Comic Shops and VALIANT?

Shadowmatt · Post by **Shadowmatt** » Tue May 09, 2006 4:59 pm

I'm just curious as to what your experiences have been with finding VALIANT books at your local comic shops.

I live in the Milwaukee metro, so I've got 12 comic shops within an hour drive of me. Two of these shops are bonanzas for Valiant books. Collector's Edge has every single Valiant book, incentives included. This weekend, I filled out my Rai and pre-Chaos Effect Eternal Warrior collections, along with EW: Fist and Steel there, getting all books at 25 cents over cover.

At another shop, ML Comics, there are all post-Unity through Birthquake books at cover, and I'm sure if I asked the owner, he'd sell bulk books at a lower rate. He even sold me a few key pre-Unity books I was missing for less than cover (namely Magnus 7 & 8 and Rai 4 for $1.50 each).

There's a store in Madison, WI, Capitol City Comics (of former distribution fame), that has TONS of Valiant books in their 3/$1 stack. It was in that stack where I located a Gold Shadowman #0, as well as most of the run that I needed of Timewalker (including #0) and the middle run of the Visitor.

I'm interested in hearing about other people's experiences in tracking these books down in stores rather than via the internet.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Tue May 09, 2006 5:01 pm

There's hardly any VALIANTS in my LCS's... and I have 8 within an hours drive of each other.

-slym

davidb · Post by **davidb** » Tue May 09, 2006 6:05 pm

There are 2 close to me.

The first is the one I've always gone to since my last one closed. Very little to no pre-Unity, and no variants. On the other hand, once you get to Unity, the runs are pretty much solid to the end (I've gotten closing issues for Magnus, X-O, Bloodshot, and Turok from them, and there have usually been copies left). Acclaim is a little more hit-and-miss, but their sets are pretty solid on normal books (and some of the painted #1s). No Q & W trades or previews.

The other just opened and has roughly 12 long boxes of unorganized books for a buck each. Tons of ultra common stuff like Secret Weapons #1 and Turok #1, but I did pull my Rai #3, EW #1 gold embossed, and Shadowman v3 #1 from them, so deals are there - you just have to be willing to dig for a while.

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Tue May 09, 2006 6:45 pm

Shadowmatt wrote:I'm just curious as to what your experiences have been with finding VALIANT books at your local comic shops.

I live in the Milwaukee metro, so I've got 12 comic shops within an hour drive of me. Two of these shops are bonanzas for Valiant books. Collector's Edge has every single Valiant book, incentives included. This weekend, I filled out my Rai and pre-Chaos Effect Eternal Warrior collections, along with EW: Fist and Steel there, getting all books at 25 cents over cover.

At another shop, ML Comics, there are all post-Unity through Birthquake books at cover, and I'm sure if I asked the owner, he'd sell bulk books at a lower rate. He even sold me a few key pre-Unity books I was missing for less than cover (namely Magnus 7 & 8 and Rai 4 for $1.50 each).

There's a store in Madison, WI, Capitol City Comics (of former distribution fame), that has TONS of Valiant books in their 3/$1 stack. It was in that stack where I located a Gold Shadowman #0, as well as most of the run that I needed of Timewalker (including #0) and the middle run of the Visitor.

I'm interested in hearing about other people's experiences in tracking these books down in stores rather than via the internet.

You've been able to find VALIANTs in the Milwaukee area??? I must be slipping. Let's see....

Collector's Edge, I would assume you're talking about the store on KINNICKINNIC AVE. You know, the one with all the back issues in the basement. I was pretty sure Myron and myself had cleaned that place out of the majority of the pre-Unity and variant issues they had (and the more expensive last issues, as well) Curious as to what you found there. There was some pre-Unity books we left, mainly because of condition issues. You're not paying cover price plus a quarter for regular run of the mill Valiants, are you?

I bought a bunch of Valiants I needed at the time from the ML Comics (in Thiensville) store, and he did indeed give me a decent price for buying a bunch. I'm surprised you found any pre-Unity, he must have recently discovered them. I once bought a Secret Weapons #11 VVSS from him for a good price.

I was only in the Madison area once and the Capitol City shop was closed. I went to a couple other stores and didn't find much in the way of Valiant there although the Westfield store I went to had a copy of the Predator vs. Magnus trade paperback

Shadowmatt · Post by **Shadowmatt** » Tue May 09, 2006 7:27 pm

Brother J wrote: You've been able to find VALIANTs in the Milwaukee area??? I must be slipping. Let's see....

Collector's Edge, I would assume you're talking about the store on KINNICKINNIC AVE. You know, the one with all the back issues in the basement. I was pretty sure Myron and myself had cleaned that place out of the majority of the pre-Unity and variant issues they had (and the more expensive last issues, as well) Curious as to what you found there. There was some pre-Unity books we left, mainly because of condition issues. You're not paying cover price plus a quarter for regular run of the mill Valiants, are you?

I bought a bunch of Valiants I needed at the time from the ML Comics (in Thiensville) store, and he did indeed give me a decent price for buying a bunch. I'm surprised you found any pre-Unity, he must have recently discovered them. I once bought a Secret Weapons #11 VVSS from him for a good price.

I was only in the Madison area once and the Capitol City shop was closed. I went to a couple other stores and didn't find much in the way of Valiant there although the Westfield store I went to had a copy of the Predator vs. Magnus trade paperback

You are correct, the Collector's Edge location is the South store, with all of the back issues in the basement. Recently, I found the last four issues of Solar, some later issues of Magnus that I needed (58-61), some later Acclaims. What I like about that store is that even if things are cleaned out, if you wait long enough everything will be restocked. I was talking to Keith on Saturday (the "basement monkey") and he said that they've got full runs of all of the Valiant books except for Bloodshot, as they don't have #51 in stock. He had recently done an inventory on them and moved them to a different place in the basement as they weren't high sellers.

The pre-Unity stuff that I found at ML Comics is from a collection he obtained recently. His store's a mixed blessing. He's got tons of the common stuff, but man... the variants he has he's still charging 1995 prices for, like the autographed X-O #0 and the autographed Secret Weapons in the bag (#11?). The best deal I got there was the embossed X-O 1/2 which he gave me for free because he couldn't figure out how much it was and I'm a fairly regular customer there. I'm glad to know that he will in fact give deals on runs though. If you're looking for some stuff in particular, he does have the new Valiant collection, but he hasn't priced it and put it out yet, he's got it under the tables, but if you ask about it, he'll pull it out and let you browse it. If you're interested, he just picked up a complete run of Uncanny X-Men, from issue #96-475, with a couple gaps of 97 and 98. I finally tracked down my Uncanny #205 there and got it for $4 which I think was a steal.

I've never been to Westfield, although I've heard it's decent enough. I don't like venturing out onto the west edge of town when I'm there on business. I like to stay as close to downtown as possible. Capitol City is worth checking out though. What they don't have in the discount piles, they've got in stock in back. When I was there in early March, he had just obtained a ton of Valiant TPBs, and if I'm not mistaken, the Diamond Unity hardcovers were among them.

It's good to know there are fellow Valiant fans in the Milwaukee metro! Do you ever go to the shows at the Burnham Bowl? At the one in April, I was going through a 3/$1 box, filling up on X-Os, when I saw a guy coming from the other end pull out three copies of Bloodshot: Last Stand. If only I had started from the front of the alphabet, I'm sure that X-O #14 would've still been there!

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Tue May 09, 2006 10:38 pm

It's good to know there are fellow Valiant fans in the Milwaukee metro! Do you ever go to the shows at the Burnham Bowl? At the one in April, I was going through a 3/$1 box, filling up on X-Os, when I saw a guy coming from the other end pull out three copies of Bloodshot: Last Stand. If only I had started from the front of the alphabet, I'm sure that X-O #14 would've still been there!

I was at that show and I was also in those boxes! In fact, one of the books I bought out of those boxes was a Bloodshot: Last Stand! I didn't find any more decent Valiants in there, though. I'll be going to the next one beginning of June.

IMJ · Post by **IMJ** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:08 pm

I've tapped most of the Chicagoland area stores that are west of say... Hillside and as far out as DeKalb, of their Valiants over the years.

I'm sure some collections have come and gone during my lack of comic shopping lately, but I'd say that I put a HUGE dent in the greater northwest Chicago area... at least the keys and golds that is.

It's the smaller shops that you really find the stuff at now. Places like Graham Crackers (who are bigger) ironicaly don't have a lot of Valiant stuff left or coming in.

There is a small store in Downers Grove that I bought a TON of stuff, including Gold's, for a buck each at one point. I also found another collection from a place that was going out of business and remodeling as a lazer tag joint. I put a box together, filled mostly with Valiants (everything else was mid to late 90s crap) including some golds, signed editions and Retailer Reviews which by the time I had paid for the box, averaged .08 a comic.... EIGHT CENTS. It was an awesome find.

In retrospect, I shoulda just bought the guy out of everything....

ZephyrWasHOT!! · Post by **ZephyrWasHOT!!** » Tue May 09, 2006 11:49 pm

Shadowmatt wrote:
There's a store in Madison, WI, Capitol City Comics (of former distribution fame), .

What a sad, tragic affair their demise turned out to be for the industry...

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Wed May 10, 2006 7:48 am

IMJ wrote:I've tapped most of the Chicagoland area stores that are west of say... Hillside and as far out as DeKalb, of their Valiants over the years.

I'm sure some collections have come and gone during my lack of comic shopping lately, but I'd say that I put a HUGE dent in the greater northwest Chicago area... at least the keys and golds that is.

It's the smaller shops that you really find the stuff at now. Places like Graham Crackers (who are bigger) ironicaly don't have a lot of Valiant stuff left or coming in.

There is a small store in Downers Grove that I bought a TON of stuff, including Gold's, for a buck each at one point. I also found another collection from a place that was going out of business and remodeling as a lazer tag joint. I put a box together, filled mostly with Valiants (everything else was mid to late 90s crap) including some golds, signed editions and Retailer Reviews which by the time I had paid for the box, averaged .08 a comic.... EIGHT CENTS. It was an awesome find.

In retrospect, I shoulda just bought the guy out of everything....

I tried a lot of the northern Illinois shops that weren't too far from the Wisconsin border, but didn't have a whole lot of luck. I think both you and Dellamorte have cleaned out most of those stores. It's cool there's quite a few of us by Chicago, looks like a VALIANT meeting at Wizard World wouldn't be too far fetched.

Zero · Post by **Zero** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:02 pm

Brother J wrote:
IMJ wrote:I've tapped most of the Chicagoland area stores that are west of say... Hillside and as far out as DeKalb, of their Valiants over the years.

I'm sure some collections have come and gone during my lack of comic shopping lately, but I'd say that I put a HUGE dent in the greater northwest Chicago area... at least the keys and golds that is.

It's the smaller shops that you really find the stuff at now. Places like Graham Crackers (who are bigger) ironicaly don't have a lot of Valiant stuff left or coming in.

There is a small store in Downers Grove that I bought a TON of stuff, including Gold's, for a buck each at one point. I also found another collection from a place that was going out of business and remodeling as a lazer tag joint. I put a box together, filled mostly with Valiants (everything else was mid to late 90s crap) including some golds, signed editions and Retailer Reviews which by the time I had paid for the box, averaged .08 a comic.... EIGHT CENTS. It was an awesome find.

In retrospect, I shoulda just bought the guy out of everything....
I tried a lot of the northern Illinois shops that weren't too far from the Wisconsin border, but didn't have a whole lot of luck. I think both you and Dellamorte have cleaned out most of those stores. It's cool there's quite a few of us by Chicago, looks like a VALIANT meeting at Wizard World wouldn't be too far fetched.

I'll be there for sure!!

Shadowmatt · Post by **Shadowmatt** » Wed May 10, 2006 6:27 pm

Brother J wrote: I tried a lot of the northern Illinois shops that weren't too far from the Wisconsin border, but didn't have a whole lot of luck. I think both you and Dellamorte have cleaned out most of those stores. It's cool there's quite a few of us by Chicago, looks like a VALIANT meeting at Wizard World wouldn't be too far fetched.

I'll be there, the question is just WHEN I'll be there. Chances are, I'll be there all day Saturday, as that's what it looks like my budget will shape up to be.

IMJ · Post by **IMJ** » Wed May 10, 2006 9:33 pm

I have actually never been to a Wizard World, but if you guys are down for a Chicagoland meet there, I think it might be cool to check out....

Someone needs to organize this though...

Brother J · Post by **Brother J** » Wed May 10, 2006 11:31 pm

I won't be going this year, but don't let that stop anyone who might be interested in getting together. To anyone that knows, isn't there another pretty big comic show in Chicago other than Wizard World? I thought I heard of one, but not sure...

myron · Post by **myron** » Thu May 11, 2006 8:41 am

I am not a fan of Collectors Edge...his prices on commons are ridiculous...he could move the majority of his back stock (if he wanted) by having a dollar bin...but he wont...sometimes a decent variant slips in to stuff, but like BroJ said...we pretty much cleaned him out over the past couple of years (I know BroJ found some sweet Broadway and Defiant stuff there... :x )

Westfield in Madison has no valiants...they told me to basically go away

Capital City is ok for commons, but they are in very sketchy shape...and forget pre-unity books...they'll rape you for them. One of the workers there worked for Valiant in it's hey-day and won't let the good stuff slip away for cheap.

20th Century is a great shop for those hard to find indie books...but I cleaned them out of valiant books and nexus stuff almost 2 years ago.

World of Wonders sometimes has some stuff in back...if you go when it's not busy and talk nice they might dig some out for you...I got an almost complete run of Bloodshot that way...for a good price

I've heard Universal comics in Waukesha has some nice 12 cent covers for decent prices but haven't heard if they have any valiants.

Power house in Appleton gets some occasionally for cheap...but it's hit and miss...same with their Oshkosh location...although that's a bigger store.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:06 am

I just wish I had an LCS to complain about them not having Valiants...

myron · Post by **myron** » Thu May 11, 2006 9:19 am

Heath wrote:I just wish I had an LCS to complain about them not having Valiants...

I wouldn't call any of those an "L"CS...I have to drive over 30 min each way to them...the closest shop to me is 20 min and I have more comics than that store does...

although a new shop just opened in Oconomowoc...got to go check it this weekend...think they just carry new stuff though.

Heath · Post by **Heath** » Thu May 11, 2006 11:37 am

myron wrote:
Heath wrote:I just wish I had an LCS to complain about them not having Valiants...
I wouldn't call any of those an "L"CS...I have to drive over 30 min each way to them...the closest shop to me is 20 min and I have more comics than that store does...

The nearest store to me is 2 hours away - and that's if I drive 75 or 80 on the interstate to get there. 30 minutes would be "local" for me.

I went by there about 6 months ago and they had not one single Valiant back issue. They had a couple of XO TPBs, but that was it.

ibreakhorses · Post by **ibreakhorses** » Thu May 11, 2006 5:27 pm

I got a bunch of Acclaim books out of the 3/$1.00 boxes from my LCS.

TearyBlues · Post by **TearyBlues** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:13 am

Just today, I could only find 2 Valiants at my LCS quarter bin, one was a Second Life of Dr. Mirage 2 and the other one was Harbinger 17 (looks G-VG). Didn't pick the Mirage issue though. On the other hand, I did find an Italian version of Malibu's Bravura.

Knightt · Post by **Knightt** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:14 am

TearyBlues wrote:On the other hand, I did find an Italian version of Malibu's Bravura.

Oh didja ? Did they have any more of this book(s) ?

Chris

TearyBlues · Post by **TearyBlues** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:33 am

Knightt wrote:
TearyBlues wrote:On the other hand, I did find an Italian version of Malibu's Bravura.
Oh didja ? Did they have any more of this book(s) ?

Chris

Nope.

TearyBlues · Post by **TearyBlues** » Sat May 13, 2006 12:35 am

Knightt wrote:
TearyBlues wrote:On the other hand, I did find an Italian version of Malibu's Bravura.
Oh didja ? Did they have any more of this book(s) ?

Chris

Nope. More interested in finding some CrossGen stuff in the quarter bin (they used to be 50 cents last year) though. Couldn't find any of them either just like Valiants?

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Comic Shops and VALIANT?

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