NeverEnoughComics

Although I said I wouldn't, I went to the London Fair on the 23rd last month - the first for nearly two years. Everyone I know is double vaccinated, so I thought it was about time I started living again, as I couldn't see a time when anything would be any better from a safety perspective - the virus is here to stay, so we get busy living or take the other option.
I thoroughly enjoyed it as comics is my thing and comic fairs are as good as it gets for me. And the research list was enormous, having grown throughout 18 months of online only searching. It was great getting back to rifling through boxes. 
The organisers did reasonably well - a bit disorganised as you'd expect with a revised queuing system, held up by the need to either ping the track n trace app or fill in a details form manually. Once in side, half the usual dealers, and a one way system that was a little silly if its intention was to reduce possible transmission. That happens often I find - the introduction of an operational requirement that makes little sense, and which is neither observed or policed.
Hot day, so wearing the mask was the colossal drag that wearing a mask generally is for people like me whose skin can be irritated by a gnats eyebrow.
I picked up quite a lot of books in the first hour that you have to pay a fiver for (ten minutes of which was lost to the tracing scrum), then the crowds descended after that and it became almost impossible to get to any stock. I seemed to always be behind the chap who looks at every comic in the box slowly, senses it's now your turn, so he looks at them all again. You know, him.
I have to say, I was looking forward more to the fry up in my usual little Italian on route, but like a great many places in London it was closed. Hopefully not for good. 
Like everyone else, I'll be glad when the virus has reached the point where we can all live alongside it and that it no longer places demands on what we do and how we do it. In the meantime, I'll be back at the next one in August where, hopefully, a few more dealers might show up.
 
 

I look mostly on the slab one as often as i want.raw comics i read once to twice at most,read tpb more often.nothing beat the smell of an well aged comics my 

My father did not approve of me reading or collecting comics. He had a very low opinion of them.  So when I saw the cover of Daredevil 111 for sale in NYC the week before Christmas in 1978 , I mentioned it as something I would like to get for Christmas but had zero expectations. Christmas comes and when it seems all the presents have been handed out, my Dad " finds" another one and it is the DD cover. My mom had convinced him to drive into the city and buy it from Peter Koch. 
My Father died on December 28th. 
I had the cover framed and displayed it wherever I lived for the next decade. In 1988-89, I sold my shop and moved to Puerto Rico. On one of my frequent visits back to NY, I visit my old shop and am shocked to see the cover to DD 111 on display and for sale. I grab the owner and tell him that this is mine and was never intended to be part of the sale of the shop. In fact, I had no idea it was even there. We go back and forth and I end up buying the cover at a discounted price, but not cheap enough that I remained friends with the guy. 
I take the framed cover to my Moms house, remind her of what it is and put it in an old shipping trunk where I had a lot of stuff. 
Ten or more years go by and I'm over my moms house when I notice the trunk has been moved. I mean to ask about it but I forget. A few months go by and I'm over my sisters house when she points out her newest reclamation project- she'd taken the old trunk that was maybe 100 years old and re-finished it. I ask her about all the stuff inside but she tells me when she opened it, the stuff on top had mold so she threw it all away.
Not only was the art the first Marvel Cover OA that I ever had, but it was one of my favorites and it was the last thing my Dad ever gave me. 
 
 
 
 

My parents split in 1980. I was 8.
I was never allowed near the older comics, just the newer ones. Dad took them all with him. 
Fast forward to 1986 and I start reading comics more seriously. Dad eventually passes the whole collection to me. I catalogue them all. Amazing silver age through to current. 
In the boxes is a list of issues written in pencil. "What's these dad?" 
Back in 1980 Dad sold some of the collection to 2 younger guys both named Steve. He sold Amazing Fantasy 15 for £20/£25 plus a few others. One of lads borrowed a few comics to read, of course they didn't get returned. 
The list was written by the guy, and at the bottom said "taken by Steve H Sept 17."
It included :
Amazing Spiderman 1-10
Avengers 1-10
X-Men 1-10
Some other Ditko (Creeper) and Sterenko work. 
I never did get to see them at all. Apparently Steve H moved to London to be an artist. 
Whether he intended to keep them we'll never know. I will never be able to replace them, especially at todays prices. I don't have the list anymore. 
I sold the rest of the collection in 1995 for a pittance to Darryl 😠 Silver Acre. 
I have a nice collection now and I'm at peace with it. (Most of the time). 
 

Geez, you got a Promise(ing) bonus on that one.  Me, I'm the opposite, I had this WDC&S from 1946 as structurally at least an 8.5, and it was bone white.  Here's what I got in 2019:

Hard for me to view your book and my book as the same grade.  Grader notes reflect "light spine stress lines" and "moderate creasing" to front cover (?).  You can't see it in the picture because it does not exist. They must have fired that grader.  Nicest 7.0 white in existence.

I'm generally a fan of eBay, Golders, as I get most of my comics from them (usually the ones no one else wants). And it's an invaluable research resource for people like me. But they do make it hard don't they.
Yesterday, the following three things happened:
I was reminded again that I had to go to managed payments if I want to carry on selling. I haven't looked into it that much, but what I have seen of it doesn't look overly inviting and I'm inclined not to join in. As a result, my 15 year selling history may now be at and end. Which would be a shame As this thread has illustrated, searching has now become onerous. With perseverance, I can find what I want, but I have to click so many more times to get there and the various selections don't always seem to carry over to the next search I was the high bidder at 99p on seven auctions which I knew, as they drew to the close, I would need to battle for to get them for their usual, natural selling price of around five or six pounds each. Then I get seven emails from eBay saying that my bids have been cancelled, and that I can see the reason for cancellation on the bid history page. I go there, and there is no explanation listed. The seven lots then appear as £20 BINs, giving me my answer. I used to think this kind of thing was against the rules but it seems sellers can do as they please nowadays if the largely impenetrable eBay Q&A pages / help functions are anything to go by Not a great day to be an eBayer then. A company going out of its way, it seems, to get on peoples tits. Fortunately, mine are developing quite nicely in later life, so there is room for some more punishment yet.

Got it,  thank you.  Not very intuitive which is bad.  Lots of clicking to get there which is bad again.  No help when you scroll over a button which is bad since I already have been on here wondering if I click it can I undo it.
FYI to George.
I hope you know that a lot of transactions at shows take place with GPA.  Faster is VERY important with any deal so the longer it takes for Buyer/Seller to do gather pricing information the risk that no deal occurs rises.  Add wi-fi or hotspot transmission times into the mix and if it is slow now it will get slower at a show.  Something to think about when you test.

I like the ability to filter out signature, qualified and restored. I just wish it would remember this permanently when I switch from one title to another.

I checked it out today...seems to work fine for me. The only problem I see is that the books I want have a higher value than I am willing to pay and the books I have are not valued high enough. If they fix that I give the overhaul a 10 out of 10.

I agree.
1. Why were are all of the expand tabs moved to the right side of the interface when your eye is focused on the left?
2. Why is the year not linked to expand the sales for the year like it used to be?
3. Why do I have to click the expand buttons twice just to get to the sales data?
4. Why is the first expand tab reveal only the graph? Do people really use the graph more than the actual sales data?
 

 
 

I also went to this show and actually had a pretty good time. 
I purchased 3 really nice comics from HighGradeComics (should have got more) and a smattering from the other dealers.
Got some art from Lee Townsend that my daughter was extremely happy with.
Got to meet the guys at TPUB and buy a couple more books from Neil Gibson (love his Twisted Dark Stuff)
Chatted with a few other authors/artists and purchased some new titles for me to try.
Purchased some exclusive Funko Pop toys which i personally hate, but went down very well with my nephews who are avid collectors.
Went to a couple of the free talks which were surprisingly interesting.
Of course there was room for improvement, I wish there were more dealers who sold what i collect at bargain prices, but i'm more than happy to settle for a dealer with a nice variety of stock who is not trying to rip me off.
I wish the dealers who were there would put prices on their wall books i could actually read, There are only so many times you can ask to look at a book, only to find out that our ideas on what the comic is worth differ somewhat. Happy for you to price the books how you want, but it would save wasting my time and yours.
Also one dealer who i wont name, priced their books at a significant mark-up to their website, I found this to be a strange practice.
For me though the positives outweighed the negatives so will hopefully be going to the one in October
I'd also like to thank Marwood i think it was, for bringing up the comic mart, I haven't been for years and am glad to hear it's still going, will be checking that out in the near future.
 

I also went to this show and actually had a pretty good time. 
I purchased 3 really nice comics from HighGradeComics (should have got more) and a smattering from the other dealers.
Got some art from Lee Townsend that my daughter was extremely happy with.
Got to meet the guys at TPUB and buy a couple more books from Neil Gibson (love his Twisted Dark Stuff)
Chatted with a few other authors/artists and purchased some new titles for me to try.
Purchased some exclusive Funko Pop toys which i personally hate, but went down very well with my nephews who are avid collectors.
Went to a couple of the free talks which were surprisingly interesting.
Of course there was room for improvement, I wish there were more dealers who sold what i collect at bargain prices, but i'm more than happy to settle for a dealer with a nice variety of stock who is not trying to rip me off.
I wish the dealers who were there would put prices on their wall books i could actually read, There are only so many times you can ask to look at a book, only to find out that our ideas on what the comic is worth differ somewhat. Happy for you to price the books how you want, but it would save wasting my time and yours.
Also one dealer who i wont name, priced their books at a significant mark-up to their website, I found this to be a strange practice.
For me though the positives outweighed the negatives so will hopefully be going to the one in October
I'd also like to thank Marwood i think it was, for bringing up the comic mart, I haven't been for years and am glad to hear it's still going, will be checking that out in the near future.
 

I also went to this show and actually had a pretty good time. 
I purchased 3 really nice comics from HighGradeComics (should have got more) and a smattering from the other dealers.
Got some art from Lee Townsend that my daughter was extremely happy with.
Got to meet the guys at TPUB and buy a couple more books from Neil Gibson (love his Twisted Dark Stuff)
Chatted with a few other authors/artists and purchased some new titles for me to try.
Purchased some exclusive Funko Pop toys which i personally hate, but went down very well with my nephews who are avid collectors.
Went to a couple of the free talks which were surprisingly interesting.
Of course there was room for improvement, I wish there were more dealers who sold what i collect at bargain prices, but i'm more than happy to settle for a dealer with a nice variety of stock who is not trying to rip me off.
I wish the dealers who were there would put prices on their wall books i could actually read, There are only so many times you can ask to look at a book, only to find out that our ideas on what the comic is worth differ somewhat. Happy for you to price the books how you want, but it would save wasting my time and yours.
Also one dealer who i wont name, priced their books at a significant mark-up to their website, I found this to be a strange practice.
For me though the positives outweighed the negatives so will hopefully be going to the one in October
I'd also like to thank Marwood i think it was, for bringing up the comic mart, I haven't been for years and am glad to hear it's still going, will be checking that out in the near future.
 

Hi, 
I have been lurking on these boards for years and finally decided to join in.
Started collecting in the early 80's, living in the UK it was mainly anything 2000ad related to start with, then with the introduction of a comic store into the local area, I discovered there was so much more to collect. I tried to focus (and i use that term very loosely) on silver and bronze Marvel and DC, but enjoy reading material from all eras and publishers, so I gave up on that idea and now collect anything i find interesting. 
I am looking forward to hanging out on these forums and eventually buying some of the amazing books that always seem to be on offer here.
 
Dave