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Collection just in - Pictures and a story

Started by ft88,

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ft88

ft88

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It is pretty easy really. The mega keys are almost always BS or bluffs. Its the realistic ones that really start to get you going.

 

"I have a couple hundred books from the 50s and 60s - Man, these are old"

 

"Great. Do you have them in front of you? Or can you get to them?"

 

"Ummmmmm, Naw, I have them _________________________________"

 

A. In storage on the other side of town.

B. At my brother's, mothers, uncles house

C. Somewhere around here, let me call you back.

D. Oh wait, yeah, lets see what we have here.

 

If D, move onwards; A-C keep your hopes tempered

 

"Great let me know what the cover price is on the first couple of books

 

A. This one has a sticker price of $15 on it

B. Let's see..... $1.50 for this Superman, 75 cents for this Atari Force.....

C. Where would I find that?

D. This Sgt Rock is 15 cents and this Ironman is 12 cents

 

And on and on. How many books, what kind of condition, what titles, how far away do you live. After all that - maybe, just maybe they have 50-100 books or more from the 1960s to 1970s that make it worth your while.

 

I did get a call one time. This was in 2012, just at the start of AF15 going nuts.

 

"I have Amazing Fantasy 15 and Amazing Spiderman 1"

 

(yeah right sure you do) "Great, do you have them in front of you?"

 

"I do, they were put in plastic by CGC ones a 3.0 and the others a 3.5"

 

"How much do you want, and I'll see you this afternoon" VVVRRRRRRROOOOOOM!

 

Sales thread on that below. Hard to believe how much that book has moved since.

Guy said these were the only books he had left after the rest were stolen from him. Always a weird story.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=246928&Number=5404500#Post5404500

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The-Collector

The-Collector

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I agree I hate when people get your hopes up like that

 

I don't even get my hopes up.

 

I deal with Detective #27 and AF #15 claims like they're Spawn #1's.

 

It literally happens all the time. I probably get 3 or 4 hits a year like that.

 

 

lol so how do you tell the real claims from the fake ones?

You have to play them out to their conclusion but when it's time to finally see the books they either fade away or disappear quickly.

 

I have to say, I've been right nearly every time I've gotten contacted. I'll whisper to Louise or make a mental note that it's a bluff and it turns out that it usually is.

 

I started a thread about it a couple of months ago.

 

Roy

 

What is the point of this conduct? With the Jarred smith guy what does he hope to gain from these calls? It seems delusional to me.

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

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DarthBane

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Also, he let me know that one of the key books sold for $20,000.

 

Jebus H 'Merica, sure a Green Lantern 76 CGC 9.8 may have sold for that last year but your copy is a water logged piece of worth $50???? Is what I was thinking.

 

It took a bit of education but we got to a deal.

 

Kudos to you for having patience and sticking with it. The above scenario can be so so very difficult to explain the difference/multiples in price between a certified/slabbed NM/M vs. a raw VG (that the person thinks is "mint")

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VintageComics

VintageComics

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I agree I hate when people get your hopes up like that

 

I don't even get my hopes up.

 

I deal with Detective #27 and AF #15 claims like they're Spawn #1's.

 

It literally happens all the time. I probably get 3 or 4 hits a year like that.

 

 

lol so how do you tell the real claims from the fake ones?

You have to play them out to their conclusion but when it's time to finally see the books they either fade away or disappear quickly.

 

I have to say, I've been right nearly every time I've gotten contacted. I'll whisper to Louise or make a mental note that it's a bluff and it turns out that it usually is.

 

I started a thread about it a couple of months ago.

 

Roy

 

What is the point of this conduct? With the Jarred smith guy what does he hope to gain from these calls? It seems delusional to me.

 

Am I missing something?

 

 

I have no idea. Hoping someone 'bites' and sends some money?

 

Entertainment value?

 

Your guess is as good as mine.

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ft88

ft88

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So the story behind this one. A police detective calls with a small collection and asks if he can email pictures. So he does, about 15 jpegs and this one is in it along with Spiderman 2 and Showcase 7. Then a smattering of Dells and a Charlton. I'm excited and look to meet somewhere. He then says that he doesn't want to drive that far and is really busy. OK, I'll come to him. No response. I call his office and leave a message, no response.

 

email, call, email, call - no response.

 

At what point do you stop begging.

 

Fast forward almost 10 months. I'm going into his part of town (3 hours away) on business and he answers my call. Says he still has them but I have to come to him. No problem, set up a date and time. I ask how much he's looking to sell them for so I know how much to bring - no response.

 

I meet at the police station and he has them laid out with those main three on top, ten across the table are the 10 cent dells and a few others, then a row of 2004 Xmen and related. He said the old ones were his uncles and he had cleared out their house 15 years ago. Besides the SC 4 7 and ASM 2 there were 2 more DC's a Fightin Air Force and a dozen Four Colors (movie) and Tarzans. The Xmen were his sons or something like that, it was hard to focus on those and anything related to them.

 

Anticlimatic ending, we come to deal and I walk away. Here are the closeup scans.

 

I think over the course of the past 10 months I sent a monthly email and called once or twice per month. Its always a challenge but certainly worth it. Ironic part if I had picked up the SC 4 last year I likely would have missed out on the recent buzz on this book due to the show.

 

scan0351.jpg

scan0352.jpg

 

 

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ft88

ft88

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Another collection on this same trip. I was lucky enough to be able to coordinate looking at three potential finds in one trip. The first one was a bunch of 70s and 80s nothing exciting until he mentioned a GS Xmen 1. When I called to see him first he had a change of heart

 

"I just don't think i'm going to sell them right now." A little cajoling and ultimately no joy.

 

I had brought a reasonable amount of cash and 2 bank money orders. To buy the SC 4 basically took all my cash and then my last check - I usually have more than one check but that's where I was.

 

The final collection was at a pizza shop where he had "10 boxes or mint 1960s to 1980s comics. #1 Iron man Conan, Submariner etc" He had my attention but I certainly walked him back about condition. This was done over the phone before meeting.

 

Mint.

 

Me "OK that is really difficult on an old comic, but if it is these key books can be worth a lot of money" "but even the smallest types of wear can ......"

 

Him: "These have lots of gloss and are in great shape...."

 

Alright alright.

 

In person, no surprise VG to Fines and then the small stack of books with water damage. Oh yeah, he could only bring in 1 box to the store.

 

Still the good news was it had alot of those #1 issues from above. Cap 100, Xmen 7 12 Avengers 28 and then an ice set of high grade BA Xmen 3 copies of 100 101 and more. Great stuff. We come to a price agreement and he won't take my money order. And its after 5 pm so no banks are open.

 

So much cajoling later I drive home with no collection even after we agree on a price. So we'll set up a meeting this weekend will look at the whole thing. So in hindsight the lack of checks didn't hurt me and I'd have to go back anyway so a 3 hour drive was going to happen anyway. Still I hate to not have in hand a multi $1000 collection where we had a deal all because I didn't have the cash.

 

That's tough though, I don't like to wander into an unknown environment with lots of cash. But given how difficult it can be to coordinate travel and meeting up I try to use MO if that works. But cash is king. And I certainly feel more comfortable the second time around.

 

Other boxes should have Spiderman 16 on up and mulitples as it gets into the 1980s-90s. he had 5-10 copies of the Kraven storyline. BA Xmen I'm sure will be there and hopefully high grade mulitples. He said he mulitples of Death of Superman and Spiderman Hologram issues too. So I'm sure 5 or 6 boxes are going to 80s and 90s "investment" copies, some of which might work out. There really could be 5 copies of Spiderman 300 or other McFarlanes that sort of thing. We'll see - meeting next week.

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uchiha101

uchiha101

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Another collection on this same trip. I was lucky enough to be able to coordinate looking at three potential finds in one trip. The first one was a bunch of 70s and 80s nothing exciting until he mentioned a GS Xmen 1. When I called to see him first he had a change of heart

 

"I just don't think i'm going to sell them right now." A little cajoling and ultimately no joy.

 

I had brought a reasonable amount of cash and 2 bank money orders. To buy the SC 4 basically took all my cash and then my last check - I usually have more than one check but that's where I was.

 

The final collection was at a pizza shop where he had "10 boxes or mint 1960s to 1980s comics. #1 Iron man Conan, Submariner etc" He had my attention but I certainly walked him back about condition. This was done over the phone before meeting.

 

Mint.

 

Me "OK that is really difficult on an old comic, but if it is these key books can be worth a lot of money" "but even the smallest types of wear can ......"

 

Him: "These have lots of gloss and are in great shape...."

 

Alright alright.

 

In person, no surprise VG to Fines and then the small stack of books with water damage. Oh yeah, he could only bring in 1 box to the store.

 

Still the good news was it had alot of those #1 issues from above. Cap 100, Xmen 7 12 Avengers 28 and then an ice set of high grade BA Xmen 3 copies of 100 101 and more. Great stuff. We come to a price agreement and he won't take my money order. And its after 5 pm so no banks are open.

 

So much cajoling later I drive home with no collection even after we agree on a price. So we'll set up a meeting this weekend will look at the whole thing. So in hindsight the lack of checks didn't hurt me and I'd have to go back anyway so a 3 hour drive was going to happen anyway. Still I hate to not have in hand a multi $1000 collection where we had a deal all because I didn't have the cash.

 

That's tough though, I don't like to wander into an unknown environment with lots of cash. But given how difficult it can be to coordinate travel and meeting up I try to use MO if that works. But cash is king. And I certainly feel more comfortable the second time around.

 

Other boxes should have Spiderman 16 on up and mulitples as it gets into the 1980s-90s. he had 5-10 copies of the Kraven storyline. BA Xmen I'm sure will be there and hopefully high grade mulitples. He said he mulitples of Death of Superman and Spiderman Hologram issues too. So I'm sure 5 or 6 boxes are going to 80s and 90s "investment" copies, some of which might work out. There really could be 5 copies of Spiderman 300 or other McFarlanes that sort of thing. We'll see - meeting next week.

 

hope it works out :)

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Gatsby77

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Yeah - bought my former copy of Showcase # 4 at a Starbucks, using a credit card the dude ran on Square w/ his Smartphone.

 

I quickly verified the transaction via my laptop, he handed me a book & a copy of the receipt, and we went our separate ways.

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