Comic buying ettiquette? what to do when you aren't the first buyer at a sale 2 2

[jsilverjanet]

I was at a garage sale this morning, first one in line, first one inside, and I was in the process of trying to buy the entire lot of comics (about 40) when about 2 minutes later a 2nd buyer asking about the comics came in. When he saw that I was in the process of buying the comics, the seller had finally given me a price, he said out loud "I'll pay $$$ for the box" (2.5 times more than the seller was asking).

So my question is

a) have you ever done this? or have been on the other end of it?

b) what did you do?

I'm sure I'm going to asked so, the comics were modern books, nothing spectacular but a few modern semi-key books that made the 8 minute drive worthwhile.

Edited March 25, 2018 by jsilverjanet

[shadroch]

 

You should have turned to the guy and said "I'll take your offer, just let me finish paying for them first."

[lizards2]

15 minutes ago, shadroch said:

 

You should have turned to the guy and said "I'll take your offer, just let me finish paying for them first."

I can't think of a better response than this.

[Bomber-Bob]

32 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

I was at a garage sale this morning, first one in line, first one inside, and I was in the process of trying to buy the entire lot of comics (about 40) when about 2 minutes later a 2nd buyer asking about the comics came in. When he saw that I was in the process of buying the comics, the seller had finally given me a price, he said out loud "I'll pay $$$ for the box" (2.5 times more than the seller was asking).

So my question is

a) have you ever done this? or have been on the other end of it?

b) what did you do?

I'm sure I'm going to asked so, the comics were modern books, nothing spectacular but a few modern semi-key books that made the 8 minute drive worthwhile.

This story disgusts me. He absolutely should have waited until you were finished. 

[lizards2]

8 minutes ago, Bomber-Bob said:

This story disgusts me. He absolutely should have waited until you were finished. 

Wait..., what?  What was Janet doing in public?

[darkstar]

That move is known as the Van Denby. 

[SteppinRazor]

36 minutes ago, shadroch said:

 

You should have turned to the guy and said "I'll take your offer, just let me finish paying for them first."

My hope is that the seller did the right thing here.

[jsilverjanet]

17 minutes ago, SteppinRazor said:

My hope is that the seller did the right thing here.

yeah, he sold the books to me but I did end up paying probably a bit more as a result. he was going to discount the books but then he didn't.

[PopKulture]

Other buyer is completely in the wrong and slimy to boot. Period.

[wolverine180]

I agree. 2nd buyer is a scumbag. I was at a flea market a couple years ago and I seller had multiple boxes. Guy beside me pulls a ba 12 and its gorgeous. Everything was a buck.  I thought for a brief moment to throw out an offer but immediately thought how I would feel if was reversed . so dude beside me got a great book .

[FN-2199]

It would be even worse if that guy was there for furniture and he just starts yelling out stuff because he thinks its funny to jack up a deal in progress. This is the same type that walks by the rec room and yells Bingo! on his way to the bathroom. 

[KryptoMayor]

I had this happen to me at a garage sale. It was a shoebox full of VG silver age. Another guy there bought some Tonka trucks. After I waited for him to negotiate and pay, it was my turn to deal w the seller. I was going to offer $40 for the box as it wasn’t anything spectacular. The other man was loading up his Tonka trucks when he walked by and said, “Oh those look pretty cool, I’ll pay you $100 for them.” He didn’t even look at them. 

I was upset but I told the seller I would pay the $100. The other man finished loading up his car and was never seen from again. 

[bababooey]

If I'm walking into a garage sale steps behind some guy who goes directly to six longboxes set up on a table there is no way he gets first crack at going through all six of them before me....no matter how wide he plants his legs in front of those longboxes - he's got dibs on the box he's looking through and the box on either side, if he goes to an end box I go to the other end.  If someone is already looking through six boxes of stuff I'll ask what they're done with and go through those..... but the guy walking in right in front of me gets first dibs on maybe a box or two, any more than that seems like an unreasonable expectation.

I've never tried to blow up someone else's deal like in the OP but in the BA12 example stated a post or two up, why is it that we adhere to this vague 'scavenger code of silence' ...as a collector/flipper or whatever, why is our first loyalty to our fellow scavenger rather than the person we're planning to do business with?  

[Bomber-Bob]

35 minutes ago, bababooey said:

If I'm walking into a garage sale steps behind some guy who goes directly to six longboxes set up on a table there is no way he gets first crack at going through all six of them before me....no matter how wide he plants his legs in front of those longboxes - he's got dibs on the box he's looking through and the box on either side, if he goes to an end box I go to the other end.  If someone is already looking through six boxes of stuff I'll ask what they're done with and go through those..... but the guy walking in right in front of me gets first dibs on maybe a box or two, any more than that seems like an unreasonable expectation.

I've never tried to blow up someone else's deal like in the OP but in the BA12 example stated a post or two up, why is it that we adhere to this vague 'scavenger code of silence' ...as a collector/flipper or whatever, why is our first loyalty to our fellow scavenger rather than the person we're planning to do business with?  

With six long boxes I agree with you. The first guy up doesn't have dibs on all six boxes. I would also stand next to him and start to browse on the other end. But in this case, there were only 40 comics. To me, that's dibs on the whole stack while negotiating.

[WolverineX]

There are all types of people in this world.  some good, some bad, some a-holes.. you just met someone from the last group.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Wolverinex

[badback83]

I was at a show a couple weeks ago.  I had a stack of 4 books in my hands looking at each one right in front of the dealer’s booth.  Some guy comes up and literally, takes a book out of my right hand.  It was just the covers to a random Marvel Mystery.  I turned to the guy, put the other 3 books in his hands and told him where to stick it.  I don’t play that stuff.

[Mercury Man]

We can't even be courteous to each other in stores, garage sales, in traffic, school, work etc.  Comics are an escape and supposed to be fun.  You are NOT the only collector out there, so if somebody is ahead of you, let them have their minute, if there is anything left, it's yours.  Get in line.   There is a process. 

I think this pretty much sums up the Zombie Apocalypse and how it goes down. It's the bullies that continue to try and get their way.  I like to think we grew out of this in the last 100 years or so, but it's just more of the same.    

[jsilverjanet]

For the record, I did tell him

”hey I was here first, that’s not cool” 

[wombat]

12 minutes ago, jsilverjanet said:

For the record, I did tell him

”hey I was here first, that’s not cool” 

I would have used much different words. 

[jsilverjanet]

8 minutes ago, wombat said:

I would have used much different words. 

I normally would have, and would have also waited for him to have a much more personal conversation about it but 

a) there were 2 seniors there and the sellers wife

b) I had to go to work and didn’t have enough time