Your greatest comic story

[ultimatevenom]

I would quite like to hear and i am sure a lot of others would like to hear your old comic stories

 

It could be about anything, a convention, a certain book, anything

 

And maybe when you have told your story we could have a poll to see which one everyone thought was the best

 

And i will give you 5 stars (terms and conditions apply)

 

 

[chromium]

Hmmmmmm...

Chrisco; Peter Marsham pedigree ?

 

What do you think ?

[chrisco37]

Chrisco; Peter Marsham pedigree ?

What do you think ?

 

It's a great story indeed! As long as it doesn't comproimise your safety, I think it's allright to tell......

 

Chris

[drbanner]

Two years ago I pulled the trigger on a raw Hulk #1 from a seller/dealer in Canada that I had not done business with previously (major_comics), but who I had just met/talked to briefly at Heroes Con. After sending him the funds (well over $1k) in US MO's via snail-mail, I eagerly awaited the book.

 

Now, I've found shipping letters/packages to/from Canada take 7-10 days, + or - two weeks, but still I'm a little concerned a few weeks later as I hadn't heard anything. Then one morning I'm pulling out of the driveway on my way to work...and what's that...is there something on my porch (it's raining, so I can't really see all that well)...let's take a closer look...(get out of the car and run through the rain)...hey, it's a small manila bubble envelope from Canada!! I'm freakin' - the envelope is wet, no one had to sign for it, and it ain't much bigger than than the book it's supposed to be holding...

 

Heart pounding, I take it inside, open it up, and miraculously find that the flimsy cardboard sandwich inside is a solid 9.4 (maybe 9.6!), no water damage, and the book is one of my prize possessions to this day!!

 

That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it!

[OldGuy]

This one time, at band camp.............

[jonnydouble]

This one time, at band camp.............

 

It's true,,,,,,it happened to a friend of my cousins.

[murph0]

Since it came up, I'd say that Major_Comics has been in my experience, one of the best raw graders on eBay. Bought 3 books from him; Cap 100 advertised as VF/NM, ASM 80 advertised as NM-, and Cap 105 advertised as NM. All came to me looking dead on, and came back from CGC with the exact same grades. However... I did just get my first restored book back from a certain...eBay seller..

 

Brian

[chrisco37]

I did just get my first restored book back from a certain...eBay seller

 

 

What book? What resto? You gonna return it?

 

Chris

[murph0]

I already asked him for a discount cause I thought he misgraded it (and he did), so I ended up only paying 30 dollars for the book. However, I still can't find the color touch.. still looking.

 

Brian

[drbanner]

Well save our souls Murph, who sold you the book w/undisclosed resto!?!?

[murph0]

I will let you know once I find out if anyone else got one, I'm guessing I was just the unlucky one..

 

Brian

[jbud73]

Gotta be the collection I purchesed recently. As a realtively small collector ( I have about 8,000 books) it is rare that you have an opportunity to purchase a large collection. Dealers, especially those with storefronts have the visibility necessary to attract collections for purchase.

 

I was on the elevator in the morning at work a few months ago, and it just so happens that I had a copy of the new Overstreet under my arm. There was only one other person in the elevator and this gentlemen asked me if I collected comics. The question kind of took me off guard as I had forgotten I was carrying the Price Guide. I responsed that I was and we struck up a conversation over a cup of coffee in the building cafeteria. After discussing titles, writers, artists and other comic related stuff we started talking about or collections. It seems that this other collector had been out of the hobby for a few years and was looking to sell his books as he was moving to take a job elsewhere. He asked if I would be interested in purchasing and I said that I was interested in having a look.

 

We arranged a date and I went over to his place where he unveiled 14 long boxes. Not knowing what to expect I delved in and started making some notes on the collection which included some nice Silver Age runs of stuff that I had always wanted, with some bronze age and moderns mixed in in equal parts. Now it came down to it and I thought about which sections I could purchase and how much they were likely to run me

 

After a short conversation he explained that he had in fact gone to see a dealer who said that they would give him 40% of guide for the issues he needed all he had to do was arrange a time to bring them in. But he wanted to sell the whole thing off at once and not have it picked over, and be left with section sold piecemeal over time. He also didnt want to have to truck 14 long boxes to a store for the dealer to go through and then truck the rest back. So I made a quick call to my bank, took a few deep breaths and said that I would be interested in purchasing the whole think and trucking it out of there.

 

I offered my price guide and we discussed condition on some of the key books. When we had agreed on a final price I gave the opinion that he could very well have gotten 10-30% more selling it off piece meal. His reply was that he wanted it all gone at once for conveience sake and that he felt better with the knowledge that it was going to a fellow collector.

 

I currently own 75% of the collection having traded and sold off some of it to lessen the cost and the 75% will stay in my collection for good.

[jbud73]

Regarding major comics: I had purchased off him a few times up until 8 mo. ago. Then he started charging sales tax and GST (Canadian Good and Services tax) a whopping 14% when combined to all his Canadian customers. His shipping was already high, for what you got - I can relate to the Hulk story. His grading and books were on, but the tax thing just irked me. He all of a sudden starts charging it Ya like hes reporting his Ebay sales income to Revenue Canada I think not. If i do purchase again I will ask for his GST # first and maybe make a nice call to Revenue Canada

 

Its too bad too cause he has some nice books and grades fairly. But he got greedy I guess and thought that he was a minature Heratige and would generate the 14% juice on his Lots. Thats lame man, taxation on Used goods is bad as it is, but taxation for Ebay sales of used comics cmon, these things DO NOT GET TALLYED THROUGH THE CASH REGISTER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[garthgantu]

When I started collecting in 1974, I was 10. I lived in the middle of nowhere on the Northern California coast, and apart from semi-regular trips to San Francisco (every month or two), finding comics in that neck 'o the woods was pretty challenging to say the least.

 

After raiding the modest collections of everyone at school, I started "advertising" via a local radio program called "Swap Shop." People called in looking to buy, sell, or trade just about anything..."Yeah, this is Bob up on Albion Ridge, an' I've got a 1948 Peterbuilt tractor that doesn't work too well; I'm lookin' to trade it for a hide-a-bed or a couple hundred quality seeds." ...You get the idea.

So I'd go on this show every Sat. and Sun., and say that I was looking to buy or trade comic books.

 

I found a few moderately interesting deals this way, and after a few years, got a call from a reporter with the Santa Rosa Press , the largest newspaper in NorCal aside from the SF Chronicle. The reporter asked a few questions, how many comics I had, etc., and ended up doing a full-page story on my brother and I and our collection, which numbered about 2,000 books at that point. At the time, it was quite a highlight, as the story included photos of us and our collection.

 

The article resulted in more calls, including one from a woman who lived even further out in the woods, who said she had a collection that had belonged to her son. I convinced my dad to drive me to her house, and a nice middle-aged woman answered the door and showed me to her son's room. Turns out he'd died in the early days of Vietnam, and she'd basically left his room untouched for the past 18 years or so. There were two large boxes of comics, maybe 400 books in all, and they covered 1950 - 1960. Not much superhero stuff, but mid-grade (VG+ to VF- or so) funny animal (mostly Barks duck books, including the first 3 or 4 appearances of Scrooge in Four Color), Bob Hope, My Greatest Adventure, Strange Adventures, some war comics, early Mad issues, etc. Even in 1978 this stuff was pretty exciting, especially to a 14-year old.

 

Ultimately, my dad insisted that I pay 80% of guide for whatever I wanted..! Outrageous in some ways, a pittance in retrospect. The stuff I couldn't afford or didn't want I ended up selling at Bay Area comic shops and BayCon 4 and getting a commission. That was an exciting summer, and still the best collection I ever 'discovered' and purchased on my own...

[HeroDreamer]

Not as good as some of the other stories but here goes. I'm 22 and started buying comics when I was 12. When I was 13 I was just reading G.I. Joe and X-Force and had just started buying Spider-Man. I was at a small comic show and was trying to see what I could get for my New Mutants 87 which was pretty hot at the time. This one dealer had a bunch of comics which I thought of as "the cool old ones". He started showing me some of the old spiderman's and it was so cool because any old comic just looked like treasure in my eyes. He gave me a VG copy of ASM 41 and 122 in exchange for my New Mutants 87 and a copy of the blackbagged Death of Superman. At the time I was getting the lower end of the deal but now the issues i traded are worth virtuallly nothing and the books he traded have value. Best of all, while every other 13 year old I knew was buying currrent books I started on back issues. I've only been collecting for about 5 years in the past 10 but I now have 2/3's of the Amazing Spiderman collection going back to issue 8. I'm still not able to collect as much as I want but I figure I'll have the whole run in the next 5 years or so.

[Smokinghawk]

I recently rebagged my collection into Mylar, and had forgotten some of the stuff I had. I found ASM 39 and 40 in vf/nm with sharp corners, glossy cover, no spine roll...

 

I was a teenager when I bought ASM 14 for $21.

 

 

[Polyphemus]

When I was younger there was a comic convention every other month in the basement of a bowling alley in Milwaukee.

 

I was about 12 and I had justed started buying back issues. I had purchased daredevil 42 (first jester) and I walked away. About 10 minutes later I noticed there was black pen on the price and when I asked the dealer to take it back, he refused. I told my dad who took it back to the dealer and the dealer refused again. So, my dad leaned across the table, grabbed him by the shirt collar and punched him in the face. We got kicked out. I still have the issue.

[HeroDreamer]

When I was younger there was a comic convention every other month in the basement of a bowling alley in Milwaukee.

 

I was about 12 and I had justed started buying back issues. I had purchased daredevil 42 (first jester) and I walked away. About 10 minutes later I noticed there was black pen on the price and when I asked the dealer to take it back, he refused. I told my dad who took it back to the dealer and the dealer refused again. So, my dad leaned across the table, grabbed him by the shirt collar and punched him in the face. We got kicked out. I still have the issue.

 

This one gets my vote!

[Ares]

This one time, at band camp.............

 

It's true,,,,,,it happened to a friend of my cousins.

 

I think I was that friend!

[OldGuy]

In 1980somethin' I was "suckered" by a dealer that traded me his Hulk 181 (in VF) for my Wolverine mini #1 (in NM). Needless to say I got the better deal in the long run.