Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (18)--A Pro at Two Cons

It's been too long since my last blog post. A lot has been happening--there was a major event I had to organize for work followed by one of my collegues taking a long vacation, then me getting a sinus infection, etc. But enough whining. There were two bright spots--Big Apple Con Oct. 2, followed by Comic Con on Oct. 9. Last year, these two cons threatened to be held on the same weekend this year, but Big Apple Con backed off on that game of chicken and was a week earlier. Holding it in the Penn Plaza made it seem small compared to last year's huge event at Chelsea Piers. There was the usual washed-up celebs selling their autographs and photos to make their Medicare payments--Lee Majors, Adam West, Burt Ward, all three of the Brady boys, one of the kids from Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Richard Anderson, Majors' co-star from 6 Million Dollar Man, even Oscar nominee Mary McDonnell.

The comic book pickings were pretty lean, I hoped a lot of dealers were waiting for Comic Con the following week. There was one dealer from Virginia who has some good deals with lots of Silver Age books at about $4-$5. One guy had plenty of stuff for $1; it was all Bronze Age and I was able to fill out the Fantastic Four holes.

The following week I got to Comic Con at the Javitz Center and there had to be at least 20,000 people. There weren't as many people in costume or as many interesting panels as previous years. I did see some repeat costumed people, like the same Batgirl, Black Canary and Green Arrow as at last year's Big Apple Con.

My friend Diane was there and she turned out to be a MacGyver when her sandal broke and she fixed it with a paper clip. The only celeb we saw was Carroll Spinney who plays Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch on Sesame Street.

There were plenty of familiar superheroes including lots of Catwomen, Supermen, and Spidermen. There was one guy who had a giant inflatible TARDIS from Doctor Who on his head. But the coolest outfits had to belong to two fellows we encountered once we left the con and started to head to Ninth Ave. in search of a restaurant. They were Unemployed Man and the Master of Degrees, promoting their own graphic novel (pictured above). I asked if the guy in the college grad gown if he was supposed to be Mastermind, a villain from Justice League of America # 28 The Case of the Forbidden Superpowers, who dressed in a college cap and gown to denote his superior brain.

There were lots of great buys at Comic Con and I didn't spend any more than $3 on a book. I did buy Action #368 without realizing I already had it and that the copy was damaged with a rip through all the pages. On top of that I thought I was going to pay $1 for it, but the dealer said "That's a $2 book, it wound up in the $1 box." I should have said, "But it's in the $1 box, so I should have it for a buck." Too late now. The highlights were finding lots of Jack Kirby Capt. Americas, and some good Jimmy Olsens and Lois Lanes.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (17)--Fantastic Four

I've gone back to the Fantastic Four lately. When I was a kid in the late 1960s, they were very big and I watched the cartoon series on ABC. I even read some of the comics though at that time I was more into DC than Marvel. Marvel stories were complicated and continued from issue to issue and sometimes from title to title. DC was very simple and straightforward--which explains why kids liked DC and teenagers and adults liked Marvel.

When I first returned to the comic craze in recent years, I was only interested in the first 100 or so issues of FF because they were drawn and co-created by Jack Kirby with his bold striking images. The Silver Surfer-Galactus-Watcher saga is unparalleled in comic history for its scope and sweep, taking on almost Shakespearian proportions as these gigantic figures bestride the globe and dwarf the FF. I still love to think of the dialogue between Galactus and the Watcher as they debate the fate of Earth. When the Watcher calles Galactus "Pillager of planets," I get a chill.

Then I went beyond that into the later issues with John Romita, George Perez, etc. I've just finished Essential Fantastic Four Volume 8 which goes up until issue 183.

The fascinating thing about the FF--and I think it's what inspires loyalty to them--is they seem to exist in real time and space, and exhibit human emotions. Yes, they are in a comic-book world besides the obvious of having superpowers and not aging as quickly as the rest of us. Reed Richards and Ben Grimm are veterans of World War II which would make them in their mid-80s to early 90s if they were real people. But in a lot of other respects, their experiences parallel the rest of us. They change, get married, have children, have sex even.

For decades, Superman and Batman existed in an adolescent arrested development phase. Girls like Lois Lane and Vicki Vale were icky and the heroes hung out with younger male pals like Jimmy Olsen and Robin--surrogates for the readers. (I know it's different now, I don't keep up with the current storylines, but Superman finally did marry Lois, yet Batman remains a bachelor, having gone through several Robins.)

Reed Richards and Sue Storm actually got married and had a child. There are scenes indicating they really slept together--in the same bed--unlike Rob and Laura Petrie. In one story arc Reed's double from a parallel Earth takes his place and presumably does the nasty with Sue. The Invisible Girl is shown getting out of a king-sized bed, wearing a sheer nightie, leaving a sleeping false Reed. Her doubts about her husband apparently centered on their lovemaking. To add a touch of reality, she walks in on houseguests Thundra and The Impossible Man--a Marvel version of Mr. Mxyzplyzt (however you spell it)--watching a rerun of The Maltese Falcon on late-night TV. Their home--the Baxter Building--has an actual location in the real world, 42nd and Madison in NYC.

The current FF, they are almost at issue 600, has housed a bunch of mutant kids in the Baxter Building. Sounds kinda boring, like a kiddie X-Men. But I am now anxious to go back and read through up till the present.

Scenes from the Life of an Amateur Comic Book Collector (9)--Back to Philly

I feel like a little kid on the day after Halloween. I've had too much fun and eaten too much candy. Over the New Year's weekend I visited my parents in Philadelphia and spent part of the time shopping for comics on South Street and going to a comic book con at a Ramada Inn near the airport (the same location as a previous con which I've blogged about). It turns out this Philly con is held every other month. I also watched the last episode of Doctor Who with David Tenant on BBC-America with my parents (they enjoyed it) and in addition to all the comics, I bought a DVD of Birdman and the Galaxy Trio for $6 from a used-book store (I stopped short of spending $8 on a DVD of Wacky Races, another favorite cartoon of the 1960s). It was a total mind-junk binge.

I also went on another mini-binge at Time Machine here in New York. I had previously bought a Lois Lane with an entire story missing so I returned it and got the full catalogue value and bought some Atoms and another Lois Lane. In Philadelphia, I went to Showcase Comics on South Street and they had some really good deals. Their back issues were 40 percent off. I didn't buy too many because I was going to the Philly con the next day, but it turned out I didn't find any of the titles at the con that they had at Showcase, so I should have spent the money. Another thing that stopped me from spending more moolah at Showcase was the fact that I got a parking ticket while browsing through old Silver Age comics in the store. I put money in a parking meter and got one of those little slips through you're supposed to display on your dashboard, but I lost track of time and they issued a violation exactly seven minutes after the time expired. Bastards! The fine was $36. I felt so guilty, I didn't buy an old Superboy for $6.

The next day I stopped feeling guilty and bought a whole new haul at the comic show at the Ramada Inn. Here's a list of the loot from both Showcase Comics and the Philly Con:
2001: A Space Odyssey #8 (origin of Machine Man, a 1970s Jack Kirby creation after he went back to Marvel from DC)
Action Comics #316, 359
Archie as Captain Pureheart #4
Batman #214 (See cover above, a fairly sexist depiction of the women of Gotham City when you think about it)
Blackhawk #215, 230 (which I already had, damnit. I need to start taking lists to these things)
The Flash #181 (featuring an incredibly racist depiction of Japanese people)
Green Lantern #11
Jimmy Olsen #64, 83, 84, 88
Jonny Quest #1
Lois Lane #82
Marvel Tales #17, 23
Marvel Team-Up #74 (featuring Spider Man and the Not Ready for Prime Time Players from the late 1970s)
Metal Men #31, 34, 38
Modeling with Millie #47 (I couldn't resist, no superheroes, but plenty of fashion)
Our Fighting Forces featuring The Losers #154 (Kirby again, I wouldn't have bought a war comic otherwise)
The Owl #2 (obscure Dell title)
The Silver Surer #18 (only Kirby artwork in this title)
Strange Adventures #204
Superboy #107, 109, 201
Superman #220
Thor #130, 151, 159, 174
World's Finest #191

On Monday I had a discussion with a co-worker also into comics. We were trying to identify the artist of a comic cover on a calendar I had bought. "That's a Kirby mouth," I said. "Yeah, but those are Ditko hands," he replied. Now that I think about it, that's the nerdiest conversation I've probably ever had.

Stopolis at the Acropolis or It's Just a Big Pile of Rocks

(ATHENS, GREECE) I arrived here in Athens Sunday morning after a flight which left JFK on Saturday afternoon. I took some anti-jet lag pills and felt fine. (Delta is pretty cheap by the way, they don't even have those TV sets in the back of the seats.) Jerry and his colleagues were off to their conference, so I looked in the guide book and discovered the guard was changed in front of the Parliment building at 11AM every Sunday. If I hurried I would just make it. I found the metro (notice that only in America is it called the subway) and saw the elaborate ceremony with the soliders in their traditional uniforms with the white skirts, tasselled slippers, and funny hats. There are 400 pleats in each skirt for the 400 years of Turkish occupation.

Then I walked to the flea market and from there to the Acropolis area. It was a long walk, but I finally found it. Across the street was Hadrian's Gate and the remains of the temple of Olympian Zeus which is a series of huge columns and a pile of rocks as a result of earthquakes. I then walked up the hill to the Acropolis--steep and tiring. It was actually warm, a shock considering how cold it was in NYC. The Acropolis is a series of temples erected to the gods. The main one is the Parthenon, built to honor Athena, goddess of wisdom and the protector of the city. The pediments--which are reconstructed in the new Acropolis museum--depict the birth of Athena and her contest with Poseidon, her uncle, for the right to be patron of the new city later called Athens in her honor.

The legend goes that Zeus, king of the gods, had a terrible headache. Hepheseus, god of fire and the forge, split his head open with an axe to relieve the pain (they obviously didn't have a public option) and out sprang Athena, fully grown in armor and full of her father's wisdom. I'm sure Zeus said, "What the hell was that?" The other pediment depicts Athena's contest with her uncle Poseidon, Zeus's brother, for control of the city. Poseidon struck the earth and produced a sword. Athena did the same and out sprang an olive tree-symbol of peace. Athena won!

My quesion is how does this jibe with all those Hercules movies starring dreamy Steeve Reeves? And does it overlap with the Thor comics where Hercules fights Thor and somehow Asgard and Mount Olympus both exist in the modern world? Jack Kirby later offers a different explanation in his The Eternals.

Anyway, we all got together and had drinks at the Hotel Bretany. On Monday, we visited the Archaeological Museum with plenty of hot male statues. Tuesday, we went back to the Acropolis--I was the only one who had already been. We--myself, Jerry and two colleagues--hired a guide named Athena who explained quite a bit while the winds howled and dogs followed us barking and humping each other. There are a lot of stray dogs and cats around the Acropolis, but not as many as in Istanbul. I was surprised there was no audio guide you could rent. After all, this is one of the most famous--if not THE most famous--spots in the world. Probably guides like Athena who are unionized fought tooth and nail to prevent this potential dent in their income.

After the Acropolis, we walked through the Agora, the ancient marketplace where most of the Athenians did their daily thing. The most interesting site was the prison where Socrates was executed for thinking a bit too freely. He drank hemlock. There was nothing left of the site. But it was moving to think a philosopher could be killed for exercising freedom of thought--and it still happens today.

The next day we took a day trip to Delphi which I will detail in the next post.

Scenes from an Amateur Comic Book Collector's Life (6)--Big Apple Comic Con

I am one sick ticket. I spent Saturday at the Big Apple Comic Con which has recently been bought by Wizard Entertainment and moved from the Pennyslvania Hotel (or whatever it's called now) on 34 th Street all the way down to the ass-end of the West Side on Pier 94 at 12th Avenue. I had a lot of fun. Previously the Big Apple cons were crowded into this one floor at the hotel with dealers and a few second-tier celebs selling their autographs (Bill Daly, Larry Storch, Mason Reese, etc.) Now the event has exploded with panels, talks, video game demonstrations, and literally dozens of celebs. It still doesn't approach the big Comic Con at the Javits Center or the Star Trek conventions I used to go to all the time, but it's a definite step up. (the pix are of two convetion-goers--the Golden Age Green Lantern I've seen before at Comic-Con. The blue alien is from a Star trek Episode. I said to her as she was eating, "Are you a Tellerite?" "No, an Andorian" Both species were on the episode Tower of Babel. Side note: my friend Lydia gave me some Star Trek episodes she got a garage sale. This episode was not on them, but it did have Court-Martial, one of the best ones. Thanks Lydia. Lots of other costumed conventioneers, but not as many as one would see at comic-con)

The day started with two Q&A sessions with Star Trek people: Kate Mulgrew and Brent Spiner. Both were funny and glad to meet their fans. I told Spiner I thought he was fantastic as John Adams in 1776 at the Roundabout a few seasons back.

Then I hit the comic dealers and went bat-shit crazy, buying 41 old comics. Actually that's not so bad. I didn't spend more than $5 for any one book and some I got for as low as $1.

Here's the haul: 2001: A Space Odyssey #7 (Jack Kirby art)

Action #380 (Superman and a really good Legion of Super-Heroes feature)

Adventure #392 (Supergirl)

Atom #9

Blackhawk #237

Capt. Johner and the Aliens No. 1 (formerly a second feature with Magnus Robot Fighter)

Detective #292 (coverless)

House of Mystery #160

Jimmy Olsen #48, 51, 73, 96, 101, 117

Journey Into Mystery #116 (Kirby)--with the Mighty Thor before he became the mag's title character

Legion of Superheroes 273

Lois Lane #25, 35, 46, 62, 80. (#62 looks like a real winner with Lois and Superman running against each other for senator, just like that time Greg and Marcia ran against each other for student body president.)

Magnus Robot Fighter 6 (the earliest one I've ever found)

Metal Men, 17, 25, 27

Strange Adventures 131, 151, 152, 231 (the last is a 64-page giant. I wasn't sure if I had it, but I didn't)

Superboy 121

Superman 171, 177 plus Superman Annual 4

Superman Family 176

Thor 138, 140, 153, 171 (all by Kirby)

World's Finest 163, 185

In between buying binges, I visited the autograph area were celebs were selling their autographs and photos. I didn't buy any (at $20 a throw), but it was fun to see Mickey Dolenz (my sister's favorite Monkee), Nichelle Nichols, David Hedison (Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, the handsomest man on TV in the 60s, now totally white-haired and still handsome), Bruce Weitz (Hill Street Blues, who I once interviewed for Theater Week magazine), Carol Cleveland of Monty Python, and of course Julie Newmar, the original Catwoman. I was standing by her booth and said hello. I said "You know I was looking at Youtube and you can find the What's My Line episode where you were the Mystery Guest. That was when you were in The Marriage Go Round on Broadway." She smiled and said "Thank you." Another surprise--Pete Rose was selling his signature too, but for a lot for than Julie Newmar or Todd Bridges.

The whole day was like going into a tunnel and escaping reality, emerging in this alternate universe were the DC and Marvel worlds, Star Trek and Star Wars were all real. Well, back to reality--or reality TV anyway. In future blogs, I'll deconstruct the comics I bought.

Scenes from an Amatuer Comic Collector's Life (4)--Trading Up

Several months ago I bought 20 old Red Circle comics from ebay because one had art by Jack Kirby. It had a reprint of a series Kirby did called The Fighting American. The other 19 didn't interest me. Strictly second-rate heroes like THUNDER Agents and the Mighty Crusaders from the 1980s without the camp value of the Silver Age books of the same title. I had been meaning to trade the 19 for the longest time. Roger at Time Machine said I should hold onto them because you never knew, they might be worth something someday. But why not just trade them for something I really wanted?

Work has been stressful lately, so I figured I deserved some new comics. I lugged in the Red Circles to Time Machine at lunch. For 19, I netted five Silver Age ones I really wanted--three in lousy shape and two much better--and bought two extras. Roger dumped the Red Circles in his 99 cent bin. I also had a Jetsons which I didn't care about and that was worth $2. My new acquisitions are four Thors from the Silver Age with art work by Kirby and one Flash from the same period featuring the wedding of Barry Allen, Flash's secret identity to Iris West. On their wedding day, the evil Professor Zoom manages to switch places with Flash so that the latter is trapped in a prison cell in the future. The villain is about to marry the unwitting Iris--who doesn't even know her real fiance is a superhero--when Flash runs into the church and kidnaps what appears to be the bridegroom. It all works out in the end, but Barry Allen explains to Iris "It was all a mistake"--that's it, his whole rationale--and she buys it! And this woman is a reporter? Lois Lane would have put all over that story. Barry does tell Iris his big secret several issues later.

Thor is another series I am collecting since it is one of the few Kirby titles I haven't snapped up. Later I went to Midtown Comics. For some reason, they have only Bronze and Copper back issues in their display bins. They save the good stuff for online. But on this occassion I found six or seven Kirby Thors in reasonable condition for $5 each. I bought one. Then a few days later I went back and they were all gone. How frustrating.

Scenes from an Amatuer Comic Collector's Life (3)--Theology and the Mighty Thor

I couldn't help myself. I went back to Time Machine on Fri. while I had some time to kill before taking the train to Hudson for the weekend--BTW, we still haven't caught all the woodchucks and there are so many freakin' deer now they cross Route 9 with impunity in the middle of a Saturday afternoon. But back to Time Machine. The owner Roger was getting ready to close up--it was 7PM and he closes at 7:30PM on Fridays. One of his regular customers was standing by the register and asked if I minded if he smoked. I said no and started going through the back issues. Blondie was singing Call Me on the loudspeaker--it was an 80s mix. The Tide Is High is my favorite. The customer was telling Roger about the days when Deborah Harry was a waitress and he was one of her customers. I found several Mighty Thors which were in deplorable shape, but those are usually the only kind of Silver Age mags I buy. There were also some Flashes with exquisite Carmine Infantino covers and a few nice Curt Swan Actions and Supermans.

I also snapped up an fairly good Strange Adventures--No. 181 with the title Man of Two Worlds, also the title of DC editor Julius Schwartz's skimpy autobio which I had just finished--and a Mystery in Space featuring Ultra, the Multi-Alien with a coupon cut out of the last page. It didn't significiantly decrease the value since it did not interfere with the story. Anyway, the Flashes were like $10 each and I was not going to spend more than around $20. The beat-up Mighty Thors came in for $3 each, with the Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures, the total was $23. I decided to forgo the Flashes, Action, and Superman as too expensive.

All the Thors were drawn by Jack Kirby, king of the comics, and the artist whose work I collect the most passionately. All were from 1967-68 when I was eight and nine. I didn't have these particular issues in my collection then, but some around the same date. In one storyline, Thor loses his god-like powers, except his super-strength, and joins a circus as a strongman. Little does he suspect the evil ringmaster plans to hypnotize him into stealing a fabulously priceless and heavy golden bull. I guess it was the circus strongman angle that attracted my burgeoning gay sensibilities.

Thor # 150 had a detached, ragged front and back cover, but a beautifully detailed rendering by Kirby of Hella, the Goddess of Death, looking like a creation of Christian from Project: Runway with a fantastic flowing cape and amazing mask and headpiece, shooting out in all directions, in dark green. The original owner of this Thor #147 had taken a pen and made Thor blackish-blue and drawn lines in the title letters. There was a stamp on the cover--Oct. 23, 1967. It made me wonder who bought it on that date and how did it get to this shop on 14th Street?

I haven't read all of them, but interesting questions are raised by Thor's deity-hood and that of his father Odin. Were Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saying the Norse Gods were the real creators of the universe and our Christain theology was a myth (at least within the parallel comic universe where Thor was real). Odin is often called All-Father and his home Asgard is referred to as the realm eternal. Odin is all powerful and in Thor #145, he rails like the Old Testament deity--"Odin is a vengeful liege...Odin is an angry liege...Odin is now and forever, supreme! And woe to him who strays from righteousness." But Hercules also makes frequent appearances as does his father Zeus. Who would win in a fight Zeus or Odin. Kirby takes up the mythos again in his series for Marvel The Eternals, with comparable figures of an all-father and a rebellious super-powered son. This theological discussion was debated in the letter pages of Marvel comics. I will have to do more study on this. Maybe I should go on that NPR show, Speaking of Faith.

Scenes from an Amatuer Comic Collector's Life (2)--Sunday Funnies

Today is new comic book day, so I go into Forbidden Planet to check out the new goods. DC Comics has come out with an entirely new series I absolutely love which is in the form of a Sunday newspaper comic section like what we used to call the funnies. Remember those? This features epic 14 X 20 inch story pages of Superman, Batman, Kamandi (I have almost all of the Jack Kirby originals), Hawkman, Deadman, Green Lantern, Metamorpho, Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Metal Men, Flash, Sgt. Rock, Teen Titans, Adam Strange, and the Demon teamed with Catwoman. Best of all, Metamorpho the Elemental Man is drawn by my absolute favorite artist Mike Allred--who has a cool retro sensibility--he's the guy who does Madman, which will conclude its current series next month from Image Comics. And this Metamorpho strip is written by Neil Gaiman (Geeky enough for yez?)

This will be a weekly series from DC for 12 weeks. Wow! I can collect them all! I remember the funnies used to be my favorite part of the newspaper. Saturday nights my dad used to drive us to this general store-sort of Wawa place to get the Sunday paper. We would go after dinner and get ice cream and pick up the Sunday edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer. It was a weekly ritual, I remember sitting with him in the front seat and my sister in the back. We'd go in the store and pick up this enormous newspaper with the colorful funnies wrapped around the front. Sometimes if I had enough allowance money left--I got 25 cents a week--I would buy the latest Action Comics with Superman AND the Legion of Super-Heroes. So it had to be the early 70s, when the Legion was no longer the only feature in Adventure Comics, but had been relegated to second-class status behind the Man of Steel in Action.

I haven't read all of the comics yet, but I love the Green Lantern which has a real cool early 60s vibe like The New Frontier, a graphic novel series I've been meaning to read.

I also picked up issue 5 of the Marvel adaptation of Pride and Prejudice for my friend Lydia who is a Jane Austen fan.

Scenes from an Amatuer Comic Collector's Life

Walking along Sixth Avenue Sat., I passed a guy selling comics. He had a suitcase open with mostly recent titles. I'm really into Silver Age (mid-1950s-early 70s) books. Bronze Age followed into the 1980s and I like some of those too. We are now in the Copper Age of Comics, I think. The seller, a tall African-American in his 30s, did have a couple I could see buying if they were cheap enough. There was a Mighty Thor from the early-mid 60s (original price 12 cents). The cover by Jack Kirby (The King of Comics and an artist I collect) displayed the blonde and buff thunder god in battle with Magneto, now known through his portrayal by Sir Ian McKellen in the X-Men films, but here the Malevolent Master of Magnetism was cross-breeding on another Marvel comic. I asked the guy how much he wanted for said mag.

"It's worth $300. I could get about $1oo on ebay." Uh-oh, I thought. The most I was willing to spend on these things was $5, $10 tops. "I'll let you have it for $30," he said. I felt like saying if you can get that much on ebay, why don't you sell it there?

He read my mind and answered: "I would hold out for more, but I need the cash now. I lost my job, so I'm selling them this way." I'm not an expert, but I didn't think it was worth $300 or even $100. I would have graded it in good condition, not mint. Mint means it's in exactly the same state as when it was first printed. There were slight tears on the edges and the colors were marginally faded. I passed, thanked him and walked on. As I headed for the subway with my non-eccentric purchases from Bed Bath and Beyond (a plastic Lazy Susan) and Macy's (two pairs of pants and two pairs of shorts), I wandered what would drive a person to sell their comics on the street and not online? I thought about how much money he needed and how much he would make that day.

I started thinking about my own collecting. I must have thousands of comics. What if I had to sell them. Could I do it? I just started collecting again about four or five years ago. As a kid, I would spend all my allowance money on them. Of course, I treated them like shit--I cut out pictures I liked, wrote all over them, didn't keep them in plastic bags. They are all gone now except for a handful of mostly coverless readers--collector's jargon for issues so beat up they're only good for reading. That kernel of my original collection forms the core of the new one. I've recreated my childhood collection with them. Every Wed., the day new comics come out, I go to Forbidden Planet or Midtown Comics and look for new collections of old reprints--Marvel puts out Essentials and DC has its Showcase Presents. Few of the new ones interest me--only those by Mike Allred who does Madman who has a kind of retro cool.

Maybe it's immature, but I see a lot of guys my guy (40s-50s) in the comic book stores every Wed. It makes me feel safe to escape into this fantasy world of super-heroes. Maybe the ones I have are worth thousands (the ones I've bought recently, not the ones I treated like shit as a kid), maybe they're worth nothing. But they mean something to me and it would be hard to part with them.