Comics UK

When I visit my high street I generally have a quick peek in the charity shops to see if they have anything interesting for sale, theyve normally got a couple of british annuals but since I only recently started collecting British comics I never paid much attention to them. Had a look in one today to see if they still had the beanos from a few weeks earlier and saw they had a collection of american graphic novels and comics for sale, about 40 in total. Their was nothing special, mosty early 90s, average condition and priced between £1.50 and £2.00 each. What they had done was look at the retail value in dollars, halved it to pounds and halved it again, so in effect roughly half price or so.
I spoke to the manager and offered her £30 for the lot, which was a more than fair price and more or less what the were actually worth. She seemed really offended, and counted the comics and added up the prices she had set and said they were worth £60, and they had been selling. I got the feeling that she thought I was trying to rip her off so I tried, politely, to explain that I collected comics and they really were only worth £30 and unfortunately I couldnt offer any higher, she replied she wasnt bothered whether she sold them to me as she would sell them eventually no matter how long it took and with that she went back into the rear room. I glimpsed her talking to a couple of people in there and then saw them shaking their heads.

This has put me off going into charity shops, I can get comics cheaper elsewhere and know im generally going to pay what they are worth or more often than not, more.
Was i wrong to try and make a deal?, maybe its frowned upon in charity stores, ive no idea?

Has anyone had any luck buying in charity shops, and do you try to get the price down a bit.

Not so long ago I bought Sparky Book 1967 from a YMCA charity shop for £1. It should've been buy one get one free (all books were) but nothing else interested me. The annual had no price on (they'd put it out without sticking a price on, how dumb is that?) and when they told me the price, I thought OK, I'll have it. If they'd tried to charge me a fiver or something, I would've walked out, as even though it's the first one, it wasn't worth more than about £3. I mean, who's heard of Sparky these days? Probably not the staff in that shop!

I usually have a look through charity shops. Recently I've looked through the ones in Kettering, Northampton, Bedford, Mkt. Harborough, Huntingdon, Stamford, St. Ives, St. Neots and Llandudno (I went to wales a few weekends ago). Currently I've found the big comic annual '92 from Bedford, the School fun annual from stamford (Now I have the complete collection of School fun annuals ) and the Wham annual '71 and the Beezer annual '96 from Mkt. Harborough. However, when I look in charity shops in Huntingdonshire, they seem to have near none. Either People don't buy annuals much over there or they don't want to get rid of their annuals as of yet. Aside from annuals I've also bought that Topper BeanoBook from a charity shop in Kettering, and noticed on the back it said Ned Kelly instead of Nick Kelly!

Regarding the original post, I think the problem is that charity shops have now latched onto the idea that comics are collectible and therefore worth money, without realising that there's a little more to it than that and that some comics are worth more than others. They aren't bothered about grade or guide price, indeed aren't even aware of them, they simply tend to assume that if something is 'old' it's got to be valuable-and that 'old' means earlier than last year. I've known a charity shop in Ipswich to price Beano books from the early 90s at £8 each!

I think the most I've paid at a bookshop was the Topper books 1962 and 1965 for £4 each.

I used to get lots of real bargins in Charity shops about 10 - 15 years ago , mosty US as thats what I prefer. I got about 20 early Marvels (1968ish) and Mighty Comics (Crusaders, Fly Man etc) all for £3 most in good condition 1 or 2 falling apart but good value about 10 years ago. But the last 5 years or so, never seen anything decnet or priced at a "bargin". The Oxfam book charity shop in the West End of GLasgow is selling piles of near mint (and some tattly) US comics from about 1990 (the odd one from '75 onwards) for £1.90 each no matter the year condition - I picked up a copy of a 70s Journyy into Fear with Frank Robbins art (love his stuff) it was falling apart very very tatty they charged £1.90 wouldn't consider reducing it (I got it as I hadn't got that issue - then bought a really good copy a few weeks later woth some other Invaders comics in the 5 for a £1 bargin bin). Another charity shop had Wham annual from 1970 for £15, it eventually sold but took 2-3 years - I suppose its for charity but they need to get the prices sorted out .

Yeah, there's some old annuals in my local Scope shop which have been there a few months, including a Diddymen annual and two obscure ones from the 70s whose titles I can't remember off hand. Dunno if they're overpriced or simply ignored for not being well known, or simply not selling because they're stocked with the adult books instead of in the children's section. The majority of annuals that shop gets are 90s and 00s TV tie-in annuals.

My best charity shop buy was the book Action story of a violent comic a nice almost mint copy for 20p i was well happy, then i showed the little old lady the inside of the viz book which was with the beanos etc she almost had a heart attack with the fat slags etc it was quickly put with the grown up books. the shop also had loads of wicked willie key rings in with the kids toys i have over the past few years picked up a number of 50s and 60s cowboy and tv related annuals for under a £1

I've mentioned this before (a few years back) but I picked up the Denis Gifford encyclopeadia of Comic Characters for 50p in a Sue Ryder shop. It was in a basket buried beneath a load of kids books but my eagle eye spotted the distinctive comic style lettering of the letter 'C' and i grabbed it. Incidentally in Deptford market on Saturday one stall had about 400 copies of 2000AD - a couple of dozen early issues but mostly early 2000 period many in poly bags. The woman said the original buyer paid two grand for them but she was only asking £200. She said she was going to take them to Forbidden Planet if they didn't sell.

I think that my best charity shop buy was the 1964 Victor Annual (the second annual) as it was reduced in price to £5! Needless to say, I snapped it up along with a very nice Jane at War for £1.

A steal like Dennis Gifford's encyclopedia had me travelling to Swindon Head Library and it was more by luck than judgement that had me finding it for £1.50.

You do find some unbelievable gems in charity shops, but you do have to search through herculean mounds of dross to find them.

You just have to get lucky with charity shops. I got 20-odd 80's Victors in amazing condition with free gifts for around £10 in one a while ago. You also haven't seen overpriced until you've seen a certain shop in Cambridge - Oxfam in Lincoln regularly sold old Nelson Reward books for £2-3, the place in Cambridge sells the same ones in the same condition for £15 or more.

Also i'm sure all of us have got "that" mega bargain in our collecting careers, paying over the odds for something else later down the line is perhaps karma XD.

stevezodiac wrote:I've mentioned this before (a few years back) but I picked up the Denis Gifford encyclopeadia of Comic Characters for 50p in a Sue Ryder shop. It was in a basket buried beneath a load of kids books but my eagle eye spotted the distinctive comic style lettering of the letter 'C' and i grabbed it. Incidentally in Deptford market on Saturday one stall had about 400 copies of 2000AD - a couple of dozen early issues but mostly early 2000 period many in poly bags. The woman said the original buyer paid two grand for them but she was only asking £200. She said she was going to take them to Forbidden Planet if they didn't sell.

And Forbidden Planet would say 'no thanks, we already have a doorstop'.

felneymike wrote:You just have to get lucky with charity shops. I got 20-odd 80's Victors in amazing condition with free gifts for around £10 in one a while ago. You also haven't seen overpriced until you've seen a certain shop in Cambridge - Oxfam in Lincoln regularly sold old Nelson Reward books for £2-3, the place in Cambridge sells the same ones in the same condition for £15 or more.

Not Books & Collectibles?

Also i'm sure all of us have got "that" mega bargain in our collecting careers, paying over the odds for something else later down the line is perhaps karma XD.

In about 1994, I found the first, second, fourth and fifth progs of 2000AD in a cardboard box outside a shop in Crystal Palace. I paid 10p each for them.

10p for an issue one? Good bargain you got there Tony!

Getting lucky in charity stopped when professional volunteers started - they volunteer with different charity shops for a few hours per week to get access to the new stock (at least that's what's happened in the North East in the last few years).

Even in years gone by though, charity shops were never that great for really good finds - although about 20 years ago (when I was a young collector of 10), I did pick up the first 2 Dennis the Menace annuals and a 1956 Beano, all in superb condition, for 20p each!

That is not to day bargains cannot be found though. A few months ago I got a near mint 1966 Oor Wullie from the Oxfam bookshop in Newcastle for £1.50...I think Oor Wullie and the Broons benefit from all looking pretty much alike to the untrained eye, and there is not obvious date to set the pound signs ringing.