The Tale of the estate sale Silver Age DC find

[90sChild]

I've long been searching for that estate sale or garage sale find where someone is selling off that old dusty comic collection that's been sitting around. Up to this point I had never found any sale like that with comics. Today, I thought that day had finally come.

 

On Wednesday, I had found an online estate sale listing which showed a nice selection of DC .12 centers. Although I was mostly a Marvel collector, I knew you couldn't go wrong with books like Justice League of America, Green Lantern, Atom, etc. That day I spent several hours looking up all the books and cross-referencing the covers so I could learn what issues I was looking at. I recognized the classic Green Lantern #76 immediately, but not many others. Upon closer inspection, I saw the edge of a Jimmy Olsen #134 that was at the bottom of a pile, the right edge sticking out just enough for me to recognize it.

I recorded my list with all the books and their values in 9.2 grade price. Knowing full well the books would not be in that shape, I thought it at least gave me a reference point on what was worthwhile. If everything was in 4.0 or below I figured 10% of the total might be a reasonable figure.

List is here:

 

 

Action comics #411 $40

 

*Atom #7 $550 all gill kane

Atom #8 $280

Atom #9 $250

Atom #10 $250

 

Brave & Bold #50 $400

 

Green Lantern #19 $400 gil kane cover

*Green Lantern #76 $2,700 (torn) neal adams

Green Lantern #86 $235 neal adams

Green Lantern #89 $160 (crucifix) neal adams

 

JLA #17 $560

JLA #35 $210

JLA #38 $270

JLA #40 $210

 

Jimmy Olsen #108 $30

Jimmy Olsen #109 $30

Jimmy Olsen #112 $30

Jimmy Olsen #115 $30

Jimmy Olsen #125 $25

*Jimmy Olsen #134 $500 Darkseid

 

Lois Lane #42 $120

Lois Lane #99 $40

 

Superman #267 $25

Superman #274 $24

 

all $30

Superboy #160 neal adams

Superboy #163 neal adams

Superboy #166 neal adams

Superboy #171

Superboy #176 neal adams

Superboy #181

 

 

Now it's Friday morning and I'm ready to go out on the hunt. The sale starts at 10 AM, so I made sure to arrive at 9 AM to get an early spot in line. There were less than 10 people in front of me, and none of them looked like comic buyers. After some brief conversation, nobody else was expressing interest. Great! I thought, this will be easy, I can just take everything and worry about prices later.

I'm in the first group let through the door, I ask who looked like the manager where the comics were in the house, he hesitated slightly, but about 5 seconds later replies with "All the paper stuff is in that back bedroom".

I run in there, noting only one other person in the room. A nice older lady who was going through some old novel hardcover books that couldn't be bothered. On an upper shelf, I saw a nicely squared up pile of undisturbed comics. It clearly indicated to me that nobody else had picked up or gone through them yet. It's a short pile, maybe 10 books tall. The first book on top is a Jimmy Olsen. My first thought is this should be a bigger pile, but maybe I'll still see that Jimmy Olsen #134 in there.

 

I flip through one at a time, each book a non-surprising reveal of a low end Jimmy Olsen, some Lois Lane books, then I started seeing Archie stuff. I had reached the bottom of the pile. Not a single book I thought was interesting to be found. I quickly asked the estate manager where the rest of the comics were. He repeated "all paper books or comics are all in that back room". I explained that surely I am the only person who has gone through the comics, and the books advertised were not there. He gets defensive and scrambles for an excuse, "Maybe somebody else got to them first". I quickly run through the rest of the house just making sure they weren't anywhere else, while looking to see if any other buyers had comics in there hands. I come up with nothing, no other books and no other buyers with books. I confront the manager again and explain how it wouldn't be possible for any other buyers to have the books, I also note on the cashier's receipt list that nobody had payed for items yet.

 

More excuses start flying, anything not here has been sold already, if you don't see it then it's sold. I notice some boxes behind their employee table, ask them to show me what is in the boxes. I am ignored and offered no reasonable explanation for why the advertised items were missing. I thought how could they have been sold if I was one of the first through the door. Manager continues to get defensive and refuses to show me any of the items hid behind the counter or under the tables. I give up, realizing that I had just been made a fool of by some small-time estate manager. The two possible outcomes were 1. He kept the books for himself after looking them up on ebay, and pulled them from the auction. 2. Some other dealer contacted him before the opening of the sale, offered a large sum for the books and they were pulled before the doors ever opened.

I wanted to scream "You know bait and switch is illegal right?" and storm out, but instead I turned away, avoiding any further confrontation and left with my head down. Either way, I felt that my quest to find a decent group of old comics from any type of local sale had been squashed again. Unfortunately I have no happy ending to the story. I do have a greater appreciation for DC books than I did before. My Marvel collection has mostly neglected owning any type of DC books, in fact the only DC book I own is a wrightson Swamp Thing #9 I picked up for the sheer beauty of the cover. Hope you could get some small enjoyment out of the story anyway. You never know what you're gonna get. Oh well, onward and upwards!

 

Listing is here, still advertising the books in their full glory. Images of the comics are about halfway down the page.

https://www.estatesales.net/MI/Farmington/48336/1384101

 

 

[sd2416]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

 

[1Cool]

Demanding to see merchandise not for sale will never go over well in any selling venue. Sorry you missed out on some cool books I'd have just moved on when the manager said they must have sold already. Unless they said they would hold the books for you I'd have been disappointed but not pissed they were gone.

[october]

That sucks, but doesn't seem like you missed much. The GL 76 was pretty well trashed.

[90sChild]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

This place operated with no sense of ethics. The manager lied to my face several times and tried to cover up the fact he was pulling a bait & switch. Sure I am the bad guy.

 

That sucks, but doesn't seem like you missed much. The GL 76 was pretty well trashed.

Yeah I figured worth $10-20 tops?

My other favorite was the Atom #7 with Hawkman and UFO cover.

[seanfingh]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

 

There is no way I could disagree more. A guy should be able to vent about getting screwed on what was supposed to be a public auction/sale of comics. I think he comes off as a regular Joe, and I would have had exactly the same reaction - don't make a scene, steam off, try and get a little sympathy from like-minded comic nerds.

[revat]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

 

There is no way I could disagree more. A guy should be able to vent about getting screwed on what was supposed to be a public auction/sale of comics. I think he comes off as a regular Joe, and I would have had exactly the same reaction - don't make a scene, steam off, try and get a little sympathy from like-minded comic nerds.

 

+1

 

 

I might have pushed a little more. Asked for a name or business card, and told him I was going to yelp about it and place a complaint to the better business bureau, and call his manager. Of course act politely and non-threateningly at all times. Take a picture of the comics that were there, and post the ones from the ad as evidence.

 

But I will say that on occasion I've heard of estate sale people letting in their buddies to buy stuff the day or night before. The company and original owner still get the money, and the company tells customers the next day that the family changed their mind about selling those items and pulled them out. That's not ethical either, of course, but at least they respect you enough to make a decent lie.

[CKB]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

 

There is no way I could disagree more. A guy should be able to vent about getting screwed on what was supposed to be a public auction/sale of comics. I think he comes off as a regular Joe, and I would have had exactly the same reaction - don't make a scene, steam off, try and get a little sympathy from like-minded comic nerds.

 

Yeah I don't get it either. If you show up first at a store to get a widely advertised item you don't expect the employees to have run them out of stock. And if it does happen I would at least expect to be told the truth (or a passable lie) by the manager.... And I sure expect a ton of butthurt about it posted here...

 

 

[90sChild]

Thanks for the support. I went to this sale expecting to get nothing. I didn't feel entitled to the items. I just thought the estate people overlooked the books. When I saw the Jimmy Olsen #134 buried below a far less important book I figured they had no idea. At some point, the employees probably looked the items all up one by one on ebay. The pictures for the listing were already up, so they probably couldn't redact them.

 

Ironically, I thought I was going to lose out on these to another dealer/collector that was willing to wait 2+ hours to be first in line. In a strange plot twist, it was the employees themselves that beat me out and not the other customers. Just another factor to consider when dealing with people, everyone is human. I am thankful for the community of trustworthy dealers we have on these boards.

 

 

[Badger]

You kinda come off like an *spoon* here.

 

 

There is no way I could disagree more. A guy should be able to vent about getting screwed on what was supposed to be a public auction/sale of comics. I think he comes off as a regular Joe, and I would have had exactly the same reaction - don't make a scene, steam off, try and get a little sympathy from like-minded comic nerds.

Ditto. I would have been annoyed too. Especially if I'd taken the effort to be an hour early and one of the first through the door.

 

Sorry man, better luck next time!

[shadroch]

It's not that unusual for estate sales companies to offer items pre-sale to select customers. They have no obligation to the public, their fiscal obligation is to the seller. If they move some product pre-sale at full price, it simply makes their job easier. Frustrating to you, but that's life.

You don't know what happened, so speculating is futile.

[FineCollector]

My understanding is that bait and switch is when you advertise one thing, and try to sell another. I don't know offering fewer books qualifies. Unsavory, certainly, but I don't know that it's illegal, especially if the have small print to cover last minute changes.

[sd2416]

Running through the house, checking all the other buyers out to see if they have them, demanding to know where the books are, wanting to look in boxes, is overkill. They weren't there. Maybe the owners decided to keep some items at the last min, maybe a child or grandchild looked through there and asked Grandma if they could have the books that they liked. The auctioneer does not own the items. The owner is selling a loved ones items, they can pull anything and anytime if they choose and not give an explanation. We don't know what happened to them and aren't even sure the auctioneer knows what happened to them. Just his speculation. I'm sure the owner was really worried about some buyer not getting an item while people are pilfering around.

 

No one made him show up early. No one guaranteed him the books. He acted like a baby. You missed out on some books. We all have.

 

[90sChild]

Running through the house, checking all the other buyers out to see if they have them, demanding to know where the books are, wanting to look in boxes, is overkill. They weren't there. Maybe the owners decided to keep some items at the last min, maybe a child or grandchild looked through there and asked Grandma if they could have the books that they liked. The auctioneer does not own the items. The owner is selling a loved ones items, they can pull anything and anytime if they choose and not give an explanation. We don't know what happened to them and aren't even sure the auctioneer knows what happened to them. Just his speculation. I'm sure the owner was really worried about some buyer not getting an item while people are pilfering around.

 

No one made him show up early. No one guaranteed him the books. He acted like a baby. You missed out on some books. We all have.

I can understand why you think that when you take everything literally, this was meant to be a somewhat funny story of the hijinks that took place today. I wasn't literally running in the house, I wasn't literally demanding they show me everything and making a scene. You viewed that through your own illustrative mind. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was more interested in hearing comments from people here about similar situations or discussions about their experiences with estate sales finds.

 

[STORMSHADOW_80]

Running through the house, checking all the other buyers out to see if they have them, demanding to know where the books are, wanting to look in boxes, is overkill. They weren't there. Maybe the owners decided to keep some items at the last min, maybe a child or grandchild looked through there and asked Grandma if they could have the books that they liked. The auctioneer does not own the items. The owner is selling a loved ones items, they can pull anything and anytime if they choose and not give an explanation. We don't know what happened to them and aren't even sure the auctioneer knows what happened to them. Just his speculation. I'm sure the owner was really worried about some buyer not getting an item while people are pilfering around.

 

No one made him show up early. No one guaranteed him the books. He acted like a baby. You missed out on some books. We all have.

I can understand why you think that when you take everything literally, this was meant to be a somewhat funny story of the hijinks that took place today. I wasn't literally running in the house, I wasn't literally demanding they show me everything and making a scene. You viewed that through your own illustrative mind. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I was more interested in hearing comments from people here about similar situations or discussions about their experiences with estate sales finds.

I had a similar situation, but luckily I still did really well. I went to the second day of an estate sale. (Sometimes work prevents me from going out on Fridays) I wasn't really expecting to find anything but luckily found all sorts of copper age goodness. All the key X-men issues from that time period plus others. The funny thing was the ad showed pictures of the books all bagged and boarded in boxes but when I got there they were bundled up together with backboards removed and not in comic boxes. I was talking to the lady there a little bit about the books. No problem buying the books individually from the packs. She went on to say she was up almost all night the night before going through them. My guess was she was going through the painstaking task of looking them all up the best she could on ebay. I found a new mutants pack that was missing 87, but luckily 98 was still there in the other pack I can't imagine someone there the day before only picking out 87 and not looking for 98, but who knows.

[Sqeggs]

It's not that unusual for estate sales companies to offer items pre-sale to select customers. They have no obligation to the public, their fiscal obligation is to the seller. If they move some product pre-sale at full price, it simply makes their job easier. Frustrating to you, but that's life.

You don't know what happened, so speculating is futile.

 

I'm sure this is true. I wonder, though, whether it's a good business practice for whoever is running the sale to advertise stuff that is not actually available at the sale. I don't go to these things, but if I did and had had the OP's experience, I would be less likely to turn up at the next sale these people were managing.

 

[thehumantorch]

Thanks for the support. I went to this sale expecting to get nothing. I didn't feel entitled to the items. I just thought the estate people overlooked the books. When I saw the Jimmy Olsen #134 buried below a far less important book I figured they had no idea. At some point, the employees probably looked the items all up one by one on ebay. The pictures for the listing were already up, so they probably couldn't redact them.

 

Ironically, I thought I was going to lose out on these to another dealer/collector that was willing to wait 2+ hours to be first in line. In a strange plot twist, it was the employees themselves that beat me out and not the other customers. Just another factor to consider when dealing with people, everyone is human. I am thankful for the community of trustworthy dealers we have on these boards.

 

 

Why do you say the employees beat you out of the books?

 

It's certainly possible that one of them recognized the deal and grabbed it but it's also possible a buyer contacted them after seeing the ad and picked them up before the doors opened to the public. There are a lot of guys trying to get access to estate sales and garage sales before the doors open - early birds.

[the blob]

While the reaction does seem to be overkill, schlepping over there as a result of relying on an ad that implies the books would be there...you have put time into it. time is money and I would be irritated too. i wouldn't have been doing the sherlock holmes stuff, i would have just screamed at them and made sure everyone knew it was a b-s operation. and then i'd leave before the cops came.

 

of course, i don't think i would have left the house for this motley looking assortment of stuff, but i guess it depends on how far away it is.

[comix4fun]

It's not that unusual for estate sales companies to offer items pre-sale to select customers. They have no obligation to the public, their fiscal obligation is to the seller. If they move some product pre-sale at full price, it simply makes their job easier. Frustrating to you, but that's life.

You don't know what happened, so speculating is futile.

I'm sure this is true. I wonder, though, whether it's a good business practice for whoever is running the sale to advertise stuff that is not actually available at the sale. I don't go to these things, but if I did and had had the OP's experience, I would be less likely to turn up at the next sale these people were managing.

 

 

Except that it's not true.

 

They are covered under the same consumer protection laws as any other business. that includes false inducement, false advertising and deceptive practices.Unless specifically noted otherwise in writing to potential customers (presales possible, all items may not be available at time of sale, etc) then a photograph of items for sale is an inducement towards consumers to attend their sale.

 

If a seller wants to give himself an out to presell an item or remove items from a sale then he'd better do so in writing within the same section where the sale is being advertised using pictures of items that aren't going to be there. Otherwise he's using items he knows to not be for sale as part of his advertisement.

 

I checked this particular estate seller's terms. Without specific commentary on their 5th grade level wording, there's nothing included about items not being available at the opening of the sale or potential for any pre-sales. They seem far more concerned with someone slipping and falling on the premises.

 

ALL SALES ARE FINAL

ALL ITEMS SOLD AS IS (USED MERCHANDISE)

NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ACCIDENTS

ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK

STREET NUMBERS HONORED

CASH, MASTER CARD, VISA AND AMERICAN EXPRESS

NO OUTSIDE BAGS

WE HAVE HOLDING AREA

[the blob]

p.s. .. I was expecting to be writing a "I hate you ;-)" note after reading about you scoring some awesome hoard. This is why I rarely go out of my way for stuff.