What's the biggest opportunity (buy) missed you’ve ever had offered to you.

[Nefaria]

Around 1975 I was playing cards in the dining room with my wife and parents. I got a phone call from a prospective seller trying to sell me a couple comics. They were Detective #27 and some other key issue like the first Flash or First Green Lantern. I'm not certain what the second comic was, but I remember the first one for sure. Detective #27 in a described condition that would have been between Fine and Very Fine. At the time I was pretty young, about 24. I had two kids and was being laid off from time to time from GM. So I had to pass. All the details I can remember was some guy was trying to sell these comics that his dad had owned, but had recently passed away. The price wasn't fixed, he was trying to get me to make him an offer but he did mention $500 and I could have them. I used to get a few offers like this (well never this good of an offer again) because I used to advertise and correspond with dealers in the old newspaper style CBG.

 

What's your story?

Clare

[jbud73]

No where near 'tec 27 territory, but ....

 

When I was about 17 I bought a HG run of ASM 200-250 from a local dealer. He let me look through his stocks and cherry pick each book. Cost me about $150 Canadian (about $3 a book), he then asked me if I wanted to look through 100-200 and take copies I wanted for $4 a book, roughly $400. He even offered a payment plan and lay away. But I passed because I was saving for tuition for college.

 

stupid over priced education got me again.

[500]

Something like 8,000 comics for a hundred bucks, contact with the seller was lost.

[thanos_oftitan]

Something like 8,000 comics for a hundred bucks, contact with the seller was lost.

 

 

Try 4000 golden age books for about three grand, my contact with the seller DIED !!!!!

[blutobc]

Amazing Fantasy #15

Missed it just this past week.

A local dealer picked up a sweet glossy VF copy this past week on consignment. Normally he lets me look through his new pickups and will hold a few books for me to pay as I can. But this time he says the guy doesn't want to wait over a month for payment so it's going straight to ebay.

[Wally's Comics]

AF#15 in NM that my father wouldn't let me spend the $200 I had of my own

hard earned money in 1980.

 

 

 

[nik]

Back in 88 while driving through PA to a wedding stopped at a local LCS. The man had original art on the wall. First time I saw OA and thought it was pretty cool. The pages were $25, Splash Pages were $55 and covers were $125, they were all Byrne pages. I picked up a couple of pages for 25 each and passed on the covers and splashes

[ablue]

Back in 1986 I was offered an Action #1 in NM unrestored by Comics and Stories

Joe Mannarino for $21,000. In 1987 I was offered Action #1 and Superman #1 by

Fantazia Dupchek for $2500.00 and $1400.00. I did purchase a Captain America #1 in vg for $850.00 back then but I could not come up with the cash for the others as I was still in High school.

[Kermit the frog]

well how about a full run n°1-100 of savage sword of conan in great/perfect shape at around 3$ each (this was some 5 years ago and i was broke), or even a gorgeous AMS n°96, 101, 300 at a pretty low price (from the same seller).

 

but all in all, i've had very few situations like this and had great opportunities/deals made over the last few years...!!!

 

so the good out weights by far the bad...

[JohnBull]

Action 1 in around gd+ for £1050 around 1981. The £50 was probably there to be knocked off, but a grand was a lot of money for me back then. The price was nothing exceptional, but there have never been too many copies of this book in England.

[Norrin_Radd]

Hi Clare,

 

There have been several "regret" threads on the boards and they are fun reading.

 

Here is my personal favorite with RedHook's classis tale "Severin, M.". Enjoy!

 

Biggest Regret

 

 

As far as my biggest missed opportunity....

 

Getting outbid on a Marvel Spotlight #2 in 9.6 (highest graded) in 2002. It ended up selling for over $700, which was too much money for me to spend at the time. It's probably worth double that today.

 

Another regret is that I sold an USM #1 White cover 9.8 for $450 and they are now $1200.

[Norrin_Radd]

Another regret was missing out on the prelim cover to Spotlight #2. It was up for sale on eBay in 2003, but I lost to Kasra Ghanbari. Sold for $350 I believe.

 

 

[nearmint]

About 22 years ago, I was offered the Church copy of Batman #20. I desperately wanted it, but didn't have the cash. I allow myself two minutes to weep about it every day.

[Scrooge]

Back in 88 while driving through PA to a wedding stopped at a local LCS. The man had original art on the wall. First time I saw OA and thought it was pretty cool. The pages were $25, Splash Pages were $55 and covers were $125, they were all Byrne pages. I picked up a couple of pages for 25 each and passed on the covers and splashes

 

It's funny Norrin posted the link to the previous thread because here's what Nikos said then:

 

"Back in 89 while driving through PA, I only bought a couple of Byrne art pages for $25 each, and passed on splash pages for $50 and afew covers for $75 each"

 

Now you can kick yourself about twice as hard because the covers really were much cheaper than $125

[nik]

Man I would gladly pay 5x for it now. Especially when I sold the the 2 pages on Ebay a year ago for over $600 a piece.

 

Art was something brand new to me at that time and really had no idea what kind of value it would have in the future.

[bobel]

Buying pot with the books I sold in 1981 and not Microsoft stock

[gozer]

>> Buying pot with the books I sold in 1981 and not Microsoft stock

 

D**n you! You made me snort Dr. Pepper out of my nose onto the keyboard.

 

I've only got one "missed deal" story -- was at a farm auction in Podunk Oregon

a few years ago, and one of the items was a LARGE cardboard box filled to

the brim with nice silver-age. Totally unexpected -- this place had tractor parts.

 

The rub was, the auction was cash only, they weren't set up to handle credit

cards, and no money machine within 20 miles. I had (for me at the time) a lot

of money on me, about $300. And even though there were only about 20

people there, someone knew what was happening, because when the comics

came up for bid, within 15 seconds the bid was at 4 figures, so bye-bye comics.

 

At least I learned to carry a bit more cash when I think there will be possibilities.

 

I'll send you a bill for the keyboard.

 

gozer

-------------------------

Fat Tony is a cancer on this fair city. He is the cancer, and I am

the ... uhhh ... what cures cancer?

[garthgantu]

Well, I passed by more than a few copies of 'Tec 27 and Action 1, among others, at BayCon 1 in '75 that I could have purchased for as little as $200 or so. These were mid-grade copies, the better ones were in the $500 range as I recall.

 

I also remember one seller holding up a copy of Richie Rich #1 in what he claimed was "Mint" condition, for which he was asking $100. I think it guided for maybe $50 or $100 in Mint at the time. People were laughing as they walked by and the guy shouted "it's only going to go up!" Harveys were pretty much the lowest form of comics - in the eyes of most collectors - in those days.

[Stronguy]

Another regret was missing out on the prelim cover to Spotlight #2. It was up for sale on eBay in 2003, but I lost to Kasra Ghanbari. Sold for $350 I believe.

 

 

 

I love that "For THURS of THIS WEEK and year."

Adams was nortious for turning in stuff late back then (not that it ever got much better).

[Stronguy]

Back in the late '70s I got a call from a guy who wanted to move some of his dad's old comics. He was some sort of artist and the place was junked with them. He said there was a closet and a basement full and I could have them for practically nothing.

 

I was living several hundred miles away at the time but I decided give it a look-see. Well, as luck would have it I was about half way across Texas and my car broke down. To get it repaired I had to work at the garage doing odd jobs until I could pay for the parts -- I also had to do my own repairs. That took the better part of 2 weeks.

 

So, I got back on the road and continued my trip. 20 hours later I was there. Just as I pulled up in front of the seller's house I saw an old beater van pulling away with some hippie-looking guy at the wheel. The van looked really loaded down and the smell of pot was really strong. As I approched the house I noticed a bunch of broken pottery almost like the guy in the van had thrown it out in a big hurry.

 

Anyway, the old man's son was there but there were no books to be found. The son told me that the hippie guy showed up and paid him 5¢ a book. Then he loaded them into a bunch of chicken boxes and dug around in the trash for awhile. He said that 5¢ a book was a lot less than what he wanted but the hippie guy offered to blow him and give him some pot. Since he hadn't heard from me in 2 weeks he went ahead and took him up on his offer.

 

Dunno what ever happened to that family or the hippie guy. I hear that he started a comic shop and sell stuff online. Guess I'll have to look him up the next time I'm in Colorado.