• When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Fookiller's NYCC Con Report

Started by Foolkiller,

61 posts in this topic

Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted

Once again, I unfortunately did not have a camera for pics. That being said, it was so overwhelmingly crowded, I think they would have been largely ineffective.

 

I'm going to do my report a little differently, not in chronological order, but rather by category. First up, I'll cover purchases and market analysis. But there's stories about thefts, botched artist signings, crowds, etc. I will scan some of the books tomorrow night and get them up -- I did very well and was very pleased.

 

There was a wealth of material available at this show. Simply unbelievable amount. For the most part, if you wanted it, it was there. I enjoyed my time there. I missed on a lot of deals and made a lot of deals. I could have spent money all day long and still not have covered what I wanted to.

 

Here's what I was able to pick up (and as I said, I'll scan many of these tomorrow):

 

FF 5 CGC 8.0 (ow/w) bought from Bechara Malouf (co-owned) deepest, richest colors I've ever seen on an FF 5 in this grade, only better was one or two 9.2s I've seen scans of. The whole collection Bechara brought was unbelievable for this grouping of slabs. It included an FF 13 CGC 9.4 and others. Blew me away.

 

FF 23 CGC 9.2 ow/w (qualified, staples cleaned) bought from Bechara. I paid a reasonable price but ignored the qualified grade and basically paid a universal grade type price (with a some discount and reduction). I didn't think it really mattered. Colors were deep and rich and the book was perfectly centered. White back cover. Superior book.

 

X-Men 1 CGC 6.5 o/w bought from Steve Ritter, Worldwide Comics. Very nice attractive X-Men 1. There were very few (I actually didn't see any other) slabbed X-Men 1s. Book is on fire. I guess when compared to other major marvel keys, this one is set to explode. It seems undervalued.

 

FF 5 CGC 6.0 o/w bought from Richard Evans, Bedrock City. Very attractive 6.0 with a slight miswrap. Nice copy. I was really excited when I found this because other than the 8.0 which I bought for resale, the 6.0 was for me. It was the only other slabbed copy I found in the room. Another beauty and Richie gave me a very fair price.

 

Batman 68 CGC 7.0 ow/w bought from Gus Poulakas, Silver Age Comics. As always, Gus was awesome to deal with and gave me (along with a stack I will detail below) a very fair price. I haven't decided whether to keep or sell this book, but every time I've had it, it's absolutely flown out.

 

Raw:

 

Mystery in Space 55 VF+ bought from Harley Yee. My favorite purchase of the show and I can't wait to scan the book. It's a stunner, perfectly centered, beautiful pages. Grey tone classic, with deep rich colors.

 

I bought the following from Robert Rogovin. The grading in the boxes was erratic, and there were some serious undergrades along with some serious overgrades. Many books were graded accurately. Some of the books looked like Nick Beckett had graded them, and if you were patient, you could find many deals. I just got tired at a certain point and couldn't do any more, but it was a pleasure to box dig through Robert's inventory, here's what I picked up:

 

Strange Tales 114 F+

Marvel Premiere 15 NM-

X-Men 10 F/VF

Cap 100 VF/NM

Luke Cage 6 NM+

Iron Man 55 VF/NM

Hulk 162 NM-/NM

Cap 156 NM-

Avengers 32 NM (possibly NM+ with a press)

Cap 111 NM

Thor 129 VF/NM

Avengers 94 VF

Avengers 122 VF/NM

ASM 102 NM-

Avengers 118 NM

Avengers 103 VF

Avengers 126 VF/NM

 

and... a few misses from the boxes where I didn't take a close enough look:

 

DD 18 VF (tear back cover, so really F+ with a NM front cover)

Avengers 43 (fine, probably the same grade but I thought it presented better)

ASM 101 VF (NM book with small tear front cover tha tI missed)

 

Gary Platt also provided me with some awesome books as usual. Gary always has tremendous inventory and is a real pleasure to deal with. Gary had a tremendous show.

 

Purchases from Gary:

 

ASM 129 NM- (some distributor overspray on the book though, gorgeous, possibly a 9.4 but not sure how CGC will treat the spray)

 

Marvel Spotlight 5 VF/NM (with nice white pages)

 

Night Nurse 2 and 4 for a customer.

 

As I mentioned Gus of Silver Age had some beautiful and cool DCs which I was able to get a very early look at. I bought some nice stuff, mostly for myself.

 

Atom 28 VF/NM

Atom 16 NM-/NM

Atom 17 VF+

Atom 19 NM-

Atom 24 NM-

Batman 150 F+ (popped upper staple but beautiful NM- looking book)

Adventure 403 NM-/NM

Action Comics 309 VF+

Adventure 419 NM

Adventure 383 (I missed some defects on this)

 

Finally, I was able to purchase from Dave Kapelka two very cool SA ten cent DCs that I always have enjoyed:

 

Batman 122, looks VF/NM but has a tape pull (small) back cover

Brave and the Bold 35, F/VF just a beauty! Rich colors and gloss.

 

 

So those were buys this year... could have bought far more. Almost every dealer I saw was extremely excited about their show and raved about how excellent it was. I was behind Bob Storms' booth and I know he had an excellent show. Did really, really well. Since I contributed to Bechara's show and know that he sold many of those awesome color strike books, I know he did well. Gator sold a lot. Dale did well. Gary Platt did well. Gus did very nicely. I heard from a lot of dollar guys who said they had fantastic shows. There was energy in the room as well.

 

One thing I was literally amazed at was how many small purchases and prices for books that dealers get for books that I think you couldn't get half of. People simply walked up, no negotiation, no hassling, no anything. Oh you're giving 15% off that VG/F Cap 109 priced at $35? Sold. Oh that VF Thor 135 at $55? No haggling. X-Men 105 at $70 in VF/NM? No negotiation.

 

The boards/ebay mentality for pricing on many, many of these lower/mid end books showed me that there are just thousands of people out there as collectors who do not analyze pricing and buying as we do.

 

I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Plenty of AF 15s in the room. Plenty of ASM 1s. Plenty of FF 1s. Saw some Hulk 1s. Very little graded Neal Adams Batman books. Joe Verenault brought some beautiful new stuff to the show including an Action 252 CGC 9.0 (stunner) as well a whole host of other books. Joe was cooking right along with some amazing material, much of which was new since Baltimore. Just incredible stuff.

 

There were only two graded Brave and the Bold 28s I saw in the room, both of which Gator had, both of which sold. I was looking for a higher grade copy, but none was around. As I mentioned, almost no graded X-Mens in the room, I bought the only one I saw. It was very Marvel centered. Not too many DCs. There were guys who keep turning up tons of stuff and there's still a very, very healthy market out there for a lot of Silver age Marvel. Unlike in Baltimore, I saw fewer deep discounts and less panic in the dealers. There was much more of a crowd and far more sales.

 

It was a very busy and steady show, which seemed to energize a number of dealers.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Mac Man

Mac Man

Posted
Posted

Brian, once again, I think you really nailed it on the head with this particular point:

The boards/ebay mentality for pricing on many, many of these lower/mid end books showed me that there are just thousands of people out there as collectors who do not analyze pricing and buying as we do.

 

This was a topic of conversation we had this weekend about how the "reality" of the boards isn't as reflective of the greater collecting community as we seem to think.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheetah

cheetah

Posted
Posted

I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cheetah

cheetah

Posted
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

 

Seems like there are one or two major collections coming out every year.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
VintageComics

VintageComics

Posted
Posted
Brian, once again, I think you really nailed it on the head with this particular point:

The boards/ebay mentality for pricing on many, many of these lower/mid end books showed me that there are just thousands of people out there as collectors who do not analyze pricing and buying as we do.

 

This was a topic of conversation we had this weekend about how the "reality" of the boards isn't as reflective of the greater collecting community as we seem to think.

 

Yup.

 

This show was HUGE! I heard that 85,000 people went through the door yesterday. It was so busy you couldn't move.

 

This show definitely had lots of energy and everyone I spoke to did well.

 

This show is sooooo close to being the biggest show of the year it's scary.

 

I walked the entire con floor today for the first time and was blown away by the enormity of the room. It was like two San Diego rooms (I believe there are about 4 or so in SD) and then I was told that there was another entire floor below that was used strictly for the Anime.

 

It was massive.

 

Brian was right, anything you could possibly ask for seemed to be at this show.

 

I'm really happy to have seen it and it was great to see everyone at the show.

 

Two very big thumbs up for this show!

 

 

 

two-thumbsup.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Speedy-D

Speedy-D

Posted
Posted
One thing I was literally amazed at was how many small purchases and prices for books that dealers get for books that I think you couldn't get half of. People simply walked up, no negotiation, no hassling, no anything. Oh you're giving 15% off that VG/F Cap 109 priced at $35? Sold. Oh that VF Thor 135 at $55? No haggling. X-Men 105 at $70 in VF/NM? No negotiation.

 

The boards/ebay mentality for pricing on many, many of these lower/mid end books showed me that there are just thousands of people out there as collectors who do not analyze pricing and buying as we do.

I know what you mean. Before I came on here, I probably would have been perfectly happy with that X-Men 105. Even just last year, or 18 months ago or whenever the last NYCC con was, I blew huge money on comics (for me that is), all of them for much more than I could have paid here. This year, I was so excited to go to the convention and gorge on comics. But the prices were way above what I'm now used to. I've got piles of comics from people like flatrock02, mid-gradeish SA stuff, that I paid a couple bucks for, and it would have been 5 or 10 times the price at the show. I think I probably spent about 1/10th of last year's total. The only comics I wound up getting were hole-fillers that I haven't seen offered here much if ever. Nothing key, just random Teen Titans and such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
namisgr

namisgr

Posted
Posted
Brian spends one day four days at NYC and walks out with a stack of books that that rivals my entire collection doh!

 

Nice pick-ups and summary BK! :applause:

 

fyp :grin:

 

Can't wait to see scans, especially of the FF5, MIS55 and X-Men1.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Green

Green

Posted
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton. Do you know where the collection came from? If they call it the Tarheel collection i would probably have to sell every book i own.
Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton.

 

Agreed, great guy! :applause: He had a friggin awesome complete Silver and early Bronze collection last year that he said Zurzolo, Lauterbach, and Harley Yee raided, but he reportedly held the best stuff back, I wonder if that's what he's still carrying around.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
t3quila

t3quila

Posted
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton.

 

Agreed, great guy! :applause: He had a friggin awesome complete Silver and early Bronze collection last year that he said Zurzolo, Lauterbach, and Harley Yee raided, but he reportedly held the best stuff back, I wonder if that's what he's still carrying around.

 

I wonder if that was the silver age collection that I heard about

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton.

 

Agreed, great guy! :applause: He had a friggin awesome complete Silver and early Bronze collection last year that he said Zurzolo, Lauterbach, and Harley Yee raided, but he reportedly held the best stuff back, I wonder if that's what he's still carrying around.

 

I don't think so, as I know a good deal about that "raided" collection as I bought a few of the "leftover" pieces. That collection had actually been something that Shelton had (or had the rights to) for quite some time and multiple attempts were made to shop the collection whole, but the price was too high. When Shelton finally decided to break it up, the raiding began. It was a beautiful collection overall though.

 

I believe this is an entirely separate collection. And frankly, i think it's a better collection, especially if Haspel deems it "ped worthy".

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Dale Roberts

Dale Roberts

Posted
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton.

 

Agreed, great guy! :applause: He had a friggin awesome complete Silver and early Bronze collection last year that he said Zurzolo, Lauterbach, and Harley Yee raided, but he reportedly held the best stuff back, I wonder if that's what he's still carrying around.

 

I don't think so, as I know a good deal about that "raided" collection as I bought a few of the "leftover" pieces. That collection had actually been something that Shelton had (or had the rights to) for quite some time and multiple attempts were made to shop the collection whole, but the price was too high. When Shelton finally decided to break it up, the raiding began. It was a beautiful collection overall though.

 

I believe this is an entirely separate collection. And frankly, i think it's a better collection, especially if Haspel deems it "ped worthy".

 

Yeah, and I got the best stuff from the raided collection anyway... :baiting:

 

It is a new collection and he has sold nothing about it. 50 boxes of Silver Age spanning almost every Marvel & DC. I saw the B & Bolds and Showcases. He has the earlier stuff, but the collector started buying books off the stand the month of B & Bold #19, and the majority of the books from that point up are stunning, but page quality is not fantastic. Apparently at some point in the early to mid 1960s, the collector started going to the distributor and picking out books before they every went out on the stands. I saw many books which looked 9.0 - 9.6 in the bags. Didn't really take any out. I also saw a Showcase #22 which will be a minimum 8.0, and possibly an 8.5. Really superb stuff, but going to guess the page quality is probably off white or worse for alot of the books.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I heard Shelton Drum had a very large collection that he wasn't selling but that may be a new Pedigree released. Reportedly, he's looking for the designation and it's apparently just an unbelievable collection. Just off the charts. I only saw a small sampling from behind the booth, but it wasn't for sale and I imagine it will all end up in slabs.

 

Any idea what titles are represented?

 

I heard it's almost all the major SA/BA Marvel/DC keys. I'm not really 100% sure, but I do know it's reported to be a pretty big blockbuster.

Good for Shelton.

 

Agreed, great guy! :applause: He had a friggin awesome complete Silver and early Bronze collection last year that he said Zurzolo, Lauterbach, and Harley Yee raided, but he reportedly held the best stuff back, I wonder if that's what he's still carrying around.

 

I don't think so, as I know a good deal about that "raided" collection as I bought a few of the "leftover" pieces. That collection had actually been something that Shelton had (or had the rights to) for quite some time and multiple attempts were made to shop the collection whole, but the price was too high. When Shelton finally decided to break it up, the raiding began. It was a beautiful collection overall though.

 

I believe this is an entirely separate collection. And frankly, i think it's a better collection, especially if Haspel deems it "ped worthy".

 

Yeah, and I got the best stuff from the raided collection anyway... :baiting:

 

It is a new collection and he has sold nothing about it. 50 boxes of Silver Age spanning almost every Marvel & DC. I saw the B & Bolds and Showcases. He has the earlier stuff, but the collector started buying books off the stand the month of B & Bold #19, and the majority of the books from that point up are stunning, but page quality is not fantastic. Apparently at some point in the early to mid 1960s, the collector started going to the distributor and picking out books before they every went out on the stands. I saw many books which looked 9.0 - 9.6 in the bags. Didn't really take any out. I also saw a Showcase #22 which will be a minimum 8.0, and possibly an 8.5. Really superb stuff, but going to guess the page quality is probably off white or worse for alot of the books.

 

lol

 

I wasn't going to give all the details, but I'm presuming that Shelton wants to release the information on his own, but suffice to say, this was an unbelievable collection. Just stunning stuff, and I really hope it gets the ped distinction.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
It is a new collection and he has sold nothing about it. 50 boxes of Silver Age spanning almost every Marvel & DC. I saw the B & Bolds and Showcases. He has the earlier stuff, but the collector started buying books off the stand the month of B & Bold #19, and the majority of the books from that point up are stunning, but page quality is not fantastic. Apparently at some point in the early to mid 1960s, the collector started going to the distributor and picking out books before they every went out on the stands. I saw many books which looked 9.0 - 9.6 in the bags. Didn't really take any out. I also saw a Showcase #22 which will be a minimum 8.0, and possibly an 8.5. Really superb stuff, but going to guess the page quality is probably off white or worse for alot of the books.

 

Can't wait to see what it grades out at! The collection he had last year had page quality and foxing problems also, I guess that's what you tend to come across when you're a dealer in the southern US. :blush:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
I wasn't going to give all the details, but I'm presuming that Shelton wants to release the information on his own, but suffice to say, this was an unbelievable collection. Just stunning stuff, and I really hope it gets the ped distinction.

 

I was listening to Al Stoltz ask Shelton why he didn't slab that last collection when he knew the guys buying it would. He didn't say much in response other than he never really gets good enough stuff to even think about all that. He said he was asking the buyers what they graded out at and was being told "I don't remember," which he couldn't believe given that they were paying multiples of Overstreet for them raw. Al was showing him his own slabs and trying to convince him that even late Silver and early Bronze is worth it in great shape. Sounds like he got the message for this time, happy to see it! :grin:

Link to comment
Share on other sites
fantastic_four

fantastic_four

Posted
Posted
Apparently at some point in the early to mid 1960s, the collector started going to the distributor and picking out books before they every went out on the stands.

 

How the heck would someone go directly to the distributor...and in the 1960s...WHY? I can't imagine it was because he was condition-conscious.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
tth2

tth2

Posted
Posted
Brian, once again, I think you really nailed it on the head with this particular point:

The boards/ebay mentality for pricing on many, many of these lower/mid end books showed me that there are just thousands of people out there as collectors who do not analyze pricing and buying as we do.

 

This was a topic of conversation we had this weekend about how the "reality" of the boards isn't as reflective of the greater collecting community as we seem to think.

Folks on the boards are definitely a cheap sharp lot, but having said that, it's not like non-board bidders on eBay or the other auction houses are throwing around money like drunken sailors.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Go to topic listing