First, the crushing heat and humidity kept many people away, and the ones who did come had difficulty flipping through long boxes for an extended period of time in a hot garage, despite the huge fan we had blowing in the direction of our customers. We also did not pull as much inventory as we hoped to have available for the sale, due to various time constraints. Therefore, we were not completely prepared and organized for the first sale.
However, this time everything seemed to be much more in our favor. Weather conditions were absolutely perfect all three days, with mostly sunny skies, a slight breeze, and temperatures in the 60's. We had over 30 long boxes and 20 short boxes packed with comics, and we also added some other items, such as movie posters, Marvel laser cels, and some toys. With the comfortable weather being our best ally, it was not unusual to see customers spend one or even two hours just taking their time flipping through boxes and checking off the missing issues they found for their favorite titles.
Some customers that made a casual visit on one of the days were shocked to see just how many comics were available, so they returned the next day armed with checklists and index cards so they could buy in bulk. Several people purchased 200-300 comics, and some even returned the next day to pick up a few more that they had missed during their first visit. We also benefited from having some of our earlier customers refer their friends to the sale, which helped to make Sunday another successful day, despite some competition from the Detroit Lions' football home opener.
Comic Book Garage (or Yard) Sales have recently become more and more popular all over the country. Veteran comic book writer Tony Isabella, the creator of Black Lightning, recently held his "Garage Con" event and reported a successful sale on his blog site. Scott Hudlow, a large-scale comic dealer in California, also had several yard sales this year. Artist Chris Yambar even took the idea a step further and created "Lawn Con" in 2010, which was an actual comic convention taking place on the front lawn of his Ohio home, complete with guest artists and live music!
What were the big sellers? A better question might be: What didn't sell at this sale? Marvel and DC material from the 1980's and 1990's were the big winners, with huge sales of titles like Daredevil, Captain America, Avengers, Batman, Nightwing, Catwoman, Hellblazer, Spider-Man, and of course the X-Titles. Some of the key issues sold were Sandman #1, Marvel Secret Wars #1, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns #1 and #2, Batman #428 (Death of Robin), and the "R.I.P." issues of Batman.
There were also requests for a wide variety of obscure titles ranging from the early 1970's to the 2000's, such as Forever People, Omac, Black Axe, Icon, Hardware and even the barely remembered Peter Milligan version of Infinity, Inc.
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| We also had several movie posters for sale. |
Superman and Justice League titles were among the few comics that did not sell very well at the garage sale, and there was not much demand for independent titles. However, with all comic books it's often a matter of having the right collector show up at the right time.
Overall, the weekend was a huge success. Lots of comics were sold, collectors walked away very happy, and I had the opportunity to visit with several Facebook friends in person. Many people were interested to hear that we were considering having another sale later in the Fall, perhaps in mid-October. However, local ordinances may not allow that to happen, since the city has specific limitations on how many garage sales can be held on a quarterly basis. We'll definitely give it some thought.
Were they any negative aspects to the sale? Not really, although it was a huge weekend for garage sales all over the Metro Detroit area. Basically, if you drove into almost any subdivision, you would find 2-3 yard sales within a couple blocks of each other. The positive aspect of this was that it drove additional traffic to everyone's garage sales, including our own. The downside was that some of those people didn't bother to read the many signs that we had posted around the neighborhood. This resulted in several confused patrons coming into our yard with a perplexed look on their face and asking questions like "Is it just comics?".
I would then reply with something like "Well, yes, it's a comic book garage sale," which often resulted in more confusion from the people looking for used furniture and baby clothes. Incidentally, we did offer a very nice Kirkland Deep Freezer for sale besides the comics, but did not receive any offers!
Huge thanks to everyone who came to the sale. I hope to see many of you at a future comic book garage sale, or one of the local conventions that we set up at.
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