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Tales from a local show

Started by Foolkiller,

9 posts in this topic

Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted

First thing, I can assure all of you that this local show report will not be as detailed as the report that Lighthouse gives, but I thought I just post some oddball things I noticed today.

 

For most of my life, I lived in Jersey before moving to Philly, so I used to hit all the local small shows looking for deals. Occassionally, when I'm back in Jersey visiting my parents, I'll go to the Wayne show (at the Holiday Inn) just to see what's going on in terms of this show, cause I have gotten some great deals there before.

 

The show is run by JP (who has written in the last two CBM market reports) who is a reasonably nice guy (if somewhat an overgrader). I have to admire JP for keeping this show and the Clifton show going all this time, considering that attendence really fluctuates from show to show, and also in terms of quality of dealers.

 

Now, I don't go to the show expecting to see a NM Amazing Spider Man 1 for $50... but it can be an interesting show.

 

Today, I found it to be particularly interesting. Here's why. Gary Platt will set up at this show if his schedule permits, and to be honest, he's the only dealer in the room that you have a shot of possibly getting high grade silver/bronze from. I went there and executed a trade that I was probably not terribly happy with afterwards, just cause I picked books that I wasn't all that thrilled with when I got home... but overall, I just went to see the show.

 

The show costs $2 to get in. The room is small... I don't know how to describe it other than it's no bigger than the size of an average high school classroom. There were plenty of dealers there (probably about 8 or 9) who had low/mid/and a small amount of books around the 8.0/9.0 range. Most of the books were reasonably priced. One guy there was trying to dump his entire inventory... some of his inventory was being sold for 10 cents a book. Other portions of it at a minimum of 50% off. I've seen this guy before, and his goal was to leave the show with nothing left. I doubt he managed it, because there wasn't enough foot traffic. I'm sure if you spent enough money with him, he might have literally given away the mid grade silver he had. He had a fine copy of Marvel Premiere 15 he was offering for $10... pretty decent deal. That was given if you didn't buy any other books. I'll bet if you spent money you got an even better deal.

 

The most interesting thing about this show is the "no minimum bid" auction.

 

Here's what was offered/sold:

 

5 X-Men trade paperbacks of the New X-Men with Morrison/Quietly et al. sold for $13 (just think of what retail is on these items).

 

Uncanny X-Men 61 (Adams art) VF- sold for $19.

 

3 figures from the Marvel Legends series (gambit, beast and punisher) for a total of $11

 

10 Old Overstreet guides (going back to the hardcover volume 18)... sold for $12 (I bought them).

 

A VF/NM copy of the Marvel magazine with the early Punisher appearance... sold for $21 (hard find from what I know of it).

 

A VG- copy of Superman Annual 1... sold for $25 (guide is about $100).

 

Most items sold for a $1 or $2... not much more... and there were some good items that were worth far more than just a $1.

 

Now... JP gives his market reports in the Comic Book Marketplace... and sometimes it's entertaining to see how he's commenting on the market from his perspective, cause I suspect it's very, very different from other shows. BUT, I will say that this show is just amazing sometimes for finding astonishing deals that no one else seems to be interested in. I bought a set of Crisis there in the auction for $12. They were all 9.0s... minimum.

 

Is the moral of the story go to this show? I don't know. There's so little in the room that I find that I'm looking for... but I can say watching the auction is hilarious entertainment.

 

So there you have it. I rambled on for quite a while here.

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ArAich

ArAich

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I will have to send my Jersey crew to check this out next time...thanks for the report - great "steals"!

My crew of wiseguys will be there too. It's our turf. Back off. 893naughty-thumb.gif

 

Maybe I will be there incognito... action-smiley-017.gif

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maxwell-migration

maxwell-migration

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I live thisclose to the Wayne show, and I go pretty much whenever I can. I bought a foot (no kidding) high stack of stuff from Steve, the guy unloading his inventory, including Gemstone Disney Albums and comics, a color Pogo Album, mid-seventies Warren & Skywald mags, a bunch of the old giant-size Marvels Greatest & Marvel Tales (stuffed with great reprints!) and a load more for $22. grin.gif

And, I bought some nicely graded stuff from JP, too. The show is generally pretty good with a friendly bunch of regulars, but every now and then you can hit a day when, for whatever reason, dealer turnout is spotty and it can be slow going.

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

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The problem with JP's grading isn't that he doesn't know how... it's that he doesn't always do it the right way. It's almost astonishing... he can be REALLY off. Other times, his grading isn't that bad... a lot of it depends on how much he's into on a collection (or at least that seems to be the trend).

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