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Massive comics robbery/does anybody have a current year digital Overstreet?

Started by Flint Ironstag,

33 posts in this topic

Flint Ironstag

Flint Ironstag

Posted
Posted

Hey, Crime-stoppers,

I discovered a large robbery of my key Marvel comics this spring, from my house. It's a huge loss... $152,886 by this year's Overstreet... and includes all the major key books of what used to be full runs of my favorite titles.

 

Sadly, it's looking more and more like our local police department have done nothing serious about it, despite me giving them the names and contact information of the (extremely likely) thief or thieves. After a few months, the police advised me to file with our insurance. The officer believed that the insurance company would assign an investigator... and that would assist the police's investigation(!). I don't want an insurance settlement, I want my lifetime's comic collection back. Despite insuring the contents of our house for an amount exceeding the comics loss, due to my art and comics collection, getting turned down by our insurance company is going to feel like being robbed a second time.

 

Anyway, I've been gathering paperwork... any scant records of forty years of collecting... to send our insurance company what I can, to indicate what we had and what current value is. I have a regular book-version of the current Overstreet, but can't really scan the pages I need without tearing them out or slicing up the binding... it's too thick of a book.

 

If anybody here has a current digital version (I only have last year's digital Overstreet), and can help me out with some screen captures... I'd need about twenty... then I can put them on a disc and send them in to our insurance company. I'll definitely find some way to return the favor, if anybody can help with this.

 

Thanks in advance and... LOCK YOUR COMIC ROOMS, friends!

Pax,

Sean

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Brian48

Brian48

Posted
Posted

I feel your pain, Several years ago, I had practically my entire collection of high end sports card stolen from my house while I was away. Only a few minor pieces remained. The cops eventually found out who it was, but I don't think he ever got much time (if any). Only a small handful of my collection was recovered and that held as evidence by the police. As it turns out, the police lost these few remaining specimens while they were in their custody. Never got any of it back. My heart was ripped out and I couldn't enjoy the hobby at all after that.

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Brian48

Brian48

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Posted

Also, I know you've probably already done this, but I'd turn in a list of these books to your local shops and ask the proprietors to keep a lookout for groups of these books. These insufficiently_thoughtful_persons will most likely try to sell off what they can through these venues. That's how they caught this one guy.

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jop

jop

Posted
Posted

I have digital Overstreet from Heritage AUctions.

 

What would you need?

 

Sorry to hear about your loss......I know as I keep buying I keep calling my agent and adding to the total amount so I could get current values if ever needed.

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Flint Ironstag

Flint Ironstag

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Thanks for the kind replies, fellow Collectonauts, and the good advice/info from everybody except Kenglo.

As 99% of the missing comics were ones I purchased between 1976 and 1996, none were slabbed. I have scans of my comic art collection, which I post on CAF, but none of the actual comics that inspired the art hobby.

I hope this won't format to take up a hill of space, but here's what was stolen:

 

Aces High

4

 

Amazing Adventures (1961)

1-3

 

Amazing Fantasy

15

 

Amazing Spider-man

1-40, 47-56, 96-98, 100, 122, 129

Annuals 1, 2

 

Avengers

1-11

Annuals 1-3

 

Batman

29

 

Conan the Barbarian

1-10

 

Crime Illustrated

1,2

 

Daredevil

1-5

 

Fantastic Four

1-22, 48-50

Annuals 1-6

 

second FF Collection:

Fantastic Four

3-50, 73, 116, 120, 122

Annuals 1, 2

 

House of Secrets

92

 

Incredible Hulk

2-6, 180, 181

 

Journey Into Mystery

83-104, 108, 109, 111, 112

Annual 1

 

Marvel Spotlight

3-9

 

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

1,2

 

Silver Surfer

1

 

Special Marvel Edition

15, 16

 

Strange Tales

101-111

Annuals 1,2

 

Sub-mariner (1968)

1-13

 

Tales of Suspense

39-45

 

X-Men

1-6

 

These were the original 1960's onward series, not any of the various later relaunch/reboot versions.

I've been to a couple conventions since the theft, and apart from something sorta uncommon, like one of the signed comics, it's amazing how similar any of the hundreds (thousands?) of unslabbed copies of these same books can look on the wall behind a dealer's table. I suppose my 49 year old eyes aren't as sharp as they once were, either.

Out of the couple hundred books stolen, I'm confident I could ID a few with a degree of reliability, but the only one that would rise to 100% certainty is this: one of the two good condition FF #1's is signed by Stan Lee on page one, AND has a child's handwriting defacing part of page four. On the Thing reveal page, a kid wrote "Mr. Jenkins" (or a similar surname) in pencil with an arrow pointing toward the rampaging ugly ol' Ben Grimm. That wasn't revealed as a defect (and I missed it) when I bought the comic in the 1990s, and it obvioulsy bummed me out. But now, I'm glad it's there as an identifier. Or maybe, it's bumming out some new owner all over again.

Thanks, all!

Pax,

Sean

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wongseefu

wongseefu

Posted
Posted

I hope you get compensation from your insurance company. If you brought your items through ebay or from a auction house or even comic shop. You mite be able to claim if you kept any receipts or even if they have a invoice of the buy . That would be sufficient evidence.

 

This is important for your big buys, the price of your key holy grails should be able to be claimed.

 

Hope this helps,

 

Wong

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maloney414

maloney414

Posted
Posted
Thanks for the kind replies, fellow Collectonauts, and the good advice/info from everybody except Kenglo.

As 99% of the missing comics were ones I purchased between 1976 and 1996, none were slabbed. I have scans of my comic art collection, which I post on CAF, but none of the actual comics that inspired the art hobby.

I hope this won't format to take up a hill of space, but here's what was stolen:

 

Aces High

4

 

Amazing Adventures (1961)

1-3

 

Amazing Fantasy

15

 

Amazing Spider-man

1-40, 47-56, 96-98, 100, 122, 129

Annuals 1, 2

 

Avengers

1-11

Annuals 1-3

 

Batman

29

 

Conan the Barbarian

1-10

 

Crime Illustrated

1,2

 

Daredevil

1-5

 

Fantastic Four

1-22, 48-50

Annuals 1-6

 

second FF Collection:

Fantastic Four

3-50, 73, 116, 120, 122

Annuals 1, 2

 

House of Secrets

92

 

Incredible Hulk

2-6, 180, 181

 

Journey Into Mystery

83-104, 108, 109, 111, 112

Annual 1

 

Marvel Spotlight

3-9

 

Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos

1,2

 

Silver Surfer

1

 

Special Marvel Edition

15, 16

 

Strange Tales

101-111

Annuals 1,2

 

Sub-mariner (1968)

1-13

 

Tales of Suspense

39-45

 

X-Men

1-6

 

These were the original 1960's onward series, not any of the various later relaunch/reboot versions.

I've been to a couple conventions since the theft, and apart from something sorta uncommon, like one of the signed comics, it's amazing how similar any of the hundreds (thousands?) of unslabbed copies of these same books can look on the wall behind a dealer's table. I suppose my 49 year old eyes aren't as sharp as they once were, either.

Out of the couple hundred books stolen, I'm confident I could ID a few with a degree of reliability, but the only one that would rise to 100% certainty is this: one of the two good condition FF #1's is signed by Stan Lee on page one, AND has a child's handwriting defacing part of page four. On the Thing reveal page, a kid wrote "Mr. Jenkins" (or a similar surname) in pencil with an arrow pointing toward the rampaging ugly ol' Ben Grimm. That wasn't revealed as a defect (and I missed it) when I bought the comic in the 1990s, and it obvioulsy bummed me out. But now, I'm glad it's there as an identifier. Or maybe, it's bumming out some new owner all over again.

Thanks, all!

Pax,

Sean

 

I'm sorry for your loss... You had some really nice books there. :cry:

 

To everyone else though, let this be a learning experience. My comics are insured and the insurance company made the following recommendations to me.

 

- Take pictures of every valuable book now.

- Those older books usually have flaws. By having pictures of the book, people will be able to identify your book. Even if they are raw or have been removed from the slab by the thief.

- Save those pictures to "the cloud." Because if you lose your house to fire or flood, there is a chance the computer you save info on will be lost too. Plus, your computer could be stolen as well. They recommended e-mailing the pictures to yourself. I use www.myslabbedcomics.com

- If you do get robbed, send those pictures (or link to album) immediately to all your local comic shops. As someone stated earlier, that's the 1st place they are likely to be sold.

- The insurance company didn't say this one, but post pics here too. The boards have a ton of internet detectives that might find your book if the thieves try to sell them online.

- Save a receipt for all your expensive purchases to prove ownership as well. If you pay by PayPal, those records should still be there in your history.

 

Again, sorry for your loss. That's just awful.

 

 

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budsbundy

budsbundy

Posted
Posted

You mentioned you have an idea of who took them

 

 

So who do you think took them? (you don't have to say their name if you don't want, just "A friend from work" or something like that)

And how do you think they got them?

Break in?

You mentioned that you should have a lock on your comic room door, so was this a roommate or relative?

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catrick339

catrick339

Posted
Posted

Sounds as bad as what happened to my buddy Roger.

 

Roger has a comics/toys/cards shop, and a few years back his daughter was dating an oaf who was actually stealing out of Rogers collection (at home, while visiting) and taking the stolen goods to Roger's shop and selling them BACK to him.

 

Now THAT takes a real set of stones.

 

Of course it wasn't long before the oaf brought in an item that Roger recognized as something he already owned, and the jig was up. Oaf banned from house and store, and daughter, sadder but wiser, looking for a new boyfriend.

 

Hope it's not close friends or family that has been thieving, but it's a story that happens occasionally....sigh...

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jop

jop

Posted
Posted

Per PM I have the new digital copy but nothing will allow a screen capture of a page not even save to file.

 

Printing the page and either mailing them to you or as I did scanning them and sending you a link was the only way I was able to think of something.

 

If anyone else knows another way I would be glad to listen or try it.

 

Another thought would take some work on your part but comicbookrealm.com has an excellent inventory that shows values, covers and a lot more. Their estimates seem to be pretty forward. comicspriceguide.com also has the same thing but their pricing is super high imo.

 

GPA analysis also is nice for your slabbed books just checking a button adds it to your collection.

 

 

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Flint Ironstag

Flint Ironstag

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Hello friends,

I just tried it out with last year's digital Overstreet on my desktop. It seemed to work OK, although I'm on an iMac computer here at home, so there might be some dissimilarities in how screenshots work based on platforms.

 

I opened the 42nd Edition Overstreet that I got from Heritage last year, it's in a kind of modified PDF file called a PDC file (not sure what the difference is). I then opened "preview," the Mac image viewing app, clicked "take screen shot from selection" and it seemed to work OK.

 

One thing that does wrankle a bit... the download from Heritage has some kind of copy protection... at least they say it does... that limits the Overstreet file to being opened on just one computer. That seems kind of crummy... seems to me like I should be able to also put it on my phone or something, to take to conventions.

 

I appreciate your taking a shot at it... it sounds like maybe their copy protection is more cooperative with PC than Mac, so something is scuttling your attempts at screengrabs. Unless there's a simpler fix (or perhaps a Mac user with the digital version chimes in?), I'll thank you for the effort you've already expended, and go ahead and send Heritage $30 for this year's download, and make the screencaps here at home.

 

Being a guy who... perhaps neurotically (lol) likes to save as much money as I can to spend on my hobby, I thought I'd see about help with screencaps here on the forum (and on the yahoo comicartl, where I got zero responses), before buying another copy of this year's price guide (in addition to the softcover version I already have but can't open wide enough to scan): a digital version that I can only open on my desktop, and will likely just use once for this insurance thing. But, what must be done, must be done, I reckon!

 

Thanks again!

Pax,

Sean

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jop

jop

Posted
Posted
just hit the print screen button and paste it to MSpaint (or even and excel/word file).

 

Doug,

 

Doesn't work. printscreen,nothing even the most obscure editors it shuts down as soon as 1 appears.

 

More protection on this 30 buck software than on the 2000 photoshop or many others I know.

 

1 ;license only. can not change to laptop or anything what you installed on is it.

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