Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone, may the luck of the Irish shine on all of you, me and the fellas are going to gather today at the warehouse and share some fine Irish whiskey, come to think of it we do that most Monday’s and sometimes on Thursdays, almost all Fridays… My landlord must love comics! He’s given us another month to get our sorting done, we now have to vacate the warehouse area (for the second time) by April 30th. I’m breathing a bit easier now, we’re progressing nicely with the sorting and I think the extra month will do the trick, as I said, I’m breathing easier now, we got this ! As promised, here is a pic of the back corner sorting centre, my crew of volunteers are doing some great work, pizza’s on me boys!
My first Daylight Saving Time dive into the “going to eBay auction” pile unearthed some real gems, including my pick for our Cover of the Week, Chamber of Chills #12. I like this cover to Chamber of Chills #12, Al Avison’s little men flying out of their boats reminded me of the way Jack Kirby created similar monster covers for Marvel a few years later. This cover also reminded me just how much value our current Pre Code Horror market places on covers, compare the value of this book to a copy of Chamber of Chills #19, yes, we are in a very cover driven market.
Bob Kane, or the guy that did the coloring at least, must have just opened a brand new box of Crayola colored pencils because he went ham on our Splash Page of the Week, from Detective Comics #201. Far be it for me to critique someone’s wardrobe but I don’t think the boots match the shorts, yes, he’s now a target for the Fashion Police.
Our Ad of the Week comes from the same Detective Comics #201, I saw this and immediately wondered if Lionel Train sets are still worth money? I heard fellow Canadian Neil Young once owned the Lionel Trains company, I also heard they were very valuable for a time but that they are not anymore, any info or insight would be helpful.
Another icecollectibles weekly eBay auction finished last night with a flurry, some great results came through. I liked how strong the three copies of Six Million Dollar Man magazine finished, I’m seeing some life in the Magazine side of the hobby, we’ve been getting good results on our Curtis Marvel mags of the 70s and our Eerie, Creepy and Vampirella lots have also been doing well. I’m wondering what the best mag of them all is? I’m going with Vampirella #1.
Morning everyone, I know nothing of the train collecting hobby but due to my step-father passing away I’ve been selling his Walkman collection – it’s been amazing – I have 300 comics for sale on my eBay page and they barely get a glace whilst these Walkmen have caused a feeding frenzy – my hypothesis is that whilst there are a smaller number of Walkmen collectors in the world the actual supply of these machines is even smaller still. We all know this but it bares repeating; the number of Marvel or DC books is massive, there isn’t much out there in the silver/bronze age that is actually rare (and modern age, well, that’s manufactured scarcity, not the same thing imho). Walkmens appear to be less demand but mush less supply. Past 3 months: $300 in comic book sales, $25,000 in Walkman. It’s supply and demand and nostalgia and life stage (disposable income) all coming together.
It’s to the point where I’ve added a little blurb that I’ll trade Walkmen for silver-age ASM! Surely one of these guys has a pile of Ditko/Romita books lying around….a man can but hope!
Sorry for your loss Spider. Crazy business down there with those Walkmen, who would have known, but I’ve heard the early Apple iphones sell for big bucks as well. Forget about the ASMs, we need to figure out what the next odd collectibles will be, me, I’m buying truckloads of the early Ugg Boots – Air Jordans will have nothing on these.
Walt, I’ve already had stern words with my mother – she is not to die and leave me selling the 220+ teapots in her collection!
In all seriousness – having an exit strategy is important for all of us collectors – how is it to go, will you do it? will your loved ones disburse it, how would that look like? Don’t wait until you’re looking Death in the face to start thinking about it (and your collection too).