Time To Put Up Or.....

[awe4one]

You know that did cross my mind yesterday......

 

Jim

Pay him with some worthless modern books!

 

 

But I don't own any worthless Modern books anymore....

 

Jim

Make a trade with Darth!

 

Hey you got anything you want me to look for? Hans and Gretchen's Romantic Holiday maybe?

 

Jim

 

Hey! At least this gets me off my [!@#%^&^] to see if I have any dup Romances for you!

 

Jim

But will it get me off my [!@#%^&^] to look for the books off your list?

 

 

Jim

[greggy]

You know that did cross my mind yesterday......

 

Jim

Pay him with some worthless modern books!

 

 

But I don't own any worthless Modern books anymore....

 

Jim

Make a trade with Darth!

 

Hey you got anything you want me to look for? Hans and Gretchen's Romantic Holiday maybe?

 

Jim

 

Hey! At least this gets me off my [!@#%^&^] to see if I have any dup Romances for you!

 

Jim

But will it get me off my [!@#%^&^] to look for the books off your list?

 

 

Jim

[Darthdiesel]

What? Are these regular issues #1-5 in German or some fancy special?

 

Jim

 

regular issues but in German. Dino is the publisher/distributor and the covers are pretty much the same. but some of the german editions collect 2 issues so you don't have 7 like in the US

[awe4one]

I thought I'd give you all a "show" report and some interesting observations/discussions. At least it'll will be different than the typical....

 

The show was located in Mannheim, Germany in a nice hotel immediately adjacent to a mall which made the wife happy. It was scheduled to run from 1100-1600 with set-up starting at 1000. Loaded up the back of the Durango to the brim with long boxes and left the abode early (0800) with the wife and kid in tow as Stuttgart is about an hour south of Mannheim. With the typical German weekend traffic (and associated Staus) the trip could take up to 2 hours. There was no traffic for a change and arrived in just over an hour.

 

The show had about 30 dealers but it immediately became clear that most all did not have comics. In fact, there were three of us. One dealer had moderns he was selling for a Euro a piece (mostly late 90s) and after the show started, a man arrived with three short boxes of silver and gold. Really beat up though.....

 

All three of us had an GS X-Men #1 F/VF or higher for sale.

 

Th show had a fair number of customers between 1100-1300 after that it became very slow.

 

Had a fair amount of people look through my boxes and made a couple of sales but it was obvious that the comics portion of the show was not advertised well. I brought this up with the show organizer and he admitted that he wanted to make comics more a part of the show and would advertise that fact in future shows. We'll see.....

 

What was more interesting was the discussions with the other two dealers on the state of comics collecting in Germany......

 

First, the modern dealer was also a comics store owner from Weisbaden. He stated that the new US comics market in Germany was dying a quick death. This past Christmas season was his worst in 7 years and feared he would have to close up shop in the very near future. The problem is a Catch-22 scenario. One, US comics are already seen as too expensive. If Germans find out that translations are coming out, they will wait until they are released (usually contain two US issues per title). The problem is if these issues don't sell well enough then they are canceled outright despite whether the storyline has concluded. This leaves the customers looking for the US back issue versions which are non-existant as no one ordered them in the first place. The customers have become disenchanted and have started to swear off US comics altogether. The dealer mentioned numerous times of his distain for both Marvel and Top Cow in this regard....

 

The other dealer (who turned out to be the hotel manager) was dumbstruck at the lack of comics customers at the show. He said the US back issue market, especially for early Bronze and earlier, was alive and well and growing in Germany. There are well attended comic shows throughout Central and Southern Germany about once a month. Finding these older issues though was tough and when found are usually well above guide (he mentioned that the stock I brought to this show would do very well at these shows). He's going to hook me up with show details as I didn't know of these German shows beforehand. He also said that SA X-Men are red hot. Any issues in any condition sell very well. He bought a number of G/VG (between #30-40) issues from me for 15-20 Euros a piece and said he would get 40-60 Euros for them on German eBay.

 

Mentioned to him about the "legend" of Golden Age comics sitting untouched in an AAFES warehouse. He smiled and heard of the legend but said that if so they would have been found years ago when the US Army redeployed and repositioned the bulk of their forces in the early 90s. He said that a large warehouse collection dating to the 1950s was found in the 70s along the north coast but that's the closest thing he could imagine and said that may be where this legend started.....

 

I asked both of the dealers why people just didn't go on US eBay to get their back issues. Both had the same answer. Most German collectors do not feel comfortable dealing on US eBay and stick primarily to the German equivilant. The problem seems to stem with Germans feeling uncomfortable making secure transactions over the Internet and both did not like Paypal.

 

Realized sales:

 

X-Men #20 GD+ 20 Euros

X-Men #31 GD 16 Euros

X-Men #33 VG 20 Euros

X-Men #73, #80, #82 G/VG 3 Euros a piece

GS Daredevil #1 20 Euros

Fear #8/9 Euro a piece

Various others.....

 

Some comics for sale and prices:

 

Showcase #17 G/VG 200 Euros

Brave and the Bold #34 G 110 Euros

(Both of these had what looked to be a sub crease along the cover)

Star Spangled Comics #97(?) G- 23 Euros

Black Hood #10 VG 100 Euros

Batman #99 G 125 Euros

 

Things I traded for...

 

JIM #96 VG

Worlds Finest 100 pager VF-

Flash #215 VF+

 

Had a discussion with the show organizer that I wouldn't return to his next show unless he advertised the comics portion of the show more prominently. He promised he would. The hotel manager also said he was going to advertise the show among his comic connections. If I'm satisfied that some semblance of comics advertising has been done I'll set up again there in May. We'll see....

 

Had a great time though......

 

Jim

 

[JohnBull]

Very interesting. Always nice to hear what happens in other parts of Europe. Was this your first European show ?