UPDATE, 10:15 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 8 — I’m now getting word from my sources that Friday’s auction at the former Mesa location of Atomic Comics has been scrubbed, possibly due to intervention from the Arizona Department of Revenue. Check back for more details as they become available …
My original post on the auction remains below.
For more than three months the four Atomic Comics shops around the Valley have sat dark, their inventories locked away amid their owner’s bankruptcy.
Now, at least one of them is going to open its doors again for an auction of its contents. But if you’re hoping to score some holiday deals on pop culture items, you’re out of luck: The entire inventory of the Mesa store (pictured) at 1120 S. Country Club Drive, No. 105, will be sold only as a single lot this coming Friday, Dec. 9.
The winning bidder will likely be required to have a cashier’s check ready the day of the sale, and will probably have just 24 hours to clear out the lot — including any fixtures as well as leftover products.
Bidders are sure to include some of the Valley’s remaining comics sellers, who were quick to adjust their operations when Atomic went out of business in August. Samurai Comics, which didn’t have an East Valley presence until then, opened up shop in No. 107 next door just days after Atomic shut down, and looks to be in the area to stay.
Samurai owner Mike Banks got a peek at the Mesa haul and said any serious bidders are likely to be disappointed — but he’ll be among them anyway.
“From a retailer standpoint, the store had been stripped pretty clean over the weeks of huge sales leading up to the closure,” he said. “There isn’t as much valuable merchandise as one would think. We could use some of the fixtures for our existing stores though. One of our big hopes is that if we do end up winning the auction we can work towards getting comics that had been held for former Atomic subscription customers back into their hands.”
Banks said Samurai customers have been asking about the auction, many hoping to bid on a specific item — especially the Superman logo neon sign (pictured above).
“We’ve been informed by the property manager, however, that the auction will be for the ENTIRE contents of the store — comics, toys, fixtures … everything!” Banks said. “They did a similar auction a couple of weeks ago for the contents of Stalking Moon. The winning bidder was required to have a cashier’s check the day of the sale, and then had a 24-hour window the next day to remove everything.”
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East Valley Tribune file photo by Tim Hacker
