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Post your Garage Sale/Flea Market/Antique Mall Finds Here
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15,805 posts in this topic

When I was a kid (about 28 years ago), I found a Hulk #181 and 182 at a Flea Market for 50 cents each. About five years ago, I sent it in for grading and here's a scan:

hulk181cgc.jpg

 

 

Great find! (worship)

 

I've been pretty lucky finding comics at local garage sales, flea markets and antique malls. I perform a search a couple of times a week on my local paper's website for the word "comic" and find many garage sales that way. Over the last 8 years I've managed to come up with some pretty good stuff:

 

1) Iron Fist #14 (1st Sabretooth) for about $10.00. I submitted it to CGC a few years back and it came back an 8.0. :banana:

 

2) A Marvel Spotlight #5 (1st Ghost Rider) from that same garage sale for another $10. It just came back a CGC 6.5 with WHITE pages. :grin:

 

3) A nice run of NM Conan the Barbarian issues from 30 thru 50 that I paid $1.00 each for.

 

4) A MAD #24 (1st Mad Magazine) at an antique mall in central Illinois that I bought for 55 cents. It came back a CGC 3.0. :)

 

5) A pink Harbinger #0 variant issue that came back a CGC 9.4. I picked it up at a local antique mall for $5.00. :grin:

 

Treasures are still out there to be had. Just keep your eyes and ears open and think "comics" all the time and you'll find something good out there.....someday. (thumbs u

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Ahhh, summer is coming, time for flea markets and yard sales!! Not that I find much, but every year I stumble upon some goodies.

 

Last summer I got a nice Noble Causes (first invincible), Mad Love (prestige format...second Harley Quinn?) and WD 8 off a flea market guy selling dollar books. I had to sort through about 300 books from the 80s - 2000s to dig those up. I don't have the scans, but the two image books were solid 9.2s (which was a miracle given they were sitting there unbagged and unboarded in massive stacks outodoors getting plowed through) and the Mad Love was more like a 6.0 or so, but I got good money for all of them. Certainly enough for my wife to not give me grief when I stop to check out comics people are selling (she's learned that I sometimes dig up treasures). Certainly made looking through the stack worthwhile. I dind't even know for sure the first two were worth anything, but in the back of my head I kindah remembered them being of interest (I don't really collect moderns).

 

Most of the time though it is modern drek being sold for a dollar and there's nothing of interest in there.

Edited by the blob
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I stumbled upon a street sale on the upper west side of Manhattan last Fall. I am always on the look out for comics. Usually I'll come across a bunch of modern drek. This time I hit a vein of silver age stuff. The guy was asking a buck a book. I ended up with a pretty good ASM run 60-80 in fine condition, as well as a bunch of Dare Devil and Capt. America. Not too shabby!!!

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I do enjoy Flea Markets, Garage Sales and Antique shops. But then I also enjoy collecting other things. I'm always looking for Comics, Depression Glass (glass of all types really), and Dragons.

 

Still have yet to make the big score though I did run across some Werewolf by Nights, Tomb of Dracula and Frankenstein at less than a buck a book once. Comics do show up on occasion.

Edited by Shootydog
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This was purchased at a lawn sale in Northern Ontario about 7 years ago. I had purchased it from the fellow that found it at the lawn sale and had it restored to its former glory:

 

MMBEFOREAFTER.jpg

 

NOTE: there were HUNDREDS of GA comics that he purchased from that lawn and I bought ALL of the books from him.

 

My profit from reselling the rest of the GA not only paid for the MM Annual, including resto, but I also pocketed about a grand on top of that.

 

Thank heavens for lawn sales. :whee:

 

 

Edited by eccomic
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What price was that?

(worship)

 

This was purchased at a lawn sale in Northern Ontario about 7 years ago. I have purchased it from the fellow that found it at the lawn sale and had it restored to its former glory:

 

MMBEFOREAFTER.jpg

 

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Man, there's some lucky people here. When I stop by local swap meets and sales, it's almost always 90's Image stuff or bad 80s comics...and always at a bargain of a buck each!

 

A few months back, stopped by a Goodwill and someone donated what looked like 5-10 longeboxes of moderns (civil war, marvel, Valiant, etc.), but the store was selling them for a buck each still. Would have liked to see the guy dropping them off as I would have offered him at least $20-$40 just maininly as reading material since there wasn't anything key in there.

 

I did score four beat-up X-Men Essentials books and an Infinite Crisis Companion TPB for a a couple dollars a piece though.

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I'm heading to a big flea market in Wisconsin on Sunday and on the way back I might catch the tail end of a flea market at the local fairgrounds. I'll let you guys & gals know if I come up with anything of interest Sunday night. (thumbs u

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I've posted this story before, but I always like a new opportunity to trot it out again:

 

Biggest thrill was in the early 1980s, wandering through a used book fair and spying a cardboard box of comics under a seller's table. Asked if I could look through them, and my heart almost stopped when I found FF #2 in (what I now know to be) VF condition. Kept flipping and I think my heart DID stop when I saw the next book: FF #1, again in VF shape.

 

I made sure no one else saw the books, and I quietly and calmly asked the guy what he wanted for them. He obviously knew they were worth something, but had no idea how much, because he said $50. I asked him, "each?!", and he said "for both". I gave $50 cash and got the heck out of there as fast as possible!

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I've posted this story before, but I always like a new opportunity to trot it out again:

 

Biggest thrill was in the early 1980s, wandering through a used book fair and spying a cardboard box of comics under a seller's table. Asked if I could look through them, and my heart almost stopped when I found FF #2 in (what I now know to be) VF condition. Kept flipping and I think my heart DID stop when I saw the next book: FF #1, again in VF shape.

 

I made sure no one else saw the books, and I quietly and calmly asked the guy what he wanted for them. He obviously knew they were worth something, but had no idea how much, because he said $50. I asked him, "each?!", and he said "for both". I gave $50 cash and got the heck out of there as fast as possible!

 

You can tell that story as many times as you like. (thumbs u

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I've posted this story before, but I always like a new opportunity to trot it out again:

 

Biggest thrill was in the early 1980s, wandering through a used book fair and spying a cardboard box of comics under a seller's table. Asked if I could look through them, and my heart almost stopped when I found FF #2 in (what I now know to be) VF condition. Kept flipping and I think my heart DID stop when I saw the next book: FF #1, again in VF shape.

 

I made sure no one else saw the books, and I quietly and calmly asked the guy what he wanted for them. He obviously knew they were worth something, but had no idea how much, because he said $50. I asked him, "each?!", and he said "for both". I gave $50 cash and got the heck out of there as fast as possible!

 

Still got them?

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