I should share this story, seems appropriate. So about a year ago my LCS was on the verge of going out of business (owner had no business running his own business, I talked about the many reasons before), a gentlemen walked in one day and said he was from China.
He wanted to buy the massive amount of backstock the store had and wanted to make a deal with him. I wasn’t there for the exchange but I heard the story from one of the employees there as he was the one that was pulling the comics and packing them. The sale came to around $7,000 or more. I didn’t ask about the particulars of the sale just thought it was odd at the time. He wasn’t just picking out keys just buying the entire stock of random moderns, 20 copies each of filler moderns etc for $2 each.
The employee told me the gentlemen told him he was bringing the comics back to China (or Hong Kong) for resale. We thought that was odd at the time as we didn’t know there was a market for American comic books there and the American cover price of $3.99 to $4.99 would not work in China. But then again there’s many affluent people in China so who knows what’s going on there.
There are different markets in Asia that collect differently from here or Europe. Two years ago at NYCC I was on Dan Mora’s line the first day when he first got there and there was a group of young Asian girls by ten of each item he had, so I guess he has had a following for a while now.
Who knows if it will hold and I assume orders are still arriving but that Past Time #1 Rahzzah is actually doing fairly well for a 1:10 if you see one on the shelves at your shop. I just liked the cover so I’m glad I pre-ordered one.
This book took a backseat to Daredevil #11 & #14 but quietly has/is doing ok.
Because it ran second fiddle, no real hype, I’m still finding them here and there as well.
Muse has sure been good to me (and the Mrs definitely got her new pair of shoes )
Never had a low tier villain comic spec perform as well and his books are still chugging along.
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