Watching a book get away from you... how do you deal with it?

[miraclemet]

Ok, so Im thinking this is most frequently ocurring with GA collectors. If some guy misses out on an AF15, well there are more fish in the sea with not long of a wait...

 

But in GA you might wait years for a book to pop up (in this case lets say it's an open market auction)... so you put your sights on it.. and you watch the bids climb and climb and as they pass the expected market and just keep going you have to decide if you are staying on this climb up Everest or if you jump off, knowing that another chance wont pop up any time soon...

 

How do you rationalize it so it doesnt haunt you?

 

Anyone ever stayed in an auction with an "at any costs" mentality, and were you happy afterwards?

 

I think we've all got books that were our "white whale" and we missed our shot, so how do you move on?

 

Im thinking less about missing out on "deals" and more about missing out on books that you chose to walk away from due to their asking price...

[buttock]

There's always something great available. Just wait until the next round of auctions. My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

[Ricksneatstuff]

Ok, so Im thinking this is most frequently ocurring with GA collectors. If some guy misses out on an AF15, well there are more fish in the sea with not long of a wait...

 

But in GA you might wait years for a book to pop up (in this case lets say it's an open market auction)... so you put your sights on it.. and you watch the bids climb and climb and as they pass the expected market and just keep going you have to decide if you are staying on this climb up Everest or if you jump off, knowing that another chance wont pop up any time soon...

 

How do you rationalize it so it doesnt haunt you?

 

Anyone ever stayed in an auction with an "at any costs" mentality, and were you happy afterwards?

 

I think we've all got books that were our "white whale" and we missed our shot, so how do you move on?

 

Im thinking less about missing out on "deals" and more about missing out on books that you chose to walk away from due to their asking price...

 

I can really relate to this one. There is one book that still haunts me to this day. It was a 6.0 copy of a book I really wanted on eBay with a GPA approximate value of $700-750. It is a book that comes up 1-2X a year for sale at the most and this was one of the nicer ones that had come up in a couple years. I sniped at $925, thinking "surely this will be enough" only to get beat out by another boardie (buddy). That was around 6 months ago and I think about it all the time. I found out later his number was $1050. Since then I have offered him $1250 for the book to no avail. He is in love.

 

Anyway, now I walk the streets at night muttering "$1075, 1075- that's all it took. Why am I such a tightwad? God help me." The pictures of the book haunt my dreams. I wake up in cold sweats. I take Xanax now, after never taking drugs my whole life. I see a therapist every other week. My ability to function at work has suffered.

 

All of that being said..."Just get over it, another one will come along, what is meant to be will be."

[PUNYHUMAN]

There's always something great available. Just wait until the next round of auctions. My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

 

 

That pretty well sums it up for me also.

[miraclemet]

Right now as I watch the one book climb up into the distance I am telling myself "would you rather spend your whole budget (and then some) on one book, or look at all the other books (that you want, but just a little bit less) you could be bidding that money towards...

 

 

[Comicdey]

There was a sweet book that came up with a high bin on eBay that I've been wanting to get for a few years now.

 

Didn't have enough in Paypal. Went to other sources. Came back to buy and it was sold.

 

Be prepared. Be vigilant and all things will roll around again. It's about the hunt anyway. And what's another 2-5 years anyway.

 

 

[Ricksneatstuff]

There was a sweet book that came up with a high bin on eBay that I've been wanting to get for a few years now.

 

Didn't have enough in Paypal. Went to other sources. Came back to buy and it was sold.

 

Be prepared. Be vigilant and all things will roll around again. It's about the hunt anyway. And what's another 2-5 years anyway.

 

 

I agree that it is about the hunt. That is definitely a part of what separates GA collecting from the pack.

[TheWatcher]

My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

 

This, in a nutshell

[miraclemet]

My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

 

This, in a nutshell

 

seems like the solution is to collect more stuff!

 

(my wife will be thrilled)

[adamstrange]

My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

 

This, in a nutshell

 

seems like the solution is to collect more stuff!

 

(my wife will be thrilled)

Marital bliss: one of many important benefits of a CGC Board Membership.

[atomic1950s]

I constantly have to decide whether the pain of being broke is less than the pain of losing out on a book I really want. Usually I end up broke.

 

Having said that, the point of owning a comic book is too feel good about it. If every time you look at a comic book you own and it just makes you think about how much money it cost you, then there is no point having it.

 

 

[Johnny545]

There's always something great available. Just wait until the next round of auctions. My problem is not finding thing I want, it's not being able to afford everything that is out there that I do want.

 

Yup, this hobby can be like drinking from a fire house.

 

Be patient - everything comes back around.

[Vision75]

Getting a rare, coveted book is one of the best aspects of the golden age because it is so hard to do. And, I do love a good challenge so the avalanche of last second losses strangely, painfully, spurs me on

 

[skybolt]

One regret I have is failing to pull the trigger on a 9.2 copy of Seven Seas #4 back in 2004. It was listed for $3,200. After weeks of going back and forth I finally decided to pull the trigger, but the book was gone.

[N e r V]

I think about what I've been lucky to get so far vs what got away.

 

Also I've slowly been getting used to the rarity and market prices on certain books (some of that info. by the boards here) so I'm better qualified to assess the book and how far I'm willing to go on it.

 

Finally I'm becoming more strategic with larger and rarer books to try and make a goal of obtaining them with planning ahead.

 

As long as I'm not doing a Ronald Wayne on anything I can live with any regrets on books.

 

 

 

 

[fifties]

One regret I have is failing to pull the trigger on a 9.2 copy of Seven Seas #4 back in 2004. It was listed for $3,200. After weeks of going back and forth I finally decided to pull the trigger, but the book was gone.

I had bought a VG copy of CDNP #33 (cover illus of a guy with a hatchet attacking a girl, with several hung corpses in the background) for $250 about a dozen or so years ago.

 

It was a bit before I really got into reading crime comics though, and I debated about having so much $ sunk into one book, so I sold it for about what I had paid.

 

It still haunts me, should I have kept it -bought for the cover image as it was definitely a horror scene- or was I OK in selling it? Don't remember exactly what I did with the sales proceeds either, so can't rationalize by thinking, "that's OK, I have these books to show for it". And if I still had it, would I now sell it? No.

 

But getting back to the thread title, I've been on eBay since 1998, and I can tell you that more and more I get outbid, as compared to earlier years. Atlas horror books in particular have just gone through the roof, and I haven't been prepared to plunk down the tariff, in most cases. When I see the bids rise in My eBay watching listings, sometimes I'll just delete the particular watch, once it gets beyond what I would have bid.

 

You just have to take the stance that another copy will come along sooner or later; after all, damn near none of these books are unique, i.e., one of a kind.

 

I did prevail at several auctions held by My Comic Shop. One in particular was a VG copy of Mystic #32, that I think I had to go all the way up to about $154. Their auctions allow bids in the last few minutes to extend the closing time, so bids can ladder up quickly, and I ended up paying prolly a C-Note more than I had intended to. Since then, however, I've seen it sell in that price range, so I don't feel too bad, about having over-spent.

[GoldCap]

Ok, so Im thinking this is most frequently ocurring with GA collectors. If some guy misses out on an AF15, well there are more fish in the sea with not long of a wait...

 

But in GA you might wait years for a book to pop up (in this case lets say it's an open market auction)... so you put your sights on it.. and you watch the bids climb and climb and as they pass the expected market and just keep going you have to decide if you are staying on this climb up Everest or if you jump off, knowing that another chance wont pop up any time soon...

 

How do you rationalize it so it doesnt haunt you?

 

Anyone ever stayed in an auction with an "at any costs" mentality, and were you happy afterwards?

 

I think we've all got books that were our "white whale" and we missed our shot, so how do you move on?

 

Im thinking less about missing out on "deals" and more about missing out on books that you chose to walk away from due to their asking price...

 

I lost out on an All Select Comics #1 CGC 2.0 on eBay (a year ago yesterday) that I put in a snipe bid for $3,000. I ended up losing the book for $3,050 and that still gets under my skin every now and again. I mean, $3,000! I was sure I had it in the bag!

 

Having lost that I was determined that I would win my next book I was on the hunt for which was a Marvel Mystery Comics #84. I just love that cover! I hadn't seen one in a while anywhere but lo and behold, one came up on eBay in a few months time. It was raw, so the grade wasn't concrete for sure (since there were no interior pics) but I ended up going all in. Of course there was a small pinky-nail sized piece missing that wasn't in any pictures so that sucked but I didn't return it since I didn't know when another copy would come up again. Since then there have, of course, been two copies listed on the bay (but I don't think as good condition as mine). Part of my rational for over-paying is that it is one of my favorite Timely covers of all and by the time I sell it in 30+ years it should be worth what I paid

 

I haven't gone all in on a book since and don't plan to since I can just move on to one of the other 127 issues on my want list

 

[IngelsFan]

Since deciding to devote more time and $$ to comics as a way to take a bit of a breather from art, I've been pretty lucky finding the books on my "hit list". I've paid well over guide for PCH that I needed, but have balked at some GA superhero books because the price just got too crazy. Paying multiples of guide for a book that tops out in OPG around $800 is easier than paying multiples when the earlier stuff tops out in the $4-5k range. For me it's bang for the buck that drives my decision. With the "auction overlap" these days it's easy to move on to the next book like a spider monkey on a branch when the price reaches an uncomfortable level.

[Robot Man]

I constantly have to decide whether the pain of being broke is less than the pain of losing out on a book I really want. Usually I end up broke.

 

Having said that, the point of owning a comic book is too feel good about it. If every time you look at a comic book you own and it just makes you think about how much money it cost you, then there is no point having it.

 

 

Amen brother! I have a few books I paid way too much for and that is all I can think about when I see them. Most of my stuff I either got cheap or bought long ago. The fruit is SO much sweeter when it costs less. Also, it's all about the hunt any way. I think Bedrock said that once you get "that" book you are already looking ahead to the next one...

 

Obviously in my case if "that" book gets away, I can always spend the dough on another book, or toy, or premium, or sign or what ever...

[tth2]

I throw a temper tantrum and break a few things, and then dump the rest of the issues I have of that title because if I can't have that issue to complete my run, then collecting that title is pointless.