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HOLY COW Yard sale find!!!!!

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True story: I bought a $5 magazine once & paid with a $10 bill. The clerk gave me my change & started counting it like I had paid with a $100 bill! I corrected him & he was very grateful.

 

Geez...yesterday I was getting change back and the clerk accidentally handed me a quarter instead of a nickel, and b4 I could even look at the change in my hand she was practically jumping over the counter to grab it. 893frustrated.gif

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True story: I bought a $5 magazine once & paid with a $10 bill. The clerk gave me my change & started counting it like I had paid with a $100 bill! I corrected him & he was very grateful.

 

Geez...yesterday I was getting change back and the clerk accidentally handed me a quarter instead of a nickel, and b4 I could even look at the change in my hand she was practically jumping over the counter to grab it. 893frustrated.gif

.........and before she could grab it you ran out of the store. 893naughty-thumb.gif

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i never accept extra change, that's ripping someone off. I don't rip people off, i believe in Karma very strongly. Thats different than someone setting a price for something. that is not ripping someone off. And that is my point. This guy was thrilled he made $28, he even told me it was his only sale of the day. I was thrilled i got great books at a great price, who lost out, no one.

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True story: I bought a $5 magazine once & paid with a $10 bill. The clerk gave me my change & started counting it like I had paid with a $100 bill! I corrected him & he was very grateful.

 

You fool! Stating things that actually happened will get you branded a liar as obviously anyone with a lick of sense would have taken the money and run.

 

I get extra change all the time, but then again I buy a lot of [!@#%^&^].

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You fool! Stating things that actually happened will get you branded a liar as obviously anyone with a lick of sense would have taken the money and run.

 

I get extra change all the time, but then again I buy a lot of [!@#%^&^].

 

Hey I ain't going to Hell for chump change!

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Shiver - - Im not goint to jump on you for your purchase, or point the heavy morality finger at you. But one question: most of us criticize Chuckie for his handling of the Church collection buy. Just how different (except obviously in scale) is your handling of YOUR uneducated and motivated seller? You both knew you were offered prices FAR below fair market value out of ignorance and haste.

 

Dont get me wrong - - I honestly dont think I would have acted much more "honorably" had I come across that same offer... Its a lot to be expected in that situation. but I would tell it here on these boards with more contriteness, not boasting...if I told it at all.

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i never accept extra change, that's ripping someone off. I don't rip people off, i believe in Karma very strongly. Thats different than someone setting a price for something. that is not ripping someone off. And that is my point. This guy was thrilled he made $28, he even told me it was his only sale of the day. I was thrilled i got great books at a great price, who lost out, no one.

 

Doesn't sound like you ripped anyone off to me - you got a great deal on a comic that you wanted, and the seller got what they were asking for the comic. Nothing wrong with that.

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Damn right BOC, If thats the price, thats the price. Doesnt matter whether you buying from chuck or the blind 95 year old with one leg. There isnt a person on tis board that would REALLY go into a store, and just because the owner was 'old' would say 'hey man, your stuffs just too goddam cheap, heres another 100 to make you feel better!

 

Damn, I go to a yard sale to find bargains, the same as most others doo. I wouldnt do a 'Toy Story 2', that is bad news, but buying something for the price its marked is right, nothing else to be said.

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so when someone wins a poorly listed auction,should the buyer email the seller and offer him more money as well?the book is worth more than what you won it for,so everyone here is going to hell.we all need to start paying full book/market value dammit!lets show some decency and stop trying to make a buck,and pay the sellers what they deserve.

 

acclaim.gif

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Dont get me wrong - - I honestly dont think I would have acted much more "honorably" had I come across that same offer... Its a lot to be expected in that situation. but I would tell it here on these boards with more contriteness, not boasting...if I told it at all.

 

Exactly my point.

 

I realize that this kind of behavior is somehow condoned with "funny books" (I bet I'd get a different response if I bragged about buying his house for $10K or his brand new car for $800), but it boggles the mind that some feel the need to be praised for their actions.

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I realize that this kind of behavior is somehow condoned with "funny books" (I bet I'd get a different response if I bragged about buying his house for $10K or his brand new car for $800), but it boggles the mind that some feel the need to be praised for their actions.

 

Apples and oranges, my friend … apples and oranges.

 

A car or a home are items that most everyone either possesses or wants to possess, and therefore have universally known fair market price ranges. Also, because most people would like to own one of these objects, the overall demand below the lower end of this market price range approaches infinity. This is not so for most things, “funny books” included.

 

In other words, yes, it’s all about supply and demand. At a yard sale, the demand is going to depend upon the individuals visiting it. If shiverbones hadn’t gone to that sale, what are the odds that another knowledgeable comic collector would have? Or what if shiver only had $5 in his pocket and couldn’t give the seller more? The old guy wouldn’t even have sold the book, and would have probably complained about it in the end! (I’m sure there’s a specific economic term for this -- “inflexible demand” or something -- but I’m ten years removed from my economics classes, so I dunno. confused-smiley-013.gif But I digress.)

 

I also have to wonder if our “closeness” to the subject doesn’t cloud our judgment on these matters. Because we know what these “funny books” are “worth,” we gain (or lose, in Joe’s case) some psychic benefit when hearing stories like shiver’s. Almost everyone else out there would laugh at even paying $4.00 for some 50 year-old, beat-up pieces of saddle-stitched four-color newsprint, no matter what some arbitrary price GUIDE says it’s “worth.”

 

My wife, for example, purchases fine artwork on eBay for a small percentage of what a gallery would sell it for. Is she a gypsy, tramp and/or thief? Or is she simply the market at the moment the piece is up for auction? Most of the time, she’s the only bidder! (She does buy some funky stuff ....)

 

Have you ever taken an ethics course, Joe? The world is not black and white, even when it comes to issues of morality. What do you do when you’re in charge of the out-of-control train with hundreds of passengers that will perish if it crashes … but the only way to prevent it from crashing is to switch the track, sending it towards a group of picnickers? Or school children? Or elderly people?

 

Alan

 

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firstly my intent wasn't to brag (after all i didn't find an action#1), nor was it to be condoned for paying those prices, it was merely excitedly sharing a find most people here would be able to relate to and or appreciate the luck.

As to why it is different from chuckie & mile high... The book value is $300-$350 for those books. Had he gotten full market value (Which would have been extremely difficult) his life would not have changed any. Maybe he would have bought himself some movies, a better dinner or a gift for someone, then life goes on. Has my life changed since i found $300-$350 in books for $28? Nope. I am back at work today. I still struggle to pay bills. Would the mile high deal have changed the seller's life at fair market value. YES, big time. Did Chuckie take advantage of that lack of knowledge to change his OWN life drastically, YES. Totally different situation.

This same guy had some tin police car with machine guns on the hood, looked 40's, but thats not my area of knowledge. He said its worth $400, but he only wants $40 for it. Its obvious this guy wants to unload stuff he had around, and just doesn't care enought to try to get full market value. I guess i would have been wrong for buying that car too....

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How is this possible? How can you possibly blast him for this?

 

Hey, I have ethics. One of my friends called me names for giving back an extra twenty I got in change. I bought 5 movies at Blockbuster a few weeks back, only got charged for four and went back.

 

And as you well know, I've posted insane BIN auctions on here (that other forum members have taken) that I was simply not prepared for stick the seller with.

 

I've led a semi-charmed life so far and really believe that kicking someone will start another boot heading toward your own [!@#%^&^].

 

I'll repeat. This is insane. Truly insane. The guy

 

1) Wants the books gone.

2) Set his own price

3) Has a clue as to what they are

4) Has a clue as to what the value is

 

and you're blasting shiver for buying the book at the price the informed seller set?

 

How is this possible? How can you possibly blast him for this?

 

This is the equivalent of Darth and I at the Tysons show putting stuff in dollar boxes and wanting it GONE. A guy bought Amazing 124 in F/VF, Dr. Strange 1 in NM and a bunch of other books for a buck.

 

Answer me this: By your reasoning, that buyer should have paid me more money, correct?

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firstly my intent wasn't to brag (after all i didn't find an action#1), nor was it to be condoned for paying those prices, it was merely excitedly sharing a find most people here would be able to relate to and or appreciate the luck.

 

Thanks for sharing and please continue to do so! This forum is a great place to share some of our favorite books, show off new acquisitions, and tell stories of books you found, lost, and/or sold (and we all know that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose!!). 893applaud-thumb.gif

 

I really don't know where Joe thought you were looking for someone to "to pat you on the back for what you did", or that you wanted to be "praised for (your) actions."?? confused.gif

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I don't agree with your thesis that full disclosure is required/morally necessary in all transactions.

 

 

Everyone likes a bargain, especially when the items in question are collectibles with 'soft' price points. By that I mean that Overstreet and other price guides are only guides as to what a particular issue is worth, the guides don't buy the books. I have met many, many people looking to sell their collections who, if they are savvy to the current guide values at all, are only too happy to sell their books for half (or less than) guide value (especially after they inquire at a LCO and hear 10-20% guide value prices quoted). I have no problem paying whatever price someone sets for their collectibles, provided I'm inclined to pay that price myself. If the seller is too lazy to educate him/herself as to the value of the items in question, that seller is asking to be under-compensated. Since when is it the buyer's role to educate a seller? Your strategy would put every single dealer who makes a living on comic book collecting out of business, because they could never buy at a price needed to sustain a business.

 

There is simply to duty to bring the lazy seller up to speed, except in a situation where an uninformed seller seeks assistance from someone with knowledge on the subject, and the prospective buyer withholds relevant information (plays dumb too) or even lies to the unknowing seller about value in order to get a good deal. This is ripping someone off in my book.

 

 

 

 

 

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Apples and oranges, my friend … apples and oranges.

 

That's my point exactly. Comic dealers and collectors have an ingrained resistance to seeing the monetary similarities between finding some 99-year old lady selling off her things and buying a VF copy of Action Comics #1 for $10 and buying her house for $10.

 

Both were bought for peanuts in the 1930's, and both appreciated rapidly.

 

There is absolutely no difference, and if you think so, it's only because due to lack of knowledge, scamming valuable comics is far easier than scamming a house.

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shiverbones,

Far as I can tell, you did a-ok. People who have a problem with this ought to consider why anyone even does a garage sale-- in general, it's to

a) get rid of stuff, and/or

b) (depending upon one's personality) create an occasion to meet & greet people who stop by.

 

Anybody, young or old, who wants to maximize his/her income knows that a yard sale is not the way to go. But people place different values on their time, on their stuff, and on their experiences (for example, meeting folks, sharing some un-wanted stuff, and winding up with a few dollars in pocket versus calling up professional dealers or setting up a reserve auction on eBay and days later perhaps getting a bigger payoff). Can we construct a scenario where the old man felt taken advantage of? Sure. Can we construct a scenario where you single-handedly made his day not cause he felt he put one over on you, but because he could tell you valued the book more than he did? Sure. The point is, in the free enterprise system there's no need to worry about any of that. As long as no fraud is in place, and the seller knows what he's selling and the buyer knows what he's buying, everything is working out fine.

 

Flames directed your way are-- I believe-- either basic hostility to capitalism, or extreme moral vanity, or both. 893whatthe.gif

 

Regards,

Z.

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