Post by G on Feb 26, 2009 14:47:51 GMT -5
I must start this thread with the well known revelation that I consider myself to be a friend of the owner of Comic Kings, Joey. So it may appear as I am being partial to him. Well, I will try to remain as impartial as possible but I must say it is virtually impossible for me to do so, so I make this admission up front. I went to art classes in vocational school and it was there that I met Joey. Joey could have pursued a life in art if he desired. He was damn good at drawing black n whites with pencils. He could make his drawings look like black n white photographs. But thats another story.
Somehow we seemed to have remained friends after school. I think we had a couple of mutual friends and it kept us around each other from time to time and Ive said it before, but I remember when Joey was working at a Sports Card dealer's store and I remember him catching on that Valiant was red hot on the west coast while remaining virtually unnoticed here. He had amassed an amazing collection of Valiants when he let me in on the secret and I went around and did the best I could to get as many as I could as well. Within months, Valiants took off and it seemed that at the same time Joey did too. Joey was flipping furiously for amazing profits and restocking his collection of Valiants and other comics at unbelievable frequency catching the Local Comic Stores and Convention Dealers here totally unaware and showing them all up. Not long afterwords, Comic Kings was born. Joey always seemed to have his finger on what was hot and always had plenty of it. He had been putting the smackdown on other dealers that they even issued a flier that they handed out at conventions "Wolves in Sheep's clothing". To me it was just them being bitter that someone was doing what they did better than them. Capitalism at its best.
Over the years Joey kept at it and the fury others had against him for a brief time seems to have died down. I know for awhile he had a 2nd store, but then went back to one and moved to a new location at Fairfield shopping center in Virgina Beach. There is a few things I always loved about going to Comic Kings.
For one, it's clean. Ive been to some stores with my wife that she came out of with allergic reactions to and I came out with dirt on me.
Two, its set up nice. New comics on a length long wall. Gamer's area set up AWAY from the comics area (so rare at other stores doing both). And an all around gallery of wall books going around half the store that you have a hard decision choosing which books to buy.
Books competitively priced. Anytime I got a higher priced wallbook or a non-dumpster dive book, its always at a price that Im sure would be higher elsewhere. And to me, the store has the best $1 books Ive seen anywhere. Ive often went to his store and spent an hour or two making a massive stack of GOOD comics that other stores would certainly sell for more than $1. Oh, and its 7 for $5 and 15 for $10. Cant tell you how many times I've went in there and came out with 20 - 60 books from those bins.
And a knack for having items besides comics that area generally hot with collectors, such as game cards like Bakugan, Yu-gi-oh and Magic as well as Sports Cards and Webkins items. If it's gotten hot, chances are Joey has them.
The only negative I can say about the place is Joey's store is so popular, especially with the card gamers, that you may go into his store in the afternoon and especially on Saturdays which are unbelievable, and walk out with a headache because so many kids are playing games in there. For them, its THE place to be. But even at its worst, unlike other stores, you can still go in there and shop for comics and maintain your distance from the rest of the Crowd playing games and get the comics you want.
If you ever make a visit to the southeastern Virginia area and youre a comic fan, I say you need to put Comic Kings on your list of must stop at stores. As I said at the beginning of the thread, I have to admit to calling Joey a friend. But I'll say this, I would be stopping there as a comic collector even if I didn't know who Joey was.
Somehow we seemed to have remained friends after school. I think we had a couple of mutual friends and it kept us around each other from time to time and Ive said it before, but I remember when Joey was working at a Sports Card dealer's store and I remember him catching on that Valiant was red hot on the west coast while remaining virtually unnoticed here. He had amassed an amazing collection of Valiants when he let me in on the secret and I went around and did the best I could to get as many as I could as well. Within months, Valiants took off and it seemed that at the same time Joey did too. Joey was flipping furiously for amazing profits and restocking his collection of Valiants and other comics at unbelievable frequency catching the Local Comic Stores and Convention Dealers here totally unaware and showing them all up. Not long afterwords, Comic Kings was born. Joey always seemed to have his finger on what was hot and always had plenty of it. He had been putting the smackdown on other dealers that they even issued a flier that they handed out at conventions "Wolves in Sheep's clothing". To me it was just them being bitter that someone was doing what they did better than them. Capitalism at its best.
Over the years Joey kept at it and the fury others had against him for a brief time seems to have died down. I know for awhile he had a 2nd store, but then went back to one and moved to a new location at Fairfield shopping center in Virgina Beach. There is a few things I always loved about going to Comic Kings.
For one, it's clean. Ive been to some stores with my wife that she came out of with allergic reactions to and I came out with dirt on me.
Two, its set up nice. New comics on a length long wall. Gamer's area set up AWAY from the comics area (so rare at other stores doing both). And an all around gallery of wall books going around half the store that you have a hard decision choosing which books to buy.
Books competitively priced. Anytime I got a higher priced wallbook or a non-dumpster dive book, its always at a price that Im sure would be higher elsewhere. And to me, the store has the best $1 books Ive seen anywhere. Ive often went to his store and spent an hour or two making a massive stack of GOOD comics that other stores would certainly sell for more than $1. Oh, and its 7 for $5 and 15 for $10. Cant tell you how many times I've went in there and came out with 20 - 60 books from those bins.
And a knack for having items besides comics that area generally hot with collectors, such as game cards like Bakugan, Yu-gi-oh and Magic as well as Sports Cards and Webkins items. If it's gotten hot, chances are Joey has them.
The only negative I can say about the place is Joey's store is so popular, especially with the card gamers, that you may go into his store in the afternoon and especially on Saturdays which are unbelievable, and walk out with a headache because so many kids are playing games in there. For them, its THE place to be. But even at its worst, unlike other stores, you can still go in there and shop for comics and maintain your distance from the rest of the Crowd playing games and get the comics you want.
If you ever make a visit to the southeastern Virginia area and youre a comic fan, I say you need to put Comic Kings on your list of must stop at stores. As I said at the beginning of the thread, I have to admit to calling Joey a friend. But I'll say this, I would be stopping there as a comic collector even if I didn't know who Joey was.
