) have purged 50 or so boxes I had saved to use for potential shipping. They were taking up a lot of space and really upset my wife. I am so thrilled to get rid of that. There will always be more boxes the way my wife orders off Amazon Prime, I don't need to save them.

I so need to do this with print boxes and print tubes. I have 3 roughly 6 foot stacks of print boxes. I just couldn't bring myself to throw them away as their quality print boxes and each box has 2-4 sheets of foam core and a print bag. And I have at least 75 print tubes. I did put the smaller tubes inside of the bigger tubes, so that helped a bit, but the boxes and tubes still wind up taking up a significant amount of space in my basement.

I did wind up throwing away 95% of my brown shipping boxes and styrofoam for my Sideshow statues, something most statue collectors deem me absolutely crazy for doing. They just took up WAY too much space. A single 1:4 Sideshow statue box is roughly 2 1/2 feet tall x 2 feet wide x 12-16" deep. Roughly 35 of those boxes can take up 20% of your basement. Throwing those out freed up a CRAPLOAD of space. I kept the art boxes and simply broke them down flat and keep them stored in the basement. As for all of the extra statue pieces like swap out portraits and such, I bought 5 - 18x24 print boxes from light impressions, filled the bottom of each print box with pick and pluck foam and stored them stacked on top of one another in an antique storage trunk we own. Access to those extras is now FAR easier than it used to be. 

My goals for this year are pretty lofty. I want to sell roughly 80% of my modern comics (likely not possible in 2 years let alone 1), get around 50-75 comics slabbed (already have around 30 set aside so far), and I want to start the LONG process of getting my complete Vampirella Magazine collection slabbed. I only bought high grade copies so I am hoping they all come back graded at least 8.0 or higher. I would also like to add at least 5-10 copies to my Wonder Woman Vol.1 collection. 

2 minutes ago, shadroch said:

Give out "funny money" bills. No book keeping and if customers lose them, that's on them.

You really are limited only by your imagination when it comes to reward programs. There are so many different options and methods that one can use these days that you could literally have a 100 page thread based purely on that subject alone and likely not touch on all of them. 

16 hours ago, SteppinRazor said:

Have to agree.  Rewards points at big businesses are to get your information for resale to marketing/advertising aggregators.  So that when you go to buy Kraft Mac and Cheese from the grocery store, you go home and check your e-mail and google's ads are Kraft products (yes that happened).  Those businesses don't lose anything on rewards points.  A small business that doesn't know how to sell customer information is likely to lose money.

This isn't necessarily true at all. There are plenty of big name businesses out there that have reward programs that very clearly state that your information will not be sold to 3rd parties if you don't want them to share your information. You just have to do due diligence and read everything regarding thier privacy policies. Plenti is a perfect example. Plenti is a rewards program that lets you earn points in one place and use them at another. Currently Plenti works at over 900 retailers, brands, restaurants, bars etc. If you actually take the time to read everything about the program, you will learn that they do in fact share your information with all of the participating companies, unless you don't want them to. If you contact Plenti within the first 30 days of starting the program and tell them you don't want any of your personal information shared, they will not share any of your information. I have been using Plenti for over 3 years and when I joined, I used a new email address I set up as my main email just gets swamped with way too many emails from various companies and I wasn't about to take the chance of adding hundreds of other companies to that list so again I used a new email I set up and I haven't received a single email from any of the participating members at Plenti to date. So I absolutely believe they are true to thier word in regards to not sharing your personal info if you don;t want them too. You could actually sue them if you found evidence to the contrary as its right in thier contract that they will not share your information if you don't want them too and you take the proper steps in the proper amount of time. Again, you just have to take the time to read everything about a particular program, especially their privacy policy. Many reward programs do in fact share your information, but there are many that do not as well. 

And I wanted to add that there are actually programs out there these days that are designed purely for setting up and maintaining reward systems, sales & discounts, etc. A perfect example is Flok & Blackhawk Networks. Blackhawk Networks is aimed at larger corporations, but you could still get some great idea's from them as they actually have a couple of free guide's that you can download called "The Indispensable Guide to Rewards" & "The Right Reward"

Quote

This resource is your first stop, especially if you’re either relatively new to rewards and incentives, or have relied on the same types of rewards for the past few years. This reference guide will give you a broad overview of the different reward categories available, including new solutions developed with the help of recent technology. Keep it on hand for the next time you need to spice up your program or develop a new promotion. 

https://info.hawkincentives.com/guide-to-rewards

Quote

Download our guide, The Right Reward and discover 700+ ways to give your program participants goosebumps. 

https://info.hawkincentives.com/right-reward

49 minutes ago, shadroch said:

The trick is giving your customers perceived value while protecting your bottom line.

Giving a 20% discount on new books greatly reduces the profit per book sold.

My thought was to  give away stuff that cost me nothing.

 Pick a slow day and do a Spend $50, get $20 from a select section of back issues.

Yeah, 20% off new books is just too big of a discount for a new store to absorb. If he winds up becoming crazy successful some day and opens multiple stores then maybe then that could be something he could do, but as a single comic store just starting out you would really want to limit it to something that wouldn't significantly effect your bottom line. There is always the Zenescope approach as well. That being people have to actually spend X amount to become a member of the program and once a member they get certain discounts and rewards for joining. That way only people that are serious about rewards wind up joining and you make money off the membership fee to help offset the discounts they will get in the future. Its basically like Best Buy's gamer club. You spend $30 every 2 years to be a member and you get 20% off all game purchases. Best Buy wound up being so successful with that club that Amazon wound up having to match that 20% discount for Prime members on new game purchases as Best Buy was taking a significant amount of gaming business away from Amazon.

7 hours ago, FineCollector said:

I think you have to be very careful about starting a rewards program, particularly this early in the life of a store.  If your customers are happy paying what they're paying, continue to service them, but don't feel obligated to give them new discounts: if you offer new discounts, but don't bring in any new customers, that money just comes out of your pocket.  Also, it's another process that has to be managed and documented, and it sounds like there's plenty to do already.  I'd use it to retain customers if things get stale, or attract new customers if you get bored, but I don't think it's necessary right now.

I respect your opinion, but I gotta disagree. First off, there is a big difference between cashback and reward points. Cashback is literally money back in people's pocket thus they can spend that money anywhere they want. Reward points have to be spent in the store so once you factor in the fact that your selling items for more than your paying for them....well, $1 in reward points is not going to cost the store $1. Just as an example, if everything in the store is market up 50%, than that $1 in reward points is only going to cost the store .50 when used.  Put another way, if someone uses $1 in reward points to buy a $1 comic that the store only paid .50 for than again that $1 in reward points is only costing the store .50. 

If the store is really struggling to make money at this point, you could always set up a system like Best Buy where only people who spend X amount a year get reward points and its starts up the following year depending on how much the person spends. That way he doesn't have to worry about it hurting his bottom line right away and the people that do wind up qualifying for it the following year will be some of his best customers thus it shouldn't be an issue giving them a small amount of reward points for purchases. You should want to reward some of your best customers for all of their business. Even I have done this in the past with some of my residential architectural photography clients by combining multiple jobs (usually naturally lit exteriors only) in a single day of billing when normally I only allow 1 job per day of billing. Reward points have just become such a common practice today and they really can be utilized in many different ways. If he is so bogged down with work right now than he just doesn't have the time to implement such a system right now, then I would simply put it on the list of things you want to work towards in the future. As a shopper that takes advantage of every possible chance at reward points and cashback, I definitely get disappointed when I find new stores I like that don't have any sort of reward point system. He could eve make it so reward points can only be used on back issues or other kinds of content that isn't selling well or stuff he is trying to get rid of. You can get really creative with reward point systems. Even if people can only use them on comic in the clearance bin, they will still appreciate something over nothing. 

5 minutes ago, Jimbo749 said:

I always like that style too,  reminded me of Hush. 

Yeah, thats my single favorite Catwoman iteration to date. Its the best outfit design I have seen to date and I love the goggles. I am really bummed that Prime 1 decided to do a statue series on Arkham Knight and not Arkham City. IMO, Arkham City has vastly superior character designs. Love the Mr. Freeze design from Arkham City as well. 

3 hours ago, oakman29 said:

Mind  BLOWN! 

Learn it, live it, love it!

 

 

 

Holy Cow! While that storage method is definitely not for me (cat litter dust alone would cease me from going this route), this has to be one of the most organized collections I have ever seen. Impressive, most impressive. 

7 hours ago, FineCollector said:

150lbs... I don't think I've ever been 150lbs! 

The commonality I'm seeing in all the comic room pictures are chrome wire shelves.  What size do you find most efficient, and what size boxes are you putting on them?  I'd like to think mag boxes are ideal, because everyone is going to have a few boxes of G.A., magazines, or some combination thereof.  Even if you don't, that picture of the Brave and the Bold 28 in a Standard mylite 2 makes me itchy... all my gold and silver is in Silver/Gold mylite2 and fullback, which doesn't fit a standard comic box.

I highly recommend Seville Classics 5 Shelf Shelving System. We purchased 3 of these for our basement to store things like emergency food and just misc stuff in the basement. They are INCREDIBLY stable, super easy to put together (no tools needed), and you can set up the shelves any way you want in 1" intervals. So if you only want to use a few of the shelves as opposed to all 5, you can. You can also buy these thin plastic sheets cut specifically to fit on each shelf so there is more stability for the things your stacking on the shelf.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007LQH7M/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o08_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can either use the shelves with wheels (which come with the shelves) or you can use pegs instead. It can hold up to 800 pounds per shelf an 4000 pounds total.

Here are those plastic sheets I was talking about that you can put on each shelf. 

https://www.amazon.com/Seville-Classics-Individual-Designed-Shelves/dp/B00EUBA55K/ref=pd_bxgy_201_img_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00EUBA55K&pd_rd_r=GPD52AMH3M3Z62A43H6Y&pd_rd_w=Ob5GG&pd_rd_wg=N1EO0&psc=1&refRID=GPD52AMH3M3Z62A43H6Y

Once again I have to say Lucio Parrilo's Vampirella from Vampirella #19. Either that or Batman Arkham City's Catwoman. 

On 2/25/2016 at 11:40 AM, StuporMan said:

Wondering if there are any Wizard collectors out there. I've seen a few on the bay...just curious if anyone out there is hoarding some early high-grade copies

 

Yeah, I purchased a guys collection on eBay that were never read. They were bagged ad boarded and are just in pristine condition. Its missing a few of the variants from latter issues but its 100% complete up to issue like 175. Eventually I plan to track down the remaining issues I need so it will be 100% complete. One of the best parts of that collection was he had multiple copies of all of the poster mania issues and those can sell for like $40-$50 a pop on eBay when in mint condition. 

On 2/16/2018 at 8:13 PM, Genesis Comics said:

I totally agree.  The bathroom is a key component.  When i first opened, we did out best to make it presentable.  After about 1 month, it was the first thing I re-tackled.  I had the floors re-done, walls painted, lights changed out, as well as molding put in.  I do clean the bathroom every day, and I have other plans to put in wall mounted soap dispensers, sanitizer and paper towel dispensers.  It could use some decorating as well as the walls are painted red with yellow highlights on some pipes running up the walls in the corner.  I have gotten compliments on how clean it is compared to other comic stores, but that's not saying much lol...I don't have a cinnamon smell though...need to work on that lol!!

Its good to hear you recognize how important this really is. Nobody likes cleaning bathrooms, but your customers will definitely appreciate it. As for the smell, you really should consider buying a couple of those scented candles. That really was one of the nicest aspects of that gas station's bathroom I described. The fact that its not something that people expect when they walk into bathrooms will just make people appreciate it that much more. You really only have to light those candles for roughly 30-60 minutes a day to maintain at least a light presence of the scent. And there are a lot of great scented candles available these days so you could go with any scent you feel is best. 

And just out of curiosity, do you have any sort of reward point system in place? Reward points have become so standard these days that a lot of people can get disappointed when a store doesn't offer them. They are literally everywhere these days. Even this little stand that sells amazing fresh squeezed lemonade at this farmers market we visit in the summer has punch cards where you get a free drink for every 8 that you purchase. My wife and I have become masters at the whole reward points/cash back game. We had gotten over $4,000 back from Fatwallet by the time it ceased doing cashback and I make an absolute killing with my job. For out of town jobs, the extra baggage fee's alone wind up being around $1300-$2200 on most flights, depending on the route and that's just one way. I think there are a lot of people out there these days that are reward point/cash back junkies so not offering anything could disappoint some of your customers. You could even set up a system like Best Buy's Elite/Elite Plus program, where if someone purchases X amount in a calendar year, they will get a better reward point rate the following year. You can get really creative with reward programs. IMO, in today's market you really need to have some sort of reward system in place. Even if its just 1%, people will appreciate the fact that your at least offering something. 

12 hours ago, 1950's war comics said:

No such thing as packing TOO securely that a good knife and scissors can't take care of.....

Agreed 100%. After receiving COUNTLESS shipments over the years with damaged comics because the shipper literally was clueless when it came to shipping comics, and especially prints, in the mail....well, I have absolutely NO problem with bombproof packaging that requires that I cut, pull, & slice and dice my way to the goods. As long as they arrive in the condition I expect, I am 100% content. 

23 hours ago, Designer Toast said:

No amount of greed in this hobby surprises me anymore or the lengths people will go to make money.  In my area I've seen a forged X-Men 1 and two bunk copies of Hulk 181.

In this hobby and everywhere else as well. The sheer amount of greed and corruption present in modern society is nothing short of mind blowing and its literally present everywhere including the government, the banks and financial institutions, the investment markets, the housing markets, and even in various food markets, hospitals, and insurance companies. Just watch Netflix's new documentary called "What the Health" is you want a general idea of the sheer level of corruption and greed that exists in regards to the food industry and the various administrations that are meant to look out for the consumer (The FDA, The American Diabetes Foundation, The American Heart Association, etc.). Or watch the documentary called "Beer Wars" if you want to see the lengths that companies like Anheuser-Busch go to in order to shut down small microbrew operations. They literally sue these various microbrew companies on pure bogus charges as they know that the amount of money required to fight such accusations, regardless of the fact that they are pure BS, is enough to either bankrupt those companies or put severe stress on thier overall profitability. Anheuser-Busch have a very large team of lawyers that work exclusively for Anheuser-Busch and whose sole purpose is to drain as much money away from the smaller companies as possible. So I don't see why people would expect the comic market to be different after all, there are some pretty easy ways to scam people in the comic market. 

All one can do is try and learn as much as one can on their own and use that information to make more informed decisions on just who your going to trust and support. 

On 2/14/2018 at 3:31 PM, Mecha_Fantastic said:

Any of those 3. I had to choose a cover each for my favourite franchises: The JSA, the FF, and the X-Men. JSA was such a difficult choice, as there's so many great covers to pick from. I'm not sure this was the best option, but it's a great cover of both the classic JSA and Infinity Inc. For the X-Men I'd also go with a consolation prize of  Uncanny #356. One of the few Bachalo covers I really like, and it's a great cover of the 05.

 

 

Nice choice. JSA by Ross is one of my all time favorite cover runs. You could pick from a lot of different covers from that run. All are amazing. IMO Ross found the perfect balance with this run in regards to realism and comic style artwork. I am not a big fan of some of Ross's other work as I think it goes a bit too far into the realism style and loses that comic art feel that I love so much, but this run was just brilliant IMO. Again, definitely one of my all time favorite cover runs by a comic artist. 

12 hours ago, t-mase said:

Hi all, 

27 year old from merry old England, been lurking on the boards for a number of months as I started collecting just last year (august). 

My collection at present is not fantastically sizeable but throughly enjoying the chase given that around me locally there is only one comic store and the back issues on offer don't amount to a huge collection. And are slightly above the market price (in general). My purchases have been restricted to eBay generally,  biggest score personally so far is an ASM 63 in about a 5.0 for £10 (roughly $15) 

Interested in mainly Silver and Bronze Age and Marvel is my "side" of choice. 

Cheers

T

Welcome to the boards!

On 2/15/2018 at 1:48 PM, Shawnismaximus said:

OrangeCrush are you affiliated with Drawer Boxes?

Don't get me wrong, they sound like a good idea, but you seem to be pushing them pretty hard.

Nope, I'm just an architectural photographer. I have no affiliation with anything but my own architectural photography business. And I'm Just calling out disinformation, one of the worst aspects of the modern day internet. Anyone suggesting Drawer Boxes bow have CLEARLY never used them before. Suggesting that Drawer Boxes bow is like suggesting Mylites 4's with Full back boards don't offer adequate protection for comics. 

6 hours ago, spreads said:

Enough with this drawer box talk, move on guys. 

 

I would hate to lose these three pages of the thread because someone noted a mod for de-railment.

I don't understand how you can call it a derailment when the person who actually started the thread asking for advice on how to best organize his collection came right out and stated

On 2/15/2018 at 1:07 AM, the blob said:

Drawer boxes are a legit suggestion. I am cool with it.

And the only reason I kept the discussion going was because I was personally asked questions regarding the boxes. I don't know how some of the other members in here approach using various forums, but when I am asked a question directly regarding something, I try and answer those questions.