On the exhibition floor of Comic-Con International in San Diego, you can buy a finely detailed sculpture of Gollum from J.R.R. Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” universe for $1,799. A lifelike mask of Pinhead from Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser” series costs $1,750. And a gleaming replica of the Infinity Gauntlet wielded by Thanos from Marvel’s “Avengers” movies runs close to $1,000.
But those prices pale in comparison to the offerings at Booth 529 near the gaming section of the floor, where Mike Carbonaro sells comic books for tens of thousands of dollars.
A wiry figure with hair like that of an arena rocker and energy for days, Carbonaro greets walk-ups with an enthusiastic “Are you buying? Or selling?” He’s interested either way.
The first appearance of Jimmy Olsen in D.C.’s “Superman” universe — Action Comics #6, November 1938, promising “64 pages of thrilling adventure” and originally going for $0.10 — Carbonaro has priced at $25,000.
A number one issue of “Captain America,” showing the iconic scene of Cap punching Hitler: “It’s missing a piece of the cover. If it had the cover, it’d probably be worth about $150,000.”
“As it is, it’s $50,000,” he said. “Captain America, when his shield was still shaped like a triangle.”
A regular at San Diego Comic-Con since 1989, Carbonaro says he’s been buying and selling comics for over 40 years. He also runs a comic book and collectibles convention he founded in 1995 in New York City, Big Apple Comic Con.
“Any special kind of comic book you’re looking for?” he said to a potential customer, a man from Sydney. “I know Phantom is big in Australia.”
Carbonaro’s been in the comic book and collectible retail scene since he was a teenager, he says. He grew up in Queens and attended New York University, majoring in business and psychology, all the while selling comics and memorabilia.
He has one story about a Marvel comic convention in 1975, most likely referring to the Mighty Marvel Comic Convention held in March at New York’s Hotel Commodore in Midtown Manhattan (now a Grand Hyatt).
Before the convention, Carbonaro went to a bargain store and “bought 10,000 of these Marvel posters for $0.10 a piece.”
“We sold out at $1 to $2 each,” Carbonaro said. “I made $12,000 profit, bought a Trans-Am literally the next day.”
Back in the ‘70s — before the Internet — you sold comic books by meeting people, Carbonaro said, making connections at conventions like San Diego Comic-Con. Big Apple Comic Con got its start in the auditorium of a church as a substitute event for a convention that got cancelled, according to an 1996 industry article. More than 20 years later, it’s still going at the Hotel Pennsylvania across from Madison Square Garden.
Carbonaro said that while he’s sunk a good deal of money into the merchandise available at his table, he’ll have no problem selling it at San Diego Comic-Con.
“All the stuff I have on display, I’m going to be sold out by Thursday,” he said. “So I’ll have to get more stuff from the back to put on the table.”
He estimates that in San Diego, he’ll make $1,000 an hour Thursday through Sunday.
