Fathers Vintage Collection! Give Me a Break!!!! Ebay Item # 2205188514

[fazman]

Well, I know that I would thing twice about bidding on this auction, but , I can relate to the " fathers collection " bit. After all, I'm 45, my daughers going to get my comics ( her comic knowledge level = 0 ) and she may turn around and sell these books. The questions she may get in regards to the auction, if she does wish to sell via an auction site(E-Bay) may pose a problem for her to answer.People may take the view that the auctions either the real thing or a scammer tring to rip somebody off, due to suspect answers and or suspect wording in the bid description page.

So, I guess I best arm my daughter with good information to maximize profit !!

But, what do you other " fathers " think ?

[drbanner]

The lack of follow-up from the seller makes me think this is probably a scam, but as we've done in the past - who lives near the seller and can see the books!! Or...someone could email them saying they live nearby and would like to see the books in person and see what their response is.

 

That said, I've bought books on ebay that were "...found in grandpa's attic..." and the seller "...didn't know anything about comic books..." that came in just fine. In particular, this is a realistic scenario when dealing with Golden Age books and the idea that someone finds "Grandpa's comic books from when he was a kid" in their attic after Gramps passes away is not unrealistic. Having helped run an estate auction/sale when my grandmother passed away I can assure you that people are pack rats, and all kinds of interesting things can be tucked away into nooks and crannies...

[shadroch]

You know,I've given this some thought recently.As a single guy,there is really no-one who would know the value of my collection in my family. What I ended up doing was resorting my books so instead of being in runs they are more sorted by values. The most expensive ones I put in four long boxes and put the dates and purchase price,then the est. value as of a date that is marked. In those boxes I also put some ebay lists of buyers and sellers I deal with,as well as notes explaining about overstreet and CBG.

An ounce of prevention...

What was really sad was the amount of books I put into the -get any price you can, a dime if youre lucky catagory

[Freiherr]

I saw this auction when it went up and I am shocked that the price has gone up so much. I also do not think the seller is being totally honest about what they have.

 

The reason I think that is I think about how I would put this stuff up on auction. I would have to look up what MVS means (and why I am hanging out here...to learn). However, this is what I would have known/done.

 

1. Cover price is a usually indication of the comics age. When I started collecting older comics, that is what I looked for. Afterwards I would look inside the cover assuming that like any other publication ever made that a date would be present. This isn’t comic knowledge, but common sense.

 

2. I would have pasted a full list of everything included. It would be worth my time to do it once so I would not have to answer many individual emails. People want to know what they are buying. Again, not comic knowledge but common sense.

 

3. There are too any resources available to not know a good idea of a collectables worth. Granted, there are many traps that can confuse people, but I have not experienced that in comics (other than grading). Anyone can go to the bookstore and pickup a Overstreet or even a Wizard. Obviously the person has access to the internet and they could have found out the majority of what they needed to know in about an hour before they posted the auction.

 

4. I probably would still only show pictures of the better books, but I would have included the list. After taking the pictures like they did, I would have known it was not good enough for collectors. I have some of the same Silver Age books shown in their photo. Taken like that, they look like gems but in reality are in bad shape (I know most of you know this, just trying to think like someone who supposedly doesn’t).

[fantastic_four]

You would do all that...but would your mom, your daughter, your sister, your aunt?

[Aman619]

...acting as a seller, he is saying, he would and they should..

[joe_collector]

You would do all that...but would your mom, your daughter, your sister, your aunt?

 

As I said before, any legit seller I've found has been more than willing to let me know what's in the lot.. as they are hoping one of them catch my eye and jack the price up.

 

Those who don't send/post lists and play peek-a-boo with certain issues sitting outside the boxes are scammers, pure and simple. Their job is not to inform, but to hide.

[fantastic_four]

...acting as a seller, he is saying, he would and they should..

 

But he said he does "not think the seller is being totally honest about what they have" and using all of that stuff he would research himself as support. If I died today and my mom or dad had to sell all my stuff, I'm pretty sure they'd do something similar to what the person in this auction has--if even that. They'd more likely take it to a comic store because they don't use the Internet, but if they did use it and knew a little about ebay, they would probably run a crappy auction much like the one in question.

[joe_collector]

[they would probably run a crappy auction much like the one in question.

 

I highly doubt that. I follow scam auctions all the time, and that "peek-a-boo comics" trick, with certain issues peeking out of the boxes, is a real warning sign that a scammer is at work, as is the old "from the 50's to present" general outline of the collection.

 

Do you really think your relatives would:

 

a) Take the pictures in that exact manner?

b) Not post any list of comics?

c) Refuse to forward a list of comics to prospective bidder?

d) Refuse to answer questions on what comics/eras/price are present?

 

And keep in mind that this auction is already getting high bids, so it's not like the seller is being asked to jump through hoops for a few bucks.

[fantastic_four]

Those who don't send/post lists and play peek-a-boo with certain issues sitting outside the boxes are scammers, pure and simple. Their job is not to inform, but to hide.

 

You're still assuming the person cares about the comics at all. Think about the amount of care Church's wife put into selling her husband's collection...this woman on ebay has put about the same or more effort into it as compared to Mrs. Church.

 

Not that I think the price is justified on this thing...I'd go for it if I lived within a few hundred miles of her and could go pick them up but that's about the only way.

[Aman619]

Im still on the fence about teh legitimacy of this auction. The most worrying aspect for me was their response to my Question for Seller. I dealt with another daughter who inherited her dads cmics and sold them on ebay and she was very responsive to my interest in the books. She sent scans and gave me all the info I asked for, as a tru seller would be expected to if they wanted to maximize their sales potential.

 

This person wasnt interested at all...

[joe_collector]

You're still assuming the person cares about the comics at all. Think about the amount of care Church's wife put into selling her husband's collection...this woman on ebay has put about the same or more effort into it as compared to Mrs. Church.

 

It's obvious you're missing what I'm saying.

 

It has nothing to do with the auction, the books or the seller, but with the PRESENTATION, which follows 100% of the EBay Scammer Rulebook.

 

If you believe it's all a massive coincidence, then fine, but some of us are less naive.

[joe_collector]

Im still on the fence about teh legitimacy of this auction. The most worrying aspect for me was their response to my Question for Seller. I dealt with another daughter who inherited her dads cmics and sold them on ebay and she was very responsive to my interest in the books. She sent scans and gave me all the info I asked for, as a tru seller would be expected to if they wanted to maximize their sales potential.

 

That's exactly my point. No matter if you know what you have or not, a seller looking to maximize profits through the sale of the actual items is forthcoming, because it's in their best interest.

 

Concealing the [!@#%^&^] within is in the best interest of the scammer, and therefore, don't expect much on that end. After all, why openly state the boxes are 90% 1991 overstock if suckers bid it up anyway?

[fantastic_four]

Do you really think your relatives would:

 

a) Take the pictures in that exact manner?

b) Not post any list of comics?

c) Refuse to forward a list of comics to prospective bidder?

d) Refuse to answer questions on what comics/eras/price are present?

 

And keep in mind that this auction is already getting high bids, so it's not like the seller is being asked to jump through hoops for a few bucks.

 

I can guarantee you my dad would sell just like this or worse. My mom would probably make a list if my stepdad was still around, since he collects little Nascar toy cars, but my mom on her own...hard to say. I know she would have no idea how to pick out what was good and what wasn't, and I'm also pretty sure she wouldn't include scans of the best items because she would have absolutely no idea what the best items were.

 

I'm not arguing for the genuity of the seller, but for the reasonable doubt of her guilt. She's got little reason to go to much work listing stuff at this point since the price is so high.

[fantastic_four]

If you believe it's all a massive coincidence, then fine, but some of us are less naive.

 

[joe_collector]

If you believe it's all a massive coincidence, then fine, but some of us are less naive.

 

 

Don't be wagging your finger at me!

 

The seller has offered nothing by scammer-like peek-a-boo pics, has no list, will not answer any questions on what's in the collection, and you're playing Pollyanna.

 

We all know how this ends, with a Neg and feedback like so many other peek-a-boo auctions:

 

"Your father collected boxes of Turok and Bloodshot? Yeah Right Scammer!"

[fantastic_four]

So who's gonna e-mail the winner and ask them to tell us how it went? If too many of us did that, they'd probably feel too self-conscious to talk much about it if it ends up being a scam.

[joe_collector]

If too many of us did that, they'd probably feel too self-conscious to talk much about it if it ends up being a scam.

 

If you really think about it, it's not really a scam in the true sense of the word.

 

The seller has stated the collection is from "the 40's/50's to PRESENT" so including a few Good GA books and a pile of Valiants wouldn't be against the description, and EBay couldn't do anything.

 

That's the key to these auctions. Don't give out any real info, and just let the Pot of Gold EBay buyers think it's the real deal.

[fantastic_four]

We all know how this ends

 

Not one single person here knows how this will end, although some people will guess it right--and some of those people will be deluded into thinking that they truly did know how it was going to turn out all along. You'd be better served to bottle up that mistaken notion that you can predict the outcome of an uncertain set of conditions and save it for the only place it's going to come in handy--getting out of jury duty by appearing overly biased. You're dealing in degrees of uncertainty and presenting it as absolute fact. That is an absolutely lazy, arrogant attitude and it doesn't reflect the reality of the universe--that there's more complexity out there than is dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio.

[Freiherr]

I have no problem adjusting to that question.

 

 

If I died tonight and later on a relative (say my mother) decided to sell my comics.

 

1. She knows I collected comics, but I am sure she doesn’t know their worth. She has bought/sold on Ebay (she collects Disney items) and knows how buyers are.

 

2. Since I am a collector she will obviously find an Overstreet Guide and a few Wizards packed with my collection. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to look them up. I don’t expect her to be able to grade them and for argument sake she will decide to sell them. If not, she has the internet and the same information is available there.

 

3. More than likely, she wouldn’t try to sell the whole collection at once. Only way you make more money by doing this is if you are running a scam. Selling things individually nets more cash. I have never seen this not be the case. She would probably only sell the more valuable items and find a way to donate or just get rid of the others.

 

4. Just like any Ebay buyer/seller she will obviously look to see if the same or similar items are up for bid. She would adjust her selling technique (pictures, descriptions, etc) and asking price to be comparable with the others.

 

I don't doubt any of that because we have already been through that. My uncle owned and ran a coin shop before he moved in with us. He died a year later and left a large stash of coins in our house. There was no such thing as internet or ebay and he didn’t leave a collectors guide. However, it wasn’t hard to obtain one and we spent a day carefully going over the items.

 

Each coin was identified on its holder (no idea what they are called) and we sorted out the good from the common. We then placed adds in the local paper after looking at other peoples adds for a week. The common items were packed up and sold to a local dealer.

 

These are comics after all. These are not like stamps that you have to have a microscope and a color chart to differentiate between a $10 and $100 item. What you see is 90% of the time what you get. All the information is within the comic to determine what it is (issue #, date, printing #, etc). Only thing that is difficult is grading, which seems to be a problem with long-time collectors as well.

 

The question with this auction is it a scam or an insufficiently_thoughtful_person seller. If they are smart enough to take a picture, get it on their pc and post an auction then I can’t consider ignorance. Of course I think “scam” is a little harsh and is why I say they are not being totally honest.