Great Skottie Young Books on eBay!

Greetings heroes!

Many of you are huge fans of Skottie Young’s work (like I am!!!) so you’ll appreciate that there are easy ways to get back issues of his covers that are no longer available at the average online comic book retailer!
Check out my eBay page to see many of these items here: 20Zen on eBay.



For a wider assortment of Skottie Young books, check out all of eBay below.



Until next time,
Excelsior!!!

Announcing - 20Zen.com !!!

Greetings heroes!

I am proud to announce the beta phase of the online store 20Zen.com, a place for comic books with a focus on variants and other special books including, keys, signed books and prints and even CBCS/CGC slabs!

The site is LIVE but products are being slowly turned on, so please check back if you don't see what you are looking for today. 

Check the latest releases and items new (or returning) to inventory here: http://20zen.com/index.php/new-products.

You can get to the homepage here: http://20zen.com/index.php/

Variants are here: http://20zen.com/index.php/variants.html

Skottie Young Variants are here: http://20zen.com/index.php/variants/skottie-young.html

Looking for MARVEL series only? Check this link: http://20zen.com/index.php/comic-books-56/marvel.html

Many items will be added to the inventory but will not show as "new" as they are not actually new to the store. Only new releases each week and items returning to inventory from the past will be flagged as such. 

There are still some more discounts coming, even on the harder to get variants - PM if you are looking at an item and want a "best price" quote! 

 

Thanks for your patience as the site slowly gets completed! 

Are you on Facebook? Check out the COMIC BOOK COLLECTING group - it's in the side bar at right!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

How to Store Comic Books Safely and Cheaply!

PLEASE SEE ALL PICTURES TO SEE HOW BOOKS ARE LOADED

Found a cheap way to store books safely - and I'll post pictures later once I have some organized in this manner.

The trick = legal-sized bankers boxes from Sam's. They are $18.90/10 and hold comic books in 2 rows easily. They are durable, yet lightweight (even with books in them) and work well with classic L-shaped bookends.

I'm sure many of you already know about this, but based on the books I've loaded in so far, I'd say they are about half the price of the lowest-priced short boxes I've found locally (and even less via online because of shipping).

01 Bankers Box - 10 Pack

02 Bankers Box - flat before assembly

03 Bankers Box - what they look like from top flat

04 Bankers Box - expanding to open is all you have to do!

05 Bankers Box - final step is fold down the side piece

...to keep the box stable and strong 01

06 Bankers Box - final step is fold down the side piece

...to keep the box stable and strong 02

07 Bankers Box - final step is fold down the side piece

...to keep the box stable and strong 03 (finished)

08 Bankers Box - lid before assembly

09 Bankers Box - lid assembly process 01

10 Bankers Box - lid assembly process 02 complete

11 Bankers Box - constructed with lid on

12 Bankers Box partially loaded showing 113

...(75 in one column, 38 other)

A regular short box is supposedly able to hold 150-175 books, but I use thick boards and strong bags. I moved this group of 138 books from a *completely* full BCW short box. Notice that there's probably room for another 5 books on the left side and 42 on the right.

I highly recommend you cut a long piece of cardboard (maybe a large priority mail box) to put between the columns.

This is an *incredibly* affordable alternative solution for storing books. At just under $2/box (including tax), you're saving at least 50% over the lowest average price for 10 or less boxes, and a little more if you do 10 short boxes from Amazon like this set at $51.11:

http://www.amazon.com/BCW-Short-Comic-Book-Sto…/…/B001668F9A

I'd LOVE your feedback on this - feel free to share your critical observations (politely please) as well. As a community, that's how we can learn!!

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

s

Shipping Comic Books - SAVE

Greetings heroes,
As many of you readers know, after getting back into comic books, I started selling them. It’s really about the most awesome experience a fan can have: making money while enjoying the hobby you are passionate about!
Barcode Scanners:


Anyway, there are some great tools-of-the-trade that I highly recommend to people who sell comics. For that matter, if you simply trade comic books, this is the best practice for shipping.

Messiah War - MU Reading Order List

Greetings heroes!

This entry details a tiny but significant crossover arc called “Messiah War” starring X-Force with Hope Summers and a great villain in Apocalypse.
After Cyclops sends X-Force into the time stream in pursuit of Cable and Hope, with characters ending up in different times and tons of interesting side adventures along the way. Rather than ruin the fun for you, here are the issues involved. If you have Marvel Unlimited, click the hyperlinks to go straight to the issues and READ!

Prologue: The Times and Life of Lucas Bishop #1 #2 #3
Chapter 1: X-Force/Cable: Messiah War One-Shot
Chapter 2: Cable #13
Chapter 3: X-Force #14
Chapter 4: Cable #14
Chapter 5: X-Force #15
Chapter 6: Cable #15
Chapter 7: X-Force #16

Hopefully you dig this reading order list — I’ll continue posting them and now you can search for them using the hashtag #LarkLists


Are you on Facebook? Check out the COMIC BOOK COLLECTING group - this entry is also published on that group here.

Until next time,
Excelsior!!!

Days of Future Present Reading Order List

Days of Future Present (Fantastic Four/X-Men Crossover Sequel) Reading Order List

Days of Future Present is the 1990 followup to the groundbreaking 1981 two issue side story arc “Days of Future Past” from Uncanny X-Men 141 and 142 (although technically the name change of the book to “Uncanny X-Men” happened in 142). I call it a side story arc because there is another arc ongoing through the issues, the story of an assassination attempt by the new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants being led by Mystique with classic X-Men foe Blob, and new characters Destiny, Pyro, and Avalanche rounding out the group.

The Brotherhood wanted to kill Senator Robert Kelly (Wikia - first appearance X-Men #133 - MU link). His death would’ve brought about a future where Sentinels ran most of the world, controlling both mutants and human sympathizers alike.

In this sequel, the Fantastic Four return home to Four Freedoms Plaza and it is replaced by their previous headquarters, the Baxter Building. There is an alternate timeline version of the FF in the HQ and … (Read synopsis here)…

These issues are NOT available digitally, please contact Marvel and request they be made so!

1. Fantastic Four Annual #23
2. X-Factor Annual #5 (this is chronologically part 3, and part 3 is part 2)
3. New Mutants Annual #6
4. Uncanny X-Men Annual #14
   • While it’s not a “fifth” story, pages 10-11 of this book tell a backup story called “The Fundamental Things” which is commonly thought of as part 4.1

You can buy the collected issues on Amazon, Days of Future Present.

 

Until next time,

Excelsior!!!

COMIC BOOK COLLECTING - Facebook Group Post

Good morning gang -

 

A few notes first:

1. We've just passed 26,000 members in the group - it wasn't easy and we have you all to thank for our continued growth. Special thanks to all of the members who go out of their way to guide newer members to the group rules (and to the sister group for selling).
2. Recently we've seen an uptick in blind shares to the group, along with other posts that violate the group rules as established in the pinned post. This includes blind shares, the VS posts, posts asking for help grading or pricing books, and variations of these (and other) prohibited posts. If your post starts out "this isn't really about comics…" then the post doesn't belong in this group.
3. So as not to end on a bad note: there are many great posts reflecting the intent of the group: story arcs, character discussions, favorite new series, etc. Keep it up. These posts encourage others to expand their horizons and become more excited about the hobby!

 

Please review the pinned post rules for clarification on what is allowed and *ask an admin* if you are unsure (before making a post). Posts that say "admins can delete this if it violates the rules" shouldn't be posted in the first place. We're not your parents and 99% of the group members get what is allowed. Please keep the group moving along and on-topic  by following the rules in the pinned post.

 

Now, to a fun topic: buying comics in bulk. Several posts in the past week were asking about buying comic books in bulk. I found this interesting article from Chuck Rozanski at Mile High Comics on the subject.

 

http://www.milehighcomics.com/tales/cbg08.html

Love Mile High, hate them or be indifferent, but Chuck has some great blog posts that share real insights from his decades of buying and selling. A related subject that came up this weekend was buying comic books by the pound. Several companies exist that sell comics by the pound, they are suitable for reading, craft projects and more. There is even a "brand" called "Comics by the Pound" that advertises in Overstreet and is sold by a couple of online vendors. You can easily locate sellers with a Google search, and prices vary from as low as $1/pound (which is between 6 and 9 modern comics, depending on the paper and cover type) up to about $3/pound. You can also by used bags and boards by the pound, often as low as $4 for roughly 50 bags with boards in them. I recommend against buying those, as brand new bags and boards are not that expensive and you can't be sure the cleanliness of those bags and boards.

 

To locate comics by the pound, use your favorite search engine and the query "comic books by the pound" and compare the various vendors for yourself. As always, you should buy small amounts first (to be sure you are happy with the quality of what is delivered) and consider companies that use PayPal rather than direct credit card entry. This puts an additional layer of protection for your card numbers.

 

One company that sells in bulk (and advertises heavily in publications like the regular Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide) is cardsone.com. This is not an endorsement. Please research any vendor using the usual methods (search engine queries with the name of a company + "scam" or "ripoff" is a good way to find negative reviews).

 

As always, thanks for being a member and enjoy your week! Comic book Wednesday is coming up soon!

 

Chris

 

PS - if you have a problem in the group, use the "Report to Admin" drop-down menu found on the upper right of posts when using a desktop browser or PM any of the admins.

 

Originally published at the COMIC BOOK COLLECTING group on Facebook.