My one cent’s worth.
On Saturday I took a look at a few oddities on the eBay, including a Silver Surfer hologram from the first Marvel Universe set that didn’t sell for its minimum bid of $0.01. As I noted, that was quite the comedown for an item that, as I recall, once had a large consumer demand.
I thought that for today, I’d take a brief glance at a few other items that did or did not sell on the eBay for one measly penny for whatever reason (beyond some of the more…optimistic shipping charges some of these items have):
NO SALE
“10 plastic comic book bags. Excellent condition, but slightly used. Fits current standard comic size.
Pictures available on request.”
With a “Buy It Now” price of $10.00, and a $10.00 shipping fee. There’s “balls,” and then there’s “BALLS.”
“1 Cent WIZARD COMICS MAGAZINE 150th Rare As New SH$1.99” – You know, if you’re a store, and you ever have any Wizard Magazines left over when the next issue arrives, you’re gonna be stuck with them, pretty much.
“GOLD KEY 1966 Gomer Pyle Issue #2!” – Okay, it’s not in mint shape, by any means, but it’s a ’60s TV comic, with a photo cover, and the shipping is reasonable ($2.50, running my zip code through the shipping calculator)…wonder why nobody snapped it up?
“Cathy (Comic Strip) Coffee Mug” – There’s no mystery why this didn’t sell for a penny…IT’S CATHY.
“Uncanny X-Men 305-314 books Magneto HOT MOVIE” – Even the promise of a HOT MOVIE can’t seem to move these vastly overprinted mutant books. Part of it might be the shipping costs (a run through the shipping calculator indicates $11.00 for priority, or $8.66 parcel post…these would easily fit in a $4.05 flat rate priority envelope (for example), and even the flat rate priority box is only $8.10.)
“MAXX 1-4 SAM KIETH IMAGE” – I honestly don’t get this. On one hand, I realize that there are probably more copies of the first four issues of The Maxx in the world than there are of, say, copies of The Bible. But, on the other hand, at least at our shop, The Maxx is still an enormous back issue seller. Not a week goes by when I don’t have to restock our depleted Maxx section. It’s possible it’s just a local market condition, but I still find myself baffled by the non-sale of this particular auction.
“BUGS BUNNY COMIC BOOK ANTIQUE ISSUE #2 RARE HARD 2 FIND”
“HERE YOU WILL FIND A FASTINATING BIT OF COMIC HISTORY, I HAVE FOR YOUR CONCIDERATION AND BID, A # 2 ISSUE OF ( THE BEST OF BUG’S BUNNY ), THE COMIC IS IN GOOD READABLE SHAPE AND WOULD MAKE A WOUNDERFUL CONVERSATION PIECE TO ANY HOME.”
“Droids #1 Star/Marvel 1986 VF/NM C3PO R2D2 No Res” – Believe it or not, there was once a time when even these Droids comics were in huge demand, as some of the “rarest” Star Wars funnybook tie-ins.
“Batman Silver Laser Engraved Dog Tag Keychain Plate D11”
“These engraved pendants are the hottest items in malls and kiosks. Each pendant is created using impact metal engraving. This technology creates dazzling image reproduction. View the pictures and note how detailed the images are.”
“MAD MAGAZINE 217 1980 Alfred Neuman for President Comic” – Mads seem to be hard sells on the eBay, unless they’re really early issues in very nice condition. I did want to link to this one since it has one of my all-time favorite Mad covers.
“Robin II #1 Hologram Comic (1991) -Joker!!- Ships Cheap” – DC’s insane “each issue will have multiple covers, and we’ll sell all the variations together in one package, and the number of variants will decrease as the series continues” publishing strategy on this series had this end result: too many copies of this mini-series running around, clogging up collections and store backrooms. No wonder this auction didn’t sell for a penny.
“Taboo #8 Kitchen Sink Press trade paperback” – Not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but we sold one of these a while back for a few bucks, while this one didn’t sell for anything. Don’t see any reason why, beyond having the good timing of putting up a Taboo #8 at the same time someone was looking for one.
“1979 DC Comics Inc. Superman Nutcracker collectible” – This would have been worth a penny just for the nightmare fuel alone:
SALE:
“SWORDS OF CEREBUS VOL.1” – Used to be that I’d be able to sell the Swords of Cerebus volumes for $5 to $10 apiece fairly consistently…then all of a sudden demand dropped off, and I ended up with a few Swords auctions ending without bids. We must have hit the eBay’s Swords of Cerebus saturation point.
“SPIDER-MAN BLACK CAT EVIL.MEN DO 1-6 comic lot full st” – Wasn’t this a hot series at one point? I know we were moving copies pretty consistently, even during the two-year publishing gap in the middle of the series. Even with the $8.95 shipping, that still works out to only $1.50 an issue, or half cover price. Not bad.
“UNCANNY X MEN#277 gAmBiT VS. w0lVeRiNeeeeeeeeeeee” – You know, the only way you’re gonna grab the people using the eBay search function to find their favorite character “ww0lVeRiNeeeeeeeeeeee” is by making sure “w0lVeRiNeeeeeeeeeeee” appears somewhere in the title or auction text. (But hey, he got his penny, who am I to judge?)
“Wilbur #47 1953 NR” – the “NR” stands for “No reserve price,” in case you were wondering. Anyway, getting this early Wilbur for a penny is a score, even with the $7.05 shipping fees.
“Phantom Skull Ring (Metal) *SEALED*” – Okay, this is pretty cool. “Very Rare to find brand new and never opened! Don’t worry if you lose the bid, I got over 100 of them:)” Fantastic.
AND THEN THERE WAS THIS AUCTION IN THE COMICS CATEGORY:
“Nevermind” – I like the cat picture.
