The Efficiency Penalty.

 You can be TOO efficient, at least when it comes to collectables. 

I'm going through a collection of comics that sat in a garage for 25 years. Ironically, it's the comics that were in our mall store, which we sold, and which was then taken over by a former employee and friend. In other words, these comics had once been in my possession.

So far I've found a lot of bronze age comics that weren't worth anything 25 years ago, but are now closer to 50 years old and have gained some value. I've also found the first "Walking Dead" comic, which is worth over a grand (Theoretically. In reality, I doubt I'll ever manage to sell it.)

I've found a bunch of #1s that were just starting back then and are now long-running series. 

I'd say 80% of the comics aren't really worth anything at all, but the other 20% at least have a chance of selling, given enough time and space. I'm going ahead and bagging and boarding these comics for backstock, even though only a fraction will fit. 

Maybe 5% are worth anything in reality. So out of roughly 10,000 comics, 500 of them are worthy of attention. 

This is what most collectors don't understand. Only a small percentage of any collection have the possibility of selling, and an even smaller percentage of those will actually sell.

So what do I mean by efficiency?

Well, I discovered years ago that I was very diligent about figuring out which comics are hot and needed to be given some space to sell. So let's say a comic series starts to catch fire. I grab the #1 issue and price it when it's five times its original price.

So far, so good.

But a significant percentage of these are going to keep increasing in value, and if I sold it for five time the value and it increases to fifty times the value, I've lost out. But someone who isn't as diligent will let it sit and suddenly discover it later.

Of course, an awful lot of of the comics I put out for five times the value actually decrease in value over time. That's why speculating is such a gamble. It so much a gamble that I realized that even a comic store owner who is up with the trends is unlikely to outsmart chance. 

I stopped even upgrading the prices on comics about 20 years ago after the comics crash. Once in a while I'd grab a hot comic and increase the price after its selling period (We try to give everyone the chance to buy it at the original price.) I did this more to keep them around for people who were truly interested (after which I ascertained, I would cut the price) and out of the hands of speculators who just wanted to strip us bare and sell online. 

Over the last two years I've bought two large collections, and I'm going through them box by box, and it's been kind of fun. I don't take it too seriously. I price most comics at a base price and don't try to look them all up: I'm sure I'm missing out on some key issues, but more power to anyone who finds them. 

Anyway, I only bring up this "efficiency penalty" (if I may coin the term) because I've never heard it talked about elsewhere.

The eight books I've neglected, but dammit, they're pretty good!

 I asked my publisher, Crossroad Press, if they'd go ahead and publish paperback versions of the last eight or so of my novels that were only in ebook form.

Here's the thing: I was writing so fast and furious for a few years that I didn't want to swamp the publishers or the readers with too much. Even I was feeling overwhelmed--but I wasn't going to stop my hot streak. I was well aware that if and when I reached the end of the streak, I'd probably be through.

I wrote these novels, which are every bit as good as any of my other novels, and just went on with the next book. I promoted the books that were in series, most often, but hardly mentioned some of the stand-alones.

Now that I'm looking at them again, I'm realizing how much I like them. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I suppose. But when picked up "Gargoyle Dreams," I read it all the way through. This is rare for me. I found it charming.

When I read "Blood of the Succubus," I was a little shocked by how sexually explicit it was, but also impressed by how well written. It's gotten some of the best reviews on Amazon as any of my books.

"Snowcastles/Icetowers" are together as one book, as they probably should have always been. I was still learning, but it is straight-ahead fantasy.

"Star Axe" was my first book and the hardest to write. I can see what I was trying to do, and I'm proud that I didn't just copy LOTRs completely but tried do my own spin on the hero story. The writing, well, I notice all my mistakes, but I think they aren't that noticeable to others.

"Shadows over Summer House" was my gothic: big house, mysterious characters, along with a heist story. This along with Deadfall Ridge and Takeover made me realize how comfortable I was with the suspense genre.

The "Last Fedora" was my story of a gangster enforcer, who was also an unstoppable Golem. This is maybe the quirkiest of my books and because of that...one of my favorites. 

All the above are now available from Amazon or from Pegasus Books, or will be soon.

There are two more on the way: my little Hobbit homage, Freedy Filkens, and my supernatural good-guy(?) serial killer book, "I Live Among You."

 I'm going to go on Facebook and post the links one day at a time.

When all is said and done, I will have 25 books in print, that took about 12 years overall--separated by 30 years of running a store--to write.  

I'm proud of them. I made enough money to call it money, though I also didn't skimp on covers and editing, even when most of the publishers would have been glad to do those, I purchased my own art and editing services because I found a some people who were excellent at it. (Special thanks to Lara Milton for being by far the best editor I've run into.)

It all turned out so much better than I expected. What fun!

I'm not closing the door on writing, but I'm enjoying the store these days and I'm content with having 25 books under my belt.