Computers make everything easier!
Well, I’m left with almost no time to post at the moment because I spent the evening trying to figure out how to reset the password on my desktop Macintosh. Wasn’t getting “reset password” options on the login screen, and it took forever to find help online that wasn’t specific to 1) laptops, 2) phones, and 3) older Macs. Oddly, the password I’d been using forever (bad idea, don’t do as I do, kids) suddenly stopped working, and I’m not sure why. (When I had to reenter the old password later, after the reset, it worked fine.)
Anyway, all is good now unless it happens again tomorrow, but we’ll see. But I’ve changed the password to something a little easier to deal with, so nobody tell anyone that it’s now “seanmageeanisastinker,” okay?
All that said, I wanted to thank you folks for all the great comments you’ve been leaving lately. I do read every one, and I appreciate the civil discussion.
I’ll try to address a couple of questions from last time here.
First, JohnO asks
“Question regarding overseas reprints…what if it is a reprint of a key issue from the UK/Australia? Are those also ‘cheaper?’ Obviously, they go for less than the original but how much more are they able to sell for since they are in English? Thanks and keep up the great work.”
I actually got into this a couple of years ago, where the answer at the time was, in general, they were worth about the same, if not more, at least for the UK editions. The ones I was speaking of back then were essentially identical to the U.S. versions, likely printed at the same time, with only the cover priced altered. (There were some comics that were the U.S. editions, just ink-stamped with a UK price, which are priced as normal per their condition including said stamp.)
Basically, if they’re the same book otherwise, the cover price being printing in a different denomination doesn’t change things much, usually. When I had those Silver Age Marvels with the printed UK prices, I had no problem moving them at current U.S. market pricing.
Jim Kosmicki suggests
“I’m not in comics retailing anymore, but this really strikes me as a put it up on eBay and let the market price it situation, depending on what you have invested in it already.”
It is tempting, and I’ve done so in the past, but I’ve really been shying away from using eBay for selling of late. However, I feel like the fees are getting more and more burdensome there, and would rather avoid it if at all possible. I do still have a few things on there for the shop, but it’s mostly things I’m trying to unload that I couldn’t sell locally. This particular comic I’m pretty sure I can sell in-store without giving a giant megacorporation a quarter of my take.
And will richards responds to JohnO by noting UK reprints of U.S. comics don’t sell for a whole lot, which reminds me I should make a distinction in my own response to JohnO above. I was talking about straight-up UK editions of U.S. books…not “reprints,” like that Superman/Batman book from Germany, which is a whole separate publication reissuing previously-published stories from the U.S. which will is talking about. Yes, the UK-specific reprint mags containing “key” reprint material don’t sell for as high premiums, but can sell for a bit depending on exactly what it is. Having, like he said, the first appearance of Wolverine in a UK reprint is enough of a novelty to get those prices pushed upward.
Okay, here’s hoping to no computer problems before the next post. Thanks for reading, pals.
@ Mike Sterling
I’m sure your password would work perfectly fine if it was altered to:”seanmageeanisagentlemanandascholar”.
You’ve probably written about this before, but if not, I believe the big money for foreign editions of comics is tied into the Mexican editions of Spider-Man from the early ’70s where they decided to let Gwen live and she and Peter were married. Kinda a “What If…” alternate reality before “What If…” was even a glimmer in Roy Thomas’s eyes.
If any foreign edition reprints come into your shop with Neal Adams or Steranko covers, let me know the prices.
Also, from going down the rabbit hole on that Aussie reprint website, it might be interesting to do a Progressive Ruin feature on Australia’s iterations of Cat Man, Captain Atom, and Shadow…which appear to be completely different characters from their American counterparts.
Oddly enough, I remember this question being asked in aWizard magazine letters column in the mid ’90s. The answer given was that the UK edition of the ’60s Avengers comic was worth less than the US edition. Times change, of course, so maybe that used to be the norm. If you can’t trust Wizard for accurate and believable comic book pricing information, though, who can you trust?
Those Aussie versions of Cat Man, Captain Atom, and Shadow are indeed different characters from their American counterparts! Frew Publishers here put a Phantom comic out every two weeks which is usually a mixture of reprints and new-ish European stories (and the occassional Aussie new story) Frew put out a ‘giant size’ Phantom 100 page-ish edition quarterly that contains lots of reprints of the like of the Australian versions of Catman and the Shadow as well as some other Aussie heroes from the 40s-60s like the Panther, Phantom Commando, Planetman and Sir Falcon (among others), usually each issue will contain a homegrown new story on the Phantom or one of those other characters too (there was a teamup storyline with all of them a while back). The covers of the quarterly are done by the fantastic Glen Lumsden who is sort of Australias answer to Brian Bolland, he sometimes illustrates an interior story as well.