Yes, it’s been quite a while since I’ve submitted anything to the website. When we switched to new ComicHub system, making a post became an issue that none of us could figure out. As I’m typing this, my hope is that our man Dave, or possibly Jason, will be able to add some nice graphics to it. Dave gets ALL of the credit for the swell pics from the past!
Anyway, here goes…
Of course, I’m constantly on the hunt for new material to bring into the shop. At the end of August and right before our Labor Day Flea Market, I picked up a collection consisting of 42 long boxes that were owned by a former member.
It’s my contention that we probably have a clientele whose average IQ rivals or surpasses that of any other retail establishment. First of all, regardless of occupation, everyone enjoys reading – they’re all literate! When comparing schools, it usually boils down to how well the students compared in their math and English skills. I taught math for over 3 decades and have always conceded that reading was more important than math. How ya gonna learn ‘em dem word problems if they can’t read?
We have people from all walks of life come through the doors – teachers, college professors, tradesmen (that’s a generic “men” to cover all – no cards or letters, please), barbers, clerks, doctors, wait staff, laborers, even a few lawyers (we don’t discriminate but for their protection, I will not “out” them). Whatever way they earn a living, like Yogi, “they’re smarter than the average bear”.
This former long-time member was no exception – an extremely bright guy, an M.I.T. grad. It was through his son that I sadly found out that he had passed away. As they say, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, and I found the son to be quite remarkable in his own right. Although he hadn’t followed in his Dad’s path regarding a formal high degree of education, he has had an interesting life so far with some exciting plans for the future. We talked for hours as I flipped through the boxes.
I’m sure glad he contacted me as he was not local anymore and had the job of clearing out a house full of 54 long boxes of comics and thousands upon thousands of hardcovers and paperback books. By not being ‘local’, we’re talking going back to Alaska! He told me that he had a cousin that he knew enjoyed comics and had thought about giving the collection to him! Yikes! Now, as a kid, he read comics with his Dad, enjoyed them, but didn’t want a huge collection to store.
The boxes were in no particular order, but within each box, it was at least alpha-numeric. After checking a few boxes, it became clear that this was not going to be a collection of straight runs and had only a few early silver age issues. In fact, it turned out that there were almost two long boxes of coverless issues among the massive collection. He was a reader, not an obsessive collector/investor. The older books had been individually bagged, but not boarded. At some point, he must have decided to start boarding them as he bought them. There was roughly a long box-worth of issues that he obviously had purchased and never got around to reading since they were still in our brown bags with the loose comic bags we give away.
As I came across a title with a potential major key, I would tell the son which issues I hoped to find. When I found the group of Amazing Spider-Man comics, I immediately checked for the 129. I thumbed through a 126, 127, 128, then 130, 131, and so on. Darn! BUT… it did contain 101, 121, 122, and a 300! There were other instances of key issues missing from what appeared to be decent runs. No Giant Size X-Men #1, but I found a solid #94! Among some of the other keys found were Iron Man 55, Marvel Spotlight 5, and when I finally found the Hulks, there were 180, 181, and 182 – all solid and with the value stamps!!
After going through all of the boxes of bagged but unboarded comics, I pulled aside the 8 boxes that contained mostly Marvel major titles. Sorry, DC fans, but Marvel back issues do seem to move faster.
I made an offer on these, explaining that although the others certainly had significant value by the guide, they would sit for some time before I could expect to break even. He accepted my offer on the eight. I left him with the offer that if he truly still wanted to give some to his cousin, I would buy the boxes of the older books that he had not boarded and he could give the “newer” ones to the cousin. He called two days later and said that he was fine with my offer and that I could come back and grab 34 more long boxes. The cousin was getting the remaining 12. I never scanned through those – could have been some hidden gems! He took a post-dated check and we loaded up my Nissan and his Jeep.
Wanting to recoup my initial cash payment and cover that check, I called a couple of collectors and made them an offer they couldn’t refuse. One of them had just mentioned he was looking for a Hulk 181 the day before I discovered the one in the collection. He got the call and got a sweet deal.
After culling through all of the boxes and pulling out the best stuff (even the coverless books yielded some gems – Silver Surfer #1 and a Green Lantern # 76!), I just didn’t have enough time or energy to bag and board the rest before our flea market. I separated out 6 long boxes of those that I figured were $10-20 items and marked them as a “your choice – 3 bucks each” selection. The rest were a buck apiece!
The day of the market, every vendor showed up, even one I did not expect, but Mother Nature played a little trick on us. It was overcast and from what I learned, drizzled all around the area. However, except for a minute’s worth of mist well the start, 280 E. Main Street was dry all day. The crowd was down from years past, but I had my best flea market day ever. I went home with one less box of the 3 dollar goodies and 3 fewer boxes of the dollar fodder. It’s good fodder and now sits in my garage. Even with the lower attendance, from the reactions of the other vendors, all went home happy.
Next show for me will be the Cherry Hill Show on Sunday, November 3rd. This is advertised as a ‘vintage comics only’ show – all must have an original cover price of 25 cents or less. Here’s the special blog-readers only deal that my regular readers have grown accustomed to finding. I’m going to take most of those older books in the bins and boxes that qualify to the show on that date and offer them to attendees at half price. You can have that deal NOW – when I’m in the shop on Sundays, Mondays, or Thursdays. In fact, I’ll make it even better – 50% off ALL green-tagged comics in the bins and boxes below, now through 11/2, ONLY IF you mention the blog. There will not be any signs to remind you! Sorry, like usual, no lay-a-ways.
Those boxes of good dollar fodder? I’m taking them to the Ocean City Comic Con, sponsored by the good folks at PLB Comics on Saturday, December 14th. That’s OC, Maryland – flyers up front in the store.
I’ll be looking at two collections with some promising silver age keys in the near future – stay tuned.
Paul
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