Becoming A True Believer: One Geek's Journey Into Comics [Part 4]
By: Mithrandiel
Phew! So it's been a pretty crazy 6 weeks since I dove head-first into the world of comics. As I mentioned in some of my earlierentries, I had some fond memories from my youth of reading stories like The Death and Return of Superman - but otherwise remained on the sort of outer fringes of the hobby for most of my life.
Until now...
The last few weeks I've delighted in identifying some new series to get involved with, including Mega Man: Fully Charged, Rise of Ultraman, Undone by Blood, We Only Find Them When They're Dead, and Stillwater. I'll be sure to offer my more fleshed-out thoughts on these issues soon, but suffice it to say that I'm enjoying some amazing narratives - and even better art!
I also managed to find (with Lance's help) a rare trade centered around Cullen Bunn's Venom run -
The main subject of this update is to discuss how my involvement with the comic hobby has moved in a more enterprising direction...
You see, after spending some time expanding my personal collection, and going after books and series I was confident I'd enjoy, Lance and I decided to venture into the world of comic-flipping. I had actually sold through a friend's collection in the past, and Lance offers a wealth of knowledge around comics that could help us spot good deals.
Our initial buy-in was just over $500 for a good-sized lot of Marvel/DC titles, and a longbox of assorted indies. Building bundles and pulling some of the key issues helped us turn that collection over and double our money, which we then used to purchase a hefty lot which included a staggering 57 graded books, or "slabs".
While eBay is a common avenue for sales like this, we've actually found quite a bit of success on Facebook - numerous comic book groups with memberships in the tens of thousands provide a captive audience of interested buyers.
Via eBay, Facebook marketplace and OfferUp, we're in the final phases of selling through our most recent collection now, and have effectively tripled our money at this point. This side-hustle is shaping up to be quite effective...so far.
Our next phase involves navigating the world of the Certified Guaranty Company, or CGC. Considered to be the gold standard for graded/slabbed books, we got a membership to submit a handful of promising books to be graded and sold at a profit.
In the meantime, I continue to pick up books and limited series, including the two-issue 1989 run of Silver Surfer, which really struck a chord with me as I read through it.
Centered around the chaos that ensues when Galactus arrives and sets mankind on the path to self destruction, the two-issue parable run from Stan Lee and Jean Giraud (operating under the pseudonym "Moebius") is chock full of lofty lines, including Silver Surfer's timeless challenge: "Let it ever be the goal that stirs us, not the odds."
A worthwhile reminder in these times.
It's going to take a while to get those books back from CGC, but in the meantime I'll be sure to continue my updates on the continuing development of this new hobby!
Until next time!
