WHAT IS YOUR BEST and/or WORST comic purchase DEAL ????

[Zanarkand]

Best dea lately:

 

A whole pile of unsorted midgrade Silver purchased sight unseene for what worked out to 20% of guide. Turned out to have Witching Hour 1 & 3, a dozen issues of Showcase in the 50s and 60s, and single digit Iron Mans & Daredevils. (And a lot of junk.)

 

Pretty good deals:

 

ASM #1 in about Good+ for $200

Hulk #181 in about VG for $16 (15 years ago, admittedly)

Sparker Comics #1 about 3.0 for $150

[shrunkenhead]

Best deal:

 

A few months back, I bought a large lot of nice looking bronze books on ebay for around $80. Two hours after they arrived at my home, I took 'em to an LCS and flipped 'em for about $500 in cash plus some nice trade items (comics, toys, and "real" books) that I gave out as Christmas gifts.

 

Worst deal:

 

Probably the bronze slabbed 9.8s (with one or two exceptions) that I bought last year during my "DC 70's fever" stage. Major buyers remorse on some of those. Paid very high multiples that will probably mean that I'm stuck with the books forever, as I don't want to take a loss (though I'd settle for breaking even). Ah well, they look cool at least. Live and learn!

[sfilosa]

Paid very high multiples that will probably mean that I'm stuck with the books forever, as I don't want to take a loss (though I'd settle for breaking even). Ah well, they look cool at least. Live and learn!

 

There is nothing wrong with taking a loss.

 

Think of it this way, if you sold all those book, could you take that money and purchase something else that would increase in value faster? If the answer is YES, than selling them for a loss is no big deal.

 

That said, if you like them (but just don't like the fact that you paid to much), then keeping them is not a bad idea.

 

 

But I can say with a lot of confidence, even the richest people in the world, have sold things for a loss.

[Norrin_Radd]

Worst Deal:

1979, I was selling a whole bunch of my comics to get some money to buy more comics when I was a 14 year old kid. I decided to place an ad in the local paper and told my mother ( who would be home during the day while I was at school ) which pile of my comics was for sale in my room and that I was asking cover price for them. When I arrived home my mother was so happy she said she sold the entire pile of comics I was selling and gave me my almost 20 dollars. I was ecstatic until I got to my room and saw my entire collection of "keepers" was gone including my Spiderman #1, FF #1, Avengers #1. Yep, she sold them all at cover price!!

 

[ft88]

My greatest comic deal was sometime in the late 70's. I answered an ad from somebody selling comics. This lady took me to her sons room and was selling comics for cover price. I grabbed all the comics that were in a box under his bed and ignored the 30 and 40 center's he was clearly trying to sell. For 20 bucks I landed a Spidey #1, FF #1 and Avengers #1....

[Larryw7]

 

[benz]

thanks for bumping this thread up. really enjoyed it.

[bluenote]

worst deal

 

1974.... selling over 500 comic books for 50 bucks. mostly that was from mail order directly from marvel of spidermans,ff's,avengers,xmen from the previous 3 years.. as a kid i thought 50 was alot of money..and as i grew out of comics more into baseball cards. i did not know the value of comics, never heard of overstreet price guide...ironically it was because of this deal that i became aware of the value of comics...especially when i went back into the comic books dealers store looking for toys.. he had almost all of my books in plastic bags with $ 40 & $50 price tags on them. he then tole me comics will be a great investment and that they will be very valuable in the future, he gave me a overstreet price guide, and the rest is history..

 

 

best deal

 

1995 went to a garage sale of old lady who had just lost her husband a few months back.. she was selling everything.turns out husband was a amazing fantasy 15 collector... no other books just around 30 copies of amazing fantasy 15...all in vg+/f grade..she wanted 25 cents a piece for them.. i gave her a 20.00 bill and told her to keep the change

[dem1138]

That's INSANE - if you sold each copy for an avg. of 3K/each that would equal $90,000!!

[ajaxfarrell]

Wow, is that hard to believe....in fact, I don't believe it. I just simply don't believe it. Can you produce a picture of say 15-30 copies of AF15 ? Otherwise, that yarn is too nutty to be believed.

[shrunkenhead]

Wow, is that hard to believe....in fact, I don't believe it. I just simply don't believe it. Can you produce a picture of say 15-30 copies of AF15 ? Otherwise, that yarn is too nutty to be believed.

 

I'm going to have to voice extreme skepticism as well. I guess anything can happen, though....was this garage sale gramma sipping mountain dew out of the holy grail as she sold you $100k worth of comic books for twenty bucks? Did you discover any ancient egyptian pyramids on the ride home? Did some bum squeegie your windshield with the shroud of turin?

[JohnBull]

Maybe Grandpa should have kept Grandma slightly better informed as to the value of his collection.

 

"I'm back dear. Got another Amazing Fantasy 15!"

 

"Sheeot, Walter. Not another 25 cents down the drain!"

 

[mrwoogieman]

I don't believe it either, and I'm gullible as all get out!

[Pirate]

If i had found that deal, i would remember EXACTLY how many 4k books there were and not say AROUND 30.

[shrunkenhead]

If i had found that deal, i would remember EXACTLY how many 4k books there were and not say AROUND 30.

 

Too true! And I know that married couples sometimes have communication problems, but you'd think the words "honey, this little stack of comics is worth almost as much as our home" would have been the subject of at least one breakfast.

[krazykat-migration]

I got a Flash #105 for a BIN of $20 last year on ebay. It was in very fine conditon if not for a wavy back cover due to moist storage conditions. The front cover is a glowing yellow . It's just wonderful. I'd say it's technical grade is good plus due to the water damage on the back cover.

 

My worst horror story was at the 1986 Atlanta Fantasy Fair. I was 15 years old and took the bus up from Columbus (100 miles) to sell some of the 40 copies of GI JOE #2 (super hot book in the 80's....$75 bucks each at this time). The dealers room at the Omni Hotel in Atlanta was HUGE.

 

At the corner table of one isle was an elderly guy who looked just like Colonel Sanders. I had been flipping GI Joe 2's all day and had developed quite a presence at the convention because NOBODY had this issue but me. Colonel Sanders said something like " Hey young man, do you like original art, I'd sell these pages of art for $100 each but nobody is buying, I'd be willing to swap you any pages you like, 1 page for 1 GI JOE # 2, for as many as you'd like"

 

I took a look at the stack of pages this old gentleman had , must have been about 4 inches high, I'd figure about 50 or more pages. As GOD is my witness, every single page, every one, was a STEVE DITKO Amazing Spider-man page. Splash pages, tons of interior art, I don't recall any covers.

 

The old guy was practically begging me to trade. This goes to show how far original art has come in 18 years. HE was SO MOTIVATED to trade me these FRIGGIN' MUSEUM PIECES for FRIGGIN' GI JOE #2's. (sorry, I get a bit excited now that I'm relating this story)

 

SO what did I do? I figured that I'd like to have a few pages for my collection even though I had never thought of ever aquiring any original art. I then thought about the 100 mile Greyhound bus ride back to Columbus, and what a burden it would be to carefully return these on the cramped bus.....and respectfully passed on the whole thing.

I've had a reoccuring nightmare about this for the last 18 years. It is seriously something I don't think I'll ever come to terms with. That is my story. Sad but true.

 

Anyway....Does anyone think the winning bidder on this auction WEIRD TALES of the FUTURE got a great deal? That is a super nice deal for someone. Anyhow, thanks for letting me get out what's been on my mind for a long time. THese comic book forums are pretty cool.

 

IF anyone else would care to relate a FANTASTIC/HORRIFIC story, I'd love to read all about it.

Thanks for your time, James.

 

THAT IS ONE MOTHER F-IN HARD ARSE STORY. DAMN,...!!!!

[Sal]

whoever buys this book will be fulfilling the requirements of the thread title.

 

 

action number one for sale. sort of. well, it IS for sale, but...

[action1kid]

Best [percentage wise...buying a pep 22 for 460.00 dollars and selling it 5 years later for 6700.00.

Unrestored of course.

 

Worst/ Selling the mile high green hornet 1 at a loss [i needed the money to take advantage of a better deal[were i did do very well]So i guess it really wasnt bad,but it is the truth.

[ajaxfarrell]

That's a great return on that Pep 22. I love stories like that. What was the other deal that you used the money from the MH Green Hornet 1 to get. I'd like to hear that one.

 

I've always been one step behind financially. Even now that I'm in my 30's and have a lot more money than when I was a kid, everything is so much more valuable and expensive that I seem to have about the same buying power as I did when I was 12. Weird.

 

And yes, the story about the Ditko original art pages still haunts me to this day. I can remember so crisply and vibrantly the day it happened. 19 years ago this month. But hey, I was just a young kid.

 

At the same convention (The Atlanta Fantasy Fair) I remember a coverless Batman # 1 for 400 and a SWEET copy of Planet # 1 for $1000.

[action1kid]

it was the 6.5 action 1[unrestored]