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podochigae

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  1. Here are a couple of pics from this evening. I spent about a little less than 2 hrs as I had to work and my daughter was hungry so we left early. The show wasn't crowded at all tonight, but the exhibit hall was pretty large. Here's the entrance where you pick up your badge. The next pic is the beginning of the exhibit hall.
  2. This will be my first ever show, so needless to say that I'm pretty excited. I'll be there tomorrow evening and Sunday with my kids and will take some pics.
  3. I had more success at Westside comics. I stopped by after visiting Choice Comics to buy some boxes. The store is on the 2nd floor and located about a mile away from Choice Comics. The store itself is nice-sized, but most of the retail space is for board and trading cards. They sometimes hold card tournaments on the weekends, so there was some tables and chairs also set up. The comic section occupied a small corner of the store in the front, with about 4 long boxes of back issues and 2 shorter boxes of more modern books. I started perusing the long boxes and quickly found some issues that I liked. The comics were roughly organized alphabetically, but within each letter, the comics were not in any particular order. For example, under "F", you came across some Fear, then FF 170, then another Fear issue, then FF 126, FF 81, etc. Since I had some time and I was interested in seeing what he had, I went through the boxes almost issue by issue. I wanted to see how far back his selection was. I found a reader copy of Hulk 113. I quickly amassed a pile and commented to the owner who was nearby that he had a nice selection. He then told me that he had a short box of more valuable issues behind the counter, and he'd show it to me once I was done. After I was finished, I went through this shorter box. The prices ranged from $20 - $75, and had some ASM, FF, Thor, etc. I ended up buying five comics - the first three are from the long boxes out in front of the store and the last two are from his 'select' collection behind the counter. I also talked to the owner for a bit, who was very nice (I was the only one in the store at the time). I asked him how business was going and specifically approximately what percentage of revenue he derived from cards vs. comics. He said it was about 80% cards and 20% comics, which was a bit surprising to me. He is also a collector himself, and he was fortunate to have purchased X-Men #94 through #150 or so off the newsstand. I was a little younger than him, as I started buying X-men around issue 135 or so. He buys comics from people who walk into his store, but he will only buy individual comics and not entire collections. He also told me of some local comic conventions on the islands, but it wasn't for another month or so. He also said that he prefers not sending comics to get graded so that he can look through them. He also said that he heard a rumor that there might be a new comic shop opening up somewhere soon. All in all, my visit to the LCS in Hawaii found limited success. The pattern I observed from these 3 stores was that there is not a true 'comics only' store but that comics occupies only a small percentage of retail space. I actually wonder if such a comics only store exists anymore? Everyone I talked to was very friendly and helpful, and it was an overall very fun experience. If you're planning a trip to the islands, you can add one more distraction (attraction?) to your itinerary!
  4. Westside Comics - I'll post a report about them this evening
  5. I'm afraid I don't have much to report. I visited Maui Comics in Kahalui, but they are renting some space from a larger store that sells records and other things. I visited on a Saturday but the owner was not there. The only person there was from the record store but he does help out with comics. I tried to buy some plastic dividers for comic boxes but there was no price on them. He called the owner but he did not answer. I ended up not buying anything. I did ask him if it was true about the owner selling a copy of TMNT #1 to start this store, but he didn't know - he seemed pretty young. He did suggest using Instagram to reach him as he's active there. Apparently, the owner comes in on Wednesdays to the store and maybe possibly Mondays. The actual comic store had the new modern issues on display and about 6 long boxes. I was going to buy a back issue of FF (pre 100) for $20 but changed my mind. There is also a section of comics published by local (Hawaiian) folks. Thinking back, I should've bought some of those. I had read from their FB page that the owner wrote something for this year's Overstreet guide and also wrote up an article about his topic, the meteoric rise in TMNT prices. I had this idea of buying a copy and having him sign that, so I was bummed not to have met him. Even though I grew up on Oahu, I never cared for Maui as much as Kauai as I thought Maui was too developed. Now, being much older and wanting the nice, luxurious hotels and comforts, I found Maui to have a nice mix of both the high end hotels as well as the more scenic spots - Haleakala and Lahaina. Took a ferry to Lanai as well from Lahaina - that was very very relaxing. We went snorkeling in Lanai and saw some fish. There are a lot of snorkeling places in Maui but we didn't have time to check those places out. We also did manage to eat at Tinroof. The first time we went was at lunch, but there must've been 20 people waiting in line (they closed their dining in area), so we we ate at nearby Marco's. Definitely not as good! The next day, we went to Haleakala crater in the afternoon and then we tried Tinroof. They close at 8pm and we got there around 7:15 - there was only about 4 people. My family each chose a different entree and we all really liked it. I had the Mochiko chicken and it was very flavorful, tender and moist. The pork belly was really, really good, too as well as the garlic noodles. Definitely worth checking out! Although I was disappointed about not meeting the owner of Maui Comics, it just means another reason for me to go back! Maybe you'll have better luck, Wolverinex!