Original subtitles

I was a kid who loved comic books. We got Spider -Man, Daredevil, Mystery,

Mystery, Nelly, Joker, Genie, Willy.

I brought you Bob Hope, his original comic from 1950.

Oh, that's pretty cool.

Do you know who Bob Hope is? The price is right.

We're talking minimum $20 ,000.

When did you become an expert on comic books?

Dracula. I know you've heard of Dracula.

Lord of the Vampire.

Theodore Bailey.

Yes, sir.

Where in the world did you get this?

It looks like a bunch of paper to me.

Have you ever heard of Dr. Strange?

No, but I'm looking at Strange.

Watch. You just watch.

How are you?

Pretty good. What do we got here?

So this is the, I think the first print Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic.

Ninja Turtles?

So you're talking the very first Ninja Turtles? I'm pretty sure this is the one

I had when I was a kid. My mom kept it, so this is the very first one.

84 is when it came out. Who was your favorite Ninja Turtle?

There was Raphael, Michelangelo. You know who you remind me of?

Master Splinter.

He was like the rat ninja boss teacher.

Yeah, just like you, the rat ninja boss teacher.

I love the Ninja Turtles.

So you had it signed, or?

My mom got it signed.

Kevin Eastman drew on it and signed it, so it's got to be him. I can't think of

anyone else that would sign this book.

Well, it looks pretty cool. I don't want to finger it all up because with

comics, it's all about the grade.

Okay, so tell me, how much do you want for it?

Well, I saw somewhere that one of these went for $50 ,000.

Okay, so how much do you want for it?

$60 ,000.

So more than they went for. It's just a sign. Okay. I know there's big money

here. If it's a first edition and it's in great shape.

You know, I don't know what a signature looks like.

I mean, it looks like a Ninja Turtle.

I know someone who will definitely know about this.

Okay. I am going to go call him and see if I can get a hold of him. Come down

here and take a look at it. Okay. All right?

I'm going to go look for some pizza while you're gone.

Help customers.

You know what? Pizza does sound kind of good.

How's it going? What do we got? Good. I've got a rare historical comic for

Yeah, it's the first comic book in history that has an Archie magazine

Okay, so it's Archie magazine. Who is Wilbur? Yeah, Wilbur's one of Archie's

main buddies.

That's a horrible name for a kid.

Definitely really cool. Correct me if I'm wrong here. I mean, it was basically

just teenage life, right?

Correct.

In the 40s, I mean.

Archie, like the main character, there was Jughead. I want to say her name was

Veronica, something like that.

Didn't Jughead eat a lot of hamburgers or something?

I think they all ate a lot of hamburgers. Something like that.

So tell me about where you got it. Yeah, so I got it online a couple years ago.

To me, being the first Archie magazine, logo, I believe it holds a lot of

historical significance for our pop culture.

Okay, I mean, so I'm assuming you want to sell it. What are you looking to get

out of it? I'm looking to sell the comic for $12 ,500 today.

Okay. I don't know much about the logo thing or anything like that.

My concern is the 5 .5. It goes up to 10. I mean, so it's pretty down there.

CGC put the important historical...

First brand emblem of Archie and the first in Archie magazine actually on the

label. So being a 5 .5 grade might not be high, but only 17 copies in the

There's one that is a 9 .2 grade.

I think the second highest after that is an 8th grade. So even though this is a

5 .5, only 17 copies. Yeah, I mean, if there's 17, they all can't be 10s. I get

it.

I got a buddy named Steve. He's my comic book guy.

If you don't mind, I'd like to call him and get him down here.

That's great. Just go ahead and hang out for a minute. I'll be right back, okay?

Appreciate it.

Like I said, I've met this guy a couple times. He was gracious enough to come

down.

Kevin Eastman.

Hey, Chun -Li. Pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry you're friends with Rick.

Let me get around there. Hey.

Oh, nice to meet you. I love your work. Thank you. Is this your work? Yeah. Oh,

fantastic. Wow.

So I've heard the stories, but I might as well hear it from the horse's mouth.

How did this comic actually come about? It really came out of a complete joke.

Both Peter Laird and myself wanted to be Jack Kirby when we grew up. We wanted

to write and draw comic books for a living. I was a huge fan of Bruce Lee,

figured if Bruce Lee was an animal, what would be the stupidest animal?

I had this idea, did this sketch, turtle in a kung fu pose, mask on, nunchucks

wrapped around his arm, and I put it on Pete's desk and I said, this is going to

be the next big thing. He got a laugh, I drew four turtles, these were different

weapons, and we said, this is the dumbest thing we've ever seen.

We borrowed money from our uncle. We had enough money to print 3 ,000 copies. We

figured maybe if we sold a couple hundred, we could pay him back at least

something. Okay, so how did you first sell it? Did you put it in comic book

stores? Pete had this idea. He said, let's put out a news story that says,

arrived. And I said, that's stupid. Nobody's going to buy into this. And he

it out, and AP picked it up, and pretty much all over the country, they started

doing news articles about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. So we sold out

first press run in about two weeks.

Okay. We made enough money from that issue to pay our rent, eat all the

and cheese we want, and draw on comic books full -time, so we've become Jack

Kirby by the summer of 1985.

Turtle power.

Turtle power.

All right.

So the big question is, is this a first printing?

Yes, definitely a first printing. So what's the difference between the first

printing and the second printing?

The second printing was a little bit lighter, more of a pinkish tone to it,

definitely know this is the first printing, just for the deep, rich

it. My signature is undeniable, because ever since the very, very beginning, I

always wanted to make it different than anybody else, the way they were found in

the comics, so I added a turtle head on each one, so this is definitely my

signature. All right.

Do you know what these things go for?

I've seen them range, you know, all over the map, price -wise.

You have no idea what it's worth?

No idea what it's worth.

All right.

But it's legit?

That's your signature?

Yes, 100%. Okay, at least we know that, and we'll figure out a price later.

We'll have lunch soon, dude. I'll call somebody up, and we'll get this figured

out. I look forward to it. Thanks, guys. See you.

A guy brought in a graded Wilbur comic book from 1945.

He's looking to get $12 ,500 for it. So Steve Houston is going to let me know if

it would be worth its price or if I would be a jughead to make an offer.

Steve, what's going on, buddy? Hey, Corey.

How you doing, man? How are you doing?

Nice to meet you.

I'm perplexed, man.

I just don't know that much about this, man.

Well, The Will of Seven is part of the Archie Comics universe.

Of course, you had Betty and Veronica, and you had the Archie comic. They all

ran for years.

The group of little friends that Archie had, they tried to segue off into their

own books for a while.

1945 spinoffs.

Yes. I got you. Okay. Yes.

The Wilbur wasn't as popular as the others, you know, because they quickly

out that the two girls were more popular than the guys. They didn't have, like,

a long shelf life or anything like that. And what was the price?

$12 ,500.

Hmm. Interesting.

Okay, so he's talking about, I guess, the logo. I mean, is that a thing?

It isn't a thing yet.

There is actually a pedigree version of this. It's actually a 9 .2, and it sold

for $840.

The going rate on a 5 .5 right now, and the last book sold for about $396

for a 5 .5. It's not a very popular character. It's not a Spider -Man or a

Batman or a Hulk. It's an obscure niche character.

As someone that eats, lives, and breathes this industry, at this current

I'm unaware of any...

market forces pushing and asking for this right now. It may change. So all I

give you right now is the specifics that I know. Steve, I appreciate you coming

down, man. My pleasure.

And a pleasure meeting you. Pleasure, brother. Thank you.

So, I mean, I understand what you're saying. I understand what Steve's

As of right now, I'm just going to have to pass.

Thanks for bringing it in. Have a good day, man.

Since I didn't sell the comic, I plan to hold on to it for a while and display

it in my living room.

Earlier, I had a customer come in the shop with a first edition Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles comic book. I called up co -creator Kevin Eastman to come down and

check this thing out. He authenticated everything, but I'm going to have to

up somebody else to figure out a value.

So, what do we got here?

A first edition, first printing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles signed by Kevin

Eastman. You had this when you were a kid? When I was a kid, yeah.

It's my original comic book.

I was there when this book came out.

I laughed at this book.

I didn't care about this book.

I didn't buy it. It became the biggest thing in the world.

There's only 3 ,000 of these things printed.

Just for some context, X -Men, 300 ,000 print run.

Spidey, 250 ,000 print run.

So it's super rare, then.

It is, but what we're going to have to do is we're going to have to take a look

at it first.

Let's have a look at the condition of this book.

You've got one little tiny ding there.

And then, oh, what do we have here?

A couple of little light stains.

Now, if you're aware of grading, it's usually like an 8 -0, which is called a

VF, which is a very fine.

From what I can see, this is a line 4.

So this is a special book.

I don't know how you kept it in this condition for so long. I don't know if

had it in some weird room floating in the air.

You did a great job.

Now, you want the good news.

They can press that little floor out. Oh, wow.

There's a possibility that you can get this book to a 9 -6.

Oh, wow. Okay? Okay. So we need to take that into consideration.

So what's it worth?

A 9 -4 straight right now, 11K.

And that's including his signature?

That's including the signature. Okay.

So how much more would this bring if it was a 9 -6?

We're talking...

Minimum, $20 ,000.

Okay.

But in current condition, retail value, $11 ,000. Yes.

Okay. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. All right. Thank you very much. All right,

guys.

Okay.

It'll retail for $11 ,000.

I mean, I'll give you $8 ,000 for it.

I mean, obviously, I wanted to go $60 ,000. I mean, would you go, like, $30

,000? The chance that it can still go to $20 ,000.

Well, I guess that makes zero economic sense. All right. What about 15?

There's a chance you could make 20 off of it.

Yeah, no, no, no. I'm a businessman, not a gambler.

You know what? I think I'll just try to get it pressed and see what it comes

back and then kind of go from there.

Okay. But change your mind.

8 ,000. All right. Thanks.

Hey, how's it going? What do we have here?

I've got a Beetle Bailey comic strip by artist Mort Walker.

Beetle Bailey?

Yes, sir.

Where in the world did you get this?

Believe it or not, I got it from an old man in Arkansas.

I traded a hunting dog for that.

Kind of, right?

I mean, it's cute stuff, and it fits the time, 1951. I mean, we were just, the

whole Korean War thing was starting up, and when it first came out, it was about

his college life, and no one really thought it was interesting because most

people didn't experience college life back then, so I thought it was a great

idea with the Korean War starting up to have Beatle accidentally join the Army,

and he's been in the Army for 60 -some years.

So there's more underneath this plastic because it looks like they're stacked

up. Yes, sir. There's three more in there. Do you mind if I take these out

here? No, sir.

Yeah, we've got a lot of them in here.

No, you have a beetle being lazy.

And then you have some very pretty girls talking to the general.

This one I really like because I liked peanuts when I was a kid.

Never really into Beetle Bailey, but it isn't the peanuts.

Yeah. So how much do you want for these?

You know, I don't know. I think probably $400, something like that.

This was in thousands of newspapers, so they're not worth a whole lot of money.

Well, to get them all in one place like this, this is a nice collection.

I'll give you $75 for them.

This isn't the original art. The original art would go for a lot more

Well, true, but it's surely $250.

It's not there. I mean, it's, you know, I'll probably get, you got four or five

of them here, I'll get $50 a piece for them.

I don't know, man. That dog I know is worth more than that. At least $100.

For my pride and dignity, you've got to give me $100, man.

What the hell? I'm sure I'll make money off him somehow or the other.

Come on over here. I'll do some paperwork with you.

I settled on $100 because, as you pointed out, there's quite a few in

circulation, and $100 is better than nothing.

How are you doing today?

I have Amazing Spider -Man number 16, the first meeting with Daredevil. Oh,

This is definitely a cool comic book.

It's kind of cool to see Daredevil in this yellow suit, you know, especially

the cover of an Amazing Spider -Man.

And it's kind of like the dog on your hat.

The dog on my hat's a little cooler than Daredevil. I don't know about that.

I do love Spider -Man.

There's been so many books and series and obviously movie after movie.

Daredevil, though, is, you know, a lot more recent into the mainstream, but he

has a really cool lore.

A blind guy who got his senses heightened when he had an accident by

someone and kind of fell into a puddle of radioactive material.

It gave him this elite hearing. Even though he couldn't see, he could sense

things and kind of just know where they were at.

Do you collect books, or do you just like to get them and read them?

I have a huge collection of comic books, but I need to sell some because I have

to pay for a really expensive project.

This is a good book, and it looks in good condition. Is there a reason it's

graded? Just haven't gotten around to it. Okay. A book like this, I'm going to

want to make sure that there's no restoration or anything like that, and I

someone to make sure that it's in original condition before I purchase it.

I'm sure you like your comic books. I 100 % understand.

And do you have a price in mind?

I'm asking $400.

Okay.

I'm not sure, but that seems like a pretty reasonable price to me.

I still would like to have someone come down and look at it if you're okay with

that. And although this copy isn't graded, people are still going to pay

by what they determine the grade would be. So I just need to make sure that

we're following the correct value there.

That sounds good. Thanks, brother. All right. I'll be right back.

Steve. Chum. How you doing? Excellent, excellent.

Nice to meet you. You too, sir.

This young man has an amazing book here.

Ah, yes.

I haven't taken it out yet because I figured the pro can do it.

It's a beautiful book, Amazing Spider -Man 16.

Definitely a historical book.

And then, of course, this is the era where Marvel were beginning to do their

crossovers. And, of course, they're going to have them fight because in

lore, whenever heroes met, they had a little fight first.

It takes a little while for people to become friends. It looks like a pretty

nice copy. I'm hoping it all checks out because I'd want to grade it if I ended

up buying it.

All right. So do you mind if I take a look at it?

All right.

The first thing that I'm noticing right away is the color luster.

This book has nice color.

Now let's get to the important bit.

Hmm. I don't like that staple.

Is there a reason?

As you can see, it's a completely different color to the bottom staple

This is nice and silver, and this is dull.

I just like my staples to be the same color.

I always get a little bit wary, like my own personal spider sense goes off.

So say I just wanted to sell this raw. What would I expect to get for it?

Between $500 and $600.

All right. Well, I appreciate you coming in.

Thank you. Thanks, Chum. Thanks. And pleasure meeting you. You too, sir. Nice

book. Thank you.

All right. Well, you got a beautiful copy here.

Steve is slightly worried about the staple, but I'm kind of willing to take

chance on it because the pages are so white. Would you consider maybe $350?

No, I would just be at the $400 because of what it is.

All right, well, if you'll take the $400 for a steal, I'm happy to pay for it.

All right, let's do it. All right, meet me at the counter right here. Okay.

Okay, quite the collection.

So what do you got here?

What I have is some historical brand emblems from Marvel Comics. We got

-Man, Daredevil, Mystery, Mystery, Nelly, Joker, Genie, Willy. I was a kid

loved comic books.

Didn't save one of them.

I think it's kind of cool. And these are all Marvel?

Yes, these are the first eight Marvel logos in order from first.

to eighth and this comic book willy comics number five showcases the first

marvel magazine logo from marvel comics from 1946.

you're saying the cool thing about this collection is this was the first

appearance of this marvel logo first appearance for this marvel logo correct

okay and there's only four sets of these put together in the world a lot of

these comics just got thrown away which is why they're so rare like willy comic

number five there's only 12 copies in the world graded by cgc okay

So this would be like the Silver Age or the Golden Age? Golden Age, definitely.

The Golden Age is roughly from 1937 until 1950.

And this is more like the Silver Age, right?

Correct. The Silver Age is the 50s through like the 60s, and then you have

70s onward.

So where did you get them?

I got them at various places, auction houses, online, and garage sales.

And you got them all graded. They're all CGC, which is cool.

Okay, so, like, I mean, these are all fives, and you got a six, which is kind

a low grade. I mean, the perfect is a ten.

Collectors usually look for higher grades than this.

What? If they're rare comic books, they'll be worth something, even at a

grade. How much were you looking to get out of these?

I'm looking to get $50 ,000.

Well, that's a big number.

Okay, let me get my buddy. Let me go give him a call.

He'll take a look at all these things, and we'll go from there.

Sounds great.

Okay. Appreciate it.

Hello. Hey.

What do you got here?

I have my uncle's comic book collection.

He passed away and this was handed down to me.

They're all comic books?

All comic books.

This is pretty cool.

Is there anything good in here? I have no idea.

All right, how many boxes do we have here?

I have seven. This is actually only half of his collection.

My brother inherited the other half.

Well, hopefully you got the good half. I hope so.

Okay, there's some pretty cool stuff in here. Dracula. I know you've heard of

Dracula. Lord of the Vampires.

The Avengers are so hot right now. They have so many movies.

I think this is the first one that Rogue made an appearance in. It's pretty

cool. It looks like a bunch of paper to me.

What do you mean, bro? Have you ever heard of Doctor Strange?

No, but I'm looking at Strange.

Well, Doctor Strange should be worth a few hundred bucks on its own. Let me

what else you got in here.

Oh, the X -Force.

Issue 2. This is like one of the first couple times Deadpool made an appearance

in a comic book.

So you're acting like you're an expert in this.

Whatever, bro.

You better get somebody down here that knows what they're talking about.

Dude, I don't need Paul. He's got a comic book.

He's a comic book expert.

Enough of negative Nancy over there. I think you have a pretty cool collection.

What exactly are you looking to get for him? I'd like to get $2 ,000.

Well, I can tell you that ain't going to happen.

Even if there's $2 ,000 worth of comics here, it's going to take a lot of time

to go through all these boxes.

I'm going to have to find that diamond in the rough.

But with that being said, you know, I'm pretty sure I can.

I'll give you $50 a box.

That's $350.

Can you do $500?

Would you go $450 on them?

$500 is going to be the lowest I can go.

Oh, no.

What do you think?

I don't want no parts of this if you don't call Paul down here.

Life is about chances, and sometimes you just got to take them. I'm going to do

the $500.

I'm going to show everyone what an expert I really am. I know there's going

be some good stuff in here. Meet you right over there to write it up.

Thank you.

I'm taking the $500 because I don't want to carry the comic books out of here.

This is how you do it, Antoine. This is how you make a name for yourself in this

business. And when these are going to be worth $5 ,000, I'm going to be the one

who gets the reward.

What did you two buy?

I didn't buy anything.

Leave it up to your expert. I bought these comics for 500 bucks. When did you

become an expert on comic books?

I only worked at the pawn shop for almost 15 years.

Just do me a favor and do call someone who knows something about comic books

find out if I just lost money.

Yeah, like Paul?

Watch. You just watch.

There's a seller in the shop who's brought in a set of comic books.

They have the first eight Marvel brand emblems from 1946 to 1967.

He's telling me this is a rarity to find, so he's asking $50 ,000 for the

collection. This is the first time I've heard about collecting based on logos

rather than issues.

So I have my comic book guru, Steve Houston, coming by to see if he can save

day and answer all the questions I have about these.

Steve! Hey, Rick. Hey, brother, what's up? How we doing?

This young man right here has a set of comic books.

Yeah, but this is a set of the first eight Marvel logos.

First time I heard about, like, comics and logos.

So, that's why I called you, because you're the brain for the operation, I'm

just the pretty face.

Okay, um... So, first things first, I'm unaware of a market for it, but I do

know the books. Of course, these books here...

are, you know, late 1940s, so they are scarce.

The grades are sort of pretty low, but on some of these issues, it can be

hard to find them.

Now, when it comes to these books here, these grades are very, very, very low

for what these are. These books here should be at least 9 .2 or 9 .0 easily.

So, like, just for instance, what does a Willie No. 5 go for?

That book right there in that condition, you're looking at maybe 500, 600 bucks.

Okay, and what about Genie? Again, that's probably about 300 bucks.

Okay. This guy's saying $50 ,000 for the set.

Okay, so this is a brand new thing. You've put together a set.

So are you saying that other people who build sets won't be able to do it?

That is correct. What makes this truly rare is the fact that this is the first

set of eight Marvel logos.

Has there ever been a set that sold for crazy money?

Uh, no. This is truly a new thing.

Okay, so there's never been an auction to get, like, a real price on these.

is correct.

But if this became a popular theme, I can guarantee you that quite quickly

you would see these books coming out of the woodwork because they do exist in

raw condition. They just haven't been CGC'd yet. A note of caution.

Okay.

All right, so what do you think they're worth the way they sit?

Right here, just as they are right now, I could...

Probably pick these up for about $2 ,000.

Okay. That's what I wanted to hear.

Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Pleasure, brother. Thank you.

So I know you sort of got like a thing here, okay, but you're not going to –

there's no market for it yet. You're going to actually have to go to an

and see what they sell for.

If they're worth $2 ,000 now, that's what they're worth right now.

Right. So obviously a deal's not going to happen. Thanks for bringing them in.

I told you I was going to kill it.

Comic books are an American pastime, and I'm really good at having pastimes.

Therefore, I'm an expert, and you can't rush an expert in this process.

So I'm going to take my time evaluating these comics.

Now Rick's going to think I'm actually working, but all I'm doing is reading

comics all day.

Really?

Oh, hey.

What are you guys doing?

Um, just going over the condition of these comics right here.

Oh, you're doing research?

Yeah, the man called Nova.

Don't hold it like that. Come on, dude.

Oh, hey, what's up, Paul?

What's up, man?

This is the man I wanted to see.

Help Paul put these in, like, the conference room so he can find out how

money I lost.

You didn't lose money, okay?

There's some good stuff in here.

It's just these three boxes?

No, seven.

Oh, boy.

Seven boxes, there's got to be a hidden gem in there.

Get ready to have a lot of fun.

All right, man.

After this, you're going to decide after me to invest your money in the stock

market.

I'm sorry.

Yes, I'll deal with it. I'll take a formally written apology.

What do we got here?

Got a pretty old comic book to show you.

Um, 1933?

It's definitely old because my kids think I'm really, really old. It's older

than me.

That's kind of cool.

Where did you get this?

Um, I do, like, shows and stuff, travel around.

Um, and I buy collections now and then.

This has got to be one of the oldest comic books there is, right? Yes, the

says it's the second comic book ever.

I mean, like, I've never seen a comic book from 1933. I didn't even know comic

books were printed in 1933.

I wish I knew more about this.

It predates everything.

So how much do you want for it? I'm asking $1 ,000.

Okay.

And I have no idea if that's a good price.

Fair enough. Okay.

But I have a buddy who I deal with all the time. I do a lot of business with

him, and this is all he does is comic books.

Can you hang out for a while? Sure. All right. I'm going to go give him a call,

and I will be right back.

Sounds good.

Did you at least buy Paul like lunch? Because he's been in there for over an

hour for the mess you made for him.

Look, he's a grown man. He knows how to order lunch.

Earlier, I bought seven boxes of comic books that came into the shop. And based

on my expertise, I'm 100 % sure they're worth a whole lot of money.

Okay, maybe more like 80%. All right, guys.

All right. Hey, that's a nice little stack we got there.

Yeah, I pulled about 18 books.

Some really cool stuff.

Yeah, duh.

You got First Taskmaster, First Nova, Red Hulk, some good stuff. There's

Strange in there.

Yeah, I'd say they're pretty good.

All right, the big question, what are they worth?

This stack I pulled is probably, you know, is about 200 bucks retail.

And the...

Other couple hundred pounds of comic books are worth?

About five cents a book if you're lucky.

It's like it's common stuff. There's nothing high grade, nothing that's

worth getting certified.

How many of them are there?

300 in a box, so 2 ,100.

2 ,100 nickels.

I'm not good at math, but it seems like it's more than 500.

You spent 500 bucks.

On some comic books, I'll be lucky to get like $180 out of.

And seven boxes of recyclable paper. So they're basically worthless.

No, they're not worthless.

Thanks for stopping by, man.

Anytime. Appreciate it. All right. Take care. Thanks for the bad news.

I mean, you've got to find the silver lining here, Rick.

We put a box of these on the floor, put like a dollar price tag on them, and

parents buy them for their kids when they come in here to, you know, pawn

something in. In a couple years, I might get my money back.

Hey, sometimes investments are made over the long run. You kids these days want

all this instant satisfaction.

I need to go home.

Chop.

Hey, how's it going? Good, man. How you doing?

So I have a collection of Incredible Hulk number one through six I'd like you

take a look at. Like the original number one? The Silver Age.

When it was gray.

And then he turned green.

From what I understand, Stan Lee couldn't get the ink to line him right

different pieces of paper. So multiple times in his comic, he's a different

color gray.

And to make it easier, he just turned him green.

But people go crazy to this. I mean...

Stanley did Fantastic Four, and everybody liked the thing from Fantastic

so we decided he'd make a whole storyline on a different thing -like

creature.

It's all in awesome shape, and it's Stanley's signature.

Yeah, five years ago, I got a chance to meet Stanley in Chicago, and I had him

sign it.

What I'm a little nervous about is I don't know if it devalued him by having

signed. I mean, Stan Lee signs a lot of stuff.

I mean, he's at every Comic -Con there is, signing stuff all the time. And when

people buy these, you know, pure collectors, they want the actual perfect

So I don't know if him signing it is going to be a good thing or a bad thing.

You ever have him appraised or have any idea what you're looking to get for him?

I'd like to get $40 ,000.

$40 ,000.

Seems awfully high for comic books that were...

12 cents back in the day but yeah i mean i'm not a huge collector and i'm not a

big comic book store but i know a guy i can have come down and take a look at

them i don't know if they're going to be valued at 40 grand all right that'll be

great cory says you're going to call in an expert and i'm excited to hear what

the expert has to say i'm pretty sure that these books are going to be special

and worth a lot of money

There's a guy in the shop with an issue of the 1933 comic book Famous Buddies.

He claims this is the second comic book to ever be produced, and he wants $1

,000. I need to know more about this comic before I make an offer, so I have

Steve Houston coming down to check it out. He will know if this asking price

good or just laughable.

Todd, good to see you. All right, you guys know each other?

Yes, yes. Well, the comic world's quite small.

It's like the palm business.

All right. So this young man has apparently the second comic book ever

Wow.

Nice book top. Famous funniest carnival of comics.

This book was a giveaway.

The way you got it was you had to tear the top off a cereal box and sent it all

the way into a little company in Chicago.

And then you would get this book. As you can see, it's 1933.

So we know.

It's right there at the cusp. So this here is the beginnings of the entire

industry right here in our hands.

And is that the second comic book?

Amongst the comic nerds, they often discuss whether it's the first or

because this is the first book of this format, 36 pages with the full pages of

art. This was basically a test to see if anyone would be interested in this.

So after all these people, all these kids went to the trouble of sending all

after that, they said, well, I think maybe we can make some money doing this.

in 1934, when Famous Funnies came out, they actually sold it for 10 cents.

And that's when the entire business does this.

So this here is definitely a wonderful piece of history.

All right.

The big question.

He wants $1 ,000 for it.

That's actually not a bad price.

Okay. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Todd. Thank you, Steve. I appreciate it.

Okay. I mean, we have the rare occasion where someone comes in and asks a

reasonable price.

I appreciate that.

I'll give you $1 ,000 for it. Okay. Deal. $1 ,000.

Thank you. All right. I'll meet you right over there, and I'll get you paid.

Thank you.

A guy came into the pawn shop with a set of incredible Hulk comics, and he's

asking $40 ,000 for the collection.

I've got to have somebody come down and help me out with this, because I'm not

that great at grading comic books.

Luckily, my friend Paul is.

Wow. Hulk 1 through 6.

The whole run.

Signed by Stan. That's nice.

I mean, I know most collectors, they want these things pristine.

Does the signature value the comic book?

It depends on who you're selling to.

But for the most part, people are going to love that Stanley signed these.

You mind if I take a look? Go ahead. All right.

The Hulk 1, you got a little tear with some creases up there.

Let's see if it's complete.

Eight pages to the centerfold where the staples are, and eight pages after.

So normally you might find a book like The Incredible Hulk 1 in like a really

low grade, really beat up, ratty. But this is a nice copy. It's complete. It's

solid. Strike on the ink is nice.

The signature placement's good.

This would be the big book. The rest is icing.

Okay, what's it worth?

The Hulk 1 in like a 9 .2 or a 9 .4, like really high grade, would be like

$375 ,000.

Really?

I'm just dumbfounded.

So it's probably around a fine, like a 6 .0.

So all said and done, I think if I did my math right, probably puts you at

$36 ,000.

I wish I would have collected my comics.

Yeah, welcome to my world.

Take care, man. Good to see you, Corey. Good luck. Take care.

Yeah, it's great.

For you.

Yeah, that's right.

You know I can't pay you $36 ,000 for them.

I've got to make money.

I was looking to get 40.

My guy said they'd book out at 36, and I'd have to cut that in half.

The last offer that I got was at 35.

I would run and go grab it.

Paying for all these things that close to retail, it's never going to happen

me. I understand.

You know, I'm really stuck at 40. Are you?

Yeah. Yeah, I'm going to have to pass, man. But thanks for bringing him in.

I said, they are really cool.

Appreciate it, man. Thanks, man. I'm not disappointed. I was excited to at least

have them evaluated by a professional.

And probably just going to hold on to them for a little bit longer and tell

when the time is right.

What do you have here?

I brought you Bob Hope, his original comic from 1950.

Hey, Rick.

What? Check this out.

It's a Bob Hope comic book.

That's pretty cool.

Do you know who Bob Hope is? The Price is Right.

No, that's Bob Barker. Bob Hope.

Different old Bob.

You know, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, like Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin.

Who? Like Harold and Kumar.

Okay. All right, okay.

Bob Hope, he was a pretty amazing guy.

He entertained troops in World War II, Korea, Vietnam.

He was the only honorary veteran in the United States because he did so much

stuff for the USO. Lived to be 100 years old.

100?

Yep. When he was in a movie, it made money.

He was so popular, he had his own comic book.

Three.

Bob Hope was an absolute Hollywood legend.

He was in over 70 films, and he hosted the Academy Awards 19 times.

I'm just afraid anyone under the age of 50 doesn't really know who he is.

So, um, where did you get this?

I actually got this on an online auction.

Okay, well, it looks in relatively good shape. I assume you want to sell it?

Yes.

How much do you want for it? I believe it might be worth about $500.

I don't know how collectible Bob Hope is, to tell you the truth. I just have

idea what the demand would be for this, due to the fact that it's not an action

hero, it's Bob Hope. It's a little weird. Okay.

Do you mind if I have someone look at it? That'd be great.

I have no idea what Bob Hope anything is going for these days, much less a comic

book. So I'm having my comic guy, Paul, come down, and hopefully he'll know.

Ah, a Bob Hope number one.

I mean, the whole weird thing is it's Bob Hope. It's not like he's a

Yeah, in the 50s, superheroes were going down.

They weren't as popular, and so what DC started to do is license celebrities.

They did stories in here that would relate to some of the movies coming out,

they kind of did some cross -marketing there.

Okay.

The Bob Hope comic ran from issue one from 1950 all the way to 1968.

I mean, 18 years for a continual run on the comic is pretty great.

So what's the grade on this thing?

All right, well...

It looks pretty nice. It's got a few creases.

Tear along the spine there.

Doesn't look restored at all.

A little bit of tanning to chip out at the top right.

You know, I think CGC would give it about a 6 -0. The big question is,

worth? That would put a certified 6 -0 price at around $600.

That's the price, but are they easy to sell?

I mean, most people my age, we know Bob Barker.

More than we know, Bob Hope.

Told you.

So you're calling me old?

No, you are old. I'm just stating a fact.

Anyway, I think at $600, you can't go wrong.

Okay. Thanks, man. I really appreciate it. You got it, Rick. Anytime.

All right. See you next time. Take care.

People love first issues. Issue ones always are collectible.

How fast Rick will sell it, I really can't say.

I know he gets a lot of foot traffic.

through the shop, and I think you should be able to move it.

So what's your best price of this?

Well, if it's worth six and I'm only asking five, I hope that's a great deal

Bob. I think Bob would say the price is going to have to be right.

I mean, your problem here is it's Bob Hope.

I mean, unless you're over 50, no one really knows who Bob Hope is anymore.

I think it's going to be a tough sell.

I'd give you $300 for it.

How about $400?

I'll give you $325, and I won't go up any more. I mean, that literally is it.

Congratulations. Well, thanks, man. I appreciate it. The price is right.

All right, let's go write it up.

I believe it was a win -win for that particular price.

I'm going to give the money to my wife, and I have no idea what the hell she's

going to do with it.

What are you laughing at?

This is Bob Hope comic.

Bob Hope comic book. Yeah, you know Bob Hope.

It's like did New Year's Eve for like years and years and years. Got the

named after him in California.

It was Dick Clark's Rocking Eve.

It's not Dick Clark International Airport.

I know, it's Bob Hope International Airport.

Never mind.

I'm just telling you, those old comedians have nothing on the new wave

comedians. Why is it that all you guys ever want to do is argue with me?

You're always saying I refuse to learn anything. I learned that Bob Hope and

Dick Clark aren't the same person. No kidding.

Maybe you'll grow a brain one day. Tell me from the guy reading comics.

Old Bob Hope comics.