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What a score - the $20 per book golden age collection

Started by Shield,

74 posts in this topic

Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

Posted
Posted
Quick recap of today.

 

1. Tim (bookery) is a wonderful gentleman and made me a very fair offer for the entire lot. Any time anyone mentions the good dealer like Payette and Bedrock City need to keep Bookery in that same conversation. He's now got the books and as a result I have removed all pictures from this thread as it's up to him how he decides to market and sell these.

 

2. I stopped and gave the original seller a very large chunk of cash (almost 2x more than the original amount) just because it's the right thing to do. I'm not a total a-hole and will sleep soundly tonight. Everyone is happy now. Me, the new buyer, and the original seller. Do not thank me for this; it's how I was raised.

 

3. I will never, ever, ever disclose actual amounts of money paid or sold for books, unless it's something unavoidable like "look at the score I just made on ebay".

 

4. I got a good lesson on what to look for as far as books that have been cleaned. It's probably best that I stop going out and trying to find runs of books as it's just a matter of time before I REALLY overpay for restored books and get hosed.

 

5. Today has changed my opinion on dealers. Not all, but I will mentally stop equating them with used car salesmen.

 

 

If you ever are buying or selling in the Dayton Ohio area, I cannot recommend Bookery Fantasy enough. High class act from top to bottom.

 

 

 

:applause:>>> (thumbs u

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Bookery

Bookery

Posted
Posted

Just wanted to add that having met Shield in person, he's a very nice guy. The books in aggregate do add up, but now having seen them in person I can understand his hesitation about getting into them too deep. In the comfortable setting of my shop, and with Shield giving me plenty of time to go through them page by page, I was able to make him a solid offer.

 

But if I was faced with them at some seller's house, and didn't have the opportunity to sit down at length and go through them, I might have offered only half of what I did. The books were in old, stained and cloudy bags. Condition varies wildly... no true high grades, but an okay low-to-mid grade followed by a restored book followed by one missing a centerfold, etc. A number had amateur restoration, one had pro restoration, several had extensive tape and/or detached covers. This was definitely a collection put together by someone willing to have almost any filler copy to complete the run.

 

Even though I spent a fair amount of time going through them, they will still need even more extensive checking for condition and restoration before I can safely assign them grades and prices that I can stand by.

 

I think it's a pretty nifty run, even as is, but I suspect it's not the kind of collection a Metropolis or a Bedrock would be doing cartwheels over, so I don't think there was any disservice to her by steering her away from a mail-order transaction (which I'm not sure why she was bringing up anyway, after putting them up for sale through a Craiglist ad).

 

Anyway... the point is, I'm happy, Shield's happy, he's made an extra payment to the lady so I'm certain she's happy, and eventually, when I go through them, I hope to make a few customers happy. It's like that logistics commercial... "Happy, Happy!".

 

 

 

 

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Moondog

Moondog

Posted
Posted
Quick recap of today.

 

1. Tim (bookery) is a wonderful gentleman and made me a very fair offer for the entire lot. Any time anyone mentions the good dealer like Payette and Bedrock City need to keep Bookery in that same conversation. He's now got the books and as a result I have removed all pictures from this thread as it's up to him how he decides to market and sell these.

 

2. I stopped and gave the original seller a very large chunk of cash (almost 2x more than the original amount) just because it's the right thing to do. I'm not a total a-hole and will sleep soundly tonight. Everyone is happy now. Me, the new buyer, and the original seller. Do not thank me for this; it's how I was raised.

 

3. I will never, ever, ever disclose actual amounts of money paid or sold for books, unless it's something unavoidable like "look at the score I just made on ebay".

 

4. I got a good lesson on what to look for as far as books that have been cleaned. It's probably best that I stop going out and trying to find runs of books as it's just a matter of time before I REALLY overpay for restored books and get hosed.

 

5. Today has changed my opinion on dealers. Not all, but I will mentally stop equating them with used car salesmen.

 

 

If you ever are buying or selling in the Dayton Ohio area, I cannot recommend Bookery Fantasy enough. High class act from top to bottom.

 

Now this is something to crow about! Good for you! (thumbs u

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tb

tb

Posted
Posted
Quick recap of today.

 

1. Tim (bookery) is a wonderful gentleman and made me a very fair offer for the entire lot. Any time anyone mentions the good dealer like Payette and Bedrock City need to keep Bookery in that same conversation. He's now got the books and as a result I have removed all pictures from this thread as it's up to him how he decides to market and sell these.

 

2. I stopped and gave the original seller a very large chunk of cash (almost 2x more than the original amount) just because it's the right thing to do. I'm not a total a-hole and will sleep soundly tonight. Everyone is happy now. Me, the new buyer, and the original seller. Do not thank me for this; it's how I was raised.

 

3. I will never, ever, ever disclose actual amounts of money paid or sold for books, unless it's something unavoidable like "look at the score I just made on ebay".

 

4. I got a good lesson on what to look for as far as books that have been cleaned. It's probably best that I stop going out and trying to find runs of books as it's just a matter of time before I REALLY overpay for restored books and get hosed.

 

5. Today has changed my opinion on dealers. Not all, but I will mentally stop equating them with used car salesmen.

 

 

If you ever are buying or selling in the Dayton Ohio area, I cannot recommend Bookery Fantasy enough. High class act from top to bottom.

 

Now this is something to crow about! Good for you! (thumbs u

 

+1 Whatever your original post might have lacked in style points, this was a classy way to straighten things out.

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Moetown

Moetown

Posted
Posted

I may be in the minority here but Shield didn't deserve the abuse he received, he was excited and wanted to 'share' his booty with the group :o . I think we all get that. However and in doing so, he disclosed the value he purchased the collection for and the windfall of bashing started. I realize he opened himself up to the 'judges' by doing so (and shouldn't of in hindsight) but the point is: he obviously felt he need to make it 'right' and sell the collection and did just that. So the extreme joy of the initial score is now tainted I'm sure in his mind by the above response / actions. I also wonder if others disclosed their many purchases on these boards, if they would be going back to the seller in similar circumstance and offering additional monies so Shield is a stand-up guy imo.

 

Regardless, I think that's a great collection you picked up Shield and thanks for sharing the seldom seen covers! (thumbs u

 

My opinion and YMMV in response and that's ok, we can agree to disagree.

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Cat-Man_America

Cat-Man_America

Posted
Posted
I may be in the minority here but Shield didn't deserve the abuse he received, he was excited and wanted to 'share' his booty with the group :o . I think we all get that. However and in doing so, he disclosed the value he purchased the collection for and the windfall of bashing started. I realize he opened himself up to the 'judges' by doing so (and shouldn't of in hindsight) but the point is: he obviously felt he need to make it 'right' and sell the collection and did just that. So the extreme joy of the initial score is now tainted I'm sure in his mind by the above response / actions. I also wonder if others disclosed their many purchases on these boards, if they would be going back to the seller in similar circumstance and offering additional monies so Shield is a stand-up guy imo.

 

Regardless, I think that's a great collection you picked up Shield and thanks for sharing the seldom seen covers! (thumbs u

 

My opinion and YMMV in response and that's ok, we can agree to disagree.

 

[font:Times New Roman]We fully encourage minority views here, even wishy-washy neutral views like mine! lol

 

Most folks weren't being abusive based on my observations. Well, in retrospect, maybe one or two remarks from Shield's fellow boardies came across as condescending, but on the whole folks were appreciative, highly enthusiastic and congratulatory over his score. :applause:

 

While I didn't mention this earlier in the thread it probably should be noted for future reference that several well established NY dealers are members in good standing on this board. The only time I winced while reading the initial post was when Shield mentioned the seller had Googled about "a dealer in NY that paid the most money..." and he countered "...they'll low ball you anyway." Regardless of whether there's any truth to that, it's an unproved assumption aimed at convincing the seller to seal the deal and a bit unfair to dealers who advertise in this manner.

 

Shield's ethics cannot be faulted here. It just would've been more artful to discourage the seller from seeking an alternative buyer based purely on the shipping costs and uncertainty. In fact, I would've negotiated in a similar manner, perhaps going through the options with the seller at length (risks of long distance dealer appraisal, pros and cons of setting up at conventions, cost of having books graded and slabbed for auction, etc.), but without disparaging any dealers.

 

In situations like this I prefer a carefully structured message that the seller might be able to make more elsewhere, but it will be time consuming, labor intensive and unpredictable. IOW, by taking a collection to market yourself or shipping the books off for dealer evaluation you risk earning less because of the additional investment in time and overhead (shipping costs, set-up expenses, etc.). My 2c

 

I think one thing this thread has clearly demonstrated to everyone is that Shield and Bookery are real stand up guys.[/font] (thumbs u

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Crowzilla

Crowzilla

Posted
Posted

2. I stopped and gave the original seller a very large chunk of cash (almost 2x more than the original amount) just because it's the right thing to do. I'm not a total a-hole and will sleep soundly tonight. Everyone is happy now. Me, the new buyer, and the original seller. Do not thank me for this; it's how I was raised.

 

:applause: (thumbs u

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vaillant

vaillant

Posted
Posted
Yeah, the guy should've informed his wife better as to values, or, tried and sold them off when he was alive (if he could've.) Or maybe left an inkling of what he'd paid for them (they aren't high grade or anything, but I doubt Archie #3 was $25.)

 

This is the frustrating thing for guys like me... and a lesson to all of you collectors out there. Let your spouses know what a "reasonable" quick-sell offer would be,so they're not floundering in the dark if something should happen to you. If this collection was local to the poster, my shop is only an hour away from the collection, and judging as best as is possible from the pictures, and assuming fairly heavy restoration on the Archie #3, I'm guessing we would have offered something around $4,000 just from the issues I've seen... which is about 10x what she got for them (blaming the spouse and the seller for not checking around, not the OP).

 

There are others here that would have made similar offers I'm sure. This certainly worked out great for the OP, no question. But this myth about large, established dealers (not hole-in-the-wall upstarts) "low-balling" on everything gets real old real fast.

 

I really like this post and glad all ended up in the best way.

 

I also have a new dealer to look out for… :)

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