any hints at finding a "weirdest thing that's happened when you gone to look at a collection" thread? 0

[ADAMANTIUM]

14 minutes ago, kav said:

Part 2:
     Apparently one of his lowrider buddies was on ebay looking at rims and just for kicks started searching what the books were worth.  It didnt take long before they all hopped in lowrider, armed for bear, and sped out of the neighborhood.

-to be continued.

vroom-vroom born to be wiiihiilddd!!

[Robot Man]

 

[mackenzie999]

Back in the '70s, when flea markets and yard sales were a goldmine, I found a kid selling a big box of baseball cards. These were all Topps from 1956-60, maybe 500 cards total. All the greats were there in multiples (Aaron, Williams, DiMaggio, etc, but oddly no Mantles). I was about 12, and so was the kid selling them.

"How much?"

"Fifty cents."

"Each?" I asked . Now remember, I was just a kid and I didn't have anywhere near $250 one me, so I remember feeling a bit crushed, and I think I made a sour face. He thought about it for a minute, and I think he was just guessing that maybe cards were worth money and my expression said he was asking way too much.

"Ok, $2 for the box."

I may not have had $250, but I sure as hell had two bucks. I paid him and gtf out of there. The whole way out I had some other dealer chasing me down, begging me to sell him the cards. 

I didn't.

[bc]

Back in ’81 or ’82 I found an ad in the local Medina paper that had “old comics for sale”. I called the number and talked with a man who said he had five old 10 cent comics that he wanted to sell for $100. There was a Submariner, Green Lantern, Animal Comics, Wonder Woman and another title that I can’t remember. All the issue were less than number 20 and I was totally stoked to check them out as I was new to GA books.

We arranged a time that I could come over and check out the books. I was working at a pizza joint as a cook and delivery guy at the time and had the classic black and white check pants with white shirt that was common cookware back then. Basically, a glorified dork.

While on a delivery I stopped by at the agreed upon time. He lived in an apartment complex and it took me a second to get the lay of the land. Finally finding the right place, I knocked at the door and was greeted by a naked toddler. I asked if his daddy was home and his sister walked up who also was free of clothes. Starting to get a little nervous, I looked down the hallway and yelled hello until a guy yells “hold on” while coughing.

Then the pot smell hits me.

I’m about 6’3” and this guy was at least a foot taller than me. His beard might have been taller than me.

He opens the door and just starts laughing. I forgot I was in my Chef Boyardee outfit for a second until he reminded me exactly how stupid I look.

I see the books on the kitchen table…. along with a big bong, a (loaded) hand gun and a couple of beers.

We sat down to check out the books which were all in about very good shape. I didn’t know if I was paying too much or not but I coughed up the hundred bucks he wanted and got out of there as fast as possible.

I've picked up several collections in my life since then, the rest have been pretty mundane.

 

[kav]

I answered one ad for 'funny books'.  I drive up to this ramshackle shotgun shack.  I hear hacking inside.  I knock and there's a booming voice "JUST YEW HOLD YER BRITCHES!".  A few minutes late the door swings open and there stands a sight shot straight from hell.  It's an overweight woman, curlers and all smokin a stogie, glaring with gimlet eyes, shotgun at port arms.  "GEDDINHERE!" she roars.  "I'm Mullins" she rasps, then directs me to "Sit!".  She waddles off and returns with a large box which she throws down at my feet.  The books immediately drop one grade from the impact.  She racks her shotgun and says "Howmuchyagiveme?".  In another room I hear someone shouting "Blackjack!  Blackjack!"

-TBC

Edited December 13, 2018 by kav

[Robot Man]

Maybe my first real GA buy took place when I was in high school. A friend's dad owned a pawn shop and had gotten in a pile of comics. My friend gave me a call and I asked for titles. "All American, "Submareeener", Batman, "Human Tortuture"  and a few others. I asked him if what the numbers were on the covers. He quoted off a few including some single digit numbers. I asked him how much and he said $30.  I scraped and even borrowed about 10 bucks from my brother, jumped into my VW and headed over to the guy's house.

When I got there he handed me a pile of about 40 books. I really didn't know their value because there weren't price guides then and I'd never really bought a whole lot of GA this old. I wasn't no fool, for less than a buck even a title like Horse Feathers was worth less than a buck. I paid him and headed home.

When I got home I went through them. I can't for the life of me remember all of them but the ones that stood out was Batman #15, Submariner #6, All Flash #16, Human Torch #5 and Capt. America #12. They were in real nice shape easily a solid fine+ or better (not that it mattered for that price) but I was stoked!

Bad part... It was about two weeks before Christmas and I needed present money. So I took them to a local swap meet, laid them out on the ground and sold off about 8 of them for $50-$60. I then grabbed up the rest and took off. Sadly, they are all gone now, sold off or traded. 

 

[kav]

4 minutes ago, Robot Man said:

Maybe my first real GA buy took place when I was in high school. A friend's dad owned a pawn shop and had gotten in a pile of comics. My friend gave me a call and I asked for titles. "All American, "Submareeener", Batman, "Human Tortuture"  and a few others. I asked him if what the numbers were on the covers. He quoted off a few including some single digit numbers. I asked him how much and he said $30.  I scraped and even borrowed about 10 bucks from my brother, jumped into my VW and headed over to the guy's house.

When I got there he handed me a pile of about 40 books. I really didn't know their value because there weren't price guides then and I'd never really bought a whole lot of GA this old. I wasn't no fool, for less than a buck even a title like Horse Feathers was worth less than a buck. I paid him and headed home.

When I got home I went through them. I can't for the life of me remember all of them but the ones that stood out was Batman #15, Submariner #6, All Flash #16, Human Torch #5 and Capt. America #12. They were in real nice shape easily a solid fine+ or better (not that it mattered for that price) but I was stoked!

Bad part... It was about two weeks before Christmas and I needed present money. So I took them to a local swap meet, laid them out on the ground and sold off about 8 of them for $50-$60. I then grabbed up the rest and took off. Sadly, they are all gone now, sold off or traded. 

 

NO!!! Different ending, PLEASE!

[FineCollector]

A couple of years ago, I saw some comics for sale online, and the picture showed an Iron Fist 14 in a stack of books.  I answered quickly, and showed up after work.  When I got there, the boyfriend opened the door, saying the seller was just coming home from work.  The apartment stunk of cat so much that I couldn't feel my face.  She got home a few minutes later, wearing a shirt from the local animal shelter.  Great.  She pulled out a small stack, and the bags on the books were blackened and flaking away from fire damage.  She said they were at her dad's house when it caught fire, but that these were mostly saved by being in a trunk.  She spread them out across the bed, and one of her cats casually walked across a beater Star Wars treasury.  The IF 14 survived the fire, but was still worn, lower mid-grade at best.  I once owned a book that stunk of cat pee, and decided I wasn't bringing home any others.  I don't honestly know what the books smelled like, as I was having trouble breathing at the time, but I told her to look up the price of the Iron Fist and left.  A local dealer with overpriced drek and hoarder issues told me he happily bought it, which made me really hope his customer opened it before he bought it.

Edited December 13, 2018 by FineCollector

[unclezebo]

Not really a looking at a collection story but this the story above brought back the memory. I live in a pretty rural area and i saw an auction flyer at the the local grocery store a few years back. looked closer and saw a picture of a straight arrow frazetta cover and some mystery in space among the stack of about 10-20 comics. Decided I gotta go and grabbed the flyer. Drove about 1 hour out over some gravel/mud roads and what i wouldn't call low water bridges but rather "hope its not gonna rain or anything past this point is screwed" bridges to get to the sale. Parked in a cow field, cows included got my number and headed to the trailers with the items and found the comics in the display case in really nice condition. looked through the stack. the straight arrow was there along with the mystery in spaces with some more 50's sci fi and some dell disney and then the sky started to cloud up pretty bad . They started on tools and about 20 mins after that the sky opened up in what my grandpa used to call a cow on a flat rock rain storm. As they kept on selling i went to a little wood shed and kept an eye on the trailer with the comics, when they got close to the case i went out only to find the comics gone. I asked a group standing there what happened to the comics and an old lady said she didn't want needle point work and pillow cases she wanted to get wet so she took the comics out and put those in cause she didn't think anyone would care about comics.......................... They were soaked and torn at this point, disgusted i got in my care to leave only to come upon the "bridge" at which point i had to wait for what seemed like forever for it to go down and slide around muddy roads to get back home. The words i said on that drive would have made sailors blush.

[kav]

5 minutes ago, unclezebo said:

Not really a looking at a collection story but this the story above brought back the memory. I live in a pretty rural area and i saw an auction flyer at the the local grocery store a few years back. looked closer and saw a picture of a straight arrow frazetta cover and some mystery in space among the stack of about 10-20 comics. Decided I gotta go and grabbed the flyer. Drove about 1 hour out over some gravel/mud roads and what i wouldn't call low water bridges but rather "hope its not gonna rain or anything past this point is screwed" bridges to get to the sale. Parked in a cow field, cows included got my number and headed to the trailers with the items and found the comics in the display case in really nice condition. looked through the stack. the straight arrow was there along with the mystery in spaces with some more 50's sci fi and some dell disney and then the sky started to cloud up pretty bad . They started on tools and about 20 mins after that the sky opened up in what my grandpa used to call a cow on a flat rock rain storm. As they kept on selling i went to a little wood shed and kept an eye on the trailer with the comics, when they got close to the case i went out only to find the comics gone. I asked a group standing there what happened to the comics and an old lady said she didn't want needle point work and pillow cases she wanted to get wet so she took the comics out and put those in cause she didn't think anyone would care about comics.......................... They were soaked and torn at this point, disgusted i got in my care to leave only to come upon the "bridge" at which point i had to wait for what seemed like forever for it to go down and slide around muddy roads to get back home. The words i said on that drive would have made sailors blush.

well I hope you said m'am those comics were worth about thirty thousand dollars and I had money in my pocket.  Good luck with your needlepoint.

[Pirate]

12 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Maybe my first real GA buy took place when I was in high school. A friend's dad owned a pawn shop and had gotten in a pile of comics. My friend gave me a call and I asked for titles. "All American, "Submareeener", Batman, "Human Tortuture"  and a few others. I asked him if what the numbers were on the covers. He quoted off a few including some single digit numbers. I asked him how much and he said $30.  I scraped and even borrowed about 10 bucks from my brother, jumped into my VW and headed over to the guy's house.

When I got there he handed me a pile of about 40 books. I really didn't know their value because there weren't price guides then and I'd never really bought a whole lot of GA this old. I wasn't no fool, for less than a buck even a title like Horse Feathers was worth less than a buck. I paid him and headed home.

When I got home I went through them. I can't for the life of me remember all of them but the ones that stood out was Batman #15, Submariner #6, All Flash #16, Human Torch #5 and Capt. America #12. They were in real nice shape easily a solid fine+ or better (not that it mattered for that price) but I was stoked!

Bad part... It was about two weeks before Christmas and I needed present money. So I took them to a local swap meet, laid them out on the ground and sold off about 8 of them for $50-$60. I then grabbed up the rest and took off. Sadly, they are all gone now, sold off or traded. 

 

Were they golden age at that time or just books off the rack 

[mackenzie999]

16 hours ago, Robot Man said:

Sadly, they are all gone now, sold off or traded. 

 

Easy come easy go...as an older guy I've had all sorts of amazing finds, as well as all sorts of bad sells. Just part of the game.