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Would never post a topic:

Started by nwpassage,

115 posts in this topic

shadroch

shadroch

Posted
Posted
Not in the same ballpark, but I bought a Hulk 271 off the boards as a raw 9.4 and after getting it pressed and graded it came back a 9.8. I sent the seller half the difference between my cost (price + pressing fee + grading fee) and the price of a 9.8 at the time. Partially that's because I decided it was out of focus for me and I wanted to offload it to get some things that were in focus for me. I would hope I would do the same if the comic was a Detective #27.

 

That's nuts. If you bought a house off somebody, spent $50,000 fixing it up and sold it

for a $150,000 profit, would you send the old owner a check for half your profit?

 

I sold a board member 50 X-Men 156s. Said they were all 9.0s or better. He sent 15 in for grading and a few came back 9.8s. I wouldn't dream of taking money from him even if he offered it, which he didn't.

 

 

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Westy Steve

Westy Steve

Posted
Posted

What's interesting in the box scenario is what the law says. Or at least my understanding of the law from a course I took in B-school a couple decades ago.

 

If one party knows the value of something, the transaction is valid. But if neither party knows the value of something, the transaction can be legally reversed. So if the seller reads about you in the newspaper discussing your discovery, he could claim that neither party knew the full value of the contents of the box and sue you for it.

 

Yeah, it's wierd. You can legally rip someone off and there is nothing they can do about it. But if the buyer and the seller both make a mistake, the sale can be reversed. So if you ever buy an old painting at a yard sale, and it has a copy of the U.S. Constitution hidden behind it, you're going to have to prove that you knew it was there all along....or keep it really quiet.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted
What's interesting in the box scenario is what the law says. Or at least my understanding of the law from a course I took in B-school a couple decades ago.

 

If one party knows the value of something, the transaction is valid. But if neither party knows the value of something, the transaction can be legally reversed. So if the seller reads about you in the newspaper discussing your discovery, he could claim that neither party knew the full value of the contents of the box and sue you for it.

 

Yeah, it's wierd. You can legally rip someone off and there is nothing they can do about it. But if the buyer and the seller both make a mistake, the sale can be reversed. So if you ever buy an old painting at a yard sale, and it has a copy of the U.S. Constitution hidden behind it, you're going to have to prove that you knew it was there all along....or keep it really quiet.

 

I don't think that's quite how it works. In that case, it wasn't the painting that had value, but what was hidden inside.

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thunsicker

thunsicker

Posted
Posted
Not in the same ballpark, but I bought a Hulk 271 off the boards as a raw 9.4 and after getting it pressed and graded it came back a 9.8. I sent the seller half the difference between my cost (price + pressing fee + grading fee) and the price of a 9.8 at the time. Partially that's because I decided it was out of focus for me and I wanted to offload it to get some things that were in focus for me. I would hope I would do the same if the comic was a Detective #27.

 

That's nuts. If you bought a house off somebody, spent $50,000 fixing it up and sold it

for a $150,000 profit, would you send the old owner a check for half your profit?

 

I sold a board member 50 X-Men 156s. Said they were all 9.0s or better. He sent 15 in for grading and a few came back 9.8s. I wouldn't dream of taking money from him even if he offered it, which he didn't.

 

 

I don't know. I don't buy houses to flip so I don't have a frame of reference on that. I don't buy comics to flip either. I get paid pretty well to develop software and comics are just a hobby to me, not a business or investment.

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RockMyAmadeus

RockMyAmadeus

Posted
Posted

I was wandering in the Sahara desert one day, and I saw a shiny glint in the distance. I struggled up the dune to where I had seen the reflection in the noonday sun. Thankfully, it was December, so the temperatures were only in the lower 100s.

 

As I approached the spot, I spied something that looked oddly like an oil lamp, of polished bronze, with a handle on one end, and a small opening on the other.

 

I reached to pick up the lamp, and dusted it off. As my hand brushed the desert sand from the sides, I felt the lamp get very warm, and an odd green light began to slowly emanate from the opening, as a mist.

 

In shock, I dropped the lamp at my feet and backed away. As I stood, watching in a mixture of fascination and trepidation, the green light and mist congealed in the form of a man! The man had ancient Middle Eastern features and garb, and his lower half remained an indistinct mass of light, still attached to the lamp.

 

"Thank you, Mortal" the man said, "for you have released me from my thousand year prison inside the lamp. Now, what do you wish, and it shall be yours? You may make of me three wishes, of anything that your heart may possibly desire."

 

Now, my question is this: do I have to track down the original owner of the lamp, and split the wishes with him? Who gets the third wish? What if the owner didn't know what he had? Am I obligated to tell him? If I wish for world domination and unlimited riches, do I have to ethically share those with him?

 

hm

 

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

Posted
Posted
Not in the same ballpark, but I bought a Hulk 271 off the boards as a raw 9.4 and after getting it pressed and graded it came back a 9.8. I sent the seller half the difference between my cost (price + pressing fee + grading fee) and the price of a 9.8 at the time. Partially that's because I decided it was out of focus for me and I wanted to offload it to get some things that were in focus for me. I would hope I would do the same if the comic was a Detective #27.

 

That's nuts. If you bought a house off somebody, spent $50,000 fixing it up and sold it

for a $150,000 profit, would you send the old owner a check for half your profit?

 

I sold a board member 50 X-Men 156s. Said they were all 9.0s or better. He sent 15 in for grading and a few came back 9.8s. I wouldn't dream of taking money from him even if he offered it, which he didn't.

 

 

Funny you mention that. I do not want to be too specific but you may be able to figure out who I am talking about. A Long Island comic dealer was closing up shop. Toward the end, he could not be bothered with the store anymore so the offer was to fill up short boxes or long boxes for $15 or $20 a pop or whatever crazy price it was. You could go digging through the back issues and take whatever you wanted.

 

I did not feel comfortable doing that as I had known the store owner for years. His long term employees eventually pulled me aside and made a point that the sale applied to everyone, that this was the end, and that everyone else was doing it. I walked out with ten long boxes of comics. I pulled out Silver Age books, X-Men from 150-300, a ton of ASM bronze and copper and anything else I could find that might be worth something. I went on eBay in 2009 and 2010 and sold it all along with a lot of other things raising enough cash to pay off some lingering student loans and I bought an AF 15 at NYCC that year with a little bit of cash left over. Whatever the store owner did not sell, Mike Carbo came with a tractor trailer and picked it up.

 

According to one of his former employee, a few years later, that store owner approached him as he was having a comic and toy / garage sale and saw people spending money on stuff that the guy picked up as the store was closing. He yelled at the employee that he was selling "his" (the store owners) books and that he believed that the books would be kept in that collection forever.

 

I did not feel bad at all nor feel indebted. I put a LOT of work into flipping those long boxes. Everyone gets one score apparently and that was mine. But as was pointed out, I took the risk of taking in all of those long boxes, I took the risk of selling the items and traveling to the Post Office to drop them off. The risk was mine, the reward was as well.

 

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
Not in the same ballpark, but I bought a Hulk 271 off the boards as a raw 9.4 and after getting it pressed and graded it came back a 9.8. I sent the seller half the difference between my cost (price + pressing fee + grading fee) and the price of a 9.8 at the time. Partially that's because I decided it was out of focus for me and I wanted to offload it to get some things that were in focus for me. I would hope I would do the same if the comic was a Detective #27.

 

That's nuts. If you bought a house off somebody, spent $50,000 fixing it up and sold it

for a $150,000 profit, would you send the old owner a check for half your profit?

 

I sold a board member 50 X-Men 156s. Said they were all 9.0s or better. He sent 15 in for grading and a few came back 9.8s. I wouldn't dream of taking money from him even if he offered it, which he didn't.

 

 

Funny you mention that. I do not want to be too specific but you may be able to figure out who I am talking about. A Long Island comic dealer was closing up shop. Toward the end, he could not be bothered with the store anymore so the offer was to fill up short boxes or long boxes for $15 or $20 a pop or whatever crazy price it was. You could go digging through the back issues and take whatever you wanted.

 

I did not feel comfortable doing that as I had known the store owner for years. His long term employees eventually pulled me aside and made a point that the sale applied to everyone, that this was the end, and that everyone else was doing it. I walked out with ten long boxes of comics. I pulled out Silver Age books, X-Men from 150-300, a ton of ASM bronze and copper and anything else I could find that might be worth something. I went on eBay in 2009 and 2010 and sold it all along with a lot of other things raising enough cash to pay off some lingering student loans and I bought an AF 15 at NYCC that year with a little bit of cash left over. Whatever the store owner did not sell, Mike Carbo came with a tractor trailer and picked it up.

 

According to one of his former employee, a few years later, that store owner approached him as he was having a comic and toy / garage sale and saw people spending money on stuff that the guy picked up as the store was closing. He yelled at the employee that he was selling "his" (the store owners) books and that he believed that the books would be kept in that collection forever.

 

I did not feel bad at all nor feel indebted. I put a LOT of work into flipping those long boxes. Everyone gets one score apparently and that was mine. But as was pointed out, I took the risk of taking in all of those long boxes, I took the risk of selling the items and traveling to the Post Office to drop them off. The risk was mine, the reward was as well.

Tell him his beliefs were not in the contract. The contract was, you pick out what you want and buy em for specified price.

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Artboy99

Artboy99

Posted
Posted

This topic again? Ok.

 

If I ask someone how much the box of comics is and we agree on $50.00 I have paid them the price they asked for. Done deal. It doesn't matter what I get in the purchase or from taking the time to sell it as the books now belong to me. I have nothing further to do with the seller.

 

If the people that own it ask me what it is worth before I buy it that is a different scenario. Do I take the time to offer my advice and do so with no compensation for the time I have spent learning about this hobby/ market and learning how to grade books? Is it my moral obligation to tell anyone what something is worth whether it is a box of dollar books or a box of mint condition Action 1's?

 

Some feel they need to do what they feel is right and tell people what the books are worth and compensate the previous owner with a percentage of the proceeds. Others will take the money and run.

 

You need to determine what type of person you are. After all you are the person who has to live with your decision.

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Buzzetta

Buzzetta

Posted
Posted
Carbo :cloud9:

 

He was dressed like a combination of Dr Who and Indiana Jones as he swung off the truck and started running around like Jack Sparrow just pointing to things that he was taking.

 

It was bizarre.

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kav

kav

Posted
Posted
Carbo :cloud9:

 

He was dressed like a combination of Dr Who and Indiana Jones as he swung off the truck and started running around like Jack Sparrow just pointing to things that he was taking.

 

It was bizarre.

Wait-what?

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