Does your "I'll Buy Your Comics" ads really pay off"

[Rip]

Looking through many ads in the various comic book prices guides etc I see ads saying.

"I'll pay more for your comics that anyone else"

Or $100,000 for a NM Action 1, $50,000 for a NM Marvel 1

and other BS.

Well, I was wondering, do these ads pay off? Of course we've all heard the rare success stories but do many people have ANY REAL success with these?

Have you ever tried running an ad in a regular newspaper?

What kind of response did you get?

Just wondering?

[shadroch]

I have run ads in my local newspaper and pennysavers several times a year for last twenty years. Most time I get no response,sometimes I get a few phone calls from dealers looking to sell junk or a kid looking to get full Wizard prices. I have gotten two or three real nice collections this way but if you were to factor everything in, I don't think its been all that successful.But you never know. From ebay it seems like there are alot of Action 1s sitting around in Grandpa's attic. Maybe next time the kid won't have a computer and he'll call me.

[aardvark88]

Those Ostreet ads were very successful for Mark Wilson (pre-PGC Mint). He had a 6 page b/w ad in Ostreet. Anyone looking to sell would open up the Ostreet & look for the biggest advertiser. That is 1 of the reasons he wound up with the Rockford pedigree of approx. 1,800 vintage comics.

Local classified ads will get u 90% junk, perhaps 10% vintage comics. Worth a try if u have a high tolerance for numerous claims of perfect condition comics/Heavy Metal mags that wind up being boxes of vg.

[murph0]

I think it's got far more to do with location than it does advertisement. Oakleaf comics got part of the Hawkeye collection just b/c they were the closest dealer with enough $ to buy some of it. Sure Overstreet ads help the cause, but I'll bet most collections just go to the guy who's got the benefit of having the cash available and is close enough to the seller geographically

 

Brian

[Rip]

I've run across a few cool things in my time (Human Torch #2) but that was through networking with dealers, friends etc. I was thinking about running an ad in the paper and giving it a shot. Since the Hulk movie is coming out I thought now might be a good idea.

[lighthouse]

I think the price quotes for NM Action 1 are little more than BSD contests...

 

Does anyone really believe that someone with a NM Action 1 is going to open an Overstreet and go through it page by page to find the dealer with the highest listed price, and sell it to that dealer without calling anyone else? You have an item you know is worth $300K and you're not even going to pick up the phone and see if anyone makes a different offer than the one they have listed?

 

As far as buying ads go... I have used almost every method known to man... Newspaper classifieds, Nickel Ads, Yellow Pages, Signs on telephone poles, flyers at conventions, church newsletters... you name it...

 

My three largest collections all came from Yellow Page ads, but those are quite costly if you don't have a brick-and-mortar store. I have made good buys from every other kind of ad... but the only way that you will get good collections is if you respond to everyone, even the people who have a box of garbage from 1993. I have made more than one good buy off a referral after looking at a box of junk...

 

But price guide ads? Waste of time unless you have the kind of budget to buy four or five full pages, and deep enough pockets to back it up...

[ghoulaid]

Generally, advertising in the newspaper is a big waste of time the same as scouring yard sales for comics. Still, you might get lucky because comics aren't going to come to you unless you make the effort to hunt for them. Back in the '70s I found a couple nice groups of comics by advertising in the paper: a run of Walt Disney's Comics & Stories from about #70 - 210 and a nice group of ECs.

 

You really do get so many worthless calls you have to check out that it's hardly worth it. I remember running around looking at "beat to heck" Dell's here or Harvey's there (coverless, torn, you name it). One person called to say they had a bunch of comics in the basement and needed to get them out because they were moving. I've been around long enough to know "a bunch" means 15-20 and if they were stored in the basement they probably had water damage. It was an hour away so I didn't waste my time. With experience you get a "feel" for these things. I remember this only because they had a unique name like Church or something like that. I blew them off.

[justiceleaguer]

Whether or not the ad pays off depends solely upon whether or not it has pics of boobies in it.Im talking Triple D's baby!!!

[underthebigw]

It depends on where you are and the supply of books. When I was a teenager, I would always put ads in local papers in NY. Over the years, I got a few bites, a few good books, but nothing stellar. However, a few years ago when I lived in Baltimore, it was unreal. I picked up a whole run of SA Green Lantern 1-150, with nice mid-grade early issues for $150. I picked up 5 Plats from one seller for $120 (nothing rare), a slew of mid-grade SA Marvels, and found a collection with over 100 price variants. It really depends on what's around, the sophistication of the people who own it, and alternate buyers. Believe it or not, if the nearest comic store is 1/2 hr away and someone doesn't have transportation, you may their best option.