Buried Treasure & Collectables owner Josh Light recently secured more than 2300 comics from a storage shed, including his favourite: a Howard the Duck issue featuring The Hulk and Doctor Strange. Photo: Jarryd Rowley.
Sifting through storage containers in search of a piece of proverbial gold may sound like the plot of a reality TV show, but for Josh Light and the team at Buried Treasure & Collectables, it’s exactly what they do.
While their small shop at 9 Railway Street, Wagga Wagga, has always had some wild and whacky items from yesteryear, it is one of their most recent finds that has people talking.
Josh said he recently bid for a storage unit, knowing there were a few comics in there as well. But he didn’t expect to find more than 2000.
“It was by far the most expensive unit we’ve ever purchased, but we hope that with big risk comes big reward,” he said.
Featuring Marvel books including limited-edition Spider-Man runs, Original X-Men appearances, DC one-shots and even a few collectors’-edition comics featuring the band KISS, Josh’s new collection is unlike anything else seen in this part of the world.
“My last count, we had 2308 comics,” he said.
“It was a bit overwhelming to begin with, going through the container and picking through everything.
“We spent a huge amount of time researching what everything was worth; 95 per cent of our work is researching on eBay and Amazon and things like that. From the comics container, we had issues valued around $5 to $10, with the biggest up around $600.
“We obviously found all the comics but it also came with a few other collectables, including an original ATARI and a Sega Master System still in their original boxes.”
The most valuable book in the collection is an original 1980s Spider-Man comic, which features one of the first appearances of the wall-crawler in his now-iconic black suit.
Despite the famous book easily being the most valuable pull, Josh’s favourite discovery was something a little more simple.
“My favourite pull isn’t even remotely the most expensive one,” he said.
“It’s a Howard the Duck comic. I love the graphics and the illustrations. It’s only worth $50 or so, so it’s obviously not as big as some of the super-high-end ones, but I think it’s so cool.”
Josh said the team at Buried Treasure & Collectibles was always finding rare items and putting them up for sale.
“All of our stock here at Buried Treasure & Collectibles comes from the wonderful world of abandoned storage units,” he said.
“We bid on them in auction, and then once we win, we’ve got 72 hours to go and pick it up. We look at Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and even Newcastle on occasion.
“We bring it back here, sift through it and put a price tag on it.
“It is a little bit different to your storage wars shows that people watch on telly and whatnot because it’s all done online. You may only get one or two photos to go, and photos aren’t always the clearest of pictures.
“We obviously lucked out with the comics shed, but we aren’t always that lucky.”
Buried Treasure & Collectibles is always rotating its stock, with its store open from 8 am to 2 pm every Saturday.
“A big part of what we do is very community-based,” Josh said.
“Out the front, we would normally have trestle tables covered with tubs of stuff that we sell for $1 each. The heart and soul of this place is to offer people cool little things they can’t find anywhere else.
“No, we’re not going to sell a $600 comic for $1, but our heart is to give back to the community.
“Earlier this week, we gave a couch to a family that needed it, for free. We couldn’t fit it in the shop and it didn’t make sense for us to keep it. We’re always doing things like that and we’d love to see more people come down and enjoy what we have to offer.”
If you’re looking for a rare item or a personal trinket, you can to visit Josh and Co at Buried Treasure & Collectables at 9 Railway Street, Wagga. You can also follow the team on Facebook for regular updates.
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