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One Man Comic Business
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279 posts in this topic

A little personal story.

 

I just got a call from a gentleman handling an estate. Says there is upwards of 1000 comics from 1950s and 1960s. He lives over 4 hours away. Doesn't have an exact price in mind and will likely shop them around to get the best price. He is going to call back when the books are in front of him to give me an idea about what he has.

 

I mentioned two things, that I was more than happy to walk him through the value of the collection, but I wanted to be given serious consideration for my offer. Don't make me do a ton of work and then go with someone else.

 

Also, I want to make sure he has the goods. Marvel and DC with a strong couple of keys, I'll make the round trip. Archie and Harvey's - maybe but probably not.

 

So this is the type of deal that is on the edge and requires a bunch of stuff I've mentioned in this thread. I'm competing against dealers and their sales pitch. I need to be able to evaluate the worth of the collection. I have to be willing to travel and willing to work the risk that I get nothing. I better bring enough money to buy at least part of the collection. I need to be able to sell the collection quickly and efficiently.

 

All those things give me an edge, either I can get to them first and win, pay more than a dealer because my costs are low, show the seller that I'm trustworthy, knowledgable and willing to help.

 

All these things take time, experience, money, passion for the hobby, and a pleasant demeanor. If any of these are missing, it's not going to work.

 

Almost 3am and need to check out. Amazing, such a great read. Thanks for putting this together.

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Just got the next Potomac collection installment.

 

Detective 446-613

Hero for hire 1 2 12-117

Werewolf Bn 1 4 10-26

All star 64-72

Amazing adventures 25-40

Astonishing tales

Conan 6-80

Moon knight

Eternals

Dkr 1-4

A few random Batman

Aquaman late bronze run

 

Charles vess original art from 1977 for the Wizard of Oz print. a really sweet piece.

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Comment on a second deal.

 

Guy calls about a collection of 400 comics that are all #1 issues. Asked about dates and he says mostly 1980s but some 60s and 70s about 100 or so. I prime the questions with "is there a Star Wars 1?, She Hulk? Nova? Ms Marvel?" Oh yeah I have all those - if there was a number 1 issue I bought it.

 

Man fantastic and highly believable as I've run into many collections that were like that. 10 years ago they were $2-4 books and not a big deal. Now they're $40 books for each one.

 

Also he said that he priced them 10 years ago at about $2100 but he knows he can't get that and would sell for $800. Perfect.

 

The drive is an extra 2 hour round trip so a bit of a haul but so be it. He has the books in 4 short boxes nearly all bagged and boarded as he says. But the books aren't quite all that. Lots of #1's but maybe half are common books. 70's are a few Hulks and Justice Leagues and that's about it. Best books are

 

Killing Joke 1st print

ASM 252

Wolverine 1 (1988)

Batman and Tec Year 1 and 2

Batman 222 VG and 400

Punisher 1, PWJ 1

and a bunch of other $5 books

 

Some Zeck Caps, Spiderman Kraven story an Xmen 221 out of Xmen 215-240 run.

And then 300 generic and random titles.

 

So I offer $50 a box. And pay maybe $60. What was interesting about this was the back and forth. You'd think I was ripping him off the way he reacted. "Oh wow that's way less than they're worth, you think they've fallen from $2100 that much since 2006?" "These have to be worth so much more?"

 

And by the way he lost his job, has a 94 year old mom to take care of and is in need of money, all of which he tells me. Still, I'm kind of pissed he over hyped the books he had.

 

Reading about it or thinking about it without the actual person in front of you can be easy. Hey, you make an offer he either takes it or not, business is business. Being there can be tougher though from two directions. One, I have to emotional detach myself from his personal problems and for that matter his view that he thinks I'm screwing him. Two, I need to stick to my price or I wind up "selling his comics for him" as I like to think of it when I leave myself with no margin. And it can be draining when the guy across from you is a tough negotiator either through pity that you let get through or simply drives a hard bargin.

 

I did let that get the better of me a little as I started buying more stuff from him that was outside my scope. A 1970s skateboard, 1960s games, some sport and non sport cards, and wood shafted golf clubs. What the hell I thought, worth a shot and the guy needs money. Probably not worth my time or money though. But I like doing that and it works out every now and then.

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Comment on a second deal.

 

Guy calls about a collection of 400 comics that are all #1 issues. Asked about dates and he says mostly 1980s but some 60s and 70s about 100 or so. I prime the questions with "is there a Star Wars 1?, She Hulk? Nova? Ms Marvel?" Oh yeah I have all those - if there was a number 1 issue I bought it.

 

Man fantastic and highly believable as I've run into many collections that were like that. 10 years ago they were $2-4 books and not a big deal. Now they're $40 books for each one.

 

Also he said that he priced them 10 years ago at about $2100 but he knows he can't get that and would sell for $800. Perfect.

 

The drive is an extra 2 hour round trip so a bit of a haul but so be it. He has the books in 4 short boxes nearly all bagged and boarded as he says. But the books aren't quite all that. Lots of #1's but maybe half are common books. 70's are a few Hulks and Justice Leagues and that's about it. Best books are

 

Killing Joke 1st print

ASM 252

Wolverine 1 (1988)

Batman and Tec Year 1 and 2

Batman 222 VG and 400

Punisher 1, PWJ 1

and a bunch of other $5 books

 

Some Zeck Caps, Spiderman Kraven story an Xmen 221 out of Xmen 215-240 run.

And then 300 generic and random titles.

 

So I offer $50 a box. And pay maybe $60. What was interesting about this was the back and forth. You'd think I was ripping him off the way he reacted. "Oh wow that's way less than they're worth, you think they've fallen from $2100 that much since 2006?" "These have to be worth so much more?"

 

And by the way he lost his job, has a 94 year old mom to take care of and is in need of money, all of which he tells me. Still, I'm kind of pissed he over hyped the books he had.

 

Reading about it or thinking about it without the actual person in front of you can be easy. Hey, you make an offer he either takes it or not, business is business. Being there can be tougher though from two directions. One, I have to emotional detach myself from his personal problems and for that matter his view that he thinks I'm screwing him. Two, I need to stick to my price or I wind up "selling his comics for him" as I like to think of it when I leave myself with no margin. And it can be draining when the guy across from you is a tough negotiator either through pity that you let get through or simply drives a hard bargin.

 

I did let that get the better of me a little as I started buying more stuff from him that was outside my scope. A 1970s skateboard, 1960s games, some sport and non sport cards, and wood shafted golf clubs. What the hell I thought, worth a shot and the guy needs money. Probably not worth my time or money though. But I like doing that and it works out every now and then.

 

Do you think he'll call you next time he finds something? and good job on sticking to your guns.

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He has a bunch of baseball cards supposedly from the 1960s etc. Nolan Ryan Rookie perfect condition. OK sure. Then why did the baseball cards he brought out were all 1985 and newer. No thanks.

 

Funny thing also was he had old 1980s ish porn. Yeah yeah I ignored the magazines OUI Hustler etc. I'm not a big fan of that anyway. And here's why. He had some old Traci Lords videos and advertisements, which really are very valuable but unfortunately the valuable stuff is her early work which puts her under age 18. To even get close to that illegal activity is just a bridge too far.

 

I kind of have mixed feelings about that. It is part of our history and almost pop culture "Debbie Does Dalla" and all that followed. Yeah it's porn but walk down Times Square or New Orleans during mardi gras.

 

Also there's the Joe Staton stuff from the 1950s which is comic related. Lurid but interesting.

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He has a bunch of baseball cards supposedly from the 1960s etc. Nolan Ryan Rookie perfect condition. OK sure. Then why did the baseball cards he brought out were all 1985 and newer. No thanks.

 

Funny thing also was he had old 1980s ish porn. Yeah yeah I ignored the magazines OUI Hustler etc. I'm not a big fan of that anyway. And here's why. He had some old Traci Lords videos and advertisements, which really are very valuable but unfortunately the valuable stuff is her early work which puts her under age 18. To even get close to that illegal activity is just a bridge too far.

 

I kind of have mixed feelings about that. It is part of our history and almost pop culture "Debbie Does Dalla" and all that followed. Yeah it's porn but walk down Times Square or New Orleans during mardi gras.

 

Also there's the Joe Staton stuff from the 1950s which is comic related. Lurid but interesting.

 

Did you ask him about comics/cards he specifically said he had but were now nowhere to be found? I wouldn't want to cause a 'situation', but at the same time I wouldn't want to miss out on something if they forgot to bring something out.

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Got a call from a lady who had one comic from the 1940s. Whiz comics. No number. Me: Please describe the cover. Throwing a car against a wall.

 

Heart beat picks up.

 

Me: What are the dimensions.

 

Hold on let me get a ruler..... about 10x13.

 

Pleasantries of value and good bye.

 

End of phone call.

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Another recent collection I bought and lesson. I recall reading Gators WTB thread that he had many folks asking for Copper and Modern comics at his shows and were always disappointed that he had no inventory. So even with little experience he wanted to buy the major keys ASM 300 New Mutants 98 etc. And good on him, I sort of had to learn the era as well which has helped, with some downside.

 

After buying the 100 box collection - in unloading many of the bulk boxes I am sure I missed out on the many many keys that I was simply unaware of.

Here are some examples

 

Marvel Comics Presents 19

DC Comics Presents various but 87 comes to mind

Cable #1

Web of Spiderman 118

New Mutants various 16 18 25 even #1 to a point

Wolverine 88

Superman 17

 

and on and on. Sold in lots, sold for $1 or not even registered and sold in bulk.

But no big deal, as I went I saw others (or had duplicates) and learned what was valuable. Learned about the TV shows that I don't watch and characters in current comics that are being rebooted or have major impact on storylines. Like Gator (I assume) and many others, I simply don't read modern comics, especially superhero ones. My love and passion is for the Bronze and Copper for when I grew up on comics as well as the collectability of the Silver and Golden Age that I also grew up with via Overstreet etc.

 

So while I still don't read too much by way of modern superhero books I certainly don't demean them and still find them interesting from a collecting POV. I find it fascinating that female titles are much easier sellers - Wonder Woman, Power girl, and more. And its always fun to have a collection of non cherry picked books and be able to go through them looking for minor $5-$20 gems.

 

The other good part is that now I know way more about what things are worth in terms of modern keys and semi keys. I was at a thrift store and low and behold they had stacks of comics so I asked to look through them. It was about 300 Batmans and 50 other randoms (here's the old sales thread to see the books)

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=400859&Number=9153407#Post9153407

 

I bought the key books and then in researching went back and bought the rest. It was good to know that the Harley Quinn books were/are hot and that the Hush story was good. That Batman 635 is a solid key. It's also clear that the Batman animation books are generally $1 books all day. That Batman and Detective are really pretty decent sellers all day.

 

As a "Copper at the latest" type of buyer it would have been easy to pass this collection up as simply "moderns" not worth looking at. But in terms of resell - does it matter that the Hush or Red Mask storyline will fetch $50-$100 compared to an Xmen run from 144-175?

 

Shows really give dealers a deserved and earned leg up in learning what's hot and I don't have that. Nor do most collectors unless they live and breath conventions week in and week out. So by doing and buying collections then doing some research it has been enjoyable, and more profitable I suppose, to learn about key books and the direction of modern comics.

 

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Got in contact and bought another collection. Pretty much Late 60s and 70s DC w some Marvel. Likely collected in the 1980s. Old bags and mostly mid to high grade. About 7 long box

 

I've mentioned before I would much rather buy a collection like this and pay fair value then find a box of unbagged VG's for $100.

 

Great part about this find is that there were multiple copies of about a few books. I wasn't sure if these were opened three packs or store leftovers. Many of these are Jan 1970.

 

Forever People 7 x 15 copies

Lois Lane 107 x 12

Batman 229 x 14

Action 396 x14

Jimmy Olsen 135 x 14

Adventure 401 x 6

Adventure 388 x 14

 

There's also a Richie Rich x12 another cartoon book from that era.

 

Is it OK to be greedy after the fact and wish that it had been JOL 134 or Batman 227?

 

Some of the better books in the boxes. Tec 395, Batman 241 234 244 Aquaman 11 29, Hulk 271 180 182 (no 181 hmmmmmmm) Green Lantern 87, Magnus Robot Fighter 1. Lots of $10 books too, real nice DC 15 centers, some VG 1960s Marvel non keys.

 

So 2 boxes of 1980s, 2 boxes of mid grade to nice1970s runs mostly Hulk, Team Up, 2 in 1, Peter Parker, Invaders, Caps, scattering of Avengers Thor

1 box of 1960s to 1970 DC's mostly Superman/boy/girl/Lois/JOl/Adv related. A box of random #1's, cartoony books, random BA and reprint runs. About 100 Fourth World books.

 

Fun part about this one is that before the deal, he said over the phone that his brother was coming and was bringing some 1940s Action comics and a few other goodies.

 

Prior to the deal and hearing that, my BS radar is on high but it turned out to be the real deal. Unfortunately, he wanted cash only. Now I had asked multiple times, what books and general price range, so I knew what to bring. It would have been in the neighborhood of $6,000 and I'm not sure I would have brought that amount of cash on the first trip (or at all). And he didn't say ahead of time that cash was all he would accept. FYI, I bring 2 money orders and some cash - that way if I do get robbed the losses are less and if they cash the MO, more chance they get caught. Oh and this was on a Sunday so I couldn't hit the bank.

 

As I type this I realize I didn't use a technique I've used in the past and should have. During the work week, call your bank and ask that they raise the limits on your debit card. It is normally $600 and once you hit that, its gets locked. If you raise the limits, you can get more out. There might be a max on the raised limits too. And you'll have to hit multiple ATM's but its an option.

 

So the cash I did bring was used to buy the long boxes but not the 1940s even though we had an agreement and shook hands etc. Since he wouldn't go through the books with me over the phone, I as generally skeptical about the whole deal so I didn't prepare like it might be a big one. In the end it simply means a second trip. The good news is, they felt bad that I travelled all that way and couldn't complete a deal. (then I mentioned splitting up the deal so it worked out on the SA/BA stuff - can't walk with nothing)

They mentioned that they'd bring out some more books. He has a few GA Mile High and Bethlehem so I'm excited to see those. They also mentioned other mega keys that aren't for sale (yet) To be continued, I hope.

 

It does bring up an interesting real life problem of how much cash do you want to bring. Comic collections are easily getting to be multiple $1000 deals and cash is often the preferred method. But security is an issue and the more roadblocks the more probability that the deal won't go through. I trust that this one for the Actions will, but until books are in hand, who knows.

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I loved reading through this thread last year and I'm glad to see you update it now and again as well.

 

I too troll for comics "in the wild" and re-sell online to make some extra dollars, but you've taken it to the next level with these bigger collections. I'd be hard pressed to take on anything more than a few long boxes at a time no matter how good the deal was.

 

As far as what I bring along, it depends on my expectations and risk aversion. For a typical craigslist hook up or a garage/tag sale, I'll only bring a couple-few hundred dollars. If it's a "real" collection, my expectation is they won't want to sell right away but to shop it around a bit and try to get their best price that way. I've only had one or two occasions where the owner of a big collection was disappointed that I wasn't ready willing and able to slap down multi-thousands and haul the books away right then and there.

 

Then again, my single largest outlay was about $3,000, so no one is confusing me with a dealer armed with real capital or a line of credit they can access.

 

 

Good luck with those older comics and the ones they're not ready to sell yet!

 

Edited by mrwoogieman
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if you're worried about safety but aren't the type to pack or bring a buddy, just be casually on your phone as you walk up or greet the person. Then hang up and say "Sorry about that, I was just checking in with my wife, she's superparanoid about everything, especially since she quit the military to become an FBI AGENT.

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