Post by Jesse on Jul 17, 2018 21:48:58 GMT
I'm creating this thread in hopes of helping the new comer. If you have never purchased anything internationally, the thought might be a bit daunting. I'm including some tips, experiences and observations that I have had in my short time doing this. I'm hoping that more experienced members will add some of their knowledge here also.
1) Getting started. This was actually hard for me. I tend to have a wide interest in different genres of comic books. It helped me to focus on one issue that was personally a favorite and go from there. I chose Red Sonja #1 (Marvel, 1977) as my first "chase" comic. I have an ongoing thread here detailing my experiences with completing that set.
2) An easy way to search for comics is through eBay. If you go to the bottom of the main eBay page, you will see a flag. You can jump to the eBay site in different countries by choosing from a drop down list there. Your normal eBay account is good on each site, but you will need to log in to each site. I found and watched my UK Red Sonja on the UK eBay site. It showed up in my watch list on the US site, so I didn't need to log back into the UK site to bid on it.
3) Use an online translator!! I'm on a pc, so all I need to do is right click on a page and choose "translate to English" and Google translates. Or. if I am searching for something on a Spanish sales site, I use google translate and just copy and paste. Bear in mind that MANY publishers change titles. "Batman" in a Spanish sales site will bring up basically any title that had Batman as a character, such as Detective Comics, Brave and the Bold, JLA, etc. It helps to know what the title is of the comic you are searching for.
4) That brings me to my next tip, know the title and issue number of the comic you want. You can use publishers databases (there is a thread here on that), or a site like Comic Book db to research that. It is a long shot, but if you scan in the American comic, crop it so it is just the comic image, and do a reverse image search (like on tineye), you might get lucky and have some foreign comics pop up in the results.
5) Don't expect bombproof packing!!! When you buy from any country other than Canada or the UK, a proper bag and board combination is as common as seeing a wild unicorn in downtown New York City. You might occasionally get some sort of plastic bag protecting the comic. But, it's been my experience that a raw comic placed inside an envelope is the most common practice. If you are dealing with another foreign collector, your odds of better packaging goes up!!!
6) Know the monetary exchange rate so you get a good idea of what it is going to cost you. Paypal adds a slight fee for paying in a foreign currency, but it is a small percentage. If you can pay in your native currency through Paypal, there is no extra fee.
7) Don't expect your comics to arrive quickly. It took close to a month to get comics from Mexico to me in Minnesota. That is the longest I've waited, but I've heard it can take over two months in some cases.
8) Shipping charges. Shipping to or from Canada is comparatively expensive. It cost me $16 USD to ship two comics, bagged and boarded, sandwiched in cardboard and in a padded poly mailer. Shipping from the UK and Spain can be expensive as well. The cheapest shipping charges I've found so far are from Hong Kong, Turkey, Serbia and Mexico. I received 3 comics from Serbia for $7 USD shipping charge. I've shipped comics to Australia and Spain and the charges were similar to shipping to Canada.
9) There is an ongoing list of foreign markets in a thread here, but your best source of international comics is developing contacts or a network. That is one of the purposes of this forum, to set a place for people to interact with each other. But search for groups on facebook or in other forums, ask around. The way I got my Turkish Red Sonja #1 was I sent a message to a seller in Turkey that was posting comics on the US eBay. He was very knowledgeable and helpful. He had the comic I was looking for and gave me a price. When I had the cash, I contacted him again and he set up a buy it now listing on eBay for me and I bought it through eBay. But I had to reach out!! You need to be willing to take a chance and possibly get burnt if you are going to do this. It's no different than the current American comic book scene in that way. But so far, I've only had positive experiences in all my dealings. Communication is key!!!
10) Have fun!!! Enjoy the hunt!! See what you can find out there. It's a blast if you are willing to try it!!
I'm sure I've missed a few things, but I hope this helps someone who is sitting on the fence or not really sure how to go about collecting International comics!! Take care and peace!!
1) Getting started. This was actually hard for me. I tend to have a wide interest in different genres of comic books. It helped me to focus on one issue that was personally a favorite and go from there. I chose Red Sonja #1 (Marvel, 1977) as my first "chase" comic. I have an ongoing thread here detailing my experiences with completing that set.
2) An easy way to search for comics is through eBay. If you go to the bottom of the main eBay page, you will see a flag. You can jump to the eBay site in different countries by choosing from a drop down list there. Your normal eBay account is good on each site, but you will need to log in to each site. I found and watched my UK Red Sonja on the UK eBay site. It showed up in my watch list on the US site, so I didn't need to log back into the UK site to bid on it.
3) Use an online translator!! I'm on a pc, so all I need to do is right click on a page and choose "translate to English" and Google translates. Or. if I am searching for something on a Spanish sales site, I use google translate and just copy and paste. Bear in mind that MANY publishers change titles. "Batman" in a Spanish sales site will bring up basically any title that had Batman as a character, such as Detective Comics, Brave and the Bold, JLA, etc. It helps to know what the title is of the comic you are searching for.
4) That brings me to my next tip, know the title and issue number of the comic you want. You can use publishers databases (there is a thread here on that), or a site like Comic Book db to research that. It is a long shot, but if you scan in the American comic, crop it so it is just the comic image, and do a reverse image search (like on tineye), you might get lucky and have some foreign comics pop up in the results.
5) Don't expect bombproof packing!!! When you buy from any country other than Canada or the UK, a proper bag and board combination is as common as seeing a wild unicorn in downtown New York City. You might occasionally get some sort of plastic bag protecting the comic. But, it's been my experience that a raw comic placed inside an envelope is the most common practice. If you are dealing with another foreign collector, your odds of better packaging goes up!!!
6) Know the monetary exchange rate so you get a good idea of what it is going to cost you. Paypal adds a slight fee for paying in a foreign currency, but it is a small percentage. If you can pay in your native currency through Paypal, there is no extra fee.
7) Don't expect your comics to arrive quickly. It took close to a month to get comics from Mexico to me in Minnesota. That is the longest I've waited, but I've heard it can take over two months in some cases.
8) Shipping charges. Shipping to or from Canada is comparatively expensive. It cost me $16 USD to ship two comics, bagged and boarded, sandwiched in cardboard and in a padded poly mailer. Shipping from the UK and Spain can be expensive as well. The cheapest shipping charges I've found so far are from Hong Kong, Turkey, Serbia and Mexico. I received 3 comics from Serbia for $7 USD shipping charge. I've shipped comics to Australia and Spain and the charges were similar to shipping to Canada.
9) There is an ongoing list of foreign markets in a thread here, but your best source of international comics is developing contacts or a network. That is one of the purposes of this forum, to set a place for people to interact with each other. But search for groups on facebook or in other forums, ask around. The way I got my Turkish Red Sonja #1 was I sent a message to a seller in Turkey that was posting comics on the US eBay. He was very knowledgeable and helpful. He had the comic I was looking for and gave me a price. When I had the cash, I contacted him again and he set up a buy it now listing on eBay for me and I bought it through eBay. But I had to reach out!! You need to be willing to take a chance and possibly get burnt if you are going to do this. It's no different than the current American comic book scene in that way. But so far, I've only had positive experiences in all my dealings. Communication is key!!!
10) Have fun!!! Enjoy the hunt!! See what you can find out there. It's a blast if you are willing to try it!!
I'm sure I've missed a few things, but I hope this helps someone who is sitting on the fence or not really sure how to go about collecting International comics!! Take care and peace!!