"Post No. 559"

Comic Book Collecting-wise I've decided to do my annual thinning of the herd, so-to-speak, where I go thru box after box of comics, taking out stuff I don't really want to keep to either sell as one large lot or start sticking it into a yard sale.

Right now I approximate my inventory at a little over 13,000 comics. Gritting my teeth as I pull from those boxes I'm sure I can eliminate at least 5,000 of that as I have at least 700 duplicates.

Titles that will be pulled are mostly all modern Marvel "X" books (with just a few exceptions), tons of alternative press publications (Image, Now, Top Cow, Innovation, etc., etc. titles), lots and lots of Whitman humor titles, and, I'm not sure what else, but this will give me the extra bags and boards that I need for the stuff I want to keep (as well as extra "long" boxes), saving me from having to purchase more of those, and the books (unless they're in some low-grade bags with cheapo backing boards) can go "free-range".

I may or may not pull from 25-50 lots of those putting them together in 50 comic stacks to sell on eBay; haven't decided yet. Just depends on how much time I have to fool with them. I'm also going to eliminate any coverless and or damaged comics from my collection (unless it's something REALLY worth keeping even in that shape). I'll use the income from these sales to further einhance the collections I wish to keep complete until said time that I finally retire (IF that day ever comes) to sell on on-line auctions to help suppliment my social security (I can't sign up for that for another 5 years). Or, perhaps invest it into some good pre-70's stuff that I can find in deals that can be resold as a profit at that time.

I've stopped buying any new comics off the stands unless it's maybe an issue of The Hulk, Supergirl, FF or JLA. Cover price is waaayyyy to high for that. I'll still concentrate on my "want lists", but I'm even slimming that down as well. The only way I'll be buying any firther modern comics will be in "lot" deals as well, but ONLY those issues that are on the Want List.

I'm considering selling about 75% of my paperbacks as well, which I have in the 3,000-4,000 range. Complete sets of Edgar Rice Burroughs, most of the "Perry Rhodans", lots of pulp-related stuff, Frazetta and Jeff Jones covers, etc. I may sell my ERB vintage hardcovers, too, plus some myriad trade paperbacks and magazines.

The older one gets, the less clutter they want. I have a ton of things like action figures, vintage soda bottles and the like that I need to clear out of here. I have no living children to leave this stuff to, and really, my wife wouldn't have the foggiest idea as to how to sell it or even list it. She'd end up getting screwed over by someone selling it for her, and to let it go at an estate sell is next to giving it away. best to get the money one can for it in current times that not at all, and use it to better our lives and fix up things that still need it around the house, or put it into savings as neither of us have any health insurance and a good stay in a hospital would literally ruin us.

Here recently when I took my mom down to the local pharmacy, I noticed the druggist had some new J. T. Chick tracts and I was able to add four more to more collection of same. Counting the ones in Espano and variations now, I count 85 different ones of these, but I'm sure there's many, many more that have been published over the years.


And kudos to anyone that can recognize the above panel from a John Rominta drawn silver-age issue of The Amazing Spider-man (as I'm too lazy to actually look it up), which pictures Kraven and The Vulture II. (I'd say it's circa 1967-68). This is the top illustration to a metal pencil-box I found at the local Rite-Aid Drug Store on their mark down table for forty cents and thought it a good addition to other Spider-man tins of sorts that I have around. (Click onto picture for a larger version to read.)