I DIDN'T NEED MUCH PERSUASION...

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Hard as it may be for most of you to believe, I don't seem to be universally popular in some circles of the comics 'fraternity'.  Yeah, who'da thunk it?!  People don't seem to like it when I hold (or express) a different opinion from them on some subject, and take it as a personal insult.  The stories I could tell you!  What's worse though, is when some of them tell blatant porkies in order to cast doubt on my integrity and diminish my good name.  Me - a warm, wonderful human being who brings happiness into the lives of everyone he knows.  (Pssst!  Need two ounces of 'happiness'?  That'll be 20 quid to you, mate!)  But I jest!  One of the accusations levelled against me in the past (by some nutter) is that I steal new digital comics and thereby deprive creators of earnings that are due to them.

Guess what though - I don't like digital comics - don't even read 'em.  Wouldn't have them if you paid me.  I do have a few data discs with old, out of print comics on them, that the creators (most of whom are now sadly dead) would get no reprint fees from anyway, and whoever owns the copyright doesn't seem to want to do anything with them.  And what's more, I have loads of the comics anyway, but rather than spend hours digging through boxes in my loft to find a specific issue for scanning, it's much easier to take the image from a handy data disc.  In cases where I don't have an actual issue, the discs are a stopgap until I can track it down.  Case in point:  the above PERSUADERS Holiday Special from 1972.

I had this comic back in the '70s and have wanted to own it again for some time, but I've only ever seen it for sale on eBay once, recently, and you're looking at it.  That's 'cos I bid on it and won.  Previously, when I showed images from this Special on the blog, they came from a data disc that I bought on eBay.  I assume that whoever makes them scans his own comics for the purpose, and as they usually only cost a couple of quid a disc, he's hardly going to get rich from it.  In fact, scanning old comics can be a tedious, tiresome affair, and if he charged for his time, he'd probably make about 5p a week.  So if I ever show you a comic on this blog that I don't actually have in my collection, I just don't have it at the moment - but I will if I ever see it for sale anywhere at a reasonable (as in affordable) price.

That reminds me - reasonable prices.  I was in an OXFAM charity shop the other day which had a couple of BEANO Annuals on display inside a glass cabinet - one for 1994, the other for 1999.  Guess how much?  Around £30 each!  Picked yourself up off the floor yet?  That's right - £30 a pop.  A sign said that the Internet price was £60, so potential buyers were obviously meant to think they were a total 'steal'.  I've never seen Beano Annuals for those years sell for anywhere near that sum, so either some chancer on the Internet was taking the p*ss (I've seen one guy asking for £120 for an average condition 1976 SHIVER & SHAKE Annual a week after I bought one for a tenner), or some assistant has heard that old (as in '40s & '50s) Beano Annuals sometimes fetch that price and thinks they're all worth a fortune.

Just think - charity shops are basing their prices on the ludicrously extreme valuations of chancers on the Internet, even though it's highly unlikely that such overpriced items would ever achieve the hoped for amount.  Yet try explaining that to a charity shop manageress (so they can avoid damaging their shop's credibility, not that you want the bloody thing) and you get a tedious spiel about how their staff are trained to price things realistically, in accordance with the current collectors' market value of each item.  For feck's sake, they're completely ignorant about condition being an important factor, and often overlook missing pages, filled-in puzzles, inscriptions, spines missing, etc.  Utterly bloody clueless the lot of them.

But hold on a mo - I've drifted away from my favourite topic of conversation - namely me!  Never mind, I'm bound to pick up those reins again before too long, so you can look forward to the supreme joy of reading about your genial host in a future post.  Well, whaddya know - I finished on a rhyme.

Posted in: Cartoons