True stories from the trenches of Craigslist.

[1Cool]

We hear so many stories about people stumbling on the mother-load of books which they get for a steal. But what did you find in your last Craigslist ads? Here are the results of the last few responses to my Craigslist ad to buy books.

 

1. Last week a guy called and said he had several hundred books which ranged from 10 cent to today. I met him at a local library and he brought a long box of complete drek. Best book was a VG Black Panther 9 which I almost bought just to not go home empty handed. I think 10 cent meant the price of his average book. Waste of an hour with drive time.

 

2. Got a call and had the guy send me pictures of his books. Stack of 90s drek but his Dad supposedly has a collection of older books. No response to my e-mails about the older books.

 

3. Met a guy yesterday at a nearby mall and he had a briefcase full of pretty nice books. He had a nice X-Men 25 and some graded mid-grade Marvel Familys so I offered him $275 for the set. He countered with $700 and would not budge. I showed him some of the previous sales for his books and totaled it up to be $400 max retail price. We parted ways.

 

4. Got an e-mail with the following picture today. He asked if I was interested and I had to decline due to the condition of the books. He wrote back that only a couple were banged up but the rest were mint. I don't see many mint books in the set:

 

 

I definitely have learned to ask for some pictures before driving anywhere to check out books. What has your last couple experiences been?

[MetalPSI]

First rule of Craigslist is never to go to Craigslist

[Boba]

a couple were banged up

Hence, the mattress

[snowman28]

Your experiences about sum up mine as well. I've given up on Craiglist, although I know many people have great scores.

[Diamonddave]

In the northern Il area it is a dead zone on CL. There is just nothing worth going to see. I just saw an ad for a F+ copy of Xmen 124 for the reasonable sum of $300.

[1Cool]

I was told that the key was to post several ads so people come to you with the collections. Its only been a few weeks but a complete waste of time so far.

[ImagineComics-migration]

I definitely have had way more bad experiences than good ones buying books through Craigslist. Spent a lot of time and effort looking a small collections that were in horrible condition who wanted 3 times the value for them. However I did get extremely lucky once. There was an ad posted in the free section. After an estate sale the family after taking what they wanted and selling what they could posted that the remnants of the estate sale where available for free. They listed household goods, furniture, and old books. I figured old books I can sell so I went by. There was 4 good size boxes of books so I took them all. At the bottom of the one box there was 40 or so comics, obviously not in the best of condition but there was a Avengers #4 that I got graded and came as 2.5 not a bad pick up for something left out to be taken or thrown away.

[Aweandlorder]

Craigslist requires work, patience, dedication and.. Cautious. If you think youre gonna check a collection once a week or every other week and score soon youre dead wrong.

@ the OP, looks like youre doing it right, dont give up, sooner or later youll come across something good and the price will be right.

There are many things to watch for on craigslist, first and foremost is crazy people (obviously) just like its not often you come across a score, you also dont come across whackos, but that doesnt mean they dont exist.

I refuse to go to peoples houses even if they sound nice and sane, so meeting outdoors (as the OP did here) at malls etc is wise. Another is to watch for bugs, dust-mites, yes, even bed bugs.. I always wear rubber gloves when going through a collection and change my clothes before walking back home. A friend of mine got that once out of a textbook lot purchase, needless to say, he paid a very very dear price.

Im not suggesting craigslist is bad, but one needs to be extra careful before meeting with potential deals.

Good luck!!

[gadzukes]

I had some good scores on Craigslist about 2 years ago. Superman 2,3,4,6,12, Batman 2, 3, 6 all in mid grade. I bought a huge collection of Omnibus & Absolute editions for almost nothing.

 

But in the last year there's been nothing but drek, and I've given up posting my wanted ads because there's 100 other wanted ads being listed.

[AGGIEZ]

First rule of Craigslist is never to go to Craigslist

 

 

[jsilverjanet]

In the northern Il area it is a dead zone on CL. There is just nothing worth going to see. I just saw an ad for a F+ copy of Xmen 124 for the reasonable sum of $300.

+1

 

Everyone stay away of Illinois

[FineCollector]

We Canadians have Kijiji. Craigslist is where you go to meet hookers... or so I'm told!

[jsilverjanet]

We Canadians have Kijiji. Craigslist is where you go to meet hookers... or so I'm told!

[dpiercy]

My experiences w/craigslist have been mostly very good as a seller. I've sold TVs, tablets, furniture, no comics though.

 

My one great experience was a Harley Quinn 1, Hughes variant that I got for $55 that I flipped for a nice sum. It was in beautiful shape, but had a miniscule spine tick that I couldn't see until it was at an angle and under bright lights or I would have got it slabbed.

 

Most sellers on craigslist over value their books to the point of ridiculousness. Folks will have a chip on their shoulder when you try to negotiate as well, if you don't like what I offer, counter, don't get pissed off.

[bighairjer]

Lots of work for sure, but my best finds have been through CL. In the past year and a half Ive found three Hulk 181s, some real nice early Spideys and many bronze keys. Ive even made some friends along the way (not the folks FineCollector is referring to). Lots of DBags out there for sure but persistence pays off. The hunt is the exciting part for me. Good luck and stay out of Illinois as Hector "The Shark" has marked his territory.

[Tiger Topher]

Dealing with people on Craigslist and Kijiji is often a waste of time, but it can sometimes lead to awesome scores. I've managed to get great deals on comics, toys and statues thanks to people I've met on those sites. One awesome find can make you forget all about those sellers who think their '90s books are worth a fortune because they're bagged and boarded.

[Gatsby77]

I find decent scores about once every 9 months.

 

Last one was a month ago, a solid 3k book collection of 2nd-3rd tier Bronze & Copper. No books after 1989, and had been picked through, but these were all $2-$6 books, bagged/boarded in alphanumeric order, for $.15 a piece.

 

Biggest "keys" (i.e., left over from the first three folks who'd picked it over) included ASM 135, Night Nurse 1-4, The Shadow 1-10, Akira 1-10, others.

 

I threw them into storage & will re-visit in 5 years.

[Chip Cataldo]

This year has been a banner one for me as far as Craigslist finds. I go after anything collectible I think I can flip...not just comics & related stuff. If I see something I don't know about, I research it like hell and then see how much I can make. I did that for those baseball statues I scored when I previously knew nothing about them and am already at 3x my investment just on that deal with many statues left to sell.

 

You have to be borderline obsessive about it and it works it you keep at it constantly. There's always someone selling something you can make money on.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

[1Cool]

This year has been a banner one for me as far as Craigslist finds. I go after anything collectible I think I can flip...not just comics & related stuff. If I see something I don't know about, I research it like hell and then see how much I can make. I did that for those baseball statues I scored when I previously knew nothing about them and am already at 3x my investment just on that deal with many statues left to sell.

 

You have to be borderline obsessive about it and it works it you keep at it constantly. There's always someone selling something you can make money on.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

 

Watching your successes this year was what prompted me to put together my Craigslist ad. But it sounds like you literally have to make scanning craigslist your job or else there will be 10 other guys in line ahead of you for the books. I'll re-new my ads to see what pops up before the holidays but with 10 people already posting ads in the Cleveland area its gotten ridiculous.

[Pete Marino]

I've only went out and met Craigslist people a few times.

 

1 was kind of a bust. I bought some comics and when I got them home they were mostly in worse condition than I expected. Maybe broken even, or made a few $$, but defiantly lost when you add in sweat equity.

 

The second, I was able to cherry pick a guy's collection and after getting everything slabbed and i'm almost done selling through all of it, I maybe made about 5-7x what I paid him?

 

The last was a guy that said he had tons of great old comics, drove about an hour with my family to check it out. Other people had picked through his stuff, and what he had left looked like it had been sitting in a leaky attic for years. Everything was water damaged and moldy.