Let’s start this week off with some great news, that CGC 9.4 White Page Batman #1 just sold for $2,220,000 on Heritage Auctions. What a fantastic result for the whole comic book collecting hobby. I don’t want to say I told you so but … Way back in 2010 I featured Batman #1 as Undervalued. Since then I’ve actually owned a very very low grade heavily restored copy, I flipped the book quickly but it did feel good to own, even if it was only for a bit.
The Joker is such a strong character, he has actually outgrown comics. It’s this added weight that the Joker carries in popular culture that propelled this record sale.
There were a lot of record sales across this Heritage Auction, books were getting very strong prices and so were other collectibles like cards, it’s a really good start to 2021 for the comic collecting hobby and for all collectibles really.
I think I mentioned it before but I’ll look to resurrect my old Auction Highlights feature, maybe incorporate it into this column. My auctions end every Sunday night on eBay so I’ll always have some results to draw on.
Well, I’m starting to make my numerically sequential rows at the warehouse, I’ve decided to go five high so if I ever need to look at any box the most boxes I’ll have to move is four. Those few six high rows you see in the picture were because I later found a few boxes I missed while I was doing the row and I was waaay too lazy to try and stagger everything over, for those rows I’ll move five boxes if I have to. Four boxes, even five, for this tough guy is child’s play unless the box is filled with those modern books that are heavier than heavy!
I’ve got the first 200-ish boxes all lined up and I’m gunning to get all the boxes with the old numbers on them in order by next week. It is good exercise you just have to watch your back.
I was able to put this new system into practice this weekend when my good pal Christian called and said “hey Walt, have a look around for Batman #436, it’s super hot right now”. Well I went over to the row and opened a few lids to help zone into the box I was looking for, within two minutes I had a nice stack of Batman #436 on the table, check out a few nice crisp copies I pulled out.
There’s so much stock here and I don’t want to get ahead of myself, I have to focus on getting the boxes in sequential order but the kid in me wants to open each lid and rummage through each box. I have to stay on target.
Walt, you should make some unboxing videos for YouTube like some other dealers do.
Another thought just came to mind, looking at the picture above. An antique dealer I spoke with, once, told me that all his profit was being eaten up by the cost of maintaining storage units, and downsized as a result. Aren’t you worried the same may happen to your bottom line?
Klaus, I’m very aware of the overhead costs of the warehouse. I signed a two year lease and factored in all the rent, heat, hydro, water, internet, etc etc into the overall costs of selling through the majority of this bulk purchase. Its a bit of a race against time and a whole lot of things have to go right for me to be ahead but I’m confident. Not having the room and storing all these boxes for free randomly in garages and basements has costs too, namely that I can’t properly access the stuff and thus can’t efficiently process it to get to market. Game on !!
Sell it by the pound in mystery packages! Good luck, Walt, bookmarked your site so I’ll be looking.
How many times a week will you be putting up your finds, and just in your online store or on eBay as well?
Walt–would love for you to bring back the auction highlights. Articles about that type of topic–broadly, the vintage market–are my favorite type of article, and I love to get a dealer’s perspective.
Klaus, it’s always EQ vs IQ when it comes to comics. Walter is a smart guy and knows the score… but when you’ve loved something for so long, you make excuses to touch the supple pages of another mans book, just so you can delight in the alluring scent of acidification rising from each fold, as his experienced fingers gently flip pages untouched for decades, aching to be turned. What hope does logic have over the desire to fondle the cool surface that quivers as you spread open each page so that his penetrating eyes may probe every detail of an ephemeral item that has no choice but to submit and divulge all it’s secrets, like having a complete page count or seeing the value stamp in tact. No collector can say no to the whispers of the heart. This is the way.
Charlie! I think I shed a tear, so poetic, I always knew you were a romantic at heart, nicely done.
Tim, we’re selling some raw copies on bigbcomics.com and we’ll run some on our internationalcollectiblesexchange com eBay auctions, we’re also slabbing some of the better ones and they’ll show up on ICE when they come back.
I’m going to try Ben, I always liked reviewing auctions but then just got lazy.
To Walter:
the new Vintage section on your site is very, very nice! My wallet is out and I am ready
To anyone else other than Walter:
STAY AWAY, there is NOTHING THERE OF INTEREST. it is BARE and DESOLATE….these are not the comics you are looking for.
Finally bought a thesaurus, did you Charlle?
Charlie, I had a good relaxing cigarette after reading your posting above… and I don’t even smoke. Whew, hot stuff. (: