RE: Your worst raw purchase

[tth2]

In 1986, I purchased Avengers 2, 3 and 4, X-Men 2, 3 and 4 and GS X-Men 1 from Gerry Ross by mail order. They were all severely overgraded, but I kept them anyways because after calling them on the phone, I had ZERO confidence that I would get my money back, particularly after I had returned the books to him. In 2002, I slabbed them and all of them except the X-Men 2 came back as PLODs (color touch).

 

As evidence of just how far prices had moved in 16 years, though, I still made a big profit when I sold all the books (although perhaps not very big after factoring in inflation over 16 years), but much less than I was expecting when I submitted them for slabbing.

[goldust40]

I bought a Marvel Spotlight #5 from a local comic book store in the SFV (Comics and Fun). They graded it as a VF and paid them that price, sent it to CGC and it came back as a 6.0. I'm glad it wasn't trimmed or restored.

 

Bought several spideys from them including a #5 that was sold as VF+. Came back a 6.5 The other books were also 1.5 to 2 grades off

 

Did they use to regularly advertise in CBG? If so I may have had a similar experience with them.

 

I've had a few ghastly experiences with ebay - one of my earliest ever purchases, several years ago, was from a longtime seller who had a feedback record of 97.3, which at the time I didn't realize was desperately low. In fact I also wasn't aware that he was about to bail out of ebay, become NARU'd and abscond with lots of buyers' cash.

 

I paypalled the guy (Jeff Morgenlender, ebay seller i.d. phisbone) $450 and only ever got lame excuses until he got booted off ebay. And his email account got shut down too.

 

A lot of people would've sworn off the bay there and then, but I've stuck with it and have had the odd decent purchase. There've been a fair few other abhorrent sellers, but by and large I've always gotten my money back, or at least a partial refund.

 

As you can tell, I'm still angry about that early "transaction" though.

[Dark Knight]

Ok, here is a reverse angle on this thread.

 

I once had a large collection fo Golden Age, including a complete run of Captain Marvel (the big red cheese).

 

I had 2400 books to grade and price and get ready for the Motor City Con where they were going to be unveiled. So, some things slipped by me since I only had a few days to get them ready.

 

I am at the Con and a customer, a guy I know, asks to see the #3. I had it graded a FN+ (6.5). he took it out of the Mylar and examined it. Made an offer and I took the book back, looked at it, agreed to his price and all seemed well. As I was putting the book back into the mylar something looked funny about the lower left corner of the front cover. It looked like the corner got snagged on the way in and peeled the color back, but the color was brighter underneath. I examined it more closely then realized as I seperated the two pieces, that it was a double cover! The inside cover was immaculate! I felt my stomach get nauseated. Couldn't back out on the deal, so I just congratulated him. Still wish I had that book back.

 

How does a double cover book look? I've never seen a book's second cover before. Does it just peel out of the first?

[ciorac]

Ok, here is a reverse angle on this thread.

 

I once had a large collection fo Golden Age, including a complete run of Captain Marvel (the big red cheese).

 

I had 2400 books to grade and price and get ready for the Motor City Con where they were going to be unveiled. So, some things slipped by me since I only had a few days to get them ready.

 

I am at the Con and a customer, a guy I know, asks to see the #3. I had it graded a FN+ (6.5). he took it out of the Mylar and examined it. Made an offer and I took the book back, looked at it, agreed to his price and all seemed well. As I was putting the book back into the mylar something looked funny about the lower left corner of the front cover. It looked like the corner got snagged on the way in and peeled the color back, but the color was brighter underneath. I examined it more closely then realized as I seperated the two pieces, that it was a double cover! The inside cover was immaculate! I felt my stomach get nauseated. Couldn't back out on the deal, so I just congratulated him. Still wish I had that book back.

 

How does a double cover book look? I've never seen a book's second cover before. Does it just peel out of the first?

 

Yep. Pretty much.