Girls With Comics

I am a huge fan of the antique store/malls. I love spending an entire day jumping from one shop to the next, digging through junky gold in search of some unique comic book item (or anything weird really). I’ve come across some pretty awesome things. I’ve found an original 1960 Ken doll for $6, albeit his left hand had his hands cut off. I’ve bought those cute Archie Welch jelly glasses at various antique stores. Hell, I’ve even bought comics.

While many might be duped into thinking that books might be cheaper since it isn’t in a shop, I know better and you should know better too. Many long boxes I find in these places are stuffed with 90’s drek. You see, in the early 90’s, comics for one reason or another became a hot item. People were eating them up, assuming they would be of value one day. However since demand was so high, publishers issued millions of copies of a “hot” comic, thus making them anything but valuable. That’s not to say there aren’t rare moderns, but they are few and far between. That being said, people are asking really crazy prices for their modern drek. $5 for a foil cover? I’ll give you $1 and that’s being generous.

Every blue moon there will be a booth that is clearly run by someone who knows what he or she is doing with comics. For example, today I found a Jolly Jingles #16 (a golden age book, published by MLJ which would later become Archie Comics) in what I would say to be a poor/1.0 shape. The dealer was asking a mere $7, but a quick peek at 2009’s OSPG reveals that $7 is what that book is worth. I have seen signs posted that this dealer usually sells for 20% below guide, but uhh…I don’t buy it. Clearly, I do not buy it. That being said, I would have spent $75 on the OA he had up on the walls. Too bad I don’t have $75 lying around.

Lots of non comic book dealers also ask near mint prices for clearly no-where-near-mint books. Most of the time if the dealer is there, you might be able to cut a deal with him (without being rude about how he over grades). The worst thing they can say is no. If the dealer is not there? Well, it doesn’t hurt to ask the person at the check out counter. Again, the worst thing they can say is no.

So good luck, fellow comic book antique store hunters. You’ll have better luck buying comic book toys than comic books.

-Lauren

Tags: Lauren

This entry was posted on July 12, 2010 at 6:37 pm and is filed under Comic collecting, General Geekery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.