There comes a time in every collectors life when they simply cannot find that key issue that they are looking for. They have tried online or in their local shop and have had little success. Even when at a convention they can’t seem to find that key issue at any of the dealers. So they do what everyone does eventually; they go to Harley.
Harley is the owner of Harley Yee’s Rare Comics and if you need a book Harley will have it. Need that Avengers #4? Or that AF #15? You go see Harley. You can check out his website here.
So I tell Harley about my quest to trade up to the AF #15 and he tells me to take a look at what he has. We go back and forth for a while (I tried to get a sweet copy of an FF #48, no dice) and we settled on a nice copy of Hulk #181. Now it might not have been quite the nice grade that the Tales 59 was but it carries more gravitas. It also always nice to have a Hulk #181 again.
I also have been talking with other dealers and collectors and have been getting more and more advice on my noble endeavour. Which is good because it is getting harder and harder to trade for a single book. I am going to need to get several books to trade for the AF #15. It was also suggested that I need to stop telling the big story with every trade. That is, I should just see what dealers have that I am interested in and go from there.
I also got the good advice to invest in some mylites. That way I can re-bag and board my book and slip it into a nice shiny mylite for the best possible showing to any prospective trade partner.
I feel like I’ve managed quite a bit already, but I can’t take Walt with me everywhere I go, so I am going to need to study the Overstreet and online auctions a bit more. Especially key DC books. I really have no idea what a solid Batman or Supes is worth.
As always a big thanks to Harley for being part of the project and check him out online or at your local comic con. He is always at Fan Expo and Montreal, but you can catch him at conventions around the world.
Nice pick up! Moving forward, perhaps you can align yourself with upcoming movies to maximize value:
http://www.imdb.com/list/0H3hCh6uzyU/
Hollywood can be fickle but I’m stocking on New Mutants #98s and I’ve got three near complete runs of Akria, Deadpool is the new Wolverine and Akria is a manga classic… so I’m betting big!
What grade would you give the Hulk #181? Any chance you’d be willing to trade up for a VG copy of Legion of Monsters #28?
Note to Walt: A lot of near complete runs of Akira out there… but all missing the elusive #38… an undervalued contender?