What's the best method to value a larger collection when making an offer. 5 5

[Artboy99]

some Playboys have value, especially #1.

Grab them for sure.

What an awesome story you have told. Thanks for sharing your collection acquisition, and please do share the CGC grades when you get them.

[gadzukes]

2 hours ago, Artboy99 said:

some Playboys have value, especially #1.

Grab them for sure.

FlyingDonut was nice enough to give me a heads up on the Playboys that are worth something. Jan/55 has the Betty Page CF 

Edited August 2, 2019 by gadzukes

[DavidTheDavid]

Hey man congrats on your mother lode!  

[stippy52]

Congrats!

[WolverineX]

5 hours ago, gadzukes said:

I want to thank everyone who gave me advice at the start of this thread.  Your collective wisdom was much appreciated.

How did u meet this guy in the first place?

[gadzukes]

9 hours ago, Wolverinex said:

How did u meet this guy in the first place?

Luck.... pure luck.

I bought a comic from him off of ebay 10 years ago and when he went to ship it to me he discovered I lived a couple miles away from him.  At that time he told me he had inherited his dads collection and was going to start selling it on ebay, but after listing about 10 comics he was already sick of the ebay listing process.  Since I lived near him he asked me if I wanted to come over and look thru the comics and start buying from him directly.  "Um....YEAH!!!"

So I started buying....  He'd bring a box over to my house.... I never knew what was going to be in it and I'd start buying.  There usually was at least 1 major key issue in every box.  It was a fun (but slow) process because he would never want to sell me the whole collection.  I ended up with lots of good stuff.... Hulk 1, X-Men 1, Avengers 1, ST110.... many DC key issues.  I probably spent about $10,000 at that time and got some great stuff (some of which I still have).  

BUT one day he told me he was going thru a divorce and all of a sudden I never heard from him again..... until 6 weeks ago.

Here's the Hulk 1 I got from him 10 years ago.

[WolverineX]

6 minutes ago, gadzukes said:

Luck.... pure luck.

I bought a comic from him off of ebay 10 years ago and when he went to ship it to me he discovered I lived a couple miles away from him.  At that time he told me he had inherited his dads collection and was going to start selling it on ebay, but after listing about 10 comics he was already sick of the ebay listing process.  Since I lived near him he asked me if I wanted to come over and look thru the comics and start buying from him directly.  "Um....YEAH!!!"

So I started buying....  He'd bring a box over to my house.... I never knew what was going to be in it and I'd start buying.  There usually was at least 1 major key issue in every box.  It was a fun (but slow) process because he would never want to sell me the whole collection.  I ended up with lots of good stuff.... Hulk 1, X-Men 1, Avengers 1, ST110.... many DC key issues.  I probably spent about $10,000 at that time and got some great stuff (some of which I still have).  

BUT one day he told me he was going thru a divorce and all of a sudden I never heard from him again..... until 6 weeks ago.

Here's the Hulk 1 I got from him 10 years ago.

Such an amazing story! Congrats. Let me know if u ever intend on selling

[1Cool]

Just a crazy - crazy story all the way around.  How the heck did you agree on a price for these last few boxes if you thought they were filled with drek and they had a few mega keys?

[gadzukes]

40 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

How the heck did you agree on a price for these last few boxes if you thought they were filled with drek and they had a few mega keys?

I priced them as I went thru them.  There were 4 final boxes for me to go thru.  I went thru the first 2 boxes of drek, and paid him drek prices.  

I went thru the 3rd box pretty fast because I was seeing more drek, but then the last 3" were all batman with many cool ones (shown in the pics).  So I paid him more for that box obviously.

The last box had the mega key TOS39, and the other nice TOS, so I paid the most for that box.  I told him what I found and actually showed him the mega key (I told him it was the 1st Ironman ever).  Then I made him an offer for that one alone and he took it.  He has been super cool with me.  I take notes as I go thru the boxes & have always disclosed what I have been finding before I've made him any offers, and he has ALWAYS taken my 1st offer with no negotiation whatsoever.  I've always been prepared to negotiate and make counteroffers upwards, but I've never had to do it.  He has ALWAYS been super happy with me and tells me to keep coming back for more.  It's simply a perfect situation as a buyer.

In the last 8 weeks or so I bought 26 long boxes of comics from him (that's it, unless he finds a hidden box somewhere).  Lots of nice comics were sprinkled throughout with many higher grades (see photos in this thread).  No boxes were ever labeled as to the contents, I never knew what I was about to find when I went to his house, and he only ever had about 6 boxes or so at his house at a time.  I think it's a little ironic that the mega key was in the very last box towards the very end of the longbox.

Now..... I need to be a selling machine on ebay (and here) because my wife is not happy about all the long boxes in our extra room (she's a neat freak).

I also have to pull everything to press & send to CGC for grading.  There's a lot of work ahead, but hey.... it doesn't feel like work.  I'm having a blast.  What a great hobby.

Edited August 2, 2019 by gadzukes

[1Cool]

9 minutes ago, gadzukes said:

I priced them as I went thru them.  There were 4 final boxes for me to go thru.  I went thru the first 2 boxes of drek, and paid him drek prices.  

I went thru the 3rd box pretty fast because I was seeing more drek, but then the last 3" were all batman with many cool ones (shown in the pics).  So I paid him more for that box obviously.

The last box had the mega key TOS39, and the other nice TOS, so I paid the most for that box.  I told him what I found and actually showed him the mega key (I told him it was the 1st Ironman ever).  Then I made him an offer for that one alone and he took it.  He has been super cool with me.  I take notes as I go thru the boxes & have always disclosed what I have been finding before I've made him any offers, and he has ALWAYS taken my 1st offer with no negotiation whatsoever.  I've always been prepared to negotiate and make counteroffers upwards, but I've never had to do it.  He has ALWAYS been super happy with me and tells me to keep coming back for more.  It's simply a perfect situation as a buyer.

In the last 8 weeks or so I bought 26 long boxes of comics from him (that's it, unless he finds a hidden box somewhere).  Lots of nice comics were sprinkled throughout with many higher grades (see photos in this thread).  No boxes were ever labeled as to the contents, I never knew what I was about to find when I went to his house, and he only ever had about 6 boxes or so at his house at a time.  I think it's a little ironic that the mega key was in the very last box towards the very end of the longbox.

Now..... I need to be a selling machine on ebay (and here) because my wife is not happy about all the long boxes in our extra room (she's a neat freak).

I also have to pull everything to press & send to CGC for grading.  There's a lot of work ahead, but hey.... it doesn't feel like work.  I'm having a blast.  What a great hobby.

Gotcha - I thought you didn't find out what was in the boxes until you got home after purchasing them.  Quite the score and it will keep you looking for the next one!

[gadzukes]

3 minutes ago, 1Cool said:

I thought you didn't find out what was in the boxes until you got home after purchasing them.

That would have been pretty cool (and more lucrative)

It still was cool the way it transpired.  It's always awesome to find mega keys in the wild.  I've found a few including an AF15

[gadzukes]

On 8/1/2019 at 4:30 PM, gadzukes said:

And then the final long box.

I got about 3" from finishing the box and then......

Boom... a nice TOS set of about 30 comics including TOS 39

The comic Gods have been smiling on me these last two months.

(TOS39 looks to be about 4.0-4.5.  All the rest look like they average around 6.0-6.5)

 

The TOS 39 is coming back from CGC.

I got a Blue label 4.0 with OW pages.

Pretty much what I thought.  I'm very happy. 

I think I'll be notified in a day or two about the original batch of Spideys I bought with this collection.  I had them all pressed.  Fingers crossed for some high grades.

[gadzukes]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:14 AM, gadzukes said:

(The grades I'm giving these are what I think they will be with a press.  They're all pretty nice though)

Spiderman 14   7.0 range

Spiderman 28   7.5 range

Spiderman 25   8.0 range

I just got notice that a bunch of my Spidey's are coming back from CGC.

Here's what I'm getting:

Spidey 14 - CGC 5.0   Best looking 5.0 you'll ever see.  (Graders notes say "heavy Staining to the cover") I saw some light stains, but I didn't think I would get hit so hard.

Spidey 28 - CGC 6.0  I thought I'd do better on this one too.  (Quite a few graders notes for minimal things, but together they brought the grade down)

Spidey 25 - CGC 9.0  That's what I'm talking about!  I guessed 8.0 so it's nice to get a little love on this one.

[gadzukes]

On 5/25/2019 at 1:11 AM, gadzukes said:

(The grades I'm giving these are what I think they will be with a press.  They're all pretty nice though)

Spiderman 39 - 9.0

Spiderman 15 - 6.5

Spiderman 31 - 7.5

 

On 5/25/2019 at 1:11 AM, gadzukes said:

 

Here's some more of the grades CGC gave me.

Spidey 39 - CGC 7.5  (I thought 9.0 ugh)

Spidey 15 - CGC 6.5  (I thought 6.5)

Spidey 31 - CGC 8.5  (I thought 7.5)

Not bad

 

[gadzukes]

On 5/24/2019 at 12:14 AM, gadzukes said:

(The grades I'm giving these are what I think they will be with a press.  They're all pretty nice though)

Spiderman 17   7.5 range

Spiderman 19   8.0 range

Spiderman 22   8.0 range

Spiderman 25   8.0 range

Spiderman 26   8.0 range

Spiderman 27   8.5 range

Spiderman 29   7.0 range

I never posted pics of these but I predicted what grades they would get above....

Here's what they actually got from CGC

Spidey 17 - CGC 8.5 

Spidey 19 - CGC 7.5

Spidey 22 - CGC 8.5 

Spidey 25 - CGC 9.0 

Spidey 26 - CGC 9.0 

Spidey 27 - CGC 8.0

Spidey 29 - CGC 7.0

 

[gadzukes]

Also, a Green Lantern 76 is coming back CGC 8.5.

And a Conan 1 from this collection is coming back CGC 9.4

Pretty exciting to see some of these grades.

[badback83]

Wow @gadzukes .  What a great collection.  I’m glad you ended up with everything from it. It just goes to show that if you’re fair and honest with people, good things can happen.

[PopKulture]

On 8/1/2019 at 3:26 PM, gadzukes said:

Boom, a treasure trove of Batman.  The 181 even has the CF.

 

I looked at my Batman 181 a week ago and it was missing the centerfold. I haven't looked at it in 40 years I'd bet, and paid probably 50c for it, so no biggie. What was in there everyone wanted? 

[Artboy99]

38 minutes ago, PopKulture said:

I looked at my Batman 181 a week ago and it was missing the centerfold. I haven't looked at it in 40 years I'd bet, and paid probably 50c for it, so no biggie. What was in there everyone wanted? 

a centerfold pic

 

[PopKulture]

1 minute ago, Artboy99 said:

a centerfold pic

 

Oh, wow. I can see why that's often missing! Super cool!! 

Is there a similar pin-up in Action 340 (first Parasite)? I ask because I have two copies of that without a centerfold, too. Any other notorious DC books off the top of your head??