I’m a Jedi Knight when it comes to filling out inventory and I’ll always be the guy who can “get it for you.” But I’m no longer one of you when it comes to periodicals. Hunting and gathering is still a part of my daily routine, of course. My deep-rooted desire to fill the gaps in my collection has been replaced with a desire to fill the gaps in yours. Soon, the piles of “untouchables” began flowing out into the hands of my customers and over time, I even began to feel happiness watching them leave the nest.Īfter years of practice, I’ve become a middleman. A need to pay the rent and feed my family helped immensely. Little by little, day by day, my stubborn insistence on not letting go dissipated. From 1950s “Green Lantern” issues to the complete epic that was “Preacher,” there were still books I couldn’t get out of my system. Then after reading through it for the umpteenth time, it would somehow make its way back into the bottom of a “to be processed” pile. I’d take out the complete “Miracleman” run with every intention of putting it out for sale.

That was my start-up inventory and the foundation for future I was willing to sell the tens of thousands of books I’d amassed in my lifetime. It was difficult at first to stop the addiction. But the day I began my life as a reseller, my life as a comic book collector ended and my life as a conduit began. I began collecting comics when I was eight years old and relentlessly hunted and gathered right up until I started my first business. You don’t become a comic retailer unless you’ve got some kind of obsessive history with the medium. No special “runs.” No complete limited series. I no longer consider myself a comic book collector.

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