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The Top 5 books you sold that keep you up at night
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93 posts in this topic

On 6/13/2022 at 4:18 PM, namisgr said:

Having sold off virtually the entirety of my collection amassed off and on over 40+ years, there are a bunch of valuable books that got sold.  But I don't lose sleep over them, and made decent coin on many.

I sold:

Amazing Fantasy #15 cgc 6.5; ASM #4 cgc 9.0; #13 cgc 9.0; #15 cgc 9.0

Avengers #1 cgc 8.5; #8 cgc 9.4

Daredevil #1 cgc 8.5

Fantastic Four #1 cgc 6.5; #5 cgc 9.2; #s 36,51 Pac Coast cgc 9.6; #48 cgc 9.6; Ann #6 cgc 9.6

House of Secrets #92 cgc 9.0

Incredible Hulk #1 cgc 7.0; #2 cgc 9.0; #180 cgc 9.6; #181 cgc 9.6

Journey Into Mystery #85 Mass copy cgc 8.5; #83 cgc 6.0; Thor #165 cgc 9.4

Marvel Spotlight #5 cgc 9.4

Showcase #22 cgc 7.5

Strange Tales #110 cgc 9.0

Tales of Suspense #39 cgc 8.0 two copies; #52 Twin Cities cgc 9.2

X-Men #1 cgc 5.5; #4 cgc 8.5

 

damn man, what did you keep!!!!! 

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On 6/17/2022 at 12:45 PM, texmurphy2099 said:

damn man, what did you keep!!!!! 

My collection was sold off over a 12 year period, so quite a bit that just dwindled over time.

I still have a collection of raw picture frame Marvels, Marvel reprint books, and some Marvel treasuries.

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On 6/17/2022 at 12:20 AM, Bluemedgroup said:

What was the story behind her "forcing" you to sell?  

That is very complicated. I've told it before but to clean it up a little, here it is:

In 1979, my stepfather gave my mother a Luger pistol for self-defense. That gun was then drawn on me twice, once by accident, the other occasion on purpose. On the second occasion, I was moments from obliteration but was luckily on the phone with my mom at the time. She heard what was going on and called the police. Luckily, there was a car in the area. A policeman crashed through our front door a few minutes later, tackled the malefactor holding the gun, and then alerted Child Protective Services.

This wasn't the first time CPS had decided to investigate my mom, nor the last. However, when she sensed she was about to lose her kids (true or not), she decided we had to move to Las Vegas. She had no money but knew my comics were worth something. She demanded I sell them and give her the money. I didn't want to but didn't know how to get out of it. I finally settled on a plan: rather than try to get top dollar, I would sell them in a way that would allow me to conceal the proceeds.

I found a comic book dealer that also sold coins in Chico, California and told my mom that we could sell them there. We drove up and I brought the 25 boxes (or so) of comics into the shop. I told my mom to leave the store so I could negotiate better. The dealer offered me $1,100. That was far below their value even then but I had no choice. I had to take it. I asked for $500 in coins, the rest in cash. I put the coins in my pocket and gave the cash to my mom.

With those $500 in coins, I started trading coins in Las Vegas, which is a kind of Mecca for coin collectors. Before long, I was earning good money buying and selling coins. At one convention, I had a net profit of $900 after a few hours of trading. For a 14 year old in 1979, that was pretty good. It didn't last long. After living in Vegas for all of 3 months, my mom decided to move again, this time to be a step ahead of an ex-boyfriend she incorrectly believed was stalking her. She didn't have a destination in mind, so we just drove west and then south until we landed in Santa Barbara.

My mom didn't have enough money to rent an apartment, so she stayed at a shelter for women and put me in a shelter for runaways, though I wasn't a runaway. Not that it mattered, because I was about to have my 15th birthday, which meant I would be officially kicked out and have to live on my own. 

The problem with Santa Barbara is they had a city ordinance against minors selling coins or metal bullion. I couldn't sell coins, silver, or gold any more. I could buy it, but couldn't sell it. They had only one comic book store, which meant I couldn't effectively trade comics either. With those two factors working against me, I decided to start buying and selling collectibles: civil war medical kits, Wedgewood pottery, antique decks of cards, etc. To do it, I traded my coins for a few collectibles, then entered into an arrangement with a local dealer who I could sell through by showing a note from him, purportedly my grandmother, certifying I had "her" permission to sell "her" antiques.

There was an interesting event or two when we moved from Vegas to Santa Barbara. One happened because my mom first drove to Arizona to leave our larger possessions with my grandfather. About two months later, we came back to retrieve them. On the way back, I was stranded at a gas station in the middle of the Mojave desert for a couple of hours. I had no idea who to call. I didn't know anyone to call thanks to our frequent moves, my name had been changed by my mom, so no one I knew would know who I was. I called the police. Fifteen minutes later, I saw a cruiser coming toward the gas station from the east. Just before they got to me, my mom came roaring up in her overloaded Dodge Polara and shoved me into the car and drove off. I often wonder what would have happened if the police had rescued me instead of my mother, who kidnapped my sister and I when we were babies.

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On 6/14/2022 at 9:33 AM, paqart said:

I also had a large collection of Carl Barks ducks, including 1st Scrooge (FC 186) and Scrooge 1 (FC 300)

If it makes you feel any better, neither of those books you're remembering is correct (so maybe they weren't as big a loss as you thought). :gossip:

1st Scrooge is FC 178, Scrooge 1 is FC 386. :foryou:

Edited by valiantman
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On 6/17/2022 at 5:51 PM, valiantman said:

If it makes you feel any better, neither of those books you're remembering is correct (so maybe they weren't as big a loss as you thought). :gossip:

1st Scrooge is FC 178, Scrooge 1 is FC 386. :foryou:

It's been awhile. No, I got the numbers wrong here but I had the right comics. The first was Christmas on Bear Mountain, the other Only a Poor Old Man. I haven't had those two comics since 1979. I've since bought other Barks ducks but not those two because they are too expensive. I even took a photo of the US1 (US in his money bin) and made a T-shirt out of it. Thanks for the correction though, I'll fix the original post.

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On 6/17/2022 at 5:42 PM, Sulkie said:

Ah, I can see why you're part of Comicsgate and why you hate women.

Thanks to politically-oriented comments like this on other threads on the CGC forums, I wrote an article about it for the national media a few weeks ago. In this case, the article went behind a paywall, so the link won't get you the story but you can at least read the title. Here is the link. The emphasis in the article is on the danger posed by social media censorship of valid information that can prevent harm if heeded. The idea is that sometimes, information exists that can prevent serious problems, such as, "do not attempt to douse a fire with gasoline" , or "your Tinder date just escaped from an asylum for the criminally insane". It applies to other topics in the news these days, where social media suppression successfully conceals criminal activity, even if the suppression is done out of a combination of good intentions, pure ignorance, and fear of litigation. My impression is that CGC falls into that category, like most social media today. Regardless, certain kinds of censorship, though apparently legal, do harm to society.

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On 6/17/2022 at 4:17 PM, paqart said:

That is very complicated. I've told it before but to clean it up a little, here it is:

In 1979, my stepfather gave my mother a Luger pistol for self-defense. That gun was then drawn on me twice, once by accident, the other occasion on purpose. On the second occasion, I was moments from obliteration but was luckily on the phone with my mom at the time. She heard what was going on and called the police. Luckily, there was a car in the area. A policeman crashed through our front door a few minutes later, tackled the malefactor holding the gun, and then alerted Child Protective Services.

This wasn't the first time CPS had decided to investigate my mom, nor the last. However, when she sensed she was about to lose her kids (true or not), she decided we had to move to Las Vegas. She had no money but knew my comics were worth something. She demanded I sell them and give her the money. I didn't want to but didn't know how to get out of it. I finally settled on a plan: rather than try to get top dollar, I would sell them in a way that would allow me to conceal the proceeds.

I found a comic book dealer that also sold coins in Chico, California and told my mom that we could sell them there. We drove up and I brought the 25 boxes (or so) of comics into the shop. I told my mom to leave the store so I could negotiate better. The dealer offered me $1,100. That was far below their value even then but I had no choice. I had to take it. I asked for $500 in coins, the rest in cash. I put the coins in my pocket and gave the cash to my mom.

With those $500 in coins, I started trading coins in Las Vegas, which is a kind of Mecca for coin collectors. Before long, I was earning good money buying and selling coins. At one convention, I had a net profit of $900 after a few hours of trading. For a 14 year old in 1979, that was pretty good. It didn't last long. After living in Vegas for all of 3 months, my mom decided to move again, this time to be a step ahead of an ex-boyfriend she incorrectly believed was stalking her. She didn't have a destination in mind, so we just drove west and then south until we landed in Santa Barbara.

My mom didn't have enough money to rent an apartment, so she stayed at a shelter for women and put me in a shelter for runaways, though I wasn't a runaway. Not that it mattered, because I was about to have my 15th birthday, which meant I would be officially kicked out and have to live on my own. 

The problem with Santa Barbara is they had a city ordinance against minors selling coins or metal bullion. I couldn't sell coins, silver, or gold any more. I could buy it, but couldn't sell it. They had only one comic book store, which meant I couldn't effectively trade comics either. With those two factors working against me, I decided to start buying and selling collectibles: civil war medical kits, Wedgewood pottery, antique decks of cards, etc. To do it, I traded my coins for a few collectibles, then entered into an arrangement with a local dealer who I could sell through by showing a note from him, purportedly my grandmother, certifying I had "her" permission to sell "her" antiques.

There was an interesting event or two when we moved from Vegas to Santa Barbara. One happened because my mom first drove to Arizona to leave our larger possessions with my grandfather. About two months later, we came back to retrieve them. On the way back, I was stranded at a gas station in the middle of the Mojave desert for a couple of hours. I had no idea who to call. I didn't know anyone to call thanks to our frequent moves, my name had been changed by my mom, so no one I knew would know who I was. I called the police. Fifteen minutes later, I saw a cruiser coming toward the gas station from the east. Just before they got to me, my mom came roaring up in her overloaded Dodge Polara and shoved me into the car and drove off. I often wonder what would have happened if the police had rescued me instead of my mother, who kidnapped my sister and I when we were babies.

Wow that’s one hell of a story.  I feel blessed for never having to look down a gun barrel before.  

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I wish I'd kept my AF 15, ASM 3, ASM 4, ASM 13 and 14, plus two special ASM 101's. Those were when I was either upgrading to my restored AF 15, or when I first began selling some of my collection. The prices have been crazy for the last 10+ years, I never thought a lot of books would explode in price, like the Morbius copy.

 

ASM 101 CGC 9.8 front.jpg

ASM 101 CGC 9.6 front.jpg

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My top 5

1. JIM 83 Cgc 1.8 signed by Jack Kirby 

I have never been able to get this one back and I regret it every day. I bought a nice mid grade Jim 83 GRR but it doesn't replace what I had. I regret this one every day.

2. DD 1 CGC 9.0 

I was able to get a low grade copy that presents well but I miss that nice DD 1 I had

3. Hulk 181 Cgc 8.5 great looking bright colors. Replaced it with a nice 4.0

4. Strange tales 110 cgc 3.5 SS Stan Lee I replaced it with a lower Grady copy I had signed by Stan but it definitely doesn't look like the 3.5.

5. Captain America comics 27 cgc 6.5 I replace this one with a 2.0 restored trimmed unfortunately.

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I don’t have 5 books but I do have 2. My Amazing Fantasy #15 and Hulk #1. I don’t regret selling them (I’m after an All-American #16) but it’s the thought that if I held onto these longer, I could’ve made just a bit more. 

To be fair, I only spent $12,290 out of pocket for both books and end up selling them as a pair for $22,500.

7851E8CF-9063-4149-B4A9-8ACC069FBC20.jpeg

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On 6/18/2022 at 7:38 AM, Timeless icons said:

Hulk 1 cgc 7.0  48k

Showcase 4 cgc 7.5 62k

More Fun Comics 73 6.5 70k

Strange Tales 110 9.4 Northland  49k

Fantastic Four 48 cgc 9.8 42,500

Honorable mention... X-men 12 cgc 9.8 Pac coast 12k

 

 

x men 12 cgc 9.8 pacific coast pedigree 12200.00.jpg

 

That's funny. 2 of us here in this thread have owned that X Men 12 and lamented getting rid of it. I'm guessing you're the one that bought it from me via HGC.

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On 6/21/2022 at 3:55 PM, LordRahl said:

That's funny. 2 of us here in this thread have owned that X Men 12 and lamented getting rid of it. I'm guessing you're the one that bought it from me via HGC.

I do believe I did, but without looking up my receipts (buried in my tax folders), I couldn't say for sure. It really was a beautiful copy. Still have it listed as sold under my "notable sales" link. :grin: It won't be there too much longer though. New site launches 2023. It's interesting to see where the prices on many of the books still listed here, have risen to. 

https://www.timelessicons.com/notable-sales

Edited by Timeless icons
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Hmmmmmmm,,,,,,,, I miss my Marvel comics #2,,,, it was quite restored but it was a solid copy,,,,,, I had a lovely Marvel Mystery #12,,,,,Kirby cover greatness,,,,,,why Ed why?,,,,,,,,,,,,, Fantastic Four #1,,,,,,,,, Amazing Spiderman #1,,,,, and a stone mint Fantastic Four #48,,,,,,,, those three sold to help get our farm "together" ie,,,, buy gates and fencing for 10 acres,,,,,HAH! AAAAAAARRRRRGGGGGH!,,,,,,,,,,,ok,,,, thank you for letting me get that off my chest,,,,,,,my wife as well has to hear of my,,,"honey,,,, if I only had those books today",,,,,,poor girl.

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On 6/13/2022 at 3:42 PM, LordRahl said:

Hulk 1 6.5

Tales of Suspense 52 Pac Coast 9.6

FF 1 5.0

X Men 12 Pac Coast 9.8

FF 48 9.4

The 2 Pac Coast books in particular I should have never sold, won't see those again even if I could afford the asking price (which I probably can't).

I was looking at the lists that members have posted and I must have gotten sidetracked at one point because I didn't see this list (and a couple of others). Looks like we had not just the X-12, but 3 of the same books that we regret selling. What are the chances? lol

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