Hudson

I have not seen The Dude in this thread yet and I know he usually runs a spreadsheet, so I wanted to provide the following. Please let me know if I inadvertently left you off or put your guess down incorrectly. *Disclaimer - this does not include the last guess (Norrin_Radd $1,444.44) as that guess came in while I was creating the spreadsheet. Prior to that we had 39 guesses as follows.... Mean Average: $961.68 Median Average: 955.89

Another board member just PMed me and let me know about this. I was so glad they did. As I really enjoy this contest each year. The good Doctor does a great job at making it fun for everyone. Need to go get some darts and figure out where exactly what my wild guess will land this year. Thanks X for doing this each year!!!!! You are awesome!!!

This seller seems to have several items, that when you go to the item, you see this message in the photo section..... The "seller" is...igmsma_23 There is no option to "BIN" it on eBay, although a price of $2,910 is listed in the description. Apparently you need to contact direct to purchase. No surprise this seller has a feedback of 15 with numerous pages of items listed.

@Dr. Balls Thank you for sharing the above tale and the heartbreaking experience you and Tara went through. I know that took a lot of courage to write as you relived in your mind those tragic times. I remember what it was like when my wife and I lost our unborn child. Noone, who has not experienced this, can possibly understand the grief one goes through. I am sincerely sorry for your loss. Thank you again for shairng, for opening up, and for being a part of this community. You are a great asset to everyone here.

@woowoo that is awesome. Was that Ben’s copy? I am so happy you were able to pick up a copy. What a great book. Happy Thanksgiving! Appears we both have a lot to be thankful for.

Really like this thread. Wanted to give it a bump.

I don’t blame him one bit.

“Grades” submitted. No emoji or confirmation yet, so hoping they are not lost in cyber space.

This is SO true and it has probably happened to just about eveyone who has handled more than a handful of bagged comics. When it happens, it just makes your heart sink and you get that sick feeling in your stomach. PLEASE try to avoid this. Yorick provided a lot of good advice. BTW - Great book!!

Were you looking at the wrong set of books?? Lol.

My grades are always outstanding UNTIL the actual grades come in. Then…..not so outstanding.

Grades submitted.

@JollyComics Thank you, Sir. I had not seen this. Mike, Please include me if there is still space available. Thank you.

Nice to see these books raw and able to read. Golden age goodness.

So I thought I would scribble out another tale for those who love comics..... It was 1990 something and I walked into a LCS in Dallas, TX. The owner of the store was a really nice guy who would go out of his way to help customers achieve their collecting goals; for me that was collecting early Action Comics. To my great surprise and joy, the owner told me he had seen a copy of Action Comics #3 on something called eBay. Now, he might as well have told me the book was on the moon (actually if he had said it was on the moon, at least I would have understood what he was talking about). However, he said it was on eBay and I was forced to confess my ignornace and admit I had never heard of eBay. The owner, kind and patient as he was, explained to me what eBay was and how to use it. So I signed up for eBay, found the book, and saw that it was being sold by someone in Oklahoma City, OK (about a 3 1/2 hour drive from Dallas). I contacted the seller and asked if I could come and see the book in-person. I know now that this is not typically the way things work on eBay, but I was new to "the bay" and figured it was very reasonable that I would want to see such a "high end" book in-person before making a "bid". The seller kindly agreed to let me come and see the book and so I jumped into my Pontiac GTA and headed for the address he provided (possibly taking a little time off the typical Dallas to OKC drive time). When I arrived at the address, it was in a strip mall of various stores and the exact address was a coin store. At first I thought I must have had the wrong address, but having made the long drive and not wanting to give up on the dream of finding an elusive Action Comics 3, I walked into the store. It was a small coin store and there was not a comic book in sight. I was beginning to wonder if I had wasted an entire day and a lot of gas on a wild goose chase. Like most men, I hate asking questions, especially of stranger, however, at this point, I felt out of options; I walked up to the guy behind the counter and asked about the Action Comic and if I was in the right place. Thankfully, he assured me I was in the right place and escorted me into the back room..... Once inside the backroom, I saw a few tables piled with golden age comics. None of the books were bagged or even neatly stacked; they were just tossed in piles on the tables. I wish I could recall all the books I saw sitting there, but alas too many days and too many other memories have come and gone since that day. Other than the Action #3 that I was there to see, I recall there was a very early Detective and an Action 9. The gentleman who owned the coin store (who had walked me into the backroom) then told me that he was purchasing a collection of coins from someone and when he was leaving they asked him if he wanted these comics. In hearing the story, it sounded like the former owner of these books had just given them to this guy; probably not knowing the books were likely worth more than the coins. To a collector. like me, such a find would have been a dream come true, but to this coin store owner, he had decided to just buy himself an Overstreet Price Guide, check out their value, and then sell them on "the bay". He told me he was going to list the rest of the books over time. The store owner then handed me the Action 3 and went back into the retail section of the store; leaving me holding an Action 3 and staring at piles of Golden Age goodness. I looked through the Action 3 and immediately knew I wanted to own this book. Eventually, I put the book back down on the table, walked back through the front of the store, thanked the owner, and began the long drive back to Dallas - knowing I needed to throw a serious bid in on this treasure. Eventually the auction ended and to my dismay I was outbid (I may have been "sniped", I don't recall); I was devasted. Sick over the "loss" I could only hope another copy would come along one day. Remember, this was the early days of "the bay" and many of the other auction sites common to comic collectors today, did not exist back then. I don't think Heritage, Comic Connect, or Comic Link were around at that time, however, there were some other auction places that were not as "user friendly"; thus finding early Actions was rare and missing out on this one felt like someone punching me in the stomach. But the story does not end here.... It was maybe a week or two later when I recieved a message from the eBay seller (owner of the coin store). He said that the "winning bidder" had recieved the book and then returned it. He wanted to know if I was stil interested. I told him I was and figured it was going to end up costing me my "max bid". Instead the seller told me he would sell me the book for one bid increment over what the third highest bidder had bid. This was a very significant difference and I quickly agreed to the deal. Although I know many here hate "the bay", which has become FeeBay; full of many horrible sellers, I can only say that this is the tale of my first experience on eBay. Since that day I have had numerous wonderful experiences on eBay and more than my share of bad experience, but for today, I am going to savor the memory of that first eBay transaction and my first copy of Action Comic #3. Thank you for taking the time to read this tale, which I hope has brought you some enjoyment. Thank you for letting me share one more memory of days gone by; memories that bring me joy. Thank you!

@ADAMANTIUM I just looked at your post on my phone (quickly) and it looks good to me. I hope you do not delete it. I look forward to reading it. Thank you for sharing.

I think it is a lot easier to find a low grade or cover less book to marry with the cover you have, than it is to have cover less comic and try to find a cover.

Giving this well deserved thread a bump in hopes someone will post a book that will give us all a good laugh; sometimes you just need a good laugh.

@Morganmi very cool indeed. I see a few that I would like to own!

Just giving this a bump in hopes that someone might have a tale to tell today. A story of how you first became interested in comics, a story of how/where you purchased/traded comics in days gone by, or perhaps a tale of that one book you treasure more than any other. The options are virtually endless, so please reach back in time, search your fondest memories and pen us a tale for all to enjoy.

I purchased a book on eBay this week with that "I am not a professional grader" phase. Perhaps the most overused phase on all of eBay. Can't wait to see how the book looks when it gets here.

May I ask, when the seller says "Newsstand", is he suggesting this is how the book looked when it was purchased new off the newsstand? Second question - "What newsstand did this book come from and was the newsstand actually located inside a dumpster?"

I do not recall passing on any new books on the rack that later became “keys”, although I am sure it happened countless times. What I do remember passing on was a copy of AF15. It was not new on the rack, it was “old”. It was probably 1988 or 1989 when I was walking around my LCS and saw it there on the wall. The price was $25. I thought about it and passed. After all, I was more of a DC guy.

Thank you, Sir. I totally agree, but then again, I am bias. I love reading these tales of how people fell in love with comics.

I think it is a fine idea. Anything that promotes the love of comics and simply collecting is a positive thing. Although I am not personally on Instagram (or Facebook or twitter or…….) I am sure there are many collectors who are. I say, “Go for it”.