I Bought a pack of Hockey Cards!

Yes, I bought a pack of Hockey Cards for the first time in over five years. It was a 99 cent Score pack, and honestly I can't say I'm going to buy many more. I would like to buy more Topps Baseball update, but I'm so not interested right now that I can't bring myself to even purchase the odd pack here or there. This is monopoly in action folks. Topps baseball products this season were a solid effort, but so unspectacular that I know I'm not the only one going, "meh" over their entire line.

FYI my next pack of Baseball update will be my second. I'm burning up with the fever over here.


The fever to

SELL STUFF ON EBAY

yes, that's right, I've got more items on eBay, mostly comics, but some pretty rare ones. I'm planning on posting many more comics in the coming days, it's Christmas and all, and I've found that everything sells on eBay better during Christmas.

Once again, if you let me know via comments I'll refund 10% of your final bid if you buy one of my items. That's a special present from me to you for reading my blog.

And if I get any smarmier, please shoot me.

Thanks.

Some of the odder things I've put on Ebay Recently

I think I've mentioned that I'm in the process of paring down my collections on eBay, if I haven't well, you haven't been reading. Yeah, that's it.

I love books, that's not a surprise. I love most everything about them, except the fact that they take up so much space. Alas, I do believe eventually I will do all my reading electronically, and honestly I don't think that's a bad thing. The ecology needs humans to stop producing paper, it really does.

I really love Taschen Books, and I have since they began some 25+ years ago. When the Taschen store opened in Beverly Hills, a SHORT walk from my wife's workplace, I was ecstatic. I pretty much buy ALL my Taschen books there since they have the best prices, believe it or not. One of the great things about the store is that they will often display copies of upcoming books as an enticement, and when I saw the preview of "Content" way back in 2003 I knew that I had to have that item. What is it? I'm glad you asked.

Content is a hybrid magazine/book by renowned architect/designer REM KOOLHAUS and it's basically a catalog of his work over the previous decade. It's a follow up to his previous book S, M, L, XL, which was the first 10 years of his work. It also contains timely interviews and reportage from around the globe. Honestly I wish it had been more of a one-off thing, because it was the kind of project that I really could have gotten into.

In any case, I read the entire thing on a Camping Trip way back when and put it on my bookshelf, taking it down every now and then for perusing. A few weeks ago I decided to check out how collectible it might be, and lo and behold I found people selling copies for OVER $100! Not bad for a little $15 book eh?

So it's now On Ebay along with a ton of other stuff I'm trying to sell. Listings are all free right now, so I can list a lot of things that I wouldn't normally bother with. That includes some Hockey Cards, so do me a favor and check out My Items and once again if you buy something, let me know via comment and I'll knock off 10% of the final bid price for ya just because you read my blog.

Buy my Stuff (PLEASE?)

It's that time of the year, when collectors are forced with the bleak paring down of their accumulations to help pay for Christmas time items. Or something like that. Me, I'm liquidating stuff all the time. I haven't been posting eBay auctions because I fell behind paying my fees, but I'm now caught up and ready to rock and roll.

So check out my items, and if you want something, lemme know here and you'll get a 10% discount on your final auction fee!



Thanks

Budget Spotlight - Cheap Japanese Anime Magazines

I consider myself pretty lucky to live in Los Angeles, the city being a mecca for international flavor and culture. I've been a fan of Anime and Japanese models & toys since I was a little boy watching Speed Racer and Star Blazers on afternoon cartoons. For years I've collected anime toys and models, though in recent years instead of buying whatever suits my fancy I've been forced to take a more targeted approach. Los Angeles is a great town for Japanese culture, having several sections of the city being predominantly Japanese in population. Not only do we have a Little Tokyo, but just a few miles West is an even smaller "Little Tokyo Street" - aka Sawtelle Avenue, where the likes of Giant Robo's flagship store is located. There's also at least once "general" store that sells a few Gashapon/Chogokun and models. My favorite place though is the a multi-level strip mall where Asahiya Bookstore and Ninjiya Market are located. I try to get there at least once a month, because a couple of years ago I worked two blocks away and could go there for lunch, I now keep trying to ensure I don't lose that fun tradition.

I checked out the bookstore first this morning, knowing that in the last couple months several of the Japanese Hobby Magazines had some cool extra-bonus items. See in Japan, their magazines are several hundred pages thick, and carry free-premiums in every issue, making their cost in American Dollars usually prohibitively expensive. Fortunately at the chain store Asahiya they usually have a separate "sale" section of older magazines for at least half price. Today I lucked out and picked up October's copy of Dengeki Hobby, which came with a complete Gundam 0 Raiser Stand Arts toy! For a whopping six bucks I got a nifty modeling magazine with glamour shots of the latest Japanese model kits pu together by master modelers, and a nifty toy for my desk. The O Raiser is an add-on fighter for the Gundam 00 mecha. Standarts figures are a nice budget priced toy line that is usually found in grocery stores amongst the Chogokun/Gashapon candies. While I don't have the actual figure this piece goes with, it's really unnecessary for display, and I may try to flip the toy anyway on eBay, you never know.



(I 'borrowed' this image from Gundam Guy which is a great guide to everything Gundam oriented you could ever possibly want or think up.)


So my budget tip for the day, if you're into Anime, make sure you check out the bookstores "sale" section for older magazines, sometimes you'll get awesome deals.