What comics DIDN'T you buy today?

[starscape]

Why would I want to pay more for a book from an eBay seller that is on sale for less on a supermarket shelf?

Tried another 3 sainsburys in london looking for whizzer & chips,battle etc but to no avail ,the staff had never heard of them & they are not on the system,so don't go to wood green,Angel Islington or Tottenham,if anyone knows of any in london that has these books please put location on here

Didnt buy the Best of Whizzer and Chips annual and Battle. Not through choice may I add. Tried two large Sainsbury stores but not a sign of them.

Sainsbury is also very rare in the north of Scotland at least. Absent I believe from the Islands.

Understand now?

[Phoenix]

Nothing wrong with sellling a collectable. That's what the comic industry is built upon. The fault is with Sainsbury for non-distribution of an exclusive product. The seller makes a small profit. The buyer gets something they want at a price they're happy with. The alternative is the potential reader can't get it.

There is nothing wrong with your reasoning, starscape, but I just can't see the point of buying several copies of a book at Sainsbury's for £3.99 each in order to go to all the trouble of selling them on eBay for £4.99. Are these people not factoring in the value of time?

[Lew Stringer]

Nothing wrong with sellling a collectable. That's what the comic industry is built upon.

I agree with your other comments but I don't understand that statement. Could you clarify please?

[abacus]

Did the round of charity shops yesterday .Oxfam had a lot of CRISIS comics at £2.99 Each great artwork and I suppose a fair price but more than I wanted to pay.Another shop had graphic novels including Judge Dredd , Wolverine, Superman with prices ranging from £4.50----£6.50 again I was interested but not at those prices.Finally in a third charity shop did buy Frankenstein a g/n by GRAFFEH BOOKS for £1.50.In all cases the prices were the main factor for me and I would have liked to have bought more but but I regard mine as a pocket money hobby not an expensive one and I know though I may miss out one day I will gain on another day.

[starscape]

Nothing wrong with sellling a collectable. That's what the comic industry is built upon.

I agree with your other comments but I don't understand that statement. Could you clarify please?

Collectability is an important part of the comics retail industry, with masses of shops and auctions built upon buying and selling them based upon their unavailability. Yes, I know that's not the publishing arm of the industry (although with variant covers, #1 issues, luxury reprints etc, I'd say it was important to them). But as I was talking about buying and selling collectables, then I thought it was obvious that's the arm of the comics industry my statement relates to (by the way I can see this sounds angry or snotty but it's not supposed to be).

Hopefully that's cleared it up.

[starscape]

Did the round of charity shops yesterday .Oxfam had a lot of CRISIS comics at £2.99 Each great artwork and I suppose a fair price but more than I wanted to pay

One of my fave comics but that's way overpriced. Like the Eagle, great reading but very uncollectible. My Oxfam is the same. Loads of 80s DC/Marvel but of very limited interest to collectors. Items like Alpha Flight, Dr Fate, the Jaguar and so on. All getting increasingly dog eared as they stand not selling due to being over their price range (which I would say would be between 25-50p).

[Phoenix]

Did the round of charity shops yesterday .Oxfam had a lot of CRISIS comics at £2.99 Each great artwork and I suppose a fair price but more than I wanted to pay.Another shop had graphic novels including Judge Dredd , Wolverine, Superman with prices ranging from £4.50----£6.50 again I was interested but not at those prices.

My Oxfam is the same. Loads of 80s DC/Marvel but of very limited interest to collectors. Items like Alpha Flight, Dr Fate, the Jaguar and so on. All getting increasingly dog eared as they stand not selling due to being over their price range (which I would say would be between 25-50p).

The principal problem is that whereas in standard shops the general public accepts that their pricing is fair, and the only decision they have to make about something they like is whether they can afford it or not, charity shops are basically individual concerns whose pricing policy is determined by volunteers, often female pensioners, whose knowledge about the value of any items gifted to them is negligible, but whose raison d'etre is to get as much as they can for the items for the benefit of the charity they support. Prices therefore tend to be quite arbitrary, and as a result anybody doing the rounds of a town's charity shops is treating them like stalls at a car boot sale. It is not surprising to me that such discrepancies in pricing exist but I am unwilling to criticise those shops that are asking high prices, one of the most obvious being discrete Oxfam bookshops, because I understand why they are doing it, but I will admit that I do get annoyed when I hear some punter ask Will you take £x for this toy or that game? or How much discount will you give me if I take both these items? They can do so at car boot sales if they like, but not in charity shops for heaven's sake. If their Wolverine or Superman doesn't sell for £6.50 they will reduce it eventually, and frankly that is preferable to pricing them at 50p and seeing them fly out of the shop like Superman himself. We should enter charity shops with a greater generosity of spirit than the 0% that we have when entering Tesco or Next.

[abacus]

In reply to Phoenix I agree charity shops should not be treated as carboot stalls and no one should try to undercut their
asking price (that's strictly taboo)but charity shops are one of the few remaining places for searching for old comics and it is up to the purchasor how much he or she is willing to pay.Sometimes however the prices are disappointingly high for me but equally I know I will probably find the same item on another day somewhere else at a more favourable price.An example was at a carboot when I saw one of those large Dan Dare compilation books I liked for £10 which I decided not to buy at the time only to get it at another carboot a few years later for a £1.

[wilsia]

Actually I am buying a few of the annuals as l want to in a small way contribute to sales. My thinking being that if it sells reasonably well egmont might do another one in future.
So to coin a phrase every little helps. However if someone wants to sell them on ebay good luck to them at the grander scheme of things this will help sales too.If I wasn't able the annuals from eBay I would be delighted that I had the chance to
buy one from another outlet. As for big bad bri talking about inflated prices I dont think anyone out there thinks that an annual of reprints is going to make a massive profit.anyway the market as always dictates the price

[dandy mad]

It is not strictly taboo to haggle in a charity shop as the charity shop didn't pay for the comic or annual and if you manage to get half the price it says on the ticket the charity shop still makes a profit either way

[dandy mad]

Actually I am buying a few of the annuals as l want to in a small way contribute to sales. My thinking being that if it sells reasonably well egmont might do another one in future.
So to coin a phrase every little helps. However if someone wants to sell them on ebay good luck to them at the grander scheme of things this will help sales too.If I wasn't able the annuals from eBay I would be delighted that I had the chance to
buy one from another outlet. As for big bad bri talking about inflated prices I dont think anyone out there thinks that an annual of reprints is going to make a massive profit.anyway the market as always dictates the price

Tesco needs a lot of help with its profits falling faster than a tarts drawers...

[colcool007]

In reply to Phoenix I agree charity shops should not be treated as carboot stalls and no one should try to undercut their
asking price (that's strictly taboo)but charity shops are one of the few remaining places for searching for old comics and it is up to the purchasor how much he or she is willing to pay.Sometimes however the prices are disappointingly high for me but equally I know I will probably find the same item on another day somewhere else at a more favourable price.An example was at a carboot when I saw one of those large Dan Dare compilation books I liked for £10 which I decided not to buy at the time only to get it at another carboot a few years later for a £1.

I admit that I will check out charity shops for old comics. And I will happily pay the price of £3 a comic if it is one that I am seeking out. But that is only if I am hunting for it. This is equivalent to buying the same comic on Ebay for £1 and adding £2 P&P. But charity shops are dependent on the impulse buy, so undercutting the online price does help them with the standard or easily available comics.

However, if it is a really rare item, then I would expect to pay as much to a charity shop as to a dealer. For me that is the 1960's Annuals or Summer Specials from any era. I understand that others would have different criteria of what rates being a rare item.

[Lew Stringer]

Nothing wrong with sellling a collectable. That's what the comic industry is built upon.

I agree with your other comments but I don't understand that statement. Could you clarify please?

Collectability is an important part of the comics retail industry, with masses of shops and auctions built upon buying and selling them based upon their unavailability. Yes, I know that's not the publishing arm of the industry (although with variant covers, #1 issues, luxury reprints etc, I'd say it was important to them). But as I was talking about buying and selling collectables, then I thought it was obvious that's the arm of the comics industry my statement relates to (by the way I can see this sounds angry or snotty but it's not supposed to be).

Hopefully that's cleared it up.

Selling second-hand goods isn't usually considered part of any industry. If I sell a pile of old CD's on eBay I'm not part of the music industry am I?

Besides, with your mention of variant covers it sounds like you're talking about American comics and comic book stores specializing in American comics, rather than the British comics industry, which is what threw me with this being a UK comics forum.

[starscape]

I would say Silveracre and Mile High Comics are part of the comic industry.

[colcool007]

As an aside, I have checked Sainsburys in Kirkcaldy and there are none of the Best Of.. to be found there. My best chance will be the one in Edinburgh I suppose.