Comic book collection the movie

Just a follow-up post this time. I sat down and opened up all the packages I brought back with me from my comic-book odyssey in the US. If the vids are too small, just click on them and you will be magically transported to my Youtube channel where you can watch them in full-size. Enjoy

Comic book collection...it just got bigger (that's what she said)

In july 2010 I took one of my comic book pilgrimages to the US to meet up with some friends, get to meet comic book collectors, visit a bunch of comic book stores, do some business and buy as many nice comics as possible.

This trip was a particularly fruitful one as not only did I have a splendid time meeting up with my comic buddies and business partners ; Jaime, Arturo, Christobal, Andres, Miguel, Jorge, Timotheo and Adamo (the names have been "Spanished" to protect the innocent) but I got meet a lot of very nice people and co-collectors.

I managed to score a very nice bunch of Silver Age books and take some keys, treasuries and magazines back home with me. In fact it was a miracle that I made it as I was hauling two giant suitcases halfway across the world. This time I concentrated mainly on the states surrounding Washington DC and the South and visited 6 US states (yes I know DC is technically not a state...). Again the best books came from private collectors that were open to selling them or trading them but I also managed to find some decent books at some of the comic book stores. Now it is true that a lot of comic book stores have closed down and than most of them don't hardly have any GA/SA/BA inventory, but there are still some of them out there.
I was very impressed with a couple of stores around the Orlando, FL area and one store in Knoxville, TN.

This time I also picked up some modern books...there were still a few runs I needed to complete, and those issues were pretty hard to find. Sure I could get them online, mostly one comic at a time, but picking up a $5.00 and then paying $14.00 shipping is pretty silly to me. I was very hard to go through hundreds of boxes to find the few modern issues I was still looking for. Some I paid more for than what I would pay online, but there were no shipping costs, which helps a lot on cheaper books. If you buy a $2000 book, paying $30 shipping doesn't kill you, but it kills me to pay those high shipping prices for cheap books.

The biggest score, not in monetary but sentimental terms was the large number of Treasuries I managed to get. These over-sized books are near impossible to ship overseas and are always quickly snapped up by collectors as everyone that likes comics just loves Treasuries. But I'll save the details for a future blog-post focusing on Treasury sized-books.


The trip ended on a high note as I had made an appointment nearly half a year ago to go see and research the original art to Amazing Fantasy #15 in the Library of Congress in Washington DC...and it really took my breath away. But again I'll write a separate entry about that in the very near future.

All in all it was a fun experience but not for those who get road-weary. Getting there and back took 8000 miles of air travel and that's not counting the few thousand miles I flew, drove (ok, I was driven, but still...) and walked in the US.

I carefully wrapped up all the stuff I bought and decided to take back with me and here's a pic of a bunch of them. Enjoy and stay tuned for more posts concerning this trip.