Monday 7 December 2009

Market Value

That it is Cap, that it is. And never more beautiful than when the comic mart is in town.

Look...

Yes, ageing nerds on Woburn Place. A fine sight that signals the coming of December's stinkfest at The Royal National. Ah, those empty nerd sacks, soon to be stuffed to bursting with cheap tat! Fills my flabby manbreast with excitement so it does.

I heard several dealers moaning about the sparse crowd at this month's event, but to me it seemed pretty packed - surprisingly so given that Christmas is round the corner. I certainly had trouble getting through the crowds to the bargain longboxes, I even ended up having a pop at one social inadequate who spread himself across three boxes and refused to move to allow anyone else a look. The tosser ignored my polite request to budge up, so I gave him and his wheelie case a shove. Ha! Take that you filthy imp. LLC picking on weedy nerds since 1972. Have it!

Once he'd been moved, I was able to dive in and retrieve a good number of yellowing goodies. Let's have a bit of a rundown shall we? First, and most exciting, JLA issues 189 and 190 for 30p a pop! WOOT! In case you don't know that's these babies. Oh yes, BOLLAND STARRO covers. Magnificent. Top story too. Read it in bed last night and will be taking a closer look at it in an upcoming blog entry.

Also purchased for 30p - Flash #304. It's probably pants, but I thought the cover was a beaut'...

Hi-tech shit man. Colonel Computron sounds like a complete cunt!

Added three more 2000AD progs to my collection (37, 44 and 57) for a combined spend of £2.75! Picked up Warren Ellis' collection of CBR columns, Come In Alone for £2.95. Snaffled up the first trade of Image's Proof for a fiver and lingered over the Tomb of Dracula Omnibus for a long time before deciding against and grabbing a couple more cheap single issues instead for a grand total spend of...£11.85. Good haul!

On the way out I had a look at the VERY expensive comics on this stall...

Bit of a blurry pic, sorry, but note the fact that the boxes are positioned facing the wall and that there is no direct access to them from the main floor. To get to them you had to get the approval of the dealer before filing down past a wall of hugely expensive key issues. Every one of those boxes is probably worth five figures. Heavy stuff, those old boys in the photo were ready to part with huge amounts of wonga. Different world.

Away from the comics, there were more DVD stalls than I'd seen before. The mart seems to have become a bit of a meeting place for collectors of obscure films and TV series and it looked to me like the DVD dealers were doing better business than their comic counterparts. I watched these duffers spend a hefty wadge on dodgy looking Al Jolson flicks...

...before moving on for my traditional trip to Heroclix man's stall. Nothing tempted me this time, but I was taken by this display of £1 Hulks trying to smash their way out of their bargain box...

Grand stuff.

Captain America in London scan from Captain America #305, May 1985 (25p from yesterday's mart)

No comments: