Batman1fan

For your first question, it's hard to say. As a customer, I couldn't care less if someone is reading comics without buying them. From a store owners standpoint, it's still hard to say. Some care and some don't. Of the 2 main comic stores in my city, one definitely doesn't want people reading comics without buying them. Flip through them to check out the art, no problem, but read the story and put it back on the rack, nope. The other one doesn't seem to care, at least I've never heard them chastise anyone for it. I still remember as a kid, walking past a Rexall drug store on my way to my Jaycees air rifle class. I'd sometimes stop in on my way home, but my friends and I found out, the hard way, that the fastest way to get yelled at or kicked out was to get caught reading the comic books or trying to look at the dirty magazines. As far as the druggist was concerned, one was just as bad as the other. As to your second question, the short answer is to read and study the subject matter. There is no shortage of books, magazines or websites to get all kinds of information on the hobby. My suggestion is to decide what portions of the hobby interest you the most, then read all you can on the subject. One thing to keep in mind, though, is that while a lot of members of this board appear to have alot of knowledge about the subject, in most cases this knowledge is the result of keen interest and ongoing study of different aspects of the hobby, and in many cases, these members have been compiling their knowledge for the better part of their lives. I'm 48 years old and I've been collecting comic books and reading about their history since I was 8 years old. Even after 40 years of study and collecting, I consider myself knowlegeable about comics, but by no means an expert. Just enjoy the hobby and you will gain knowledge of it as a byproduct.

I am in the final stages of a divorce myself, so please accept my sincere sympathy and well wishes to you during what is, at least for me, the hardest thing that a lot of people ever have to go through. That aside, my comic book and toy collection, which my wife knew existed, but she never cared about one way or the other, was valued very simply. I asked the manager of my LCS, where I have been doing business for over 20 years, to appraise my collection and give me a value based on what they would pay for it all at once, in one lump sum. As stated by others, this value/offer was a percentage of its "Guide Value". I don't want to divulge the actual percentage, since my own divorce is not yet final, but the percentages stated by others in this thread are very accurate. I gave my wife the option of having my collection appraised on her own, but she declined to do so. As a result, my appraisal was the one the court recognized, and in the end, I got to retain 100% of my collection for roughly half of its "Fire Sale" valuation. I don't know if this method would work in your case, but it did for me, so it might be worth at least considering. Either way, the best of luck to you.

One of those sold a few months ago on ebay. I don't remember the final price, but I bid it up to $500.00 and it wasn't even close to the winning bid. That's a nice find, those don't turn up very often.

I think that I've only bought from them on two occasions, but both transactions were satisfactory. The latest one was about 5 years ago. I bought about 20 mid grade Brave and the Bold issues that I needed to finish my Batman run during one of their 50% off codeword sales. The other time was around 8 or 9 years ago. I bought a copy of Batman #52, from the original run, also during a 50% off sale. That book is missing the back cover, but otherwise is in solid good to good plus condition, and it cost a whopping $15.00. All of those books are still in my collection. I've heard all of the horror stories about Mile High Comics, most of which are probably true. In all fairness, while my limited experience with them has been satisfactory, it's quite likely that I just got lucky.

I'll never understand situations like this. None of us has the right to tell anyone else what to do or how to conduct their own business. When I sold on ebay, I always priced my items to sell, and most of them did. My reasoning was that if there are 6 copies of Batman #1 from the new 52 for sale for $40.00 to $50.00 each, conditions being equal, why would a potential buyer look twice at my copy if it was priced the same? But, if I priced my book at $30.00 to $35.00, I had a better chance of selling mine and more often than not I did. You price yor items the way you want to, and you don't owe an explanation of your price or reason for it to anyone. Anyone who sends you a message like the one you referenced, well, thats what the blocked user function is for.

That is an absolutely beautiful, wonderfully constructed display! The person who built that is a world class craftsman!

I've used the pencil and paper method for 35 years and it works for me, but it's not for everyone. It's way more time consumng than a computer program, but I enjoy doing it so it's all good.

I don't want to get into an argument here, so I'll state my position again and let it go at that. If I do business with someone and I'm not happy with the service I received, I may or may not give the person a second chance. However, if I give the person another chance and the service and/or experience is no better than the first time, that's on me. You may see it differently, nothing wrong with that. One of the nice things about America is each of us is entitled to their own opinion.

I'm not suggesting that anyone got screwed at all. There is not enough information to draw that conclusion, at least not to me. All I'm saying is that the OP stated that he wasn't happy with the service that he received the first time, yet he went ahead and did business with them a second time. It would be upsetting and irritating that the level of service received the second time was no better than the first, but not surprising.

I'm in 100% agreement here. Posting that diatribe in a place where the other party can't at least give their side of the story is pretty classless. On top of that, the OP admitted that after he got hosed the first time, he went back for a second helping. You touch a hot stove once, you know it hurts. Touching it a second time is supposed to hurt less?

PM sent.

When I was growing up in the 1970s and early to mid 1980s, I distinctly remember when comics went from 60 cents to 75 cents, and thinking that I was being robbed blind. I stopped buying new comics, for the most part, when DC rebooted Batman again after the New 52. Not that I don't think that new comics are any good, I still buy a special issue every once in a while, like Action #1000. I know inflation is part of life, but I personally think that current cover prices, between $3.00 and $4.00, are utterly ridiculous. I don't know how the publishers think that most kids today can afford to collect more than 2 or 3 comics a month at these cover prices, and a lot of older collectors, like myself, will eventually say to hell with buying new comics at these prices. For the same price as cover on a new comic, and I mean the regular $3 or $4 versions, not variants or special editions, I can buy a mid grade bronze or low grade silver age book that I won't likely see in the dollar bins in 6 months.

Good news, Kav! Since that book still exists, if you can prove you're at least 85 years old, your chances of getting it back just got a lot better.

Thanks very much for posting this! I was 2 years old when it came out, so I missed it the first time around. I really enjoy loking at those prices and how ridiculously low they are by todays standards. I would have loved that mint double cover Batman 33, but until I was 15 or so, that $7.00 might as well have been $700.00, since I would have pretty much had an equal chance of coming up with either amount. Cheap prices or not, sometimes it's hard to remember that everything is relative. Back in 1972, $7.00 was probably a lot of money for most people, especially since new comics were only 20 cents or so. I'd be willing to bet that 20 or 30 years from now, the insanely high prices that many comics are selling for today will seem like incredible bargains to collectors who are looking back at 2018 prices.

You are not being unreasonable and media mail shipping for a $6000.00 book is completely asinine. Anyone spending 6 grand on a comic has the right to expect, at the very least, that the seller will ship the item at least within USPS regulations. The seller didn't even do that, and there is no excuse for it. I hope the book gets to you in the condition you expect, and if it doesn't, ship it back to the seller, get your money back and let the seller deal with the fallout if there is any. Either way, I hope you out this seller here on the boards and give him a neutral (at best) feedback so that any future buyers know what to expect from this guy.

Good Lord, that looks terrible! CGC has been around for a long time and they're not stupid, so if they consider a case like that acceptable, there's a customer service issue here. They obviously know that nobody would be happy with a case like that, yet they still ship it and call it acceptable. Until customers stop accepting a substandard product like this, it will probably continue. Speaking for myself, if I was buying a book in a slab like that, it would be a golden age to silver age book that I would only want verification of the grade and if restoration was present. After that, the case and its newton rings would go right in the trash can. People vote with their wallets, and that's likely to be the only thing that will fix this problem.

I haven't put up any photos yet, but I'm between houses in an apartment right now, so most of my stuff is in boxes at the moment. When I get my new room set up, I'll be happy to post some photos and contribute to the thread. I'm not much for social media, but I am on Facebook and I would love any information on your group, Batt!

I'm glad you got your books back, Jeff. I too was hoping that this was a boardie I had never heard of, but that's not the case. It's been a couple of years now, but Jaymole used to have fairly regular sales threads and I bought a lot of books from him. I personally never had any issues with him, but since he has now demonstrated his true character, I will never deal with him again. Reputations mean a lot, and as far as I'm concerned, Jaymole's is shot. As far as the shipping charges go, I would contact Paypal, explain the situation and ask for their opinion on how to handle it. If they say that they would refund the shipping charges to him if he filed a claim, then I would just refund them to him and be done with it. If, however, they say that he is not entitled to a refund on the shipping charges and that they would side with you if he files a claim, then I would not refund the shipping to him. If he threatens to file a claim with Paypal, let him go ahead since you would already know how it will be handled by Paypal. Also, the gall that Jaymole has to tell you that his friend is going to pay him $20.00 for HIS trouble would pizz me off to no end, and I would tell him to take a long walk off a short plank. I have a very small list of boardies whom I will have nothing to do with, and Jaymole is the newest addition.

Batt, as a Batman collector myself, your comic room is on of my favorites in this thread! If you have any updated pictures of your room to share, I would love to see them. It's always a thrill to see something that I never knew even existed, and that I can begin searching for. Now, being able to afford those items is a whole different animal, but I suspect that most of the folks on these boards are in the same boat.

I think I might have found one for you. My computer skills at best suck, so I don't know how to even put a link here for you. A local lcs has a copy for sale for $350.00. It's a poor, but it's complete. I would have bought it myself, but it has the worst off register cover I've ever seen, so it's not for me. Go to TradeATape comic center on the internet and type Batman in the search function, it will be the first thing that comes up. I just checked their website and it's still there. It's in Lincoln, Nebraska in case there's more than one store with that name. I've personally been dealing with this store for more than 30 years and they are great to deal with and as trustworthy as the day is long.

With all that has been said in this thread, the biggest thing that sticks in my craw is this guy tried to cheat (and if there's any other word for it, I don't know what it is) Jeff by offering to complete the transaction for $100.00 less than was agreed upon. In my opinion, and that's all it is, at that point any and all other excuses went out the window. At $675.00, the boardie can't complete the transaction he agreed to, but at $575.00 he can? What a crock. The "friend" who supposededly caused all of this more than likely doesn't even exist. The fact that the boardie on the other side of this transaction hasn't chimed in to plead his case or explain his position speaks volumes. With all the this boardie has pulled, I can understand Jeff not wanting to publicly out the guy until he gets his comics back, and can at least minimze his loss. Who can blame him? Once the comics are back in the right hands, I'd be willing to bet the boards will all know who he is.

You clearly have done everything you could to uphold your end of the transaction. You took the time to grade each book and send multiple scans to the buyer, packaged them well and by the buyers own admission they were delivered safe and sound. One question I have, is how does the boardie know if they are safe and sound if he didn't open the package? If he did open it, I'd say he will have a tough time getting paypal to side with him, especially since you have records of all of your correspondence. The fact that his friend wants to back out of the deal is 100% the boardies problem, not yours. The fact that the boardie knew his friend didn't have the money for the books in the first place, and he is obviously a sneaky person who is trying to buy books that he doesn't want his wife to know about should have been HUGE red flags for the boardie. What if the friend couldn't come up with the money? What if his wife found out? It's very likely that one or both of these situations did occur. That is the boardies problem, not yours. Your deal was with the boardie, his deal is with his friend. Your deal was completed to the boardies satisfaction by his own admission. The boardies deal with his friend is a separate transaction, and as such, it's not your problem. You gave the boardie a good deal by selling him the books at less than half of guide value, and lets be honest, we are not talking about an Action 1 or Detective 27 here. The 35 books come out to less than $20.00 per book. If the boardie can't afford to uphold his end of the transaction, he might be indulging in a hobby that he can't afford. Again, that's not your problem. No decent person would attempt what this boardie is trying, and it shows they are of questionable character, at best. At this point, you have 2 options that I would consider: 1) Tell the boardie that you upheld your end of the transaction, his problem with his friend is not your problem. You can refuse to take the books back and let the paypal chips fall where they may, or 2) Tell the boardie you will take the books back, but he will have to pay for shipping both ways as well as any paypal fees incurred. You also let him know that you will disclose his name in this thread, which you should direct him to if he doesn't already know about it. If he cares at all about his reputation, he will decide to uphold his end of the deal and keep the books. If not, once his identity becomes known, his chances of ever doing business with any other boardies here are right about zero. Reputations mean a lot, especially in relatively small communities like this. I can tell you that personally, there is one boardie here that I used to buy a lot of comics from, both here and on ebay. He ran into some problems and his reputation took a big hit and even though I never lost anything on any of my transactions with him, I will never deal with him again. If you have the time to deal with it, I would tell him you're not taking the books back, and the boardie can decide if he wants to do the right thing or not, knowing full well what the consequences will be if he doesn't. Either way, I'm sorry this happened to you, as you in no way deserve it.

I'll take it!

Take

Take