Milwaukee area comic shops

[Brother J]

I was in Milwaukee for a week and visited several different comic shops in the area. Here's a quick report:

 

Vortex Comics: stopped in here three times on my visit. First time was near closing, so I didn't go through back issues, just stopped in to say hi (used to be my LCS) and look around. The owner explained to me that the books on top were priced as marked or cover and the two rows of boxes underneath were all dollar books. Next day I went back with the intention of going through all the dollar boxes. I asked the owner if I bought a large quantity of books could I get a better price, which he agreed to. I went through all the boxes, going through slowly to make sure I didn't miss anything. However, doing it this way made it take several hours to go through everything, but by the time I was done, I had pulled over 300 books. Not much in the way of flippable books, but plenty of stuff to fill runs, lots of good books. The owner provided me with two short boxes to cart the books off in and I was thrilled. Probably my favorite shop in Milwaukee as he always gives me a good price on stuff. Kind of weak on new books, and not much in the way of key back issues, but plenty of stuff if you like to root and all the books are in order.

 

Neptune Comics: Much like most of the shops in my area (Philly suburbs), they had little in the way of back issues, but plenty of new books. I did go through the back issues they did have, but nothing of any real interest. Had some neat stuff, and plenty of new books, but not really my kind of store.

 

Antiques and Uniques on Main: There is a comic booth with plenty of back issues to go through. Pulled a decent amount of books, but ended up spending less than $20, but was happy with the books selected. If you're already in Waukesha, it's worth the stop. I did not look through the rest of the antique mall, so not sure if anyone else had comics.

 

Lost Worlds of Wonder: I like Lost Worlds because they do have a selection of bargain books at different price points. The $1 books are bagged and are pretty much in order, although they do get messed up a little with people going through them. The 50 cents books are also bagged, but the order is random. Then we come to the quarter books. There are actually some decent books in the quarter section, but the biggest drawback are that the books are not bagged and they put a price sticker on the cover of each book! I pulled a decent selection of books. I tried to go through their stock quickly, but there was a lot of books between their regular back issues and their large amount of bargain books, so I ended up going to this shop about four times while in Milwaukee so I could thoroughly go through everything.

 

Collector's Edge West location: The West location is closing this upcoming Saturday, so at least I had a chance to go there one last time. I was never a big fan of the location as they didn't have back issues out for you to go through, but they did have a few recent back issues out which I went through. I pulled a stack of books. My biggest problem with the Collector's Edge stores are that they have nothing priced and use a web site to price the books at the counter. This caused me to put back most of the books I pulled as I felt the prices were too high, but I did end up buying two books.

 

Nostalgia World: A shell of what it used to be. This store used to have an excellent back issue selection, but now all they have are $1 books, and not very good dollar books, IMO. I went through all their boxes and only found six books of interest to me. It was more interesting to hear the conversations in the store, where a well known comic dealer in the area was discussing going through the stock of the Turning Page, a local store where the owner had passed away recently. There were definitely some quality books found in the Turning Page, but it did sound like it wasn't quite up to the quality that the dealer had hoped for.

 

Collector's Edge South: First of all, I had to walk several blocks to reach the store as the roads around the area were closed for a bicycle race. This might have worked in my favor, as store traffic was very light when I was there. The store actually had a selection of recent back issues plus some bargain boxes out, which was a big surprise to me. Collector's Edge South is known for having a huge back issue selection, but they keep the books in their basement, and the general public is not allowed to browse there except for when the store has it's big New Year's sale. While going through the bargain books, I also gave them a small list of books so they could search for them for me. They were able to do this right away, which was great, as in the past, I know there were times when they would tell you to leave the list and they would search for them when they had the time.

 

I picked out a decent selection of bargain books and from the list I gave them, they did have most of the books I listed, which was great. They did look up the prices for each book online, which I really don't like, but most of the prices were fair, if not bargains. Only put a few books back.

 

The coolest part of the visit was a man and woman came into the shop wanting to sell some books. The books were very beat up and most not worth anything, but among them was a copy of Captain America Comics #1! I don't think the couple knew exactly what they had, but the owner of the shop quickly informed them about the book and gave them an idea of the value. It took some doing (the couple was apparently representing an older person who owned the books and who they were in contact with over the phone), but the store owner and the couple agreed on a (substantial) price and the deal was done. After they left, the owner showed off the book a bit and allowed a young girl (with her mother) to take a picture with the book. I didn't take a picture of the book (wish I had), but the owner insisted that I at least hold the book for a quick second, so I could say I had held a Captain America Comics #1. Believe me, I handled it VERY lightly! This was a really neat moment, to have such a find in a comic shop right in front of me.

 

Overall, I will say that the Milwaukee stores are doing a good job in general keeping up with the latest hot books and are not allowing them to go for a song in their cheap boxes (unless other collectors beat me to the punch!). Probably the best deal I got was a copy of Alias #24 from a 50 cent box. It wasn't in high grade, but it was still a nice find.

[oldmilwaukee6er]

 

Great stuff J!

[Drummy]

Yeah, that's a fun report.

 

We used to live in Milwaukee (5 years) and I went to Collector's Edge South a bunch of times. When I made the move from raw books to CGC books, I had about 3 long boxes of SA Marvels I had won on Ebay and took them there to sell them. They gave me a very solid price and I went back often, even looking through their basement for a Buzzy #70 when Ian Levine needed one for his complete DC collection!

 

Good times.

 

Dan

[Brother J]

Thanks for the feedback, guys! Was starting to worry that I had bored everyone with my post, since no one had posted any comments before now.

[gino2paulus2]

got to hold a Cap 1!! That right there is worth a trip IMO