A question to our overseas members?

[JohnBull]

At a shop or show, you'll pay more overall and that's been they way forever. Obviously e-bay equals the playing fields and I get the feeling that around 20% of books are going overseas, primarily UK.

 

I was in Dublin on holiday last year and stumbled over a comic shop. The guy who owned it said that SA, particularly SA DC, was almost unknown in Ireland and I guess the same is true for much of Europe.

[osborn_fr]

Usually i tend to pay around 12$ for airmail up to 8 comics

 

8 comics should fit in a global priority envelope (even sandwiched between 2 firm card board). It's fast (faster than air mail) and only $9 ! Hope it will help. Chromium have a web page where he explains how to prepare a package. I do not remember the URL though...

[goldust40]

Whoa Gene! That post was very Hammer-esque! The tone was perfect!

 

hehe, I was thinking the same thing, EXACTLY the same tone of intellectual condescension.

 

I thought he was being ironic, not condescending - you know, making fun of the parochialism that's endemic in the U.S, as well as globalization and cultural imperialism. That WAS it, wasn't it?

[delekkerste]

 

Glad to see that the British tradition of appreciating irony and other such nuances is alive and well.

 

Gene

[goldust40]

Seeing how American comics are more scarce overseas,do local shops and dealers sell at Overstreet prices or at much higher price?

 

I thought I'd throw in my two cents re the land of Brit.

 

For new comics, that arrive in the U.K. at roughly the same time as the U.S., the price isn't too far from the actual dollar rate in sterling. Obviously it is a bit higher (especially on trade hardbacks, DC Archives, etc. where $49.95 = £37.50) but that depends on the exchange rate a little. The U.K. is the only country outside the U.S. to have Diamond offices, so we do have an advantage. Unless the book has a Titan Distributor sticker, which adds 20%+ to the price for reasons that even now I can't figure out. The swine.

 

As for Silver and Golden Age, very, very few comic shops that I'm aware of bother with pre-1980s back issues anymore as these have been usurped by merchandise and toys which have a far wider appeal re passing trade. Old comics are relegated to the back of the shop, and if you're a dedicated collector it'll be slim pickings indeed if anything uncommon or high grade is wanted.

 

Most important point: American comics are, indeed, FAR FAR FAR scarcer in the U.K. than in the U.S. I really can't emphasize that enough. We may have the biggest satellite market for American comics in the world, but it's a pretty small pond compared to the big country.

 

The anomaly is that prices may be higher on mid-high grade items that are in demand, but on nothing else. Compared to the U.S., there is virtually no market for original art, pulps, Platinum Age, Golden Age (especially high grade), most Atom Age (excluding E.C.s and some icon horror books) and slabbed NM+ or better early Silver Age. It's either too expensive for what people are generally prepared to pay, or there is no interest. It's not OUR heritage, after all, and hardly any pre- 1960 American comics made it to these shores.

 

Up until 5 years ago the market was heavily dominated by Silver Age Marvel, and although there have been some developments that's still the situation.

 

Ebay has changed things, certainly, and speaking as a dealer I can tell you that I've been involved in bidding wars with all the big U.K. players for collections that I suspect most U.S. dealers would turn their nose up at.

 

I'm not attempting to belittle the U.K. market here - things have never been better as buyers' tastes have become more sophisticated, and compared to the posts about Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium, it seems we are fortunate indeed. Ironically we always get some French, German and Spanish fans making the journey for the bimonthly Royal National shows.

 

Which brings me to ACCESS to collections. Quite simply, you guys have it, and us Brits, separated by 3,000 miles of ocean from the source, do not. Check out Neatstuffcollectibles' disingenuous little story about wild eyed Mikey Carbonaro finding a pot of gold (some 2,500 books, it reads) at some old lady's house in Indiana. All right, such events are still unusual in the U.S., but there was no bidding war, and no prevarication. Not bad going, and as likely a scenario in the U.K. as the Queen abdicating.

 

Wonder what Mikey paid for that collection?

[goldust40]

 

Glad to see that the British tradition of appreciating irony and other such nuances is alive and well.

 

Gene

 

Very funny post, BTW.

[goldust40]

 

The Chuckster is always talking of shipping containers of mid-grade Silver Age overseas,so someone must be buying and reselling them.

 

MH Chuck may well be shipping stuff (dreck?) overseas, but I doubt it would be destined for the U.K. The stuff may be wholesale, but nobody's profit margins could be that low, could they??

[JMcD]

I thought he was being ironic, not condescending - you know, making fun of the parochialism that's endemic in the U.S, as well as globalization and cultural imperialism. That WAS it, wasn't it?

 

My head hurts .

[chromium]

8 comics should fit in a global priority envelope (even sandwiched between 2 firm card board). It's fast (faster than air mail) and only $9 ! Hope it will help. Chromium have a web page where he explains how to prepare a package. I do not remember the URL though...

 

here it is web page

 

I've been promising some people to make the same type of page on how to send tons of books cheaply using the M-bag system, but first I couldn't find my trademark white gloves , and then I got sidetracked and now I'm just putting it off becomes I'm getting lazier every day

[murph0]

Not that I think this is a big deal or anything.. but what would happen if you were found to be "lying" on a customs statement? You know like calling a comic book something else in order to avoid duty/tariffs.

 

Brian

[chromium]

Not that I think this is a big deal or anything.. but what would happen if you were found to be "lying" on a customs statement? You know like calling a comic book something else in order to avoid duty/tariffs.

 

Brian

 

A customs official actually told me to put the value under a certain amount as they are forced to open any package that exceeds the value and

 

a) They don't really care to do that, takes time away from more important jobs like looking for drugs or contraband

b) They have no idea on how to calculate the real value,so they would have to either call me or call the sender to confirm the value

 

Used books don't suffer import duties, neither do magazines, but for some weird reason comic books are considered 'toys' by our customs laws and they do get taxed.

But as there are advertisements in the US comics, they are considered magazines again.....But it gets even more complicated, because no Belgian comic books have advertisements, in the eye of Belgian law comic books with ads don't exists, so they can't be magazines, so they are "converted" to toy-status again

 

Believe me, I did my homework on this thoroughly, I get an average of 2000 comics per year shipped to me from the US,so I just had to find out....

[minutekev@50]

Seeing how American comics are more scarce overseas,do local shops and dealers sell at Overstreet prices or at much higher price?

 

I thought I'd throw in my two cents re the land of Brit.

 

For new comics, that arrive in the U.K. at roughly the same time as the U.S., the price isn't too far from the actual dollar rate in sterling. Obviously it is a bit higher (especially on trade hardbacks, DC Archives, etc. where $49.95 = £37.50) but that depends on the exchange rate a little. The U.K. is the only country outside the U.S. to have Diamond offices, so we do have an advantage. Unless the book has a Titan Distributor sticker, which adds 20%+ to the price for reasons that even now I can't figure out. The swine.

 

As for Silver and Golden Age, very, very few comic shops that I'm aware of bother with pre-1980s back issues anymore as these have been usurped by merchandise and toys which have a far wider appeal re passing trade. Old comics are relegated to the back of the shop, and if you're a dedicated collector it'll be slim pickings indeed if anything uncommon or high grade is wanted.

 

Most important point: American comics are, indeed, FAR FAR FAR scarcer in the U.K. than in the U.S. I really can't emphasize that enough. We may have the biggest satellite market for American comics in the world, but it's a pretty small pond compared to the big country.

 

The anomaly is that prices may be higher on mid-high grade items that are in demand, but on nothing else. Compared to the U.S., there is virtually no market for original art, pulps, Platinum Age, Golden Age (especially high grade), most Atom Age (excluding E.C.s and some icon horror books) and slabbed NM+ or better early Silver Age. It's either too expensive for what people are generally prepared to pay, or there is no interest. It's not OUR heritage, after all, and hardly any pre- 1960 American comics made it to these shores.

 

Up until 5 years ago the market was heavily dominated by Silver Age Marvel, and although there have been some developments that's still the situation.

 

Ebay has changed things, certainly, and speaking as a dealer I can tell you that I've been involved in bidding wars with all the big U.K. players for collections that I suspect most U.S. dealers would turn their nose up at.

 

I'm not attempting to belittle the U.K. market here - things have never been better as buyers' tastes have become more sophisticated, and compared to the posts about Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium, it seems we are fortunate indeed. Ironically we always get some French, German and Spanish fans making the journey for the bimonthly Royal National shows.

 

Which brings me to ACCESS to collections. Quite simply, you guys have it, and us Brits, separated by 3,000 miles of ocean from the source, do not. Check out Neatstuffcollectibles' disingenuous little story about wild eyed Mikey Carbonaro finding a pot of gold (some 2,500 books, it reads) at some old lady's house in Indiana. All right, such events are still unusual in the U.S., but there was no bidding war, and no prevarication. Not bad going, and as likely a scenario in the U.K. as the Queen abdicating.

 

Wonder what Mikey paid for that collection?

 

Yeah, but in that history channel special it noted that millions of comics were shipped overseas in care packages for the US Army during WWII...I'd start checking those second-hand bookstores if I were you...

[goldust40]

Yeah, but in that history channel special it noted that millions of comics were shipped overseas in care packages for the US Army during WWII...I'd start checking those second-hand bookstores if I were you...

 

Ahhhhhhh. That old urban myth. Yes, comics were shipped over during WWII but very few survived due to OUR war effort. Believe me I have trawled many a second-hand bookshop in most port towns in South East England and East Anglia and have never seen a single American comic, bar once, when the owner uncovered his trove of beat up, and absurdly overpriced, Gold Keys.

 

I have heard many a story about caches of '60s Whitmans and Gold Keys being discovered in derelict warehouses in Scotland and Cumbria, and have reason to believe that some of these tales are not apocryphal - they did happen, but such finds were and are extremely rare.

 

As for Golden Age books being sent to expat GIs, according to the now defunct Comic Book Price Guide for Great Britain, there are indeed some major key GA books that reside here for that reason. But we are talking very few, some of which surface when uber-collectors (like the great comic historian and supreme packrat Denis Gifford) who hoovered them all up in the '60s, pass on to the big Convention in the sky.

 

Believe me it's just possible that if I was fifteen years older I may have indeed stumbled on a major find of GA or even SA that was accumulated by a former U.S. Marine, but I doubt it.

 

I do know from reliable sources that large amounts of pre-code horror books were uncovered in a warehouse in Denmark in the mid-70s. Strange, but true (most Danes speak fluent English, but WHY Denmark and not the U.K.)

 

Also, about five years ago, an English postal auction house had a catalog of mid to high grade SA Marvels that had been kept by a former U.S. Army Captain. However he was the consignor, and he'd hoarded them very carefully, fully aware of their worth. Shrewd man.

 

GA, and Atom Age comics, ironically, are more likely to be found in Germany or anywhere in Northern Europe where there's been a strong U.S. Army presence from 1945 onwards.

 

I admit that I'd still like to hear more stories about this, as I'm mainly talking from my experience here, especially regarding finding stuff as you said. Maybe other European Forumites might have a tale to share?

[shadroch]

Goldust,

Something you mentioned intrigues me.I posted in a thread last week how I had spent considerable time and money this year all over the western US searching for this collection of HG Early Marvels.The actor who started this quest is the son of a former US Army Captain who was stationed in England and is now dead.He thought the books were at a brothers house,but he only had a small box of readers.That brother thought they were at another brothers house but he also only had a bunch of readers,but one was the first Spider-Man.Now they think they are at a step-brothers house in England,but since the step-brother doesn't know their worth,we can't simply call and ask.

I had given up on this and thought it was a dog and pony show,but now am wondering. Could you posssibly find out the Captains name that had these books,and if the collection was ever sold?Stranger things have happened,even if it is usually to Chuckles.

[awe4one]

The closest thing I've seen since I been in the military is a collection I bought from a Colonel awhile back. He wasn't a chaplain but had 218 early 70s Marvel and DCs that he kept in VF+/NM condition. Really beautiful books....

 

If there were retirees over here that did have a cache of GA/SA comics I'd imagine that they would have surfaced by now. It's no secret within the military community that older comics have some value and with the amount of mini-shows at bases over the years, you'd think some would have made known their collections if for no other reason to see how much they're worth. Hasn't happened as far as I know.....

 

Jim

[goldust40]

I'll get back to you re this. The auction house in question (see previous post) is run by a bloke who never reveals the identity of his consignors or buyers. I doubt I could bribe him to tell me the required info - as it's more than his job's worth, don't you know.

 

Sounds like a different collection, but I confess I'm intrigued, too. If any dealer or collector I'm acquainted with knows anything they usually say nought. It's a small pond over here, and people are cagey and paranoid about divulging any kind of information.

[JohnBull]

I imagine there'll be a few people beating a path to Bob Monkhouse's door now. I don't know if he kept up in recent years, but his collection at one time was supposed to be the biggest in the country. Masses of animation items too I believe.

[Flaming_Telepath]

That's quite sick and premature. The corpse isn't even cold!

 

Guess who hasn't got Bob's address or number? Any clues?

[goldust40]

I always assumed that the late B.M. collected newspaper strips as opposed to comic books. I didn't figure him to be another Denis Gifford.

 

Just been watching "Missing believed wiped" on BBC4 about important lost T.V. programs being recovered by private collectors. One of the biggest collectors of this: Monkhouse. Seems he collected anything and everything.

 

Bob Monkhouse never shared his passion re comics, at least not on T.V. Be interesting to know whether his collection (assuming he had one of American comics) rivalled Jonathan Ross's.

 

Errr........what was that about his phone number?

[JohnBull]

I remember reading an article in a Sunday supplement 20+ years ago where he was pictured reading his Batman 1. At that time, he was reckoned to have everything (as judged by the Julie Burchill of their day I suppose).