The WORST Comic Book Lots EVER!

No...we aren't talking content - more like condition. Any of you that follow my eBay auctions know that I have been putting up some really rancid looking comics the past month. I scored the worst condition collection of my life back in early December - there were literally 10 to 15 books that I just had to throw away and that was AFTER keeping some of the COVERLESS books. Thing is, it was all DC, Marvel, Gold Key, Dell and Charlton Silver Age with about 30% Bronze Age from the same publishers - couldn't pass it up and got it on the cheap which is the only way a dealer can ever make any money in comics these days. Well that and digging out a book that can fetch a high CGC grade... but I digress...

Anyway, I decided to have some fun with them by telling like it is - i.e. these are the "WORST lots EVER on eBay" and describing them as such. So after a month, we are finally down to the last few lots - four of them ending tonight (Tuesday, 1/24/2012) and the remaining 12 lots ending this Sunday (1/29/2012).

So the clock is ticking to check out some really LOOOOOW grade comics - I mean some really horrible looking stuff....Enjoy!

Need Shipping Supplies? Don't Buy From BrownCor

Gotta get this off my chest.... Like many small merchants, I buy my shipping supplies in bulk from various packing supply companies. I've bought from BrownCor (packing tape), ULine (mostly white shipping boxes), Bubblefast (bubble wrap) and Bags Unlimited (comic specialty items - boxes usually). I buy from these different companies because of quality and price.

Well, that changed this week after placing an order with BrownCor. I placed the order on Tuesday, 1/10/2012 and used my PayPal Debit/Credit card. I was charged $88.77 immediately for the cost of the case of packing tape - but no shipping charges. BrownCor then charged me $99.09 on 1/12/2012 - an amount that includes $8.80 for shipping and $7.13 for Tax (doesn't say "Sales Tax" on the invoice, just "Tax"). I e-mailed BrownCor on 1/12/2012 and asked what gives - i.e. I am out $187.96 from my PayPal balance and there is no tracking number for the shipment. I am writing this on Saturday morning (1/14/2012) and there STILL is no tracking number... and I ordered this case of packing tape on Tuesday....

BrownCor did e-mail me back on Thursday and said the following:

"William,

The $88.77 amount will drop off. When you first place an order there is an allocation run on your card for the original amount and then when the order ships, the total plus shipping is charged. I apologize for the inconvenience."

So in other words, this is 2012 and BrownCor cannot figure out shipping charges on their products when they are ordered. BrownCor had four days to ship my order but it hasn't shipped yet and my PayPal balance is still out the original $88.77 and will be until at least Monday as BrownCor is closed on the weekends.

So get this: I ordered some boxes from ULine on Thursday, 1/12/2012 and received them on Friday, 1/13/2012 and was only charged ONCE and there was NO SALES TAX.

Anyway, I e-mailed BrownCor - well, replied to the e-mail I was sent - and let them know that this was an intolerable situation and at a minimum, I needed the "allocation run" removed today (Friday, 1/13/2012) and get my $88.77 back - well, that didn't happen so like I said, I am out the $88.77 until Monday at the earliest. On top of that, they have had my order for four days and haven't shipped it. WOW!

If I treated my customers this way, I wouldn't have any....period. So I am down to three packing supply companies that I will buy from as it will have to get mighty cold WAY DOWN BELOW before I ever order from BrownCor again.

Whew! Glad that is off my chest.... Hope everybody else is having a nice day!

Well, Happy New Year and time to get off my duff....

Can't believe I've been over three months without blogging - maybe I was in an alternative continuity....who knows? But I'm back so to speak and have a lot on my mind so check back often during the next few weeks.

Anyway, I've been beta testing a new social plugin for Wishpond.com where you can promote a special deal for your website on Facebook - sort of like Groupon. Anyway, the "deal" is for a CGC 9.8 copy of Ultimate Spider-Man #115 Zombie Variant for a mere pittance of $29.00 with free U.S. Shipping. Signing up for the deal runs out Tuesday night (1/10/2012).

Also been eBaying my lil' butt off these days. Scored a collection of some of the most beat up Silver and Bronze Age comics EVER, selling them in lots and promoting them as the WORST lots EVER. Read the auctions, check out the scans and you can tell that there is definitely TRUTH in advertising.

Finally for now anyway... been putting up a bunch of modern CGC books over at wwillie.com - check 'em out.

Sorry for all the e-commerce talk (well, sort of...) - will get back to fomenting my opinions very shortly...

Underground Comics - Random Thoughts...

Just wrote a little missive on Underground Comics (or Comix as a lot of them were called) over at Walkin' Willie's Comix Discount Books and you can read it here. Basically, I found a box of Underground Comix, have got them all up on eBay right now and this little piece is about some of what I found there as well as my first experiences with this forbidden slice of 1970's Americana. So please take a look if you are so inclined.....

So Long and Good Luck to Dragon*Con!

Well, for anybody that has cruised by here over the last year knows that Walkin' Willie's Comix is pretty much getting out of trades and hardcovers (unless they are in a collection) so it is with mixed feelings that I say so long and the best of luck to the venerable Dragon*Con going on this weekend. Anyone that has ever attended Dragon*Con knows how special the show is - your truly has been to at least 16 or 17 of them.

The deal is that you really can't sell single issue comics very well at Dragon*Con anymore like you could in the early '90s when all the big dealers like Showcase New England, Motor City Comics, etc. would show up with all their shiny stuff. The show has morphed into a multi-media pop culture event in which comics is only one of something like 34 programming tracks. Dragon*Con gets pretty darn good comic book guests every year but very, few comic book dealers. I think I counted seven comic book dealers in the room last counting myself. But I digress....

I learned about five years ago that the only thing you can really count on selling at Dragon*Con is trades/graphic novels/hardcovers - well, comic-wise that is... And we did a boffo business doing just that the past few years. Thing is, Dragon*Con is only once a year and it is nearly impossible to sell trades online unless you find them in collections or Marvel Comics does one of their WAY too regular blowouts (after dealers have already paid full wholesale three months before..). Go to Amazon and check out the lists of trade paperbacks and graphic novels at HALF of wholesale price or LOWER. That's just not a place in which I chose to compete.. um, because I just can't and there are too many other more lucrative areas of comics to sell online anyway (CGC books, out of print hardcovers, discount books from collections, etc.).

Still, I miss the show - there is SO much going on and the attendees are so creative in their costumes. But I sure don't miss the setup or the tear down or closing at 7:00 p.m. each day. Heck, by the time you got back to the hotel after securing your booth, counted your money and took a shower, it was nearly 9:00.

So as far as dealin' at Dragon*Con, I can't see that happening ever again unless I run into the trade paperback collection of all time. One of these days I'm gonna go down there as just a fan.... yeah, I'll show 'em.

Finally, thanks to all the wonderful folks that stopped by the booth over the years - you are what makes Dragon*Con so special.

Anyway, got a nice little batch of comics going on eBay next Sunday (9/11/2011) and some more of the CGC stuff, Marvel Premiere Classic Variants and Marvel Masterwork Trade Paperback Variants going up tomorrow night (9/4/2011). Will talk about next Sunday's eBay stuff at the beginning of the week - it's worth a blog article for sure.

Classic ASP And Internet Explorer 9 Need To Learn To Play Nice!

Well if any of you folks have tried to buy a lousy comic off of our discount site at walkinwilliescomix.com the last couple of weeks, you have probably run into VERY SLOOOOOOW page loading times.

After much teeth gnashing and head beating, I found a forum post where some other poor, hapless soul was experiencing the same problem.

The bottom line is that if you update your Windows 2008 server with IE9, the new browser drops a new VB Script dll (i.e. program) that confuses the heck out of Classic ASP when it has to fetch some data from your database and our site ain't nuthin' BUT fetching data. We were experiencing 22 second page load times - look, 22 seconds may not sound like a lot of time but when you are waiting for a page to load, it's like being in 3rd grade and waiting for 3:00 to roll around - it's a freakin' eternity!!!!!

Anyway....life is good but this poor ol' comic dealer sure wishes you would take your peepers over to Walkin' Willie's Comix Discount Books and buy about a 100 books.... sure would cheer me up......

Ok...Need To Rev Up The Facebook Traffic....

As in my last post, I mentioned that Walkin' Willie's Comix has a new Facebook Page. Maybe it was some deep rooted narcissistic persona that made me think that multitudes would come - nay, RUN - over to Ol' Willie's latest foray into the Wild World Web. Alas it wasn't to be..... probably because you have to OFFER something to get something back...

So humbly, Ol' Willie is tying the proverbial steak around his neck to get the dogs...um, internet patrons... to play with him. So if you do "Like" the page, you will have access to 20% DISCOUNT COUPONS for both the wwillie.com (CGC and specialty trades/hardcovers) and www.walkinwilliescomix.com (deeply discounted comic books) websites! Coupon codes will be updated monthly so come back often and check us out.

By the way, remember when I said not to shop at www.wwillie.com? Well, forget what I said as inventory is totally up-to-date now (always was at www.walkinwilliescomix.com) - there isn't a ton of merchandise there but a lot of CGC books and a few specialty trades and hardcovers. More to come!

Odds And Ends.....

Just a few musings about stuff. Charlotte ComiCon was fantastic! Went there with around 45 short boxes of trades and six long boxes of mostly bronze age stuff and came back with nuttin'! Not one stinkin' trade, hardcover or comic to be found in my car on the way back. Thing is, we made decent money as well. The sad news - at least for me - is that is the last con for Ol' Willie will set up at for quite awhile - probably 2 years or so. The next show I go to will be to BUY some books - will take my time and build the collection up.

In the meantime, I am busy trying to scale down and I'm eBaying just about everything I can lay my hands on at the warehouse. Came across a 1994 Chicagoland Enviromint Carolina Panthers Pure Silver Coin that I had forgotten I had bought back when the Panther's franchise first started. So what the heck - up it goes on eBay. More weird stuff to follow....

The big little deal is that Walkin' Willie's Comix is now on Facebook! I've done the personal Facebook deal for awhile but now it is time - well, WAY past time - to do a little marketing Facebook style. Great place to throw out short bursts that have a little more meat on the bone than Twitter. So if you read this, check out my page and if you "like" the page, that would be great (and thanks in advance...).

More to come....

Walkin' Willie's Last Picture Show? Say It Ain't So!

Well, OK - it ain't.... but this Sunday's Charlotte ComiCon will be my last comic convention as a dealer for probably two years or more. If you have read any of my recent blog articles, you know that Walkin' Willie's Comix is getting out of the trade paperback and hardcover business.

Why? It is just too hard to compete with Amazon. Need an example, then just check out The Walking Dead Volume 13 over there - sellers are pitching that for less than half price and if you include Amazon's super high selling fees, those dealers had to get that book at nearly 60% off to make anything at all! If I had a Dragon*Con to go to every month, it would be one thing but with the margin pressure from Amazon, it's time to go in a different direction. I am quietly building a vintage comic collection and will be back on the show circuit in about two years. Instead of schlepping 100+ short boxes full of trades, gridwire, extra tables, wood bookcases (big ones...) and all kinds of supplies, I'll be down to 20 or so mag boxes of comics along with a modest display - set up and break down in under an hour!

But I digress.... the big deal for you, the comic fan is that Ol' Willie will be blowing out all trades and hardcovers at this week's show at 80% off of the retail price printed on the book (i.e. the price located within or close to the barcode area). I'm bringing 45 boxes of this stuff and will probably auction or blow out the rest of it to another dealer at the end of the show. Bring lots o' cash as no cards will be taken with discounts THIS big.

After 20 years of doing shows, the only thing I will miss are the fans and the dealers - it's been a lot of fun but I won't miss load up, set up, break down and load out AT ALL!

Thanks to all the fans who have supported Walkin' Willie's Comix through the years - couldn't have done this as long as I have without your support. But enough of all this sentimental crap - go to your nearest ATM, draw out as much cash as the bank will allow and come on down to Charlotte, NC this weekend and burn Ol' Willie a new one!

What a Story at The Virginia Vintage Comics Show!

I really had another topic that I wanted to get into but will save that for Wednesday (BIG announcement....). The Virginia Vintage Comics show was another success for yours truly and many thanks go out to Roger Mannon for running another great show.

That isn't the real story at all - not by a long shot. I just got in the building and hadn't unloaded a single book when I saw a record album up on Roger Mannon's display board. It wasn't an album that I had ever seen before so I went to get a closer look. As I was holding the record and checking it out, another dealer, Banks Robinson said that I was holding a $700 dollar album in my hands. My eyes certainly went wide on that little piece of information so I had to look at it closer (You can see a larger version of the album cover by clicking on the thumbnail at left - sorry for the reflection but this lil' gem was still in its original shrinkwrap!). Immediately, I saw that Roger himself was the young fellow on the far right. The band's name was Virgil Caine - named after the confederate soldier made famous by the song "The Night They Drove Ol' Dixie Down"

The ever-so-humble Mr. Mannon said that I could get the whole story from some other guy across the room but I stayed put until he told me a little bit about it. Turns out that Roger and his two friends recorded the album in 1971 on a back porch using a Sears reel-to-reel tape recorder. Roger explained that he didn't understand it but there are small pockets of underground folk fans that really like the album. He showed me a webpage printout that showed that the album sold in an auction on eBay for $699 dollars! WOW!

Roger explained that a guy called him up and offered $10 for 10 copies - Roger said sure as he had a few copies around the house and was surprised that anybody wanted them, much less 10 copies. The guy called up a few weeks later and said that he would pay $40 for any copy left - that gave Roger a reason to pause. Roger said that the sound quality was not good and that one track on the album, "The Great Lunar Oil Strike, 1976" was the track that people seemed to like the most. Roger indicated that their might be a re-release of the album some day.

So far, I have been able to listen to the first two tracks of the album and while it is not professional studio quality, it is ANYTHING but bad sound quality. This band was talented and I can readily understand how fans are still clamoring for a re-release. I hope that the band will get it digitally remastered and get it on a site like CD Baby or some MP3 site where they can get some royalties for this Blue Ridge Mountain 1970's classic. Me? I'm looking forward to listening to the rest of the album tonight!

You just never know what stories people have created in their lifetimes....