What's happened to the $0.25 bin?

[The Dirt Gang]

Do $0.25 bins still exist? Granted I don't going into comic shops as much anymore but the times I do, I feel like I see more $1 bins. I miss the days of thumbing through $0.25 bins and finding old Valiant or other treasures. I've always enjoyed the hunt as much as the comics themselves. I'm not a collector in the way a lot of folks are on here. I have always been more interested in the stories, so I've bought very few Valiant books online. I prefer to walk into a shop and dig through boxes and find a few among the stacks. Actually, flea markets might be my favorite.

It reminds me a bit of what Kurt Cobain said about wealth -
"You can’t buy happiness. I mean that made me happy for a little while. I look back at going to second hand stores and I was almost just as happy finding a little treasure. That actually meant more to me because it was more of a stab in the dark in a way. You didn’t know if you were going to be able to afford it and what you were really looking for. When you find it its more special to you rather than having a thousand dollars and going into a store like that or buying the whole store. It’s not as special."

[kjjohanson]

Do $0.25 bins still exist? Granted I don't going into comic shops as much anymore but the times I do, I feel like I see more $1 bins. I miss the days of thumbing through $0.25 bins and finding old Valiant or other treasures. I've always enjoyed the hunt as much as the comics themselves. I'm not a collector in the way a lot of folks are on here. I have always been more interested in the stories, so I've bought very few Valiant books online. I prefer to walk into a shop and dig through boxes and find a few among the stacks. Actually, flea markets might be my favorite.

It reminds me a bit of what Kurt Cobain said about wealth -
"You can’t buy happiness. I mean that made me happy for a little while. I look back at going to second hand stores and I was almost just as happy finding a little treasure. That actually meant more to me because it was more of a stab in the dark in a way. You didn’t know if you were going to be able to afford it and what you were really looking for. When you find it its more special to you rather than having a thousand dollars and going into a store like that or buying the whole store. It’s not as special."

There was a dealer with .25 boxes at Special Edition this weekend. I picked up a handful of issues of Astro City (which it turned out I already had), a complete run of Mark Waid's Empire (a good read if you're looking for a twist on super-villains), a few late-run Milestones, and some other books. There was also a dealer with .50 boxes, in which I found a Unity 2000 #3 (beat up, but who cares), and a bunch of dealers with dollar boxes. I think the reality is that in both stores and cons, most dealers don't think the return on anything less than dollar boxes in worth the space, and to be fair, the discount off of cover price (assuming you're finding new books, and I did find a number of Valiants for a dollar, including A&A #1 second print), is about the same or more as the old quarter bins.

[nscc]

I don't think I've EVER personally seen a quarter bin.

Growing up as a kid, the local stores had some cheaper books, but I think they were usually $1 or more.

The LCS (that I don't go to as the owner is a *SQUEE* and prices are very high) has about 20ish short boxes with marvel and dc stuff, but its all 3.00 or more each !

I would love the opportunity to look through some massive stacks for .25 each. I am sure some of the shops further away have some bargain bins though, but I doubt I will drive 90 mins to find out

Thanks for the Cobain quote, always liked that one too.

[the1captain]

Last con I attended had a lot of .50 bins. Found a ton of old Valiant. Some nice surprises too.

[cornflakeboy]

I was in NY on january and Midtown Comics had at least 0.50 bins. I got some nice Valiants and stuff. There's also a really cool Brooklyn Comic Book Store with a bin with extremely cheap comics and tpbs (these are all recent stuff)

[Phoenix8008]

5-6 years ago when I started re-collecting Valiant, there was an LCS with quarter bins. Or you could get 5 for $1! I spent about $300 getting a big chunk of all the VH1 stuff (and the needed bags/board/boxes) in one fell swoop. After that, I mostly bought from folk here on the boards to fill in the remaining holes. That LCS is closed now though.

[caxiotis]

I mainly see $1.25 bins in my area. There are some quarter bins, but those comics are normally mangled.

I also miss the old quarter bins with good comics

[Elveen]

I come accross a bunch of cheap bins, but they do seem to be .50 bins.
Honesty, I find that I don't hav the time or energy to look through unorganized back issue any more.
You can for sure find treasures, but it's a time factor.
At a show I did in May a dealer had penny books.

[iggy101us]

I've only seen $0.25 bins at cons. At LCS, the cheapest I've seen is $1 bin. Half Price Books comics are 1/2 off cover price. Some of my best finds was at Half Price Books . . . TWD #27 (the Governor 1st app) and Preacher #1 for 1/2 cover

[Tim]

I see 25-cent and even 10-cent bins at Heroescon all the time. Not so many at NC Comic Con, but that's a smaller con to begin with. Borderlands had at least 100 10-cent boxes at Heroescon last year with some great stuff throughout. Got a full run of Kyle Baker's Plastic Man, A run on early 90's Justice Society, and a ton of other great stuff. My buddy picked up at least 200 Punisher comics out of the same boxes, including pretty much all the Garth Ennis stuff.

I guess there's no impetus to move cheap issues in stationary stores, but at a con it seems that nobody wants to carry that stuff back home.

[The Dirt Gang]

I've yet to be to a con. A real shame since I live less than 30 minutes from NC Comic Con (it always falls on a bad weekend for me).

Part of it for me is stumbling into some random store or flea market and finding that box of low priced comics.

I agree with Elveen. I don't have the time much anymore to sift through those long boxes anymore but every once in awhile I get a nostalgic feeling to do so.

I've put together some of my favorite comic runs sifting through $0.25 bins.

[kjjohanson]

I built a decent amount of my collection from discount bins at NYC-area conventions in the late '80s and early '90s. Huge runs of Bronze-age Marvels, including the first Hobgoblin. I picked up an Avengers 51 at some point and later noticed that it was autographed by John Buscema.

[ilzuccone]

I just picked up 60 valiant books for .50 cents each at a local used book store. I probably could have haggled down to a quarter because of the condition of the books. but didn't because haggling in struggling mom and pop stores makes me feel like a scumbag.

I think .50 cent bins are today's .25 cent bins. inflation and all

I've actually been working on enjoying what i have more. That Kurt Cobain quote is so true.

[nycjadie]

I've only seen a few .25 bins in my life of 40 years, even at cons. I think that cheap bins are more common now than ever before. I routinely see $.50 bins at cons, and there's always a rotating stock at my new LCS. Most shops I see are $1, and frankly, I'm OK with that. I've picked out better deals in $1 boxes than I ever had in quarter bins and in far less time. I guess people are less likely to pour through a comics for $1.

In my last con in Tacoma, I found some amazing VF+ to NM underground and nuwave comix for $1. I was at a store and grabbed a good Unity 2000 3 for $1, and an V2 Armorines 1.

For big runs, it seems like the going rate on eBay is $.50, plus shipping. I think that makes sense. That's the new bargain price.

If anyone wants cheap books, I have 30 short boxes I just listed for $900. I figure it's close to 4000 books. Less than $.25! I'm in Oakland.

[kjjohanson]

I think that cheap bins are more common now than ever before.

That's probably because there is a ton of books from the 80s and 90s that no one wants. Or because most collectors are getting their books new and readers have cheaper options than back issues if they're just interested in reading.

[nycjadie]

That's interesting. I actually see most of the cheap comics in my world are 2000-present. I don't know why that is. I guess that's what stores have and cant' sell.

[kjjohanson]

That's interesting. I actually see most of the cheap comics in my world are 2000-present. I don't know why that is. I guess that's what stores have and cant' sell.

The proliferation of collections, I suppose.

[RogueJedi74]

Only seeing $1.00 boxes at a few Local Comic Stores in my area. I would love some $.25 bins but it would take forever to thumb through them.

[jmatt]

A pound of bacon is like seven bucks. Gas is $3.75 a gallon. Forget the penny, dimes and nickels aren't even worth picking up, these days.

And get off my lawn!

[dornwolf]

these exist. I saw a 50cent bin at a con I went to that's it and they weren't titles you were wanting. All my comic book stores don't have dollar bins or anything. They bundle some runs together or a small random lot for certain amounts (prebaged of course) and have some back issues but they aren't located in a comfortable enough place to go over them and I have no idea how much they'd be. One place that sells is pretty pricey for back issues.

[The Dirt Gang]

That's interesting. I actually see most of the cheap comics in my world are 2000-present. I don't know why that is. I guess that's what stores have and cant' sell.

The proliferation of collections, I suppose.

I think you're right. With ebay, in most cases it's easy to find what you are looking for whereas in the past you'd have to go to a store or con. It's like my old baseball card collection. The prices on the cards from the 90's have either decreased or stayed the same since it's so easy to come by them now. Used to be you could pretty much old find Ken Griffey's rookie card or a Mark McGwire Team USA card at a convention, now you can find them all over the internet.

A pound of bacon is like seven bucks. Gas is $3.75 a gallon. Forget the penny, dimes and nickels aren't even worth picking up, these days.

And get off my lawn!

Amen! Especially whatever dragged that dead baby possum into my yard.

[lorddunlow]

A pound of bacon is like seven bucks. Gas is $3.75 a gallon. Forget the penny, dimes and nickels aren't even worth picking up, these days.

And get off my lawn!

Especially the bacon

[grendeljd]

A pound of bacon is like seven bucks. Gas is $3.75 a gallon. Forget the penny, dimes and nickels aren't even worth picking up, these days.

And get off my lawn!

Hell, here in Canada I wouldn't even pick up a $2 coin off the ground!!

[grendeljd]

The comic shop I more or less grew up at (& eventually worked in as a teen) had $0.25 bins, it made my meagre allowance money stretch out pretty far as a kid.

The shop I frequent now has a basement full of cheapie bins - thousands & thousands of comics - but they are all $2. It's usually pretty good stuff though - I once picked up nearly a full set of Byrnes FF run. They only really care about silver age stuff or older for their higher priced back issue area, with the exception of decent Bronze Age stuff like XMen etc.