Month: October 2014

Wow! I gotta go through my comic book collection and sell some stuff!

The Most Expensive Stuff You Can Buy At New York Comic Con

The Daily Digg – “While comics may have started as disposable entertainment, it’s no secret that many books can fetch a hefty sum based on their rarity, CGC grade*, illustrator, and/or characters that may have first appeared in them.

We talked to the people working every collectibles booth at this year’s New York Comic Con and asked them what their most expensive item is, and what made these items so astonishingly valuable.

$17,000
Original Palitoy Star Wars figures, complete set
from the 1970s

$20,000
Gobbledygook #1 and Gobbledygook #2
(Only 50 copies made)

$35,000
Pep Comics #22 [Restored**, CGC Grade 8.0]
(Introduction of Archie)

$45,000
Strange Tales #110 [CGC Grade 9.4]
(Introduction of Dr. Strange)

$65,000
Robert Crumb complete four-page story

$75,000
Original art from Spider-Man #32

$250,000
Cover of Spider-Man #300

$550,000
Detective Comics #27 [Restored, CGC Grade 9.4]
(Introduction of Batman – 1939)

and, finally…

$3,200,000+
Action Comics #1 [CGC Grade 9.0]
(Introduction of Superman!)

*CGC, or Comics Guaranty, is in independent grading service that launched in 2000 whose purpose is to determine how well preserved a book is. The scores are given out of 10, and the color of the label implies its state: blues are unadulterated books, purples are restored, greens have a significant defect and yellows are books that have been signed in the presence of a CGC employee.

**Restoration can be accomplished in a number of ways including conservation (removal of dirt, debris, or stains) leaf casting (which fills in missing paper that may have rotted away) and color touch (recoloring worn pages). The process can be quite expensive, and restored comics are usually worth less than a blue labelled version of the same book.”

Christopher Schmidt – YouTube

On Oct 8th, I was flying my quadcopter at Magazine Beach Park in Cambridge, when a hawk decided he wasn’t too happy with my invasion of his airspace…

Now, if they were just blue! Grin!

Phone boxes turn green to charge mobiles

BBC News – Technology – “Disused phone boxes in London are being put to a novel use – as solar-powered charging stations for mobile phones.

The first of six boxes was unveiled on Tottenham Court Road this week.

The service is free to use although users will be shown adverts as they wait for their phone to charge.

Many of the UK’s red telephone boxes have largely fallen into disuse although some are being revived as libraries or being fitted with medical equipment.

The boxes have had a makeover for the project – painted green and fitted with a roof-mounted 86cm solar panel.

Inside there are a variety of charging stations for different models of phone and a screen which shows adverts.

Battery life
The advertising screen is reinforced to deter vandals and the boxes are maintained daily and locked overnight.

The project was the brainchild of two geography students turned entrepreneurs Harold Craston and Kirsty Kenny.

Both studied at the London School of Economics (LSE) and were interested in finding new ways to use public spaces.

‘I lived next to a phone box in my second year at uni and walked past it every day. I thought, ‘There are 8,000 of these lying unused in London and we must be able to find a use for them,’ explained Mr Craston.

The solarbox can charge up to 100 phones a day, offering a 20% battery boost in 10 minutes.

Since launch, about six people per hour use the booth, according to the founder.

Running out of battery is a perennial problem for smartphone users as they become ever more powerful without an equivalent technology leap in battery life.

‘On launch day, my phone ran out of battery and I genuinely had to use the box,’ said Mr Craston.