When it comes to Comic-Con swag, the branded sticker is a poor man's canvas tote bag. Both are in abundant supply, but only the bags perform an actual function outside of first-grade classrooms.

“My great-great grandfather may have used it in the Civil War,” David DeVore told appraisers Bob DuMouchelle and James Flannery Jr. at a recent appraisal session held downtown at the gallery and ...