The Less Blob

It is already a penny stock. Can you buy the whole company for like $15k?

Hah, I just bought a big lot of archies off ebay where you couldn't make out the issues really cheap hoping a cheryl blossom issue was in there.. one one panel cameo driving away in Betty and veronica 326! Anyway, it was a cheap lot so I cannot complain, many were in pretty good shape too despite no bags and boards.

What's to pop? Half the stuff that was hot 5 years ago is dead. Stuff goes down, up, sideways.... a bubble implies a wide segment of the market is overheated. Some are, many books are not.

All the expensive books will sell easily on consignment sights like my comic shop, comic connect, heritage, etc particularly if slabbed and you don't work. But unless you are established, folks do not trust grades on eBay, so folks tend to bid lime a book is a grade lower than advertised.

They start gaining interest again after 17 years. The Rule of 17. Everyone knows about the Rule of 17.

Looking at ebay there may be more newsies out there. Remembering when it came out, it was instantly hot. I remember my local shop putting it up on the wall for something ridiculous like $15, which was a lot for a brand new marvel back then. I don't think shops anticipated it and just ordered like a more regular Thor issue. They then ordered the bejezuz out of 338 and 339, I believe. One of my shops ordered something like 1000 copies of 339, I have like 75 of them. So, given the hottitude, my guess is that nearly every frigging newsstand copy got grabbed ASAP, possibly before they got trashed, unlike many newsies of the day, that might have 40-60% non-sale/return rates.

"I wonder if there are any warehoused groups of post-2000 Newsstands anywhere" Where did the returns go? Were they pulped? (Of course, most of those returns were in pretty bad shape) Funny thing, I was going to Borders 2008-2010 and looking at the comics because that's the first time I started hearing about the differentiations possibly being an issue and was thinking maybe buying some would be strategic if I could get them before they got trashed, but at the end of the day that would have been a $3+ risk per book and I really had no idea which ones had a better chance of popping. Not clear if I would have broke even. At the time I could do pretty well at $3 a book at shows buying stuff that had more clear upside (you still can, but it's harder). With that said, if you were a new issue buyer interested in more HTF versions of the books you were buying to read anyway and had access to a Borders or B&N, etc. at the time, why wouldn't you have been checking those books out every wed and buying your issues there? I guess you run the risk of missing out on issues if you don't have them pulled at your shop, but were these books getting raided every week, at least for the high grade copies still on the rack? (My guess is "not so much" because otherwise newsstand wouldn't have died!). I guess back then there were only a few hundred people really thinking of 2010 newsies as potentially extra collectable.

Yeah, but he does get some dizzying results from that approach on $2 books. I was more thinking if he sold them for the quick buck there wouldn't be profits. Not so much the hot stuff, but the generic stuff he sometimes gets nice prices on where I see the same book in what might be the same shape selling for $2. Sometimes it pays off to hold out. I had a really gorgeous power man iron fist 125. Probably a 9.8. It's the kind of book that might sell for 99 cents one week or go into a bidding war the next. I said F-it, I'll hold out and put it in my store for $30. It sold for $25 or so after a couple of weeks.

All I know is that the 150 or so comics I donated were gone by the time I was next there 9 - 12 months later. Were they sold, thrown out, or moved to another location, I have no idea. They also didn't used to be marked $3, that location used to mark them at $1, but I guess someone decided that there might be valuable treasure in there. I never found anything good at that shop.

B&N had 700whatever locations, in 2010 Borders had about 400 locations and carried comics, there are 250 BAM locations (do they get newsstand?), any other book chains I am forgetting? I agree though, newsstands barely exist outside of a few big cities, more likely you have Hudson news type places at airports or train stations. Unless something was specifically pushed at newsstand locations, it is hard to envision a situation since 2000 where the DE version didn't significantly outnumber, regardless of how many variables are in play. But I also don't fully accept that ratios on ebay necessarily reflect actual circulation ratios. Ebay is more prone to having dealer overstock listed, rather than someone's comics sitting in a box. If you look at some of the X-Men issues around 381, for example, you see a few more newsies than 37:1.

Cool, Invisibles 1 is worth something? I need to dig up my 11 copies. Surprised Azrael 100 doesn't sell for anything.

Sponsored by dominoes and applebees..I guess they didn't notice either. Smirnoff ice probably encouraged it.

Well, it wouldn't be profts techinically, necessarily, but more like "getting what you can when you can" which could be a loss or break even, not necessarily a profit Now that I see my thrift shop I donate to marks their comics $3, I have to wonder whether it is worth having dollar sales threads if I can donate and claim $3 each. Money in a paypal account feels better than turbotax telling me I owe less, but it's all the same. It might be time to start putting together a donation box while I can still itemize my deductions. I can't go in there with 7 long boxes, but a short box worth, sure. Now I am questioning my decision to blow out my leftovers at the yard sale for about 30-40 cents each in one big sale.

That guy has cranked out a lot of Christmas albums over the years.

a year break is a great way to kill a comic.

agreed. and just pointless. half the inventory will be destroyed. with bags only 1/4 of the inventory is destroyed. but I understand not wanting to go through the trouble of bagging 50 cent books, even if it is with old bags taken off other comics. too much time.

Not too clever having those auctions ending on Thanksgiving.

Well, the coaster and the mug are not the extent of my nerd paraphernalia.

Do you have the hammer on there because you are steeping some tea or are you covering it to stop any bugs from dropping in?

Well, the post did imply that 15 boxes of unsorted drek might make the dealer an a-hole. I am fine either way, organized or not. A mish mosh scares off enough people that I might actually find something good in there. Organized obviously makes my life easier, but unless I am one of the early pickers to hit the box, I may have missed the gems. But not always, I am shocked what I still have found an hour or two into a show even at popular dealers' tables, and not just obscure stuff. One year I find 5 or 6 $25-$75 1980s/late 70s Batman minor keys in very nice shape still in the $2 boxes and tons of $10-$15 books (ok, that's a little less surprising). Anyway, the dollar books (although nowadays it is often $2 boxes) do draw me in and I'll often add a bit more expensive book to the mix. But if I hit a good table I might spend $100-$250 on cheap stuff, so a little different than someone who goes through 15 boxes and pulls 3 books.

I am on a low carb kick right now, so unless it is Michelob Ultra or some other thinned out pizz water, I am not drinking beer.

I drink about 6 cups of coffee a day, but this time of year I mix tea in there too. Like wine, Americans have started drinking a lot of tea over the last 10-20 years (particularly green tea, but other types too). Wine used to be "fancy," outside of Californians and a few big city types elsewhere, now everyone is guzzling it.

That's my youngest failing to clean up after himself

Al capp was in 1,000 American newspapers. America loves wife beating drunks.

To beat a dead horse a little bloodier..