Great boneheaded comics shopping mistakes of all time!

[Warlord]

Was just typing a post on the "where are the bronze DCs thread" and I had a flashback to perhaps simply the BIGGEST mistake I ever made by NOT buying a comic at COVER PRICE that I actually held in my sweaty little palms.

 

Let's see who can top this.

 

Flashback to August, 1975. Stupid kid has conned a parent into driving him into town to go to the 7-11 to buy some comics. Kid eagerly runs into the store. Scans the rack... spins it around... spots the latest issue of a favorite title, the X-Men. Grabs the shiny new issue off the rack, looks at it and gasps. "Who the heck are THESE guys? Where are the X-Men?!?!?!" Stupid kid puts the issue BACK ON THE SPINNER RACK and spends his 25 cents on some other worthless comic!

 

I had X-Men #94 in my hands, coulda bought it for 27 cents (tax!) and I PUT IT BACK!

 

AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

 

I remember this shopping trip so vividly and, as that issue has skyrocketed in value, with much regret!

 

So I'm sure some of you can do better than that. Right? C'mon, make me feel a little less of an insufficiently_thoughtful_person...

[doyle033]

C'mon, make me feel a little less of an insufficiently_thoughtful_person...

OK

Way to go Dork!!

Just kidding. dont feel too bad. I had a pretty good collection when i hit 16 and discovered the joys of dating chicks. i had a date and no cash so i took a bunch of comics (i had not actively bought for about 2 years at this time) down to a new comic store and sold them all to the guy for about 25 bucks. that was about 16 years ago and they were my xmen run from pre 94 to post 137 at least. also a bunch of ghost riders were in there. And i didnt even get laid!!

 

 

[Warlord]

Well, that helps a little.

 

Probably falls into a different category though - greatest boneheaded comics SALES mistakes of all time.

 

But you are definitely a contender!

[PovertyRow]

I hear you. I remember being - well - had to be about 12 years old (maybe 11 cause was born in December) and reading a comic in the bathroom. It was about these four people - three guys and a girl - that went up in space or some such and returned different.

 

I was more a Superboy fan then from the few comics I read as a kid and I DO remember reading the book, remember closing the cover and thinking "Hmmm? Weird" and promptly forgetting about it. Absolutely no idea what happened to it... until I started really collecting about 20 years later. Then I remembered it all right.

[murph0]

I sold my original Hulk 181 for 200 dollars. It was NM.

 

Brian

[ubiquiti]

Thats worse than anything I got.

back when I was like 13 I had I think 20 bucks(paper route budget) to spend on back issues. I narrowed my choices down to 2 different possibilities - DD 158 and 168 - probably both in VF/NM - packaged up as a "Future Classics" or The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones 1-15.

I went with Indy. Monetarily it was a bad deal for me, but I still like those stories better...

[Warlord]

Don't even get me started on great old comics that disappeared, got thrown out, burned in a barrel, or what have you.

 

My dad has told me a few stories about having Superman #1 and Batman #1 and... and... (stacks of others... I can't go on....) as a kid and all ended up in flames in the trash barrel!

 

[Titan777]

My brother traded a nm issue of spiderman #23 for 2 silver 1 gold and 1 regular Mcfarlane spiderman #1's

[ubiquiti]

Evertime I see your avatar, Titan, I think of Dave Grohl from teh Foo Fighters on acid.

[Warlord]

Indiana Jones?

 

That, my friend, is a good one.

 

Wish I could remember what, if anything, I bought instead of the X-Men #94. Maybe nothing at all. Finally bought a beat up, maybe VG or Fine copy, many years later just to have a copy. Fortunately I got over my shock and picked up subsequent issues!

 

My X-Men list goes

#92 VF

#93 VF

#94 VG

#95 VF

#96 VF+

etc

etc

 

[Titan777]

........I dont know who it is but I searched the net for a ugly pic and this is what came up

[PovertyRow]

Evertime I see your avatar, Titan, I think of Dave Grohl from teh Foo Fighters on acid.

 

Everytime I see that avatar I think of two things:

 

A paper bag and the Porcelain Goddess.

[Lofwyr]

When I was about 13-14 for some braindead reason I traded an early run of #95-120 X-men for a bunch of late 80's "new" books. The only reason why this loss is tolerable today is because none of them were even close to being NM. I'd say the average grade was Fine/VF-. I redeemed myself years later during '97-00 by hunting down all those books (including the keys like #181, gs #1, 94) and getting them in mostly NM condition for rather cheap.

 

It still bothers me though because some of those VERY early X-men were the first comics I ever collected. They may not have been worth an arm and a leg monetary wise but they definitely had nostalgic value.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[BronzeBruce13]

I win hands down... or should I say I lost hands down...

 

I passed on a CGC 9.8 Hulk 181 over 2+ years ago. Prior to being Heritage, it was Greg Manning auctions. I could have won it below $5K for sure. I don't recall exacty anymore... but I think It sold between the high 3K's to low $4k with premium added.

 

Instead, I bought a 9.6W for $2550 and was ripped off... that was about a $16-17K mistake in terms of current value... how ya' like them apples? I'm one of the biggest dopes for a missed opportunity... (and for sending MO's on a big purchase.)

 

Don't feel too bad

[Lofwyr]

I win hands down... or should I say I lost hands down...

 

I passed on a CGC 9.8 Hulk 181 over 2+ years ago.

 

I wouldn't feel too bad about that one. Anyone could have made the same mistake easily. I remember reading an old article saying how people paying $1000 for a NM hulk #181 in '00 were nuts etc.. etc..

 

NOONE could have really predicted the enormous jump in value a 9.8 would have. $19,000 is still pretty irrational when I think about why someone would pay that sum for a '74 book. It sold for that amount during the hype peak, I have some doubts that it would sell for $19k again. Bidding frenzy is an amazing thing to watch, kind of like watching goldfish eat each other.

 

 

 

 

 

[Ariamus]

Back when I was first collecting in the 80's, I came into some cash (earned by shoveling snow, raking leaves, and my first job) and I decided to spend it on back issues of comics. When I first started collecting (1983), I was into Thor, Amazing Spider-man, and Daredevil. I was also got heavy into Micronauts, Transformers, and GI Joe. So, 1986, I had this cash and I went shopping at my local shop; I still even remember the name, Harold and Hilda's. As it so happened, I had just gotten into the X-Men and Alpha Flight and I knew that Giant Size X-men and X-men 94 were all pretty pricey books; very valuable. As it turns out, H&H was selling a run of X-men starting with GS 1 and continuing with issues 94-100 for a whopping total of $150. All the books were in excellent shape and because I was a good customer, they offered me the run for $120, which is what I had minus $10 to buy my monthly subscriptions for a few months (remember those days?). Yet, I opted to pass. I figured that, since I had so much money, I would complete my runs of the titles I loved to read. I got my Web of Spider-man #1, and completed my run of GI Joe (Dungeon, if you're out there, no I don't have a copy of issue 21 that's 9.8 worthy). I completed my run of Micronauts, and bought a whole bunch of Alpha Flights and and Dazzlers. All in all, I went for quantity instead of qualtity. The rest is, as they say, history.

 

That was my biggest blunder, followed closely by my decision to sell all my books before going off to college. !!

[Lofwyr]

One more thing I forgot to mention..even though it's not exactly a comic it's comic related. Back in '00 (when I was still attending college) I wrote a paper on stock valuation and fundamental analysis. I picked MVL, NVidia, and a couple others and wrote a long paper about how they were all seriously undervalued. At that point in time I believe MVL was just recovering from financial problems and was selling for only $2 a share. Anyways, my professor was one of the victims of the dot com crash of '00. He lost his , so he was real cynical when it came to tech related (Nvidia) stocks or something soft like a comic company (MVL) instead he was spouting gospel about how great Verizon (blech) and GE stock was. He criticized my picks and I got a B for my "flawed reasoning" or something .

 

Anyways, I didn't heed his advice but I didn't INVEST in MVL either. I had about 3-4k I could have dumped into MVL but I didn't do it even though I was really planning to.

 

Isn't MVL selling for like $21 a share now?

 

/me kicks self.

 

[hammer-migration]

Murph: "I sold my original Hulk 181 for $200.00. It was NM."

 

First off, it COULDN'T have been NM if unslabbed. You mistakenly thought it was NM. Sight unseen, I'm certain that it was VG or restored, not having been slabbed, and as such, you made out like a bandit with it. That was $200 more than a non-CGCed Hulk 181 is worth in ANY grade. Even if this is a case where you bought the book off the newsstand, the merchant was a felon. Though many years before CGCs inception, he should have patiently waited for a grading service to emerge before offering even his new issues for sale to the general public. There's just no excuse for these types of fraudulent activities.

[murph0]

Damn so did I get screwed?

 

Brian

[Joanna]

Hammer, your constant jabs at the fact that I sell raw books are not going unnoticed. STOP THE MADNESS! I will NOT cave into your pressure, muscle boy! In fact, I think you should meet me in a dark alley somewhere in Davenport, Iowa and bring a bag with $50,000 and I'll crush you to a plasticized pulp that can be recycled into CGC slabs just for trying to make such a fool of me here on the forum! Your pain will be bigger than murph's wallet and your body smaller than an insect's IQ! Your girlish pleas for help will be so high pitched only sterile dogs can hear it! It's time for you to reconsider this constant carping about my selling raw books, roid ranger, or you'll be sorrier than Fox News under liberal leadership!

 

Ya got me? Good.

 

grrrrr.

 

-- Joanna