Comic Books, Internet Marketing and Everything Else - Walkin' Willie's Comix Blog!

The WORST Comic Book Lots EVER!

2012-01-24T13:46:00.000-05:00

No...we aren't talking content - more like condition. Any of you that follow my eBay auctions know that I have been putting up some really rancid looking comics the past month. I scored the worst condition collection of my life back in early December - there were literally 10 to 15 books that I just had to throw away and that was AFTER keeping some of the COVERLESS books. Thing is, it was all DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Dell and Charlton Silver Age with about 30% Bronze Age from the same publishers - couldn't pass it up and got it on the cheap which is the only way a dealer can ever make any money in comics these days. Well that and digging out a book that can fetch a high CGC grade... but I digress...

Anyway, I decided to have some fun with them by telling like it is - i.e. these are the "WORST lots EVER on eBay" and describing them as such. So after a month, we are finally down to the last few lots - four of them ending tonight (Tuesday, 1/24/2012) and the remaining 12 lots ending this Sunday (1/29/2012).

So the clock is ticking to check out some really LOOOOOW grade comics - I mean some really horrible looking stuff....Enjoy!

Need Shipping Supplies? Don't Buy From BrownCor

2012-01-14T09:26:00.000-05:00

Gotta get this off my chest.... Like many small merchants, I buy my shipping supplies in bulk from various packing supply companies. I've bought from BrownCor (packing tape), ULine (mostly white shipping boxes), Bubblefast (bubble wrap) and Bags Unlimited (comic specialty items - boxes usually). I buy from these different companies because of quality and price.

Well, that changed this week after placing an order with BrownCor. I placed the order on Tuesday, 1/10/2012 and used my PayPal Debit/Credit card. I was charged $88.77 immediately for the cost of the case of packing tape - but no shipping charges. BrownCor then charged me $99.09 on 1/12/2012 - an amount that includes $8.80 for shipping and $7.13 for Tax (doesn't say "Sales Tax" on the invoice, just "Tax"). I e-mailed BrownCor on 1/12/2012 and asked what gives - i.e. I am out $187.96 from my PayPal balance and there is no tracking number for the shipment. I am writing this on Saturday morning (1/14/2012) and there STILL is no tracking number... and I ordered this case of packing tape on Tuesday....

BrownCor did e-mail me back on Thursday and said the following:

"William,

The $88.77 amount will drop off. When you first place an order there is an allocation run on your card for the original amount and then when the order ships, the total plus shipping is charged. I apologize for the inconvenience."

So in other words, this is 2012 and BrownCor cannot figure out shipping charges on their products when they are ordered. BrownCor had four days to ship my order but it hasn't shipped yet and my PayPal balance is still out the original $88.77 and will be until at least Monday as BrownCor is closed on the weekends.

So get this: I ordered some boxes from ULine on Thursday, 1/12/2012 and received them on Friday, 1/13/2012 and was only charged ONCE and there was NO SALES TAX.

Anyway, I e-mailed BrownCor - well, replied to the e-mail I was sent - and let them know that this was an intolerable situation and at a minimum, I needed the "allocation run" removed today (Friday, 1/13/2012) and get my $88.77 back - well, that didn't happen so like I said, I am out the $88.77 until Monday at the earliest. On top of that, they have had my order for four days and haven't shipped it. WOW!

If I treated my customers this way, I wouldn't have any....period. So I am down to three packing supply companies that I will buy from as it will have to get mighty cold WAY DOWN BELOW before I ever order from BrownCor again.

Whew! Glad that is off my chest.... Hope everybody else is having a nice day!

Well, Happy New Year and time to get off my duff....

2012-01-07T15:04:00.000-05:00

Can't believe I've been over three months without blogging - maybe I was in an alternative continuity....who knows? But I'm back so to speak and have a lot on my mind so check back often during the next few weeks.

Anyway, I've been beta testing a new social plugin for Wishpond.com where you can promote a special deal for your website on Facebook - sort of like Groupon. Anyway, the "deal" is for a CGC 9.8 copy of Ultimate Spider-Man #115 Zombie Variant for a mere pittance of $29.00 with free U.S. Shipping. Signing up for the deal runs out Tuesday night (1/10/2012).

Also been eBaying my lil' butt off these days. Scored a collection of some of the most beat up Silver and Bronze Age comics EVER, selling them in lots and promoting them as the WORST lots EVER. Read the auctions, check out the scans and you can tell that there is definitely TRUTH in advertising.

Finally for now anyway... been putting up a bunch of modern CGC books over at wwillie.com - check 'em out.

Sorry for all the e-commerce talk (well, sort of...) - will get back to fomenting my opinions very shortly...

Underground Comics - Random Thoughts...

2011-09-19T14:37:00.000-04:00

Just wrote a little missive on Underground Comics (or Comix as a lot of them were called) over at Walkin' Willie's Comix Discount Books and you can read it here. Basically, I found a box of Underground Comix, have got them all up on eBay right now and this little piece is about some of what I found there as well as my first experiences with this forbidden slice of 1970's Americana. So please take a look if you are so inclined.....

So Long and Good Luck to Dragon*Con!

2011-09-03T10:21:00.003-04:00

Well, for anybody that has cruised by here over the last year knows that Walkin' Willie's Comix is pretty much getting out of trades and hardcovers (unless they are in a collection) so it is with mixed feelings that I say so long and the best of luck to the venerable Dragon*Con going on this weekend. Anyone that has ever attended Dragon*Con knows how special the show is - your truly has been to at least 16 or 17 of them.

The deal is that you really can't sell single issue comics very well at Dragon*Con anymore like you could in the early '90s when all the big dealers like Showcase New England, Motor City Comics, etc. would show up with all their shiny stuff. The show has morphed into a multi-media pop culture event in which comics is only one of something like 34 programming tracks. Dragon*Con gets pretty darn good comic book guests every year but very, few comic book dealers. I think I counted seven comic book dealers in the room last counting myself. But I digress....

I learned about five years ago that the only thing you can really count on selling at Dragon*Con is trades/graphic novels/hardcovers - well, comic-wise that is... And we did a boffo business doing just that the past few years. Thing is, Dragon*Con is only once a year and it is nearly impossible to sell trades online unless you find them in collections or Marvel Comics does one of their WAY too regular blowouts (after dealers have already paid full wholesale three months before..). Go to Amazon and check out the lists of trade paperbacks and graphic novels at HALF of wholesale price or LOWER. That's just not a place in which I chose to compete.. um, because I just can't and there are too many other more lucrative areas of comics to sell online anyway (CGC books, out of print hardcovers, discount books from collections, etc.).

Still, I miss the show - there is SO much going on and the attendees are so creative in their costumes. But I sure don't miss the setup or the tear down or closing at 7:00 p.m. each day. Heck, by the time you got back to the hotel after securing your booth, counted your money and took a shower, it was nearly 9:00.

So as far as dealin' at Dragon*Con, I can't see that happening ever again unless I run into the trade paperback collection of all time. One of these days I'm gonna go down there as just a fan.... yeah, I'll show 'em.

Finally, thanks to all the wonderful folks that stopped by the booth over the years - you are what makes Dragon*Con so special.

Anyway, got a nice little batch of comics going on eBay next Sunday (9/11/2011) and some more of the CGC stuff, Marvel Premiere Classic Variants and Marvel Masterwork Trade Paperback Variants going up tomorrow night (9/4/2011). Will talk about next Sunday's eBay stuff at the beginning of the week - it's worth a blog article for sure.

Classic ASP And Internet Explorer 9 Need To Learn To Play Nice!

2011-08-27T08:30:00.000-04:00

Well if any of you folks have tried to buy a lousy comic off of our discount site at walkinwilliescomix.com the last couple of weeks, you have probably run into VERY SLOOOOOOW page loading times.

After much teeth gnashing and head beating, I found a forum post where some other poor, hapless soul was experiencing the same problem.

The bottom line is that if you update your Windows 2008 server with IE9, the new browser drops a new VB Script dll (i.e. program) that confuses the heck out of Classic ASP when it has to fetch some data from your database and our site ain't nuthin' BUT fetching data. We were experiencing 22 second page load times - look, 22 seconds may not sound like a lot of time but when you are waiting for a page to load, it's like being in 3rd grade and waiting for 3:00 to roll around - it's a freakin' eternity!!!!!

Anyway....life is good but this poor ol' comic dealer sure wishes you would take your peepers over to Walkin' Willie's Comix Discount Books and buy about a 100 books.... sure would cheer me up......

Ok...Need To Rev Up The Facebook Traffic....

2011-08-19T14:51:00.002-04:00

As in my last post, I mentioned that Walkin' Willie's Comix has a new Facebook Page. Maybe it was some deep rooted narcissistic persona that made me think that multitudes would come - nay, RUN - over to Ol' Willie's latest foray into the Wild World Web. Alas it wasn't to be..... probably because you have to OFFER something to get something back...

So humbly, Ol' Willie is tying the proverbial steak around his neck to get the dogs...um, internet patrons... to play with him. So if you do "Like" the page, you will have access to 20% DISCOUNT COUPONS for both the wwillie.com (CGC and specialty trades/hardcovers) and www.walkinwilliescomix.com (deeply discounted comic books) websites! Coupon codes will be updated monthly so come back often and check us out.

By the way, remember when I said not to shop at www.wwillie.com? Well, forget what I said as inventory is totally up-to-date now (always was at www.walkinwilliescomix.com) - there isn't a ton of merchandise there but a lot of CGC books and a few specialty trades and hardcovers. More to come!

Odds And Ends.....

2011-08-15T12:19:00.000-04:00

Just a few musings about stuff. Charlotte ComiCon was fantastic! Went there with around 45 short boxes of trades and six long boxes of mostly bronze age stuff and came back with nuttin'! Not one stinkin' trade, hardcover or comic to be found in my car on the way back. Thing is, we made decent money as well. The sad news - at least for me - is that is the last con for Ol' Willie will set up at for quite awhile - probably 2 years or so. The next show I go to will be to BUY some books - will take my time and build the collection up.

In the meantime, I am busy trying to scale down and I'm eBaying just about everything I can lay my hands on at the warehouse. Came across a 1994 Chicagoland Enviromint Carolina Panthers Pure Silver Coin that I had forgotten I had bought back when the Panther's franchise first started. So what the heck - up it goes on eBay. More weird stuff to follow....

The big little deal is that Walkin' Willie's Comix is now on Facebook! I've done the personal Facebook deal for awhile but now it is time - well, WAY past time - to do a little marketing Facebook style. Great place to throw out short bursts that have a little more meat on the bone than Twitter. So if you read this, check out my page and if you "like" the page, that would be great (and thanks in advance...).

More to come....

Walkin' Willie's Last Picture Show? Say It Ain't So!

2011-07-27T12:46:00.000-04:00

Well, OK - it ain't.... but this Sunday's Charlotte ComiCon will be my last comic convention as a dealer for probably two years or more. If you have read any of my recent blog articles, you know that Walkin' Willie's Comix is getting out of the trade paperback and hardcover business.

Why? It is just too hard to compete with Amazon. Need an example, then just check out The Walking Dead Volume 13 over there - sellers are pitching that for less than half price and if you include Amazon's super high selling fees, those dealers had to get that book at nearly 60% off to make anything at all! If I had a Dragon*Con to go to every month, it would be one thing but with the margin pressure from Amazon, it's time to go in a different direction. I am quietly building a vintage comic collection and will be back on the show circuit in about two years. Instead of schlepping 100+ short boxes full of trades, gridwire, extra tables, wood bookcases (big ones...) and all kinds of supplies, I'll be down to 20 or so mag boxes of comics along with a modest display - set up and break down in under an hour!

But I digress.... the big deal for you, the comic fan is that Ol' Willie will be blowing out all trades and hardcovers at this week's show at 80% off of the retail price printed on the book (i.e. the price located within or close to the barcode area). I'm bringing 45 boxes of this stuff and will probably auction or blow out the rest of it to another dealer at the end of the show. Bring lots o' cash as no cards will be taken with discounts THIS big.

After 20 years of doing shows, the only thing I will miss are the fans and the dealers - it's been a lot of fun but I won't miss load up, set up, break down and load out AT ALL!

Thanks to all the fans who have supported Walkin' Willie's Comix through the years - couldn't have done this as long as I have without your support. But enough of all this sentimental crap - go to your nearest ATM, draw out as much cash as the bank will allow and come on down to Charlotte, NC this weekend and burn Ol' Willie a new one!

What a Story at The Virginia Vintage Comics Show!

2011-07-25T10:58:00.000-04:00

I really had another topic that I wanted to get into but will save that for Wednesday (BIG announcement....). The Virginia Vintage Comics show was another success for yours truly and many thanks go out to Roger Mannon for running another great show.

That isn't the real story at all - not by a long shot. I just got in the building and hadn't unloaded a single book when I saw a record album up on Roger Mannon's display board. It wasn't an album that I had ever seen before so I went to get a closer look. As I was holding the record and checking it out, another dealer, Banks Robinson said that I was holding a $700 dollar album in my hands. My eyes certainly went wide on that little piece of information so I had to look at it closer (You can see a larger version of the album cover by clicking on the thumbnail at left - sorry for the reflection but this lil' gem was still in its original shrinkwrap!). Immediately, I saw that Roger himself was the young fellow on the far right. The band's name was Virgil Caine - named after the confederate soldier made famous by the song "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down"

The ever-so-humble Mr. Mannon said that I could get the whole story from some other guy across the room but I stayed put until he told me a little bit about it. Turns out that Roger and his two friends recorded the album in 1971 on a back porch using a Sears reel-to-reel tape recorder. Roger explained that he didn't understand it but there are small pockets of underground folk fans that really like the album. He showed me a webpage printout that showed that the album sold in an auction on eBay for $699 dollars! WOW!

Roger explained that a guy called him up and offered $10 for 10 copies - Roger said sure as he had a few copies around the house and was surprised that anybody wanted them, much less 10 copies. The guy called up a few weeks later and said that he would pay $40 for any copy left - that gave Roger a reason to pause. Roger said that the sound quality was not good and that one track on the album, "The Great Lunar Oil Strike, 1976" was the track that people seemed to like the most. Roger indicated that their might be a re-release of the album some day.

So far, I have been able to listen to the first two tracks of the album and while it is not professional studio quality, it is ANYTHING but bad sound quality. This band was talented and I can readily understand how fans are still clamoring for a re-release. I hope that the band will get it digitally remastered and get it on a site like CD Baby or some MP3 site where they can get some royalties for this Blue Ridge Mountain 1970's classic. Me? I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the album tonight!

You just never know what stories people have created in their lifetimes....

Next Up: Virginia Vintage Comics Show

2011-07-22T08:40:00.000-04:00

Ol' Walkin' Willie continues the trade paperback and hardcover blowout this weekend at the 14th annual Virginia Vintage Comics Show on Saturday, July 23, 2011 at the Salem Civic Center. Show promoter Roger Mannon has pulled out all the stops with TV and newspapaper ads as well as giving out gas cards in a drawing for some lucky winners! Check out some of Roger's Facebook posts about the show!

We're bringing 50 boxes of trades and hardcovers and blowing them out to YOU, the customer at a whoppin' 70% OFF OF RETAIL!

The show starts at 10:00 a.m. and runs to 5:00 p.m. - This show has a great dealer mix from mega-expensive to mega-INexpensive in one of the best locations on the east coast - nestled in the beautiful Shenandoah Valley with the Blue Ridge Mountains on all sides - heck, I'm looking forward to the drive up there! So come on out!

If those comic-hungry Southwest Virginia fans don't gobble up everything, I will be bringing the rest of the trades and hardcovers to next weeks Charlotte ComiCon in Charlotte, NC on Sunday, July 31, 2011.

Fanaticon 2 This SATURDAY!

2011-05-18T11:34:00.003-04:00

This Saturday, 5/21/2011, is the second edition of the wildly popular Fanaticon - or Fanaticon2. Last year's inaugural event drew over 3500 attendees! When you consider that a very well attended one day comic show in the carolinas is benchmarked at around 500 people, then last year's Fanaticon was off the charts! And admission is FREE! That's right, it cost's nuthin' to get in the door but we hope you will come off the hip and buy some stuff!

Like last year, convention promoter Chance Whitmire has tirelessly promoted this year's event and there is a TON of stuff to see and do. Even though the show is officially on Saturday, May 21, 2011 from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., there is the movie and trivia night on Thursday and a Party night on Friday night as well as a party after the show on Saturday night! Makes me wish I was still young (well I'm not as good as I once was but I'm still good once as I ever was....) but I still might show these young'uns a thing or two.

Now for the REALLY good stuff....

Like we said in the last post, we are getting out of the trade business and the big winner in all of this is YOU, the comic book fan, as we are blowing out the trades and hardcovers at 60% off! But you can do better than that - how about 70% off the list price (the price on the back of the book near the ISBN barcode)! You can do exactly that by bringing the coupon below to this Saturday's Fanaticon2

So print the coupon below, get lots o' cash out of the ATM (because we ain't takin' cards on this type of deal) and go tear Willie a new one! Limit one coupon per customer - but remember, good for ANY size purchase and ONLY at Fanaticon2. Hope to see you there!

Don't Buy Trades From Walkin' Willie's Comix!

2011-05-18T10:08:00.001-04:00

What in the heck is going on here! Willie, shut up!

Now that I have your attention.... What I meant to say was: Don't buy trades or hardcovers from Walkin' Willie's Comix website.....but please buy from ol' Willie during convention season this year.

The reason for the above is that Walkin' Willie's Comix is getting out of the trade and hardcover business. Wny? Well, we just can't compete on price anymore - that's the main reason. When customers are coming up to your booth at conventions with an Amazon
list of trade prices that are at 50% of retail - or lower... - you get the idea pretty quickly that you just can't compete against that sort of volume. But let's look at an example - take The Walking Dead Volume 13 trade paperback that was released last November at a list price of $14.99 can now be had on Amazon - brand new mind you - for a measly $4.95 at the time of this blog entry! Well, my Diamond Comic Distributor discount was 50% so if we sold them for $4.95, we would be losing $2.55 per book - you just won't stay in business making that deal each week.

Any comic dealer selling new merchandise will tell you that the worst deal they make every week is their shipment from Diamond because if you don't get an immediate sell through, your margins aren't squat. Now if you are a brick and mortar comic book retailer, you can use your weekly shipments as loss leaders as the really nice margins for comic book retailers comes from buying collections and piecing them out for sale.

So....if I were you, I would not buy from Walkin' Willie's Comix unless it was a CGC book where the inventory is smaller but iron tight. We will soon be taking all of the trades of the website.

The good news is that you can get some really good deals from us at the one-day comic shows around North Carolina as we are blowing out the trades and hardcovers. First up is this weeks Fanaticon in beautiful downtown Asheville, NC - more on that very, very shortly.

The Real Estate Crisis Hits Home - Part 2

2011-05-16T18:08:00.002-04:00

Now for the conclusion of the epic Rock Hill, SC real estate saga..... (Please scroll below for the first part...)

The second listing of my house began in November of 2009 and by April 2010, we only had a small handful of potential buyers even looking at the house. Funds were draining fairly fast so I was wondering what to do...

Melissa saw a bit on the Today show about "Walking away from your mortgage" which mortified me because to do that, you have to get in an adversarial relationship with the bank and I really, really did not want to do that. Didn't matter anyway as South Carolina is not one of those "walk away" states. My sister told me that one of her friends did a "Deed In Lieu Of Foreclosure" or DIL. Basically, instead of foreclosing, you come to an agreement with the bank that they will take the deed to the property "in lieu" of foreclosure. While it still hits your credit rating fairly hard, it does show creditors that you reached an agreement with the bank instead of just stopping paying your mortgage.

My lender was Aurora Loans and I have to say they were absolutely outstanding in the whole process but I get ahead of myself.

The paperwork is a tad daunting as you have to give the lender your complete financials - took a couple of days but I finally finished it at the end of April 2010 and Aurora received it by the first of May.

Well, to make a very long story somewhat shorter, the WHOLE DIL process took from the end of April 2010 until January 13th 2011 when Aurora took possession of the house. The realtor showed the house a few more times during that time but no takers.

Again, during the whole process, Aurora could not have been nicer - that made things so less stressful. Aurora told me that the house had to be "broom clean" so we went to work getting EVERYTHING out. "Broom Clean" means EVERYTHING has to go including things like appliance instruction manuals, garage door openers - i.e. even things you think that an eventual owner would want. We had a stack of nice bricks in the back that someone could use - Habitat For Humanity turned us down after they said they wanted them so I used 1-800-GOTJUNK again and they came the SAME day and stayed until way past dark to get the job done. Again....1-800-GOTJUNK is FANTASTIC!

OK - now here is the kicker to the whole thing. I bought the house in 1995 for $268,800 - it was sold by Aurora for.....get this....$227,900 - over $40,000 LESS than I paid for it! Granted, they sold it the same month it was re-listed but this is a 3750 sq. ft. house with five bedrooms and 3.5 baths all on 1.5 acres...in the city and in a very established neighborhood with little to no through traffic!

Melissa is in the process of selling one of her rental homes in Hendersonville, NC and boy, did she ever get a dud of a realtor. The guy did next to no marketing, got the street name wrong on the virtual tour, said he was going to go by after a showing by another realtor to turn off the lights. Well we went there two days later and not only were the lights still on but the front door was unlocked! This particular realtor had a horrible habit of not returning phone calls. He does an open house but puts no signage up that tells you when the open house is going to be held and shows up 10 minutes before the open house. The house had been listed three weeks and he brought the first point-of-sale pamphlets to the open house - i.e. NO point-of-sale stuff for the first three weeks!

Obviously, Melissa fired this deadbeat and now she has one that seems very professional. Why am I telling you all this? Because Melissa and I have learned a TON about realtors. My own theory is that the banks did indeed cause the real estate mortgage with their poisonous mortgage backed securities and making loans to people that could not afford them. However, I am thoroughly convinced that the real estate industry is exacerbating the situation because so many realtors just don't hustle. I will say that my second realtor in Rock Hill worked fairly hard but she refused to do open house or broker's opens (sometimes called broker crawls).

Here is an extremely brief list of items/questions to consider when hiring a realtor:

What type of marketing does the realtor do? Are they on Facebook, do they do open houses, etc.
During this tough time, what are you (the realtor) doing differently now to sell real estate than when times were good - i.e. how do you differentiate yourself during these trying times?
Is the realtor full time or part time? Melissa's first realtor had a tanning salon and well....that was where his head was.
Ask the realtor how they find prospective buyers (be aware of ones that just wait for them to walk into the office).
Ask the realtor if they live in the immediate area.
Ask the realtor how long they have been in the business.
Ask the realtor how many closings they have brought to the table in the past year and how did that compare with previous years. If they are a good realtor, they will LOVE to show you that data.
Avoid realtors that are not much more than "listing realtors" - you can find this out by asking them what percentage of their listings were closed by them instead of through another MLS realtor. My first realtor in Rock Hill was a "listing realtor".
Ask for a marketing schedule - i.e. when are they going to take pictures, when is the virtual tour going online, when is the broker's open and when is the first open house.
When interviewing realtors at your home or the property you are selling, be very waring of realtors that have no constructive criticism. Your decorating tastes might be exquisite and your house as clean as a whistle but there is a big difference in how you present a house for sale versus how you might live in it. As an example, you might like a lot of bric-a-brac on tables and such but when you put a house up for sale, that stuff has got to go.
Go over the listing with a fine-toothed comb. Look for any wrong data particularly when it comes to square footage, number of bedrooms and baths. Make sure it trumps up any new stuff like any new appliances, painting, waterproofing, etc.

I'm sure I could think of more if I sat here for awhile - and I might add to this list after I discuss it with Melissa (she DOES have a list) - but this is starting to get long.

Anyway, things are looking up and the stress level is WAY down. Time to talk about comics....

The Real Estate Crisis Hits Home - Part 1

2011-04-11T16:58:00.002-04:00

This is not a comic blog post or an internet marketing blog post. This is one of those personal blog posts...very personal - and I struggled as to whether or not I should publish it. However, there are big lessons learned here and if they can help anyone...just ONE person...then it is worth it.

I bought my house at 1723 Overbrook Drive in Rock Hill, SC in 1995 for $268,800 - you can see the pictures and so forth by clicking the link. Fast forward to 2008 when my girlfriend, Melissa, and I decided that it would be much better for our relationship if I moved in with her up in Swannanoa, NC near Asheville, NC. Well, to do that, I needed to sell my house so I contacted the #1 realtor in South Carolina to get it listed. The house was cluttered and I had next to no knowledge about how to prepare the house for the listing. The agent said that a) I needed to de-clutter and b) I needed to get a home inspection and take care of any major items. The agent listed the house in February of 2009.

Melissa asked about open houses - both a broker's open and an open house for the public. The agent said that open houses do not work in Rock Hill. Well, being naive, we accepted that and didn't push back. That was stupid...no wait..."naive".

We got the inspection performed and were glad to see no major items except for a back deck that was in degrading shape. We eventually fixed EVERY single item in the report and eventually went WAY beyond was in the report - more on that later.

To make a long story somewhat shorter, we didn't get many prospective buyers and after three months, I asked the agent what is the ONE thing we could do to help bring in buyers. He responded to paint the interior as much as possible. Nice idea but there was a ton of wallpaper in that house - almost every room. Well, Melissa and I started removing the wallpaper. Lesson #1 - some wallpaper is applied professionally and is fairly easy to remove and some is applied by DIY amateurs and it is the PITS to remove. Guess what type we had...

Anyway, the six month listing period was coming to a close and nothing was happening at all. It was then that we realized that there are several types of realtors out there - one is the type that gets as many listings as possible in the hope that several of the listings will be sold by other MLS realtors - i.e. throw enough pasta on the wall and see what sticks. Not a bad business model if you are the realtor - a horrible one if you are the seller because your agent isn't really relying on his own staff to sell the house as much as he is relying on the greater Rock Hill real estate community to sell the house.

I looked at the listing on the various real estate websites and saw that the square footage was around 500 square feet LESS than what I thought it was. Ouch...because when realtors do "comps", they look at the price per square foot and my house was not holding its own well because my cost per square foot was higher than comparable listings. I brought this to the attention of my agent and his position was something like "I'll remeasure if you want me to but my guy is pretty darn good and it is rare when he makes a mistake...but I'll remeasure if you want me to...". I should have had him remeasure but didn't as I wanted to do my own research. My agent now was the same one that sold the house to me in 1995. I reviewed the listing documents from then and lo and behold, I was right about the square footage. You would think that the realtor would have looked at his own records when I mentioned the discrepancy but he did not. Lesson #2 - Review your listings in mind numbing detail - make sure EVERYTHING is right. There are no "do overs" for the few people that looked at the house and saw the higher price per square foot than other comparable listings.

When I brought the proven discrepancy to my agent, tempers heated a little and he finally blurted out that the reason my house did not sell was its poor condition. "Poor condition" in this context means that my house was too cluttered because structurally, it was in fine shape. I asked him, "Why did you list the house when it wasn't ready to list?" And his reply was something like "I did it because I've known you for awhile and that is what it seemed you wanted to do". Yikes! I'm not the expert here, I NEED TO HEAR WHAT IT IS I NEED TO DO and I don't care if it hurts my feelings! Lesson #3 - if possible, avoid realtors that are hesitant to tell you things you don't want to hear. The market is SO tough and the last thing a seller needs is a realtor that doesn't provide the "tough love".

Obviously, I didn't renew the listing with that realtor - heck, he even let the brochures at the "for sale" sign run out - we had to tell him that it needed refilling. The next realtor we chose is a fairly dynamic person that runs pretty much a one woman show - her credentials were impeccable - several awards, great closing stats...the whole nine yards. She came into my house in August of 2009 and noticed that a number of items needed to be taken care of like interior painting, a few remaining inspection items and detail cleaning - i.e. where you take a tooth brush and get into the cracks in the kitchen and so forth. She said that she could sell my house but she wouldn't list it until a number of items were completed and she gave us a list of what we needed to do. FINALLY, someone is going to tell me what I don't want to hear but NEED to hear. Um, but when we asked her about open houses, she too said that open houses don't work in Rock Hill. Oh well....

Anyway, Melissa and I rolled up our sleeves and started really addressing EVERYTHING cosmetic in the house. I don't remember how many trips to Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity and the local dump we made - it was several. We even used 1-800 Got Junk twice (they are FANTASTIC!). We hired a painter to remove the wall paper and paint the house as well as epoxy the floor of the two car garage, got all the inspection items finished and even decided to replace the deck. Unfortunately earlier in the year, the downstairs gas furnace went on the fritz so a whole new HVAC system was installed for the downstairs which included a gas furnace and heat pump. We also replaced the condenser coil for the upstairs air handling unit which is tantamount to replacing the whole unit. We even hired tree guys to trim up the outside trees. There were several other items we had done but this is already getting long as it is.

Eventually, we staged the house with some of Melissa's stored furniture and so we had to have movers to get that stuff down here. Bottom line is that we spent close to $50,000 in cosmetics, moving & hauling and repair with the majority of the money going towards the cosmetic end of things - just to get the house listed. Yep, 50 large....

Well, our new realtor was ecstatic and said that we did our part and she was ready to do hers - so the house was re-listed in November of 2009 and we were excited....but it didn't sell. What to do? The house was draining me fairly fast and I had to get something done or my nest egg would get hit.....hard.

We'll finish it up in Part 2 later this week....

Charlotte ComiCon This SUNDAY!

2011-03-18T12:09:00.000-04:00

I probably should have blogged about this awhile back instead of waiting two days before the show. Anyway, the venerable Charlotte ComiCon is back for its first of three 2011 shows (the other two are on July 31st and December 18th) at the Charlotte Crown Plaza Hotel in uptown Charlotte, NC. Show hours are from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Charlotte ComiCon is one of the very best one-day shows in the Southeast U.S.A. and do in no small part to the tireless efforts of Dave Hinson and Rick Fortenberry to grow the show over years.

Anyway, ol' Walkin' Willie will be there and will be BLOWING OUT trade paperbacks and graphic novels....and not the crap stuff either - we are talking main stream stuff and not the Diamond Comic blowout junk. Willie is gettin' out of the trade business to concentrate on a super secret website AND much older books. Just too much grunt labor and low margins to stay in the business - the subject of another forthcoming blog article...but I digress.

Well...the winner in this situation is YOU, the comic book fan, as Willie is discounting ALL of his merchandise to 60% OFF Retail....and "Retail" is not some made up number but the actual retail price that is normally located near the barcode on the back of trades and hardcovers. Yep, 60% OFF is what the normal shmuck ...um customer... on the street will get but for any of you clever types that are reading this can clip the coupon below and get 70% OFF RETAIL for any size purchase. Whether you buy one book or 20, you get 70% OFF RETAIL! That means a $20 trade is a measly SIX BUCKS!!!!

So print the coupon below, get lots o' cash out of the ATM (because we ain't takin' cards on this type of deal) and go tear Willie a new one! Limit one coupon per customer - but remember, good for ANY size purchase and ONLY at Charlotte ComiCon.

Marvel Masterwork Variants - Fire Sale on eBay!

2010-12-27T14:02:00.002-05:00

UPDATE - 1/3/2011: Just put up 58 more Marvel Masterworks Variant Editions on eBay last night - auctions end on Sunday, 1/9/2011 starting at 8:36 p.m. EST until 10:58 p.m. EST. Great chance to get a lot of wonderful, limited reprints at discount prices!

Just wanted to let all you Marvel Masterworks collectors out there that Walkin' Willie's Comix is eBaying a bunch of Marvel Masterworks hardcover Variants. These books are very limited editions with most having print runs of only 1050 to 1450 copies. All of the books offered are brand new with original factory shrink wrap.

Many titles already up and many more to go - starting bids are a little over half of retail which is EXTREMELY LOW for these books as not too many of them enter the secondary market - i.e. most collectors hold on to them as long as they can.

The "Fire Sale" will be going on weekly until the end of January!

The Tale Of Five One-Day Comic Book Shows

2010-10-07T13:02:00.003-04:00

Convention season is pretty much over for Walkin' Willie's Comix for 2010 so I am going to recap the five one-day shows in which we setup as dealers. There are pros, cons and goodness knows what.

I know two things: successful one-day comic shows have two things going for them. One is a LOT of attendees (and I'll explain later just what it takes to get fans in the door). Let's face it - no butts in the door means no money on the floor. It's that simple.

Two is the merchandise for sale - you just have to have a lot of cheap stuff for sale to make any money. Sure, bring the high dollar eye candy for your display, maybe a box or two of nice, mylar encased, high grade books but make sure you bring plenty of dollar or even 3 for a dollar boxes.

First one up is the Heroes Mini-Con (hey, that's my booth shown in the photo) held early in the year on 1/23/2010 at the gorgeous Fireman's Hall in Charlotte, NC. This con is run by the same Shelton Drum who runs the annual 3-day Heroes-Con.

The ambiance for the show is just plain excellent with enough dealers to provide variety but not too many that it takes all the money off the floor. Great music was played all day and not too loud. Attendance was excellent and since we brought a bunch of blow out trades and hardcovers, we had our highest gross for a one day show in 2010. Bottom line is that this show is very well promoted, very highly attended and held at a perfect venue. Table fees are pricey at $100 per but this is a one-day show that is well worth it.

Next up is Hickory-Con which is held twice a year (spring and fall) - this one was held on 5/8/2010 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center in Hickory, NC - and is run by long time comic dealer Eddie Price. We had purchased a large 1980's/1990's collection and decided to take the books to Hickory and blow them out at a dollar apiece. Just one problem: hardly anyone showed up for the show and those that did were probably 50% gamers if not more. I know I had the right stuff because I had several dealers coming over to buy large stacks of books at my going price of a buck a book. Eddie is a great guy but does little to promote the show - heck, he didn't even have a free convention listing in Comic Buyer's Guide - not good. Won't be going back to this one - but for you fans, a good chance to pick up stuff at bargain basement prices.

The very next week was the first annual Fanticon held at the Asheville Art Museum on 10/15/2010 in Asheville, NC. You want to talk show promotion, well show promoter Chance Whitmire left NO stone unturned. Let me count the ways... First off is an EXCELLENT website - the best I have ever seen for a one day show. Secondly, Chance even had a table at the Hickory-Con to promote the next week's show. The same day as Hickory-Con, Chance had volunteers dressed as superheroes to pass out very professional flyers to everyone they could in downtown Asheville, NC. Chance even had a spot on TV on the noon news show to promote the show and show youngsters how to make a mask to wear at the show. Heck, there were even opening ceremonies in which a bagpipe band played the Star Wars theme and what not. Also, the Ghostbusters of North Carolina brought in their "souped up" Ecto 1 car for display. Chance even set up a booth at this year's Bele Chere festival in downtown Asheville to promote next year's show....

As a result, over 3200 (some reports say it was over 6000) attended the show. A good one day show in the greater Carolinas and Virginia area is very fortunate to have 400 attendees so yes, this was one heck of an event! It was our second best one-day show of the year and we brought dollar books and a few trades - they did well. Heck, I've already paid for my tables for next year's show.

Next up is the venerable Charlotte ComiCon held at the Crowne Plaza Charlotte Uptown Hotel in Charlotte, NC on 8/1/2010. This show is held three times a year and the next one is on 12/19/2010. Rick Fortenberry and Dave Hinson run this gig and do a pretty darn good job of promoting the show. The website is pretty decent for a one day show and they make sure they get the show listed in the trade publications and promotional websites. Even local comic shops in the Charlotte metro area promote the show with flyers in their stores and attendance is pretty darn good at around 400 or so. There aren't too many dealers to suck the money off the floor and the show has been around long enough that it has good word-of-mouth promotion. This was the third time I brought the "dollar" collection and it started running out of gas. I started out well in the first two hours but then it was dead after that. I believe it was my fault on this one as the value wasn't there in my merchandise... Oh, well. It's still a darn good show.

Finally is the Virgina Vintage Comics Show held on 8/21/2010 at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, VA and is run by the laid back, never nervous Roger Mannon. The venue is kinda cool as it brings back childhood memories of attending basketball games and wrestling matches (those epic Johnny Weaver/George Becker vs. Rip Hawk/Swede Hanson matches to name just a few...). Of course, we are in one of the ballrooms and not the main venue floor but still a great location and Salem, VA is one very nice Blue Ridge Mountain city. A few different dealers are there from the usual ones I see in NC shows and there is a real mix of merchandise - 90% comics but some odd nostalgia stuff there as well. Roger could promote the show a little better and get somebody to spruce up the website but one thing I did notice was the "quality" of attendees was about the best I've seen all year.

Let me clarify: by "quality", I am talking fans that will not only buy the cheap stuff but will buy some of the more expensive items as well - that doesn't happen much at the other shows. Someone popping a big book at this show is not uncommon in the least. I brought my tired dollar collection again but priced it at 3 for a $1 and then also brought five longs boxes of mid-grade Silver Age, Bronze and Copper - that did well as one customer bought a huge run of John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four. That one sale made it a successful show for me. Roger's show is definitely one for both fans and dealers to come back to next year.

At the end of the day, one-day comic shows are a gamble for comic dealers - you just don't know how many fans will walk through the door, how much money they have to spend and whether or not you have the goods they want. The bottom line is to keep overhead low by only going to those shows within close proximity where you don't have to stay at a hotel. Also, only bring as much "stuff" as you can haul in an SUV or cargo van. If you rent a U-Haul trailer, you better make sure you are going to sell a LOT of stuff. Any dealers reading this: make sure you ask the one-day show promoter just exactly what he or she is doing to promote the show. Promotion is what it is all about - it's the life blood of a show and will be so a thousand years from now. Any promoters reading this: Promote, Promote, Promote and when you think you've done enough, PROMOTE SOME MORE!!!!!

That's all I've got for now - comments welcome and solicited.

Putting A Big Book On eBay....

2010-08-18T10:54:00.007-04:00

UPDATE - 10/6/2010: Well, eBay has another special where we can list any item auction style for any listing price for only 10¢ per listing again. So we've listed Circus The Comic Riot #1 again at the low, low price of only $1550 - a cool $1000 below guide price. Auction ends this Sunday, 10/10/2010 at 8:00 p.m. EDT. Here's your chance to own a scarce, milestone comic book for a fraction of guide price!

UPDATE - 8/23/2010: Well, the book didn't sell and in fact - at the time of this edit - ONLY attracted ONE WATCHER and only 27 VISITS! Gee, I thought a book as important as this one would at least attract some traffic. Wonder if it is just the low summer eBay traffic or was the price too high? Current Overstreet guide value is $2550 in 7.0 but this was a CGC 7.0 - anyway, it was a good experiment to do and might do a few more just to see what will happen.

eBay just recently announced a promotion in which sellers could post up to a 100 hundred auctions at ANY starting price......for free. The promotion runs from August 3rd to September 3rd and it is one of the very few eBay promotions that caught my eye.

Like frequent flyer miles programs, there are a ton of restrictions like you can't have an eBay Store or fixed priced listings or listings in eBay Motors, Professional Services....etc., etc.

Well....even though I have 8 fixed priced items on eBay right now, I decided to throw a big book up there and see what would happen. So to the left is a small image of Circus The Comic Riot #1 from 1938 with a CGC grade of 7.0 or FINE/VERY FINE. This book is a comic milestone as it features the early works of Will Eisner, Jack Cole (his 2nd comic work ever), Batman creator Bob Kane and Basil Wolverton - hard to imagine these four giants of the industry in one book together. It's a tough book to find and even tougher to find in mid to high grade. The book has a starting price of $2795.00 which after eBay and PayPal fees, leaves this poor ol' dealer taking less than guide for a key book (I'm sure the pity parties are starting even as this is posted....). If you want to find out a lot more about this book, Network Disclosure has a great article on it.

The neat thing is even though I have those fixed priced items up on eBay, I wasn't charged an insertion fee so I have that going for me. Anyway, take a look....even bid if you like.... Will put up some more high priced items on Sunday - might as well see if some good traffic can be generated! Again, I luv Internet Marketing....just need to know more about it.

Time To Squidoo.....

2010-06-28T16:49:00.005-04:00

Well, I'm probably the last one on the block to write a Squidoo lens. If you are living under a rock, Squidoo.com is an article repository where anybody can write articles for free in the hope that people find them interesting, click on links, generate some modicum of revenue for the author and so on.

Blogs seem best for short articles that describe the daily experiences and happenings of the author and hopefully provide some interesting tidbits to the general public - whether it is on comics or anything else. Squidoo lenses seem better for long articles that have to do with a specific subject and - for the most part - are considered "evergreen" articles. Evergreen articles might be a "How To" article or a critique of a book - in other words, they have no expiration date.

Well, I just published a two part Squidoo "lens" titled "So You Want To Sell Your Comic Collection". Part 1 is here and Part 2 is there. The articles are a little long for blogging so I thought that Squidoo would be the perfect place for these little "gems of prose".

By the way, Squidoo names their articles "lenses" because they are articles that has the author's "focus". Sounds reasonable....

Anyway, comments are certainly welcome and solicited!

8BXN2AVM5YEP

Heroes-Con 2010 - Well.....The Good News is.....

2010-06-16T09:27:00.014-04:00

....that it was a sensational show for the fans. I'll have to admit, going into the show, the guest list was one of the most impressive that I have ever seen. There were a ton of creators, many of whom rarely do cons - it was a feast for the fans. Creators like Mike Mignola, Bernie Wrightson and Brian Bolland - just to name a very, very few - were some of the illuminaries at Heroes-Con 2010 and believe me, there were a ton of other big names - just wanted to give you a taste.

Usually for dealers, a great guest list at a con means that one stocks up on material by these creators in the hope that fans will buy the material so they can get it signed. Well, that is what usually happens...

And, as usual, we stocked up on Hellboy, Batman: The Killing Joke, Wrightson's Frankenstein and Swamp Thing and everything else by other creators. Unfortunately, what happened is something that we did not forsee happening - the fans spent most of their money, as well as their time, at Artist's Alley.

During my three restroom breaks each day, I noticed that at least 60% to 70% of the fans at Artist's Alley and the dealer's aisles were sparsely populated. We heard that some artists were charging up to $1500 for pen and ink drawings and getting it! One dealer I spoke to said that one of his longtime regular customers who usually spends $300 to $400 dollars sheepishly went to said dealer's booth and said that he would have to wait until next time as he was out of money - he had spent his money getting sketches. The dealer told me - "What could I do - I had to congratulate the customer on their purchases - I didn't want to jeopardize a longtime relationship, that's for sure". An informal poll revealed that around 75% of the dealers had a less than adequate show and the other 25% did well by selling stuff very cheaply or doing some big dealer-to-dealer deals.

The other problem is that the room was oversold. There were dealers there that either hadn't been to Heroes-Con before or hadn't been there in a long time.

The combination of a fabulous artist's alley and an oversold dealer's room pretty much took the money off the floor. As far as your's truly is concerned, we did a little over half of what we did last year which still made us some bucks but obviously not near as much as last year.

This is not complaining in the least. Comic conventions have to have at least a "decent" guest list because that is one of the primary attractions for fans. Show organizer Shelton Drum should not have to apologize one iota for having a stellar guest list. As far as the number of dealers is concerned, it is self regulating as there won't be as many at next year's Heroes-Con. Dealers yap a lot amongst themselves and the word will get around and we'll have about three-fourths of the dealers from this year's show at next year's show. One dealer even told me that he always tells other dealers at other shows that a particular show was terrible so that they won't come to that show the next year.

Anyway, there is a silver lining to all of this. One is that we gain awareness and as one of my dearest friends and life/business coach, Harvey Smith says, "Once you become aware, you cannot become unaware". That might sound trite at first blush but take some time....a lot of time and really, really think about it.

Secondly, we have been contemplating dropping our Diamond Comics Distribitors account for sometime. If any of you folks have been to our booth at one of the big shows, you know that we concentrate on trade paperbacks and hardcover graphic novels. Until this past Heroes-Con, we have done very well at the shows. However, we do not do very well online even though we offer very steep discounts. We just can't compete with Amazon and eBay.

Therefore, we canceled our Diamond account last week and I feel like a ten-ton elephant is off my back. That doesn't mean the end of Walkin' Willie's Comix by a long shot! We are going to concentrate on buying collections and putting the books up on our discount site. We will continue to acquire CGC books and put them up on our main site. And of course, we will always have at least something up on eBay.

Before I close, I do want to express my appreciation to the always hard workin' and lovely Melissa who continues to make our booth one of the classiest in the room as well as her excellent demeanor with the customers, creators and other dealers - don't know what I would do without her. I also want to thank Cory and Zack - two young guys that came around at the end of the show wanting to know if they could help us load up. They were a godsend and saved this big old dumb blonde comic geek's back for sure.

Bottom Line: short term Heroes-Con 2010 was not so good - very much below average for us but long term, it might have been the best thing that ever happened to Walkin' Willie's Comix. Can't wait to see....

Fanaticon Kicks Off Tomorrow!

2010-05-14T08:34:00.003-04:00

It's time for the first annual Fanaticon and are we ever looking forward to it! Fanaticon will be held tomorrow, Saturday May 15, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. in downtown Asheville, NC at the Asheville Art Museum at Pack Place.

Why are we looking so forward to Fanaticon? Glad you asked.... Mainly there are two reasons: 1) the con is local - no driving two hours or more to begin setup - forget something? Just go back and get it... 2) More importantly, show director Chance Whitmire and his staff have been promoting the show relentlessly. Examples: Several radio spots, guest spots on local TV news programs, setting up a table at Hickory-Con last week along with a Superman actor to promote the show, having folks dress up like super-heroes to distribute flyers in downtown Asheville, front page of the Mountain Express (our Creative Loafing up here - click on the the "This Week In Print" block for a fabulous Fanaticon article) and front page of the Entertainment section of the Asheville Citizen-Times...just to name a few.

There are pre-convention parties, post-convention parties and even - get this - an Opening Ceremonies Saturday morning at 9:30...luv it...

Oh, and probably the best one-day show website that we have ever seen. No stone unturned by Chance and his staff in our humble opinon.

And did we say admission is FREE! Like you folks need another excuse to come to Asheville, the freakin' Paris Of The South, daggone it...

OK, time to get back to work and figuring out what we will take to the show - We will have a post-mortem of these last two one-day shows early next week.

New Comic Collection to debut at Hickory-Con!

2010-05-06T11:33:00.000-04:00

We'll be bringing a new collection consisting of 30 long boxes - Bronze Age to present - to Hickory-Con this Saturday, May 8th, 2010 at the Hickory Metro Convention Center in Hickory, NC.

The collection is interesting for not only it's breadth but depth as well. Everything from superheroes, golden age reprints, independents - you name it, it is in there. The individual from which we purchased this collection is a finish carpenter and all of the books came in 32 boxes made of luan plywood. The boxes are even stackable with sort of a tounge-in-grove deal where the comics are not touched by the box above - very interesting but we will need to sell them as they are tough to use for transport due to the weight and no handles. But I digress...

The even better news is that ALL BOOKS ARE $1.00 - that's right - just a buck a piece and ALL of the books are freshly bagged and boarded by yours truly (not so many) and by the always able assistant Melissa (she bagged and boarded a TON of books...). Admission to Hickory-Con is just $3.00 and runs from 10:00 in the morning to 5:00 in the evening.

Whatever we don't sell at Hickory-Con, we will bring to a new show - Fanaticon at the Asheville Art Museum in Asheville, NC on Saturday, May 15, 2010. When it's up, they have by far the best one-day show website that I have ever seen. They are promoting this show RELENTLESSLY so I'm hoping for a great turnout.

After that, we'll be heading to Charlotte, NC on June 4 - 6 for the venerable Heroes-Con 2010. The guest list is absolutely amazing with creators like Mike Mignola (Hellboy), Brian Bolland (fabulous covers like The Killing Joke, Animal Man, Wonder Woman and a TON more), Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows), Bill Willingham (Fables, Elementals) and just too many more to list. We'll be bringing a ton of trades, graphic novels, CGC books and - of course - deeply discounted comic books.

We have a few more shows to do like Charlotte Comicon on August 1st and Dragon*Con over Labor Day weekend but more about those two great shows later.

Hope to see you in Hickory on Saturday - first come, first served for this fabulous comic book collection!

Marvel Masterworks Variant Editions - We got 'em!

2010-04-14T08:57:00.003-04:00

The good news started when Marvel decided to print all of their old and brand new Masterworks Editions in the original gilded gold frame and marble covers. The bad news is that they would only print to initial orders. The first 20 or so did not have the print run numbers on the back of the dust jackets - later Marvel would put the numbers on the dust jackets and they ran (approximately) from 1000 to 1600 copies with most around the 1200 number range. Yep, that's it - only around 1200 or so of each edition. You can go to the Marvel Masterworks Resource Page (well, there are SEVERAL pages...) to find out more about these editions. Particularly, go to the library page and you can find links to all the editions AND the print runs for the early editions.

What is interesting is that the variant edition of Marvel Masterworks Vol. 1 (Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 1) only had a print run of 520, Vol. 2 (Fantastic Four Vol. 1) only had a print run of 500 - and there are some of the early volumes that even had lesser runs. Hence, you will see some of these early volumes on eBay or Amazon at really high prices. And yes, we have a few of those expensive early editions on eBay right now.

Around Vol. 30 or so, folks began to take notice and the print runs started going up (e.g. Vol. 33 - Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 6 - had a print run of 1420). Still, the print runs are still relatively low and so continue to the present. Marvel did the unthinkable by reprinting a few of the early variants - you can identify these by a) a Roman numeral 2 (II) and b) the presence of the print run - both on the back of the dust jacket. It looks like Marvel discontinued the reprints after just a few volumes. The print runs are small so it looks like lack of sales doomed these abominations.

Starting with Vol. 43 - Golden Age Captain America Vol. 1 - and Vol. 57 - Tales To Astonish Vol. 1 - fans could now start getting Golden Age and Atlas Era reprints. Although the regular editions are mostly still in print with a very few exceptions, the variant editions still go out of print almost instantly.

Here at Walkin' Willie's Comix, we try to get as many of the variants as we can afford each month. Usually, Marvel puts out two hardcover variants and one to two trade paperback variants per month. You heard right, Marvel has started reprinting their Marvel Masterworks in a more affordable trade paperback form - and again, both in a regular edition and limited variant edition.

If you are looking for some of these variants for about as affordable as we can go, we have some of our Marvel Masterworks hardcover variants at our eCrater store and some of them at Walkin' Willie's Comix. All of our Marvel Masterworks trade paperback variant editions are at Walkin' Willie's Comix - with more to come in the very, very near future.

But whether you are into the variant editions or the regular editions, the good thing is that Marvel is printing nearly ALL of their stuff from the Golden Age through the early 1980's and while the prices are a tad steep on the hardcovers, they represent a fraction of the prices you would pay to obtain mid-grade single issues. You can get the Journey Into Mystery Vol. 1 variant hardcover (Vol. 106 of the Masterworks series) for $47.99 at Walkin' Willie's Comix. That book covers issues #1 through #10 of the series, which if you were to buy the individual issues at just VG grade, it would run you in the neighborhood of $1800.00! Now that's a bit of price delta!

Anyway, if you want to read more about 'em, again go to the Marvel Masterworks Resource Page. Until next time, 'Nuff Said!

Mega-Con Day 1 & Load-In From Hell....

2010-03-13T07:48:00.000-05:00

Usually, the Thursday load-in for a big con is uneventful but not the case for Mega-Con this year...

Not only did we have to load in our stuff in a virtual monsoon but the seals on our cart tires blew out and we had to scurry to find one. Luckily, Chad from Apocalypse Comics let us use his and we finally got the job done but not until 8:30 PM!!!! Ouch.... Nonetheless, had one really nice sale while setting up so that took the sting out of an otherwise laborious, frustrating day.

The really neat thing is that I took the cart to Riker's Automotive Tire Center over on Central Florida Parkway and they fixed the cart and didn't charge me a cent!!! Well, that sort of thing makes you stop and think - after all, these folks didn't know me from Adam's housecat -and could have easily charged me $20.00 per tire to fix the flats - I would not have complained one bit as a comic dealer's cart is a huge piece of one's convention livlihood. It's not like I live in Orlando and would be a regular customer - they just did a nice thing, simple as that. So a huge shout out to Sean Davis and his co-workers at Riker's Automotive Tire Center - what a nice bunch of folks!

As far as the show is concerned, sales were good but attendees were kicking tires and casing the joint. Did sell a Strange Worlds #1 - CGC 9.0 - poppin' a big book like that always makes the first day nice. Marvel's Kick-Ass hardcover is the hot book right now - sold four on Friday and only have three left - they will go today. In fact, Saturday at a Mega-Con is wild and is by far the biggest sales day.

Good....looking forward to it.