Under the heading of secondary market activity you just can’t track by watching eBay… Bakersfield, Calif. station KGET reports a local man holding a yard sale for 175,000 comics this weekend. Scott Hudlow is described as history professor who’s worked as a dealer for 15 years, including as a mail-order dealer out of his home for the past 12 years (timing which would match the timeline in which many 1990s stores closed, sending many retailers into mail-order with their inventory).
It doesn’t read or sound like the standard liquidation story: “he figures a yard sale is the best way to build a client base and let people know he’s open for business” — though there’s no mention of an impending storefront, brick-and-mortar or otherwise. In any event, prices start at 25¢, and the dealer certainly seems enthusiastic (the broadcasters at the end certainly think so). And you can’t do much yard-sale buying in the weather most other places this weekend…
Comichron founder John Jackson Miller has tracked the comics industry for more than 25 years, including a decade editing the industry’s retail trade magazine; he is the author of several guides to comics, as well as more than a hundred comic books for various franchises.
He is the author of novels including Star Wars: Kenobi, Star Wars: A New Dawn, Star Trek: Discovery – The Enterprise War, and his upcoming release, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The High Country. Read more about them at his fiction site.
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