Another nice collection ruined by poor storage.

[shadroch]

Over the weekend I hit a few garage sales and asked the people about comics they might have or know of. One lady said her son had some and he recently got married and might be willing to sell them.

We exchanged numbers and he called me yesterday and today I went to see them.

He told me they were mostly bought off of news-stands and he'd stored them five or six to a hefty bag for a few years. Around 2005, he had sold the Spideys, X-Men, the Wolverine arc of Hulk and a few others.

He said the dealer remarked on how nice the conditions were. He took some of the money and bought two hundred bags and boards and had gone thru and bagged each book individually.

He went on to say there were about 150 Marvels, from the 25-40 cent era.

Most of this stuff is real common in fine or so but true HG stuff isn't something I see everyday.

Today I go look at them and at first glance I am very impressed. Books look really sharp- 9.0 and better, a few look near flawless- in the bags.

Take out a Hulk 179 and am thinking its a 9.6 candidate based on front cover and it has nice white pages. Flip the book over and there is a three inch wide water stain that is about a half inch high.

Stain extends two wraps into book. I show him and he is shocked. We start looking through the rest and 80% of them have varying degrees of water damage. Some worse, some you can barely notice.

A nice group of 1970s Marvels that had a bunch of 9.4+ candidates was reduced to a VG collection because somehow they tangled with some water.

I bought 100 of them for $60, just because the fronts present so well, but I'd much rather have paid him ten times that had they not been ruined.

What sux is that this damage must have happened after he sold off the first batch as the other dealer didn't say anything about them and I can't believe he missed them. I also don't think this guy was trying to pawn off damaged goods on me. His reaction was such that I believe he was sincere.

 

[thehumantorch]

That sucks. It's so important to store them in a dry place off the ground.

[Mr 9.8]

Absolutely hate hearing stories like this.

[lizards2]

It takes money and care to preserve money

[Buzzetta]

This is a shame.

[mrwoogieman]

This is how the herd gets thinned out; even when they mean to keep them nice, sometimes mess happens.