A Short Letter Home: I'll never get rich

Thursday, August 04, 2005

I'll never get rich

For the second time in my life, I've sold off some of my comic collection. The first time was when we moved to Seattle from Chicago. There was a number of comics I didn't care to read anymore and, well, one box sold was one less box to pack. It was kind of a last minute thing. I didn't plan and I probably sold them for less than they were worth. Oh, well. "Next time," I said to myself, "I'll do it better."

Heh. Well, I tried to do it better. A couple years ago, I culled down my comics and had about 3 boxes with which I was willing to part. I made a database of that little collection, dutifully recording the publishing info and condition of each issue. I then grabbed an old price guide and a copy of Wizard magazine and came up with an asking price. Erring on the lower side of the price, I figured I had over $900 worth of comics to sell. Of course, that's all assuming you find a willing buyer. I thought about looking for a willing buyer. Yes, many times I thought I should start listing titles on eBay, or maybe even call a local comic store.

Anyway, yesterday my procrastination ended. Moving day approaches and I'm eager to have less boxes to pack and store. I called a store and arranged to talk to the buyer today. This morning I schlepped the now 4 boxes up to a comic store and came home with a whopping 75 bucks in my pocket. I wasn't too disappointed, actually. There have been a couple of times I've attempted to make a profit over something I had purchased. I consistently fail to make any money. Fortunately, in this case I purchased most of the comics for my own reading pleasure and long ago got my money's worth. And I gave my wife a moment of pleasure when I returned sans comic books. Actually, she's getting a lot of those moments as we pack up and I finally toss things that she was ready to trash years ago. Sometimes I wonder if she had an ulterior motive for this China venture....