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redhood Posts: 20
4/19/2017
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Board members and mods and with sincere apologies if I have broken any rules here.
I wanted to share this with all of you as this board was truly my home for many many years. This is where I started cataloguing all of those Batman variants and started the whole filing cabinet as a storage option. But that was years ago and time has moved on.
For years I have been collecting. Many of you know that. But I always wanted to give back. About three years ago, I wanted to donate some comics to medical facilities and then it hit me, there was no major initiative that really was in place to help children in hospitals, medical facilities and cancer centers across the US. This is not to say that there aren't sites out there-there are. But there was nothing that I could see that brought the industry, publishers, shops and all of us into this endeavor.
It has been my experience that as collectors, many are some of the nicest people you can meet. Exceptons exist everywhere but still, many have asked how they could help.
To that end, http://www.Comicbooksforkids.ORG was created. This is a new initiative whose only goal is to provide comic books to kids in hospitals, cancer centers, etc.
Each of you can help. Please let others know. Please ask your comic shop to contact us. This site relies on donations of all types to ship comics to medical facilities. In the past week, I have shipped almost 200 comics to 5 facilities, all listed on the board. As word continues to spread, my inbox is filling up with requests.
And this is wonderful because it is an opportunity for all of us.
If we do nothing else but perhaps bring some cheer to these children, then we have done our jobs.
If there is a hospital or medical facility near you and you have 25-50 comics that are in really good condition, age appropriate and you want to donate to them, let me know. I will personally contact the hospital and make arrangements for you to deliver them. Your name will also go on the board as a contributor to our cause.
If you simply want to share a few dollars, our paypal button allows that. Each shipment we send out costs $10,00 so again, anything is appreciated. And again, your name goes on the board!
Let me state in closing that I dont have all the answers. Heck, I am still not sure what all the questions are. This all started with a desire to help out kids and perhaps for a period of time, they can imagine themselves soaring through the sky, being Superman, Thor, Batman or any other of the many wonderful characters that we ourselves appreciate.
Thanks for reading, sharing the vision and supporting any way that you can.
Mark
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
4/20/2017
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Years ago, a representative from a hospital contacted a friend of mine. He was hoping my friend could buy some comics that had been donated to the hospital. The hospital needed money and had no use for a bunch of used comics. While it seems to be a good idea and a nice idea to donate comics, a hospital is a sanitary environment. Used comics can carry germs or mold spores that can affect the recovery of their patients. My advice is to sell the comics and donate money. The hospital my friend was in contact with did not want donated comics and had no intention of making them available to sick kids that had compromised immune systems.
Defiant1
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redhood Posts: 20
4/20/2017
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Defiant1, nice to say hello again. It has been many many years.
Actually we are ok here.
We talk to the child life specialist to understand what their policies are. Some have infectious disease criteria that doesn't allow for anything other then plastic boards that can be sanitized and wiped clean. Others require new books right from the Publisher. Still others take gently used comics. WE do all the work of validating and then providing.
This is ALL about putting comic books into the hands of these children.
But at the end of the day, they medical facilities tell us what they want.
In our first week, we have now shipped OVER 200 comics to 6 facilities with many requests coming in! The thank yous have been overwhelming.
But...this is really a grass roots endeavor. Even a $10.00 contribution allows us to ship one box of 40-50 comics. Already many from the community are helping and I am hoping my friends here at CPG do the same.
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
4/21/2017
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Good luck! Traffic viewing the boards seems low here.
I think it's important for people to know that just because they donate comics, those said comics may not go exactly where they were hoping they'd go. It's good that you are working with the facilities.
Defiant1
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redhood Posts: 20
4/22/2017
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Completely agree my friend and that is where we come in. We PERSONALLY call the child life specialists to make sure all is acceptable!
Yup, see the issue with board traffic. Wonder what that truly is a sign of?
You still collecting have your Continuity and Defiant collections? Actually managed to pick up a 9.6 Miracle on Broadway years back. Not sure anyone even knows what that is anymore....
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Defiant1 Posts: 720
4/22/2017
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Occasionally, I'll grab new sketch books from Neal Adams' site or Newsstand/Direct issues of Continuity that I'm missing. There are a couple of reported variant I'm missing, but I'm not even sure if the reports are accurate. Neal's son Jason can't even confirm they exist. I think I'm missing one Defiant variant that was sold on the Home Shopping Network. I could pick it up on eBay, but I don't use paypal or a credit card. I'm more into archiving what exists than I am owning every last alternate cover.
Broadway Video Special Collector's Edition #1 (a.k.a.) Miracle on Broadway is a tough comic to locate. Good find. They hype has died down, so less people are actually looking for it. The pricing sharks are still still going to jack up the prices when they find one to sell and the price guides are not ashamed. They will list one for $5 with a straight face. I see that this site lists it at $200 in 9.4 even though Chuck Rozanski sold his CGC 9.2 for $1200.00.
Most of my time is collecting EC scans for my EC checklist. I have 99% of the original American comic scans and I'm actively creating galleries for the overseas reprints. I haven't made a page for some of the modern American reprints such as Dark Horse. I am finding some obscure Bible EC reprints.
EC Galleries:
http://comiclists.comuf.com/EC/EC_Comics_Index.html (link subject to change)
Collecting Charlton scans for a massive gallery:
http://charlton.herobo.com/Charlton_index.html (glitches from host cause irregular loading of content, link subject to change)
Don't want to derail your thread too much. I wish you good luck. Quite often people will have moldy or dusty comics and think they can just drop them off at a hospital's doorstep and they'll be put in the hands of the kids there. It sounds like they should be going through your service so that the comics don't just end up in the trash. That really is the risk.
Defiant1
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redhood Posts: 20
7/1/2017
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Wanted all of you to see this as you were there on day 1.
Check out the sight now, all.
We are completely up and running and an IRS approved charity meaning all donations are tax deductible (our document is on the site for all to see). Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, Archie, Oni Press, Lion Forge, IDW and BOOM are all on board with us as is Diamond.
https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/
We have already contributed to almost 40 hospitals including people who contacted us who wanted to give as well.
Here is how you can help. Friend us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (all accessible from our site). If you know a company that wants to sponsor us, please pass our name along. All personal donations of $100 put you on our wall of heroes.And dont hesitate to ask any questions. Full transparency here !
This is real my friends and all of YOU were one of the first to know!
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redhood Posts: 20
7/4/2017
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Just keeping all of you in the loop.
We have already acquired a corporate sponsor with a couple more that are looking good. For all of you that want to contribute, even the smallest of donations helps us and we will send you a donation receipt. Please connect with us on Facebook and Twitter.
And again, please promote us to your friends. The scale of what we do here is directly proportional to the funding we receive.
Finally, for your feel good 4th:
https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/community
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redhood Posts: 20
7/10/2017
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For those of you who may have friends in the retailer community, ComicBooks For Kids was spotlighted today in Diamond's weekly e newsletter. We will be posting this on our board later this week but just a heads up. Ask you favorite LCS to read it and get involved! We need everyone contributing. Every bit helps the kids.
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redhood Posts: 20
7/15/2017
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Just a quick update! We added 5 more hospitals this week shipping over 200 comics! And, we are NOW listed as a 501 (C) 3 in the IRS database.
Please tell your friends, follow us on Twitter and friend us on facebook...but even more, if you can contribute, even $25.00 it would help us immensely!
https://www.comicbooksforkids.org/
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redhood Posts: 20
7/27/2017
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Anybody home here guys?
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quinnspuddinjoker Posts: 673
7/27/2017
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Yep.
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redhood Posts: 20
7/28/2017
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Thought some of you may be interested.
https://icv2.com/articles/news/view/38089/diamond-joins-comicbooks-kids
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quinnspuddinjoker Posts: 673
7/28/2017
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Great news it seems. Congrats.
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redhood Posts: 20
8/7/2017
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Bleeding cool article today.
https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/08/06/fighting-dragons-battling-super-villains-hospital-bed/
We would love your help too, especially as one of the best sites in the industry! We are SOOOO close to our funding goal and I want to reflect you guys as the difference maker!
(so far...sadness...no one from this board has contributed..)
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redhood Posts: 20
9/14/2017
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Friends, if you have not seen our results, please check out our site and contribute where you can. We have shipped over 3,000 comics already and by the time Halloween Comic Fest hits, will exceed 5,000 comics!. Our medical facilities tab shows the hospitals we have sent to. The community tab shows feedback. You can also be on our wall of heroes with a donation. Please help us if you can. Even the smallest donation makes a difference!
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imatonkatoo Posts: 151
9/16/2017
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Brilliant idea. Well done. Nice site too.
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redhood Posts: 20
9/21/2017
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imatonkatoo wrote:
Brilliant idea. Well done. Nice site too.
Thank you. The rewards are amazing. And, if there is a hospital near you that you want to get involved with, just let us know. We will work with you and even get you comics to give to them.
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imatonkatoo Posts: 151
9/22/2017
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redhood wrote:
imatonkatoo wrote:
Brilliant idea. Well done. Nice site too.
Thank you. The rewards are amazing. And, if there is a hospital near you that you want to get involved with, just let us know. We will work with you and even get you comics to give to them.
I'm in England so the shipping might be a bit too high. I'm involved with my daughters charity. Which is a hospital that I could ask. She was born with a big hole in her heart (13 years ago now) and the hospital that looked after her were amazing to both kids and the parents.
edited by imatonkatoo on 9/22/2017
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redhood Posts: 20
10/4/2017
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imatonkatoo wrote:
redhood wrote:
imatonkatoo wrote:
Brilliant idea. Well done. Nice site too.
Thank you. The rewards are amazing. And, if there is a hospital near you that you want to get involved with, just let us know. We will work with you and even get you comics to give to them.
I'm in England so the shipping might be a bit too high. I'm involved with my daughters charity. Which is a hospital that I could ask. She was born with a big hole in her heart (13 years ago now) and the hospital that looked after her were amazing to both kids and the parents.
edited by imatonkatoo on 9/22/2017
Sounds like you are ready to start our UK chapter!!! Wonderful story and thank you for sharing.
This is what we do my friend.
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