The Less Blob

WHy do I feel like a bad person if I run to the shop now?

I don't look at $1 books. You're right. But $2 books, I just take my pile off to the corner and quickly zip through them. I don't want to spend $2 on a book that will become a freebie. I usually buy 100-200 books like this at a show, if 5% are wastes, it adds up. In exchange for me taking up space, I don't try to haggle other than a minor round down...if I have $212 worth of books, make it $200? Most dealers do that without me asking. If I can't examine them I'd want a much better round down. And, honestly, no dealer has told me not to inspect the books (even the guy who sells the ones with the bad back covers...indeed I regularly spend money with him at shows, not a lot, sure, but I look at the books closely). I would not expect a dealer to open $2 or $3 books. I may even say "if I cause a tape pull, that's my problem." And usually I have a big stack, so they probably don't want me to walk away. Obviously it depends on how busy it is, but it is pretty rare that I can't find a corner to do this. And when I make my stack it is my intent to buy everything in the stack unless I see something I really don't like upon examination. Also, I AM NOT looking up cheap books on ebay, so that speeds up the process. Frankly, what I do takes a lot less time than some guy going through a long box and looking up every third book. With that said, in recent years I have been limited to NYCC. I used to go to 3 or 4 shows a year. So most of the guys I am buying a bunch of stuff from recognize me (Zapp, JS Comics, Dolgoff (who may no longer come?), Alex MVP, and a few others) and know I am not there to pull out 6 million comics, take up a lot of space, produce a lot of odor, and not buy anything.

If a dealer will not let you inspect, move on. I do understand them not wanting you to handle an expensive book though, but a $10-20 one?

One dealer, who I will not name, often has $5 SA and BA at shows and these are sometimes good books. Rest assured, if they are bagged and boarded the back cover is a mess.

I ask the dealer if I can take it out or should he/she. If it is an expensive book with tape on the bag I ask them to. If it is in a Mylar sleeve or bag that doesn't leave much room I ask them to put it back in. I now inspect even $2 books outside the bag because I have come home too many times to find a chunk out of the back or a big water stain. I usually check for the centerfold, but not every page except marvel stamp era comics I check for that.

I sold 3 to a boardie for $30. Hope they did well on them.

Seriously, why wouldn't these be near the check out? Do people really buy the trashy celebrity gossip magazines? These seems like an easy "mommy mommy I want it" item and at $4.99, will only bankrupt half the people (I'm not saying $4.99 is too much for 100 pages, it is probably the right number, but someone making $7.25 at a minimum wage job with their kid may still have their budget stretched.

You are a saint.

One local shop (now closed) had a stack of Ultimate Fallout 4 polybagged for 25 cents each after they couldn't sell them on the rack. (They did not sell back issues, if something sat on the rack for months and they needed more room, they all went into the 4/$1 box). Frankly, I did not know what it was and just bought 4. The rest were gone after I came back upon realizing what it was. (Admittedly, at the time it was more like a $10 book)

How much are they? Problem is #1 isn't the more sought after one, Spotlight 32 is. A local shop had stacks of SW 1 for $5 for years and years. I think they finally got rid of them the last few years.

It is really an oddity because there is gambit and people reading the comic have not much of a clue as to who he is because he hasn't been introduced yet (it has been a long time since I read that one).

Thor 339

I am hoping no raccoons. Although all that asbestos up there will probably kill them.

That was a good issue... Moral of the story, never touch your comics?

It depends on what GA and if you push that to cover late 50s 10 centers. Ironically the last time I got a big stack of 10 centers for that sort of price was from mile high chuck. He had a small table at nycc and was doing a brisk dollar book business on beater 50s and 60s books. My guess is that he had just bought them for nothing and was trying to limit the haul back to Colorado.

I guess if you are a key or 9.8 chaser it can be easy to lose interest due to budgets. But if you're someone who is interested in less expensive stuff as well then you can come home with a nice haul for $500 at most shows, here (sometimes), and on ebay (with a lot of hunting). I enjoy the hunt, so maybe that's different than setting a big book as a goal and getting it. i probably would have been better off financially doing just that from the beginning, true.

Done. Thanks!

Dc second prints everything, but not this?

Outside of conventions I don't pick up many magazines. Got some Treasury size this week. Can't resist at 3 for $2.

I am looking at an Overstreet from 2005. HOS 92 is $850 IN 9.2 / $400 in 8.0.... asm 129 is $495 in 9.2 / $ 364 in 9.0. Take it with a grain of salt, that was just a book with numbers in it. OPG reported actual sales (albeit record setting prices) that year that a HOS 92 in 9.6 fetched $4400. ASM in 9.6 got $2,237. X-Men 94 in 9.6 got $4,450! (GS XMen 1 in 9.6 fetched $3,049 ... $9K in 9.8)... Admittedly, wasn't 2005 or thereabouts when some BA slab numbers got very high when people misunderstood the market and thought some of these were scarcer than they really were?

Back when they had to tell you it was "Italian" spaghetti! I like the 69 cent hard stuff! 31 cent beers! Man oh man, if this had been next to my college I might have lived there.

I love magazines and would gladly give them a happy home.

I may have a few FM I accidentally acquired, but never collected it. If I was going to spend a buck or two on an old warren magazine it would be an Eerie or Creepy, of which I have many.

I agree with the sentiment that you let file customers (who didn't already order it) and regular walk ins who spend money (and your customer loyalty system let's you know who they are) have a crack at it at $6.99, but the walk in flippers, F-them after Wed (and heck, I have been one of them, although I tended to go back to stores where I found good stuff)

If they want to make it interesting just do 3 or 4 covers at various ratios, but polybag the regular issue and do variant centerfold inserts (or back covers if you can polybag so as to not see the back). People would actually buy the regular issue to try and get the 1:500 jsc mjw bikini/red nose variant.