Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Better than expected


I don't remember when it was exactly, but at some point in the last couple of months I was looking at comic books on Craigslist (not a site I got to very often), and came across an ad for a place called Red Rhino Cash Advance in Knoxville. I thought at first that the ad must've been put in the wrong section, but I still clicked on it anyway, and boy am I glad I did!

The ad basically stated that they had comic books and other assorted collectibles for sale, which sounded nice, but how much stuff could a place with that name really have?

I couldn't really find any great pictures of the inside of the store online, so not knowing if would be worth the 2 1/2 round trip, I just kind of filed it away as a "maybe someday" place.

Well, "someday" ended up being about two weeks ago on the day that I went back to McKay's (see last post), it's about 20 minutes away from McKay's, so I figured why not, I'm probably only gonna be in there for 10-15 minutes max... a serious miscalculation on my part.

I spent two hours at McKay's, ate my lunch in the car (I always take a lunch), and headed for the Red Rhino, I even ended up getting there quicker than the GPS said I would (always satisfying). I really wasn't prepared for the sight that befell me when I walked in, especially I was expecting a box of comics tucked away under a table somewhere, and maybe a couple of Funko's (seriously, does every damn place have to carry those things?). Much to my surprise, I was instead greeted by a full on comics and collectibles store, I'm talking comics, graphic novels, toys, statues, CD's, DVD's, vinyl, and a bunch of other stuff that I'm already forgetting. [I have since found out that in the last couple of years, the store has gone from a traditional cash advance place, to a pawn shop, and finally to what it is now... a geek paradise]

My senses had already been overloaded by McKay's, so this was just way too much for my tiny little mind to handle at that point in the day. I knew I wasn't going to get very far, so my plan was basically to look through a couple of comic boxes and just come back on another day... preferably on a day when I'm not suffering from FBS (fried brain syndrome).

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while I was in there, because the place was packed (there was even a Knox County sheriff looking at comics), so you'll just have to believe me when I say that they had to have had at least 10,000-15,000 (maybe more?) comic books in this store.

Since I'm not really looking for anything in particular at the moment, I just chose a random spot where there wasn't somebody else already standing, and just jumped in (figuratively of course).

I noticed two things right off the bat (no pun intended), the first being that even though all the books appeared to be organized alphabetically, but once I started digging, it became apparent rather quickly that they weren't -- and I know that that would bother the heck out of some people, but not me, I actually kind of like not knowing what's gonna be behind the next book, it adds a bit of mystery and excitement to the searching.

The second thing that I noticed was that a lot of the books weren't priced, which usually isn't a good thing, but in this instance it turned out pretty well. So starting with the Detective Comics #543 above, until I say when, was all of the unpriced stuff that I pulled out.




It's virtually impossible for me to turn down a cheap horror comic, no matter what condition it's in.


This book is of absolutely no interest to me, but I noticed a signature at the bottom, and figured that somebody else might want it.

I don't recognize the signature, and I haven't gotten around to figuring out who it is yet.






This marks the end of the unpriced stack. I took all of these up to the counter, and the guy told me that he'd figure out a price and let me know. When I went back up to the counter about twenty minutes later, I was told that the total for all of the books that you've just seen would be $9. Sold!

While I was waiting for that total, I went back and looked some more, this time finding a few things that had price tags:


I already had the first two issues of King Conan, but these two are in far better shape than mine, so at $2 each, I decided upgrade my old well read copies (not that it was necessary, I just wanted to that's all).


I probably only looked through about 1% of their comics, but I did find a few Unexpected (pun intended) deals, like this needed issue of Unexpected for $2.

Due to it's condition I don't how many people would've paid $1 for this one, but I really wanted to read it, so...

At $3, this was my most expensive purchase.

After a half an hour or so I was already done for the day, like I said, going to this place after McKay's was not a smart move on my part. But before leaving, I made a quick pass through all of the non-comic stuff (which is all over the store btw). While doing so, I noticed that on a ground level shelf that was underneath the CD's, there were a couple of stacks of loose comics piled up somewhat haphazardly -- with no indication of a price that I could see.

I noticed a couple of things in these piles that were of interest, so I went back to the counter to ask about them. The guy who was up there -- manager?, owner?, I don't know, but he was really nice -- anyway he seemed almost surprised that someone was asking about them, which I thought was a bit odd, back to the point though, he told me that they vary in price... but most of the time they were 25-50 cents each. So back to stacks I went, I thought I'd be grabbing more, but I only ended up getting three, all of which only cost me a total of 75 cents:



Beat up as it may be, this 1963 Dell Frankenstein #1 was my favorite find during this first trip. The cover is as bad as it looks -- but it's still very readable, and it was only a quarter! This is one of those very rare times that I actually enjoy being me, I don't "collect" comics anymore, so I can just buy something like this for reading purposes, and not worry about condition, or even worse... what it'll grade out at.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with what I was able to get for around $20, and will be going back sometime in the next couple of weeks. And for anyone living in/passing through the Knoxville area, I really can't recommend this place enough, for the moment it does seem to be a true hidden gem.

Oh, and on an unrelated, and not terribly important final note, today is this humble little blog of mine's third anniversary, so... yay me!


Thanks for taking a moment to look at my page.

28 comments:

  1. RE: the autograph. Usually people get the main artist or the writer of the series or specific issue. Looking at the credits for the issue it looks like it is the cover artist Mike Kaluta
    https://www.mycomicshop.com/search?TID=87641

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The auto does seem to resemble Kaluta's sig on the artwork, which is under the UPC code.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the assistance guys! At one time I had over a hundred signed books, but I lost complete interest in that Particular hobby after an extremely negative encounter with Bernie Wrightson when I was around 12 years old. You can tell how uninterested I still am in them by the fact that I only noticed the real signature, and not the facsimile that's a mere inch or two to the left.

      Delete
  2. Good stuff. Always makes me want to get back into comics when I see them on the blogs.

    And Happy Bloggoversary!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Gavin! I'm kind of surprised that you haven't made your own comic book yet :)

      Delete
  3. That sounds like a great place! And you are a TRUE comic collector. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise! Happy anniversary!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh, it was. Hopefully next time I can get some pics of the inside to share with everyone. And at this point in my life, I sort of think of myself as more of a comic appreciator/reader -- "collecting" was more of young me thing.

      Delete
  4. Looks like you ended up with quite the haul of comic books. If you just barely scratched the surface of what they have, goodness knows what other treasures you'll unearth.

    Happy 3rd anniversary to you and your blog. You're always a great read so keep it up.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meant to mention, if you want to part with that autographed Marvel Masterpieces let me know as I'm certain we can work something out.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for the kind words as always, Marc! And of course you can have the book, nothing needs to be worked out -- we can figure it out in the next round of emails.

      Delete
  5. Not much of a comic guy but the cover artwork is amazing

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I always appreciate you stopping by Mark, especially when you're doing so on a post that's covering a topic that you're not really interested in.

      Delete
  6. Awesome stuff. I too have a hard time resisting cheap horror comics.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh wow! Can you believe I’ve never been to a pawn shop before? I’ve never ran across a find like that. Congrats!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Normally I'm not a big fan of pawn shops, but of course this wasn't a normal pawn shop, that is... if it is a pawn shop at all (I still don't know exactly how to refer to this place).

      Delete
  8. Happy anniversary! Love looking at these covers. If they didn't take up so much space, I'd definitely start collecting comics again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm thoroughly convinced that you need to move to a bigger dwelling, that way you could no longer say, "If only I had the space..."!

      Delete
    2. Lol. Not gonna happen. I love living in the Bay Area, but the one major downside is housing prices. Bigger dwelling is not in my vocabulary. Maybe one day when I retire though.

      Delete
  9. That's a place I'd like to check out. Though I've stopped reading/collecting comics except for occasionally finding my one favortie character.
    I did a post about my comics, but haven't dug them out far enough to put any more up. Might have to do that soon.
    And congrats on three years!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I remember your post, and have been waiting for the next installment :)

      Delete
  10. Congratulations on 3 years. I’ve followed you a while just beginning to comment. I don’t buy many comics but saw s couple that I would have bought if I saw them. Love the Frankenstein!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! It's nice to hear that someone else dug the old Frankie. I'm glad that you decided to start commenting, and please don't be shy about doing so in the future :)

      Delete
  11. what a fun haul! and happy belated anniversary!

    ReplyDelete