Galaxy Comics

Galaxy Comics is a comic book shop at 2620 State St in Saginaw, Michigan. It sells new comics on a weekly pull-list model, offers exclusive store covers, and consigns and grades large collections, which makes it a stop for readers who follow a title month to month and for anyone with a long-held collection to place. The shop has been open for more than 25 years.

What's on the shelves

The core of the business is comic books. The store carries new weekly releases and commissions its own exclusive covers, with a Galaxy Comics exclusive line that includes DC Nation #0, Walking Dead #1 and Batman #50. Regular customers can keep a standing pull-list, the arrangement under which a reader's titles are set aside each week. The shop also sells comics online, so some of its stock reaches buyers who never walk in.

The store also handles graded books. It sends key issues to CGC for grading, and for the collections it consigns it has commissioned its own certificates of authenticity, with artwork by Joseph Michael Linsner, to document provenance on the more valuable books.

Consignment and the Michalke Collection

The shop's consignment work is shown by the Paul Michalke Collection, a Marvel and DC holding the store is selling on behalf of the collector's family. The collection is estimated at 25,000 to 30,000 books, about two hundred tightly packed short boxes. It was assembled from the 1960s onward by a collector who started in college and bought, read and carefully stored his books, so the condition runs high; most issues after 1965 are expected to grade at 8.0 or better, with many in the 9.x range.

The first book offered from the collection is Amazing Fantasy #15. The store is having the key issues graded by CGC and sells the collection under its own name, The Michalke Collection, since it does not expect it to meet CGC's pedigree criteria. The collector's library also included paperback fantasy and horror titles, with 40 boxes of paperbacks packed so far and the hardcovers not yet started.

Hours and getting there

The shop is open Tuesday through Saturday and closed Sunday and Monday.

The store sits on State St in Saginaw, in ZIP code 48602.

History

Galaxy Comics has served Saginaw readers for more than 25 years. Long-running customers are a feature of the shop: the collector behind the Michalke Collection bought from the store for its entire existence and rarely missed a new comic day, and his standing pull-list covered essentially all Marvel super-hero titles along with most DC super-hero books from the mid-1980s until the start of the New 52.

The local scene

Several other shops sit within a short drive in Saginaw: Coy's Comics, 1Up Games, Curveball Collectibles and Game On Saginaw, the closest about 1.2 miles away. For a card show, the Flint Weekly Card & Collectibles Show is about 33 miles away and next runs November 3, with further dates on November 10 and 17. The Den Of Collectors Card Show is about 59 miles away and next starts November 15.