Collectors etiquette

[Dunder Ed]

Some of my best bargains have been in shops. I have found countless amounts of annuals. Some of the best I have found are the first Beezer Annual (£7) at a book shop, 1957 and 58 Dandy Annuals in a charity shop for around £13-£15, 1969 Beano Annual for £2, and may other bargains. My dad works for a local charity selling items on Ebay, and what I have been finding is that many of the charity shops are getting wise to the prices of such items and putting "fair" prices on them in their shops. By fair I mean at the top end of their value. My best buy was on 500 comics for 99p on Ebay, most of which I have read cover to cover. There are certainly bargains to be had, but as I said many shops are starting to know the real value.

I guess it's different for you young 'uns with the 1980s being your nostalgia.

By your reasoning Lew I should be buying up the 00s annuals

[Lew Stringer]

Some of my best bargains have been in shops. I have found countless amounts of annuals. Some of the best I have found are the first Beezer Annual (£7) at a book shop, 1957 and 58 Dandy Annuals in a charity shop for around £13-£15, 1969 Beano Annual for £2, and may other bargains. My dad works for a local charity selling items on Ebay, and what I have been finding is that many of the charity shops are getting wise to the prices of such items and putting "fair" prices on them in their shops. By fair I mean at the top end of their value. My best buy was on 500 comics for 99p on Ebay, most of which I have read cover to cover. There are certainly bargains to be had, but as I said many shops are starting to know the real value.

I guess it's different for you young 'uns with the 1980s being your nostalgia.

By your reasoning Lew I should be buying up the 00s annuals

I was only joking, but you cut off the smiley. Good to hear you like comics from way before your time.

[babington]

Comic mart etiquette... a lot of gentle pushing and shoving goes on though that's more because it's quite cramped than out of competition over comics. It's rare that any two people want the same thing at the same time. But I do quite often get into the situation of seeing someone discovering some gem or leafing through a pile of spectacular comics I hadn't noticed before and I have to wait 'til they are done to see if there's anything good left!

Then there's haggling... do people haggle when they buy comics? I would do on an expensive item...

There's also the etiquette of getting comics signed or getting sketches from artists - now that's complicated! Do you take a suitcase full of issues to get signed and hold up the queue for ages, or settle for one signed copy? (please always settle for one!) What character should you ask an artist to draw? Your favourite, or their favourite? How do you decide a price, if any? What's it okay to talk about with your comics idol?

[DavidKW]

I can remember once seeing a small batch of 60s and 70s Dandy Summer Specials in a charity shop in Bolton.

Was tempted to buy but decided not to, partly due to budgets (were being sold at a price given by a true collector) and partly because I'm just not a fan of the Dandy; always a bit too bland for me. (and I don't own my own computer so E Bay is out).

Have found some other great annuals in that same shop, which were on my to find list.

Just a case of knowing what you like and prioritising budgets.

[Anorak783]

I buy comics and books of all sorts, but usually find that prices in my local Oxfam shop are the same or higher than what I can pay for the same item online in better condition.

After many years of custom, I now refuse to use Amazon because of their tax-avoidance policies. I know that money spent with Oxfam goes to a worthy cause, but still..

[Muffy]

In the mid-late 1980's at the London comic marts near St James Park, I found thousands of back issues to UK comics and US titles at often 10p prices (less for bulk buys). Sometimes my arms would ache carrying home 2 heavy bags with more than a hundred issues on the tube.
As family and friends stopped collecting, they gave me huge numbers of doubles and other titles such as Jackpot.

I had a near complete run of Uncanny X-men issue 97 to the then present [94, 95 and 96 were too expensive] in VFN condition; every 2000ad including 1, 2 and 3 with the free gifts in near mint. The entire UK reprints for Spider-man and MWOM. Plus huge chunks of older TV comics with Jon Pertwee's Dr and Tom Baker's. Other British comics included 1970's Tammy, Buster and Whoopee.

All gone now though. By about 1990, I stopped collecting and whenever Dad and Mum did a boot sale they would sell titles such as Spider-Man or Star Wars Weekly – they sold about 1,000 over 10-years. In 2003, on discovering eBay, I sold about 1,500 of the best issues for good money (so much packing). I also did quite a few antiques and collectables markets, selling some of the best remaining issues.

Now I'm down to a very manageable 850 of the titles I bought or was given as a small child in the late 70's/ early 1980s – these are for keeps.
I buy Beano for my 9-year old nephew and Match of the Day (the modern Roy of the Rovers) for the 10-year old.
I do love this forum though, it really brings back those memories of ticking off complete runs and the joy I had reading my first Monster Fun's and discovering the merged Buster and Monster Fun's. I would re-read them back then and draw my own stories with Gums, and other creation's such as Napper, Robo-wars and Mad Monks.

[Lew Stringer]

In the mid-late 1980's at the London comic marts near St James Park, I found thousands of back issues to UK comics and US titles at often 10p prices (less for bulk buys). Sometimes my arms would ache carrying home 2 heavy bags with more than a hundred issues on the tube.

Those Westminster Marts were great. That's where I re-acquired all the Whams, Smashes and POWs one Saturday about 30 years ago. They were sitting in a box under a dealer's table. He didn't think anyone would be interested in British comics but I bought the lot. (About 30p each for 300 or so comics.) I carried home what I could that day (like yourself, with two heavy bags) and had the rest posted to me.

[Phoenix]

My best buy was on 500 comics for 99p on Ebay

Presumably, given that 500 comics is the best part of ten years worth of comics, and would consequently form a very bulky and extremely heavy parcel, the p&p will have taken your overall bargain up to at least £20, still a bargain no doubt but just not a 99p bargain.

[alanultron5]

Sadly, the `26 Pigs` site sales section closed! I got a few good comics from there including `Sparky` No 2 (For £25) On it's forum section- a few of the 1960s-70s DC Thomson staff contributed!

[abacus]

I also check out charity shops and carboots and don't really want to pay a lot.I've passed up lots of beano comics from the 80s because I believe most collectors will have them.I look out for Sparky comics
and other comics which I think might be slightly rarer.I did have a choice once between two carrier bags full of buster comics and a similar amount of Victor comics l bought all the buster comics and a few of the victor comics for a couple of quid and with hindsight I think I should have bought all the victor comics and less buster.One regret was when a chap at a carboot was selling Radio fun comics in mint condition in individual plastic bags at a asking price of £1.50 each , he had around sixty.I wandered off thinking wether to buy some and by the time I had decided and went back they had all been sold.

[Phoenix]

One regret was when a chap at a carboot was selling Radio fun comics in mint condition in individual plastic bags at a asking price of £1.50 each , he had around sixty.I wandered off thinking wether to buy some and by the time I had decided and went back they had all been sold.

We've all been there, abacus. The agonising over the high price, its affordability to you at the time, and your very real need to acquire it for your collection there and then. I remember just such a dilemma in a book fair at Haydock Park several years ago. In the end I decided the book was just too much for my budget at that time, but about halfway down the East Lancs Road on my way home I just had to turn round and drive back to the venue to buy it. Yes, you've guessed it, the dealer had sold it!

My decision-making process that day was a complete contrast to the one a good few years earlier at a comic fair in the basement of the Piccadilly Plaza Hotel in Manchester, so you would have thought I'd have learned my lesson. I'd gone there with about £80 to buy any issues of Thomsons' Big Five that I didn't have, and one of the first stands I went to was Happy Hours Unlimited from Leeds. They had virtually a full run of The Vanguard, an early, and rarely-seen, Thomson story paper from the 1920s. Issue 1 was £35, the rest were £3.50 each. I bought the lot, almost completely eliminating the affordability question from my thought process as I had a decent job. Fortunately the dealers knew me so I was allowed to pay with post-dated cheques without actually parting with any cash if I remember rightly, so I was still able to get as well a fair few of the story papers I had actually gone there to buy. I have since acquired about ten more issues of The Vanguard, and I still need seventeen, so there were over a hundred that I bought that day, but I'm sure they gave me a reasonable discount!

[r3tr0_gam3r]

there have been many times I have been watching something on eBay, then in the final minutes started to wonder whether or not this item would be such a great deal, so spent a few minutes thinking about it. Then, I go back ready to bid and am too late! I have been having quite a bit of luck lately, especially since finding one seller who has lots of DCT comics and keeps updating, also sending me lists every now and then of new products he gets in.

[abacus]

Yes thats the trouble weighing up how much to spend.A carboot seller had two film fun annuals I bought one and later thought I should have bought both.Another time someone was selling comics such as wagon train , cheyenne and other old tv ones l bought one I could have had more,the chance is unlikely to occur again.Ah well.

[stevezodiac]

A few years back in Greenwich market a stall had about fifty issues of Disc (pop magazine) from 1969-71 for a pound each. I walked a few yards away to check how much cash i had, turned round to see someone else snapping them up. Never got over it. (swallows handful of tranquillisers with glass of brandy). I had fifty quid on me as well - sob!

[Phoenix]

How are things with you healthwise these days, Steve? Here's hoping you are improving steadily.