You Ain't Seen The Last Of Me!

Usually, I try to put up a title that might have you asking, "What the hell is Paul up to now?" Sometimes it's part of the lyrics to what I believe is a popular song. Other times, it's just off the wall musings. This time, though, I googled it just to see if it had any other connections, and sure enough - it did! You Dukes of Hazzard fans out there probably have a copy of an album by this name. Yep, ol' Bo Duke himself is a country music artist and this title is one of his albums. He even has a "Greatest Hits".

Of course, that has nothing to do with this blog. The main reason for this one is to announce that after over 45 years in the funny book biz, I am pretty much done! Joe had asked me many years ago about when I thought I might retire. At that time, I had credit card bills that had to be cleared before I could consider it, so I told him when I hit 75. Well, I made my goal! Balances are down to ZERO and I hit the big one in two months! Recently, Joe was kind enough to buy out the remaining inventory I had, so unless something falls in my lap, I probably won't be selling comics down the line. Will I miss it? You betcha! Will I jump on something if it's good/ You betcha! I just don't see it happening with me being "out of the loop".

Naturally, I still keep checking eBay, looking for sales, records, and the such and will continue to do so for the near future. I'll attend auctions, if a steal looks possible. But,set-up at a show with comics only - probably not. You WILL find me at the next FIRST STATE COMIC-CON at Millcreek Fire Hall on Sunday, September 12th - usual spot. This time with COINS predominately (Indian Head and Lincoln cents especially) and some odd-ball comic book related items I might still have stored in the garage. I have individual coins and starter sets for sale. Like most collectors, you always want to upgrade if possible, so I'm selling off the huge accumulation of extras I have amassed to fund the upgrading. Besides a few starter sets and key dates, I just sold two lots of loose wheat (dated pre-1959) cents on eBay. One had 1,500 coins and the second had over 4,000. Like comics and cards having a hey day recently, coins are doing well, also.

OK, but maybe you've forgotten already, but what does that pic accompanying this blog have to do with anything so far? As I said before, I'm still watching sales and there have been some block-busters recently. For Example (all of these are CGC graded): a 9.6 copy of X-Men #1 sold for $807,300. a 9.8 Giant Size X-Men #1 brought $67,900. A Batman #1 4.0 - $246,000. A Hulk #1 8.0 - $150,00. A 7.5 JIM 83 - $48,944. An 8.5 TOS 39 - $65,00. 9.8 copies of FF 48 ($93,888), ASM 129 ($55,111), and Werewolf By Night 32 ($63,500). A 7.0 copy of AF 15 sold for $162,00, an 8.0 sold for $300,00, and a 9.0 was hammered down at $556,000. Detective 27 in 5.0 broke a million at $1,120,000!. A restored Action #1 (9.0) went for $452,00, a conserved 5.5 brought $528,000 and new all-time record ANY comic was made when during a private sale, an Action Comics # 1 in 8.5 exchanged hands for $3,250,000!

The hunt goes on to find more copies of these key issues, but it seems a relatively new sub-group of "key" issues is popping up. That being first appearances of characters when they appeared in fanzines, catalogs, and such. Does that image above look familiar? It's Marvel Previews #95. Got one at home? You might, since we gave away loads of them at the shop! Turns out, it contains the first appearance of Miles Morales as Spider-Man. eBay shows a recent actual sale of $1,250 for one. A couple of sellers are asking 5 figures for theirs. Last week, a local auction house sold a lot of 6 Marvel Previews, which included a # 95, for over $700, counting the buyer's premium! Think about it, usually, we learned about a new character in advance through a fanzine or a distributor's catalog. Certain copies of magazines like Comics Scene and Wizard, had the skinny on these before the actual comic arrived. Now people are seeking those issues - and paying big bucks for some! This is still recently new as I observed that quite a few Marvel Previews # 95 have sold in the $100's recently, but just May 3rd, someone scooped up a copy for a buck!  Do your homework, folks! Stupid me - I bought a huge collection some time ago and the seller had saved every Previews, every Wizard magazine and lots of other related fanzines. However, except for the first 6 Previews, I told him that I didn't want them. They were all eventually put in a re-cycle bin.

As they always say - never, say never. Will you see me back behind the counter at the shop I founded over 40 years ago? Probably not, but not ruling it out completely. I would love see to you guys at the show in September! 

Paul