San Diego Comic Con Dealer report

[Dale Roberts]

Just another Con report, but from the other side of the table....

 

pre-show - extremely busy, lots of dealers and a couple of collectors with dealer badges looking for books and buying stuff, especially my new pre-code horror collection....I wandered the floor once I got all my stuff set up, picked up some very nice stuff for want list customers including Showcase 13, 15, 17, 32,33, 34, 42, 50,51,71, 79 (all at least 8.0), Avengers 6,7,8, 103, TOS #42, Adventure #260, Batman #84, and a big stack of about 45 high grade Strange Adventures between #8 and 140 from Joe V. Had a kid (20) with me who had never been to SD before, so we took off Tuesday afternoon and went to the zoo. Had an excellent meal late that night at Old Town Mexican Cafe.

 

Preview night - As usual, the hall opens late( 5:45) due to toy dealers and lazy clowns who can't get all their misc in their booths in the 21 hours that is allotted for set up. My booth was about 2/3 of the way back in SD, so takes 30 - 45 minutes or so for most collectors to get back to my booth, other than the guys who came straight to my booth (thanks to those guys). Regardless, preview night was once again very good and worth while to me, as people were actively spending money and looking for books. After the show, took a cab to Fillippi's in Little Italy. Excellent little low key, casual place where there is always a long line out front, but the food is well worth the wait. Best Italian in the city.

 

Thursday - Maybe my best Thursday ever ( I don't really keep individual day records, but maybe after this year I will). Lots of people looking around. I see almost all my regulars, all of whom spend money. Seemed like many of the guys I don't know find something at my table. This was probably my best day for pre-code horror, and also sold lots of Golden Age and Good Girl art. After the con, we grabbed a decent meal, and headed back to the room to recover.

 

Friday - Another very busy day. I was really surprised about how busy the show was in general. This was the day where there was no rhyme or reason to purchases. Once again, sold some pre-code horror, but sold alot of CGC books, and the Silver Age/ Bronze Age sales really kicked into gear. Had several guys that walked the floor on Thursday "scouting", and then came back Friday and spent money. I ran a sale on a couple of boxes of romance/ western comics that I had, and sold about 1/2 a box of Romance and several westerns as well. Even sold a guy $40.00 worth of Peter Cannon Thunderbolts....wow.

 

Saturday - I think this was my biggest day of the convention, even though the crowd was a little more subdued than I expected. Saturday at Comcon is a unique day for the dealers. To start with, the hall ALWAYS opens 1 hour early on Sat, and it never fails that some dealers dont know it and arrive late and are pissed. That means most of us are up at 7, eating by 7:30, at the hall by 8:00, and at the con until 7:30 pm or so. An extremely long day. As soon as they open the hall, the ebay dealers & collectors start running for the exclusives and the PA chick starts screaming at them. Pretty entertaining really. Generally, Saturday consists of many people attending movie panels, the big comic panels, and the people who are actually shopping on the floor, probably have not been there the other days and are serious buyers. Seems like late in the day, all the little punks come out, hanging with their crews, trying to steal stuff or wandering around aimlessly. A pretty tough day in general.

 

Anyway, Saturday was the big Silver Age day. Sold lots of Marvels, and some nice DCs too, with a good bit of pre-code horror mixed in and some CGC, Gold/ Bronze/ and other stuff mixed in. Saw my other 2 regulars who only come for the 1 day. Both spent alot of money and added a couple of things to their lists.

 

Sunday is the day when the credit cards really come out. Lots of people who have tapped their supply of cash, but still have lots of stuff they want to buy. Or maybe it is because they are low on cash, and since I take credit cards, they save that cash for some other dealers who do not. Sunday on the floor was actually more crowded than Saturday. Tons of people, I guess everyone who could not get in on Saturday bought Sunday passes instead. It was the weakest day for sales, but was still VERY good. I was still selling books at 4:45 and felt like I could have sold much more had their been more time. After breaking down and loading the truck, made 1 more trip to Old Town Mexican Cafe. Probably my favorite place to eat in SD.

 

All in all, I sold over 2 long boxes of high grade Silver Age, about 1 box and a 1/4 of high grade Bronze, 1 long box of romance/ western comics. approx 50 CGC books, nearly a mag box of Golden Age, and 3 - 4 mag boxes of pre-code horror.

 

Some notable books which sold

Strange Tales 29

Beware 16

Young Romance #191, 201

Am Spidey #300

Wanted #50 (unstable pink cover, cool)

Amazing Spidey #133 CGC 9..6

Avengers 116 cgc 9.6

MTU 14 cgc 9.6

Captain America #165 cgc 9.4

Thor #175, 199, 189 all cgc 9.4

Thor #256 cgc 9.6

MTU #11 cgc 9.4

Speed Comics #18 (Kirby cover)

Speed Comics #34 (Schomburg war cover)

Beware #11

Fantastic Fears #7

Mystery Men Comics #2 (2nd robot cover in comics)

Monsters on the Prowl #25

My Love #26,28

Captain Marvel Adv #101

Roy Rogers #5

Cowgirl Romances #11

Vault of Evil #5,6

Captain Science #7

Horrific #4

Who is Next #5 (Toth)

Torchy #6

Rangers #26

All True Police Cases #2

Frankenstein Comics #18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 27, 29,30, 31

Haunted Thrills 9, 13

Skeleton Hand #2

Tormented #2

This Mag is Haunted #3

Venus #19

My Mystery #12

Flying Jenny #2 (Baker cover)

Out of the Shadows 8

Weird Mysteries #5 (monkey brain cover)

This Mag is Haunted #10 (decap cover)

Venus #17(awesome)

Beware #5, 11

Horrific #3 (bullet hole in head), #11

Astonishing #4

Green Lantern #76

MTU 53 cgc 9.6

Captain Marvel 29 cgc 9.6

Avengers #113, 115, 120 all cgc 9.6

Am Spidey 169 cgc 9.6

Four Color Little Lulu

Superman #130

John Wayne Comics #11, 14

Gene Autry giveaway

Catman #5

Comic Pages v3 #5

Funny Picture Stories v2 #6

Brave & Bold 43, 44

Atom #7

JIM #89

JLA #21

Glamourous Romance #49

Our Love Story #27

Claire Voyant #3 (bride cover, lesbian story)

Voodoo #7,9,13,14,18

Special Marvel Edition #15 CGC 9.8 ($875.00 to a dealer)

X-Men #100

Action #131, 140, 189

Daredevil Comics #20

Bulletman #6

JoJo Comics #21

Flash #110

All Star Comics #4

Green Lantern #40

Am Spidey #8, 24

MTU #13, 15 cgc 9.6

Captain Marvel #28 cgc 9.6 ($325.00)

All American Men of War #36

FF #16

Amazing Spidey #9

Airboy v8 #16

Atomic Comics #2 (baker)

All American Men of War #17

Am Spidey #121

FF Annual 3

Four Color #146 Lulu

X-Men #28

DD #8

Am Spidey #36

Batman #232, 234

Am Spidey #41

Avengers #57

Am Adventures #11

Hero for Hire #1

Iron Fist #14

Marvel Super Heroes #20 cgc 9.4 (165.00)

Ghost Comics #6

War Against Crime #10

Chamber of Chills #22

W Disney C & S #257

Lulu #140

Tomb of Terror #110

FF #15, 19

Superman #129

Fight Comics #61

Baffling Mysteries #24

Beyond #4

Hand of Fate #27

Web of Mystery #22, 24

Brick Bradford 6 (schomburg robot cover)

Am Spidey #29

Sgt Fury 3

TOS #41 (pretty book)

Zip #37

Tomahawk #4

Batman #106, 108, 150, 132

Detective #150, 260

Green Lantern #18

This Mag is Haunted #8

House of secrets #92

Ghost #3

Ghost Rider #1 (raw 9.0) 240.00

Mysterious Adv #16

Dr Solar #1

Magnus #2

Turok #18

Am Spidey #129 (raw 9.2, $450.00)

Special Marvel Edition #15

Werewolf by night #8 CGC 9.4

Hulk #181

All Star #37 (1st Injustice Society)

Green Lantern #76

Amazing Spider-man #101

Batman #84 (Catwoman)

Detective #211 cgc 7.0 (classic Catwoman cover, 2nd highest cert. 625.00)

Detective 204

Star Spangled War #99

Avengers #8

Authentic Police cases

Adv into Terror #25

Baffling Mysteries 19

Adv into Unknown 56

Adv into Terror #21

Capt Marvel Jr #85

America's best 29

Keen Detective #24

Voodoo #10

Forbidden Worlds 31

Date with Danger #6

Black Cat #49

Adv into the Unknown #44

Astonishing #36, 31, 32, 26, 21

Journey into Unknown Worlds 17

Suspense #19

Ghost #11

Adv into Weird Worlds #17

Mystery Tales 17

Dynamite #3, 5, 8

Uncanny Tales #28, 14

Menace #1,2,3,4,6

Suspense #8

Spellbound #21

Mystery Tales #9

Mystic #15, 25, 35

Black Magic v5 #2

Gunsmoke Western 16 (gory horror comic, nudity panel not noted in Overstreet)

Suspense Detective #4

Journey into Fear #14

Adv into Unknown #52

Murder Inc #6

Journey into unknown Worlds #27, 28, 30, 26

Jungle Lil #1

Space Adv #1

Beyond #25, 26

Strange Tales #21, 34

Black Cat #52, 53

Dynamite 4,5

Dark Mysteries #7

Adv into Terror 27

Uncanny Tales #17

Pin up Pete #1

Adv into Darkness 7,11

Adv into Terror #6,11,13,20

Adv into Unknown #2

Adv into Weird Worlds 3, 12, 18, 19

Beyond #19, 29

Chamber of Chills 6, 23

Chilling Tales #15, 17

Crimes by Women #6

Eerie #7

Fantastic Fears #7

Fight Against Crim 1,2

Hand of Fate #16

Haunted Thrills #17

Kaanga #4

Lawbreakers Suspense Storeis #14

Marvel Mystery #84, 62

Mr Mystery #19

Out of the Night #1, 9

Secret Mysteries #19

Skeleton Hand #4,6

Slave Girl #2

Space Adventures #2,3,7

Strange Fantasy #6,7,8,10

Strange Mysteries #12

STrange Tales #32

Strange Worlds #4

This Mag is Haunted #14

Venus #12, 14, 18

Voodoo 15, 19

Web of Mystery #8,15, 20

Weird HOrrors #6

Weird Tales of the Future #8

Witches Tales #17

This does not include the many books which were sold out of the Silver Age Bronze age boxes. It was a very successful show and I think most of my customers left very happy. Also should mention that a couple of board members bought some horror stuff from me and I appreciate the business. Thanks guys.

 

[Anfield Fox]

pictures?

[Comicdey]

It would be nice to have a board only offering from you one of these days....I see quite a few books that I'd be very interested in.............gone now into collections.

 

thanks for the report.

[Monstro]

great report!

[BEAUMONTS]

"big stack of about 45 high grade Strange Adventures between #8 and 140 from Joe V"

Are these already sold, and if not do you have a list of grades and prices. Thanks (thumbs u

 

[OldGuy]

Good report. I'd be interested in hearing from other dealers as well. It's interesting reading reports from "both sides of the table".

[chrisco37]

Thanks for the report, Dale. As we've said before, always nice to hear the other side of the table. Usually, the closest I get to that is Bob's Rants and Raves, and Bob has been slacking there.

 

Looks like you sold quite a bit of stuff. Glad that somebody has a good Saturday there.

 

Someone posted a thread the other day asking what were some of the "hot" books at the show. What's your take on that? Were there certain books that more people were asking about? Anything surprising?

[innocuous]

Nice report. I really like the list of books sold. Thanks Dale.

 

Some notable books which sold

Action #131, 140, 189

 

What!! No mention of the Action #21 I bought? It even came with a free, in-person restoration check by Matt Nelson. Not to mention some guy tried to buy it from me in your booth as I was handing you the cash.

[Dale Roberts]

Sorry, no pictures, most of the stuff I didn't have long enough to scan. The Strange Adv are for a want list customer, so not available, but if you would like to send me a want list, I will find you some.

 

Not sure how a board only listing would work. Don't have the experience on here yet to know. Might try it sometime. Generally speaking, between Chicago and Baltimore and after Baltimore until mid November, I will be adding most of the rest of the stuff to my ebay store. I still have about 1000 pre-code horror books and tons of new CGC stuff.

[Dale Roberts]

Yep, forgot that ACtion #21. I am sure there were a few other books that I forgot to right down as well. I read your post about the book. Very glad you got it, seems like it went to a good home. One of my very favorite early Action covers.

[Dale Roberts]

Thanks for the report, Dale. As we've said before, always nice to hear the other side of the table. Usually, the closest I get to that is Bob's Rants and Raves, and Bob has been slacking there.

 

Looks like you sold quite a bit of stuff. Glad that somebody has a good Saturday there.

 

Someone posted a thread the other day asking what were some of the "hot" books at the show. What's your take on that? Were there certain books that more people were asking about? Anything surprising?

 

I still had multiple requests for Marvel Spotlight #5 in high grade. Also, Am Spidey #300. Sold multiple GL #76s in 7.0 to 8.0 range. Seems like mostly the usual suspects to me. Books keep coming to me that I sold as well....

Batman #232, 227(sold 2 232 (8.0 raw 225, cgc 9.4 for 750.00 to a dealer)

Amazing Spider-man #129(raw 9.2 450.00)

Amazing Spider-man #121(raw 8.5 225.00)

Am Spidey #31(8.0 260.00)

Ghost Rider 1 ( sold 2 9.0, 9.2)

X-Men #3,4 (8.0 raw , 900.00 each)

All Star seemed like a hot title, as lots of people were asking.

As far as a genre, pre-code was obviously great for me. So was GGA. So was high grade Marvel.

 

 

[KingOfRulers]

Nice report.

 

So, do you think it was worth it? San Diego is the most expensive place to setup in the country that I know of. They have such outrageous prices. It was something like $1800 for a booth right? Do you think the sales were enough to outweigh the time, effort, expenses and cost of product to make it a profitable venture? I often wonder if the bulk of dealers make money at San Diego. I sometimes think they just go to have fun, because except for a few dealers I just don't see how a healthy profit could come from it. I hope you did well though.

[G.A.tor]

Dale,

do you still have the MMC 86?...I was with Zaid looking at it, but never had a chance to get back to you...if you do, I will get in Chicago

Rick (New Force Comics)

 

[Dale Roberts]

I don't know how every one does, but I can tell you I do well there. Here is what I can tell you. No numbers or anything, that is personal stuff, but here you go. Reports from dealer mouths to your ears.

 

I did well.

Bedrock City did well.

Harley did well.

Ted did well.

I talked to 4 dealers in the Silver Gold area who said it was slower than normal, whatever that means. No names here. I also heard of a few guys who may shrink their spaces or not set up, but don't know that for sure.

 

I have 4000.00 in booths and that doesn't cover half the expenses, with the rest being hotels, book transport, airfare, employees, etc.

 

[Earl Davis]

Thanks Dale.

[Dale Roberts]

Yes, should still have the Marvel Mystery 86. Muchin is after it as well, so hit me early. Thanks

[innocuous]

I'll help next year for one of those exhibitor badges. I want in on the pre-show sales.

[sterlingcomics]

So, no hits on my want list?

[Dale Roberts]

Gotta run guys, been fun

[Filter81]

Nice report.

 

So, do you think it was worth it? San Diego is the most expensive place to setup in the country that I know of. They have such outrageous prices. It was something like $1800 for a booth right? Do you think the sales were enough to outweigh the time, effort, expenses and cost of product to make it a profitable venture? I often wonder if the bulk of dealers make money at San Diego. I sometimes think they just go to have fun, because except for a few dealers I just don't see how a healthy profit could come from it. I hope you did well though.

 

I can't speak for anyone else, but my expenses between the booth, hotel, shipping, and airfare were about $4k, and I did more than 30x that number in sales. (Though some of this came from books on consignment) I've only set up at San Diego twice but its been well worth it for me each time. My expenses wound up being about 3% of my total sales, which is pretty much in line with what eBay charges anyway. I'd be willing to bet that most of the dealers who set up at San Diego do pretty well even after taking expenses into account.