anybody watching collection intervention?

[Kevin.J]

I always say that when I retire I will sell my comics to help fund it and upgrade my keys as a hobby.

I have been saying this to my wife for the last 15 years.

In about 3 or 4 years I will have to put this to the test and see if I can convince myself to do just that. secretly though I dont want to sell anything, not even my duplicates.

I guess I will just have to wait and see if I can follow though on my promises.

[oakman29]

I don't think I could sell anything either.

[lizards2]

I always say that when I retire I will sell my comics to help fund it and upgrade my keys as a hobby.

I have been saying this to my wife for the last 15 years.

In about 3 or 4 years I will have to put this to the test and see if I can convince myself to do just that. secretly though I dont want to sell anything, not even my duplicates.

I guess I will just have to wait and see if I can follow though on my promises.

I plan on doing the same thing. Except, I've been selling my dupes as a test run for several years, and it's been going great. Especially unloading all the Spider-man dupe stuff at the peak of the market! I love selling a stack of books and replacing it with one or two nice ones

 

I"m eligible for retirement in 4 1/2 years, and am looking closely at going part-time in a 'phased retirement' system, and maybe start liquidating the main collection. It would be nice to get rid of some of the 'bulk' stuff from the 90's up. That would clear some space and make it more manageable. I haven't counted them up, and really have no interest in doing an accurate count, but I have been going strong as a collector since 1972.

 

Roughly, it looks like 220-250 short boxes, or equivalent. So I guess I'm just a piker too

[Davenport]

Wow, I really felt for that comic guy. He was in deep.

 

One thing that poor guy doesn't realize is he doesn't have to go without. With the web any day could be a comic fest, total immersion, if that's what he needs. Cover galleries, fan and creator blogs, downloading .cbr replacements, original art sites, and on and on. All his excitement, nostalgia and sense of wonder is internal, with books, bags and boxes only mirrors of himself.

 

He could replace his house of mirrors with a single monitor, and he's home free. His love of the medium might even increase without all that weight and angst dragging him down.

 

 

 

 

[Primetime]

The guy ended up trading some complete modern runs, 2000 books to that dealer at the end for a sharp looking Hulk 181. (A CGC SS would have been better than the raw signed book but whatever). I think he is going in right direction so his wife gets some breathing room and doesnt kick his .

i just watched the episode and he made the right trade:

 

a) Happy Fiance

b) more room in their place

c) got rid of 2000 80s/90s common drek

d) got a raw 9.0 (so it appeared) Hulk 181.

 

Keys for common modern book runs--I'd do that all day and everyday

[Kevin.J]

The guy ended up trading some complete modern runs, 2000 books to that dealer at the end for a sharp looking Hulk 181. (A CGC SS would have been better than the raw signed book but whatever). I think he is going in right direction so his wife gets some breathing room and doesnt kick his .

i just watched the episode and he made the right trade:

 

a) Happy Fiance

b) more room in their place

c) got rid of 2000 80s/90s common drek

d) got a raw 9.0 (so it appeared) Hulk 181.

 

Keys for common modern book runs--I'd do that all day and everyday

 

Cashing in drek for keys, that would be great.

[Monster's Lair Comics]

The problem I had with the episode is that people are actually going to think they can do this..... Who in their right mind is going to trade a real nice hulk 181 for 2000 books that will go in the quarter or dollar bins? This is stuff I routinely buy at about a dime a book. It's going to take him 10 years to make the money off the drek that he could have made off the 181 in two days. Doesn't make sense, other than it's a show, and they have to make it interesting.

[Davenport]

The problem I had with the episode is that people are actually going to think they can do this..... Who in their right mind is going to trade a real nice hulk 181 for 2000 books that will go in the quarter or dollar bins? This is stuff I routinely buy at about a dime a book. It's going to take him 10 years to make the money off the drek that he could have made off the 181 in two days. Doesn't make sense, other than it's a show, and they have to make it interesting.

The dealer said the 181 was "$1000", so maybe he's only into it $500. Which is what he originally offered the guy in cash. And long complete well kept title runs may hold more value than stuffed longboxes of warehouse dupes or fleamarket fodder.

Don't shop dealers usually keep a call-list of 'collection buyers' looking to snag walk-ins, before they're broken up?

[Monster's Lair Comics]

The problem I had with the episode is that people are actually going to think they can do this..... Who in their right mind is going to trade a real nice hulk 181 for 2000 books that will go in the quarter or dollar bins? This is stuff I routinely buy at about a dime a book. It's going to take him 10 years to make the money off the drek that he could have made off the 181 in two days. Doesn't make sense, other than it's a show, and they have to make it interesting.

The dealer said the 181 was "$1000", so maybe he's only into it $500. Which is what he originally offered the guy in cash. And long complete well kept title runs may hold more value than stuffed longboxes of warehouse dupes or fleamarket fodder.

Don't shop dealers usually keep a call-list of 'collection buyers' looking to snag walk-ins, before they're broken up?

 

Even if he's only into the book for $500, sell the book, pocket $500, give him $500 for the collection, and dealer makes out. There is no way those books were worth a $1000 book, just no way.

[micmack]

The dealer said the 181 was "$1000", so maybe he's only into it $500. Which is what he originally offered the guy in cash. And long complete well kept title runs may hold more value than stuffed longboxes of warehouse dupes or fleamarket fodder.

Exactly what I thought! What I have to go through is my wife fuming every second the show went on, looking furious as if it was ME on the show..... Just for the record I have about 200 comics (not boxes) probably left in my collection....

[Davenport]

The dealer said the 181 was "$1000", so maybe he's only into it $500. Which is what he originally offered the guy in cash. And long complete well kept title runs may hold more value than stuffed longboxes of warehouse dupes or fleamarket fodder.

Exactly what I thought! What I have to go through is my wife fuming every second the show went on, looking furious as if it was ME on the show..... Just for the record I have about 200 comics (not boxes) probably left in my collection....

Probably because you were the nearest man.

 

I would imagine most women watching would want to b-slap some sense into that guy. He was quite the drama-queen about it all. ("They're me! They're my life!!" )

[gcstomp]

Yeah that guy was pretty far deep into the rabbit hole. His wife was a sweetie, really trying to be supportive of the nutter.

 

As far as the fairness of the trade, we dont know for sure what was in the runs, other than the collector was a completionist & reader of quality books, with organized, and minty runs, but all copper + moderns. I am sure the shop guy was not being generous because he is a nice guy, there must have been clean runs with some value, Miracleman, TMNT, Sandman, Miller run of Daredevil, complete run of USM, there is lots of material that would make it a fair deal for both sides, with giving the shop guy room to make more profit than the Hulk 181 by itself.

[Rodey]

When he was set up at that Frank & Sons Collectible Show, he had an ASM 300, 252, 238 haning on the back wall.

[the blob]

one of these days I will post before and after pics of my comic room(s) + garage...needless to say, 2 weeks ago they looked like an episode of hoarders minus the dead cats, feces and other really gross stuff. a buddy of mine with a no nonsense approach came over for a few days (his wife and kids were out of town and he's unemployed, so he doesn't have much to do right now) and we blasted through them. I spent about $300 on 15 pretty good plastic shelves (500 lb weight capacity) from home depot (plus I had 3 less high end shelves already, plus 4 metal shelves with 1000 lb weight capacity) and most of my stuff is up on them now (not all of it is comics, i have tons of kids clothing, etc.). the last day i had to be out of the house and he finished up the job and there were 5 huge contractors bags of garbage to take down. i let go and trusted that he didn't throw out anything worthwhile and dragged them out for garbage collection without looking inside.

 

plus, he found my baseball mit, which has been missing for 9 years (I was convinced it had been stolen out of my office at my last job) and is coming in handy now that my son is in a travel little league where the baseballs are harder and the kids throw harder. i could bare-hand the t-ball ball and poney league ball ok, but this league's ball was hurting a bit.

 

the problem is, now i have 3X as much space, but I am hesitant to set up shelves in the middle of the floor (everything is up against the wall for the most part) as I do not want to put too much stress on my floor/ceilving beams, so i think i'm just going to have to survive with what i have, get rid of some stuff whenever i get new stuff, etc. problem is i have another 10-12 magaizine boxes of comics in my office. uhg.

[mkman123]

Saw the episode and the lady gave him the right advice. Does anyone know who she is? She said be is a collector and worked at a famous auction house? She knows her stuff pretty good

[comix4fun]

Saw the episode and the lady gave him the right advice. Does anyone know who she is? She said be is a collector and worked at a famous auction house? She knows her stuff pretty good

 

 

She seemed nice, and might be knowledgeable in a general sense, but doesn't know squat about the current comic market if she thought that 25 cents a book for that garbage was a lowball cash offer.

 

 

[comix4fun]

The guy ended up trading some complete modern runs, 2000 books to that dealer at the end for a sharp looking Hulk 181. (A CGC SS would have been better than the raw signed book but whatever). I think he is going in right direction so his wife gets some breathing room and doesnt kick his .

i just watched the episode and he made the right trade:

 

a) Happy Fiance

b) more room in their place

c) got rid of 2000 80s/90s common drek

d) got a raw 9.0 (so it appeared) Hulk 181.

 

Keys for common modern book runs--I'd do that all day and everyday

 

 

B) is nice given their small living space.

 

C) is a miracle that seems like it was made for TV because I can't imagine dealers making that trade very often (or ever) if a TV camera wasn't there.

 

 

A) in the way it played out, however, will inevitably lead to:

 

 

E) you've headed down the one way street that leads to "Whipped-ville". Enjoy your stay, leave your testicles at the city limits.

[Primetime]

The guy ended up trading some complete modern runs, 2000 books to that dealer at the end for a sharp looking Hulk 181. (A CGC SS would have been better than the raw signed book but whatever). I think he is going in right direction so his wife gets some breathing room and doesnt kick his .

i just watched the episode and he made the right trade:

 

a) Happy Fiance

b) more room in their place

c) got rid of 2000 80s/90s common drek

d) got a raw 9.0 (so it appeared) Hulk 181.

 

Keys for common modern book runs--I'd do that all day and everyday

 

 

B) is nice given their small living space.

 

C) is a miracle that seems like it was made for TV because I can't imagine dealers making that trade very often (or ever) if a TV camera wasn't there.

 

 

A) in the way it played out, however, will inevitably lead to:

 

 

E) you've headed down the one way street that leads to "Whipped-ville". Enjoy your stay, leave your testicles at the city limits.

[Wally's Comics]

In the 1990s I started to absorb collections into mine and it got to breaking point where I literally couldn't move without tripping over boxes.

I managed to do a deal where I got rid of a lot of the drek in one go.

These days I just concentrate on filling my sets and maintain a collection of around 75,000 + 20,000 duplicates from upgrading.

What is worrying me though is the amount of modern drek I have started buying again lately to get my fix, due to not really being able to find what I need for my core collection.

You have 95 thousand comic books? WOW!

 

That's about 380 long boxes!!!

 

 

 

[Mister_Comics]

I feel the show is pretty good.

 

I have a friend who collected comics like the comic book guy on the show. Probably way more stuff From goldenage to moderns. It got so bad that he and his wife got divorced. She took half of his comic collection. Let me warm you, the judge will not consider that the collection was started before they were married. They only look at the value and consider that while they are married most or some of the collection may have been bought with her money. And if she ended up with a book that my friend wanted he had to deal away something to get that book. Not a pretty situation.

 

That guy on the show was pretty close to going throught this same deal. Good that he got smart and sold some of his books.