Fookiller's NYCC Con Report

[HouseofComics.Com]

Fantastic report by Brian, btw!

[Larryw7]

Great report, Brian, and lots of great follow up posts as well! :thumbsup:

[Guardian Comics]

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.

 

You and me both :thumbsup:

 

Jim

[blazingbob]

FF #13 was bought at the show.

[Ringfinger]

Nice report!

[blazingbob]

Artists alley was separate because Jacob Javitt's is in the middle of remodeling the show floors. This is expected to continue through 2012 if I remember what Mark told me.

 

 

[500Club]

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.

 

 

To save money. Most magazine distributors had one day a week where the public could come in and buy stuff at the same prices the distributors wholesaled them for.

I'm not sure why, but every distributor I know of stopped the practice at almost the same time around 1981.

 

I never knew this. (thumbs u Thanks, shad! Learn something new on here almost daily!

 

I was too young at the time to know this, or take advantage.

[comicartfan]

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.

 

Do you recall his price on the FF 13? Remember any other 9.x FFs?

 

Bechara doesn't have a web site yet does he? Just looked and didn't find one.

 

PM sent, but then I saw Bob's post about the book selling. I have Bechara's phone number, should you want it for future reference. Just drop me a pm if you do.

[comicartfan]

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 had said this years ago on these very boards. Members seem to think that the comic book community starts and ends with us here. That is completly myopic, as there is a huge part of the population that doesn't care or know about what transpires on these forums. I know dealers such as Metropolis, Bob Storms, World Wide, Comic Link and others may be "aware" of discussions, but that they also are privy to information that we aren't.....We go over and over and over the same discussions for weeks, sometimes months....and it's all alot of background noise.

 

That being said, I agree with your assessment Brian, there was some spectacular books there !!! - I could have spent 100K in about 13 minutes ! -

 

Overall, by far this was the best convention I have ever attended.

[the blob]

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.

Yep, exactly. I remember a few months back when I started a large, by my standards, sales thread hoping to sell a large chunk of my books. I discounted books about 40% (and more in certain cases) and barely anything sold. I was totally blown away. I then brought the books to a local con, discounted them LESS and sold most. The masses are definitely different animals than the average member of this forum.

This is why everytime I hear someone on the boards say "Sell it here first", I do this: Why waste a week you`ll never get back again?

 

because you can sell on this board while sitting at home in your underwear and don't have to buy a table, schlep thousands of dollars of books, worry about counterfeit bills or shoplifters, etc.? I find that on a low or mid-grade grade key-ish book you'll typically get within 10-15% of ebay pricing here and deal with a lower level of douchebaggery among buyers. Maybe one can do better at a show, but it's not like that isn't a day of your life you might not get back (and lots of overhead).

 

And sure, why wouldn't you do better with SA keys and semi-keys, particularly selling raw, at a show than here? people can hold the book in their hands and decide whether it really is a Fine MInus or whatever.

 

The room at NYCC had a lot of money in it among the buyers, but at a small local show there might be only 5 or 10 people walking around with more than $200 in their pockets. that's a pretty limited group to sell semi-expensive books to.

[HouseofComics.Com]

Tim's not talking about doing a convention--that's a different animal entirely. He's just talking about exposing the book to the bigger numbers of collectors via ebay or Heritage or Clink et al than here on the boards.

[tth2]

Tim's not talking about doing a convention--that's a different animal entirely. He's just talking about exposing the book to the bigger numbers of collectors via ebay or Heritage or Clink et al than here on the boards.

Thanks Marc, that's correct. But mostly, I was just pointing out that a lot of people on the boards are extreme lowballers.

[the blob]

It's just one venue out of many. The good stuff should probably be exposed to multiple venues. Some stuff will do better on ebay, some stuff will do about the same here. Coming here to get GPA on something isn't going to happen 98% of the time, true. All I know is that within the last year here I've sold some $100-$300 type books (lower grade SA keys or semi-keys) here that had been sitting on ebay without a legit "best offer" or wasting my time jackarses jerking my chain and what not. sure, the end price here was a chunk less than my asking price on ebay, of course. the lowballers are worse and more insulting on ebay.

[vacliff]

Brian-

You're sounding more like a dealer every day!

Before you know it you'll have your own booth!

 

[Dale Roberts]

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.

 

Well, you have to remember that in the South, distributors are nothing like they are in NYC or somewhere similar. I bought comics from the distributors in the late 80s (not exactly the same), but whatever. And yes, it is apparent that the guy was condition conscious, even way back then.

 

Plus, who knows his situation. Maybe he knew someone at the magazine distributor or his family did? I don't really know those details.

 

But based on seeing the books, I believe it.

[Foolkiller]

Just continuing and finishing up my report:

 

Here's my favorite purchase of the show, will scan some of the others tonight:

 

 

Couple of other stories...

 

Jim Lee signing.

 

Titan books was promoting the Jim Lee Icons book for $100. It was a signed and numbered edition with a limited lithograph (sure to be on the secondary market for cheap sooner rather than later). As part of the promotion for selling the book, Titan said there will be an exclusive signing for those folks who purchased the book and Jim will be signing it.

 

I couldn't make the signing so Brian Kondravey generously agreed to go. Apparently, while he and Jon Jesperson were in line, Titan removed a whole bunch of people to the side who had NOT purchased the book. These people were understandably upset. Then, Jim's agent showed up and said Jim would NOT be sketching in the book. Now the Titan book holders all are ticked off. So... now nobody gets the sketches. Apparently, Jim later relented and did some sketches, but most folks already left the line.

 

To their credit, Titan did take a return on the book. I wasn't going to return it, but when Jon originally went over to Titan, I heard they gave him a bit of attitude -- and I frankly didn't like the way Jim's agent handled things with the fans. So, I decided, hey it's a $100 book. There's no way it's worth $100, so, I don't feel like just eating it to support a guy who didn't want to support the fans who just plunked down $100 for this over priced tome. The return went smoothly, but I can say I won't be bothered with that nonsense again.

 

There are a lot of great creators, and I still like and admire Jim's work. I really have to hand it to the guys who do sig series. What a thankless job in some ways having to deal with a whole host of issues.

 

I wandered over to artist's alley to see Buzz, whose work I think is some of the best commission work around. It's always nuts over there and I thought it was funny how many great vendors were over in this other section I wasn't even aware existed. Pretty cool though. The crowds were unbelievable though. This is a terrific event that was easily my favorite show this year. I think it also helped that I felt that everyone was in a very positive mood.

 

I'm not sure of all the reasons why people bought what they did, but I heard from several dealers in the past few days, all of whom reported strong sales across the boards. One guy said he sold so much he was under prepared to restock. A good friend of mine said he blew out a ton of his dollar, tpb and junk toy stock. Sold a ton of bowen, and lots of treasuries. Stuff that never sells, sold. The appetite was voracious. I watched mid, high and low grade all sell. I saw a lot of books selling well above GPA no questions asked. There were just as many guys willing to wheel and deal.

 

I definitely think there's a tremendous body of people who shop at the $100 and below level at comic shops etc and aren't huge back issue on line shoppers who don't scrutinize things the way we do here. It just doesn't happen. By that same token, I heard plenty of guys look at dealer's prices and say, oh, I can get that cheaper on ebay.

 

After NYC, I also did some major buying at a few stores in the last couple of days and there were, again, some unbelievable deals with high grade. I bought a bunch of high grade bronze books (good titles like Avengers, DDs, ASMs), early Marvels and other bits and pieces that were just spectacular finds. Books are out there, keep hunting! I'll post some more scans of buys this evening.

[mrmitchgro]

Great report, thanks!

[Mac Man]

I love it Brian. I read some of the commentary YOU make and think, "Now THERE is someone deserving of his position as an OS advisor." You seem to *get* the market on its various levels and shoot straight.

 

Then I read another thread in General of another OS advisor pulling some seriously questionable sales tactics on eBay. Now granted, apples to oranges in terms of what each person is doing / saying, but the overall performance? It's too bad they (Gemstone / OS) don't revoke those sorts of people from the list.

 

I guess it's a late-morning / early afternoon, post-paper grading rant. Anyhow, I thoroughly agree with your assessment on collectors and buyers. It really ought to give doomsayers pause as to whether the market is dying with such strong demand. Now, whether or not this means the priorities of collectors is shifting, perhaps another thing to consider.

[capt_comics]

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! 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...

 

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.

 

Supposedly almost every DC from 1955 to present day and Marvels from 1964 through present. Plus Dells and others.

Was suppose to go over and take a look, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Probably need to.........

[capt_comics]

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! 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".

 

Definitely a different OO collection. That one came from the Greenville SC area and was all Marvels. Heard one of the best books was JIM #112 and I believe I heard it graded out at 9.6.

 

This new one is an OO collection from Savannah GA.