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Adventures in the Dollar Box
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1,628 posts in this topic

Ok, it could be a quarter box or even a $2 box...get into the $3 or 3 for $10 box and that's too rich for my blood... (just kidding..maybe)

The "books you can't find in the wild" thread has been getting some posts of awesome finds, but these common but sought after books really don't fit there. And we see cheap steals in the flea market thread and the ebay thread, but I think a thread for comic shop finds would be fun. These could be "this week in my collection," but that thread includes  books bought for five figures too.

And I certainly won't object if we slide a bit into copper or even bronze if you hit the jackpot on a stack of books.

Here's one I got a little while ago while fishing around:

 

 

20181108_112845.jpg

Edited by the blob
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I used to love going through long boxes. Spent thousands of hours doing it. Back when you could find all sorts of "once hot, now not" books in dollar bins, it was great fun. I would happily spend $1 each on books like McFarlane Hulks and Amazings, and other books like that. Grant Morrison Animal Mans, early Sandmans, early Jim Lee X-Mens, you name it.

Now...I just don't have the heart for it anymore. Anything that could be remotely considered "special" has been snarfed up, and I find that my time is far, far better spent looking at wall books to see what can be improved. It's a lot less time consuming, and a lot more rewarding...at least financially.

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1 hour ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

I used to love going through long boxes. Spent thousands of hours doing it. Back when you could find all sorts of "once hot, now not" books in dollar bins, it was great fun. I would happily spend $1 each on books like McFarlane Hulks and Amazings, and other books like that. Grant Morrison Animal Mans, early Sandmans, early Jim Lee X-Mens, you name it.

Now...I just don't have the heart for it anymore. Anything that could be remotely considered "special" has been snarfed up, and I find that my time is far, far better spent looking at wall books to see what can be improved. It's a lot less time consuming, and a lot more rewarding...at least financially.

I still find good stuff. I spend my lunch hour at a few shops as I am within a 15 minute subway ride of several so I figure I rummage anyway. And at my yearly trek to a show, although that has become more of a $2 box situation. I don't have aptitude for figuring out what midgrade key can be pressed into a 9.6 or 9.8. I don't have specific books on my radaar so going into a dealer's "priced as marked" "good books" is overwhelming and frankly, they are usually priced beyond comprehension.  15-20 years ago I definitely went to shows looking to buy a mix of "good" books and hitting the cheap boxes, but I have found fewer and fewer deals to be had and half the time a pressable defect isn't treated as a defect in terms of pricing. I buy a couple of $10-20 items now and then and occasionally my shops have some things priced right.

Edited by the blob
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Where was that? I pulled some nice $10-20 type variants out of a dollar box section today. The store gave up on selling them in house, but there is an ebay market. Might go back tomorrow because I only got half way through. Did waste my money on 20 or so books I thought had a market, but do not (I hate looking up cheap books in a store).

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7 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

I used to love going through long boxes. Spent thousands of hours doing it. Back when you could find all sorts of "once hot, now not" books in dollar bins, it was great fun. I would happily spend $1 each on books like McFarlane Hulks and Amazings, and other books like that. Grant Morrison Animal Mans, early Sandmans, early Jim Lee X-Mens, you name it.

Now...I just don't have the heart for it anymore. Anything that could be remotely considered "special" has been snarfed up, and I find that my time is far, far better spent looking at wall books to see what can be improved. It's a lot less time consuming, and a lot more rewarding...at least financially.

I still find some decent stuff while going through long boxes, but they're mostly indy books since most of the newer collectors go after the mainstream books.  

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2 hours ago, RockMyAmadeus said:

Now...I just don't have the heart for it anymore. Anything that could be remotely considered "special" has been snarfed up

That's too bad. I still find lots of good stuff in cheap boxes, even when I don't get there first and certain books are conspicuously absent.

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On 11/8/2018 at 10:31 AM, the blob said:

The "books you can't find in the wild" thread has been getting some posts of awesome finds, but these common but sought after books really don't fit there.

What fun is it posting your finds if you can't pretend they're rare, even when they really, really aren't?

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9 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

What fun is it posting your finds if you can't pretend they're rare, even when they really, really aren't?

I think folks are just excited to show the product of their hunt, don't want to think hard about which forum is corre t. I don't blame them. I would too if I hit some of these scores.

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9 hours ago, Lazyboy said:

That's too bad. I still find lots of good stuff in cheap boxes, even when I don't get there first and certain books are conspicuously absent.

It is exhausting. But I get it, if rma is really good at finding a $50 book he can press into a $200 book, I understand why he might devote his energy to that. It just seems like there are plenty of people hunting those books too, probably much harder to find good candidates than 5-10 years ago. I have a lot of 4.0-5.0 $3 books that might be pressed into 8.0 copies, just don't know if that is worth the effort.

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I agree I could make a killing from a set up like that. I could easily walk out with $500+ profit from a set up like that.
Even books considered junk have $10-20 books in there. It would be like the late 90s again with dealers liquidating like mad.
Those Wizard Chicago shows were awesome back then.

 

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5 hours ago, fastballspecial said:

I agree I could make a killing from a set up like that. I could easily walk out with $500+ profit from a set up like that.
Even books considered junk have $10-20 books in there. It would be like the late 90s again with dealers liquidating like mad.
Those Wizard Chicago shows were awesome back then.

 

Maybe, or maybe they looked them over? Katz comics sets up a massive dollar selection at nycc ( and maybe other shows), which he cuts to 50 cents at some point. I don't think I got much in the way of $10+ books in there, but I did buy like 150 books. I got like 25 or 30 issues of Bone from CB in pristine shape, nearly All the Concrete DHPs a lot of low print run 98-2000 marvels, etc. Stuff I like to buy, but aren't double digits. Yet. With that said, with that many longies there are bound to be a couple of mistakes per box.

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