GARAGE CON 2011: DAY ONE

I usually prepare my bloggy things several days before I post them,
but this has been a busy week at Casa Isabella.  So it’s Friday and
I’m at my keyboard just minutes after closing my garage door at the
close of the first day of Garage Con 2011.  It was an exceedingly
good day and well worth the effort.

My son Eddie and I did not have a large number of customers.  What
we did have were people who decided to come to my garage sale after
reading about it on Facebook, Twitter, and this very blog.  Some of
them drove hours to come to my sale.

My biggest fear was that my online friends would make the trip to
Medina and be disappointed. The comic books and other items on sale
represented about half of what had piled up in my office and maybe
about a dozen boxes from the basement.  The oldest items in my Vast
Accumulation of Stuff remain buried deep in a storage unit.  It’ll
be years before the oldest stuff sees the light of a garage sale or
even an eBay auction.

I’m delighted to report those online friends who came to the first
day of Garage Con 2011 went away happy and with hundreds of comic
books, trade paperbacks, and hardcovers at ridiculously low prices.
I was just as pleased.  I had a sort of bottom line figure I hoped
to make over the two days of the sale.  We have already passed that
figure.  I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

A few more garage sale notes...

Sometimes it’s just the luck of putting the right customer together
with the right items.  I sold hundreds of copies of 2000 AD and
related British comics to one customer.

On the other hand, I don’t think anyone even looked at back issues
of Shonen Jump, though most of them were bagged with a collectible
gaming card and never opened. 

Not at all surprising...we didn’t sell any VHS tapes, even though
we priced them at a quarter each or five for a dollar.  I suspect
these tapes will be heading for the dump on Monday.

Tom Batiuk of Crankshaft and Funky Winkerbean fame - those are two
of my favorite comic strips - stopped by to snap a couple photos of
my sale.  I would tell you to keep an eye out for the use of these
reference photos in Funky except that Tom works about a year ahead
on his strips.  When the strips using these reference photos run in
2012 or so, I’ll point them out to you.

Tonight...

Besides writing this bloggy thing, I’m putting together some more
boxes of comic books and trade paperbacks for the second day of the
sale.  I think I’m gonna need a bigger garage.

In the future...

I’m seriously contemplating another garage sale for a Friday and a
Saturday in September.  I might also leave half the garage set up
with boxes of stuff and sell to customers by appointment...at least
until November when I’ll want to move my van back into the garage.

There will be eBay and other online sales in the future.  It seems
to me that eBay would be the logical place for the more expensive
items, including original art...and that my message board would be
the better place to sell the insanely cheap items I’m selling this
weekend.  I’ll keep you posted on my plans here, on Facebook, and
on my message board.

I’m putting together my convention schedule for the rest of 2011.
Depending on the event, I might bring boxes of the insanely cheap
items I’m selling this weekend.  What I bring will depend on what
kind of space I have at the conventions.

I’ll be back tomorrow with either a report on the second day of my
garage sale or with something that will probably get me into some
kind of trouble.  If I go with the garage sale, you’ll have to wait
another day or two for me to jump gleefully into the line of fire.
But it’ll happen.  That’s just how I roll.

© 2011 Tony Isabella