Stories of the one that got away... 3 3

[Gotham Kid]

I passed on a restored Tec 27 8.5 for 60K about 13 yrs ago, didn't have the money

[GreatCaesarsGhost]

On 2/2/2023 at 9:37 PM, eyersman said:

In the early - mid 1970s I attended my first comic convention in Portland,Oregon. There was a guy selling a copy Action #1 for 70.00 to make rent.  Problem was,it was missing about 90% of the front cover. When I said something along the lines of” the cover is torn,not really interested” ,he seemed pretty chagrined about offering such a damaged copy.I think he may have heard the same comment from other attendee’s! When I think about what individual pages are going for now…

They go for crazy money

[Point Five]

In lieu of a heartbreaking story about any *one* book, I'd be happy to provide links to all my sales threads from 2006-2010.   

 

[ChillMan]

Back in about 2014...I was in pain when I saw that Evander Holyfied's ear-bite boxing gloves had just auctioned for $35K.

Can you imagine those on display in your house...talk about a conversation piece...

[AJD]

That So-Cal collection was awesome. I'd wanted an Action 58 (slap a Jap) forever and a boardie tipped me off that they had one. I called from Australia right away and they quoted me a price that I thought was a good deal - so done and done. They told me later that they could have sold it a dozen times at that price in the first week. But it's mine now.

For a 'one that got away', when I was in a grad summer school at Stanford in the 80s I went to Lee's comics in Palo Alto. They had a drop dead gorgeous Four Color 386 on the wall. It was the most desirable piece of property I'd ever seen. But it was $350 and that was pretty much my travel and food budget for the summer school. I've wondered since if it was one of the very high grade copies that have sold for 10s of k$ since.

[walclark]

A couple of funny stories:

In 1969, my family (father was in the USAF) was living in a suburb of Nashville while my dad was in Viet Nam. We would walk down to a local store to buy comics. My brother narrowed his choices down to collecting one of two titles and wanted the advice of his wise older brother. Should he collect Iron Man or Spider-man?

Using my incomparable preteen logic, I told him, "Look, Peter Parker is going to get older and older and eventually will be too old to be Spider-man.  But if Tony Stark gets too old to be Iron Man, they could just put anybody in the armor and that series will continue. Spider-man's already been around for a while so it probably won't go on for much longer."

Same brother and I went to a comic con in a hotel ballroom in Nashville in 1983. For a little room, it had a great line-up of dealers. I was looking at a copy of Zip Comics #33 and pondering plunking down $25 for a mid-grade copy. My brother came over and said that I needed to come see something. Put the Zip back in the box and went over to Bill Ponsetti's  (@ciorac) booth who was up from New Orleans and there was a nice Superman #1 in a glass case. First one I had ever seen and we went total fan boy on the comic.

Drifted back over to the dealer with the Zip, but to my dismay, it was sold. Took me 3 decades to find another one that I wanted (and it was a bit more than $25 ).

Wonder what attracted me to that Zip?

[Robot Man]

On 2/3/2023 at 6:59 AM, walclark said:

A couple of funny stories:

In 1969, my family (father was in the USAF) was living in a suburb of Nashville while my dad was in Viet Nam. We would walk down to a local store to buy comics. My brother narrowed his choices down to collecting one of two titles and wanted the advice of his wise older brother. Should he collect Iron Man or Spider-man?

Using my incomparable preteen logic, I told him, "Look, Peter Parker is going to get older and older and eventually will be too old to be Spider-man.  But if Tony Stark gets too old to be Iron Man, they could just put anybody in the armor and that series will continue. Spider-man's already been around for a while so it probably won't go on for much longer."

Same brother and I went to a comic con in a hotel ballroom in Nashville in 1983. For a little room, it had a great line-up of dealers. I was looking at a copy of Zip Comics #33 and pondering plunking down $25 for a mid-grade copy. My brother came over and said that I needed to come see something. Put the Zip back in the box and went over to Bill Ponsetti's  (@ciorac) booth who was up from New Orleans and there was a nice Superman #1 in a glass case. First one I had ever seen and we went total fan boy on the comic.

Drifted back over to the dealer with the Zip, but to my dismay, it was sold. Took me 3 decades to find another one that I wanted (and it was a bit more than $25 ).

Wonder what attracted me to that Zip?

Same thing that attracted me. Been wanting that one for years. Very sadly, one very recently turned up on the bay. I watched it all week and was going to snipe it at the end. Got tied up in a zoom call with a client and lost track of time. When I got done, I checked it and it had sold for $2K. I had $2500 in mind for my snipe bid…

A super rare book that I am most likely not to see available for sale for quite some time if ever. 

[buttock]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:29 AM, Robot Man said:

Same thing that attracted me. Been wanting that one for years. Very sadly, one very recently turned up on the bay. I watched it all week and was going to snipe it at the end. Got tied up in a zoom call with a client and lost track of time. When I got done, I checked it and it had sold for $2K. I had $2500 in mind for my snipe bid…

A super rare book that I am most likely not to see available for sale for quite some time if ever. 

A dealer had the Church 32 and 33 for sale about 10 years ago.  Nobody wanted them and he lowered the price to $12K IIRC.  I thought that was way too much and passed.  Oops. 

[Robot Man]

On 2/3/2023 at 9:22 AM, buttock said:

A dealer had the Church 32 and 33 for sale about 10 years ago.  Nobody wanted them and he lowered the price to $12K IIRC.  I thought that was way too much and passed.  Oops. 

Indeed. But even that is well beyond my mere mortal means and sense of reality…

[fifties]

On 2/3/2023 at 8:29 AM, Robot Man said:

Same thing that attracted me. Been wanting that one for years. Very sadly, one very recently turned up on the bay. I watched it all week and was going to snipe it at the end. Got tied up in a zoom call with a client and lost track of time. When I got done, I checked it and it had sold for $2K. I had $2500 in mind for my snipe bid…

A super rare book that I am most likely not to see available for sale for quite some time if ever. 

Oh believe me, you're the only one to have ever gotten distracted long enough to blow a snipe bid on The Bay.  

[ageofsilver]

I don’t know if I’ve told this one before, or not. It was mid sixties and my friend Jim and I visited a guy named Barry Bauman at his home in Oakland or possibly San Francisco. He had a solid wall of shelving with ten inch high stacks of high grade golden age comics. I was awestruck with his runs of Quality comics. Military, Doll Man, and especially Police Comics. Hit and Spirit; just name it and he had them. Of course, I was buying twelve cent Marvel silver age off the news stands and spending 2 and three dollars for my EC passion, so 3 dollars each for a high grade run of Police was out of the question. Don’t remember buying a single thing that day. Sob…

[The Black Hand ®]

On 2/4/2023 at 6:49 PM, ageofsilver said:

I don’t know if I’ve told this one before, or not. It was mid sixties and my friend Jim and I visited a guy named Barry Bauman at his home in Oakland or possibly San Francisco. He had a solid wall of shelving with ten inch high stacks of high grade golden age comics. I was awestruck with his runs of Quality comics. Military, Doll Man, and especially Police Comics. Hit and Spirit; just name it and he had them. Of course, I was buying twelve cent Marvel silver age off the news stands and spending 2 and three dollars for my EC passion, so 3 dollars each for a high grade run of Police was out of the question. Don’t remember buying a single thing that day. Sob…

I knew Barry. Used to hang out at his mom's home in Oakland. I believe it was High Street. We called it The Bat Cave. He had some books!

[Telegan]

In 4th or 5th grade, I traded away an X-Men comic book.  In return I got a Fantastic Four #56 that I'd say could be a 4.0-5.0.  All the comic book geeks on the bus told me I had gotten screwed over and lost out huge on that deal.  They were like "omg, I can't believe you traded it for that".  I liked Fantastic Four - far more than the X-Men, and it was an old comic, so I figured "SURE!" because it had to be a "collector's item".

I don't remember what X-Men I traded away, and I really don't want to remember, as a grown man shouldn't have to cry.  I'm 52 now, and I still have that Fantastic Four issue, and it still haunts me to this day.  It will forever be known as "The Trade".  Every time I look at it, my face could make the cover of a PCH comic.

Edited February 7, 2023 by Telegan

[Drgoldage]

I’ve told this Story before but comes to mind today . My friend Dave and I back say 2015/2016  or so  , were looking on the bay and both of us attracted to a high grade copy of Green Lantern 1 CGC 9.0 with double cover listed for auction .it had sold some years before but the seller said her father had passed and it was up to her to sell it for family . We decided to bid and won the item for 18500.00 a bargain at the time . A lot of bidders stopped bidding since the seller was in Germany and this was the only comic she was selling though her feedback went back several years and was all good . Needless to say l sent the money and the item she expressed from Germany took all sorts of delays but finally reached us about 8 weeks later well packed . On opening the box found a pristine perfectly preserved can or corn that weighed about the same as a CGC comic container . Though this is about “the one that got away “ I still have my 185000 can or corn but to be truthful would have preferred the Green lantern 1 .

[fifties]

In the fall of 1956, this one time I had a half dollar, & bought several comics off the news stand for of course, 10 cents apiece.  I read them, threw them in a box I had my comics in, and eventually gave the box to my little brother, who either managed to lose all of them, or throw them away.

In that purchase was Showcase #4.  

 

[KCOComics]

I have several heart breaking stories with SA, but my worst GA book that got away happened right here on the boards. 

I was pretty new to the boards and had bought a few books from established sellers. 

One faithful Sunday morning, a seller I didn't know started a sales thread and offered some big SA keys well below fair market value. Then he lists a copy of Marvel Comics 1 for $10k+change. 

It was missing a back cover, but the front cover was really pretty. 

I had the money, but I froze. I didn't know the seller, the deal seemed too good to be true, and I it was so much money for a funny book. So I didn't pull the trigger.  I even turned to my wife and said "can I buy this, it's a crazy deal????" And she said yes!!!! And I still couldn't do it! 

Within a few minutes, a very well known board member grabbed it, and I'm sure he has smiled every morning since.  Meanwhile I've paid well in excess of $10k towards therapy, to help forget that morning!  

And this wasn't ancient history.... 3 or 4 years ago. 

[Mmehdy]

On 2/4/2023 at 6:49 PM, ageofsilver said:

I don’t know if I’ve told this one before, or not. It was mid sixties and my friend Jim and I visited a guy named Barry Bauman at his home in Oakland or possibly San Francisco. He had a solid wall of shelving with ten inch high stacks of high grade golden age comics. I was awestruck with his runs of Quality comics. Military, Doll Man, and especially Police Comics. Hit and Spirit; just name it and he had them. Of course, I was buying twelve cent Marvel silver age off the news stands and spending 2 and three dollars for my EC passion, so 3 dollars each for a high grade run of Police was out of the question. Don’t remember buying a single thing that day. Sob…

I went there two, great guy...sorry he passed I think due to a auto accident.

[The Black Hand ®]

On 2/5/2023 at 4:03 PM, Mmehdy said:

I went there two, great guy...sorry he passed I think due to a auto accident.

Yes, he did.  I heard that from Bob Beerbohm years ago.

[ChillMan]

I think my last post is worth repeating.

I mean think about it.  Think about how many sports cards graded 10...or new special reflector cards or whatever...are selling for $35K or more.

Evander Holyfied's ear-bite boxing gloves sold for $35K.  In an unknown auction.  I would have won them and paid somehow.

[october]

On 2/5/2023 at 5:19 PM, KCOComics said:

I have several heart breaking stories with SA, but my worst GA book that got away happened right here on the boards. 

I was pretty new to the boards and had bought a few books from established sellers. 

One faithful Sunday morning, a seller I didn't know started a sales thread and offered some big SA keys well below fair market value. Then he lists a copy of Marvel Comics 1 for $10k+change. 

It was missing a back cover, but the front cover was really pretty. 

I had the money, but I froze. I didn't know the seller, the deal seemed too good to be true, and I it was so much money for a funny book. So I didn't pull the trigger.  I even turned to my wife and said "can I buy this, it's a crazy deal????" And she said yes!!!! And I still couldn't do it! 

Within a few minutes, a very well known board member grabbed it, and I'm sure he has smiled every morning since.  Meanwhile I've paid well in excess of $10k towards therapy, to help forget that morning!  

And this wasn't ancient history.... 3 or 4 years ago. 

I remember that thread. I saw it too late, but that was probably my only realistic shot at a MMC 1. 

I did buy that seller's Red Raven 1 and Daredevil Battles Hitler at reasonable prices, so those were a nice consolation prize.