Quarter bin is a phrase common in the
American comic book
An American comic book is a thin periodical literature originating in the United States, commonly between 24 and 64 pages, containing comics. While the form originated in 1933, American comic books first gained popularity after the 1938 publ ...
community used to describe discount boxes of comic books sold for far less than the cover price. Typically going for $0.25 each, these comic books may be used, damaged, or new material that's been overstocked
Howling Curmudgeons: The Quarter Bin
1 October 2005 by the comic book retailer. Quarter bins tend to be unique to the comic book direct market
The direct market is the dominant distribution and retail network for American comic books. The concept of the direct market was created in the 1970s by Phil Seuling. The network currently consists of:
* three major comic distributors:
** Luna ...
, though they may be found in thrift stores and other stores selling used media (video games
A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...
, compact discs
The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of holding of uncompr ...
, DVDs
The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
, etc.).
Due to the nature of demand in comic book collecting
Comic book collecting is a hobby that treats comic books and related items as collectibles or Visual arts, artwork to be sought after and preserved. Though considerably more recent than the collecting of postage stamps (philately) or books (bibl ...
, retailers will purchase entire comic collections just for a few rare books and the rest of the books go into the quarter bin. It is common for most quarter bins to sell $0.25 comics for an even greater discount at five for $1.00.
Notes
Comic book collecting
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