I just love this place. Located a block off the BQE in Sunset Park, it is literally a warehouse. I walk up a flight of stairs and go past the sweatshop. Sometimes there are women working on machines, sometimes the doors are shut. I don't ask. I just head to the back of the building and down a short corridor to the large room containing rows and stacks of boxed comics.
I enjoy shaking hands with stout Peter and listening to him talk to another comic buff about how modern comics can't compete with the Silver and Bronze Ages. I know he likes Howard the Duck. I am amazed that Joe, with his unbrushed mane of white hair, has so much energy and never hesitates to seek out whatever comic someone asks of him. There are the $1 comics in the front and the "the good stuff" in the back. I would not be surprised to find the Ark of the Covenant lost somewhere here. Maybe it is under the "Archie" comics.
This is a dirty place. There is dust on everything I touch. No cleaning detergeant has ever touched any part of the concrete floor I imagine. The lighting is decent but there are some dark rows. I think I see their cat, Fuzzball, darting in and out from the corner of my eye. They give out free snacks on days that the warehouse to the public. I like eating the Dunkin' Donuts donut-holes. I am not as squeamish as I used to be.
Me, I like to lose myself for that hour of escape so that I can thumb through the $1 Marvel bins, my current interest. I am going through boxes of Spider-Man, a character I was never interested in when I was younger. Now I find several issues that I put aside to purchase: the Spider-Man clone stories including the issue where Mary Jane tells Peter Parker she is pregnant and some early Ultimate Spider-Man issues from the early 2000s featuring an alternate storyline where Peter is a teen-ager again and working as a web-master for the Daily Bugle. I find some defunct-Atlas comics from the mid-70s where Larry Lieber, Stan Lee's brother, worked as an editor (sort of like an alternate version of Marvel that failed in real life), like The Scorpion #1 (an early Howard Chaykin work of noir crime-fighting set in the 30s). I find Marvel Team-Up Annual #4, an awful story written and drawn by Frank Miller starring Spider-Man, Moon Knight and Daredevil fighting against some Purple Man with mind-control powers and the Kingpin. I guess even the best writers flop from time to time.
I sigh. My hour is up and I have to go back home to take care of the family. I pay the butcher's bill. I wish Peter well and tell him I'll see him again. He knows my name and wishes me likewise. I come here that often. I walk out and am amazed that the sun is still shining. After going through hundreds and hundreds of comics, my fingers are black. I wonder if this is how my lungs would look if I smoked. Still, I have my comics. They're not in perfect condition but they're cheap. And I get to enjoy reading them and knowing that if this be my one and only vice, then I'm gonna live a long time reading comics.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 26, 2013
The secret formula to collecting comics
No, there isn't a secret formula to investing in comics. Just like there isn't one for buying gold, silver, stocks, bonds, etc. Nevertheless, as in any long-term investment strategy, diversification is one important key to success and having fun in this hobby. I'll come back to diversification later. But first, there are legitimate variables to consider when considering what makes a comic valuable. And when I say valuable, I mean highly sought after.
Here's my formula:
Value = ((Condition * Popularity) + First appearance or Death of a character) / Existing copies
It's a pretty rudimentary approach, I admit, and I'm sure a statistician could make it more robust (maybe Popularity should be cubed?). But more importantly, it helps to guide me before I plunk down money:
1. I cannot anticipate the popularity of any existing comic.
2. I may be able to estimate the existing number of copies.
3. I can select the condition that the comics are in for my collection.
4. I can determine which issues have first appearances or deaths.
The formula may help to explain how certain comics are highly valued now, but it cannot predict which comics will rise, or continue to rise, in value. For modern comics, it is even more difficult to predict because there is little historical reference to base their future performance.
Let us consider the relatively high values for these Modern Comics: Batman #404, New Mutant's #98 (Deadpools' first appearance), and Batman Adventures #12 (Harley Quinn's first appearance). When can we expect these comic values to shoot even higher? I don't know. But one, or both, things must happen: their populairy must rise even higher and/or the number of existing copies must fall. Now, which factor is more iimportant: popularity or number of existing copies? I would say that popularity is more volatile while the number of existing copies tends to remain stagnant. Perhaps the real question is can we predict these comics' future popularity? No. We cannot.
And this is what makes comic collecting fun!
Here's where diversification comes in: buy what you like, but choose a few comics from the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages. Depending on your budget, and if it's anything like mine, you might end up having a portfolio with a high number of issues from the Bronze Age and Modern Age compared to the Golden and Silver Ages. And that's okay. The key is not to lock yourself into one or two key comic (or even one era of comics) that may or may not experience a rise in demand.
And from a pure collecting point of view, it's nice to see how characters, art, and storylines change over the decades. Who doesn't like to see how Batman's costume changes over time?
Here's my formula:
Value = ((Condition * Popularity) + First appearance or Death of a character) / Existing copies
It's a pretty rudimentary approach, I admit, and I'm sure a statistician could make it more robust (maybe Popularity should be cubed?). But more importantly, it helps to guide me before I plunk down money:
1. I cannot anticipate the popularity of any existing comic.
2. I may be able to estimate the existing number of copies.
3. I can select the condition that the comics are in for my collection.
4. I can determine which issues have first appearances or deaths.
The formula may help to explain how certain comics are highly valued now, but it cannot predict which comics will rise, or continue to rise, in value. For modern comics, it is even more difficult to predict because there is little historical reference to base their future performance.
Let us consider the relatively high values for these Modern Comics: Batman #404, New Mutant's #98 (Deadpools' first appearance), and Batman Adventures #12 (Harley Quinn's first appearance). When can we expect these comic values to shoot even higher? I don't know. But one, or both, things must happen: their populairy must rise even higher and/or the number of existing copies must fall. Now, which factor is more iimportant: popularity or number of existing copies? I would say that popularity is more volatile while the number of existing copies tends to remain stagnant. Perhaps the real question is can we predict these comics' future popularity? No. We cannot.
And this is what makes comic collecting fun!
Here's where diversification comes in: buy what you like, but choose a few comics from the Golden, Silver, and Bronze Ages. Depending on your budget, and if it's anything like mine, you might end up having a portfolio with a high number of issues from the Bronze Age and Modern Age compared to the Golden and Silver Ages. And that's okay. The key is not to lock yourself into one or two key comic (or even one era of comics) that may or may not experience a rise in demand.
And from a pure collecting point of view, it's nice to see how characters, art, and storylines change over the decades. Who doesn't like to see how Batman's costume changes over time?
Friday, May 24, 2013
Alice Wance's Archie comics
This past Spring (or was it Winter...it's so hard to tell the difference nowadays, what with global warming), I walked into my neighborhood second-hand shop and found a pile of Archie titles on top of a bureau. There must have been about 60 or 70 comics ranging from such titles as Archie (of course) to Betty and Veronica, Reggie and Me, Jugehead, and Archie and Me. They were printed roughly between 1968 and 1972, so they were towards the end of the Silver Age and the beginning of the Bronze Age. I selected the best of the lot, the ones that could best be rated between Very Good and Fine Minus. In short, the ones with some wear but still in decent shape.
The ones I really appreciated picking up were the "Archie" books, the ones drawn by Harry Lucey. What an artist. His lines are so sharp and his character's expressions and body language are straight out of vaudeville. You should look him up. I'm sure you'll agree that he should be remembered as the quintessential artist for Archie. His stories took me back to my grade school days when I would read every single Archie Digest that belonged to my cousin.
When I returned home with my find, I discovered the name of one Alice Wance handwritten on the interior page of one of the issues. At first, I was disappointed because it meant that the comic would be devalued. But then I started to wonder who was this young reader? Her handwriting suggested that she might have been between eight and ten. I thought about how much she must have loved those stories. And how lucky she was to have had parents who bought them for her. Those stacks of comics...maybe those all did belong to her and she read, and re-read, each and every one of them until she outgrew them and then did other things that teenagers did back in the 70s. I didn't smell smoke from the comics, so I guessed that she didn't smoke or did weed. I hope.
I wondered what might have happened to her. And how those comics ended up in a second-hand store. I shuddered to think that she may have passed away. If she was about eight in 1968, she would be about 53 now. It would be a human tragedy that someone her age would no longer be alive. I did look her name up on-line but of the two Alice Wances that I found, the public records suggested that they were between 70 and 80.
I'd like to think that she took care of them as best she could. There were no torn pages. She didn't color them with crayons or markers. The spines were somewhat rolled, suggesting that they were piled upon one another. Maybe she kept them in a nice spot on the bookshelf by the bed and she would read them before going to sleep.
I'd like to think that she had a really nice childhood and that Archie helped along the way. It would have been something I'd like to have asked her. And if she still read any today.
The ones I really appreciated picking up were the "Archie" books, the ones drawn by Harry Lucey. What an artist. His lines are so sharp and his character's expressions and body language are straight out of vaudeville. You should look him up. I'm sure you'll agree that he should be remembered as the quintessential artist for Archie. His stories took me back to my grade school days when I would read every single Archie Digest that belonged to my cousin.
When I returned home with my find, I discovered the name of one Alice Wance handwritten on the interior page of one of the issues. At first, I was disappointed because it meant that the comic would be devalued. But then I started to wonder who was this young reader? Her handwriting suggested that she might have been between eight and ten. I thought about how much she must have loved those stories. And how lucky she was to have had parents who bought them for her. Those stacks of comics...maybe those all did belong to her and she read, and re-read, each and every one of them until she outgrew them and then did other things that teenagers did back in the 70s. I didn't smell smoke from the comics, so I guessed that she didn't smoke or did weed. I hope.
I wondered what might have happened to her. And how those comics ended up in a second-hand store. I shuddered to think that she may have passed away. If she was about eight in 1968, she would be about 53 now. It would be a human tragedy that someone her age would no longer be alive. I did look her name up on-line but of the two Alice Wances that I found, the public records suggested that they were between 70 and 80.
I'd like to think that she took care of them as best she could. There were no torn pages. She didn't color them with crayons or markers. The spines were somewhat rolled, suggesting that they were piled upon one another. Maybe she kept them in a nice spot on the bookshelf by the bed and she would read them before going to sleep.
I'd like to think that she had a really nice childhood and that Archie helped along the way. It would have been something I'd like to have asked her. And if she still read any today.
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
I save comic books from people who stack them inside shopping bags
Or at least that's how I feel whenever I find some in poor condition. I remember at a stoop sale in Carroll Gardens, I ran into a guy whose parents were being evicted so he had gone back home to remove some of his own items. As a child, this fellow had received many free comics from his father who once worked for Mad Magazine and now he was selling them, piles of them, on the sidewalk, out of shopping bags.
Well, I thought, there probably won't be any in near mint or anywhere close to collectible condition. But who knows what one might find...this was a young guy, so most of his collection were from the 80s and 90s. He had a number of trades, too, none of which interested me. But then in the bottom of a few piles, I found some comics worth saving: a Flash #192 (the Flash saves a submarine from the clutches of some evil organization hiding in some sea cave), a Daredevil #44 (Daredevil fights against some maniacal toy master), and an Invincible Iron Man #15 (featuring some villian named the Unicorn - geez...).
As I expected, they were in rough shape. The covers were chipped and creased. The spines were all stressed out. The Daredevil one was in the worst shape: some of the interior pages had started to separate. In collector parlence, they were no better than in Good condition. Basically worthless - if you wanted to resell it. But I thought they were pretty neato. Comics from the late 60s are not that uncommon. You can get them on eBay and comic book shops in far better condition. But I was happy to find and buy them for about two bucks a piece.
The nice thing about buying comics that are already hurt is that you really can't reduce their value any further. And you can just enjoy reading them.
Best of all, Maddie selected a hardcover anthology of superhero stories, Bizarro World, conjured up by indie writers and artists. Imagine if Batman and Superman were written by William S. Burroughs disciples. She really likes those weirdo stories, especially the one in which Superman is found and raised by elves from the North Pole and grows up to be, well, Super Santa!
Well, I thought, there probably won't be any in near mint or anywhere close to collectible condition. But who knows what one might find...this was a young guy, so most of his collection were from the 80s and 90s. He had a number of trades, too, none of which interested me. But then in the bottom of a few piles, I found some comics worth saving: a Flash #192 (the Flash saves a submarine from the clutches of some evil organization hiding in some sea cave), a Daredevil #44 (Daredevil fights against some maniacal toy master), and an Invincible Iron Man #15 (featuring some villian named the Unicorn - geez...).
As I expected, they were in rough shape. The covers were chipped and creased. The spines were all stressed out. The Daredevil one was in the worst shape: some of the interior pages had started to separate. In collector parlence, they were no better than in Good condition. Basically worthless - if you wanted to resell it. But I thought they were pretty neato. Comics from the late 60s are not that uncommon. You can get them on eBay and comic book shops in far better condition. But I was happy to find and buy them for about two bucks a piece.
The nice thing about buying comics that are already hurt is that you really can't reduce their value any further. And you can just enjoy reading them.
Best of all, Maddie selected a hardcover anthology of superhero stories, Bizarro World, conjured up by indie writers and artists. Imagine if Batman and Superman were written by William S. Burroughs disciples. She really likes those weirdo stories, especially the one in which Superman is found and raised by elves from the North Pole and grows up to be, well, Super Santa!
Monday, May 20, 2013
Cool Pick #1: Giant-Size Iron Man #1
Since I started collecting again, I've been trolling Craigslist as the weekends approach to see what stoop sales, if any, may involve comics. It hasn't been easy to find many on any given Saturday or Sunday. Some days, I go to the stoop sale and there isn't much to choose from. Or I get to the location and there is no sale, which happened just last Saturday in Park Slope. Still, once in a while, I find something pretty neat (yeah, I like using the word "neat").
One Saturday morning, I went to Bay Ridge and walked up to a sale organized by some hipsters (or what I think are hipsters. I find that anyone younger, thinner, and unshaven to be of that ilk, and I mean it in the best sense of the word, no irony intended). It was a house on 3rd Avenue just feet from the elevated BQE, but when I walked up the covered porch, I found myself rather insulated from the noise and grit of the highway. A couple of short boxes with a sign that said "$1" made it very welcoming indeed.
So I knelt down and thumbed through them. No Golden or Silver Age find...but I did grab a stack of about eleven comics, many of them Marvel's Giant-Size series from the 1970s. A few Captain Americas, one drawn by Jack Kirby, another by Gene Golan; a Men of War #1, an origin story about a Black soldier designated for grave duty who battled both racism from his own superiors and the Nazis; and a Giant-Size Iron Man #1. This, the Iron Man issue, was a great personal find.
Well, what's so special about it, you may ask. After all, it's just a reprint of some 1960's Tales of Suspense Iron Man stories. Ah, but it does have the origin of Hawkeye and his first encounter with the Black Widow (before she changed her costume). And where do they meet? In Coney Island! Wowsers! And who else is in Coney Island? Why, Tony Stark with Pepper Potts! For a buck, I get to appreciate those early adventures, one of which takes place in Brooklyn, my hometown!
So, what's it worth? For the condition it's in, Overstreet says it's about $9. On eBay, there are several selling for around that price. I think there's too much supply and not enough demand for this issue to sell well on eBay. It's just a comic reprint even if there's a "#1" on the cover.
Still, if I were to resell it at my own stoop sale, I'd probably place a $7 sticker on it and go as low as $5. I might be able to get my asking price because the Iron Man 3 movie is out and there are many kids in my neighborhood who like the character. In any case, on paper at least, I'll make a profit. And with that profit, I'll probably end up taking my daughter out for ice cream. And that's how I roll.
But will I sell it? That's the hard part of being part collector, part speculator: being sentimentally attached to an old comic. Maybe I have too much of the collector in me...We'll see. I'll let you know what happens.
One Saturday morning, I went to Bay Ridge and walked up to a sale organized by some hipsters (or what I think are hipsters. I find that anyone younger, thinner, and unshaven to be of that ilk, and I mean it in the best sense of the word, no irony intended). It was a house on 3rd Avenue just feet from the elevated BQE, but when I walked up the covered porch, I found myself rather insulated from the noise and grit of the highway. A couple of short boxes with a sign that said "$1" made it very welcoming indeed.
So I knelt down and thumbed through them. No Golden or Silver Age find...but I did grab a stack of about eleven comics, many of them Marvel's Giant-Size series from the 1970s. A few Captain Americas, one drawn by Jack Kirby, another by Gene Golan; a Men of War #1, an origin story about a Black soldier designated for grave duty who battled both racism from his own superiors and the Nazis; and a Giant-Size Iron Man #1. This, the Iron Man issue, was a great personal find.
Well, what's so special about it, you may ask. After all, it's just a reprint of some 1960's Tales of Suspense Iron Man stories. Ah, but it does have the origin of Hawkeye and his first encounter with the Black Widow (before she changed her costume). And where do they meet? In Coney Island! Wowsers! And who else is in Coney Island? Why, Tony Stark with Pepper Potts! For a buck, I get to appreciate those early adventures, one of which takes place in Brooklyn, my hometown!
So, what's it worth? For the condition it's in, Overstreet says it's about $9. On eBay, there are several selling for around that price. I think there's too much supply and not enough demand for this issue to sell well on eBay. It's just a comic reprint even if there's a "#1" on the cover.
Still, if I were to resell it at my own stoop sale, I'd probably place a $7 sticker on it and go as low as $5. I might be able to get my asking price because the Iron Man 3 movie is out and there are many kids in my neighborhood who like the character. In any case, on paper at least, I'll make a profit. And with that profit, I'll probably end up taking my daughter out for ice cream. And that's how I roll.
But will I sell it? That's the hard part of being part collector, part speculator: being sentimentally attached to an old comic. Maybe I have too much of the collector in me...We'll see. I'll let you know what happens.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Batman Incorporated #8 - a painful lesson in speculation (oh, and Damian Wayne dies)
You know the issue. This is the one from DC's New 52 line. The one in which Robin, aka Damian Wayne, Bruce and Talia's kid, dies. And the one that was chased by everyone, collector and speculator, on the day that it came out. I couldn't get one because Midtown Comics, the one closest to my office, did not receive their shipment. No other store in Manhattan that day had any copies left. I was able to get a copy the following week. Then I saw the combo-pack bagged variant version with the digital code. I thought, hey, why not sell it while it's in high demand? I listed it on eBay. Then it all went to heck.
A day or so after I listed it, I noticed that the back cover was creased. I wasn't sure how that happened. I may have just picked up a bad copy. I pulled the listing and relisted it with pictures of the back cover. Yeah, I was honest. At the end of the seven days, I sold it for about $5.80. I actually took a loss: although I paid cover price for it ($3.99), I underestimated the actual shipping costs for the buyer to assume. So I ate the difference. Add to that the eBay and Paypal fees...I figured I took about a $2 to $3 bath. But at least my eBay reputation remained intact and was rewarded to an additional star.
I didn't lose my shirt. My family did not have to go hungry. But it was a humbling experience for me. As a novice, I expected to make a few dollars. And as a novice, I took a few metaphorical slaps in the face from reality. Here's what I learned:
1. I should have paid more attention when buying the issue. Collectors love Near Mint condition. Mine was not and I suffered for it. I've seen comic store employees handle stacks of comics: they're not awful about it but comic spines are fragile and suffer from being piled onto the racks ten or twenty at a time.
2. Know your shipping cost. I thought I did, but I was lazy and just estimated. Bad move, buddy.
3. Fees will eat into your profits. And they will exacerbate your losses.
In the future, I expect not to sell anything on eBay unless I expect to make at least two to three times what I paid for the item. How will I know that the auction will turn out in my favor? Well, I don't. But this cautionary tale will give me pause to seriously consider if the timing is right.
On the other hand, I did enjoy Batman Incorporated #8 and have the regular version in my collection. Is it going to put my daughter through college? No. Is it going to be worth much more than the $2.99 I paid for it? Unless the number of Damian Wayne fans suddenly rise in the coming decade, I don't think so. In any case, I have a historically important story and it will be part of my permanent collection. It just cost me a few more dollars than I had expected to spend on it. Oh well...
A day or so after I listed it, I noticed that the back cover was creased. I wasn't sure how that happened. I may have just picked up a bad copy. I pulled the listing and relisted it with pictures of the back cover. Yeah, I was honest. At the end of the seven days, I sold it for about $5.80. I actually took a loss: although I paid cover price for it ($3.99), I underestimated the actual shipping costs for the buyer to assume. So I ate the difference. Add to that the eBay and Paypal fees...I figured I took about a $2 to $3 bath. But at least my eBay reputation remained intact and was rewarded to an additional star.
I didn't lose my shirt. My family did not have to go hungry. But it was a humbling experience for me. As a novice, I expected to make a few dollars. And as a novice, I took a few metaphorical slaps in the face from reality. Here's what I learned:
1. I should have paid more attention when buying the issue. Collectors love Near Mint condition. Mine was not and I suffered for it. I've seen comic store employees handle stacks of comics: they're not awful about it but comic spines are fragile and suffer from being piled onto the racks ten or twenty at a time.
2. Know your shipping cost. I thought I did, but I was lazy and just estimated. Bad move, buddy.
3. Fees will eat into your profits. And they will exacerbate your losses.
In the future, I expect not to sell anything on eBay unless I expect to make at least two to three times what I paid for the item. How will I know that the auction will turn out in my favor? Well, I don't. But this cautionary tale will give me pause to seriously consider if the timing is right.
On the other hand, I did enjoy Batman Incorporated #8 and have the regular version in my collection. Is it going to put my daughter through college? No. Is it going to be worth much more than the $2.99 I paid for it? Unless the number of Damian Wayne fans suddenly rise in the coming decade, I don't think so. In any case, I have a historically important story and it will be part of my permanent collection. It just cost me a few more dollars than I had expected to spend on it. Oh well...
Saturday, May 18, 2013
So...what have I been reading lately?
If you're curious, here's a list of titles I've decided to try out:
Ultimate Comics - Ultimate Spider-Man
Why? 'Cause I picked up #22 in which Miles Morales' mom died and it really touched me. Losing a parent has got to be pretty hard thing to deal with, especially if you're still a kid. Then #23 introduces the Ultimate version of Cloak and Dagger. Yeah, I really liked them back in the 80s, so why not collect this story arc?
Captian Marvel
Why? 'Cause I wanted to read about a strong, female hero. I gave Batwoman and while I really liked the beautiful artwork by J.H. Willimas III, I found myself...bored by the story. Reading this new incarnation of Captain Marvel actually spurred me to collect some of the original Mar-Vell stories. I even bought a decent copy of Marvel Super-Heroes #13, Carol Danvers' first appearance. I found a nice copy of the graphic novel Death of Captain Marvel from a stoop sale last year and cried as Mar-Vell fought valiantly as he succumbed to his illness. In a way, I'm glad he's still dead. It's a tribute that they didn't bring him back.
Helheim
Why? I have to admit that I bought this on the advice of a few websites that recommended it as one to buy and hold and then sell later when it catches on in popularity. With a low print run and a story about vikings and zombies, why wouldn't it? But the story is so tragic and well drawn that I have grown to really like it. And to be fair, the websites all did say that it was a great read as well.
Ultimate Comics - Ultimate Spider-Man
Why? 'Cause I picked up #22 in which Miles Morales' mom died and it really touched me. Losing a parent has got to be pretty hard thing to deal with, especially if you're still a kid. Then #23 introduces the Ultimate version of Cloak and Dagger. Yeah, I really liked them back in the 80s, so why not collect this story arc?
Captian Marvel
Why? 'Cause I wanted to read about a strong, female hero. I gave Batwoman and while I really liked the beautiful artwork by J.H. Willimas III, I found myself...bored by the story. Reading this new incarnation of Captain Marvel actually spurred me to collect some of the original Mar-Vell stories. I even bought a decent copy of Marvel Super-Heroes #13, Carol Danvers' first appearance. I found a nice copy of the graphic novel Death of Captain Marvel from a stoop sale last year and cried as Mar-Vell fought valiantly as he succumbed to his illness. In a way, I'm glad he's still dead. It's a tribute that they didn't bring him back.
Helheim
Why? I have to admit that I bought this on the advice of a few websites that recommended it as one to buy and hold and then sell later when it catches on in popularity. With a low print run and a story about vikings and zombies, why wouldn't it? But the story is so tragic and well drawn that I have grown to really like it. And to be fair, the websites all did say that it was a great read as well.
It all starts with a comic book
I started collecting when I was in high school. I didn't have much money but I did like Batman, so I pretty much collected everything related to him for a few years. My local comic shop of choice was the old Forbidden Planet when it used to be across the street from The Strand and when they had a great back issue collection in the basement. They've moved since and no longer carry any significant back issues. I didn't find out about how the Forbiddent Planet changed so much until about a year ago when I started to collect again.
I must have stopped collecting when I started college back in the late 80s. Money and time were scarce. When I graduated, I went to work and then got my graduate degree in Social Work. Got married and had a beautiful girl. When Comic Con arrived in NYC in the mid-2000s, I went to them yearly and even brought my daughter along when she was old enough. During all this time, I would stop in at the neighborhood comic shop on occasion and find a one-shot or a mini-series that caught my interest. Nothing serious. I was so far out of comics that I had no idea about what was going on with the characters. I saw what happened to comics in the 90s and thought that there was no way I could ever trust comics again. At least not whole-heartedly.
Then last year, everything changed (well, doesn't everything change eventually?). On a whim and while trying to escape some of the pressures of life in general, I looked up Craigslist and found out about a flea market where someone was trying to unload, well, comics. I went and thought about picking up only a couple of comics. I thought, hey, why not get into the hobby and look for some "old comics." And then I met the dealer who took out a bag of 70s comics he said he was trying to sell on behalf of a friend's widow. For an ungodly sum of a few hundred dollars, I took possession of about 50 or comics and magazines, mainly Marvel, the core of which was a pretty decent run of Amazing Spider-Man (issues 85 to 125, but missing 121 and 122, sadly...). I remember my heart pounding, my hands sweating because I had just blew some crazy cash on old comics. I'm a pretty good saver so it wasn't like I had just given away my mortgage check. But would my wife understand (a story that will be told some other day)? I justified it by convincing myself that I deserved it after receiving a promotion and helping to take care of my sick mother-in-law. I should have bargained with him. I made the beginner's mistake of thinking I had scored. I hadn't, of course, and I overpaid. But it was an important lesson I had to learn.
I took the comics back home and during the summer, I read a couple each day, rationing and enjoying each new story. I read the letters columns. I read Stan Lee's message to his readers. I regretted having been born too early in the 1970s to appreciate how important Marvel was to the comic industry and how I missed this era of the Bronze Age.
Since then, I've sold a few comics from this lot (what I now consider my own core collection). I've sold some other collectibles to be able to afford my new/old hobby. I've started to do my own picking at stoop sales, local comic book shops, and Joseph Koch's Comic Book Warehouse in Sunset Park. I've also visited other websites that project which Modern Comics may be worth collecting and which older comics may be undervalued. All the while, I've kept my expenses in check with the goal of trying to make the cost basis as close to zero as possible. My goal is not to strike it rich by finding that one comic. My goal is to have fun. And if I can make a 10% profit, well, that's just gravy.
So if you're new to this blog, welcome! I'm going to try and share what I've learned so far from my own amateur collecting. I'm also going to share some philosophy on how this comic book hobby has improved or affected my own view on life.
As far as philosophy is concerned, what I can say is that comic collecting can be one crazy hobby, an obsession that can spiral out of control, especially if one is afflicted with obsessive-compulsive thoughts, or at least if one is trying to escape from reality. I've had good moments and bad moments. But overall, I can say that comics saved my life. Yeah, that's a hyperbole. But since I'm talking about comics, I think hyperboles are okay. I'll share my moments as honestly as I can and hope that maybe you'll find something useful, helpful, or just plain entertaining from this nonsensical hobby.
I must have stopped collecting when I started college back in the late 80s. Money and time were scarce. When I graduated, I went to work and then got my graduate degree in Social Work. Got married and had a beautiful girl. When Comic Con arrived in NYC in the mid-2000s, I went to them yearly and even brought my daughter along when she was old enough. During all this time, I would stop in at the neighborhood comic shop on occasion and find a one-shot or a mini-series that caught my interest. Nothing serious. I was so far out of comics that I had no idea about what was going on with the characters. I saw what happened to comics in the 90s and thought that there was no way I could ever trust comics again. At least not whole-heartedly.
Then last year, everything changed (well, doesn't everything change eventually?). On a whim and while trying to escape some of the pressures of life in general, I looked up Craigslist and found out about a flea market where someone was trying to unload, well, comics. I went and thought about picking up only a couple of comics. I thought, hey, why not get into the hobby and look for some "old comics." And then I met the dealer who took out a bag of 70s comics he said he was trying to sell on behalf of a friend's widow. For an ungodly sum of a few hundred dollars, I took possession of about 50 or comics and magazines, mainly Marvel, the core of which was a pretty decent run of Amazing Spider-Man (issues 85 to 125, but missing 121 and 122, sadly...). I remember my heart pounding, my hands sweating because I had just blew some crazy cash on old comics. I'm a pretty good saver so it wasn't like I had just given away my mortgage check. But would my wife understand (a story that will be told some other day)? I justified it by convincing myself that I deserved it after receiving a promotion and helping to take care of my sick mother-in-law. I should have bargained with him. I made the beginner's mistake of thinking I had scored. I hadn't, of course, and I overpaid. But it was an important lesson I had to learn.
I took the comics back home and during the summer, I read a couple each day, rationing and enjoying each new story. I read the letters columns. I read Stan Lee's message to his readers. I regretted having been born too early in the 1970s to appreciate how important Marvel was to the comic industry and how I missed this era of the Bronze Age.
Since then, I've sold a few comics from this lot (what I now consider my own core collection). I've sold some other collectibles to be able to afford my new/old hobby. I've started to do my own picking at stoop sales, local comic book shops, and Joseph Koch's Comic Book Warehouse in Sunset Park. I've also visited other websites that project which Modern Comics may be worth collecting and which older comics may be undervalued. All the while, I've kept my expenses in check with the goal of trying to make the cost basis as close to zero as possible. My goal is not to strike it rich by finding that one comic. My goal is to have fun. And if I can make a 10% profit, well, that's just gravy.
So if you're new to this blog, welcome! I'm going to try and share what I've learned so far from my own amateur collecting. I'm also going to share some philosophy on how this comic book hobby has improved or affected my own view on life.
As far as philosophy is concerned, what I can say is that comic collecting can be one crazy hobby, an obsession that can spiral out of control, especially if one is afflicted with obsessive-compulsive thoughts, or at least if one is trying to escape from reality. I've had good moments and bad moments. But overall, I can say that comics saved my life. Yeah, that's a hyperbole. But since I'm talking about comics, I think hyperboles are okay. I'll share my moments as honestly as I can and hope that maybe you'll find something useful, helpful, or just plain entertaining from this nonsensical hobby.
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