Boy, I tell you, anyone I mention this series to either hasn't heard of it or dislikes it. I finally got around to watching the rest of the series myself. There were only 6 episodes of the reality show set in Kevin Smith's comic shop Jay and Silent Bob's Secret Stash. I'd watched the first two a while back and didn't rush to watch the rest. In Episode 3 Walt puts together a commercial. It's kind of silly. Then Ming convinces the rest of the guys to get made up as zombies for a poster announcing a themed sale. They didn't dress up as zombies during the sale which was kind of disappointing. They didn't get any extra customers for all their work and expense. They only looked so-so as zombies. It was made slightly better in the poster by photshopping them. They pick on Ming at the end of the 4th show for his bad marketing idea. It was a bad idea. In the 5th episode the guys head out to a local small comic con. When they get there it's been cancelled. No one told them? They stopped at a garage sale on the way back home and lucked into a few nice comics and toys. In the last episode Walt challenges the rest of the staff and Bryan to get tattoos. He fails to show up at the tattoo shop but the others all get tattoos anyway. Didn't make Walt look too good in my eyes when he tossed off some lame excuse for not being there. Sadly the guys come across as less likeable than you'd think a person would like to present themselves on tv. Sometimes they say the dumbest things.
There are the usual bits with people coming into the store to sell some kind of collectible. That's the best part of the show, seeing all the interesting stuff people want to sell. A lot of it was smaller stuff, toys, action figures, single comics or small bunches, but one guy brought a big box of comics that they guessed was worth $750,000. It had some neat old comics. Not the kind of thing I want, early Superman and Batman issues etc, even if I could afford them. The issues looked in nice shape and they told him to get himself to an auction house. That's the way to make the most money on that collection. Another guy tried to sell them a rare poster of Superman. He wanted hundreds for it. They passed and later found it was a poster by different artist than the guy said it was and you can still get it on the artists website for $35. Some people took the money offered and some did not. Some of the encounters didn't come off to well like Ming buying the Catwoman Barbie from some lady. I'm sure stuff like that turned people off the show. I certainly have mixed feeling about it. Cut into the store footage is a group sit down to talk about the show. Kevin Smith sits in on that with them. They also produced a series of podcasts that Kevin hosts on his podcast network. There were 7 of those. You can find them if you need them.
I had read some reviewer compare Comic Book Men to Pawn Stars so I watched 3 episodes depicting the buying activities in a huge and long established pawn shop in Las Vegas. I can see why someone might use that show as a comparison. They bid as low as possible to see if the people want to sell. Some people take the money and some don't. Other than the buying stuff it's pretty different. You don't learn enough about the Pawn Stars guys to bother much about them. Showing the goods and the cash is the reason we're here. "Show me the money!" Hollywood Treasures is another collectible show. They go for movie props and memorabilia, rare books, other interesting collectibles. They had a book that was signed by all the cast of The Wizard Of Oz including Toto's paw print. I really would have wanted that book for that paw print but it went for a huge pile. I think it was $65,000 but it was a while ago and I can't remember for sure. They had a ton of stuff from the Terminator movies and a bunch of great props and ships from different Star Trek series. The guy that heads the company that auctions off the items on the show is annoying, it's all about getting items for the next auction. Unlike that business model the comic shop doesn't pay much of the value of a collectible when someone tries to sell it. Ten to twenty percent of the value, that's the used bookstore and comic shop business model. It's partly supply and demand. Customers demand so much choice but they don't supply the sales too well. Much of what those stores buy winds up collecting dust, especially in the used business. Bookstores can return most new books. There's a certain window that you have to hit but you'll get credit on the returns and you won't get stuck with unsold and unwanted inventory. Used stores are stuck with the stuff no one wants. There's always a huge supply of people wanting to sell all the books they don't want anymore but there aren't always the huge supply of customers to demand all those books. Better items might net the seller a bit more than that 10-20% but more common items would get the seller a lot less or the store might not want them at all. It's typical for used stores to cherry pick the items you bring in and pass on the ones they don't want. For collectible toys and the like the price the seller will pay is based on the buyers thoughts on the re-sale price and the length of time he might have to sit on it. In the case of more high end collectibles auction is the way to go. That's where the high paying fans hang out with their checkbooks.
Mostly I was interested in watching the show while I was watching it but I doubt I would bother buying a dvd of the series. I wouldn't want to watch it that often.
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