Now I remember Why I hate these big comic book conventions: the crazy amount of work trying to get things ready for the show. Yeah sure I could have started things weeks earlier and prepared stress-free but apparently, that is not my calling. I’m pricing up so many books and one thing I realized as I’ve been pricing is that I don’t have the confidence I used to have when pricing up a pile. In the old days, those days of slow and steady growth, I’d have 80 percent of the books prices on the spot, just by feel – yeah that’s a $20 book, oh that’s nice, an easy Honey Bee (Hundred Dollar Bill). These days with the massive price fluctuations over the past couple of years I find myself second-guessing almost every book; what it does is it slows progress down and that’s not good. Still, I should have about 20 long boxes of freshly priced up comics ready for the convention sales floor this coming Thursday. Alas I still do not know my booth number; I’m pretty sure it will be in the program, under Big B Comics.
I’m scaling next week’s volume of auctions back just a bit in light of the prep for the con, still good quality listings, just not as many as usual. I had fun leafing through Mad #14 with the Mona Lisa cover, I loved the move ads, especially this one below featuring War Is Hell. I think I’ve seen Vava Voom in a few movies back when I was younger, the names escape me but I remember being impressed.
Boy, this ad from Swamp Thing #1 really brought back memories: these sew-ons were a big deal when I was a kid. Cool kids would have some of these sewn onto their Levi’s denim jackets. I remember my mom bought me a denim jacket but it was a Lee jacket, I felt like the little french that got the Toronto Maple Leaf sweater mailed to him from Eatons. I ended up wearing the Lee jacket, us immigrant kids had it tough I tell ya. Anyway, I remember really liking the STP crest, I thought the STP crest was the ultimate, looking back I have no idea why.
Forgive me but when I first took a quick look at the cover of Action Comics #402 I thought it was Joe Kubert, especially the figure on the left. Great mood and great composition from Neal Adams on this cover, I love the colours as well.
Our second week’s worth of eBay auctions as icecollectibles ended last night and I was very impressed with how well this lot of Superman issues did. Issues #246 to #253 include the 100 Page Giant #252 and Neal Adams art. These books were never great sellers leading up to these past couple of years, I think people are starting to realize just how old these things are now and just of good the quality is. It helps that Superman has been such a bargain for so long, it’s about time these things ignited a bit.
I had the peace sign hand with American flag background, I guess a non-starter for you guys. I never had a denim jacket so I forget what the patch was on.
I think there are more nice ungraded 15/25-cent Actions and Supermans out there so I am a bit cautious on price, but otherwise I am a big fan. I tried to get a 12-cent Adams cover Action last night but it went for full price – I think people are getting the message – I might have to become a tad more aggressive. I remember getting that #402 as a kid and being confused by the story and unhappy that Adams didn’t draw the interior.
If you did have a denim jacket Chris I’m sure it would have been Levi’s, the cool kids had Levi’s. I’ve seen those patches sown on to those cloth backpacks that were popular in the 70s, they were often army green. Those Actions in that 9.0/9.2 raw grade I think will dry up quick, covers are great, deep early Bronze Age and part of two important runs, sprinkle in Neal Adams, some great covers, some 110 Pagers, I think people are getting it too.