Interview Series with James Skeffington - YouTube Creator of Skeff's Comic Knowledge

       My next intervew series is with James Skeffington who creates great YouTube content on his channel Skeff's Comic Knowldege.  He does several videos on unboxing graded books and mystery boxes.  And I had the pleasure of meeting him when I went out to Indianapolis for a Clayton Crain signing.  He was actually filming for his channel, see that video here.  I thoroughly enjoy his channel, so check him out!

• So what got me into comics was about 12 years ago and it was a random happenstance that brought me into a comic book shop because the Iron Man movie was coming out and my friend was working at a comic shop and thus the addiction started :).  After a couple years I had to stop cause ya know life, but over the past 3 years I have heavily got back into collecting and do not plan on stopping this train!

 Favorite childhood memory about comics?

• Sadly there are no childhood memories cause I didn't have any then but my years after high school are filled with them and my favorite has to be my very first free comic books day!!  I won this epic Spider-Man shirt, got free books, so much fun and I still have the shirt ....... it fits but a little snug haha!

 What got you into creating videos/content?

• Surprisingly I was gonna start my YouTube journey over a year ago after I got back from NYCC, but I got nervous and put it off saying I’ll do it for C2E2.  That con came and went and still nothing.  It was until the pandemic hit and the place I work at decided we will be working from home for a couple weeks and the first day I had off was when my box of 25 books should and I was like it’s now or never so I ended up doing the video and it’s still hard for me to watch it but sometimes you just gotta sit down and press record!!

 Biggest mistake you made when you first started.

• I want to say the biggest mistake I made when I first started collecting was paying attention to the hot top 10 list or the hot books of the week and trying to go out and find those certain books.  I ended up overpaying for a lot of them because at the time I didn’t understand how the market actually worked.  I was just buying them because someone else was saying that it was the book to pick up so I ended up not doing any of my own homework in the end paying for books that I actually didn’t really have any like long-term value.  So that’s something I usually tell people not to have FOMO immediately when the book comes out, give it time and eventually get the book for the right price

 What’s your favorite character or title to collect?

• If anyone watched any of my videos, hands down my favorite character to collect is easily Spider-Man, but the series I like to collect it’s kinda hard to pick, specifically just one.  Currently Something is Killing the Children, by far my favorite current title to collect!

Next big thing for your personal collection?  Your grail?

• Oh man my next big Grail usually going to be a silver age key and I have my eyes out right now on a Journey Into Mystery #83 or one of the earlier keys, maybe a very early Amazing Spider-Man or three of the grails that I’m kind of after right now and I’d be happy with any of those I find at a good price.

 Most unique or favorite thing in your collection?

• Hands down one of the most unique things in my collection is a oversized black cover of the Walking Dead #1 with a 1/1 hand painted drawing of a zombie by Tony Moore I won in a raffle when I first started to get back into comics.

 Raw or Graded? Why?

• BOTH.  I think they are equally as important and there are very strong opinions on the topic of keeping it raw or getting it graded.  Honestly there is no wrong way to collect.  I know some people that get everything graded and I know some that refuse to trap any of their books in plastic.  I try to have a healthy balance of both, I do like the way books pop when they are encapsulated though.

 Best find or score?

• This is tough for sure!  It’s hard for me to pick just one but I think it’s a tie between the copy of Immortal Hulk #2 Zaffino variant that I ended up selling at its height of around 800$ and I paid 15$ for the raw copy.  My other favorite is hunting down one copy of Spider-Gwen Ghost-Spider #1, I picked that one up the day it came for the ratio price and had a gut feeling it would be good and it’s still hanging up on my shelf!

 Advice to new creators and or collectors.

• My advice to new video creators is to just hit record and go.  I know it won’t be perfect the first time and it will be super cringy if you go back and watch it, but sometimes you just gotta take a leap and go for it even if the timing is not perfect.  I would also tell them to not worry about the numbers, if you want growth I feel consistency and quality videos are key to growing a channel. 
• For new collectors take your time and do your homework on books and it’s ok not to own every book and be happy with what you have.  It will continue to grow if you make good decisions about your collection, also never be afraid to ask for more pictures if buying anything online!

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