My Story
My love for comic books started when I was nine. My dad was in the Air Force and we were stationed overseas in Germany. When my dad would come home with the paper every week, he would grab a comic book for me as well. I've always loved reading so this really spiraled in to much more. Years later, when we moved back to the US, I finally got to go to an actual comic shop. Talk about a kid in a candy store! It was so exciting to see a whole store dedicated to nothing but comics! I collected heavily for a few years until I got in to junior high, where the hobby took a backseat for decades.
In 2018 I was doing a random search on OfferUp-an online marketplace-and comics came up. And bam, there I was back in to one of my oldest hobbies. The big thing I quickly learned was that the game had changed in terms of value and variants. Because of the popularity of the movies, values of key books had increased exponentially since the early 90s when I collected as a kid. Not to mention, the industry was now doing variant covers to increase profit. A variant cover is basically the same book with a different cover done by another artist. They're usually done in low print runs with great artists to drive the demand and value of a book. The major benefit is the artwork is taken to another level and many deem these covers are collectible pieces of art.
In my never-ending quest to fill the gaps in my collection, I went to a garage sale. The guy running it was offering a fill-a-box sale. I could put as many issues into a box for a flat rate. I quickly texted an old friend about my find (this is a common thing in the hobby - to brag about your books). He referred me to a few comic groups on Facebook. Not only did I find great deals on books, but an outlet to sell books, too! In the 2 years in these groups I've bought dare I say, hundreds of books haha! This not only helped me grow my collection but it taught me a valuable lesson on how to pack and ship comics. Fast forward to 2020! I met my yearly sales goal within three months, largely motivated by wedding expenses. Since a large number of businesses had to close down due to Covid-19, I had the idea to write a book to help others not make the same mistakes I made. My goal for this book is to save you lots of heartaches, plus a great deal of time and money.
Good luck and feel free to reach out with any questions!
- Joe Arciaga
