What's the WORST comic buying decision you ever made???

[bababooey]

Buying an old Tales from the crypt comic at a downtown comic shop listed as VG, drove 70 miles home then pulling it out of the bag to find the book had a large chunk of Rat Chew taken out of the back of the book.

Five years later buying an Archie 35 that looked to be in fine condition, then driving 70 miles home to find the book had a large portion of Rat Chew in the back of the book. (Not learning my lesson the first time.)

Have you checked the car for rats?

 

[mystrymachine]

Buying an old Tales from the crypt comic at a downtown comic shop listed as VG, drove 70 miles home then pulling it out of the bag to find the book had a large chunk of Rat Chew taken out of the back of the book.

Five years later buying an Archie 35 that looked to be in fine condition, then driving 70 miles home to find the book had a large portion of Rat Chew in the back of the book. (Not learning my lesson the first time.)

 

From the same place?

 

No they were different places. Its been so long I wouldn't be able to tell you the names of the stores. The Tales from the Crypt was behind glass, but the Archie was in a box and I should have taken it out of the bag to inspect it.

[Kevin.J]

Buying an old Tales from the crypt comic at a downtown comic shop listed as VG, drove 70 miles home then pulling it out of the bag to find the book had a large chunk of Rat Chew taken out of the back of the book.

Five years later buying an Archie 35 that looked to be in fine condition, then driving 70 miles home to find the book had a large portion of Rat Chew in the back of the book. (Not learning my lesson the first time.)

Have you checked the car for rats?

 

 

[Hado]

I bought a IH 181 off eBay without doing any research, turns out it was from a known scammer lady who liked to say she came across a large collection in Oregon.

 

In hindsight I got my money's back which is good, and I joined the boards anticipating slabbing it (thumbs u

[Wilson3d]

I love this thread!!!! I have been hosed WAY more than I have managed to get a good deal. One best decisions I have made was Amazing Spidey 300-322 for 50 bucks. This was around 15 years ago and I just had issue 300 CGC'd. It came back a 9.4.

[Jeffro.]

Let's see, worst decision might be listening to the owner of my then LCS telling me that these new Viz comics are going to be HOT!! Bought way too many of those.

 

Worst non decision is probably not buying the OA to this comic back in the mid 80s for some stupid low price.

 

[Thermal]

In my case it was what I did not buy. About 8 years ago, while attending an antique show, I found a stack of OAAW, about 50 issues. The gentleman wanted $275 for all of them. After haggling over price I decided an additional $50 was more than I wanted to pay. All were in pretty good shape, average condition was 5/5.5. Not really knowing the War genre that well, I wasn't too upset about it until I arrived home and checked my Overstreet and Comicbase photo archives. Prototype Sgt. Rock issue, first appearance Sgt. Rock, a few classics covers, etc. etc. Yes, I did go back but they were sold. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it.

[jsilverjanet]

didn't get this collection but I went up north near the Wisconsin border to look at this collection from a widow who's husband had passed away. The books were all out of order, she wasn't sure what she wanted and at the time I wasn't very familiar with DC so I offered to buy all the Marvel books. I help rearrange all the books, gave her some information on what were high value books in case she decided to sell them separately. We finally agreed on a price and shook on it. Her daughter who wanted to be sure her mom didn't get screwed also agreed to the deal.

 

I offered a very fair price and we decided I would be back with full payment on the coming Friday. I got a call the next day from the wife/mom/widow saying that her son did not want to sell the books and that they were thinking of selling them on ebay or at a convention. I offered to help them sell the books, either way all I asked is to be given first shot at some of the key books in the collection. She said she would let me know. I gave her a day and called back. She said her son hadn't decided what they were going to do. I asked her to tell him to call me so we could discuss the price and increased my original offer. She said she'd call me back. I gave her a few days and called back again.

 

 

 

She said she had sold the entire collection to another collector. The price the entire collection was a lot less than I probably would have given but she never gave me a chance to counter. I felt really disappointed by that. I helped them organize their collection (spent two hours organizing books), pointed out key issues and value that they weren't aware of and still walked away with nothing except knowledge to make sure to close the deal then and there and not leave anything to chance. Silly me to think a handshake was a done deal.

 

 

oh another bad deal that I made is I traded my ASM 298-300 run when it first came out to my cousin for his New Mutants run 85-87 because Cable was super hot at the time and in hindsight he got a much more valuable set.

[jaybes]

How about not buying Gobbledygook 1 at a garage sale for a dollar because I didn't know what it was...?

[awakeintheashes]

How about not buying Gobbledygook 1 at a garage sale for a dollar because I didn't know what it was...?

 

 

I'm sorry, man. Hearing that makes me hurt too.

[bababooey]

didn't get this collection but I went up north near the Wisconsin border to look at this collection from a widow who's husband had passed away. The books were all out of order, she wasn't sure what she wanted and at the time I wasn't very familiar with DC so I offered to buy all the Marvel books. I help rearrange all the books, gave her some information on what were high value books in case she decided to sell them separately. We finally agreed on a price and shook on it. Her daughter who wanted to be sure her mom didn't get screwed also agreed to the deal.

 

I offered a very fair price and we decided I would be back with full payment on the coming Friday. I got a call the next day from the wife/mom/widow saying that her son did not want to sell the books and that they were thinking of selling them on ebay or at a convention. I offered to help them sell the books, either way all I asked is to be given first shot at some of the key books in the collection. She said she would let me know. I gave her a day and called back. She said her son hadn't decided what they were going to do. I asked her to tell him to call me so we could discuss the price and increased my original offer. She said she'd call me back. I gave her a few days and called back again.

 

 

 

She said she had sold the entire collection to another collector. The price the entire collection was a lot less than I probably would have given but she never gave me a chance to counter. I felt really disappointed by that. I helped them organize their collection (spent two hours organizing books), pointed out key issues and value that they weren't aware of and still walked away with nothing except knowledge to make sure to close the deal then and there and not leave anything to chance. Silly me to think a handshake was a done deal.

 

You made two offers.

Then the offer they accepted was "a lot less" than you would have given how do you call your first offer "fair" ??

 

 

 

[Caddotx]

Mine was buying the OA of the first appearance of Death in Sandman for $75 and having in autographed by everyone involved as a birthday present for my wife.

 

How can that be bad you ask? We aren't married anymore, guess who still has the art...

[jaybes]

Actually, when I think about it, I've messed up a few times. When I first started collecting years ago I passed on an dirt cheap Iron Man 55 because "only the low numbers are valuable". What a sage I was.

[jsilverjanet]

didn't get this collection but I went up north near the Wisconsin border to look at this collection from a widow who's husband had passed away. The books were all out of order, she wasn't sure what she wanted and at the time I wasn't very familiar with DC so I offered to buy all the Marvel books. I help rearrange all the books, gave her some information on what were high value books in case she decided to sell them separately. We finally agreed on a price and shook on it. Her daughter who wanted to be sure her mom didn't get screwed also agreed to the deal.

 

I offered a very fair price and we decided I would be back with full payment on the coming Friday. I got a call the next day from the wife/mom/widow saying that her son did not want to sell the books and that they were thinking of selling them on ebay or at a convention. I offered to help them sell the books, either way all I asked is to be given first shot at some of the key books in the collection. She said she would let me know. I gave her a day and called back. She said her son hadn't decided what they were going to do. I asked her to tell him to call me so we could discuss the price and increased my original offer. She said she'd call me back. I gave her a few days and called back again.

 

 

 

She said she had sold the entire collection to another collector. The price the entire collection was a lot less than I probably would have given but she never gave me a chance to counter. I felt really disappointed by that. I helped them organize their collection (spent two hours organizing books), pointed out key issues and value that they weren't aware of and still walked away with nothing except knowledge to make sure to close the deal then and there and not leave anything to chance. Silly me to think a handshake was a done deal.

 

You made two offers.

Then the offer they accepted was "a lot less" than you would have given how do you call your first offer "fair" ??

 

 

 

I only wanted half of the collection, the marvel. I didn't want the DC as I do not collect DC books. I offered $2000 just for the Marvel books. They took $2800 for the entire set. There were 550 DC books, 40% silver 60% bronze.

 

 

I love how of that entire story you walk away with "my fair offer" but fail to realize she made a deal and backed out of it. Nevermind the fact that I help organize their books which probably led to the sale. Nice.

[catrick339]

Shoulda believed my buddy Roger when he said that new zombie book was great, I should buy a bunch of them.

 

Ahhh, Walking Dead, I hardly knew ye.....

[bababooey]

didn't get this collection but I went up north near the Wisconsin border to look at this collection from a widow who's husband had passed away. The books were all out of order, she wasn't sure what she wanted and at the time I wasn't very familiar with DC so I offered to buy all the Marvel books. I help rearrange all the books, gave her some information on what were high value books in case she decided to sell them separately. We finally agreed on a price and shook on it. Her daughter who wanted to be sure her mom didn't get screwed also agreed to the deal.

 

I offered a very fair price and we decided I would be back with full payment on the coming Friday. I got a call the next day from the wife/mom/widow saying that her son did not want to sell the books and that they were thinking of selling them on ebay or at a convention. I offered to help them sell the books, either way all I asked is to be given first shot at some of the key books in the collection. She said she would let me know. I gave her a day and called back. She said her son hadn't decided what they were going to do. I asked her to tell him to call me so we could discuss the price and increased my original offer. She said she'd call me back. I gave her a few days and called back again.

 

 

 

She said she had sold the entire collection to another collector. The price the entire collection was a lot less than I probably would have given but she never gave me a chance to counter. I felt really disappointed by that. I helped them organize their collection (spent two hours organizing books), pointed out key issues and value that they weren't aware of and still walked away with nothing except knowledge to make sure to close the deal then and there and not leave anything to chance. Silly me to think a handshake was a done deal.

 

You made two offers.

Then the offer they accepted was "a lot less" than you would have given how do you call your first offer "fair" ??

 

 

 

I only wanted half of the collection, the marvel. I didn't want the DC as I do not collect DC books. I offered $2000 just for the Marvel books. They took $2800 for the entire set. There were 550 DC books, 40% silver 60% bronze.

 

 

I love how of that entire story you walk away with "my fair offer" but fail to realize she made a deal and backed out of it. Nevermind the fact that I help organize their books which probably led to the sale. Nice.

 

Bring cash and a means to move the books that day if you want to hold people to deals on collections.

 

I have NO ISSUE with a family member backing someone out of a handshake-deal you made with his recently widowed mother.

 

Clear enough?

 

 

[dgarthwaite-migration]

I don't think I've ever had a bad purchase.

 

You are one lucky dude. When you have to purchase things via mail by scans and not holding it close-up, your bad purchase mojo goes up exponentially.

 

 

How about 100 copies of THIS:

 

 

That is funny. My biggest regret is from the same company. I actually liked this series. It wasn't stunning or anything, but it was different. I thought it had potential.

 

Issue #4 introduced a female character... "Extremes of Violet".

 

 

Del Barras drew the new female character and the interiors looked pretty good. There was a bad girl craze. The #0 issue of Extremes of Violet came out and I liked it. So when a variant of Extremes of Violet #1 came out, I wanted it. The retailer had to order 25 copies to get it, so I arranged with him to buy 25 copies of #1 and I'd get the variant free. When the issue came out, the variant was the exact same as the regular version. The only difference was that the cover was signed and it was in a bag with a gold sticker on the bag. To add further insult, the artist changed and the character looked more like a dude with a sex change. I was pissed.

 

 

I own 25 copies of this comic I can't stand.

 

DG

 

 

[Hado]

That Gold sticker is the only thing that keeps you from knowing if "She"'s pre or post op

[spracknetch23]

How about not buying Gobbledygook 1 at a garage sale for a dollar because I didn't know what it was...?

 

I too passed up a cheap (~$50 each) Gobbledygook 1 and 2 at a Holiday Inn convention in the early '90s and bought a TMNT 3 1st printing instead for almost the same price as 1 of the GGs.

[dgarthwaite-migration]

That Gold sticker is the only thing that keeps you from knowing if "She"'s pre or post op

 

I should have never scanned that cover. Looking at it makes me relive how pissed off I was. Thankfully, all the comic shops were giving me 40% off new comics back then. It would've been worse if I was paying cover price.

 

DG