How’d he like the whisky…?
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He wasn’t a fan. He is 13 and doesn’t have a refined pallet yet.
He tasted the egg nog one they had. Liked it. Took another taste. Liked it. Took another taste and hit the whiskey, gave it to me.
Since I started in this thread I will continue. I feel like I should start a separate thread.
Last night I pulled 11 boxes of bulk bagged and boarded comics and loaded them in my Jeep. My son had stuff he wanted to sell so we threw those in too.
All the bulk stuff is the books I normally sell for $3 each. Alpha numeric order. Clean white short boxes. That is really important and you will see why later. Also had the remaining comics from a collection that I bought a while ago for $50 and made a couple hundred off. But these are not worth bagging and boarding and trying to get $3 off them.
We got up at 5. Drove the hour and unloaded the Jeep.
I didn’t bring chairs with me nor did I have time to stop to get change. Thankfully my main man Sam, my 12 year old son, brought change.
I walked around before deciding on a price and saw several other comic vendors there. Some nice set ups and some less than nice.
This was my set up. Clean and to the point. I settled on $2 a book, many of these I paid .25 cents for and bagged and boarded costing me about .18 cents each. So at $2 I am still getting about 3x profit.
Anyway first 10 minutes in I sold $40 worth to one guy. Another guy offered me $20 for the bin from that collection and I gladly took it.
Ended up selling $300 worth of comics. Minus my $40 table fee and minus $12 for lunch for Sam and me.
I got a Crystar #8 for $8. Love that book and only would buy it in the wild. Guy had $20 on it and said he had no idea about comic grades or prices. I told him the significance and why I wanted it and what I would offer in the mid grade that it was.
So what did people buy? One guy got nothing but Walking Dead later issues. I was happy to unload them.
Another guy bought nothing but signed junk, mostly Scout comics I had gotten for free when I was working with Scout.
One guy got every Spawn issue I had. Mostly newer junk.
One guy got every Simpson comic I had in the boxes, including the older FCBD ones.
A grandmother bought Robins #1 and a Batman New 52 #1 for her grand daughter. She thanked me for helping her and told me the other people had either crazy prices, were disorganized, or had comics that you “don’t know where they have been”. I laughed and said these were all NM graded by the Poyo standard (not bathroom read, I said).
One guy asked me if I had slabs. I said yes. He asked where. I said at home.
Another guy offered me $25 per short box for everything. I declined. (It is a flea market so….)
Another guy kept coming over and asking me for .10 - .15 cent books. I said they are in the bins you have to hunt. He said he would buy every .10-.15 cent book I had for $100 a short box especially Spider-Man, X-Men, and Batman. I laughed and declined the offer.
The woman across the way was from a distillery and had some of the most delicious whisky’s. She kept bringing me samples. She was my new favorite person offering me whisky at 9 AM.
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Another thing to note, later I put facsimiles up against the boxes (between the lid and the box) as displays. That caught the eye of the comic guys and they flocked to the table.
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I forgot to mention, some guy bought $20 worth of Wizard 1/2’s from me. Got them for a quarter (I love them and can’t pass them up). They still had their certs with them. Put them in a fresh bag and board and they presented well. That was the least likely thing I thought would sell but I guess I am not the only one who appreciates them.
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Those Wizard 1/2 were fun. I have a soft spot for them in the same way I do ashcans.
Sounds like a blast making money while sampling whiskey and bonding w the kid.
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The book I picked up at the flea market was Crystar #8 a book I only wanted to buy if I found it in the wild. Now it’s up in its correct home.
(For those that don’t know when Glen Danzig left the Misfits he formed Samhain which later changed names into Danzig, the logo of the band was ripped from this cover)
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I’ve been looking for Crystar 8 for years but can never find it in the wild. I keep thinking it would be so easy to find as I see the series all the time at stores and cons. Issue 8 is always missing. The other one is Quasar 14. Can never find that damn book even though I see entire shortboxes of the series for 50 cents each all the time.
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Didn’t even know to look for this book, now I will absolutely add it to my list. Speaking of Quasar #14 and early McFarlane, I never have any problem selling Infinity, Inc 14 thru 19, whenever I see them for a buck or two.
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Enjoyed Anthony’s flea market round up so here’s mine:
Set up at a small convention at a brewery this Saturday put on by a local comic book shop.
My back issues range from $2-$10 with most in the $3-$4 range. I had two short boxes of Marvel, one of DC and one of Indies (Spawn making up nearly half). I think I sold maybe only 10-12 books out of those boxes - a few Spawn, one or two old Detective Comics/Batman, a couple of Amalgam and set of OG Infnity War 1-6.
Where the show shined for me was in the one BCW plastic premium box of ‘minor and major’ keys. Sold lots of books in the $20-$75 range. I only had two Absolute Batmans (14 Harley Quinn cover and Annual A Cover) and they sold very quickly for $20 and $30 respectively. Moved a low grade ASM 251 for $40, a couple of Spawn #1s for $20/$30, an ASM 601 for $75, Zatanna 15 for $40, Marvel Premiere 28 Legion of Monsters for $75, Simpsons Comics & Stories #1 polybagged for $25, $SiKtC #1 Foil for $30, a mid-grade Wolverine #1 and a low-grade Uncanny X-Men #141 for $80 among others.
What did I buy? I think I’ve mentioned before, I focus on collected editions for my eBay storefront. Picked up a Daredevil Epic Collection: Purgatory & Paradise for $20 - last one sold on eBay for $150. Also picked up an Incredible Hulk Epic Collection: Leader Lives for $20 - last one sold on eBay for $89.
Overall, pulled in just under $1k - felt like a solid haul considering no one even considered a thing from the box of CGC books I had. Show booth cost $50 and I paid a friend’s son $50 for helping with the loading and unloading as well as minding the booth while I went hunting.
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This is my experience, as well at small, local shows when i set up.
I try to point out my slabbed books (keys at very reduced prices), and it doesnt go well.
Ebay is better, but at the small shows? - fuhgetaboutit. They dont want em
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Is that you or someone hired to cosplay?
If that is you, that is dedication. And probably played a role in your success!
I haven’t set up at one myself…but of the many shows I’ve attended the last couple years I don’t recall seeing someone asking to see a slab wall book…
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Continuing the discussion from Odds and Ends:
Haha not me, just a well known local Superman cosplayer that I cajoled in to a picture with one of my back issues.
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Was running this announcement later.
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What a difference between the buzz for the Spears Halloween books and these holiday ones.
I don’t hear anyone really talking about them, hyping them, etc. Maybe I’m just not seeing it on my end?
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Seems quieter. Wasn’t promoted as well, maybe?
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