FYI - Harley's Catalog

[Captain_Pike]

I agree, Harley is a nice guy but his asking prices tend to be aggressive. I bought some GAs & SAs from him and they graded pretty well (so far!).

[VintageComics]

Gotta put in my 2 cents worth....I agree with oldguy ....Harley's mid grades at 3X guide do not sell at conventions, so I'm not too sure on his grading, but i have bought some really nice books from him at a very good price. He has also bought some of my stuff and paid very well. I think that with most dealers, if you are a serious buyer, they will treat you seriously and negotiate....at the end of the day...they need to sell, but if you're a tire kicker , well, they can sense it most of the time....

[nearmint]

Just out of curiosity, what mid-grades was he asking 3x guide for?

[VintageComics]

No real specific issues come to mind, but I just remember NM convention type prices on books that looked VF at best....

[nearmint]

Asking NM guide for VF books is hardly 3x guide. At a time when NM books are selling for 3-4-5x guide, is the NM price for a VF book out of line? There are dozens of Nedors that I'd happily pay the NM price for VF copies.

 

Most Golden Age collectors don't even consider VF mid-grade. For us it's the low end of high grade.

[OldGuy]

Just out of curiosity, what mid-grades was he asking 3x guide for?

 

Common SA Marvels. It looked like just about everything was 3x guide regardless of condition. If a book was Fine and it was $30 in guide he had a $90 price tag on it (just an example). It was crazy.

[nearmint]

Just out of curiosity, what mid-grades was he asking 3x guide for?

 

Common SA Marvels. It looked like just about everything was 3x guide regardless of condition. If a book was Fine and it was $30 in guide he had a $90 price tag on it (just an example). It was crazy.

 

Okay, that IS crazy.

[jmg3637]

I remember dealing with Harley at a few conventions that I had setup at as a seller. He came by pick over my stock looking for deals. he was going through the boxes quickly pulling out a few dozen or so books. he was certainl;y not treating the books with any kind of care, but I did not say anything as it looked like it might be a nice sale. He spent 15 minutes there then just walked away leaving the books out. never made an offer or even asked me a price. Just left them there for me to spend time resorting back into the boxes they came from. As I recall it happened 2 times in the years I was delaing that way.

[BachelorOfComix]

I remember dealing with Harley at a few conventions that I had setup at as a seller. He came by pick over my stock looking for deals. he was going through the boxes quickly pulling out a few dozen or so books. he was certainl;y not treating the books with any kind of care, but I did not say anything as it looked like it might be a nice sale. He spent 15 minutes there then just walked away leaving the books out. never made an offer or even asked me a price. Just left them there for me to spend time resorting back into the boxes they came from. As I recall it happened 2 times in the years I was delaing that way.

You should have done the same thing to him.

[shadroch]

My Harley experiance- Saw a pre-100 Superboy

that had an early Legion tie-in.it was in Fine or so but he was asking almost triple guide.he offered a fairly nice discount,but I found a nicer book elsewhere for almost half

what he was asking,after his discount.It will be three years this March and he stil has the book.

Except for checking to see if he still has that one book,I bypass his tables.To me,his Silver and Bronze prices don't make sense,he doesn't sell the higher grade stuff much anyway.

[nearmint]

I paid Harley about 20% above condition guide for this book. Just liked the cover...

 

[ComicBookGuy]

I received mine too. It's interesting how he has not become more involved with slabbing books than the other major dealers. Still just a couple pages of cgc books.

 

It's a shame that cgc never recognized the Cleveland collection that Harley was selling a few years back as a true pedigree. To upgrade some issues for my collection, I bought the Fantastic Four #17, Captain America #111, and Strange Tales #127 from his Cleveland inventory and they have about the nicest possible page quality I've seen on old Marvels. If these had been accorded pedigree status, I would definitely seek them out with the same alacrity I do Western Penns.

 

He's a nice guy overall and good to deal with.

 

As far as haggling goes, Harley is a full-time dealer. It is his bread and butter. When I go to buy anything in any store, price haggling is not an option. I don't think it's fair to EXPECT that everything one is selling will be automatically discounted. If I don't like a price, I will make an offer, which is either accepted or rejected, but I won't get angry if the offer isn't accepted. He knows what he put into a comic and what he needs to get out of it to make a living.

[shadroch]

I'm a firm believer in haggling. however there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. The wrong way is to pull a dozen books out of boxes ,then thrust them at a seller and demand the best possible price for them.Some dealers seem to enjoy haggling and others can't be bothered.

My problem is when I'm looking for a book and the dealer accepts my offer too fast. For example-I was looking for a reader Avengers#2 at the National. I'd narrowed it downto two dealers.The first dealer was asking was asking $125 for his copy but said to make him an offer.I offered him$80 and he said no,but he'd go $100. The other dealer was asking $100 for a slightly inferior book so I offered him $75

and he accepted. I came away with the book but also with a feeling that I left so money on the table.

The trouble is that you want to make your first offer as low as possible so the ending price can be somewhere around the middle of what you and he are offering,but if you make your first offer too low,it might insult the dealer and preclude any more negotiations.

[rjpb]

When I used to go to cons, I loved haggling. About the only time I never did it was when the book was priced so low that I was afraid someone might scoop me by offering full asking while I tried to get the price down. I would generally offer what I thought was the low end of FMV for a book, which sometimes might be just 15% less and sometimes 50%, and even if the book was already priced there, I would usually try to get 10% knocked off. I found even when I couldn't come to terms with a dealer early in the day, I was sometimes able to cruise by at the end of the day with a last chance to sell to me at my previous offer and could close the deal. I think most dealers expect a little haggling at cons, and aren't offended if your offer is low, as long as it's not absurd.

[r100comics]

The first dealer was asking was asking $125 for his copy but said to make him an offer.I offered him$80 and he said no,but he'd go $100. The other dealer was asking $100 for a slightly inferior book so I offered him $75 and he accepted. I came away with the book but also with a feeling that I left so money on the table.

 

Maybe the guy just didn't feel like haggling. It's hard to say without seeing the book, but with a 25% reduction straight off the bat, I'd have come away feeling I'd got a pretty good deal.

[october]

I love haggling. To me, finding a sweet deal on a book is as much fun as owning the book itself. As far as Harley Yee is concerned, his prices always seemed pretty out there to me. I have been at cons looking at his stuff at least 2 or 3 times, and then found the same condition book at another table for 1/2 his asking price. He must sell to someone, but at the last Chicago Comicfest it looked like people were pretty much avoiding his table. Maybe it was just the event, Comicfest isn't exactly San Diego afterall.

[Harvey Dude]

Asking NM guide for VF books is hardly 3x guide. At a time when NM books are selling for 3-4-5x guide, is the NM price for a VF book out of line? There are dozens of Nedors that I'd happily pay the NM price for VF copies.

 

Most Golden Age collectors don't even consider VF mid-grade. For us it's the low end of high grade.

 

I agree with you completely.

[CentaurMan]

I'm firmly in the "pro-Harley" camp. I wouldn't call his prices consistently high. I would call his prices unpredictable. Sometimes I see something from him that I want, and it's priced way too high. Other times I see something priced quite reasonably. Although he may have some social quirks (like EVERYONE I've ever met in this hobby), I think he's a great guy. He's also been quick to offer me a discount at conventions when it looks like I'm going to purchase more than 2 or 3 comics.

 

I picked up this unrestored minor key from him in Chicago this summer for $1175, which I viewed as a very reasonable price. Some people may disagree and think I overpaid. Others may think it was a steal. For the rare mid-grade stuff I look for, I happen to think his prices are more or less market value (with a wide spread). I'd confidently recommend him to other Golden Age collectors.

 

[nearmint]

Love that book!

[*paull*]

I love that cover! Great great great!