Doug: Today I'd like some thoughts on the feeling of going to a comic book store, your LCS, or to some other eclectic shop that deals in comics. I've titled this "The Thrill is Gone", but I know that's way too cynical for many of our readers. Some of you still have that great joy and sense of anticipation upon being in a different town or city and discovering a new shop, or even in reacquainting with a store you perhaps used to frequent. I can certainly recall the very day as a college freshman when some buddies offered me a ride into Peoria, IL to accompany them on a trip to a comics store. In my hiatus of the previous five years, I did not even know such specialty shops existed! So "kid in a candy story"? To the max! (That's '80s talk if you don't know). But rifling through longboxes no longer holds that magic for me. That partly makes me sad, but I'm also indifferent. Maybe it's a ship sailed, water under the bridge, or some other idiom/cliche'. What's that like for you?
Doug: And on the sales front, since you asked, things have been going well. My commitment to this blog (notably the reviews, but also being able to work ahead) has been scaled back because of the auctions. I'll still stand by my decision to sell this thing myself, but it is a true test of my time. In fact, this past week I did not have new auctions for the first time since I began. But with my wife away for the day on Saturday the 8th, I was able to get several hours of scanning and listing done. I'm into my Amazing Spider-Man collection now after having moved all the way through my Avengers books. I didn't sell all of those, and will come back to them at the end of it all. One thing I'm looking forward to is being able to package some nice Silver and Bronze Age lots pulling various titles together from the leftovers. I suppose my big news came a few weeks ago, when I listed ASM #s 121 and 122. I kid you not -- they were not "live" for more than 10 minutes when a buyer scooped them up through the Buy It Now feature. I got $70 for #121 and $75 for #122. The latter was in better overall shape to your eye and hands, with one exception (check the scans I've provided) -- some dummy who owned it well before I did had thumbtacked it to a wall! And not just once -- six or seven times! But to make this tale even more golden, the fella contacted me and asked if I had a few other keys. I did -- he was interested in ASM #s 194 (1st Black Cat), 238 (1st Hobgoblin -- which I did not have), and 300 (1st full Venom). I whipped up some scans very quickly, gave some details on any specific deficits the books had, and we negotiated a price. I'd estimate that I got around 75% of guide for the two, bringing his total bill to around $260. Not a bad day.
Doug: I'll leave you with another question, based on my experiences. I didn't know how much nicer my Avengers run was, condition-wise, than the rest of the collection is shaping up. I'm not into my Fantastic Four books yet, but I can declare that the Amazing Spider-Man stock isn't up to the standards that the Avengers sold at.
