Adventures in Craigslist comic shopping 2 2

[Galen130]

I think this is the correct forum for this...I'm sure I will be corrected if necessary. 

In a nutshell, I'm pretty much done with my two-year old Copper/Modern sales thread here on the boards...just doing some relists with photos and some tweaking/cleanup to keep it going.  Out of 20 long boxes, as of July 2020, I've sold off about 20% of my raws and slabs.  I'm retired, so it's more of a hobby than a money maker...until recently.  I've been slowly building a Golden/Silver Age collection of unique stuff, oddities, bondage and horror covers...mostly slabbed, some raw.  Selling off my Modern collection helps fund this new venture, but sales have dried up.  My sales thread may have peaked, so I've started looking for other ways to fund any future investments.

I've never been a fan of Craigslist...too many horror stories out there, and it just seems like the Wal-mart of online shopping (no offense intended).  I don't really go out to look for comic lots to purchase...don't really do it online either.  But I have recently made purchases through the inter-webs, including one from Craigslist.  It was a good transaction, much to my surprise.  I'm bored without comic work to do on the computer, especially when my better half travels for work for days at a time (like this week).  So I've started looking at other ways to purchase and flip (or keep) older comics.  Funds are limited too...I do pretty well NOT using personal finances to fund comic purchases.

I recently found an ad on the 'list' for someone selling comics from their home for a 3-hour period this week.  They are local...only 15 minutes from me.  Not a lot of info was in the ad, except a couple pics, a 'cash only' statement, and another statement saying that a lot of comics would be for sold for $1.  I have an overactive radar, or Spidey-sense if you will, that comes from a long career in the military and being in hostile environments all over the world.  You get used to constantly keeping your head on a swivel, so I'm extremely cautious when it comes to dubious 'things'...like Craigslist.  I was intrigued though, so the investigation began.

I contacted the seller through Craigslist, and we started a lengthy email chain.  My first radar 'ping' occurred when I saw they had their home address in the ad.  Not a good idea, IMO.  So I started emailing questions about the comics, i.e. what Ages do you have, how are they stored, etc, etc.

The second radar ping occurred when I asked whether they had any Golden Age G.I. Joe comics.  The seller replied that they did and that the comics were in binders.  I have little experience with comics in binders...I didn't know what to think.  I'm a bag and board collector.  They also said they would send me pics after work.  No big deal there.

The third radar, and final, radar ping occurred when they sent me a photo of a 1980's copy of G.I. Joe, A Real American Hero.  The pic was so blurry that I couldn't read the issue number.  I responded by saying I was looking for Golden Age comics.  They didn't know what that meant, and I didn't explain it.  I deleted the email chain...no contact since last night. 

To wrap up this story, I've decided NOT to go to this individuals house to look for comics to buy.  It just doesn't feel right.  Maybe I'm too cautious, too suspicious, but I've always tried to listen to my gut instincts.  I'm still sorely tempted, but I keep telling myself 'no'.  I know there are other ways to find comics out there, but traveling these days just isn't an option.  The military pays squat for a pension, and I have a wife and expenses now (no, not hers). 

Just thought I'd share this little adventure into buying comics on Craigslist.

Cheers!!! 

Edited June 15, 2022 by Galen130

[Gaard]

In Jim Gaffigan voice..."Hey buddy, I like Wal-mart."

[Galen130]

On 6/15/2022 at 8:10 AM, Gaard said:

In Jim Gaffigan voice..."Hey buddy, I like Wal-mart."

 

[Galen130]

I would love for other board members to opine on the subject of my story.  Not looking to start a debate...maybe just share your own experiences. 

[MattTheDuck]

I've used Craigslist pretty frequently over the past year to find comics.  Thus far, I haven't run into anyone trying to scam me, but I mostly go to garage/yard/estate sales as opposed to people offering "just" comics.  I did go to one exactly like you describe about 2 weeks ago which was very similar to most of the g/y/e sales - it was 4 or 5 long boxes of almost exclusively Copper and newer issues, mixed DC and Marvel and only partially sorted by title and number.  I picked up 20 Spider titles, including ASM #353 and a bunch of "Web of" issues.  The guy claimed he was selling the books for a friend of his who had been in the Marines and was now living out of his car which, if true, made me glad I went.  When I saw the listing, it seemed familiar, and it turns out I'd been to a garage sale at the house last summer where he was offering his own collection and I did get some Bronze and Copper books.

I would describe my overall experience as "hit and miss" and the biggest challenges are competition and the amount of time and (now anyway) gas money I spend to mostly come back empty-handed.  Usually there are no pictures and the sellers either don't respond to questions or can't answer them.  The three problems are:  no books I want, books are trashed, or books are too expensive.  One estate sale had an IH #181 that sold to the first guy in line for $4100.  I'm not getting anything spectacular - the "best" is an FF #44 which was in decent shape - and from what I've read here unadvertised collections you find out about via word of mouth are the way to get Golden Age and Silver Age books but that also seems hit and miss and of course takes time to build word of your interest.

I don't worry about my personal safety at all, and I can't envision how I could get scammed in this kind of situation since I know how to evaluate a book (even though they're typically only a dollar or two, I'm not interested in books with missing pages, etc).  You might also consider getting on the estatesales.com email list as I've also picked up some stuff that way as they don't always cross-post with Craigslist.

[manetteska]

OP - The situation you describe is very common on CL (or at garage sales, estate sales, etc). The seller has no idea of the various ages of comic books (or that there are different ages), and keeping them in binders is also common. You can ask other questions to try to narrow age, like cost on the cover, but that's not fool-proof and, if it is a good deal, at this point in a 3-day email exchange waiting for a price reply, someone is already at the house buying the comics.

If the place is 15 mins away, and is not an "undesirable" part of town, and you want to buy comics, it's worth checking out.

99% sure the comics will not be what you want to buy, but you aren't going to get jumped.

[Robot Man]

I don’t know where you guys live, but there are certainly places and situations I would pass on going into for comics. If my “Spidey sense” tingles, I listen to it.

There were many times when I was younger, that I wouldn’t give a second thought to score a good collection. But we live in dangerous and crazy times now especially when money comes into play…

[theCapraAegagrus]

Craigslist is fine if you do exactly what you did and it comes down to seeming legit. If you go into Craigslist blind and don't do your diligence, you could get scammed, or worse. It's usually best for Craigslist deals to occur in public places, rather than someone's home, but sometimes that isn't much of an option.

Just be careful and protect yourself. Comics are not worth putting yourself in potentially legitimate danger. I think that you will be fine, but stay vigilant.

[boomtown]

On 6/15/2022 at 12:56 PM, Robot Man said:

I don’t know where you guys live, but there are certainly places and situations I would pass on going into for comics. If my “Spidey sense” tingles, I listen to it.

There were many times when I was younger, that I wouldn’t give a second thought to score a good collection. But we live in dangerous and crazy times now especially when money comes into play…

I talked to a guy from El Paso, TX and he needed a small warehouse cleared of comics in the late 1990s. Wanted $800 for it all to be cleared. I planned on taking a trailer down from San Antonio and he told me I needed a ladder, a dolly and a truck, a 26ft U-Haul. He had a 20x20 building filled, stacked 8 foot high with boxes, everything you could imagine from the late 80s-early 90s, still in distributor boxes. The more I started thinking about it  just couldn't get the thought of cases of Magnus 25, 26, 27 etc. out of my mind. I was backing out and he said for an extra $50 he would have a guy there to help me load. I still was backing out and he gave me a guys number that had just loaded up a trailer and left for Colorado. I called the guy and he was very happy with what he had loaded, Marvels, Valiants, Image, DC in unopened cases. I was concerned that he had picked the good stuff clean but he said that it wasn't really possible because of the way it was stacked, it was just too much work to sort and search.

So he starts telling me I should get there as early as possible and to get out before it gets dark. He said he was still loading at night and that it wasn't a very nice area. His thought were that the books may have been bought through money laundering. I relayed the info to my friend who was going to go with me and he mentioned you don't want to be that close to Juarez after dark and he backed out.

That was my one that got away.

 

Edited June 15, 2022 by boomtown

[lordbyroncomics]

My suggestion would be to meet in the parking lot of a public area or a hotel lobby. A big collection can be moved to these places, though it would take some effort on behalf of the seller.

I tried listing my collection for sale on CL as I want to sell it as a whole and it's different ages; I got a lot of cranks and one guy who was messing with me and gave himself away. I don't think CL is that serious for significant comic sales; most of the ads I've seen involving comics are clearly by people with a loose familiarity with them; stuff like 90s' Marvel and Death of Superman.

[Artboy99]

I have never dealt using Craigslist here in Edmonton, Canada but I have done comic buying through Kijiji listings which is the same thing.

It has been hit or miss and if possible go with someone just in case.

Had a guy in a parking lot of a local McDonald's walk up to us to see what we were doing which was looking at comics and he told us he had a gun and that everything we were looking at now belonged to him! He was told to _____ ___ and he walked away swearing at us and calling us racial names, etc. But it was still an unpleasant situation in broad daylight.

As to Kijiji buying experiences, here are a few:

1. purchased a 6-7 longbox collection of books from 2000-2012ish mostly runs of titles. DC, Marvel, Image, etc. The seller contacted me 2 years later and I bought more from him. Overall not a bad deal. A good one

2. Went to a seller's home, he had all the books written down on lists. You told him what books you were interested in and he sent his son into a crawlspace to retrieve the boxes. Was not easy to look at and the prices were not cheap. Seller claimed he had sold thousands of dollars from this collection in this manner, we walked away buying nothing because it took too long to look at the books and it wasn't until you saw it that you could see the grade.

3. Went to a guys place to look at a comic collection and his home was filled with cat hair and he didn't clean it up very well. The hair was every where and in every bagged comic because so few of them were taped shut. We bought one comic a low grade New Teen Titans 2.

4. Went to a guys apartment to look at his collection. It was small in size only 2 short boxes but I bought half of it. I left all the Spawns because he wanted too much and it was the early part of the run which in my opinion are very easy to come by.

Is not all bad, I wish the OP luck

 

[Robot Man]

On 6/15/2022 at 3:12 PM, boomtown said:

I talked to a guy from El Paso, TX and he needed a small warehouse cleared of comics in the late 1990s. Wanted $800 for it all to be cleared. I planned on taking a trailer down from San Antonio and he told me I needed a ladder, a dolly and a truck, a 26ft U-Haul. He had a 20x20 building filled, stacked 8 foot high with boxes, everything you could imagine from the late 80s-early 90s, still in distributor boxes. The more I started thinking about it  just couldn't get the thought of cases of Magnus 25, 26, 27 etc. out of my mind. I was backing out and he said for an extra $50 he would have a guy there to help me load. I still was backing out and he gave me a guys number that had just loaded up a trailer and left for Colorado. I called the guy and he was very happy with what he had loaded, Marvels, Valiants, Image, DC in unopened cases. I was concerned that he had picked the good stuff clean but he said that it wasn't really possible because of the way it was stacked, it was just too much work to sort and search.

So he starts telling me I should get there as early as possible and to get out before it gets dark. He said he was still loading at night and that it wasn't a very nice area. His thought were that the books may have been bought through money laundering. I relayed the info to my friend who was going to go with me and he mentioned you don't want to be that close to Juarez after dark and he backed out.

That was my one that got away.

 

Are you sure the number he gave you wasn’t a buddy trying to talk you into it? Maybe a set up.

I used to work for a company who used a printing plant in Juarez. One trip there and I refused to go back…

[littledoom]

Most of my best have been Craigslist finds .. timing plays a lot since there's a lot of eyes .. but that's true with most online classifieds

[bronze_rules]

I've posted plenty of Craigslist stories in the past (mostly bad). I'll add a new one here.

I drive an hour to visit a potential score in silver and bronze age comics. Get there and the wife and kids are busy in the kitchen; husband at work. She lets me look through piles in the garage. I find a very few ok ones, mostly readers but good bronze issues (no keys) littered along with some dell disney stuff I couldn't care less for. I finish and select several and ask the wife to ask her husband. She says, he insists you buy them all or nothing. So, I say, ok no deal. Drive all the way back. I get home, and a few hours later, the husband calls and says, 'what's that pile you put aside?' I said those were the ones I wanted. He goes, 'oh, I'm sorry I thought you were trying to take me on the valuable Disney ones! you can come and purchase the stack.  Anyone think I drove another 2 hours to get them? lol.

Another story. I call for a stack of silver age spiderman titles that all have three hole punches through them. Make a solid offer and guy says ok. As I was getting ready to drive an hour over the bridge to pick them up, my wife calls and says he left a message. "sorry, I got another offer, I sold them."  Just another hell of Craigslist.

One good story. I get an ad that says Richie Rich comics. I go there and there are literally tubs of fantastic RR comics going back to the 50s. So many were stacked inside of saran wrap and various bags in excellent condition. He didn't have any need to itemize and I made a good offer on the spot. Got home, and just opened stacks and stacks of very high end vintage RR comics. Many literally sandwiched between saran wrap. That was a rarity.

Another cool story. I knew a guy that went to visit an oldtimers collection way out in the boondocks and it was during a convention weekend. He got there and the guy had all kinds of high end silver age in piles. He was all mad because he said no one else showed up. The buyer only had like 2k or something and said he would come back with more. The old guy was so upset about it all, he said just take them for what you have, I don't want to deal with this anymore. That guy scored huge and bought a boat and several other high end items. I heard he sold a lot to Harley Yee and a lot of the dealers hated him for the score. I was glad to see the underdog score something for once. He would also hold private garage sales with leftover inventory from that score and I got a lot of good stuff with great prices from him in those days.

I don't think I'd even deal with craigslist now. I had a neighbor who listed something valuable and was tied down with guns, while they pillaged his place. Another recent story -- friend knew a family left with an extraordinary collection of high grade titles from the father (including hundreds of cgs slabbed titles like... xmen 94, GS1, 9.6 duplicates etc). Someone asked to see them in the storage location, and two days later the storage was broken into and pilfered.

Edited June 16, 2022 by bronze_rules

[shadroch]

In the early 1990s, I responded to an ad in a free newspaper about some comics.  It took me to a shack in Coney Island that had seen better days.  The comics were in an even more ranshackle  hut out back and it took me a minute to realize someone was living in it.  It turned out the comics belonged to a guy crashing in the hut and he owed the landlord back rent.  It was made very clear to me that if I didn't buy enough comics, the guy wasn't going to be allowed back in. They wanted $200 for everything but it was mostly and I think I offered $40. There was one book I was slightly interested in- A Superboy treasury worth maybe $3-$5 dollars.  When they turned down my $40 for everything, I gave the  soon to be homeless guy $10 for the treasury and left.

[iggykoopa]

My best score on CL is a Spawn #1 Newsstand version. The guy posted pics of various books - some minor and some major (think GSX1, TTA27, etc) - and I noticed the Spawn 1. I didn't have the funds laying around for a major key so I focused on Spawn 1. I know the newsstand version is more rare so I decided to check on it and see what he said. The poster added his personal cell phone number so I shot him a text letting him know I was interested in the book and if he could give me an approximate grade. He said it was near mint and didn't see a problem with it at all. When I asked how much he was looking for it he said $40 and that he was currently sitting in a Wal-mart parking lot about 15 minutes from my house (he said he'd been meeting various people all day through CL that were buying his books) if I wanted to meet up with him at that moment. I thought what the hell and when I pull up I see a guy in his 40's sitting on the bed of his truck with about 4 long boxes of comic books. We spoke for a few minutes, he showed me the book and, to my surprise, it was exactly as he described. He said he inherited the comic book collection and that he'd been selling books for a few weeks since he didn't have any interest in comics. He also said there was a TOS39 and a X-Men 1 in the collection that he was going to send off to CGC before selling... I gave him $40, held onto the book for a while, sent it off to get signed by Todd McFarlane, and it now sits in my PC graded at a 9.8. I always wondered where the guy got that collection from but I never pressed him on it while we talked. 

[Galen130]

I’ve decided that I won’t be going to this guy’s house.  Funds are low, and it still doesn’t feel right.  No big deal…I’ve been trying to sell off my Modern collection for a few years.  I don’t need more…only pre-code nowadays. 

[Robot Man]

On 6/15/2022 at 7:33 PM, bronze_rules said:

I've posted plenty of Craigslist stories in the past (mostly bad). I'll add a new one here.

I drive an hour to visit a potential score in silver and bronze age comics. Get there and the wife and kids are busy in the kitchen; husband at work. She lets me look through piles in the garage. I find a very few ok ones, mostly readers but good bronze issues (no keys) littered along with some dell disney stuff I couldn't care less for. I finish and select several and ask the wife to ask her husband. She says, he insists you buy them all or nothing. So, I say, ok no deal. Drive all the way back. I get home, and a few hours later, the husband calls and says, 'what's that pile you put aside?' I said those were the ones I wanted. He goes, 'oh, I'm sorry I thought you were trying to take me on the valuable Disney ones! you can come and purchase the stack.  Anyone think I drove another 2 hours to get them? lol.

Another story. I call for a stack of silver age spiderman titles that all have three hole punches through them. Make a solid offer and guy says ok. As I was getting ready to drive an hour over the bridge to pick them up, my wife calls and says he left a message. "sorry, I got another offer, I sold them."  Just another hell of Craigslist.

One good story. I get an ad that says Richie Rich comics. I go there and there are literally tubs of fantastic RR comics going back to the 50s. So many were stacked inside of saran wrap and various bags in excellent condition. He didn't have any need to itemize and I made a good offer on the spot. Got home, and just opened stacks and stacks of very high end vintage RR comics. Many literally sandwiched between saran wrap. That was a rarity.

Another cool story. I knew a guy that went to visit an oldtimers collection way out in the boondocks and it was during a convention weekend. He got there and the guy had all kinds of high end silver age in piles. He was all mad because he said no one else showed up. The buyer only had like 2k or something and said he would come back with more. The old guy was so upset about it all, he said just take them for what you have, I don't want to deal with this anymore. That guy scored huge and bought a boat and several other high end items. I heard he sold a lot to Harley Yee and a lot of the dealers hated him for the score. I was glad to see the underdog score something for once. He would also hold private garage sales with leftover inventory from that score and I got a lot of good stuff with great prices from him in those days.

I don't think I'd even deal with craigslist now. I had a neighbor who listed something valuable and was tied down with guns, while they pillaged his place. Another recent story -- friend knew a family left with an extraordinary collection of high grade titles from the father (including hundreds of cgs slabbed titles like... xmen 94, GS1, 9.6 duplicates etc). Someone asked to see them in the storage location, and two days later the storage was broken into and pilfered.

Had a friend selling some books on Craigslist. He met a guy in a parking lot in broad daylight. He opened his trunk and a couple of guys popped out of the “buyer’s” van. Pulled a gun on him, took the two boxes of books and drove off. 

[boomtown]

On 6/15/2022 at 8:41 PM, Robot Man said:

Are you sure the number he gave you wasn’t a buddy trying to talk you into it? Maybe a set up.

I used to work for a company who used a printing plant in Juarez. One trip there and I refused to go back…

It's always possible, but the other buyer seemed legit. He mentioned he was picking up for himself and a group of collectors to split it up. Didn't really oversell it much, just said it was legit and to get there in the morning so you can get out before things started getting shady. Even the seller seemed ok, he was pretty upfront that the rent had been defaulted and he just needed the books cleared out. I have no doubt that he wanted the stuff gone, more than he wanted to make a killing on the comics.

[kav]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:42 AM, Robot Man said:

Had a friend selling some books on Craigslist. He met a guy in a parking lot in broad daylight. He opened his trunk and a couple of guys popped out of the “buyer’s” van. Pulled a gun on him, took the two boxes of books and drove off. 

cops call craigslist robbery by appointment.