Are Comic books dead or dying? 5 5

[the blob]

2 hours ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

New York is insane as well. They are introducing a 'luxury tax' to those living in high end areas. The stress of money is bad. Sometimes I don't sleep because if I wanna live in New York with my family and Girlfriend and what am doing now will be impossible. I can't even Afford to move out of my house to an apartment. Heck I can't even afford gas since it's close to $5 dollars a gallon. It cost me $50 bucks just to fill up 

Where the heck are you? It is $2.89 here in Brooklyn.

[the blob]

2 hours ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

New York is insane as well. They are introducing a 'luxury tax' to those living in high end areas. The stress of money is bad. Sometimes I don't sleep because if I wanna live in New York with my family and Girlfriend and what am doing now will be impossible. I can't even Afford to move out of my house to an apartment. Heck I can't even afford gas since it's close to $5 dollars a gallon. It cost me $50 bucks just to fill up 

No, they are trying to have a bonus income tax on high earners above a certain amount. 

[BlackTerror98]

Just now, the blob said:

No, they are trying to have a bonus income tax on high earners above a certain amount. 

I just repeat what my neighbors are talking about 😂 

 

[the blob]

"Landscaping where I live cost $450 a week and that's twice a week. "

Ho-lee krap! We pay $50 a month in Brooklyn and they come 2X a month. Granted, my house is on 1/10th of an acre and I only have a few hundred square feet of lawn, but they trim the vines, do the leaves, mess with my flower bed, toss white powder around, and all that.

 

[the blob]

2 hours ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

Yes. They charge you for gas (it's expensive) they also charge you for bags becasue you have bag up the leaves and grass and put it in a specific location in front of your house so it's not mixed with the trash. They charge you for everything. That's why I charged $40 for cutting the grass and the cost of a bag was 50¢. Gas would be around 3 dollars per yard so I charged $40 😂 it's a fair price!  I stopped doing it once I got my job job now I get payed $18 an hour. Reality is $16.50 due to the amount taxes taken out.

Where do you live? Sands Point? Old Westbury? Maybe with homes on 5 acres.

[BlackTerror98]

1 minute ago, the blob said:

"Landscaping where I live cost $450 a week and that's twice a week. "

Ho-lee krap! We pay $50 a month in Brooklyn and they come 2X a month. Granted, my house is on 1/10th of an acre and I only have a few hundred square feet of lawn, but they trim the vines, do the leaves, mess with my flower bed, toss white powder around, and all that.

 

Garden City! This is my back yard (it was a tennis court and then basketball) now it's used for parties for bbqs

[BlackTerror98]

2 minutes ago, the blob said:

Where do you live? Sands Point? Old Westbury? Maybe with homes on 5 acres.

 

[the blob]

2 hours ago, Plantman said:

My own experience, working somewhat infrequently at an LCS these past six months, has been vastly different than Matthew's, for what it's worth. Most customers simply do not express views on the long-term sustainability of the back issue market.

I recall no customer ever giving me unsolicited advice about investing in cryptocurrency, precious metals, or the TSX.

There are four or five customers who want me to sell some of my comics...to them. And I've parted with some of my modern books, because the money is too good to keep them.

There is one doomsayer, with whom I am friends, who stopped buying new comics. He has given me plenty of advice over the years, the majority of which has turned out to be terrible. He insisted, in 2017, that buying a CGC 6.5 Universal copy of X-Men #1 for approximately $9,000 USD was too risky. For him, the direct market is always six months away from ruin. It has been for the past five years.

My old LCS was three blocks from the NY Stock Exchange. So the folks who wandered in there ranged from white collar traders and hedge fun wunderkin to blue collar union guys and everything in between and beneath and we had A LOT of discussions about a lot of topics. Young wall street guys would walk in and nothing twice about dropping $2K on cases of cards, opening them up during lunch, keeping the chase cards, and leaving the regular cards for the store.

 

[BlackTerror98]

3 minutes ago, the blob said:

Where do you live? Sands Point? Old Westbury? Maybe with homes on 5 acres.

It can't fit on one photo sorry...

[Erndog]

I honestly thought this thread was in jest or an April Fools joke considering how hot the comic market is.

It's ridiculous how much key books have climbed in the last 6 months even, nevermind 6 yrs.

[the blob]

4 minutes ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

Garden City! This is my back yard (it was a tennis court and then basketball) now it's used for parties for bbqs

garden city median home price is $1 million, but not for an apartment, of course

 

Edited April 1, 2021 by the blob

[dupont2005]

16 minutes ago, the blob said:

He goes to college in the middle of manhattan. driving in would cost him $50 a day or more in gas, tolls, and parking, so the LIRR is cheaper. Queens College would have made more sense, or one of the SUNY campuses in Long Island, but those are harder to get into nowadays.

Not buying a new car would make sense too

[BlackTerror98]

Just now, Erndog said:

I honestly thought this thread was in jest or an April Fools joke considering how hot the comic market is.

It's ridiculous how much key books have climbed in the last 6 months even, nevermind 6 yrs.

I was talking about the direct market.. no new collectors... Less titles.. less books sold... That's what am talking about if it is going to survive we need more collectors you know? That was the point not talking about the second hand market 

[BlackTerror98]

2 minutes ago, dupont2005 said:

Not buying a new car would make sense too

I still need to go to work, and I got what car has good safety and good mileage and I don't want a lemon that I have to always worry about and plus I wanted a car I could drive till it destoryed and last longer then a used car for bang for the buck 

 

2 minutes ago, the blob said:

garden city median home price is $1 million, but not for an apartment, of course

 

Yeah that's why I cant afford to move out I can't afford this area 😂 it's crazy 

Edited April 1, 2021 by Matthew Kyle Brasile

[Erndog]

1 minute ago, Matthew Kyle Brasile said:

I was talking about the direct market.. no new collectors... Less titles.. less books sold... That's what am talking about if it is going to survive we need more collectors you know? That was the point not talking about the second hand market 

Everything is cyclical.  Even vinyls are back in favour and selling at absurd amounts with many new collectors.

My LCS is always busy.  It's a large shop, orders everything new, has tons of trades, statues, gaming, collectibles... we are quite fortunate, but the point is, that shop is always packed.  

I can guarantee comic collecting will be around longer than any of us.

[the blob]

3 minutes ago, dupont2005 said:

Not buying a new car would make sense too

it was a slightly used car, but yeah, you probably don't need a car that nice to toodle around nassau county

 

[BlackTerror98]

1 minute ago, Erndog said:

Everything is cyclical.  Even vinyls are back in favour and selling at absurd amounts with many new collectors.

My LCS is always busy.  It's a large shop, orders everything new, has tons of trades, statues, gaming, collectibles... we are quite fortunate, but the point is, that shop is always packed.  

I can guarantee comic collecting will be around longer than any of us.

Thank you that's the answer I wanted 😂 THATS IT 😂 took me a while but thank you 

[Plantman]

23 minutes ago, the blob said:

that work dries up from November - March and there are only a few days with enough snow between then to make money.

Good point. I feel like the beginning of April is OP's sweet spot.

[BlackTerror98]

1 minute ago, the blob said:

it was a slightly used car, but yeah, you probably don't need a car that nice to toodle around nassau county

 

I don't think am well liked on this forum area for being either new or something 😂 I don't understand 

[the blob]

Anyway, I'm not here to krap on the new kid. A little story telling puffery isn't illegal. I wish my teenager had the ambition to do enough with himself that he could exaggerate it by 50-100% and it still would be an accomplishment. With that said the teens who work at my local grocery store are pulling down $300 a week ($15 an hour) working part-time. Good for them. Wish my son would get off his arse, but the place that seems to hire a lot of teenagers is a 20 minute bike ride. Booh hooh..