Artboy99 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 4 hours ago, Aweandlorder said: True story this happened in 2014/5. Someone posted on Craigslist "free comics". Not the first time this happens, guy wrote he had a big collection and he's giving it away. I breezed through it and thought to myself gee, last time someone posted that I ended up logging 5-6 boxes of indie and valiant . Next 2-3 days later my friend Vince txts me (him and I are always competing for best finds, he usually wins) "dude you're not gonna believe what I have in my van!!!" I says what? "I got 3,000 books all X-Men Bronze including GSX1, Xmen 90-300, new mutants run including 2 copies of NM98..." he kept on going through the keys I was already getting a headache. I ask him ok Vince cut the BS how much did you pay he says $100. This guy was giving his collection for free... he posted an ad on Craigslist and I responded.. he just wanted to move on with his life (I think he was recently engaged or something but can't remember the exact reason)... when I saw all these books I couldn't believe it. he ended up giving him $100 even though the owner insisted he didn't want a dime for it. This story ALWAYS baffles my mind, but it's 100% accurate. The books were all bagged and boarded in AT LEAST VF condition. But it taught me 2 things: 1. NEVER EVER LEAVE A STONE UNTURNED 2. THERE ARE ALWAYS UNIMAGINABLE DEALS OUT THERE. JUST GOTTA FIND THEM I've had my share of deals. Some were ridiculous, although never as ridiculous as that one, just because it was practically free congrats to your friend for this find. I have no regrets missing out on the deals. There will always be another collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 On 6/6/2017 at 6:18 AM, Fan Boy said: On 6/5/2017 at 6:12 PM, thehumantorch said: They are out there. In a way ... yes. They would have to be either 2nd or 3rd generation GA collections in smaller sizes. Forget the original owner status - this day was long gone. Maybe finding one of original owner SA collections is possible. Well, as a couple of boardies have already mentioned, there are at least a couple of OO collections dating as far back as the early GA time period. I guess time will tell. As for SA OO collections, I believe they are most definitely still out there waiting to be uncovered. Especially if you are talking about Marvel SA books since these were the books that spawned much of the comic collecting industry that we have to this day. Doesn't Joe Krolik still have a complete pristine Marvel SA original owner collection since the Winnipeg pedigree books were apparently only his under copies? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteppinRazor Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 6 hours ago, Bird said: I bought some comics today, 40000. (Not really, only took home 1200 or so but the deal and handshake are in place for the rest.) The deal came about from me telling a lot of people, a lot, about my buying and selling comics. Then someone mentioned it to someone else who said "what does he like? I have 40000 Marvel from early 1960s through the mid 1990s." So many people didn't want to hear about my comic passion but if I did not tell them all then this deal would not have happened for me. It is a lot of money but a great deal all the same. Congrats man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 On 6/7/2017 at 8:33 AM, F For Fake said: On 6/6/2017 at 1:21 PM, entalmighty1 said: Provided it's just the hobby that takes a hit, and not the entire economy, I'll be one of the people doubling down on my collection. Same, looking forward to the crash! People always say that when the markets are going gangbusters with no end in sight. When the markets are actually way down there however, history has clearly shown us (especially in terms of the stock markets) that's when most people do their selling simply because they can't take the psychological beating anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 On 6/6/2017 at 8:28 PM, TheFifthHorseman said: That being said, the one thing that I missed out on during that time was the OPPORTUNITY to buy in on Gold and Silver keys. Books that are crazy hot now were - relatively - dumb cheap this time last year. I know because I saw them, and passed on them. Just curious, but what type of GA keys are crazy hot this year, but were dumb cheap only a short year ago? As far as I know, the GA books that are currently hot right now have been hot for an extended period of time. Not aware of any new hot GA books that have just popped up onto the scene. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Cool Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 (edited) I'm so beat. Went over to see the rest of the collection from last Sunday. 6 hours of sorting later I grabbed 3 long boxes of good stuff out of the 250 longbox collection (all old boxes with 300 books per box) at a great price. He mentioned a good price for all 250 long boxes ($9-$10k) for all but I really do not have the time or pactience to clear out that many books (75,000). I may grab some more next weekend when I have more time but if someone is in the market for a dealer (mostly 80 but a quarter early 90s) overstock collection of that size - send me a PM. The collection is only a few hours from Niagara Falls so it may be a good collection for a Canadian buyer. 250 long boxes are no joke in terms of storing and just moving around! Edited June 10, 2017 by 1Cool Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 On 6/9/2017 at 0:56 PM, spreads said: On 6/9/2017 at 0:26 PM, 1Cool said: Knowing what you know now do you wish you would have done and looked at the original collection and maybe worked out a time payment plan for the 100,000 books considering what was left over when you got there? That's 400 long boxes which would be crazy logistically but considering the collection had a ton of high grade key books would it have been worthwhile? I know it's a bit of speculating since you do not know what was there for the 1st-9th guy but if you got those gems after all this time do you think $1.50 a book for 100,000 books would have been the way to go? Just curious. I think you have to be partially crazy buying 100k comics....even with the CAD dollar as low as it is! Even though that works out to only $2 a pop, it sounds like an almost insurmountable amount of work would be required in order to get your money back out. Since I am the lazy type of collector, I would much rather pay this kind of money for say 100 vintage quality books that would have no problems selling themselves in this current robust marketplace. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 On 6/9/2017 at 2:52 PM, Artboy99 said: In the end, someone did go and look at it, and whether it was the first person to do so or someone after, the owner did relent and decide to sell it piece by piece. Had we gone and looked at it in the first place maybe it could have been us who got the fantastic deals. Oh well, live and learn. My thinking is that there was most probably not a single Marvel SA key book in terms of a first appearance in the entire lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lou_fine Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 22 hours ago, thehumantorch said: This is an old school collector, and a OO collection, he initially built this by visiting second hand books stores and from drugstores and later buying from LCS. There are lots of books with second hand book store stamps - many of these stores I frequented as a kid - Based upon your description here, this basically confirms that this is definitely not an original owner collection. An original owner collection is one which is compiled by a collector buying his books fresh off the newsstand, as opposed to buying them second-hand from used book stores. I guess this is why I had a hard time time thinking this was an original owner collection when I first saw your scans of the books. Especially since OO collections are generally always minty fresh as they are brought right off the newsstand and generally kept in that same high grade condition by the original owner. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1950's war comics Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 Wow even my few thousand comics takes up way more space than i like ... i cant even imagine 30, 40 long boxes or more Artboy99 and FoggyNelson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porcupine48 Posted June 10, 2017 Share Posted June 10, 2017 19 minutes ago, 1950's war comics said: Wow even my few thousand comics takes up way more space than i like ... i cant even imagine 30, 40 long boxes or more I'm up to about forty mag boxes(regular longs are just too skinny for many books,esp.in mylar) and it's way in the way.Gotta get rid of like half! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spreads Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 1 hour ago, lou_fine said: Even though that works out to only $2 a pop, it sounds like an almost insurmountable amount of work would be required in order to get your money back out. Since I am the lazy type of collector, I would much rather pay this kind of money for say 100 vintage quality books that would have no problems selling themselves in this current robust marketplace. Agree 100%. One of my best buys was getting a collection of 66 books worth 10k for 3500. The payback period was very short, and the effort was minimal (still have a number of those books, CGC 9.4 MP#15, gorgeous book!). 1 hour ago, 1Cool said: I'm so beat. Went over to see the rest of the collection from last Sunday. 6 hours of sorting later I grabbed 3 long boxes of good stuff out of the 250 longbox collection (all old boxes with 300 books per box) at a great price. He mentioned a good price for all 250 long boxes ($9-$10k) for all but I really do not have the time or pactience to clear out that many books (75,000). I may grab some more next weekend when I have more time but if someone is in the market for a dealer (mostly 80 but a quarter early 90s) overstock collection of that size - send me a PM. The collection is only a few hours from Niagara Falls so it may be a good collection for a Canadian buyer. 250 long boxes are no joke in terms of storing and just moving around! If you're turning it down, it's that much more worst for a Canadian buyer. Currency conversion and duties makes it at least 50% more costly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Artboy99 Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) 1 hour ago, lou_fine said: My thinking is that there was most probably not a single Marvel SA key book in terms of a first appearance in the entire lot. I know there was 5 copies of Iron Man #1 as per the list ( as an example ) Edited June 11, 2017 by Artboy99 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsilverjanet Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) 16 minutes ago, spreads said: Agree 100%. One of my best buys was getting a collection of 66 books worth 10k for 3500. The payback period was very short, and the effort was minimal (still have a number of those books, CGC 9.4 MP#15, gorgeous book!). If you're turning it down, it's that much more worst for a Canadian buyer. Currency conversion and duties makes it at least 50% more costly. Not to mention what's really left if he's gone through most of the boxes and pulled out all the main books ill take long boxes of quarter books all day if they are cheap but I usually only do that when I've picked up some semi keys along with them. Seems like a lot of work espeically at $40 a long box. The going rate is usually $20-$30 and that's way too much volume what the hell is left if there are 250 boxes still Edited June 11, 2017 by jsilverjanet greggy and Jeffro. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lazyboy Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 1 hour ago, lou_fine said: Based upon your description here, this basically confirms that this is definitely not an original owner collection. An original owner collection is one which is compiled by a collector buying his books fresh off the newsstand, as opposed to buying them second-hand from used book stores. Most collections probably have at least a few secondhand books, even if the majority were bought new. Didn't Edgar Church have some secondhand books? 1 hour ago, lou_fine said: I guess this is why I had a hard time time thinking this was an original owner collection when I first saw your scans of the books. Especially since OO collections are generally always minty fresh as they are brought right off the newsstand and generally kept in that same high grade condition by the original owner. I think you're confusing OO collections with Pedigrees. Just because a collector never sold anything doesn't mean they paid any special attention to condition before or after purchase. My uncle still has his collection from when he was a kid and believe me, it's not remarkable in any way. Readcomix 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimik Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 On 6/8/2017 at 8:44 PM, Moondog said: I'm in agreement. I've never had as many SA and BA collectors contact me about selling. Baby Boomers are downsizing and don't want to bring their collections to their new smaller homes. The problem as I see it is the over emphasis on keys. There is nothing that elicits yawns as much as average grade mid-run SA DCs and Marvels. There seems to be no floor right now on these books. Nobody wants them. High grade - no problem. Average - forget it. Today's market is as weird as I've ever seen it. I have been commenting on this for a while now. Keys and hot covers are where the action will be in the future for the hobby (just like it is for sportscards, stamps, coins, etc.) Due to the various reprint formats available to readers, there is no need to fill runs any more with more expensive back issues. Instead, collectors will just buy the key/hot cover book and read the rest via reprints. It is the way all hobbies evolve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 On 6/6/2017 at 10:15 PM, Jayman said: On 6/6/2017 at 9:44 AM, Sqeggs said: Actually was the case with the Church books, with Edgar alive and in the hospital as his family was trying to sell the books. And, of course, the first group of Crippens was stolen and sold by a contractor working on the house. Interesting, any links to the Crippen story? I don't have any links handy, but you can probably track down the story on Google. Basically, the tale as I understand it is that Crippen bought a copy of most comics from 1939 through the early 1950s, at which point he stopped. Like Church, he just piled most of the books up and didn't read them. In the 1990s, he had some contractors working on his house and they discovered the books. They stole some and took them to Metro where they told Vinnie Z a -and-bull story about the books being from their uncle or grandfather or somebody. Metro bought the books and brought them to market where they became known as the "D" collection because most had that letter written on the cover. The books sold for top dollar (for the time) because they were mostly in high grade. Meanwhile, Crippen discovered that some books were missing and suspected the contractors, although I don't believe they were ever prosecuted. Crippen boxed the books up and stored them in his garage where, unfortunately, some developed foxing and other condition problems. When he passed away in the mid-2000s, his heirs consigned the remaining books (which made up the bulk of the collection) to Heritage. It was only then that anyone realized that the earlier "D" books were part of this collection, that the OO was Davis Crippen, and that Metro had been lied to by the contractor when he sold them those initial books. I may not have the details exactly right, but that's my understanding of the backstory on the Crippen collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sqeggs Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 2 hours ago, lou_fine said: Just curious, but what type of GA keys are crazy hot this year, but were dumb cheap only a short year ago? As far as I know, the GA books that are currently hot right now have been hot for an extended period of time. Not aware of any new hot GA books that have just popped up onto the scene. MF 73 maybe? Or has it been more than a year since that one popped? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FineCollector Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 In 250 boxes of dealer leftovers, there's still going to be sellable material in there when it's only been picked of the $10+ books: Avengers, Captain America, odd Deadpool appearances that were missed, Flash, Wolverine, X-Men... but is it worth renting a truck for (and paying duty)? I wouldn't, unless I was unemployed and being taken care of by a rich wife. Just now, kimik said: I have been commenting on this for a while now. Keys and hot covers are where the action will be in the future for the hobby (just like it is for sportscards, stamps, coins, etc.) Due to the various reprint formats available to readers, there is no need to fill runs any more with more expensive back issues. Instead, collectors will just buy the key/hot cover book and read the rest via reprints. It is the way all hobbies evolve. Fortunately, it's at the point where buying singles of many current characters is cheaper than buying the trade paperbacks. Bundle the issues together with packing tape, and offer them alongside the TPB for half the cost. If they're unsellable otherwise, I don't know why more people don't do it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimik Posted June 11, 2017 Share Posted June 11, 2017 (edited) 7 minutes ago, FineCollector said: Fortunately, it's at the point where buying singles of many current characters is cheaper than buying the trade paperbacks. Bundle the issues together with packing tape, and offer them alongside the TPB for half the cost. If they're unsellable otherwise, I don't know why more people don't do it. It's only cheaper if you are paying full retail price for the TPBs. You can land most of these for $5 - $10 (or less) either on the secondary market or discounted by stores at conventions. I dumped my Conan and Savage Sword collections, except for the keys, way back when Dark Horse started to reprint the issues. It was easy to see which way the common issues were heading. Edited June 11, 2017 by kimik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
