It’s early Monday morning as I write this bloggy. Work now begins in earnest on my next Vast Accumulation of Stuff garage sales at my home in Medina, Ohio. While I do some work on these garage sales every day, straightening up the garage and adding new items to the sales, it’s the Monday before those sales when I really kick that into high gear.
The sales will be at 840 Damon Drive, Medina, Ohio, on Friday and Saturday, August 12-13, from 9 am to noon. The sales are cash only, though I have been known to accept PayPal when you can show me on your phone that I’ve received the money.
You’ll see signs for the garage sale on my front lawn and, hanging from my back patio, a large garish Tony Isabella sign given to me by a convention. Parking is on the side of Damon Drive across from my house and also on Bradley Court, the “U” on which my driveway is located. Except for those with handicapped stickers on their cars, there is no parking in my driveway. Please obey the various parking signs on the streets. I’d feel terrible if any of my customers got ticketed.
My garage sales are a mix of comic books, trade paperbacks, manga, magazines, hardcover books, “coffee table” books, stuff written by me, comics-related clothing, posters, action figures, and sometimes other items. I’ve sold collectible Monopoly games, phones, puzzles and more at these sales.
When people ask what I have at my sales, my honest answer is that I don’t know. The nature of my “vast accumulation” is that I don’t know what I have until I pull a box from storage and look inside. A while back, I unearthed a box containing Batman #101-242. There’s likely a box filled with contemporary issues of Detective Comics somewhere, but I don’t know where it is. When I find it, I’ll put those issues on sale.
Most of what I have on sale is priced at around 30% of its original price or current value. I’m pricing this stuff to sell. Among the more popular areas in the garage are my “dollar comics” boxes with comics priced at a dollar each.
I also do $10 mystery boxes filled with all sorts of cool things. Because these are hard to keep in stock, I don’t always have a lot of them and they sell incredible fast. It’s why I now limit them to one box per customer per day. My goal is always to start the sales with a dozen mystery boxes. Sometimes I actually do that.
I am buying comic books, though not in great bulk. I’ll pay $15 for a short box of good condition comics and $30 for a long box of good condition comics. Generally speaking, a short box holds a little over 150 issues and a long box around 300. The only restrictions: I don’t want too many copies of the same issues. I don’t want adults only comic books. I won’t be able to buy dozens of boxes at one time. I’d advise you to contact me before you bring the comics to my sales, both to make sure I can buy the number of boxes you’re bringing me and to make sure I have the funds to pay them.
When I’m at a convention, I sign Isabella items purchased from me for free and charge $10 per signature on stuff you didn’t buy from me at the convention. However, at my garage sales, I don’t charge for my signature. You’re welcome to bring your already-owned Tony Isabella comics and such to the garage sales and get them signed. However, if you’re bringing a lot of comics for me to sign, you’ll need to be patient while I wait on customers. Alas, my garage sales are a one-man operation.
At my sales, you’re also welcome to ask me questions about my fifty years working in the comic-book industry. There are questions that I can’t answer, either because I’ve signed NDAs or because I don’t remember the answers, but I’ll do my best to entertain and inform you. It’s what Stan and Jack would want.
My garage sales are fun. You will find lots of cool stuff at them. You will help finance my future work and keep my kids from calling me a hoarder. I look forward to seeing you.
I’ll be back soon with more stuff.
© 2022 Tony Isabella
great article
ReplyDeleteI hope to meet you and visit you one day.
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