This thread will be about my journey to the million dollar comic and the struggles, failures and successes that come with it since many boardies requested it I will not longer post my transactions but try what revat said . I also have a bunch of inspirational people two of them being Walt Disney and Steve Jobs because I want to be the next rags to riches story not to the degree of Steve Jobs or Walt Disney but I want to make a million dollars buying and selling a comic and making enough money with this venture to never again say I can't afford something
Thoughts and plans
Sell my comics
Sell IH 180 CGC 5.0
Milestones I want to reach
Get my first four figure sale
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Starting my Warren Eerie run. Hopefully you guys enjoy my journey as I fill in this run.
For starters here's the famous Eerie 1 ashcan, this however is the bootleg one.
Here is Eerie #2 which in my opinion is a solid 9.6, just a perfect book.
Eerie #3 Manitoba pedigree , another perfect high grade beauty.
Eerie #5 signed by Al Williamson, and another NM beauty book.
You magazine collectors know how much harder it is to find NM magazines than their comic book cousins.
Here's a very hard book to find in NM in Eerie #7
DeadOne mentioned he had a few Eeries for me to look at, and he wasn't kidding. So without further ado.
I haven't journaled in a while mostly because I have been busy working but today I have my first Thanksgiving off since 2011 and it feels good.
Back in September My wife and I attended all three days of the Cincinnati Comic Expo. I wanted to share my thoughts on it. It was a mid size show, good location and set up nicely but did not have as many comic dealers as I would have liked. Even though the number of comics bought was few I was happy with what I came home with. I started Friday night right away finding an Air Pirates Funnies 1 that had never been on the rack for $75. The man said he bought out a store and he had some old comic stock he never set out.
Another great buy was a Gold Key Yellow Submarine movie comic which still had the poster. It was detached but there. Just so happened that the artist for the book Jose Delbo was there at the show and so was CGC. I had a long conversation with Mr. Delbo and his wife and both were a joy to talk too. She asked me where I had bought the comic and how much I paid for it. I said at the show and $225. She said they paid $260 for a low grade copy some time ago and thought that was a great buy. She said they would have bought it if they knew it was there. It came back from CGC 7.0 white pages which of course I thought it would do better but not complaining. I also nabbed a Star Wars 1 CGC 9.6 for $360. The dealer did go down on price. The reason I mentioned that was the dealer next to him would not budge one dollar on an Avengers 2 I had my eye on. I also picked up a few Turok, Ripley's and Boris Karloff file copies for a good price.
I also ran into Collectors society member Rude Badger and his wife at the show or I should say they found me. Always good to talk to follow collectors and talk shop.
One last item to mention. About 5 weeks ago I got the urge to go to Ohio's Largest Antique mall which is less than a half hour from my house and look around. I found few comics but did find a print of Bill Wards cover for Overstreet's price guide number 8 signed by him. I believe it to be legit as he dedicated it to Dragon's Lair comics which was a shop in Dayton Ohio which shut it's doors I think about 2004. It had been there about 30 years. I included a picture of the signature in case someone would know. It is a little different than how he signs his art as it is not printed cursive hand writing.
Actually I got ahead of myself there is one more item. I travel in my job and was in Barrie Canada and stopped in at Big B comics in Barrie, Ontario which was only a couple of miles from my hotel.
It was not the best of weather and about 6 pm so the shop was slow. Not a large shop but it was packed with comics. Marc Sims the owner was there and drug out box after box of comics for me to look through. He was very helpful and so was the young woman working the counter. I always enjoy seeing young people with an interest and knowledge of comics. It was a great shop. Unfortunately the day I stopped was the day Stan Lee passed. We swapped Stan Lee memories which made us feel a little better. I hope my pictures load if not I will try again. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
Adventures and musings about Buying, Selling and setting up at Conventions and Shows
I participated in my first ever show last October. You can read about it here: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8903742#Post8903742
I was pleased with my sales, it was an excellent learning experience and most importantly, I had a great time. I must have did "ok" as I was invited back by the show organizers.
In my town, there use to be a larger two day Antique Show, but with the sale of the local Legion (where that event was held), the Antique Show organizers asked the organizers of the Collectibles Show to "take over"...I think this is a good thing, merging the two shows.
The first show under the new 'brand' is scheduled for Sunday, April 17th, 2016. Moving forward, the plan is to have a regular two day show in October.
For as long as there is some degree of interest I will share my experiences, good and bad. I also look forward to any new comments and tips from more seasoned sellers. Thanks for your interest!
Thanks for reading!
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ASM 9 $300 4.5 LCBS
Fantastic Four 3 $665 3.5 Website
Flash 123 $400 3.5 LCBS
16642 remaining
95/250 Books
ASM 9 is slabbed so the pic is a little off. Haven't broken it out yet.
In this journal, I'll be talking about my quest to finally finish a full run of X-Men volume 1, from #1 to 544. I can't tell if many boardies read the new journals or not, and I like the old format way better, but at least this will be a place to help keep myself focused and on track if nothing else.
I've been a fan of the X-Men since the late 80s when I first really started reading comics in earnest. I've dreamed about having a full run since my early 20s, but made the huge mistake of not focusing on the silver and bronze runs first. So like all full run noobs everywhere, I eventually completed a run from about #141 to 544 by picking up a book here or there at shows, looking for sales online or on Ebay, the usual.
So here we are, its 2018 and NOW I'm going to get serious about finally finishing the run? Ok, great! I clearly have no sense. But I still love the X-Men.
I have a plan, sort of. First and foremost is to start shedding excess fat from my roughly 1000 book collection. This is going ok so far. I've sold some things on eBay, through craigslist, and even here on the boards so far. I don't pick up many monthly new books, but I'm going to look at that list and probably at least cut out a few books and put that money towards the run instead. I'm also selling off the last of my Transformers collection. This should net a decent pile of dough to also put straight into the run. I've already sold about a third of it in a week, so this is going pretty well so far.
And finally, I need to stay disciplined. I get easily distracted by shiny books, runs of other titles (I recently picked up a huge run of Amazing Spider-man for example and I'ma sucker for Iron Man), and other interests. So instead, I want to work on resisting all of that temptation and focus as much on the X-Men run as possible. I don't want this to be my only focus, I don't want to burn out on it, but it needs to be priority #1 or I'll never finish this.
I am missing ALOT of books. Nearly the entire Silver Age run, and most of the Bronze Age run minus a handful of the keys. So it will be a marathon, not a sprint. I just hope it is as rewarding at the end as I hope it will be.
One big decision I have to make (big for me, small potatoes for some reading this I'm sure) is whether or not to sell things like my raw NYX complete run in very high grade. I'd like to have a few issues from the run graded, but not unless I'm sure about the minimum grade. Selling the set would translate into a decently big chunk of the X-Men run. I love having this set, but we'll see.
Later today I'll post a list of the missing issues and any other thoughts I have.
Thanks for reading, whomever drops by, and please comment with your own thoughts. Call me nuts. Call me names for waiting so long. I'm good with it, just talk with me.
So, I am working on my first comic book, and wanted to share the process with you guys here, especially since my series is a continuation of the Golden Age title Boy Comics. And lets by honest, the only people in the world who care about Boy Comics are here on these forums!
My series is called The Crimebusters. I'm picking up where Boy Comics #119 left off, so The Crimebusters #120 is set in the fall of 1956, with Chuck Chandler — aka Crimebuster — returning to Curtiss Tech for his junior year of college. Even in a sleepy small college town, though, trouble has a way of finding Chuck. Trouble with a capital T, that is, as Chuck is reluctantly forced to team up with girl reporter Trixie Trouble to solve the mysterious death of a beloved professor. So was it simply suicide, as the authorities claim? Or did the professor bring back more than rare artifacts from his recent trip to Peru... like an ancient curse?
The Crimebusters is my ode to classic teen detective stories, in the style of Scooby Doo, Archie's Weird Mysteries, and The Three Investigators. I'm drawing it in an Archie style, and the original Life with Archie series is another big influence on me. I the classic Golden Age tradition, this will be a stand alone story, though I hope to do more issues, with a broader mystery building in the background as the series progresses. For now, though, I'm just focusing on trying to make one comic book!
Some of you may recall tat four years ago, I began work on a somewhat different version of Boy Comics #120, before ultimately giving up on it. A big part of that was the style - I was trying to emulate the style of the Golden Age crime comics, which just isn't really my thing as either a writer or an artist. This time, I am adopting a style that is more fun for me to work on, and, I hope, to read.
I have also devised what I think is a more sustainable work flow than last time. At that time, I tred to complete each page before moving on to the next. This time, I am using a classic assembly line style, so I have plotted, laid out, and done full breakdowns for all 28 pages. I am now in the process of doing the line work for all 28 pages, and when I am done, I will then go over it again for an inking stage, then a dialogue stage, then a final edit stage.
I expect the line work to take me through the first week in February. My hope is to have the book done by the end of March, do a Kickstarter launch in April, and then publish in May. But we'll see how it goes!
I'll be updating things here as I go, and you can also check things out over at my website: https://crimebustercomics.com/=
Thanks!
My days of collecting anything and everything are over. After accumulating almost 100,000 comics (most of them worthless), I decided to strip my collection down to 50 comics. The 1st 30 keepers were pretty easy, but it got much harder as I got toward #50. This journal will document my "One in /One out" strategy of collecting from this day forward. I added scans of all 50 comics, so I can sift through my comics without having to get them out of safe storage. I have new additions on the way, so I will share my thought process on each one I kick out. This is primairly for my amusement, but feel free to comment on the decisions that I make!
#1
I have a veritable cornucopia of comics, and I've been schlepping them all over the world.
Back in June we finally settled on a place to live after a year of aimless wondering, stuff comes out of storage, comic boxes go into the basement. Too many comic boxes. So I think, "what's the point?" I don't follow anything anymore, I'm never gonna go back and read em. The ones I love I know by heart and why have ones that I don't love?
So I hatched this idea to finish my X-Men run and sell ALL (meaning most) of the rest. I don't need much:
3, 65, 69, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 91 and a handful in the 500s. Giant size #1 and Hulk #181 aren't "in" the run, but ... seems I should add those too
I was kinda shocked when I made this list. I've been picking up odds and ends over the years without much of a plan. Stumble on a high grade book priced below value? Grabbed it. Wasn't very aggressive about it, or even organized, Just chipped away at it. I even have some SA books I got out of the ¢5 bin (back in the 80s). Unfortunately they marked the covers with a marker ...
So here's the plan:
I'm slabbing all my high quality doubles and selling them. If that goes well I'll attack the non X-men titles (Pretty typical hodgepodge for a marvel fan late 70's early 80s - Avengers, FF, Spiderman). There are some random SA books, but not much high grade. So even though I don't need a lot of books, I'm going to have to sell a ton of em to get high grade. I'm kinda vaguely considering upgrading the grade of some books I own ... but first, finish
Approximately one Spawn comic posted daily for 365 days- through the upcoming film and milestone issue #300.
The majority of these issues are original owner, and as of this posting I am only missing one issue (#150) from being completely current.
I will reserve Sundays for posting a Spawn spinoff or one-shot at my discretion.
I combed through my Wonder Woman collection and found 6 books that all appeared to be VF/NM 9.0-ish & have confirmed I'm a terrible grader when it comes to older books. Of the 6, one came back higher & fortunately for me, it is the one book I shelled out the most $ for, Wonder Woman #156.
The other books included #137 (6.0), 161 (4.0) 177 (7.0), 179 (6.5) & 204 (7.5) - I'll have to review the grader notes, especially on #161, as all of these books looked so much better than the results.
The question I have for the community is... When sending in books for grading and having some poor results, does 1 book make it all worth it? When I look at this one, I have to say, it does!
A noble quest to build an Amazing Spider-Man collection
Hello!
As my board name suggests, I am a Spider-Man fan. I have been since I was a youngster. I started actually collecting at around age 14. Pushing 40 now - Where does the time go? I basically took 7-8 years off from the hobby though, from right after high school all the way through university and didn't start really again until about 2004/05.
Once I got back into the hobby, I checked out a bit of everything but I also decided to start to collect the ASM's that I "missed"...Later, I also "discovered" CGC and this message board and wow, mind blown! I learned that I knew nothing but I think I have learned a lot since my time here and continue to do so. I learned about so many other cool books and I started to dabble in a bit of everything, mostly super heroes still, but I was a bit "scattershot" for awhile.
I have discussed "collection focus" many times with fellow boardie and friend, dontfeedthemonkeys. One of the things I recently decided, was that I would like to "return to my roots" and try to build and complete a run of Amazing Spider-Man. I like to think that I have a pretty decent ASM collection, but I know it pales in comparison to the top registry sets. Most of my collection is raw though.
To complete the run, as of this writing, I need:
#1 - #38
#40
#43 - #45
#47 - #49
#55
By my count, a total of 46 ASM issues and obviously some of the most expensive ones. To accomplish this goal of getting the whole run, I will not be looking for uber grades, particularly with regards to non-keys. In the past, I have been too hung up on the grade. I have to get over this a bit for financial reasons if I want to have any hope of completing the run.
My main criteria will be that they be complete (unrestored) and present nicely for the grade. For first appearances, I will likely be looking for slabbed copies and unslabbed for non-keys.
This journal will detail my pick ups, set backs, purchases other than ASM that will 'take funds away' from accomplishing this goal (and I know there will be some) and general discussion concerning completing the series.
If anyone cares, that is
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So the whole need journal thing is interesting. Trying to wrap my head around how to proceed, I really do miss my 60 post from the previous one. I' going to sit on it tonight, and maybe get back to posting some of my recent pick ups. I finished my batman silver age villain run, and I got a little heavy into the cgc sketches. Here is one for two for the mean time while i decide. Thanks for looking Jim
Thoughts of possible new purchase
So I have decided to sell some books and make my collection a little smaller, roll those books into 1 book worth more money. Just thinking what book it should be.
Batman 121 - 1st appearance of Mister Freeze. Reasons I want this. I love batman villains, have a few of their first appearances and want them all. I will buy the major villains not all of them, and when I'm done with the villains I want to move to early detectives.
Flash 139 - 1st appearance of Reverse Flash. I have a CGC 4.0 and with this book I would like to upgrade, a recent CGC 8.0 went for $1,150. So both books are in the same price range. Ever since the TV show as corny as the first 6 or so epodes were, the show got really good. Tom Cavanaugh plays the Reverse Flash in Season 1, what an actor. I really didn't know to much about Flash books in general but ever since the show, I have been hooked on the Flash.
I don't know what book I will get, I have feelers out for both books. I'm leaning towards the Batman 121 since I think the price of Flash 139 is a little inflated right now, but I will keep the journal updated.
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I am going to have to live with that thread title, but whatever!
I have decided the correct term for me, besides original comic art collector, is comic reader. I don't collect comics so much as store the ones I read. I bought some Moebius comics the other day off ebay and when I opened the package I realized these were now the nicest comics in my collection, almost without a doubt. So collecting high grade comics was never my thing. Yes, I grabbed some comics second hand along the way, including a Strange Tales 169 and Daredevil 9 and 10 but not much else unless I bought it to read off the rack. But along the way about 25 years ago I started collecting original art due to a chance encounter with Paul Ryan or Sam de la Rosa at a convention. [i recall thinking "artists draw at cons?" with Paul Ryan and "they sell the art used to make comic pages?" with Samuel de la Rosa (who was one of a few Latino inkers credited as "Manuel Labor" on the issue and who told me that he did not like that one bit) but am not sure which happened first.]
Comic art led me to these boards a few years ago. I had resisted the siren call until recently. But Doc McCoy (I think it was) came over to the OA parts of the boards advertising (his?) free David Petersen art in some thread called Pay it Forward. As I was in the process of trading art regularly with a local dealer, I promptly went and claimed said art. Sadly I traded it away almost immediately to the dealer. I apologize; I was single-minded and unthinking at the time but understand my mistake now. So please forgive me.
But PIF sucked me in right from the start. Especially when I jumped on another piece of OA quickly (still have that one, don't worry). Then a strange thing occurred. I watched as some really cool slabs were given away to fellow boardies. When a nice X-Men slab came up I decided to take the plunge and claim it. (Thanks Griff!) I was quickly offered another slab gratis from a boardie (looking forward to getting that one! ). Now this weekend I took the plunge and decided to have some fun and get a few for myself. I figured it really doesn't matter so much if they are comics I have read and admired so much as fun things to look at on the shelf. So I put out the call for cheap slabs and that thread inspired me to start this one and chronicle the rise through the ranks of my first rate collection. NOT! I am not trying to start a new collection, but have some cool comics displayed that will make me smile.
So without further eloquence...
Bird's Top Shelf Slabs!
#1 in the closet and in your hearts, courtesy of Griff...not the crime dog just a slab hound...she a beauty with white pages...it's X-Men 248 9.4
Done worry folks, she won't be lonely for long. Join us later this week, same slab time,same slab channel...it's a race against time between Amazing Spider-Man and The Defenders! See you here!
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Just won this in an auction. An upgrade from the 9.0 I currently have. One of the few House Of Mystery issues with interior art by Neal Adams. And it's always nice to land a pedigree copy. Enjoy.
You too can start a comic business!
Basic Journal to note my experiences buying and selling comics. Your mileage may vary if you replicate or emulate any of my experiences. But the enjoyment I've gotten out of this hobby and how I've approached it is something I thought I'd share.
First, a little background. I collected back issues in the mid 1980s mostly in the Boston area spending my paper route money on 1960s Spidermans and 1970s Xmen. I won't bore you with those details but formative years are formative years. Kept my books through college and an 8 year stint in the Army and then went to grad school. I now work in finance making a comfortable living supporting a wife and 4 young girls.
While in business school I wanted to apply what I was learning to buying and selling comics. I did do this with comics and baseball cards in the 1980s by renting a flea market table and setting up my wares. Fun stuff but I remember it being more work than profit. So basically I put the word out that I was buying collections and received a couple of calls. Indeed, bought a couple of nice collections - mostly 1970s. Date was around 2001 to give you an idea of where the market was. CGC was still new but basically established. Ebay was all guns blazing and I had a year or two of ebay experience buying and selling.
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Picked this up from Comic Connect yesterday. The beginning of the alien war saga courtesy of Roy Thomas and Neal Adams. The most valuable Marvel book featuring Neal's artwork. Would have preferred a higher grade, but one buys what one can afford. Eight more Adams books to go. Enjoy.
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12/17/2018