Monday, May 27, 2019

SOMETHING GARAGE SALE THIS WAY COMES

My first Vast Accumulation of Stuff Garage Sale of the summer will be held Friday and Saturday, May 31 and June 1, at 840 Damon Drive in Medina, Ohio. The sale hours are 9 am to 1 pm each day, but I’m not gonna throw anyone out if they’re still shopping and buying at closing time.

The plan for this summer is to reduce the VAOS significantly. As in allowing me to get rid of my offsite storage unit and clear all the extraneous boxes from my son Eddie’s former bedroom. The "looking at the future plan" is that Barb and I will move into Eddie’s bedroom while our master bedroom is renovated.
                                                                              

As you look at the photos included with today’s bloggy thing, you may be thinking...it doesn’t look like a ready-to-go garage sale. You’re right. It doesn’t. But it will by the time I open the garage door on Friday morning.
                                                                             
      
Whenever I announce one of these garage sales, I get many questions about what I’ll be selling. Honestly, I can’t give any definitive answer on that. I know I’ll have several boxes of quarter comics, several boxes of dollar comics and several boxes of higher-priced comics. Expect to be blown away by the bargain prices of the comics in those higher-priced boxes.

There will be bargain-priced hardcovers, magazines, manga volumes, mass market paperbacks and trade paperbacks. There will be copies of Beano and Commando from the U.K. I’m pricing the Beano issues at 10 for a dollar and the Commando digests as half a buck each. Most manga volumes will be a buck.

I have a bunch of collectible phones, but I can only put so many of those in each sale. Among those that will be available are phones featuring Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley.

There will be other cool collectibles as well. I found a box of Marvel Super-Heroes role-playing game stuff. If I can fit that into this first sale, I will. If not, they will show up in a week or so.Because, this summer, I’m holding garage sales every weekend, save for those weekends when I’m at conventions.
                                                                             

There will be posters for sale as well. I found what I’m thinking is my last batch of the two-sided Superman poster I conceived for Cleveland’s International Superman Exposition in 1988. I have some Black Lightning and Hawkman posters. I have Daredevil and Luke Cage mini-posters. If I can figure out to display them properly, I will also have some cool Black Lightning pins for sale. Vast just barely covers all the great stuff I have for sale.
                                                                                         

Isabella stuff will include: 1000 Comic Books You Must Read; Black Lightning: Cold Dead Hands; Black Lightning Volumes 1-3; July 1963: A Pivotal Month in the Comic-Book Life of Tony Isabella Volume One; and copies of my original script for Cold Dead Hands #1. I’ll also have individual copies of Cold Dead Hands #1-6 and other Isabella or Isabella-associated comic books.
                                                                                    

This garage sale will be the first offering of the variant edition of Marvel’s Greatest Creators: Tony Isabella #1 featuring the first appearance of Misty Knight. This edition is available only from me. The print run is just over 1000. Each copy of this variant edition will be signed and numbered. I’m pricing this variant edition at $10 per copy.

I’m looking at this special edition of Marvel’s Greatest Creators: Tony Isabella #1 as a fundraiser to help support my future projects  and travel. Copies will be available by mail as soon as I calculate the shipping costs. Look for that announcement next week.

There are a few components of this garage sale that won’t be up to stuff this first time out. I have a bunch of older Isabella-written comics to bag, board and price. I’ll do my best to keep the prices down on these, but I don’t think I’ll have a box of them ready for this first garage sale.

My $10 mystery boxes are among the most popular items at my garage sales, but I probably won’t have more than a few of them ready for this first weekend. I’ll have more of them as these sales continue over the summer.

Some other garage sales notes:

My garage sales are cash only. I am an unfrozen caveman writer and your modern technology confuses and frightens me. I hope to learn how to use one of those credit-card cube things before the end of the summer. I am not confident that will happen.

I don’t charge for my signature at my garage sales, even if you’re bringing stuff from home for me to sign. However, if you just come to these sales to get free signatures and don’t buy anything, I’m gonna think you’re a jerk.

Parents should understand that not every comic book is suitable for all ages, even if the comic book features a classic character like Batman. I will have a dedicated box of suitable-for-all-ages comic books. For example, that’s where you’ll find classic Archie comics. The more current stuff will be in the dollar boxes. If you aren’t sure about a comic’s suitability for your child, I’ll be happy to talk to you about it and/or steer you to more appropriate reading material for your child.

I’m delighted to set up complimentary guest tables in my driveway for comics professionals and organizations. Please e-mail me with your credentials and information. I will do my level best to accommodate you.

Tomorrow, I’ll place a Craig’s List announcement about the garage sales and a classified ad in the Medina Gazette. I’ll be plugging the sales on Facebook and Twitter. Feel free to share those plugs on your social media. You never know when someone might decide that a road trip to Medina would be fun.

With time out to complete some other gigs, I’ll be working on this weekend’s garage sale up to the moment I open the door at 9:00 am. If Friday’s sales are brisk, I’ll restock as much as possible for Saturday. The VAOS is strong within my garage.

I’ll be back soon with more bloggy things.

© 2019 Tony Isabella

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