Special Guest: Joey on Comicbook Collecting

Chad: 0:10

You are now listening to Escape Reality Comics Podcast Show, a podcast where we discuss all things nerdy, geeky, fandom and so much more. We will cover everything from what's happening in the world kind of shows and fandom to hard hitting stories, the news today. Now, here's your host, Chad, and Kevin. Hello, welcome to Escape Reality Comics Podcast Show today is a we have a very special guest named Joey. How you doing? Joey?

Joey: 0:37

Wonderful.

Chad: 0:39

Of course, we got my co host, Kevin. How you doing today, buddy?

Kevin: 0:42

I'm doing great. I'm really excited because we got Joey.

Chad: 0:45

Oh, righty.

Joey: 0:46

Oh, man

Kevin: 0:47

Our first guest.

Chad: 0:48

So Joey, tell us about yourself, man. And we got. We're talking about collecting comics today. And one of my favorite topics. And I've heard that you are a big comic collector. So

Joey: 1:01

I am I spend a lot of my time collecting comics and researching buy and selling comics and I have a lot of fun with it. I've been doing it for shit more longer than I can even believe I guess, about 30 years now. Wow.

Chad: 1:19

Wow. Nice

Joey: 1:20

Yeah. But um, you know, it started out as a smaller hobby

Chad: 1:23

At CGC level. when I was young. But oh, yeah, of course. Yeah. Over the last 10 years, it got a little more serious and got to the point where I was able to afford to buy the nicer, more rare comics what I wanted

Joey: 1:40

Yeah, submitting comics and all that stuff. Yeah,

Chad: 1:43

exactly. So actually, we're gonna be talking about a lot about that today. Today, we're gonna talk about like, you know, why comics, not novels, we're gonna be talking about what beginners out there who actually are interested in getting to comic books, what to do, what to look for, and basically where to start. Then we're gonna talk about the intermediate stage where you know, you kind of have an idea of what to get already, just kind of touching on the value of the comics. And then you're gonna we're gonna talk about downright investing into the comic book world, and what to look for what to do, how to submit your comic books, and the CGC, how to get it like your the CGC, the gold label on the CGC, where it's actually signed. So we're gonna talk about all that today. And of course, today is Saturday. So we're gonna be talking about the comic book of the week. So and Joey actually picked that out and is actually a really good comic book. I don't know if you ever get me my brother makes fun of me. Right. I'm the oldest one in the family. I'm like, the only one interested in comic books. And he likes movies and all stuff. He's really into Deadpool, but he's always like he like I read novels. How dare you. Oh, my God. So I'm just going to carry on with comics books. Yeah, exactly. I'm like, dude, I love comic books. I

Kevin: 2:47

Nerd mean, it got me to read. The history is rich is it's just like jazz man. I mean, their income books were the first popularized popularized in the US in the UK, and you got the art, you got that good storytelling, and it's less time consuming. I mean, I can read a whole like, book, the whole volume, like, give me like a day, or a day and a half. And I'm just totally I read the whole thing I can. I can, it's I love it. I absolutely love I like it's just a lot better than actually reading a novel to me.

Joey: 3:24

So I'm the same, you know, I love I, I don't know, it's sensory overload. You get the pictures, along with the storytelling, you know?

Chad: 3:32

Exactly.

Joey: 3:34

And what's cool nowadays, finally getting its do recognition with movies and TV, picking up on you know, we have these wonderful, rich stories, some that have been developed for, you know, 50 years now, right? Yes, characters and plot points, villains and whatnot. And they're all storyboard it out, you know, they're out there ready to go, you know, so it's cool for new fans to come into it. But it's also cool for people who have followed these heroes or stories for so long and they're staying true to the comics, you know, so they're doing their homework and they're doing it right and i don't know it's been really really fun time to be a collector and to watch it develop.

Chad: 4:21

I mean, I'm thinking being the collector now is a lot the comic industry has boomed especially with like, you get collectors are and you got a comic book that isn't really worth much back in the day before movie came out and ultimately came out all sudden, like doubled in value.

Joey: 4:34

Right. And that's a lot of the fun I've been having is staying up on, you know, news and option news, which studios are getting the rights to what books and you know, overnight comic that's been $1 bin book for decades, becomes $100 book, you know,

Chad: 4:53

exactly. And that's what we'll be talking about today, too. But later on during the show, we're talking about investing. So I know Kevin is really big. into Ninja Turtles.

Joey: 5:02

Oh, yeah.

Kevin: 5:04

Yeah,

Chad: 5:04

yeah. For beginners, what do you know for people coming? There's a lot of people now because the movies are coming out or we have a whole new fan base actually a lot younger fan base because I was doing my research and you probably know this to Joey, it's, you know, the the age range for comic books aren't the 18 year olds aren't 13, 12 year olds. It's the 24 to 40 year olds that are into comic books. And now I'm starting to see that a lot. comic fans are getting a lot younger now. So yeah, I don't know if you've noticed the same thing.

Joey: 5:35

Sure. Yeah. And it seems as if a lot of the comic companies have noticed that too, and they're putting out younger, targeted books. They even have a section. I know IDW has kind of partnered up with Marvel, and they're putting out more younger targeted books

Chad: 5:55

fan base, right,

Joey: 5:56

right. Yeah. So it'll be the same same heroes, Spider Man, Avengers and whatnot, but it'll be under the IDW imprint. Yeah. And they'll be kind of written and targeted more toward the younger audience, which is cool.

Kevin: 6:10

Exactly. Trial isn't very interesting, because I I don't know I never would have thought IDW would be able to get that from Marvel.

Joey: 6:18

Yeah, it's interesting. And and same with Star Wars, Marvel Star Wars and IDW. I know they're putting out like, for instance, Star Wars just came out with the high Republic series that Marvel is putting out and at the same time they released under the IDW the Star Wars High Republic Adventures, which is in the same universe as the regular high Republic series by Marvel. But it's

Kevin: 6:48

the Avengers or adventures thing seems to be kind of the way to kind of get the younger audience

Joey: 6:54

right. Yeah, get some in there. Get some familiar with these characters, you know, and then as they get older, you know, they can start reading

Kevin: 7:02

Read the real stuff

Joey: 7:03

right exactly. Now can you know the adults like,

Chad: 7:08

I'm even noticing that they have been changing some of the storylines, like say, when galaxy galaxy, excuse me, the Guardians of the Galaxy first came out with the movie like the volume one. They change the storyline. They had a whole comic book to go with the movie,

Joey: 7:21

Right? Yeah.

Chad: 7:22

I don't know. If you were like, I was never a fan of Guardians again.

Joey: 7:25

No, nope, they're always an obscure, you know, third, third tier. Yes, you know,

Chad: 7:30

exactly. And I would have memory. I'm like, I'm reading as a kid. Like, this is like, so boring to read. Because, you know, you got StarLord who's like, the old comics, he's very much rigate rigid. He's very serious. He's like, oh, haa, you know, then the new comic book came out the whole new storyline come out the match with the guardians, Guardians of the Galaxy movie. It was more laid back. He was more funny. He acts

Joey: 7:54

as a sarcastic attitude, you know? Totally. Yeah. And I think I know, I've noticed that with the movie industry, they have been putting out some kind of I don't know if you'd call them filler books, or lead in lead in books to the movie, but I think it's a way to bring people into the comic world pre, you know, movie, you know, so, you know, you're planning on seeing this movie. Let's read this book and get familiar with the characters. And sometimes, I would assume by doing that, it gets people into collecting as well, whatever gets them through the LCS doors, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Chad: 8:35

So yeah, it's like, what would she if some kid came up to us? I'm really interested to start reading comic books. Where do I start? Where would you tell them to start?

Joey: 8:45

Wow. Well, I mean, for me, who didn't have somebody to really do that for me? I mean, I came from I'm a 90s kid, you know, so um, yeah, I think I I really started liking comics what spawned you know, and that image titles, but I would say you know, go into the store and look for something that intrigues you you know what what are you seeing in there that sparks your interest you know that what what's making you want to pick it up? You know? Exactly it's a lot of hit and miss you know, I'll give it that obviously if there's a movie or you know, something that you already liked right then oh yeah, you can go follow suit with that and go with that you know, but um you know, I just kind of had to trial and error you know, pick grab a few books see what you like dollar dollar bins are great for that for you know, if you really don't know what you're you're looking for grab bags are not bad, you know, grab bags definitely like sometimes it'll you'll discover something that you didn't know existed at all, you know, exactly.

Chad: 9:50

I remember when I was brand new. I literally I lived in Gridley, California, a very small town, and we had one comic store and it wasn't very Big I think I've told the story before it was looked like it seriously looked like a jail cell. You walk in you shoulder shoulder like Wall to Wall we had a guy who was like over 300 pounds. He was the comic book owner, you know, and it's like literally like it to three people in the store. The store didn't last very long because it's Gridley. He's a very small town. But I remember picking up venom I remember seeing all this other stuff. And I got really interested. If someone came up to me now I would tell them like, you know, what genre do you like? Can you do like superheroes? Like non superheroes? Because like, when it comes to me, personally, I'm sitting I'm getting away from the super superhero comics. Oh, yeah. And I'm really into the non superhero, the more of the like, yeah, I'm trying to think on top my head like walking dead. You know, so yeah, and stuff like that. More adult orientated, more gory, more dark. On the darker side. I'm getting really into that, you know, when it comes to superhero comic books, I'm more into it, like in the collection. You know,

Joey: 10:54

I the same way. Yeah, as far as my own personal reads. Although, you know, there's a few superhero books like, I, I like Batman. Yeah, yes. And I think that's kind of, I mean, I like Batman, because he although he's a superhero, he doesn't have any superpowers, you know? Yes. which kind of makes him a little more relatable, although I'm not a billionaire. Anything. Yeah, exactly. But you know, it's it's 10 you know, it's almost within you're grabbing a regular guy could get to that level, it's, you know, if you say you won the lottery or something, I mean, you don't have to have some cosmic energy, you know, blasted on you or some sort of mutation and to be Batman, you know,

Chad: 11:36

No you just have to work out every day you have to

Kevin: 11:39

have a master data.

Chad: 11:41

Your parents die, right. Yeah, your parents you know, you will have mental health issues with that and just, you know, Master every single martial arts out there, you know,

Joey: 11:50

but but you know, I mean, it's, it's something that in the real world could be done, right. I mean, I

Chad: 12:00

mean, yeah, I mean, there's superheroes like think like New York City or Chicago, where people are like literally putting on masks to fight crime. Sure. Yeah. Yeah, they're UFC fighters or whatever. They just go out there and fight crime like Dude, what are you doing?

Joey: 12:15

But but but I had a similar you know, with growing I grew up in Paradise, California, you know, so another small town and we didn't have much in the way comic shops. I think a couple opened and closed there was a paradise collectible there so I think Kevin might have been in there as well at some point

Kevin: 12:35

in life, but I might have mentioned it in the podcast before but it's like it was like a fake comic book store off of Elliott road Yes, yes. That's Yeah, go in there and it was hard and awkward right? Yeah. And I no one else knew but I guess you and I were in the

Joey: 12:52

idea I was there. I that's where I picked up a bone Jeff Smith bone comics which I will go in love with you know, and was lucky enough to have stumbled upon that you know, by accident. I even remember at the time buying it and my friend going Bones lame spawn could kick their asses you know, it's like yeah, it's not it's not about that exactly. You know, I don't think they're trying to be the toughest superheroes out there you know exactly different kind of a story but but yeah, it's a you are kind of limited to your general area, you know, so

Kevin: 13:31

Well, I think a lot of kids now or maybe younger audiences or might might be going for the superhero stuff because they're like alright, I just watched Captain America

Joey: 13:40

Sure yeah.

Kevin: 13:41

So they they might even go to like a Barnes and Noble if they go local. But I think online is becoming so huge it's so easy for them and

Joey: 13:48

right that's what i was going to say it's so accessible now you know as to where when we were growing up, we kind of Oh, yeah, you know, what

Kevin: 13:54

I wonder it's going to overwhelming

Joey: 13:57

it could be yeah, I

Chad: 13:58

mean, it is now because I've had a friend that came up to me He's like, I really want to get into comic books and I want to know if he got overwhelmed big time because you know, there's there's online like we say, you know, there's online there's comic stores now that you can you have a wide range selection. So like I totally like, dude, get like, found out what genre you like, do you like superheroes on superheroes? mystery horror, comedy? You know, there's a whole range of comic books on right there really is and it is I also recommend I and I also told him this as a stay away from single issues.

Joey: 14:29

Yeah, yeah, that's I was just gonna get to trade paperbacks are great, because you're not, I mean, you get a full arc, usually at least a segment of the full story, you know, so you're not just left at a cliffhanger. Let's say you know, to where all this might have ended up being something cool, but you know, exactly what I can track down the next issue.

Chad: 14:50

Exactly. Like say, like the wall. If someone's interested into the walking dead. I'd say like, do you stay away from single issues go get go get yourself a nice you know, graphic novel, that I'm going to have a volume you can get. I mean if you go try to find them walking in number one good luck you should spend over a thousand dollars. Yeah, totally on this one comic book, they're collector items now. So I usually beginners, I tell them I stick with graphic novels stay away from single issues until you find an ark, right? I mean, when I got back into comics, I there was a falling out period for me with comic books. I was in the military and even high school wasn't cool. You know, I played YuGiOh and I, you know, I played Pokemon, but that was like, you couldn't get caught with that. So

Joey: 15:33

yeah, yet very rarely did I ever share my, my comic interest during my high school years that exists, although I had some cool like underground or indie comics that I would pull out from time to time, like, Peter bag hate, or eight ball in clouds or stuff like that, you know, but that was more so our you know, like underground or chrome comics or something like that. And it was more like the shock factor or just the comics can be cool kind of thing, you know, for, for people who aren't in or just think they're only superheroes or, you know, but, um, but yeah, as far as starting out, and not knowing what, you know, I would say trade paperbacks, or, you know, graphic novels. Omnibus. I mean, maybe not as far as Omnibus without, yeah, you know, I mean, you can drop a lot of money on that. But But yeah, that way, you get to read the full, the full story, you know, yeah. Rather than just a little portion of it.

Chad: 16:35

Yeah. Yeah. So when I got back to the comic book, my wife was pregnant. And I was like, you know, I'm gonna go back to comics, I'm gonna teach my kids about comic books. And I started becoming a full fledged nerd at that point, because I just got a military, you know, you're not allowed or anything except for military stuff, when, or at least get caught with it, you know, so I got out of military and I was like, you know, my wife's pregnant, and I want to start reading comics again. So we went to the local bookstore. And I stopped when I started picking out I already knew about, you know, saying what, you know, what to get, and all that stuff already. So I went over and got, I still have them too. It was Wolverine is when he was about to die. It was four page issues. I still got them there up my wall, hanging up. And I just like I started sort of reading Wolverine against Wolverine. It has been my favorite comic character for

Joey: 17:21

Oh, yeah,

Chad: 17:22

ever. So I was like, you know, I used it was so when somebody comes up to me and say, Look, you know, what to get as, stick with graphic novels for a while I was don't don't even bother getting the single issues because it makes a match even the dollar bin, right? You gonna go to the dollar bin, you're like, oh, man, you know, this. This looks cool. You start opening them Okay, but there's, you got a little snippet of a giant story. And I was like, you know, stay away from single issues until you actually start to get to know like, you find start start finding like that. Number one is, though, the follow that story arc all the way through.

Joey: 17:54

Yeah, yeah. And, you know, and it's happened to me, as, you know, a younger collector out. I would think I like that title, or whatever. And I had no idea where to jump in, you know, so, exactly, I would just randomly look through the bin and grab a few that I think the covered might have looked cool or something. But you get home and you open it up and you have no idea where you're falling in and that story and what's going on what happened before you know, so it ended up being just a picture book for me, you know, yeah, I would admire the artwork, you know, but I had nothing to

Chad: 18:29

because sometimes it gets downright confusing, because you're Yeah, you know, you start following a story arc. Like for me, it was for Wolverine. So Old Man Login first coming out, but like, say to get the other story like so there's like a little bit of gap if one week that show up, because Wolverine showed up to like, say store number one, you know, then you have to find storm number one, and then be like, okay, he also Nightcrawler number 23. crossovers. Exactly. So you have to like find all these to get the bigger picture. You have to like find these other comic books, if you will. Yeah. Like say, you're a comic shop that what that one week in the same universe, like say, the Marvel universe of the DC Universe. So

Joey: 19:07

yeah, and it's confusing, you know, trying to pick those up after the fact can be quite a daunting task and to even know which titles you know because like you said that he's showing up in five or six different books in that month you know, to finish that arc and

Kevin: 19:23

yeah, does that lead you into intermediate kind of comic book kind of collecting

Chad: 19:28

collecting when you when you get there when you when you start knowing Well, since we're bringing up intermediate already, I guess we're gonna go on but no, like intermediate stages when you already know like, okay, so I'm like on books you know your genre you know what you look for, you know, exactly like how to follow the books, when like every Wednesday is the comic book is the new comic book day. You know, you go over and pick them out in your ground.

Joey: 19:53

The Wednesday warriors. Yes, sir. Oh, and that's and that's what it'll come to or at least for me Anyway, I started discovering artists or writers that I liked. And, and that's when at an intermediate level for me, I could say, Okay, I like this guy's work, right? He's got a new book coming out, or what else has he done right? or What else can I find by this artist or this writer? And in doing that, I've discovered some of my favorite books, you know, that I've read or in my collection. For instance, I used to read spawn once again. And in the back there is this character called Cerebus. The aardvark I think he was in spawn number 10. Right. And I was so like, Who is this? Right? It's not Marvel, not an image. What is this character and I had to this was before internet, you know, so I had to go down a rabbit hole here and really figure it out and ended up going and pick it up back issues of that, which is a 300 issue. Series made by Dave Sim he did all by himself, like the longest independently running book. Until spawn, I believe.

Chad: 21:12

Yeah, this is like before Google. So you literally had to research everything Yeah. Every single page of the book and,

Joey: 21:19

and although it's one of my favorite books, there's about 100 issues or so in that run that are just long winded, redundant, long, boring. So if you're jumping in, without any idea where you're going to land and just getting random issues, you can really be turned off by that. Yes, you know,

Chad: 21:42

you also get turned off by like, at this stage. So you already know what exactly what the comics are worth, you know, how much you know, you're kind of touching on basically like reselling, and investing all this, you're kind of touching on this. So at this stage, it was like, you know exactly what some people get turned off, like, I get turned off to, like, my local comic store here. We just, they it's like more of a toy store. But I go in there, and I'm not gonna name the name because they're crappy. So I go in as like, I saw this one comic book. It's like, it's 60 bucks. Right? And it's siren. And it has this was, oh, first appearance of this villain. Like, this villain isn't a huge villain. Why is this book called war? 60 bucks. This is sound super fishy. So I look online, it's like worth 20 bucks at most, is like a 9.8 $20. like, Dude, why, like, so you already know exactly what you're getting. And you get turned off by that too, because there's a lot of the sunk on that a lot. I should say, some con bookstores that just want to get the quick book. It's just like, dude, yeah,

Joey: 22:44

yeah. And trying to get, you know, maximum value for something that, you know, it was hot, you know, a while back, you know, maybe maybe at one point, it was worth something, but they need to stay a little more current on their pricing. And I've run into that too. You know, I feel like, if you're going into a comic shop, they should be leaving a little meat on the bone for you. Yeah, to make it enticing to buy that collectible, and to come into their store. You know, I mean, I understand them needing to make a profit and all that. But at the same time you want to, you don't want to get screwed either, right. And you want returning customers, you know, so I mean, when that bad, or that leaves a bad taste in your mouth, you get home and realize, you know, I got kind of got burnt on this, you know? Yeah. And comics in general. You know, so it's,

Chad: 23:36

I mean, it's great. It's

Joey: 23:37

as a collectible Anyway, you know, or Yes.

Chad: 23:40

When you start going to collectibles. Yeah, that's, that's when I start doing this. Like, I remember seeing this one particular comic store. I remember seeing the Ninja Turtles number 32 or 34, or whatever. And they want it like 15 bucks. 20 bucks for these comic books like this. comic books were like, five at most. Yeah, no, I can see like, when I would go to one another one and like another comic book store in town, and I used to just like, Okay, well, it's this one particular comic was worth five bucks. Okay, but they price it for 10. That's fine. I can deal with that. Okay. That's not too bad. I'm like, okay, whatever. But if you damn right, like, I know this, we're comics worth five bucks, but you're selling for 25. You know, you're like, Yeah, no, no,

Joey: 24:20

right. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I weigh in like, Okay, if I was to order this online, I have to pay for shipping. Yes. So like, it evens out, you know, I'll pay that that's, but yeah, I mean, they just need to be realistic and up to date with their exact price. And you know,

Chad: 24:37

so at this stage, you already know exactly what's, you know, what comics are worth what you're interested in, and basically like, how not to get screwed.

Joey: 24:46

So yeah, at least how to try not to, you know,

Chad: 24:49

or learn how to like, you know, have the gab You know, you're just talking like you know, the price on stuff. And this is where you get a little bit of idea on graded comic books. You don't know too much about it. You You're looking into great comic books, you're like, Okay, what is this about? So he basically, you got three companies. I mean, majorly? Do you have CGC? PGX? And was it

Joey: 25:09

CBCS?

Chad: 25:10

Yeah. CBCS

Joey: 25:12

Yeah.

Chad: 25:12

So, I mean, like basically what to look for before you actually like send off the comic book to these companies. Basically what you're looking for. So what I'm looking for, I don't know what you're looking for Joey. But my first instinct if I'm going to actually say like, this is probably goes down to the investing part of the of the sequence of this whole radio state podcast. But what I'm downright trying to invest in comic book, I look at it, I obviously look at the number of what is the most number, what's the volume of the book, I look for the corners. And if the corners are bent, kind of frayed, I'm looking at the back of the, the like the binding, I guess, where everything's at, see if the staples are in, see, look through all the pages, make sure nothing's wrinkled. Nothing's to like worn or anything like that. And depending on the comic book itself, I take a look like if you're looking to like, I don't know, let's let's think about this one. So let's fantastic for number 94. Right. So why

Joey: 26:13

Agatha Harkness.

Chad: 26:14

Exactly, first appearance of Agatha Agatha Harkness, when you when you actually start investing and actually weighing in to buy something, and they so for instance, looking at fantastic for night number 94, the first parent Agatha, you know, the Greatest Comic of 9.2 rating for a CGC was going for, like, you know, in 2013, let's say like 90 to 110. Somewhere between there, right? Well, now, because of the in a wandavision show came out, due to a 6.2 CGC getting graded, it was close to $332 or $400. somewhere around there. It's it's that's just a 6.2 that's not a 9.2. Yeah. And so a lot of things you have to take a look when you're actually investing is like okay, what are you like, like you said that there's a new show coming up? And Sweet Tooth number one, if you have that comic book number, I would like to see the price envolvment on this one it's very much like playing the stock market almost what it is.

Joey: 27:12

I there's a saying I heard it's kind of fits well. I collect coins with my my father as well. And old guy, he was talking to me one day at a at a coin show. And he was telling me you, you want to skate to where the puck is going not where it's been. Right. So yes, you kind of want to look forward. And I mean, there's books that are all have already been hot, right? Oh, there's a lot of stuff still to come. And that's kind of where as far as investing, you have a lot more of a chance to make a return or in profit. looking into the future versus I mean, there's always going to be books that have been worth money and are going to continue to be worth money, you know, but there's a lot like the Agatha book, which was relatively unknown, up until WondaVision show right and exactly, all of a sudden now it's, uh, you know, at your character, you know, that people want and

Chad: 28:10

then they literally had Agatha Harkness, you know, experts coming out of the wood work.

Joey: 28:14

Exactly, yeah, yeah. Same with like, West Coast Avengers 45 with white vision, right? Yes. I pulled out of the dollar bin, you know, like, a month before the show, right? And yeah, was able to flip that, you know, online for like, 150 bucks, you know, which was great, you know, for for a book that, you know, was and has been worth $1 for, you know, exactly, since its inception. Yeah.

Chad: 28:45

You get you get lucky, like, you know, there's the obvious ones, right. Like, you were saying, like, you know, there's one that's been hot for a very long time. It's usually the older comics, you know, that that's pretty much you know, you know, where to get your money's worth, you get an older comic book, you know, say like, fantastic four like, say number two, three, or four, and all those tiny those are,

Joey: 29:03

like, absolutely,

Chad: 29:04

and you're gonna get your return from there even like, say, like Superman number one, you know, that's worth a million bucks, even if it's hard it and because of the history because of world war one and two, it survived all that stuff. So it's a lot of history with it. So you kind of have to do but when it comes to the new comic books, you still can get a lot of money with, with the new comics coming

Joey: 29:24

out. You really can that's where I mean, if you do your homework, and you just pay attention, you can get a hold of that news and get out to your local shops or get online and and buy these books before. Most everybody else catches on right and, and there's there's usually a fair window of time where a guy can go out and pick up these books, you know, and it's it's pretty fun. You know, it's fun to get out there and do like I said, you got to do your homework. You got to pay attention, but um But there's enough option news coming out these days and TV studios movie studios that are really fighting over the rights to these books now because they're realizing, you know, there's such an awesome assortment of great works out there, you know, right that like I said before, they're all storyboarded out pretty much I mean, a lot of their work is done for them as far as you know, shots and angles and war true. I mean, everything you know, it's, it's amazing. Yeah, it's

Chad: 30:35

pretty crazy. Nowadays. It's like you You will sit there like sometimes with Agatha one, right? That was seven years. There was from 2013 when I checked the price to now and that's 400% increase. Yeah, that's amazing. And then I like to I don't know if you What do you like to do? Joey but I what I like to do, I like to get varient uncovers. Oh, yeah. So like, I would get a variant cover of like, a comic book stores variant exclusive variant cover. So I go after that first before I check Anything else? And usually I get a pretty good return with those. Yeah, they sell out. I mean, a comic book I bought for $25. You know, because it's a variant. It's like, you know, it's Yeah, it's, you know, it's really only got 100 copies or whatever.

Joey: 31:16

That's I was gonna say they usually have a much smaller print run. Right,

Chad: 31:21

exactly. And so like, I'm a cover Hunter. Now, because of the this new variant covers are coming out. They get a comic store like that they had to buy a lot of these covers, but right. It has to be pretty big comic book store button as soon as they sell out of that one cover. A $25 comic can be worth 110.

Joey: 31:38

Oh, easy

Chad: 31:38

this is before graded. Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing what you can get from, like what you said before you have to do your homework, you have to take a look at the thing because you get you get a crappy variant cover. Oh, exclusive variant cover and not having any returns. Like for instance, I bought a variant cover for Magic the Gathering. Number one, right?

Joey: 31:55

Oh Yeah as did I Yeah.

Chad: 31:58

I mean, I bought that for my entertainment. Right? Sure. I liked the lore. I've always it was into the magic the gathering the right guy, the right game. And so I was like, Okay, I'm gonna get this book. I am not expecting it to be like, Oh, it's worth like, $200.02 years later from now.

Joey: 32:11

Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Not unless something crazy happens in that book, or, you know,

Chad: 32:16

or coming out with a movie or something.

Joey: 32:18

Right. Yeah, that correlates to that particular one. And you know, that the whole the ratio variant game, you can drop a lot of money on some of those books. And oh, yeah. I mean, if you're not in love with the cover, right? Or there isn't something particularly relevant happening in that issue, then you're based solely on the cover art itself and the print run, right? Yes. Sometimes you have like, a rarity just in the, in the sheer number that exists, right? I mean, how many people are buying 500 copies of whatever book it is, you know, to get that one exam? I mean, really, there's only a handful of shops that are buying that many copies of anything, you know,

Chad: 33:07

so I think the best return I ever got was actually I think it was actually with I try to sell your store Kevin will try to cosign with you with it. But I was I bought this one comic book that it was like, a no, this guy was really a no name, but I've like it was a topless topless shirt one right, it was a topless version. And it was very much this guy in his basement. Literally that's what the scription was when I bought it it's like this guy in his basement. so and so's name get he lives he does this in his basement. And so he draw is like he drew this I don't even remember the name. But I remember get a hold of this and I bought it I pre ordered it I got it like nine bucks. I was like okay, well I'm gonna get this sport nine bucks in or whatever. We had this one customer come in would ask for a topless, you know, topless version of comic books.

Kevin: 33:55

Something like cavewoman or something.

Chad: 33:57

Yes. Something like

Joey: 33:58

okay, yeah,

Chad: 33:59

it was like cavewoman or something like that. We had this one customer. Well, you had this one customer for Kevin that would come in and would actually buy out the topless, like the risque versions of his comic books. So I was like, Okay, well, you know, this might be a market. So let's, let's buy some of these comic books. And I bought a few and I got this cave women, or whatever it was, I bought this first one, like, okay, when I got it in my hand, it was a retail version of retail. And I bought a pre order for nine bucks. Retail was like 10 bucks, almost close to 11 bucks. And then it shot up. I looked at the value of it. When I got it in my hand. It was worth 16 bucks. I was like, wow, okay, well, I'm going to CGC this. I looked at it, it was pure mint. I took it out of the cover. I looked at the pages, it was like, damn near. Perfect. So I'm like, Okay, I'm gonna go to my local comic store and when that this time I lived in Sacramento. So it was not easy to find a CGC you know, person there that actually would send send it and go get it graded for you. Because like we said, the big Major three companies, you got the CGC? Which is the most popular one. Yeah,

Joey: 35:03

yeah, ,

Chad: 35:05

I went through CGC. I just want to

Joey: 35:07

That's who I go through to, yeah

Chad: 35:08

when it comes to like trading cards I go through, I would go through PGX. With trading cards, they're really famous with that cbcs or whatever, I don't even look at them to be honest

Joey: 35:18

the same here if you get a better return overall with CGC Yes, I think it's a better more recognized there have a stricter grading policy overall, it seems as if, and you'll get a more of a premium for a CGC book of the same grade. Exactly, versus the other two.

Chad: 35:37

So I send this this comic to CGC I go to my comic store, they send it to CGC. For me, I pay my fines, whatever I think is like get your book CGC the guy should get it. I was modern, because if you get like, you know, the prices vary, right? So mine was a mondern, so I think mine was like 30 bucks to get it done. I mean, sometimes you get to like gold age, Bronze Age, Silver Age, you know, that's when it starts the prices start going high. Like oh, yeah, 200 if you got like, I'd say a superman number one, you're gonna get CGC they want like a percentage of the worth.

Joey: 36:09

Yeah, pretty much they

Chad: 36:10

don't play they they want their money. So, so I remember getting this comic book back. And Dude, I sold like I put it an auction on eBay. And it went for close to $500

Joey: 36:21

Holy moly. Yeah, I

Chad: 36:22

was like, damn.

Joey: 36:25

Good. It's awesome. It's fun. It's fun when that happens. And it's validating to the hobby, you know? Yes. And it just, it keeps you wanting to continue, you know, so I don't know, my, we, my wife and I actually joined CGC and submitted a handful of books, just so that we didn't have to send them through a third party, you know, or somebody else who submits books, we had enough to send in ourselves to make it worth paying up and joining. But um, in that in that batch, we sent in a Marvel spotlight number five first appearance of ghostwriter. Which, you know, we bought what we got for a pretty, pretty sweet deal. I think we paid a little over 200 for it on eBay. Yeah, it was auction. It was unbelievable. I have a press. So I will Oh, there you go. I was steaming and press books before submitting, you know, but um,

Kevin: 37:30

that freaked me out.

Joey: 37:31

And you know, it was a book. Yeah, at first it was scary. But you know, as long as you know what you're doing, it's relatively safe, you know?

Chad: 37:41

And for our listeners out there, what what would you say uh, presses.

Joey: 37:44

A press is a they call it a laminating machine or a hot, hot iron, or for like t shirts, right or heat transfer press. So as far as my process, I have a little steamer machine, right like for steaming garments. And while we'll use distilled water, and do a light steam on the front and back cover, which kind of loosens the integrity of the paper just enough to wear any wrinkles or imperfections as long as they're like non non color breaking folds. Or creases in the book can be flattened out right.

Chad: 38:28

Got to ask this question. How many times did it take you to perfect it?

Joey: 38:33

I threw a lot of you know, huh, hmm. Valuable books in there. Long before I you know, got the balls to throw anything of any worth in there, you know, but um, yeah, honestly, it wasn't as long of a learning curve as I thought it would be. So, I mean,

Kevin: 38:54

I would kind of make a jump like say it's a 4.0 book or a three what would it make a jump to?

Joey: 39:01

Depending on the book, right? Like a I mean, it could be the difference of a few $100 to a few $1,000. You know,

Chad: 39:09

well, so obviously jump to like, if you have a 2.5 a good jump to like a five or six

Joey: 39:15

right? Yeah, we had what I would have called about a to 2.5 got graded at a four. Okay, and of this particular book first appearance of ghostwriter. It made a pretty significant difference in price and it's continued to rise now. I mean, from the latest auction results, we're looking at about 1200 to 1400 for that price range. I guess there was a news of Ghost Riders going to appear in Doctor Strange two multiverse Madison and multiverse whatever so

Chad: 39:48

that's the only can bring the value up to the bright Yeah, exactly. So

Joey: 39:51

that's going to be an official MCU ghostwriter, not the Nicholas Cage version or whatever, you know, so yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that was pretty, pretty cool. Um, same batch of comics I sent in my clone wars number one first so Kitano, which I also pressed and what was an 8.5? Got a nine, two. So those and those little deer, I mean, that's the difference, you know, probably like $500 or so. Exactly.

Chad: 40:23

I mean, just for our listeners out there. So it's, when you get grade, there's a grade of zero, which is just total crap. And then it bothers me if you have a zero, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's wrapped in half. It's, it's totally destroyed. And so you look

Joey: 40:39

at it, it'll disintegrate. Yeah,

Chad: 40:41

yeah, exactly. So yeah, so through 10. Will 10 is damn as like, perfect as a gem. Right. Like, and it's hard to get a 10 because they will not CGC will not usually will not graded out of 10 It's far there's I've seen 10s before as CGC. Gray.

Joey: 40:58

Yeah, there's a handful out there. But yeah,

Chad: 41:01

and that will bring from a nine and is how how serious it is to get get a straight 10 a 9.8 will get you you know, get you good money, it'll get ya it let's say a comics worth 500 bucks a 9.8. Right, you can get you if you get a straight 10 out of that same comm book. It'd be maybe two to $500 more.

Joey: 41:20

Oh, yeah. Yeah,

Chad: 41:21

easily. So, I mean, it's that big of a deal with sorry. I

Joey: 41:26

mean, pretty much 9.8 is a perfect book, you know, I mean, it's for the most part, a nine eight is top of the mark, you know, so anything beyond that a nine, nine or a 10? Is, is a ghost you know,

Chad: 41:38

it's Yeah, it's pretty much one of those. It's like a Sasquatch almost, one of the things you never see, they're out there. But yeah,

Joey: 41:45

you can almost pull up, you know, the price out of the air. It's what somebody is willing to pay for. But it's, you know, above a 9.8 perfect book, value, you know, so,

Chad: 41:57

exactly. It's just one of those things that you really have to, before you send anything out, you know, you press it, you make sure everything's great. I do the same. I don't press the books. I'm too scared to press the books. I'm just one of those. I look at it like,

Joey: 42:12

Oh, no, I know it. Is it scary. I don't press them all. It has to be one that it has to warrant a need for a press right? I'm not just gonna throw every book in there, but

Kevin: 42:24

just a little steam for you. Yeah, steam your book. here looks

Joey: 42:29

like you're cold. Here's a little steam. But, um, but no, I've had good luck in doing that. You know, and I mean, and that's not something I would recommend for a beginning or no, no, even intermediate collector, you know, that's

Chad: 42:46

straight out. Like you're in investing, you already know everything about right. Yeah, to invest into the comic book. And and

Joey: 42:52

it's, it comes with handling a lot of books and just kind of knowing what to look for. And what if there's any, to press that book, right? I mean, there has to be a valid reason to want to. Exactly, you know,

Chad: 43:09

tivities has been through every process. Yeah, exactly. Like, fantastic for issue. Like, I want to do it for the number one, one through 10. I would not even know now like, you

Joey: 43:17

know, I will I

Chad: 43:19

wouldn't even touch it, as you know. Sure. But I also like, would you say like the 80s or 90s book, it's like, it's not worth that much. But it could be worth more if Sure.

Joey: 43:28

Yeah, that's it. That's kind of where we're at. I mean, modern books don't take as well too. Pressing a lot of the different like, like cardstock covers, you know, there's a lot of different factors that go in, but for the most part, um, copper Bronze Age, Silver Age books, they they seem to improve from a press for them for the most part. Yeah,

Kevin: 43:54

there's some books. I think there's 70 books. It's like, colt colt kid or something like that kid. colt call. Yeah, they came from my store. And I just have them brought back to you know, with me from the store to where I currently live in Red Bluff. I I'm like, wow, what would happen to these books? Like they're, they're degrading. Oh, no. Yeah, it's scaring me a little bit. Yeah, I mean, 70s and 80s books, I guess we're gonna face that now.

Chad: 44:22

Well, you gotta be kind of careful with it. Because even the older books, I mean, you know, when you get the newer books now, they actually have like, plastic in it, they change the recipe to the page. Yeah. Even the front page, like the cover, they they change the recipe, they'll work to make it last longer. But when it comes down to like, the 80 7060s you know, the Silver Age, you know, the yellow age type, the the yellow. And so a lot of like, it comes to like, taking care of investing. This is a big thing for investors, even myself, like there are certain places that you do not put a comic book.

Joey: 44:55

And no, yeah. I mean, yeah, the

Chad: 44:59

plastic. It's But like when you put the the cardstock in the plastic, they can't be acid, you know, it can be

Joey: 45:04

acid free boards, I, I like the mylar, the my lights are really good archival quality, you know, toploader cases for, you know, higher value books that haven't been graded, you know, or submitted to, you know, just to ensure that the integrity of the book, you know, but like you said sunlight is a is a definite killer. You know, I don't know how many comic shops I've walked into where they have their wall books in the direct sun, you know, and they're just bleached out I mean,

Chad: 45:44

which brings them to like a couple $100 almost worthless.

Joey: 45:51

I mean, as far as you look at the book, it's in great condition, as far as you know, no bends or spine ticks, anything like that. But

Kevin: 45:59

what's the data? The

Joey: 46:00

colors just bleached out? The colors are gone, you know? Exactly. It's horrible

Kevin: 46:05

and wonderful to get guys to do color touch up. Like you have that kind of thing.

Joey: 46:10

Well, they do. They'll note color touch on on a on a slab but it's a ding rather than a positive, you know? Yeah. And I've I've picked up books, you know that. I think I got a giant size chillers. Number one. It's like first appearance that lilius daughter, Dracula's daughter. Oh, yes. Looks like perfect shape. I mean, not perfect. But I mean, 859 maybe better, right? And exactly. beautiful book. But the color is just it's been bleached out, you know. So I think if I remember correctly, CGC won't grade a book that's sunbleached over like a four and a half or five or something. I mean, it could, it could be in perfect shape in every other aspect.

Chad: 47:01

But um, because you're gonna lose low grades. There's no point.

Joey: 47:04

Right? Yeah, exactly.

Chad: 47:06

You know, so. So and the good thing about it, too, is if you go to like, I don't know, hopefully, will this whole COVID thing will pass and we actually can go to, you know, comic book conventions and Comic Con. Again. CGC is actually usually there. Right? Yeah, they can coach you on through, they get the better grade. Specially if you have like guest speakers there like say, Tyler Kirkman, the guy who made the walking dead.

Joey: 47:32

oh Yeah Robert Kirkman, yeah,

Chad: 47:34

yeah. Robert Kirkman. Yeah. Yeah. So if, if he's there, and he's signing con books, obviously for a price. You can go to CGC and tell I'm gonna get my comic book sign. they'll follow you and get certified. So the witness witness the signature, so Exactly.

Kevin: 47:48

That'd be amazing. The magic. Oh, yeah,

Chad: 47:51

I got so many comic booka. Oh, God, I got so many exclusive covers with just him just drawing stuff. So it'd be awesome for him. That's your word man. Got a couple already with Robert Kirkman. Actually, with he already signed and I bought a slab already. So nice. Pretty nice. But yeah, but I think that's the only way really I know where you can sit submit a, what they call that? It's like they weren't there to see it. But unwitnessed I guess, right, making sure they will certify it because I like for instance, I have a Wolverine when he bought the die. I

Kevin: 48:29

just the old man ones.

Chad: 48:30

no that the old man this is before the old man comic book. Okay. This is when he was like literally about to die. And so basically as a cover of death, holding Wolverine. And it's like metallic cover on that thing. It was actually signed by the artist and the story that I have two singers on it. I could send it to CGC. And they could say yes, you know, this is good. But it'd be they would have to go with their own software. And they scrutinize it a lot more so right. And

Joey: 48:59

I've also seen slabbed books that it'll say graffiti on cover. Yeah. And then it'll say like so and so's name written in black ink. Right? So most people know what like a Stan Lee signature looks like or whatever, you know, so you can fairly confidently assume that that is what it is. But it's not authenticated. So

Chad: 49:23

yeah. Like the holy grail comic books right now is with Stanley's signature on it,

Kevin: 49:28

right? Yeah. Oh

Chad: 49:29

my god. Oh, man. Rest in peace. I remember. Yeah. I was kind of ticked me off too. Because when you know, his signature ready was like gold.

Joey: 49:39

Right? And then the gas shoots out like, I was like, Oh, hey, yeah, he he didn't need to die to be recognized. Exactly.

Chad: 49:49

That that's the part of investing where I kind of hate this is like you just kind of is like, you know what this guy died. But this guy brought so much the comic world and the father comic books or whatever in it. It just kind of like kind of gives that little wrench the heart, you know?

Joey: 50:04

Well, it seems like when, in general some of these deaths somehow increases the value in, like when Chadwick boseman. passed away. Oh, yeah, any of the photo covers with him on them shot up, which I mean those went up. Yeah, like the Black Panther photo covers. Movie covers. Yeah, a few of them significantly went up but um,

Kevin: 50:30

that's so odd

Joey: 50:32

Yeah, yeah. Same with like I Mira Anthony Bourdain, no reservations guy on the cooking channel or something he had? Oh, yes. called hungry ghosts. That was put out by Dark Horse, I believe. And after he passed away, that was those that like little mini series shut up in value, but it's kind of like, you know, I feel funny cashing in on somebody. Yeah, exactly.

Chad: 50:58

Does it feel right, you know? Yeah.

Kevin: 51:00

I mean, so, so Joey, all the collecting aside, what would you say is currently like some of your favorite books that you actually read? He can sit on the toilet and not have to worry about?

Joey: 51:15

Well, a new series I really enjoy. What's not on the toilet, but is what the same

Chad: 51:21

no poop particules. Yeah.

Joey: 51:25

new book I look forward to as a department of truth. Okay. It's Image Comics. And it's kind of like, What's his name? tynion tynion. Fourth is writing the same guy who's doing Batman right now? But Right. Yeah. And he also writes, something's killing the children. Yeah, he

Kevin: 51:44

did Ninja Turtles as well. I believe so.

Joey: 51:46

Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, it's basically like, all the conspiracy theories are actually true. Right. The JFK assassination was an inside job.

Chad: 52:00

Because it was it was actually right at a resort. No, I'm kidding.

Joey: 52:04

Bigfoot is real, you know, UFOs are real. And there's a department of truth. A government run agency. I think Lee Harvey Oswald is the one in charge of it. Right. But basically, yeah, it's a government agency that's in charge of kind of keeping the wool over everybody's eyes. As far as I

Kevin: 52:27

know. Is that is that book just starting, or is it been going for a

Joey: 52:30

while it's on issue number eight came out a couple of weeks ago. So it's, it's been going for a little while now. But a really good, really good new new book. I look forward to reading beyond that. I've been really into Star Wars lately.

Kevin: 52:46

Yeah, I've noticed that they can show me on some of your texts. You're like, look at my books. Yeah. Yeah, I've been you had a lot of them.

Joey: 52:53

I yeah. I've been been going for a while I've really enjoyed Mandalorian you know, and I, it kind of reedsport not that i i always like Star Wars, but it helped again. Yeah, it helps. So yeah, I've been trying to pick up all the key issues and speculating on I know, there's a lot of new shows coming up with Disney Plus, I have an so Kitano show comment a Boba Fett show coming. Rogue Squadron, Obi Wan Kenobi. And a handful others. Bad batch came out recently. No, yes. Yes, it did. Yeah, Yes, it did. But um, yeah, just been trying to pick up all the Star Wars keys and looking to the future with those

Kevin: 53:43

those shows. Well, now that Marvel's doing it again. So you probably what in some of the Dark Horse.

Joey: 53:48

Yeah. Yeah. I've picked up a lot of most of the Dark Horse stuff. First. Thrawn. Darth Maul Cad Bane, son of death, Amir. That's a really good four issue series Darth Darth Maul son of decimetre. It's the origin of the darksaber. Right and first apparent Oh, yes, sir. Yes.

Chad: 54:10

Totally free about that.

Joey: 54:11

Yeah. Pretty cool. Pretty cool. And then, oh, Dr. Aphra, I've been speaking on that I got a little stack of her first appearances and the different printings and whatnot. So I feel like with the success of that character, she's got to be showing up on the screen here in one of those shows coming. Oh, pretty much we know thrones coming. Right? She Socha hinted at that on Mandalorian. She was looking for Thrawn so we're gonna have Grand Admiral Thrawn come in, and then the Boba Fett show there's potential for a lot of the bounty hunters to be showing up and backstory with with Boba Fett

Chad: 54:52

and the shows you bring out with those a lot of the con books that you probably want to get picked up pretty like quick.

Joey: 54:57

Yeah, yeah, there's still a chance there. On the Rise, I highly recommend also picking up the Canaan series is 12 issues of that, but that has the first appearance of the rebels, Sabine Wren, I believe the market right now is recognizing, although CGC is calling number one, their first appearance, issue number six is where they're kind of fleshed out more in the issue. So both issues are great to pick up, I would say get number one and number six of the whole series, I mean, all of them are great, but if you can only get a couple, number one, and six are the big ones. So um, and then all of those, a lot of the second printings are really a lot more rare. For example, the Canaan. Number one, they had a one and 25 variant. According to online sources, the print run of the one in 25 is about 1200 copies, so really low. But there's a second printing of number one as well. And that one is about equal in print run. So it's not a ratio variant. It's just a second printing that people don't realize is equally as rare as the one in 25. And that one's been increasing in value on a pretty regular rate. So it's it's one that you can still find out there in the wild and pick up. So I'd highly recommend grabbing that if you see it.

Chad: 56:35

Yeah. Well, that's all the time we got today, unfortunately. So right right now it is Saturday. So we're going to talk about the comic of the week, and it's actually picked by Joey he's actually I'm actually liking this a lot. It's called Sweet Tooth number one I'm not gonna do dramatic music this time with a description but sweet tooth number one you get that right on link tree and send you right to Amazon where you can pick it up. So I mean, that's pretty much it guys. So this is has to be the longest show that we have. This is a pretty much over an hour. So this is awesome. Joey thank

Kevin: 57:07

you for showing up, man. Oh, man.

Joey: 57:08

Thanks for having me, guys. It's been fun.

Chad: 57:11

I mean, this is this is actually really fun. I love this a lot. Hope you guys have a wonderful time with that nice cup of coffee to the glass some more low at night. Thank you for listening to your comics podcast show. Tell us how we did. You can let us know on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, tik tok and YouTube. Just search for your comics.