Source: Kansas.com
Nearly 24,000 comics were auctioned in half an hour Wednesday and Andy Bailey walked away with 5,000.
“I didn’t really see any ones that were that special,” the 16-year-old said. “They came out really cheap.”
Bailey’s haul increases his collection to almost 6,000 comic books, he said.
Cyril Gillett worked the sale for Bud Palmer Auction. He said the auction could have gone better had more people shown up ready to buy, but collectors like Bailey got a bargain.
“If it would have been a good sale, it would have been a darn good sale,” he said, shrugging. “If it was a bad sale like it is, it’s a bad sale.”
The auction house held a comic book sale 10 years ago and the results were similar, Gillett said.
“What can you do when a comic book is marked 50 cents?” he asked. “How much can you get out of it at auction?”
As Bailey’s father, Art, 62, helped him pick up his new comics, Bailey said he wasn’t surprised they were inexpensive.
The comics came from a bankrupt store, so all the sought-after volumes were removed from the bunch before the auction, he said.
Art Bailey said he was there just to help his son.
“He does all the work,” he said with a chuckle. “I just help him at stuff like this. It’s his deal.”
The younger Bailey said he plans to keep some of the volumes and sell others, since there were a lot of duplicates in the set.
Bailey has been collecting comics for three years, he said. He started reading graphic novels because of the Spider-Man movies.
By looking at a comic, Bailey said, he can gauge what it is worth, a skill he picked up by reading pricing guides. He said he likes shopping for comics in Lawrence and Kansas City.
He said his favorites are published by DC Comics — home to characters such as Superman, Batman and the Green Lantern.
He said he also reads the Marvel Comics for characters such as the Silver Surfer and Spider-Man.
The best item he bought at the auction, though, was a graphic novel that explored what would happen if Wolverine from the X-Men killed the Incredible Hulk, Bailey said.
“It was in pretty good condition,” he said.
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