Replacing and renewing our entire backstock of comics.

I spent about 20 years not buying collections.

Mostly because we are a reader store, not a collector store. In most cases, graphic novels served that need better than maintaining a backstock of comics. After the comic crash in the mid-90s, it seemed like almost all my customers were readers, and collecting was secondary.

Secondly, because our space is limited. 

Thirdly, and most importantly, I really started to become allergic to the process of buying collections. Most collectors expected me to pay top dollar for their collections, but it required a lot of time and space on our part to make the money back. So I just stopped. Dead stop. It was the process of buying collections at an affordable price that stopped me.

Catering to readers first and collectors second worked for about twenty years, and then about eight years ago, collecting started being a thing again. I noticed that back issues were selling more often, and that my competitors were serving that need. Covid seemed to bring collecting to the forefront again. Not sure why. People with time and money on their hands? People having the time to remember when they used to collect?

For whatever reason, I saw that I needed to try to start catering to that market again as best I could. 

About a year and a half ago, I bought two collections.

The first collection was a bunch of pulp magazines and books. I bought these to save them from being dumped, because the owners were discouraged by the number of rejections they'd gotten. If I didn't buy them, no one was.

Technically, these books are worth money. They are in beautiful condition, which is very rare for pulps from the 50s and 60s. But I don't have a customer base for these. Ideally, they should probably sold online. 

So I'm sitting on these books, mostly, and enjoying the art and the vibe of them.

The second collection was a bit of an accident. A longtime customer announced on Facebook that he was going to sell his collection before moving to another house. The price he quoted was more than reasonable, and I immediately called him and offered to buy them all.

See, I don't mind buying collections. I just hate having to dicker for them.

For the last year and a half I've been bagging and boarding and pricing these comics. It's been a massive project.

The comics start from the late 80s up to the time I bought them. Full runs of Spider-man and Batman and Avengers and Wolverine and Ultimates and many, many others. Lots of variants and special covers. Good solid stuff. 

Last week, I finally started organizing them. I'll be able to put out about 18 long boxes of new comics, replacing all the current backstock, which I'll take downstairs and reorganize. We have tons of comics left to deal with, but I'm putting out as much of the good stuff as I can.

It's kind of nostalgic, actually. I have a collector urge as much as anyone, I just got a little discouraged by the boom and bust cycle. This feels like the right thing to be doing. And the right time. 

I'm posting this to put pressure on myself to get this done by the end of February. Hopefully a little sooner than that. I'll keep you all up to date.