Blame Old Saint Nic
Today was my Slava for Sveti Nikola, (Saint Nicholas), my family’s patron saint. With all that is going on, we played it cautiously and held a very small family gathering with my side on Saturday and entertained only my wife’s…
Comic Book Daily
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Comic Book Daily
Discussing the minutiae of comic book collecting.
Category Time to Collect
Read MoreBlame Old Saint Nic
Edward Scissorhands
A couple of weeks ago the gentleman listing his incomplete books on our eBay auctions dropped a bombshell on me when he said “I think I still have the clippings”. Amazing! I asked him if he could bring them in…
Kirby and Ditko Splashing Around
Yesterday I was counting pages and noting defects on books for next week’s eBay auctions. It was tough slogging but I perked up when I came across what I’ll describe as a three-issue set of dueling splash pages. I did…
Reprints
Last week I sold a guy some early 1980s Marvel Tales reprints. I got $20 for a nice crisp copy of Marvel Tales #152 from June 1983; the book features the reprint of Amazing Spider-Man (ASM) #14 which famously features…
Econ 101
I was talking comics with a pal last week and we were both marvelling at what seems to be the endless demand generating record prices for items we both thought were forever doomed because of their bottomless supply. Books like…
I’m Missing Page 12
There were some strong responses to last week’s post, I’ve even received a few emails and had guys bring up the subject when chatting with me at the shop. Our eBay auction results this week only reinforce the growing demand…
Am I Missing Something?
Lately, we’ve been selling a lot of raw incomplete comic books through our eBay auctions. Over the past two weeks, we sold copies of Amazing Spider-Man #2 and #3 both missing ad pages and both around the 3.0 Qualified grade.…
The King of Kings
This is going to be one of those observational posts, I’m not going to be backing up my words with hard numbers, though I’ve glanced quickly at some data just to make sure I’m not delusional and it seems to…
Where Do You Fit In?
Fan Expo happened this weekend and I talked to a few guys that went, they all said it was a good show, not too many people but they were there to buy. I was actually thinking about how the hell…
Ups and Downs
I’ve been dealing in a lot of books lately, both CGC and raw copies and so I’ve been jumping onto GPA quite a bit to read the tea leaves. One big trend I have noticed is the lack of a…
Say it ain’t so Joe
In 2019 I was presented with a plaque by the folks that put on Fan Expo, Canada’s biggest comic con. Big B Comics had set up at all 25 Fan Expos, I think we were one of 3 such comic…
Blame it on the Jive Turkey
Thanksgiving weekend, which for me means some family gatherings! It was a big doubleheader for me today, at the folks for afternoon session then brother in law’s for the evening. Suffice to say way too much of that Bosnian hooch…
Trading Up, Trading Down
I know this guy I deal comics regularly with who is a real whiz at taking a big book I sell him and turning it into several smaller books that add up to way more than the value of the…
Did You Count The Pages?
I was getting some books ready for the showcases in the back of the store and was doing my thing of checking for completeness, assigning a grade and noting any pertinent comments that the prospective buyer should be aware of.…
What’s Next For CGC?
A couple of weeks ago I got this CGC solicitation that had Robert Downey Jr. doing a private mail-in signing for the CGC Signature Series. Proceeds were going to his FootPrint Coalition charity that promotes environmental sustainability. The signing fee…
Will A New Market Evolve
We have so many books down at CGC at the moment, our shipments seem to be queueing up one behind the other with none coming back to us. We have seven monthly shipments down there now and have an eighth…
Sell High!
Back in the spring of 2021, I was having a real tough time buying comics! My ICE site went from around 600 CGC books in inventory to somewhere near 170 at the height of the madness to buy graded comics.…
Long Weekend Delay
Our fearless editor Scott always tells me to have one or two columns in the bag but I just can’t seem to get there. I think it’s the pressure I like or maybe it’s something closer to what Scott says…
The Three Amigos
The ComicLink Auction is closing this week but many of the big books that I was watching with interest have already closed. Last week we had a rare closing of a Hulk #181, Giant-Size X-Men #1 and Amazing Spider-Man #129…
Over/Under
There are two very important auction closings fast approaching, one, a CGC 9.8 Incredible Hulk #181 closes this week while the other, a CGC 9.6 Amazing Fantasy #15 closes in early September. The buzz and anticipation in the marketplace is…