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Comic finds in unexpected places

Started by RaccoonRaccoon,

68 posts in this topic

Mister_Comics

Mister_Comics

Posted
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Here's three stories you can tell next time your around a campfire. Strange but true. They all happened to me. Almost like that old TV show One Step Beyond. I'll keep um short.

 

Story 1: This happened years ago. My friends home caught fire, the place was gutted. Just about everything destroyed. A day or two later him and me were looking through the rubble and come across a box that he had some comics in. All burnt up except one, SHOWCASE #1 Fire Fighters issue.

 

Story 2: Last year my wife and I go to this estate sale. My wife tells me the owner past away and he collected trains. I didn't really want to go because I'm really not into trains and I figure no chance of comic stuff being there. But I go and of course its all toy train stuff. So while I'm looking through some of the old train magazines I come across two RAILROAD COMICS. Both RAILS ACROSS AMERICA stuck inside one of the magazines. The old woman selling the stuff tells us she didn't even know he had them. They probably were in there since he had um. Well I end up buying them. I sent both in to be graded by CGC and they both came back 9.6 . Not bad for 50's comics. BTW, the magazine the comics were in was the story about CASEY JONES. A train engineer who dies in a train wreck.

 

Story 3: Neighbor across from me throws out a box full of record albums with the garbage. I see all kinds of people going through the albums checking um out during the next couple of days. So the day garbage is going to be picked up I'm out throwing my garbage out. And I think, well I'll take a look and see what records he's throwing out. Well I'll say most of it was junk. But there was the BEATLES Sgt. Pepper album still in there. So I pick it up and start to take the record out of the album. And low and behold, in the record sleeve is the YELLOW SUBMARINE MOVIE COMIC complete with the poster still in. Do I dare play the record backwards.

 

All coinsidence. Maybe not. Maybe just... ONE STEP BEYOND.

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Slacker

Slacker

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In 1989 I had some friends come down to visit Arizona from the midwest. I spent a few days taking them to do the usual tourist thing. They wanted to visit Tombstone to see the OK corral, I wasnt crazy about the idea because as a kid it was a yearly field trip spot. While there we stopped in an antique store and my friends wife told me they had a box full of comics. There was a box that contained about 200 comics the sign said comics $5.00 each. I was disappointed initially due to it containing mid to low grade 70's superhero comics, however I found a Fantastic Four #2 and a Tales of Suspense #1 in that box as well as a few other 12 cent Marvels. I later submitted the FF#2 to CGC and it came back 4.5 with C/OW pages.

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tth2

tth2

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A friend of mine was doing some work on his house and found a Batman 9 and a Suspense 1(Schomburg classic cover) in a wall. Really. I sold them at a Boston Con around 1994. Sure wish I still had them. frown.gif

 

Sounds like the "Cereal Box" collection discovered several years back - I don't recall the exact details, but there were a bunch of pristine books inserted into cereal boxes, which were in turn used between wall studs as insulation. 893whatthe.gif

 

Many were graded, many were the top-census copies (I think most of the books were 50's funny animal and cartoon character books). Some of the NC collectors must recall this story as Dave (??) found them...anyone? Bueller?

Yeah, David Burns was the seller, and he put some of the nicest stuff up on eBay. Some nice Duck books were in there, I bought the 9.4 WDC&S 136.

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tth2

tth2

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Through all this mess I was able to pull out 4 short boxes of 1979-1987 stuff in vf+ or better. yay.gif Main run titles like Batman, Amazing Spiderman, Sups, Teen Titans, X-Men and the like.

 

...

 

Funnny thing is that he could have sold the collection to stop the foreclosure.

Must've been a pretty small foreclosure. confused-smiley-013.gif

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Warlord

Warlord

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Years ago I volunteered at a recycling center - sorting out the metal from the plastic, sorting glass by color, throwing cardboard in the crusher/wrapper, and likewise with the paper. Every so often I'd pluck a comic from the piles of newspapers. Never found more than one at a time. Never found anything valuable, but it was always fun to find one. Sort of like the prize in a box of Crackerjacks. 27_laughing.gif

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Buck Biggins

Buck Biggins

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Through all this mess I was able to pull out 4 short boxes of 1979-1987 stuff in vf+ or better. yay.gif Main run titles like Batman, Amazing Spiderman, Sups, Teen Titans, X-Men and the like.

 

...

 

Funnny thing is that he could have sold the collection to stop the foreclosure.

Must've been a pretty small foreclosure. confused-smiley-013.gif

 

Tiny house in bad part of town. Not worth much.

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ComicSupply

ComicSupply

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How about wierdest reason for selling a comic collection?

 

About a year and a half ago I ran into a 30lb collection from a couple. The couple was selling because they were moving into an Animal Reserve and would "be with the animals" for the rest of their lives.

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Moondog

Moondog

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Warlord, mine was similar. I've purchased hundreds of collections over the years, but once I got a call from a woman who had a "room full of newspapers" she was going to sell to the recyclers. I said I wasn't interested but may want the Sunday comic sections...

 

So I go over and man, there must be 10,000 newspapers floor to ceiling!!!

 

No way I'm going through all of them and they aren't that old anyway (late 50's through 80's), so I say sell 'em all to the recyclers. Just then I catch a glimpse of what appears to be a comic book in one of the stacks. Lo and behold, an incredible copy of FF 2 and right below it an Astonish 27 (I believe they both shipped the same week in late 1961/early 1962). Being protected and "pressed" between all that newsprint kept them as white and supple as the day they were printed. Just beautiful!

 

No reason why they were there, but I got double (mint) Guide for them in 1983...

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Norrin_Radd

Norrin_Radd

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Early GA comics used as insulation

 

Major 30s Golden Age Find Surfaces in New York State

 

April 08, 2004

 

99856detective_cvr2-md.jpg

 

Detective Comics #2

 

A significant collection of 1930s comics has surfaced in New York state, where they were found in the insulation of an old house. The 21 books include such rare issues as Detective Comics #2, of which less than ten are know to exist; Tip Top #1; New Comics #1; Star Ranger #1, the first western comic; and The Comics Magazine #1.

 

New Comics #1 is the oldest book, published in December of 1935; despite its age, it was in the best condition of the lot. New Comics was later retitled New Adventure, and eventually Adventure Comics, the long-lived DC Comics title.

 

The Comics Magazine #1, from 1936, includes the first appearance of Dr. Mystic, an early Siegel and Shuster prototype for Superman.

 

The collection is being brokered for the owners (who wish to remain anonymous) by Nostomania, a collection management, exchange, and pricing information Website, and will be sold in a Heritage Signature Auction in June, according to Nostomania VP-Business Development Tommy Jasmin.

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Ringfinger

Ringfinger

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How about wierdest reason for selling a comic collection?

 

About a year and a half ago I ran into a 30lb collection from a couple. The couple was selling because they were moving into an Animal Reserve and would "be with the animals" for the rest of their lives.

 

Umm, sounds like fun?

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Artboy99

Artboy99

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I went to some art show with my Mother, and she bought a framed picture. Was some horse in a field type of thing and was small, but she really wanted it so she got it. At that time I was working as a picture framer in the summers and part time when I was going to University. The frame the picture was in was really beat up so I decided to bring it in and reframe it for her. I took it apart and inside the frame was a "wad". This was made up of newspaper, cardboard and stuff. Was used to pad the inside of the frame. I tossed the wad into the garbage can and when it hit it broke up and fanned apart and in amongst the junk was a Batman #2.

While not in the greatest condition it was a solid VG.

I sold it to a friend of mine.

 

Artboy99

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