Shawnismaximus

Sorry this is the best/only photo I have, this comic was STOLEN! (story below)

So a local auction house had a bin of old comics for sale. Probably 500ish comics in the bin, only a couple of photos. One of them showing Special Marvel Edition #15. I bid on them, and won. I bid a little higher than I might usually because I knew this comic was worth some money and hopefully there are some others like it in the stack. Today I went to pick them up, and before leaving with the bin of comics thought "I better just check to make sure that comic is in there".  

The two women running the auction (who by the way are super nice, I don't suspect any fowl play on their part) helped me search for this comic. We kept going through these stacks of comics for a good hour but it is gone. Apparently they let someone look thru the comics while the auction was being held, so the going theory is this guy stole it. (which also makes me wonder if he stole anything else).

Anyways I'd appreciate some help trying to grade this. If they can't locate the comic it sounds like they may refund me for this comic. 

I'll take:
Avengers 142, 145, 147, 
Daredevil 116
Inhumans 2
Amazing Spider-man 272B
Worlds finest 138, 139
Avengers 38
Superboy 112
Tomb of Dracula 33
Thor 248, 249

I'm in Canada so message me and we can figure out shipping costs. Thanks!

Wow I did so bad in the contest but I still get a prize! I'd love
Prize #79: 8 - DC 100 Pagers, including all the JLA ones. A virtual Omnibus!  Conditions range from VG to Fine -, maybe VF on one. Nice reader set. - donated by Shadow 

if @Shadow doesn't mind shipping to Canada!

15 hours ago, ninanina said:

You might want to at least start reading the Spawns...before you decide to sell them. I personally enjoyed the run very much and you might too. Ánd, you may have enjoyed them so much you might decide to keep them?

Just a thought. On another matter, if you feel what you purchased was worth the money regardless of condition, then you didn't over-pay.

Fair point. I've read a few odd issues of Spawn but this is the first time I've had a run of issues. 

My problem is I already do this too much. My 'still need to read' collection is ever growing. It's hard to keep up with! Especially with silver age/bronze age stuff as those can take a while to read. I guess with Spawn I could probably plow thru the first 5-10 issues pretty quick and get a sense of whether they are for me or not!

p.s. I went thru the run yesterday and am missing #42,43,44,46 & 47 . . . Now I have to hunt those down so I can sell 1-100 as a complete set!

1 hour ago, Pontoon said:

If you are a horrible grader, how do you calculate what a collection is worth and not overpay?

Well in this case everything looked pretty high grade so it was a no brainer, but yeah it can be a struggle.

1 hour ago, Park said:

I forgot what I even had in there as I have had signatures turned off forever. 

And to be clear, I was insinuating that Shawnismaximus kicks baby seals and punches the elderly straight in the mouth for looking at him sideways. He also smells of cinnamon and regret.

I thought that was obvious.

 

I resent that! I do not smell like cinnamon. 

12 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

nooo nooo noo, this pic is in his signature line when he posts, you might not have those turned on to see. I posted it to him to let him know that "photo-bucket is up to its usual shenanigans" edit and photo-bucket is blurring the pic, instead of clear as it is supposed to be...

That is all, no reflection on you....  I guess that gives me a fail for not being clear, I forget not everyone has "siglines turned on"

Well wouldja look at that! It's a whole new world in here with signatures turned on! 

2 minutes ago, Wolverinex said:

Congrats! How did you hear about the collection?

I post ads to facebook buy and sell groups every once in a while saying I buy and sell collections. Most people who message me want $10 a comic for 90's drek because they're "Brand new never taken out of the plastic" but every once in a while you get a good lead. I thought this was going to be a waste of my time to be honest because it was all 90's stuff, and he didn't mention any of the key issues beforehand. But I figured I'd likely come away with a longbox of Batman comics or something. The guy was a run collector in the 90's, but his wife wants him to whittle down his collection and this is the stuff he has no interest in re-reading. Surprisingly he kept a lot of indie stuff, as that's what interests him most these days. 

3 hours ago, Bearcatcoach said:

Thanks!  Got to do some legwork to pick up stuff like this but if you can put in the time (and have an understanding wife!) then it's out there to be had!

Going to look at a 20k+ comic collection next weekend that I have a lead on....Taking the big van, some $$$ and hoping we can work out a reasonable deal....

Just curious, do you bring cash with you? I would worry I'm being set up to be robbed with that much cash.

29 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

  best Photo-Bucket pic too  

I'm not sure what you and Park are talking about TBH. Suggesting I'm posting a poor quality photo with the caveat that I'm a horrible grader to try and dupe somebody into paying for a low grade comic? Or am I reading into things? . If I decide to sell any of these they will be posted with high res scans. 

8 minutes ago, Get Marwood & I said:

Nice looking lot Shawn. Keep your eyes open for Canadian Price Variants. There might be a few in there and they can carry a premium. 

Thanks for the tip, I do forget to look for those. 

17 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

Movie is not happening at this point.

Dang.

17 minutes ago, THE_BEYONDER said:

Nice find.  Should be able to make some decent coin turning these over.  Is the NM 98 high grade?

I'm a horrible grader, so I'll be posting scans on the spare a grade forum this weekend. It's in great shape but there are a couple small spine ticks. My guess is 8.5?  I'm not sure if it would be worth slabbing. We'll see what the forum says, I was in second to last place last year (if I'm remembering correctly) in the green eggs grading contest. 

I think I got either the lowest or second lowest score for people who submitted grades for every book last year. Sign me up! 

15 hours ago, alexanderjk said:

Have to second this suggestion. Best margaritas in L.A., hands down. 

(Entire post is fantastic. I hope the OP doesn’t miss it in between the back and forth about LA’s politics.) 

I just read through all 3 pages this morning and it sounds like a heroin addict is gonna stab me to death with a needle while I'm stuck on the parking lot that is the 405.

Haha. But I appreciate everyone's advice!  

1 hour ago, D84 said:

Stay in Santa Barbara or Laguna Beach.  Avoid Los Angeles like the clap.  It's a hole.

Well my convention is at the Convention Centre in LA, so I don't have a choice. But I do plan on getting outta there once the convention is done and trying to get a taste of California before I go back to the (likely covered in snow by then) prairies of Alberta. 

Peakys post asking for advice in NYC has inspired me to ask for advice for the best comic shops or independent sellers in LA to check out while I'm there. 

I'm going down for a work convention Nov. 2 - 6th. Then I'm thinking of spending a couple days in Santa Barbara or Laguna beach or something before returning home. If anyone has any suggestions as to where to go, or any nearby comic hot-spots I should check out I'm all ears. 

I haven't done much research yet, and have never been to California. I live in a small Canadian city 1/43rd the size (I did the math) of LA so I figure there may be a comic shop or two out there that will blow my mind. I'm mostly a dollar bin diver & run collector. 

I hate when dealers say "Those were in there by mistake." if it's in there it's in there!

There's a local guy who sells comics in his garage (along with other collectibles). He has maybe 50 longboxes of unorganized comics. He doesn't read comics or know much about them. Most aren't in bags/boards so they are slowly getting ruined from people rifling through them and digging through stacked boxes. He sells them for 2 for $5.  95% of the stuff should be a dollar or less. One day I dug through the collection for hours and found some real gems. Some stuff that was worth a bit of money, some stuff that I'm missing from my own collection and I don't mind overpaying a bit for. I go to buy them and he (seemingly at random?) pulls a bunch out of the pile and says he can't sell those until he looks them up on ebay. It was annoying because while he did correctly grab a couple of the expensive ones I had found, he also pulled out some cheap run filler stuff I was buying. I had a few modern Deadpools and he told me "Deadpool is hot right now those are $5 each". I put back all the ones he asked more money for. 

So I was naturally pretty pissed, but I went back the next time he had a sale and found a few good comics deep in his mess of longboxes. The comics I had put back last time were now in a 'individually priced' box. With no price tags of course. Knowing he would want me to pay more for some of the comics I had, I grabbed a big stack of modern Deadpools and went to pay. He was so distracted by the Deadpools, putting them in a new '$5 each pile" (which I declined to buy) that I got to keep all my heard earned keys that I dug for hours for.

If the guy wasn't an and had better prices and didn't pull out issues I dug for like that I would seriously spend so much money there. 

Definitely. I've always been a Spider-man and Daredevil fan because their stories are typically more down to earth.

If the concept is wacky but executed well enough sometimes I can get on board. For example Doc Ock taking over Peters brain sounded way too cheesy sci-fi to me but Superior Spider-man was actually pretty decent so I eventually got on board. Some stuff just makes me loose interest all together though. Like in Spencers ASM when Peters personality got split into two. There's suddenly just a duplicate Peter standing there in a Spider-man costume . . . where the hell did the costume come from? I couldn't get with that premise. And while I love the Spiderverse movie, I could never get behind the comics because they just are too fantastical for me. These 'hunters' travel the galaxy eating spider-totem souls?  Why? I don't get it. There were also just way too many alternate Spider-man's and it's just too much for me. 

I've sold at only one convention. I didn't have a wall (I would have liked to have had one, I just didn't have anything available to use as a wall to attach comics to. Any cheap suggestions?). I had 12 longboxes of well organized and labelled comics with a big sign behind them that read "Most comics $1 each". I also had a stand full of Graphic Novels for $5 each (and we're talking Canadian dollars, so that is pretty cheap). I had a box full of Archie digest comics for 50 cents each and a little box full of cool stickers for 25 cents each. A bunch of cool Star Wars pop figures for way cheaper then they sell online. I literally had one guy pick up a Pop figure I was selling and say "You know this is worth like thirty bucks right?" And I said "Oh really, well the sticker says 8 dollars so you can have it for that." then he DIDN'T BUY IT!

Most people walked right past my booth. It was painful to see someone walk past my booth and start digging into someone elses long boxes. I looked around and was literally the best priced vendor at the con but most people skipped right past me. 

Anyways the point of this rant is that I realized I had designed my booth around what I would like out of a vendor. I'm all about cheap dollar books. But that's not what a lot of people want these days. So next time I'm putting up a wall of all the expensive books, bringing less dollar books, and diversifying more into toys, clothing ect. As most people seem to be either casual fans or key hunters. 

$1182.18

I have no idea what is going on. 

On 11/11/2018 at 8:55 AM, aardvark88 said:

Since you are driving from Calgary, AB, I recommend Vancouver Comic Show Sun. Feb 24, 2019 then road trip to Seattle Emerald City comic-con, tour shops in Portland, OR on your way to Wondercon, CA. But that is a lot of round trip driving.

Van Comic Show has about 170 x 8' tables full of comics, toys, NES games, graphic novels so enough competition for decent pricing in Canadian loonies:

Y'know I love Vancouver island, So that's not a bad idea!

Are there any good Comic shows in Vancouver during the summer?