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"There's no need to slab my comics"

Started by icefires,

86 posts in this topic

icefires

icefires

Posted
Posted

I am sending this message from heaven or hell, or, if you don't believe in that stuff, from a rotting corpse 6 feet underground.

 

My name is John Collector, and I was killed by a drunk driver one year ago today. I was 28 years old, happily married to a gorgeous wife with three wonderful children, ages 2,3, and 5. I had a decent job which allowed my wife to stay home to raise our children.

 

I started reading and collecting comics when I was 6 years old, thanks mostly to my dad, who collected comics himself since he was a child. My dad had a wonderful golden and silver age collection that was in incredible condition. I guess that was because he worked for a branch of the government involved in archival record conservation in Washington D.C. Heck, he was using mylar products long before the general public even heard of it.

 

My father passed away when I was 20 years old, and left his comic collection to me. I had been buying comics for some time, but they certainly didn't compare to his! I discovered Ebay about that time, and the CGC boards a few years later. I was an avid reader of the boards, but rarely posted. I had thought about sending my dad's collection to CGC, but time and time again I was reading from the comic experts on the board that there was no need to slab your comics unless you were going to sell them. They were doing just fine in mylar, everyone said.

 

Well, I certainly had no attention of selling them, so left them in mylar. However, I did join the Collector's Society, and sent three (of 280) into CGC using my coupon.

 

I met a couple of people at a show when I was 24 or so, and told them about my collection. They were excited, and I invited them over to see it. They helped me grade the collection. Later, I looked up the value of the collection using the grades they had told me using the GPA website. Almost $950,000. WOW! I couldn't believe it.

 

I never told my wife what I had looked up, thinking she would nag at me to sell them. She wasn't all that interested in comics anyway.

 

After my death, my wife was in complete trauma for 6 months. My two "acquaintences" that I had met wanted to buy the comic collection shortly after my death. They gave my wife the creeps because it seemed to her that they could care less that I was dead, all they cared about was the comics. Because of this, she refused to sell to them.

 

 

About 3 months ago, she decided to get rid of most of my possessions. She gave my clothes to Goodwill, my golf clubs to a relative, etc. She was wondering what to do about the comics. We lived in a fairly small town with no comic shops. She knew that I used Ebay a lot for purchases, and decided to try sellling them there. She kept the 3 graded copies in memory of me, and listed the rest as a collection with no reserve.

 

This auction created quite a buzz on the CGC boards, and the comic experts were posting to "stay away" from this auction because it had to be a scam. A great list of books, but very poor scans, along with the "my husband passed away" type statement that set off all kinds of scammer alerts to those who had seen it many times before.

 

A fellow named George Collector lived about 75 miles from our town, and e-mailed my wife to see if he could come and view the collection personally. She consented. When he arrived and saw the collection, he nearly had a heart attack. He was sweating and could hardly breathe. It was all he could do to try to remain calm. He asked my wife if he could make an offer and have her cancel the auction. She didn't feel right about cancelling the auction and told him to please just bid what he thought it was worth.

 

The day the auction ended, George put in a snipe bid with 10 seconds remaining for $600,000. He was afraid that that wouldn't be enough. When the auction was over, he could not believe his eyes. The collection was his for $66,000! He was so excited that he called his boss saying he needed to take a few days vacation immediately. He picked up the books the next day and drove straight to CGC in Florida. He paid for same day service and drove back home. He was still in shock. He looked up the value of all the books using the GPA website. Total: $1.3 million dollars. Unbelievable.

 

My wife got a job about two months ago, making nearly half of what I made. We had done one of those crazy no-down payment mortgages when we bought the house, and the monthly payment had almost doubled since. Her earnings didn't come close to meeting the monthly expenses. Daycare was expensive too! She hated being away from the kids. She checked into selling the house, but soon learned she would lose money because the housing market was plunging. So she set aside the $66,000 from the sale of comics along with my $250,000 life insurance settlement. This would last a few years.

 

She kept the three graded comics in the bedroom in a cedar chest. She figured they were worth about $300 each, judging from the price per book from the auction sale. Little did she know that I had submitted the best books, and they would net a total of nearly $225,000 on Ebay, being CGC graded and all. This cedar chest and its belongings were sent to the attic about 10 years later and forgotten about.

 

George Collector just bought a box of the finest Cuban cigars. He was one happy man.

 

"There's no need to slab my comics. They are doing just fine in mylar."

 

Remember that.

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted

Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

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icefires

icefires

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

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joe_collector

joe_collector

Posted
Posted
Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages

 

My point is that if you're sitting on $1.3 million in comics, that you hide from your wife, and have no life insurance or savings, then blame yourself when you kick off and your wife and kids are destitute.

 

CGC ain't gonna help your hass. foreheadslap.gif

 

My solution: SELL THE COMICS NOW!!

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Lazyboy

Lazyboy

Posted
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

 

27_laughing.gif27_laughing.gif

Yeah, just like all 28 year olds own $1,000,000 worth of comics and hide the value of the comics from their wife. screwy.gif

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binarysunrise

binarysunrise

Posted
Posted

Wait. What was the point of this story? Seemed like it didn't matter whether the comics were slabbed or not. Though he had slabbed the most valuable ones, they weren't recognized as being anything special, and have been sitting in a hot attic in slabs for a decade. The ones in mylar weren't recognized as valuable either.

 

So is the moral:

a) Tell your wife the value of your comic collection?

or

b) use good scans on ebay?

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SignatureSelect

SignatureSelect

Posted
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

 

It is funny I am almost twenty 28 I have no credit card debt and some savings but absolutely no life insurance.

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thirdgreenham

thirdgreenham

Posted
Posted

So is the moral:

a) Tell your wife the value of your comic collection?

or

b) use good scans on ebay?

 

Tell your wife the value of the comics through a letter that can only be opened after your death!! Everyone knows that.

 

Andy acclaim.gif

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

 

It is funny I am almost twenty 28 I have no credit card debt and some savings but absolutely no life insurance.

 

What's silly about the story is that the person with so much invested in comics likely would not have it all tied up there still, and not have put some away in traditional investments or explained to his wife what the true value of the comics are in case she ever needs to sell them.

 

I agree with JC here. This story is pointless and utterly ridiculous.

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sckao

sckao

Posted
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

 

It is funny I am almost twenty 28 I have no credit card debt and some savings but absolutely no life insurance.

 

What's silly about the story is that the person with so much invested in comics likely would not have it all tied up there still, and not have put some away in traditional investments or explained to his wife what the true value of the comics are in case she ever needs to sell them.

 

I agree with JC here. This story is pointless and utterly ridiculous.

 

You're talking about a hypothetical 28 year old here who has inherited this collection from his father. To expect him to "diversify" his net worth seems to be a little far reaching...

 

The crux of the issue is that he has not told his wife what they are worth... (nor does he apparently have a will which is not surprising. At least in the will, he could make known what the apparent general worth is of his collection.)

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Foolkiller

Foolkiller

Posted
Posted
Any dickwad who died with no life insurance, and no real savings, yet had over a million dollars in comic books (that he hides from his wife) should NOT be giving advice to any of us.

 

P.S. This goof is NOT related to me in any way.

 

Your'e right. All 28 year olds have way more than $225,000 in life insurance, no credit card debt, and plenty of savings. Just like most Americans of all ages.

 

What was I thinking?

 

It is funny I am almost twenty 28 I have no credit card debt and some savings but absolutely no life insurance.

 

What's silly about the story is that the person with so much invested in comics likely would not have it all tied up there still, and not have put some away in traditional investments or explained to his wife what the true value of the comics are in case she ever needs to sell them.

 

I agree with JC here. This story is pointless and utterly ridiculous.

 

You're talking about a hypothetical 28 year old here who has inherited this collection from his father. To expect him to "diversify" his net worth seems to be a little far reaching...

 

The crux of the issue is that he has not told his wife what they are worth... (nor does he apparently have a will which is not surprising. At least in the will, he could make known what the apparent general worth is of his collection.)

 

I really don't think it's far reaching at all to diversify his net worth when you are talking those figures Shin. Anyone with any sense would if their net value was totally tied up in comic books, inherited or otherwise.

 

I agree that the crux is the issue with his wife.

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piper

piper

Posted
Posted

The one thing that struck me from this post is the comment about ebay and this board. These two mediums have made SA books much more accessible and affordable to the average collector headbang.gif.

 

Glad I found you guys!

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