OUR HISTORY

An independent Jackal Relic store has been a project in the recesses of my mind for a long time. I have been visiting shops all over the country, attending comic conventions, bidding in auctions, collecting, trading, grading, and selling comics since 1982. I guess you can call me a lifelong fan of the genre. Comics began for me as a nerdy and misunderstood hobby. Since then, comics have blossomed into an accepted and iconic part of our pop culture. I have always had a great admiration for comic books and all the offshoots that have manifested: artwork, shows, movies, figures, and wearable schwag.

I collected comics with my father and brother for many years.  In 2017 my father and I decided to sell the collection that he and I had built together. That is when I formed an eBay store. I found eBay to be an amazing marketplace. The eBay store experience was hugely successful and allowed my father and I to “cash out.” 

I sent my father his share of the comic book collection money. It should have been over, as I had planned to move onto other things. But through this process I realized I wasn’t done with comic books after all. The eBay store experience stoked my fire!  With easy access to amazing books now possible with technology, I got the bug all over again. I found myself accumulating more books as part of a new, improved collection. Then I began selling books, which, in turn, allowed me to buy more stock. I discovered that I enjoy the business of comic books. 

We have now been buying and selling on eBay for about five years.  It has become a small business!

Comic books and all that surrounds its culture are on a tear. The market has been in a serious melt-up over the past couple years and it shows no signs of abating.  Interest in comic book stories in print and on the screen continues to widen, attracting new collectors into the hobby. Whether you are a longtime Fan, or you are new to comic collecting, we look forward to the opportunity to help you obtain those tough-to-find books you have been searching for. Thank you for visiting Jackal Relic. And happy collecting! 

--Thomas Landschulz, founder of Jackal Relic

 

BUYING COMIC BOOKS FROM JACKAL RELIC

We have become skilled doing online, mail order business.  We have accumulated over 1,550 stars of 100% positive feedback in the Jackal Relic eBay store.  Click on the link and check us out.  Although we will continue to operate the eBay store for the foreseeable future, you can get a much better selection and experience when you purchase directly from jackalrelic.com. 

A positive experience for you is our top priority.  We have put a great deal of effort into accumulating so many hard-to-find and high grade books.  Although we need a physical space to operate, our shop is not a retail outlet or open to the public.  We store our books in a secure, dark, climate-controlled, non-smoking facility so the books stay fresh and stand the test of time.

We procure our books very carefully.  While it is almost impossible to find defect-free books, we try our best.  We are always looking for books with the following qualities: excellent alignment at the spine (they aren't crooked or wonky at the staples); square-bound books without a crushed or twisted spine; vivid colors (Some copies printed late in the run look pale or faded, and books exposed to UV light fade quickly); nice gloss; sharp corners; clean copies of the book (books can get very dirty on the shelf in the comic shop or on the newsstand rack); and flat books without spine roll.  

We scan our books using a large format, HP Scanjet 8300 scanner.  We have found that it does a decent job of producing photos to be posted online.  We scan at 200 PPI which is a good balance for uploading to the internet and providing enough detail so you can determine if the book is right for your purchase.  Sometimes the slabs and the scanner create some glare, or there might be a tiny smudge or debris on the scanner glass or slab when the scans are taken.  This should not be interpreted as a defect in the book.  However if you ever have a question about one of the scans or need another photo, please do not hesitate to contact us.

BUYING RAW COMIC BOOKS FROM JACKAL RELIC

We simply do not have enough time to remove each book from its sleeve and scan both sides for the listing, so we only offer the front page in the listing photos for raw books.  Unless otherwise specified, raw books offered through our store are, at a minimum, Near Mint Minus (NM-) 9.2 or better.  On average, though, raw books are Near Mint (NM) 9.4.  We have a quality control process in place to make sure the books meet that criteria before they are listed.  Regardless, we always encourage you to review the listing photos carefully, and to send us an email if you have a question about a book's grade. More on our grading philosophy follows.  All raw books come to you in a clean comic bag with backer board.

 BUYING COMIC BOOKS - INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS

The store is not set up to allow the purchase of comic books from abroad using the standard process.  We apologize for this! 

However, if you enjoy what you see and wish to order books from abroad (you are in a country other than the United States), please send a message to us at the store.  We will try to accommodate you.  You will need a PayPal account.  We will generate an invoice and email it to you.  Please note the cost of international shipping and insurance can vary widely! If we accept your request to purchase books, we will calculate the exact cost of shipping to you, and it will appear as a line item on your invoice.  

Shipping internationally takes a little extra time and effort, so we appreciate your patience.

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COMIC BOOK GRADING 

The advent of CGC, CBCS, and the other grading companies has made the buying and selling of books online a much more reliable experience. Most of our books are slabbed and professionally graded. But the process of submitting raw books to the grading companies is costly, time consuming, and it seems to take them forever to turn books around. So while we regularly submit books to the grading companies for slabbing, many of our books are also offered raw.   

We have had many poor customer service experiences ordering books listed on eBay and other platforms over the last several years.  It can sometimes be a crap shoot!  While most sellers in the eBay community are stand-up folks, there exist sellers who are not.  They get defensive when challenged and provide excuses. They say that grading is “subjective,” that they are “not professional graders,” “the book is uncertified,” and our favorite: “I don’t accept returns.” Yet those same sellers don’t hesitate to use in their listings the widely accepted grading criteria such as “Near Mint (NM)” or “NM 9.4” when they list their optimistically-graded (and sometimes deliberately over-graded) raw books.     

The many submissions we have made to the grading companies has heightened our awareness of common defects and improved our grading skills.  We follow the grading principles as defined by the industry “bible,” The Robert M. Overstreet Price Guide. Whenever in doubt about assigning a grade, we are conservative and select the lower of the two grades. Again, our scans are all at 200 dpi so that you are able to see any obvious defects on the book. If there are defects not readily apparent in the scan, we pledge to make our best effort to include this information in the book’s description. If you ever find that we make a mistake grading a book, please contact us and we can further evaluate the book together.   

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COMIC BOOK PRICING

The comic book market is very dynamic!  We are constantly monitoring the market.  Our prices may fluctuate with the market.  Should you find something you want but cannot afford to pull the trigger on it right away, send us a message and ask us to set it aside.  Although we may ask for a deposit depending upon the price of the book, you can lock in your price by doing so.  Or, should you believe our prices are way out of sync with the market, feel free to send us a message with an offer.  We will take all reasonable offers into consideration.  If we decline, we will tell you why.