Luckiest purchase. 0

[GoodOlSmokey]

What's been your luckiest (most valuable comic for a price way below fmv) purchase thus far?

[LowGradeBronze]

Comic convention in Brighton circa 2005 and a shop took along a box of silver age all recently received and unchecked. On account of that they were offered at £3 each sold as seen. Included ASM 41 plus a bunch of other ASM in the 40s, TTA 101 and Silver Surfer 3 all in around VG. I was in a daze for the rest of the day!

 

[GoodOlSmokey]

On 9/23/2021 at 1:25 AM, LowGradeBronze said:

Comic convention in Brighton circa 2005 and a shop took along a box of silver age all recently received and unchecked. On account of that they were offered at £3 each sold as seen. Included ASM 41 plus a bunch of other ASM in the 40s, TTA 101 and Silver Surfer 3 all in around VG. I was in a daze for the rest of the day!

 

 

[@therealsilvermane]

Not really movie related, but I can steer it in a timely relevant direction.

I bought my copy of Special Marvel Edition #15 (1st Shang-Chi) a few years ago for $175 from my LCS. This was when there were hints that Shang-Chi might get a movie. I got the book pressed and graded, came back a 9.4 from CGC. I sold it last month(not really one I wanted to hold on to) for $2,500.

[Ares]

Ultimate Fallout 4 for cover price years ago. Sent it off to get pressed and graded.

Came back 9.8 And it blew up in price after into the Spiderverse movie

[theCapraAegagrus]

Probably not the best location for this subject.

[Bosco685]

On 9/23/2021 at 11:46 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

Probably not the best location for this subject.

But the SUV upgrades are killer!

[@therealsilvermane]

But I suppose my Special Marvel Edition #15 above wasn't worth much more than $200 for a raw at the time, so it wasn't a book far below FMV.

I guess for that specifically, it would be when I found a copy of Fantastic Four #48 in the wild about two years ago. After the Disney-Fox merger, Fantastic Four and X-Men keys began skyrocketing. Second and Charles, the used books and collectibles chain, never got the memo and happened to put up for sale a decent raw copy of Fantastic Four #48 for $800. A relative of mine who went by there almost everyday because he worked near there informed me of the item. Naturally, I raced to the store upon hearing the news and bought it. I got it pressed and graded, it came back from CGC a 6.5, worth a little over $2000 at the time. It's now approaching $5000 in value. I'd say that's my luckiest purchase ever of a book far below FMV.

 

[@therealsilvermane]

On 9/23/2021 at 2:56 PM, Bosco685 said:

But the SUV upgrades are killer!

It wasn't just an upgrade, the sale basically paid for a new transmission in my SUV after it went out. I could have got a new car, but we were attached to that SUV so we opted to save it.

Heck, while I'm at it, I may as well elaborate on this story, too.

So the transmission in my beloved SUV goes out about two and a half years ago. I make the decision to save the auto and get the $5,000 new transmission. I had room on my credit card. At the same time, the market value of Marvel Super Heroes #13 is skyrocketing in anticipation of the release of Captain Marvel. Being a fan, I obviously had multiple copies, including two high grade CGC slabs, one of them a 9.0 signed by Stan Lee. At the current prices, I decided to put the Stan Lee copy for sale on eBay as a Buy It Now for $5000. It sold within a few days. I put the <$5000 (after PayPal fees etc) in my checking account and paid for the new transmission with my debit card.

 

[GoodOlSmokey]

On 9/23/2021 at 9:27 PM, @therealsilvermane said:

It wasn't just an upgrade, the sale basically paid for a new transmission in my SUV after it went out. I could have got a new car, but we were attached to that SUV so we opted to save it.

Heck, while I'm at it, I may as well elaborate on this story, too.

So the transmission in my beloved SUV goes out about two and a half years ago. I make the decision to save the auto and get the $5,000 new transmission. I had room on my credit card. At the same time, the market value of Marvel Super Heroes #13 is skyrocketing in anticipation of the release of Captain Marvel. Being a fan, I obviously had multiple copies, including two high grade CGC slabs, one of them a 9.0 signed by Stan Lee. At the current prices, I decided to put the Stan Lee copy for sale on eBay as a Buy It Now for $5000. It sold within a few days. I put the <$5000 (after PayPal fees etc) in my checking account and paid for the new transmission with my debit card.

 

Dang dude lol. Did you have stan the man sign it himself or was it second hand?

[GoodOlSmokey]

On 9/23/2021 at 10:46 AM, theCapraAegagrus said:

Probably not the best location for this subject.

Yeah just now realizing I mistakenly clicked the wrong section to post this in lol.

[Jesse-Lee]

I've had some smaller wins - nothing crazy major, but I hunt a lot online, at flea markets, small shows, etc. The hunting is probably my favorite part of the hobby.

Got 2 copies of ASM 361 2nd print at a flea market last year for $2 each and sold one a couple of months ago for $120. Got a really high grade Batman 635 (first Jason Todd as Red Hood) for basically $1.35 - it was in a 130-book lot I won on eBay for $175, that included the Year One run, the full Hush run, and a bunch of other decent-ish stuff. Actually, out of the 130 books I kept about 50 and traded the rest/drek to an LCS for like $30 in store credit, so I guess technically I paid $145 for 50 books, but that's still less than $3/book. Bought a bunch of early TMNT last year too, including paying $2 for a nice copy of TMNT 47 (First Space Usagi).

I find a lot of books at shows and flea markets that cost me around $2-5 each that I end up selling for $25-50, like I've found multiple copies of ASM 359 in the $2-3 dollar range and just sold one this week for $25.

It's time-consuming, but it's a fun way to enjoy the hobby and pay for bigger purchases that I want.

There are still deals out there to hunt - I actually just won a Superman auction lot on eBay tonight - paid $26 (plus $30 shipping, ouch!). So $56 total for 47 books, including 2 copies of Superman 4 (first Bloodsport - 1 direct and 1 newsstand) and a bunch of Silver Age World's Finest and Lois Lane books. Pics were awful so we'll see how the condition is, but at $1.25 a book it was worth the gamble I think. It was just one of those stumble-upon auctions that aren't very well listed and have no descriptions, I just noticed the books in the pics. I was one of only 3 bidders, and it looks like the person before me made their bid a little over 3 hours before the auction ended.

Edited September 24, 2021 by Jesse-Lee

[@therealsilvermane]

On 9/24/2021 at 1:05 AM, GoodOlSmokey said:

Dang dude lol. Did you have stan the man sign it himself or was it second hand?

Second hand purchase. As a comparison, I believe I paid $1600 for it, so it was a nice profit. I do like my Stan Lee sigs but for that particular book, I really wanted a Roy Thomas signature as he created Carol Danvers, and I was able to get it on my other high grade MSH13 that same year.

[LowGradeBronze]

I forgot all about my Canadian eBay win not that long ago, of Strange Tales 169 to 173 for 99c plus shipping. No bids (!) 8 minutes to go and I watched it count down to zero with just my bid. I think that was below FMV!

[Gatsby77]

~10 years ago I scored a 6.5-7.0 copy of ASM 129 for ~$100.

It was from a Craig's List listing - maybe 25 mid-grade Bronze books.

So how did I get lucky?

The guy listed the book as ASM 219 - he had multiple folks calling up specifically asking about ASM 129 and Hulk 180-181 and he told them no, thinking it was a 219.

We met up at a cafe, chatted over coffee for ~1/2 an hour and I bought the lot for $400 cash.

Also included 8.0-ish books like Green Lantern 85, ASM 121, and a few Adams Batman and some Steranko Caps.

I was honest about the value of the books and we both left happy.

[Crimebuster]

2 years ago I was at a convention as a vendor and the table next to me was a couple of guys selling a big OO collection. Before the doors opened, they let us other vendors get first crack, so I went over and dug through a box.

In there I found a low grade Strange Tales #110, so I asked the price, as nothing was marked. The guy looked at the rough condition and said "eh, how about $10?"

[shadroch]

Walking thru a NYC flea market and I see a bunch of early 1960s baseball cards thrown together in a box.  Seller wants a nickel a pop so I'm thinking I'll buy the whole box of a couple of hundred. The seller won't budge and insists I count each card to get a total. I start counting and notice a stack of comics. Thumbing thru them I see a Flash 105 and a Brave and Bold 31. he wants $2 each so I offer him $75 for the stack of about 50 comics and the box of cards. We settle on $90. The comics included a Batman 160, Flash 105, 108 and 111 and a few other early Justice Leagues. The cards were moostly commons but I pulled a Ron Santo rookie and a few Koufaxs.

A different NYC flea market a few months later, guy has a stack of X-Men 118-124. I ask how much and the guys helper yells out "how much are the comics?" Without even looking the seller calls back $3.   I say $3 for the stack? and his helper says thats what he said. I ended up with multple copies of what soon became hot-the first Alpha Flights. 

 

My personal favorite story is the time I found a women selling Susan B Anthony "half dollars" for sixty cents each.