Where to get a comic authenticated? 1 1

[BoogieWoogie]

I picked up a strange item that I think I will probably have to end up returning but figured was worth a roll of the dice... it's a set of silver age books that have been leather bound, maybe professionally, maybe by a skilled amateur. Or maybe it's a very, very faithful reproduction. The seller claims they're originals but doesn't seem to know much about comics - I also bought a ASM129 from this seller that was dramatically underpriced. Then again the same seller has sold some other items, video games, toys, even statues, that are similarly dramatically underpriced. And these are all early 60's books, when people were still hole punching comics and throwing them in binders. It's not totally crazy to me that someone would think getting some issues professionally bound might be worthwhile. Was this a thing in the 50s and 60s and earlier does anyone know? Or does it sound pretty likely I'm dealing with reproductions here?

All that being said, if these books ARE real then this is a great deal even if the process of getting them removed from the binding damages them significantly. If the books are repos or something it'll be a hassle to get my CC to refund my money but the seller said they were real in writing so should be cut and dry if not annoying. But how do I figure out if these books are the real deal or not once I get them in hand? Who can I trust to help me authenticate these - or not? Never really had an issue where I didn't feel certain if the books were real...

[thehumantorch]

1 hour ago, BoogieWoogie said:

I picked up a strange item that I think I will probably have to end up returning but figured was worth a roll of the dice... it's a set of silver age books that have been leather bound, maybe professionally, maybe by a skilled amateur. Or maybe it's a very, very faithful reproduction. The seller claims they're originals but doesn't seem to know much about comics - I also bought a ASM129 from this seller that was dramatically underpriced. Then again the same seller has sold some other items, video games, toys, even statues, that are similarly dramatically underpriced. And these are all early 60's books, when people were still hole punching comics and throwing them in binders. It's not totally crazy to me that someone would think getting some issues professionally bound might be worthwhile. Was this a thing in the 50s and 60s and earlier does anyone know? Or does it sound pretty likely I'm dealing with reproductions here?

All that being said, if these books ARE real then this is a great deal even if the process of getting them removed from the binding damages them significantly. If the books are repos or something it'll be a hassle to get my CC to refund my money but the seller said they were real in writing so should be cut and dry if not annoying. But how do I figure out if these books are the real deal or not once I get them in hand? Who can I trust to help me authenticate these - or not? Never really had an issue where I didn't feel certain if the books were real...

Sure, bound volumes were a fairly common way to preserve books in the past. 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=bound+volume+comics&_sacat=0

[KCOComics]

Can you post pictures?

My guess is, folks here could authenticate the comics.  There are several conservationist who you could talk to about removal. 

I don't know if they remove books from bound volumes (I've never needed to inquire), but I can give you some names and info if your interested in moving forward.  

[BoogieWoogie]

4 hours ago, thehumantorch said:

Sure, bound volumes were a fairly common way to preserve books in the past. 

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2380057.m570.l1313&_nkw=bound+volume+comics&_sacat=0

Very cool! I didn't even know this was a thing.

4 hours ago, KCOComics said:

Can you post pictures?

My guess is, folks here could authenticate the comics.  There are several conservationist who you could talk to about removal. 

I don't know if they remove books from bound volumes (I've never needed to inquire), but I can give you some names and info if your interested in moving forward.  

Yes, posting pics now. And if these are real then yes I am very seriously interested in moving forward and would be willing to pay for one of the country's foremost experts to do this. I just don't know how to find that person. I probably sound like a crazy person but I am really going to go nutty if these are real.

1 hour ago, Call The Cops said:

The comics are usually seriously trimmed and otherwise besmirched so I don't think there's much value in removing the comics from the volume.

Yes, these do appear to have been trimmed quite a bit if they're real but I think it'd be worth my while to remove them if they're real. There is probably something really obvious I'm missing that proves they're reproductions but here goes nothing. I'll post the ASM129 I mentioned earlier. I see reproductions of this book posted for sale all the time and wonder if this might be one too...

The bound volume:

 

Peep the glue gun in the photo. Thing makes me wonder if this seller just bound these or something...

The seller didn't include pictures of every cover which makes me wonder if the seller maybe doesn't know much about comics?

ASM 129:

Sorry about the picture quality. Again these aren't in hand yet and the seller seems to have taken some of these pictures using a potato or some other root vegetable

Now, here's why I thought it may be real... this guy has sold a ton of stuff in the last day that has been insanely underpriced. He sold a set of statues for $120 when each one is on Ebay with 30+ watchers at around $450. Each. He sold a full page of Charizard cards - 9 base set cards - for under $100. Those are going for around $200 EACH online. A set of the 3 starters' Japanese cards all graded gem mint 10 for $100 which is truly nuts, 60 N64 games in very nice condition for $60 with some pretty rare games in the lot... and a ton more examples. I wonder if this might be someone that is having trouble liquidating some sort of store in Small Town, USA that doesn't understand how different the internet market is...

I've tried to ask the seller more about the two books but the seller's native language doesn't seem to be English and I'm an uncultured snot so I don't speak any other languages. Pretty weird situation all around.

Have no idea if these books are real just figured it was worth the risk and the hassle of a return if they turn out not to be. If they are real I might pass out, ASM is my grail run and I only have one of these issues

Edited March 16, 2021 by BoogieWoogie

[KCOComics]

Kenny Sanderson is where I would start.  I will send you a PM with his info. In my opinion he's the foremost expert. 

I don't know if he does this kind of work, but it's where I would start. 

 

[BoogieWoogie]

23 minutes ago, Call The Cops said:

Reproductions or reprints? I see plenty of reprints, but I've never seen a reproduction.

Reprints kinda reassembled stapled to reproduction covers. Like the guts of a Marvel Tales or something re-stapled inside a reproduction cover. So both?

 

11 minutes ago, Call The Cops said:

I would think twice before removing them. I would find out if they're worth more bound than individually. They're probably trimmed on all 3 sides and the spines will be a complete mess. 

Assuming these are real of course... if you have any advice on pricing something like this feel free to share! Again, I was unaware this was a thing until I saw this pop up for sale so I'm totally in the dark here.

My big worry is that these might be trimmed on all FOUR sides and the spines might be removed. I don't know how likely that is and I have no idea how books are bound... again this is not at all my forte. If the spines are intact then I think these would be worth so much more than I paid for them that it'd still be worth it to get them removed. Even if these all got qualified grades or restored grades or whatever I would still be completely geeked to own these and I'd personally prefer to have them separated and slabbed. I would basically consider these picked up for free honestly so unless they're worth enough for me to get a copy of AF15 after selling it through an auction house or somewhere I would want to get these copies removed I think. But I don't know how corrosive that process is either to be honest so I think I would want to talk to someone about it for quite a bit. After authenticating the item at least.

These are probably somehow fake. I am getting myself lathered up over nothing

[BoogieWoogie]

4 minutes ago, Call The Cops said:

You've actually seen something like this? Got a link?

If the guts were from a Marvel Tales that would be easy to identify. The ads alone would give it away.

I think the binding process ruins the spines. I think the issues are saddle stitched together and then glued to the spine like a square bound book.

It's sold as a reprint. I took a look at the indica and it is indeed a Marvel Tales inside. Here's a link: https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m55244858373/?ref=search_results

This ASM1, also Marvel Tales guts, sold: https://www.mercari.com/us/item/m92552191364/?ref=search_results

There appears to maybe be a small market for these married "mock up" books with "fascimile" reproduction covers. Maybe scammers are buying these I don't know

[shadroch]

bound copies, especially older ones like this appears to be, generally have the comics trimmed extensively. I'm not sure you would see any benefit from taking it apart. There is a niche market for these, although I'm not sure there is an established market value for them. I'd contact Heritage and see what they think. 

[KCOComics]

2 hours ago, Call The Cops said:

Is that Z-man? He's good. There's also Susan Ciccioni and Hero Restoration.

Yes - Z Man though he isn't on the boards much these days. 

I've spoken to Susan in the past, but haven't worked with her. Both she and Hero resto also have great reputations. 

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by KCOComics

[shadroch]

I'd see if there is anyone local who binds these things. Someone who does them on a regular basis should be able to undo them as well.

[BoogieWoogie]

14 minutes ago, shadroch said:

bound copies, especially older ones like this appears to be, generally have the comics trimmed extensively. I'm not sure you would see any benefit from taking it apart. There is a niche market for these, although I'm not sure there is an established market value for them. I'd contact Heritage and see what they think. 

That's a really good idea. I don't know why I didn't think of that. I am only a few hours away from Dallas I could make the trip up there one weekend. For now I'm still waiting to see if the seller actually ships this damn thing

[ECDC]

Heritage has  sold hundreds of these over the years... if my link below doesn’t work, just do a search for bound volume . The Overstreet estimates are based on comics in VG

https://comics.ha.com/c/search-results.zx?N=790+231+52&Nty=1&Ntt=bound+volume&Ntk=SI_Titles&ic10=OtherResults-ViewAll-071515

[ECDC]

These were even selling when Sotheby’s had comic auctions 30 years ago.

[BoogieWoogie]

Sale canceled. User deleted. If I can figure out some way to contac them of course I will but I think I'm at a dead end already. For anyone curious the user sold it to me for a too-good-to-be-true $180. And look how it turned out Ah well, easy come easy go. Did learn some cool stuff in this thread and will have to keep an eye out for bound books like these in the future.

Choosing to laugh to keep from crying  what a hobby!

Next time I won't start a thread until something shipped, I really couldn't help myself I was so excited 

Edited March 16, 2021 by BoogieWoogie

[Domo Arigato]

14 hours ago, BoogieWoogie said:

The seller claims they're originals but doesn't seem to know much about comics - I also bought a ASM129 from this seller that was dramatically underpriced. Then again the same seller has sold some other items, video games, toys, even statues, that are similarly dramatically underpriced.

 

7 hours ago, BoogieWoogie said:

Now, here's why I thought it may be real... this guy has sold a ton of stuff in the last day that has been insanely underpriced. He sold a set of statues for $120 when each one is on Ebay with 30+ watchers at around $450. Each. He sold a full page of Charizard cards - 9 base set cards - for under $100. Those are going for around $200 EACH online. A set of the 3 starters' Japanese cards all graded gem mint 10 for $100 which is truly nuts, 60 N64 games in very nice condition for $60 with some pretty rare games in the lot... and a ton more examples. I wonder if this might be someone that is having trouble liquidating some sort of store in Small Town, USA that doesn't understand how different the internet market is...

I've tried to ask the seller more about the two books but the seller's native language doesn't seem to be English and I'm an uncultured snot so I don't speak any other languages. Pretty weird situation all around.

 

33 minutes ago, BoogieWoogie said:

Sale canceled. User deleted. If I can figure out some way to contac them of course I will but I think I'm at a dead end already. For anyone curious the user sold it to me for a too-good-to-be-true $180.

 

Every single bit of this screams massive scam to me.  Are others not thinking the same thing?

1. Seller claims they're originals but doesn't know much about comics.
2. Seller drastically underprices everything which translate into quick sales....hopefully before being discovered as a scam.
3. Seller is not knowledgeable about the products, but just happens to have valuable items of several different types of collectables.
4. Seller's native language isn't English.
5. Sale canceled and user deleted (see number 2).

I think you dodged a bullet and save yourself the time and headache of having to deal with this.  There's always the tiniest fraction of a percent that it could be real, but I don't think so on this one.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Domo Arigato

[BoogieWoogie]

8 minutes ago, Domo Arigato said:

 

 

 

Every single bit of this screams massive scam to me.  Are others not thinking the same thing?

1. Seller claims they're originals but doesn't know much about comics.
2. Seller drastically underprices everything which translate into quick sales....hopefully before being discovered as a scam.
3. Seller is not knowledgeable about the products, but just happens to have valuable items of several different types of collectables.
4. Seller's native language isn't English.
5. Sale canceled and user deleted (see number 2).

I think you dodged a bullet and save yourself the time and headache of having to deal with this.  There's always the tiniest fraction of a percent that it could be real, but I don't think so on this one.

 

You're probably right! On Ebay I would've been more suspicious but this was on Mercari and the seller doesn't get paid until the buyer receives the item anyway. Maybe this person didn't know that. I do a fair bit of selling on that platform myself - I'm going to the post now to drop off some copies of Marvel Voices #1 that I sold - so I went in feeling fairly confident that I'd get my money back in pretty short order if it wasn't legit. In this case I've been refunded already.

[Domo Arigato]

20 minutes ago, BoogieWoogie said:

You're probably right! On Ebay I would've been more suspicious but this was on Mercari and the seller doesn't get paid until the buyer receives the item anyway. Maybe this person didn't know that. I do a fair bit of selling on that platform myself - I'm going to the post now to drop off some copies of Marvel Voices #1 that I sold - so I went in feeling fairly confident that I'd get my money back in pretty short order if it wasn't legit. In this case I've been refunded already.

As you mentioned, it was only $180, so might have been worth the risk of the inconvenience just in case it was real.  I just don't think you should feel too bad about missing out on it.  For somebody clueless to have rare comics, valuable statues, high dollar cards, and hard to find video games just doesn't add up for me.  Scammers will often sell high value items like this for a fraction of their worth.  They know that gets people to let their guard down and act quickly out of fear that they might lose out on a great deal.

 

Edited March 16, 2021 by Domo Arigato

[BoogieWoogie]

2 minutes ago, Domo Arigato said:

As you mentioned, it was only $180, so might have been worth the risk of the inconvenience just in case it was real.  I just don't think you should feel too bad about missing out on it.  For somebody clueless to have rare comics, valuable statues, high dollar cards, and hard to find video games just doesn't add up for me.  Scammers will often sell high value items like this for a fraction of their worth in order to get people to let their guard down and act quickly out of fear that they might lose out on a great deal.

 

I am a bit bummed because it is going to be HARD to finish the last 20 or so issues of ASM, my grail run. This would've knocked out half of it at a crazy number. I was suspicious which I think came through in my other posts but it was worth the dice roll. And it was fun to dream about for the 10 or so hours before my balloon was burst. But I'm not going to be hard on myself. I have scored lots of crazy nice deals on Mercari and elsewhere. Just not THAT nice.

Now it's back to standard issue hawking, sourcing, and flipping to try and work my way up to my next big key 

[Domo Arigato]

1 hour ago, BoogieWoogie said:

I am a bit bummed because it is going to be HARD to finish the last 20 or so issues of ASM, my grail run. This would've knocked out half of it at a crazy number. I was suspicious which I think came through in my other posts but it was worth the dice roll. And it was fun to dream about for the 10 or so hours before my balloon was burst. But I'm not going to be hard on myself. I have scored lots of crazy nice deals on Mercari and elsewhere. Just not THAT nice.

Now it's back to standard issue hawking, sourcing, and flipping to try and work my way up to my next big key 

Seller just relisted everything on Mercari.  Figured I might as well take the chance and offered him one price for everything.  He promised to get it all in the mail tomorrow, so if the comics turn out to be real, I'll give you first crack at them.  I think a 3% discount off of GPA prices would be fair.  Let me know if you'd be interested and I'll let you know that I'm only kidding.

  

[onlyweaknesskryptonite]

1 hour ago, Domo Arigato said:

Seller just relisted everything on Mercari.  Figured I might as well take the chance and offered him one price for everything.  He promised to get it all in the mail tomorrow, so if the comics turn out to be real, I'll give you first crack at them.  I think a 3% discount off of GPA prices would be fair.  Let me know if you'd be interested and I'll let you know that I'm only kidding.