Tysons Corner Virginia Show Report - December 7

[FlyingDonut]

Darth and I set up yesterday at the snowy Tysons Corner show in Virginia, with five tables (our biggest show yet!), featuring board member Icecube's collection, lots of modern books and other goodies.

 

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Tysons show, our little local show is one of the deepest around, with lots of major national dealers setting up. The DC market USED to support three monthly shows, but has shrunk down to Tysons once every six weeks (I don't think its because of the dreaded CRASH, I think its because of the economy here - the dotcom implosion really hit Northern Virginia hard) and so now there is pent up demand every six weeks.

 

Considering the armageddon snow that had been predicted to fall Friday and Saturday, it was pretty good. DC closes when snow is predicted, and we were supposed to get a foot. It missed us, and went up north, leaving us with 5-8 inches. It was quite cold yesterday so attendance probably was helped by people not wanting to do anything outside. The attendance was also helped because the Redskins game (which usually KILLS the show at 1) featured two hideous teams.

 

We had a good show - the collection has deep Marvel and DC runs and blew a lot of it out. What was surprising was not what sold, but what DIDN'T sell. Very few Amazings, FFs or Avengers. Sold TONS of Marvel horror books - full runs of Tomb of Dracula, Werewolf by Night (could have sold Werewolf 1 20 times), Where Monsters Dwell, Vault of Horror, Man-Thing, etc. Lots of Byrne X-books sold, as we had them in mid-high grade (does that make sense) and they were priced right. Also moved lots of mid-high grade Silver Age X-books, TONS of Daredevils (surprisingly at good prices), and some wall books. Sold my Cerebus 1 for a nice little price. Darth's Origin 1 10.0 got lots of oohs and aaahs but no buyers, as did most of our plastic books.

 

Most amusing anecdote of the day: At about 1015, as the show is getting into full gear, a boy of about 10 came up and asked "Do you have Marvel Comics 1?" We both thought he meant Marvels 1, so took it out. He said, "No, no, the one from 1939." His father is a big time buyer and came by later and was laughing. Then he bought some X-Men, so it was all good.

 

[Foolkiller]

glad you had a good show FD, weather notwithstanding. This run sounds great... was the Avengers run complete, starting with #1, or was it just spotty here and there.

 

I think it's great you sold the Marvel horror stuff... I don't think you'll have to worry about having FFs, Spideys or Avengers... I'm sure there'll be some buyers for that stuff...

 

This is a show I hear about quite a bit as I know Koop and Al Stoltz always set up and then I hear about it at the Philly show...

 

 

[WillFury]

I was there, you guys had a huge selection. The only problem was that some of the books had stuck together to tightly, it was like pulling teeth to get them separated. The other thing was that by the time I made it to your tables and found some stuff I wanted to buy, I realized I was out of money and it was time for football. D-oh! I blame the guy next to you, in the corner. I think his name is Jimmy? He had a bunch of high grade Bronze Avengers issues for $2 each that pretty much wiped me out.

[Fan4Fan]

What was surprising was not what sold, but what DIDN'T sell. Very few Amazings, FFs or Avengers.

 

If you just want to box up those FF's and Avengers, I'll pay postage to get that dead weight off your hands...

 

 

Sounds like my kind of show.

 

Thanks,

Fan4Fan

[fantastic_four]

Amazings, FFs or Avengers

 

Any high grades? Or did you pick out the best ones for yourself--not that there's anything wrong with that.

[FlyingDonut]

No really high grades. Lots of VF/NMs, the occasional NM. Later in the run they're better. Solid 9.0s all the way through.

[FlComicFan]

how many people does that show draw?

[Darthdiesel]

Amazings, FFs or Avengers

 

Any high grades? Or did you pick out the best ones for yourself--not that there's anything wrong with that.

 

with Dan and I being family guys with day jobs, I don't think we could ever find the time to cherry pick a 29 long-box collection Like Dan stated earlier, as we were packing up and breaking down our tables, we were shocked by some of the books not sold and we did make comments like" No one went through this box at all!!!"

 

WillFury brings up a good point. We could have done more things like organized the books and made some "search room" in the boxes. Next time... main thing for me was finding the time to prep the stock and working on signage.