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Buying Collections by Lostpike78

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The luck of the draw.

 

As of late I have been finding I only buy one out of every four or five collections I visit. Why so little? Because most collections I have been finding nowadays are overpriced 90s .

 

An example: Earlier today I went to see a collection described to me as ranging from 50s on up and consisting of 12 long boxes. Owner bought them at a storage locker auction and wanted a grand. I arrive and look through the collection. It ends up being two silver age comics, no golden age followed by 11 boxes of late 80s to 90s comics.

 

I personally can not see anyone paying a grand for 11 boxes of 90s comics. Does anyone else have this problem?

 

I used to drive up to two and half hours to see a collection. As of late the distance is gettting smaller and smaller due to so many collections I see being 1990s stuff even after I explain that I am not intersted in 90s stuff.

 

Okay I will end my rant. Thanks for listening.

 

On a side note, I did pick up a collection lately that contained a raw Tomb of Dracula 1 that I graded as a 9.6! Its at CGC right now so hopefully it comes back near that mark!

 

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The 90's were the worst times for the Comic Book industry. They printed so much that made people look and said wow.......I need to buy each version and save them for 10 yrs or more. Some of those books are not even worth the paper it's printed on. Those yrs were crazy.......I jumped ship then and sold over half of my collection then.

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I would throw a ton of questions at the seller before you hit the road as if you pay gas as you bought the .

 

I've done this many times but over the last two months no matter what they say the collection ends up being 90s garbage. I literally have looked through over 100 boxes of 90s that I have been told is 60-80s stuff in the last month.

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I understand everyone's pain as far as Seller's looking to acquire inventory. Honestly there is nothing worse than traveling for someone's in order to gain a few diamonds in the rough and find out....more . I know this is simply asking a question that is always asked but if you ask for a quick glance inventory in the form of an Excel sheet do any other the sellers ever give this? At least to make it worth your time. I would like to do this later on when I return to fill some holes.....and yes some of those are 90's spoon's so this may not bother me as much.

 

K

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The straw that broke the camels back for me was this one guy, who said he had tons of stuff from the 60's, 70's to present. I drove an hour to get there. I get there and he had like one book from the 60's a few mid-grades from the 70's and the rest was 90's mess - And he wanted like three grand minimum. He said he would throw in the Wizard mags (no #1) for 'free'.

 

I chastised the guy for basically lying about what he said he had. I then told him 'good luck' - A few days later, the guys wife answered my ad, looking buy comics, not realizing I had just been at their house and I basically had to tell his wife her husband's 'collection' would not pay to have their roof reshingled. I don't think she was happy.

 

Long story short, I now ask for a list of actual books people have and/or some pictures along with me now asking very specific questions.

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I feel your pain. Problem is that most of what is out there, especially in the hands of people who don't know about comics they have, will be 80's/90's and 00's junk (*spoon*?). There is just more of it out there and its what has been lieing around for a relatively short period (and not thrown out yet).

 

That said, I find it hard to not visit many of the collections I hear about because I have found some incredible gems in mis-represented collections. I once drove over an hour for a "golden age" collection from the 40's, only to find it was early 70's funny animal and non-superhero. I bought the group cheap anyway, and the guy also sold me some old leather fireman helmets. I think that single purchase made me the most profit of any group of comics (and other junk) I have ever bought!

 

Also remember the 80/20 rule - 80% of your profit is made from 20% of your work (or, another way of looking at it is that 80% of your purchases won't be profitable, but 20% will be). Its part of the game. And it makes finding that collection of 500 single owner 1960's Marvel books all that much more fun.

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So I had a relief to my woes of visiting collections. This morning instead of going to see the few collections in the area that are 90% likely to be 90s crud I went to a flea market. Ended up finding 3 copies of Uncanny Xmen 266, Astonishing Tales 29, and the Uncanny Xmen 423 price variant.

 

Not a bad haul at all. Persistence wins in this hobby. Im finding its a 1 out of 4 or 5 ratio when you go out trying to find something good that you will find something worth buying. But that fourth time makes it all worth while :)

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