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thehumantorch

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Journal Comments posted by thehumantorch

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    On 3/7/2023 at 9:31 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

    I realize I have not posted in awhile and I have had some nice subs come in but really, I'm still not doing any shows for the foreseeable future due to variety of factors and how exciting is it to read about ebay or other sales right?

    Well, this week I finally have something interesting to report in the old journal.

    A local used bookstore advertised they got some comics in on Facebook. Of course, I could not get there and some local flippers got there first. 

    I was off yesterday, so decided, what the heck, let's see if there are any scraps left over. 

    Turns out, I was right to trust my Spidey sense, they got some more stuff in or the other vultures simply didn't know where to look.

    Here's the haul...Stickers/prices are what I paid...But subtracted from my store credit from previous book donations. I ended up paying around $50 CAD.

    This will likely be my best find and return of 2023!

    20230306_233739.jpg

    20230306_234049.jpg

    20230306_234222.jpg

    Congrats, nice haul

    onlyweaknesskryptonite

    Posted

    On 11/24/2021 at 7:33 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

    Thank you so far I have been. Today got a few more offers. As of right now I already have sold 7 of my 34 books. Those were all offers that were close to my original list price and those prices were more than what I had set for the VCC and Board Sales thread. 

    They sent me an email at 10am today telling me they sent a check for the first 3 sold books. 

    Sounds like your experience matches mine.  They have a lot of buyers through ebay and their own site and if you price around market you'll sell a lot.  I love this board but it doesn't have nearly as many buyers as mycomicshop

    onlyweaknesskryptonite

    Posted

    On 11/23/2021 at 9:35 AM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

    Last night got notification that these were recorded, scanned, and ready for pricing .

    This morning went to price them and realized that 8 of them MCS had never previously had and that those will still take some time for them to enter. 

    I set the prices on the ones that were ready. Within the first 2 hours 3 had offers really close to my original ask price. I accepted those 3 and they have sold. 

    Nice.  I think you'll be very happy with the results.

    Harlean

    Posted

    There are a lot of people who grew up reading Archie so there are certainly collectors.  The problem is that Archie and his friends have been published for many many years in many different titles and there are very few collectors trying to complete runs.  Unless they are very early Archies, classic covers, first appearances, or double entendre covers they aren't very valuable.

    Here's an ebay search for 'that wilkin boy' sorted highest to lowest, sold only.  The results would match my limited experience selling Archie comics of this era.  $5 to $10 is the general sale price and they move slowly at that price.  I'm wondering if the overstreet price guide price for these books is $200 in NM and your uncle assigned that price to the books.   Not an uncommon practice especially if someone isn't comfortable with grading.

    https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=that+wilkin+boy&_sacat=0&_sop=16&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

     

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

    I wanted to take a minute to thank those who took the time to reply. I appreciate all the advice and opinions.

    The one thing I don't want to do is make any "rash" decisions. I have spent too long getting down to 20ish books to complete the run to do that, and, truth be told, I am proud of what I have and what I have accomplished thus far. Just there is that nagging question...Will I ever be able to get my "holy grail"? Or be able to obtain a nice presenting low grade copy of AF #15 and/or ASM #1 without a major "sacrifice"?  And I mean, how much higher can AF #15 and ASM #1 go? There has to be a ceiling at some point (or levelling off) at some point right?

    Time will tell.

    So, for now, I am just going to keep doing what I have been doing; selling my non-pc books but maybe evaluate and shift a few non-ASM books/keys into the "for sale" category and continue to buy comics for resale when I can (and I have had some good modern scores of late), but those are all towards the greater goal.  But maybe give myself a bit of leeway as @thehumantorch said, I can change the variables, find something new, etc. One thing I think I have decided, if I am going to buy an ASM book, the "commons" will wait until the very "last" as they will always be "affordable" in comparison.

    One thing is for sure though, I won't "quit" the hobby. I'm in it for the long haul :banana:.

    Nothing rash is a good start. 

    I'd suggest you focus on an AF15 and get it out of the way.  It's expensive for a reason and I just don't think it's ever gonna be cheaper.  Sell non core stuff to raise funds, save up, realize you're probably never gonna get into a 6.0, or even a 4.0, or hell a 2.0 may be a stretch.  Learn to love a low grade copy.  if you find a low grade copy that isn't too ugly and you can find the money, do you really think you're not gonna love that book considering the cost and commitment you had to make to acquire it??  And do you really think it won't be a bad investment considering how it's value has appreciated for almost 60 years?

    And once you have the AF15 it'll be pretty easy from there.  And once you have them all you can consider selling your under copies to upgrade.  I just picked up an upgrade to my FF 4 and I've sent my under copy in for grading.  If I sell it that'll drop the price of the upgrade in half.

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    It's a very personal choice.  Obviously, unless you hit the lottery, if you decide to complete the run it's gonna take longer.

    The glass half fun is that you have many of the issues in nice grades and they've increased in value.  The glass half empty, you know the bad news unfortunately.

    I'm still buying when I can.  And that's tough when I know what they were selling for in the past.  Generally lower grades or, gasp, restored.  I believe the value of these books will continue to increase.  I can't find most SA keys on major dealer sites and I believe that's an indication that demand is fever high and price will go up. If you love the hobby why quit.  Change the variables; buy lower grade, give up on a complete run and just buy the iconic issues, find something that isn't hot right now - The prices of a lot of Timelys seem to be pretty stagnant and they are so cool.

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    On 8/28/2020 at 9:30 AM, Wall-Crawler said:

    Last year, well, nearly a year and a half ago, an acquaintance referred an older gentleman to me about some comics.

    As he was from out of province, I met quickly with him one afternoon over a year ago when he was in town for a medical appointment to look at his books.  We couldn’t agree to something at that very brief meeting is because my initial offer was “not enough” and “below his expectations.”  These were books he had as a child and had hung onto all these years so there was sentimental value.

    Regardless, we stayed in touch here and there and I looked at more of his books via email, gave him storage advice, etc.  He emailed me to say he was in town this week for another medical appointment and asked me if I was still interested. I said yes. So, we agreed to meet. 

    With both of us wearing masks and social distancing I looked at his books in the trunk of his car in the hotel parking lot (we joked people would think we were doing a drug deal) and he had a change of heart and I upped my offer a bit and he came down a lot, so we did the deal.

    This is a sample of what I think is the “better stuff” but I still have a lot of 10 cent Dell’s and early cartoon/Disney books to look at and process along with a few other comic books.  

    In total, it was like two and a half banker boxes worth, books towered side by side (didn’t really do anything with my storage advice). 

    He mentioned he thought he had more crime books but has not been able to find them. I told him if he did, to call me.  He seemed happy, so hopefully if he does ever find them, he will call me again.

    I don’t come across these type of books too often, even though most of them are low to mid graders, I wanted them.  Plus, quite a few of them seem to be Canadian editions which I find interesting.  It will take a bit of time to process, but here are a few group shots of what I picked up.

     My buying drought is definitely over!

     

    20200828_095340.jpg

    20200828_095259.jpg

    20200828_095206.jpg

    20200828_095125.jpg

    20200828_095042.jpg

    20200828_095009.jpg

    20200828_094707.jpg

    Nice, I love collections like this.

    uchiha101

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Buzzetta said:
    13 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

    I'm not sure laziness is always accurate.  Consigning makes sense for someone who's very busy, not experienced in the hobby - perhaps inherited a collection, or someone who makes far more per hour doing something else.  

    Follow me around for a day.  I will show you very busy.  I find the time to list a few here and a few there.  Once it is listed, it is up until I pull it down.  It does not take much effort to box something up when it sells.  Last year, eBay basically paid for my complete bath remodel.   Some people like to sleep while they are on their hour commute into Manhattan.  I wanted to pay for my bathroom. 

    Hey I get it but what works for you may not work for someone else.  If you try I'm sure you could come up with umpteen reasons why someone would consign a collection or sell it through auction rather than do the work themselves.

    uchiha101

    Posted

    2 minutes ago, oakman29 said:
    7 minutes ago, thehumantorch said:

    I suspect that support system tried repeatedly and finally capitulated.  How do you help someone who won't make good decisions and won't listen to reason and insists on leading their life their way?  And doesn't this thread follow exactly that pattern?

    Yep.

    Or put another way

    you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it sell it's bitcoin

    uchiha101

    Posted

    11 minutes ago, Buzzetta said:

    That's fair.

    But even with what he is doing... to me it is all enveloped under personal laziness.   Whoever consigns with him is paying the eBay fee as well as Gabe's fee.  

     

    I'm not sure laziness is always accurate.  Consigning makes sense for someone who's very busy, not experienced in the hobby - perhaps inherited a collection, or someone who makes far more per hour doing something else.  

    uchiha101

    Posted

    54 minutes ago, oakman29 said:

    It's truly a sad thing when your support system(family, friends, etc.) Fail you. Like you're rowing a small row boat in the ocean, and you're not moving because the waves push you back.

    I suspect that support system tried repeatedly and finally capitulated.  How do you help someone who won't make good decisions and won't listen to reason and insists on leading their life their way?  And doesn't this thread follow exactly that pattern?

    uchiha101

    Posted

    On 12/22/2019 at 8:44 AM, oakman29 said:

    Star Wars times?  Who's delusional now? Master robe maker.

    Just kidding thought a little levity would be fun.

    Gabe is an interesting soul. I know a kid like Gabe in real life, who's now in his 30's.

    His life  could have been good, but his life was met with failures.

    From school,family, even the parents. I'm not condoning the fact that it was ALL their faults,  but let's just say he had an uphill battle.  I am of the opinion that you pick yourself up from whatever mess you're in and brush yourself off and get too it, Self motivation . Of course I was raised in an entirely different time , where as today's kids have a whole new set of life problems. 

    I hope Gabe gets the help he needs, for his own sake. 

    I hope he too finds that time to brush himself off and self motivates. Fantasy world of video games,internet chat forums, and Ukrainian girlfriends with super powers needs to come to an end for him. He cant decipher real world from fantasy.

     

    Gabe doesn't have the tools to succeed and he can't or won't make logical decisions to get ahead.  It's one fantasy scheme after another.  The easy, quick solution is all he'll consider and he's not interested in hard work and logical steps.  He's also shown that he doesn't have a grasp of what's real and what's not.  

    Wall-Crawler

    Posted

    23 hours ago, Wall-Crawler said:

    From this past summer's Sudbury Graphic Con:

    Forgot to mention did a bit of buying. Pulled this out of another sellers long box (raw) literally mixed with other raw junk. I looked it up and down. Looked sharp. Negotiated price. Sent to CGC. WIN :banana:

    ...I still can't believe he had it a box right out front and not in the back or on a wall...Just in plain old bag and backing board too :screwy:

     

    BA 12 CGC 9_1.jpg

    Score, nice copy