Did you win? Did you win? Not the Super Bowl. That was last week. I’m talking about canoodling with Neal Adams up in the Big Apple. For those who might have missed it, Comic Connect held an auction whereby the high bidder was to win an all-expense paid trip to NYC and 3 special covers to the Neal Adams game-related comic, HASH RUSH. The winner would receive a copy of the “Standard” issue (limited to 2000 copies), the “Crystal” issue (limited to only 80 copies), and the “Legend” issue, which is strictly a one of a kind! Those, plus NFT copies of all three AND have dinner with Neal Adams himself!
The winning bid was $ 9,100, not counting the 15% Buyer’s premium to be added. As I mentioned in a previous blog, this type of auction eliminated those of us of “small means” from participating. I don’t have proof, but I imagine they were expecting more. I do believe that my idea of offering a chance to win for $100 with perhaps one of those “standard” copies guaranteed with each purchase – making it not a “gambling” situation – would have generated more.
But take heart, fellow window-watchers, a site called “Rally” came up with an interesting way for the common man or woman to own a piece of certain select collectibles. They acquire a collectible – an asset - and turn it into a “company”. Then they sell shares at such an affordable rate that anyone could potentially become a part owner. What kind of collectibles? How about that Lamborghini you had an eye on? A baseball signed by Babe Ruth? A George Washington signed letter? A rare set of Pokemon cards? A rare bottle of liquor? Or, how about a copy of X-Men #1, Amazing Spider-Man #1, or as is going to be offered mid-March, a CGC graded 8.0 copy of Batman #1. Supposedly, they add new “assets” from time to time.
The site claims no commissions or fees, but they set the value of the item at more than one “with the means” could buy a comparable one at the time it is initially offered. The 8.0 Batman #1 has a set value of $1,800,000, BUT you can buy a share for a measly 10 bucks!! And, they won’t allow anyone to own more than 10% of the shares. So, who owns it? Where is it? A good friend, who alerted me to this, asked that if he did happen to own 10%, does that mean he would only have it 10% of the time – like 36.5 days a year? How about me and you buying a share each? That’s 1/180,000th of the total market or roughly 3 minutes per year to possibly hold it. No, it will be on display at different museums through-out the year.
There are lots of questions. Like the regular stock market, if you miss the initial opening, can you buy in later? Yes! If owners decide they are willing to part with their shares and put up an “ask” price. They are allowed to do this after having held them for a certain amount of time. So, should the market continue to go up, you might actually have something in your portfolio that makes a profit for you – not just something that is done for “$h&ts and giggles”. If this has piqued your curiosity, click www.rallyrd.com I have not fully researched this site and am NOT offering investment advice.
And, I certainly ain’t the right person to ask for investment advice! I couldn’t tell you how many times I was asked what to buy during the 45 plus years I had been selling funny books. I tell the person to buy what they enjoy and should it go up, it’s a bonus. Plus, why would I sell you something that I knew would go up? I’d keep it for myself! Of course, I had faith that the comics market would sustain and that led to my longevity in the field.
That’s not to say I haven’t dabbled in other collectible markets and bailed. When I opened the brick and mortar shop in Newark, it was under the name “Captain Blue Hen Comics & Cards”. The “Cards” portion was dropped when I saw the proliferation of “special” cards (signatures, pieces of bats, bases, even walls) to possibly be found in packs, with the cost per pack rising significantly. These scarce cards were all the rage and collecting the regular cards fell to the side. I dropped them and all of the sports card specialty shops are gone in our area except The Collector’s Box in University Plaza – good guys who were in it for the long haul and treated you fairly! Remember super-hero cards that had hologram cards to be discovered in random packs? Do you even remember non-sport card packs? How about Beanie Babies! Years ago, I met a guy who had a TY account at 10 o’clock on a Sunday morning in the parking lot of Fairfax Shopping Center. It probably looked like a drug deal going down as there’s the two of us parked next to each other with their trunks open. The little foray into that market was a bust. That’s not to say these collectibles are gone, but the market is quite small.
Comics, however, are strong- especially now. Will they continue at the rate of growth that we are currently seeing? I kinda doubt it as there are some incredible things going on. Recently a CGC 2.0 copy of Giant Size X-Men #1 sold for more than 3 times the Overstreet Guide’s $500 estimate (see eBay item # 313808174792). Last week, the cover only to AF15 sold for $7,575. I sold a complete, but coverless, copy to a good customer for WAY less than that just before the pandemic hit. Single pages have been routinely bringing 4 digits. He’s still looking for that cover, but could make a nice chunk of change if he decided to “part it out”. He thought it might be of interest if I listed some of the goodies that have gone through my hands over the years. Not to brag, but perhaps more to lament, I have had the good fortune to have bought, sold, and traded many keys over the years.
Silver Age, as well as Bronze and Copper Age? I can’t think of any I haven’t had multiple copies of over the years. Trying to come up with a missed key issue, the only one that came to mind might be Groot’s first appearance in Tales To Astonish # 13. Then again, I may have had copies many years ago and not known of the significance as it wasn’t noted in the guide prior to his appearance in the movies! Yes, I have had a number of FF #1s, ASM #1’s, as well as first issues, appearances, and keys of X-Men, Avengers, Dare Devil, Iron Man, Thor, Ant Man, Justice League, Green Lantern, etc. – you get the idea. Once I bought a copy of Showcase #4 that was almost torn in half and sold it to another dealer (for a small profit) within an hour. I didn’t mention Hulk #1 – actually, I collected him and had 5 copies in my personal collection at one time. (a little bragging there, I guess, but don’t have any now!)
Golden Age? I was never fortunate enough to ever have a deep inventory in these – just didn’t run across them locally. Way, way back in the day, I was contacted by a young guy from Smyrna who cleared land and demolished homes for a living. Among the box of lower grade golden age comics, were single digit Superman issues and other fun stuff. I was informed that he threw away some that they thought were too beat to try and sell. Ouch! So, where did this young guy get them? They fell out of the side of a barn he was taking down for a farmer! The barn was too dilapidated to go into and the owner was watching as it was being leveled. When the young guy grabbed the upper story with the claw of his skizzer and the comics came tumbling out, there were also some old toys included. The farmer said he’d like to keep those toys, but the young man could have the comics! He didn’t know anything about comics but figured, “Hey, they gotta be worth something!” He was more than pleased when my offer would pay for half of that new motorcycle he wanted. I never got to see the ones they thought were too rough.
My greatest find was actually due to a former student recommending me to her dad when he discovered that his parents hadn’t throw away ALL of his stash. This was before I opened a store and was doing shows at least twice a month on the weekends. Mr. G showed me a box of about 100 comics he found and I was truly stunned. They were all super-hero titles in about VG grade. Nothing was bagged and boarded. I immediately told him that I’d love to make an offer on the whole group, but I couldn’t afford to make a fair offer. Eight of the top 50 Golden Age comics were present! I’m talking Superman #2, Batman #2, Action #6, Detectives 28, 31 & 38, All Star Comics #8, and Submariner #1. No Superman #1 or Batman #1, but he had about 5 other single digit Supermans and more Detectives including as low as #12, plus # 26, more in the 30s and 40’s. Did you notice it yet? Why not the others? He said that he could have sworn he had TWO boxes up there in the attic, but this was the only one he found. Was #27 in there? Being in no rush to sell them and trusting me, we set up a consignment deal. Using the current Overstreet, I made a list, graded each comic with the Guide price for it with the understanding that I would bring these to shows and he would be guaranteed to get 80% of the value as they sold. I had great success when I did the New York shows. There were the likes of Gary Dolgoff, the Koch Brothers, Sparkle City, and Mike Carbonaro roaming the sales floor and they hungrily gobbled up many of them. Each month, I would stop by Mr. G’s house, show him what had sold, handed him a wad of cash and he signed off on those that were gone. Naturally, things slowed down and after roughly a year, I just bought out the remaining issues. During that time, I used my commissions to buy the Superman issues and started my collection. Eventually, I managed to pick up a Superman #1 (have had two different copies over the years, as is true of Batman #1) and did complete a straight run of the first 50 issues.
I can’t remember all of them, of course, but there have also been several copies of Mad #1, Four Color #386s, a few Mile High copies of Captain Marvel, a run of the first ten Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories and many others. If only I had squirelled away some of them for retirement!
I still say, “Buy what you enjoy and you can’t lose!”
Paul
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