HOLY COW Yard sale find!!!!!

[Timely]

Did you rip off the Colorado dealer NO CHIPS? no. But you ripped me off in the past , STUART DEGRAFF. I am still on the look out for you. I am waiting for the day I see you at a convention! hehehe.

 

Timely

[nochips]

I am sorry, which guy are you again?

 

I have ripped off so many people I sometimes lose track?

 

Are you that blind guy on 7th ave, the one selling pencils out of a cup?

 

I only ripped you off that one time, are you still mad about that?

 

By the way, those pencils you sell are junk!

[garthgantu]

Did I rip him off? He owned a comic store at the time, in Colorado no less, home of the MH collection snad he didnlt know they were pedigrees??

 

Should I have called him up and told him the books were much nicer than NM and paid him more?

 

If Chuck did something wrong than so did I. We ripped off nobody. We bought something, paid the seller their price and left. The deal is done.

 

See, I'd disagree on this point... you bought the books in question from a DEALER, and Chuck bought them from an ignorant relative of a dying man. (Not to get too dramatic here, but Church died shortly after the sale of the books, by Chuck's own account.) You paid something close to market value, Chuck paid 9 CENTS EACH.

 

Be honest, NoChips... if you were a local Denver dealer, got a call from a little old lady, and found even 2,000 pristine Golden Age comics (that's 1/10th of the Church collection), would you either offer 10 cents each for them - okay, assuming inflation, let's say $2 each in today's money - or even accept an initial suggested sales price of that amount from the seller? I don't see how you could - or would even really WANT to... just one of those books - say, WW #1 since it's been brought up - would fetch a return of what, 1 million percent [insert Dr. Evil finger nibble here] .... ack!

 

At the very, very least, I'd take two of the books (remember, in this example there are 2,000 of 'em to go around), sell 'em, and surprise the original seller with a nice new Jaguar XKE the following week. And I wouldn't even miss the cash, 'cause I'd be so busy admiring the other 1,998 books...

 

For what it's worth, I've purchased books from NoChips in the past, on eBay, and he's one of the most honest, upstanding, responsive and conscientious sellers I've come across.

 

I think we just disagree slightly on this point...(and I'm referring only to the Church Collection saga here, not Shiver or any other similar but smaller scenarios)

[ghoulaid]

 

 

 

Of this I have no doubt. Did Chuck almost kill you while falling asleep at the wheel? Did he plant drugs under your car seat and almost get you put away when the cop pulled you over? Did you pay his fare to a Con while he scammed the ride for free?

 

Being a *friend* of Chuck's must be like carrying a live grenade strapped to your chest.

 

Yeah, something like that (but he paid for gas and lodging).

 

I've noticed a lot of forum members razz you about your ethics but I would like to applaud your sense of fairness from what I've read. Everyone should aspire to treating others fairly in deals. While we disagree about Chucks handling of the Church collection, overall I agree with your attitude about fairness.

[joe_collector]

I've noticed a lot of forum members razz you about your ethics but I would like to applaud your sense of fairness from what I've read. Everyone should aspire to treating others fairly in deals. While we disagree about Chucks handling of the Church collection, overall I agree with your attitude about fairness.

 

Hey, now you've got me blushing.

[nochips]

To be honest,in these times you need to act fast. Before you know it the person is out buying a price guide and wants 2 X guide for his VG books.

 

Many years ago I answered an ad in a local paper, a man selling books. I went to his place, bought a few hundred books and left. I called him a few days later and he told me I ripped him off. He told me he sold the books too cheap and I took advantage of him. I paid his price, about 2.00 a book at time for 25 cent marvels. Some of the books were worth 5.00, some were worth 1.00. I didn;t cheat him, in fact the way he was acting he was pulling one over on me. He would not take a check, he wanted cash only and his price was "firm".

 

A few days later he bought a price guide and thought his books were NM. I never bought a thing from him again. I tried, but he wanted double condition for the books at that point. I really thought I paid a fair price for them, his price by the way. Two days later he "saw the light", thanks to a guide that he did not understand. Not everyone is a rube, waiting to be ripped off.

 

I wonder if he still has those books?

[BachelorOfComix]

The Mile High WW#1 "disappeared" in 1977.

The "lost" MH WW 1 was purchased by a lady who collected WW & has never been seen since. Joanna, was that you?

[Joanna]

The Mile High WW#1 "disappeared" in 1977.

The "lost" MH WW 1 was purchased by a lady who collected WW & has never been seen since. Joanna, was that you?

 

I wish!!!

[greggy]

[Joanna]

[PovertyRow]

 

Fickle sycophant.

[garthgantu]

Hey aman, do you know who `nochips' is?

 

Do you know Matt Nelson's article on pedigrees that seems to get linked to at least once a month here? Nochips is thanked in that article, and with good reason: He's forgotten more about the Edgar Church collection than most of us will ever know.

 

He's also a heckuva nice guy.

 

All that being said, when he indicates he's happy for Chuck for finding the pedigree, I suggest people listen closely and ask themselves "why?" Maybe the deal wasn't as unfair as those much farther removed from it suggest?

 

(Same goes for user `Timely', who has also chimed in here about the Church deal. Now, I've never met the guy in person, so I can't attest to his character, but he sure knows a lot more about the transaction than us.)

 

Alan (Not necessarily a Chuck apologist; just still trying to weigh all the facts.)

 

Pedigreeman: So we should acknowledge Matt Nelson's gratitude to NoChips in the 'authoritative' article on Pedigrees, but ignore Matt Nelson's references to Chuck paying $2,000 for the entire collection ("roughly 9 cents apiece," to quote Matt's article)...?

 

I have no doubt that NoChips is an upstanding guy - I've purchased from him and seen evidence of his complete honesty - but unless Chuck wants to come on the boards and state for the record the amount paid for the Church Collection, I'm inclined to believe $2,000 is what Chuck paid.

 

Now as to whether that makes Chuck "The Sir Edmund Hillary" or the "Gordon Gecko" of comicdom, is open to debate...

 

All that being said, when he indicates he's happy for Chuck for finding the pedigree, I suggest people listen closely and ask themselves "why?" Maybe the deal wasn't as unfair as those much farther removed from it suggest?

 

(Same goes for user `Timely', who has also chimed in here about the Church deal. Now, I've never met the guy in person, so I can't attest to his character, but he sure knows a lot more about the transaction than us.)

 

Alan (Not necessarily a Chuck apologist; just still trying to weigh all the facts.)

[PedigreeMan]

Hey aman, do you know who `nochips' is?

 

Do you know Matt Nelson's article on pedigrees that seems to get linked to at least once a month here? Nochips is thanked in that article, and with good reason: He's forgotten more about the Edgar Church collection than most of us will ever know.

 

He's also a heckuva nice guy.

 

All that being said, when he indicates he's happy for Chuck for finding the pedigree, I suggest people listen closely and ask themselves "why?" Maybe the deal wasn't as unfair as those much farther removed from it suggest?

 

(Same goes for user `Timely', who has also chimed in here about the Church deal. Now, I've never met the guy in person, so I can't attest to his character, but he sure knows a lot more about the transaction than us.)

 

Alan (Not necessarily a Chuck apologist; just still trying to weigh all the facts.)

 

Pedigreeman: So we should acknowledge Matt Nelson's gratitude to NoChips in the 'authoritative' article on Pedigrees, but ignore Matt Nelson's references to Chuck paying $2,000 for the entire collection ("roughly 9 cents apiece," to quote Matt's article)...?

 

I have no doubt that NoChips is an upstanding guy - I've purchased from him and seen evidence of his complete honesty - but unless Chuck wants to come on the boards and state for the record the amount paid for the Church Collection, I'm inclined to believe $2,000 is what Chuck paid.

 

I apologize if I've ever stated or even implied Matt's article was "authoritative." It's not. I know his interview for it with Bob Beerbohm was done over the phone, allowing inaccuracies to creep into the finished product. I have to assume his discussions with others suffered the same fate.

 

As for the $2000 price ... I really have no idea if it's correct. I've never asked Matt where he got the figure from, but it's one of those things I will inquire about whenever I meet the guy in person. There's a bunch of stuff I'm comfortable asking Matt about via email, but a lot of other questions I don't think would be appropriate until I've gotten to know him better.

 

I do know, however, that `ghoulaid' has said that Chuck never revealed to anyone the price he paid the Churches. I find this hard to believe, and really, really, really wish he would share all of his Chuck / Edgar Church knowledge with us instead of the tantalizing tidbits he's so far revealed. Please ghoulaid? With sprinkles on top? Same goes for anyone else here! (Timely, how much does Verzyl know? Or you for that matter? Care to share with the rest of the class? )

 

As an aside, with regard to Chuck "never revealing" certain information: I know `Murph0' posted somewhere that the pony-tailed one told him he "never revealed" which issue of the Mile High 2 collection had 13,000 copies. However, this info was reported on the front page of CBG a couple years back when the Thor #156 from the collection graded a 10.0, so someone had to be told! Now, whether that published info came from Chuck himself or some employee, the article didn't distinguish. Nonetheless, it wasn't reported as a "rumor" or anything ... CBG reported it as fact.

 

So, as with a lot of things Edgar Church related, I'm still on the fence about the actual price paid. Hopefully this thread or the main `Edgar Church' one here will flush some more info out.

 

Alan

[Bugaboo-migration]

 

Fickle sycophant.

Pickled psycho ant.

[Timely]

Hi Alan (and the rest), I do not have the answer as to how much Chuck paid for the collection, but that is irrelevant at this point anyway. We all know it was between $1500-3000, and I think those numbers are good enough to make any points that need to be made.

I can tell you something few others know and no one has addressed. This story comes from a direct buyer of THOUSANDS of Mile Highs that he bought from Chuck in the early 80's.

He told me after Chuck made his initial deals in the 70's, he made a list of the guys who bought large quantities from him. Supposedly, from the advise of his tax consultant, it was in Chucks best interest not to sell too much in a given year, so his taxes would not go berserk. So he put a cap of $50,000 per year that he would sell from the collection.

Each year Chuck would go to his list of buyers (starting from the top) and call to see if they were interested in buying Church books. There was a minimum $10,000 order, meaning you had to come up with 10 Grand minimum to make a purchase. If you had $50,000, you would be the only purchaser of Church books that year, due to the cap Chuck put on his own selling! However, if you did not make a purchase, you were still on the list for next year, but you were put at the bottom of the list.

Well, one year (maybe 1981?!?) my friend was on Chuck's list. Evidently it was a bad year because everyone above him on the list had no money and my friend got the call. He came up with the $10,000 requirement and went to Chucks and made his purchases (82 books...I think he got).

So next year rolls around and he is first on the list. I believe he remained first on the list until Chuck ran out of Church books. He told me in one deal alone he bought over 1,000 Mile Highs from Chuck.

There is a piece of Church history I doubt anyone knows of, Chuck himself probably forgot all about his list of buyers and unusual selling tactics.

I hope you all learned something new today!!

 

Timely

[PedigreeMan]

Hi Alan (and the rest), I do not have the answer as to how much Chuck paid for the collection, but that is irrelevant at this point anyway. We all know it was between $1500-3000, and I think those numbers are good enough to make any points that need to be made.

....

snippage of the real good stuff!

....

 

WOO-HOO!

 

Thanks, Timely! Keep the anecdotes coming!

 

Ghoulaid, are you next?!?

[towards2112]

Trying to work a seller on Ebay with a similar situation.

Listed several dutch auctions for moderns, around 20

seperate titles/issues with BIN at a terrific price, and

I stumbled upon them an hour or so after they were

listed, and I sucked them all up. The scans weren't the

greatest and the 'non-collector/expert grader' description

bothered me just a tad, but for the price asked I'd easily

be able to flip them at a profit regardless of being M/NM/VF.

Pulled about 250 books from her in a 2 week period.

Books ALL grade 9.4 and up. Beautiful. She peddles

storage building auction stuff, and her listings vary greatly.

One week comics, next week shoes and coffee tables.

Suddenly she has her stuff listed individually at Overstreet

NM prices. No sales lately, and no bids currently.

I've emailed her on more bulk buys, but she wants to

test the waters on her current listing effort.

Time for me to move on......

[Aman619]

hey Towards.... whats gonna happen in 2112 that you are looking forward to?

[ArAich]

hey Towards.... whats gonna happen in 2112 that you are looking forward to?

 

The meek shall inherit the earth...

[greggy]

hey Towards.... whats gonna happen in 2112 that you are looking forward to?

 

The meek shall inherit the earth...

Araich will be on his 3rd wife!