My next customer was a very shy 14 year old boy. He asked how much the
Avengers 1 was. We had my low grade copy for $400 and 500club's nice copy
for $2600. He looked at mine and then gave it back. I'm a bit of a joker and
teased him about something and he just turned and walked away. Oops, didn't
mean to scare him off but there's no way he's buying Avengers 1.

He came back and like a fool I teased him again and he again walked away.

He came back a few minutes later and handed me $400. I must say I was
surprised. I gave him the Avengers and asked him if he liked Spider-man.
He did so I gave him a decent copy of ASM 252. He was thrilled. I gave
him my card and told him to call me if there was any problem and I thanked
him for the sale. And yes, I'm sure I teased him again.

He walked off and then came back an hour later and purchased some
Marvel Star Wars.

Next time I saw him he was with his mother. She could not believe he had
bought a comic for $400. More shocked than mad but I'm sure the thought
that I had ripped her son off was in the back of her mind. She was also
concerned that he had been convinced to send the comic to CGC after
Stan had signed it.

Turns out they are farmers and he earned the money milking their 60 cows
every day and he spent almost all of it on one comic.

We had a long discussion about collecting comics and why certain comics
were worth so much. She didn't mind her son spending $5 on a Star Wars
comic; but $400 for one comic? I told her she had it backwards. The Star
Wars were relatively low demand books and the Avengers 1 was an
important old key book featuring popular characters and an easy book
to resell.

During this discussion I had a couple $100 type sales and then I sold
nice copies of FF 10, 14, 17, 26 and 28 to one guy. As I jammed the
pile of $100 bills into my Batman cash bucket she realized that grown
men were spending hundreds or even thousands of $$ on funny books
before her very eyes. And she could see that my cash bucket was
absolutely stuffed with big bills.

I also explained that it was a good idea to submit a signed book to CGC
to ensure the signature was verified.

And I told her she had raised a great kid and collecting comics was
a wonderful hobby and that comics were an art form.

I gave her my card with a link to the CGC message boards and him to
come here and read about comics and I told her if he wanted to sell the
book back to me at any time I would give him all his money back and I
told her to contact me if they ever had any questions.

The whole time that kid had a silly, happy, I'm in heaven look. He was
totally digging comics and the show and our discussion and he'll be a
comic collector and fan for a long, long time - unless they chain him to
a cow.

+1

A 7 foot Wolverine!

My one big purchase from the show. Thanks podboy, love it.

Better shot of his wall...