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Share your tragic story of foolishly disposing of a fantastic comic collection
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39 posts in this topic

I was in the perfect place at the perfect time to be buying up comics - the late 80s/early 90s (pre-Internet/pre-eBay) and buying up all the key Marvel comics I could get my hands on. I was single, living with my parents, and had almost no expenses while I brought in daily cash working at pizza delivery. Everything I made went to Silver Age comics, and there was a great comic shop in town that made me great deals. I wound up with six long boxes of comics - which doesn't sound like much, but what was in it! An entire run of Thor, going back to JIM #75 or so, with assorted JIMs going back to #13. At one time I had Amazing Fantasy #15,  JIM #83 (VF), The Incredible Hulk #1, #4, #6, #181, X-Men #1, #94-102, Giant-Size #1, Avengers #1 (VF) and #4 (NM), #57, the Silver Surfer run in NM, including double copies of #1-4, FF #4 and #5, #8 (NM), #48-50, IM #55, Strange Tales #101, #110, Tales of Suspense #58-110 (NM), and lesser keys down the line. I also had a Golden Age Captain America and All-Flash comic. I once spent my entire income tax refund ($650) on two comics at a Atlanta Comic Con - a Journey Into Mystery #83 (VF) for $340 and a Hulk #1 (VG) for $290 (one moment - I'm gonna be sick).

(Ok, I'm back). Working pizza, I didn't make a lot of money and was always living on the edge. Instead of just getting an additional job, or finding one that paid more, I got the extremely bad idea that I could fill my pockets with cash if I just liquidated my comic collection! And not to a collector, who would pay me what they were worth, but to a dealer! Right! A dime on the dollar, like a pawn shop. What was my asking price? A grand total of $1,000! Even for back then, it was a horrible financial move. Two months later I had spent all the money, had nothing to show for it, and now had no comics. I figure that if I had kept everything from back then to today, I would probably have close to $100K in comics.

Edited by Getoutandstayout
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Not comics and not quite as drastic as your story but...

In 2001 I had just gotten out of the Army and me and my future wife had a baby on the way.  I had a whole set of MtG between Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, plus much of the Arabian Nights and Legends expansions.  I had four of each duel land, one of each of the power nine, and probably four of anything that was allowed in Type I tournaments.  (When you are single and in the Army, you have a TON of disposable income.)  

Well, my circle of friends that I played with had long since broken up, and the cards were just sitting in folders.  Since I needed the money I had a friend with an account sell the cards on ebay for around $2300.  I was very happy with that amount back then I as did never use the cards anymore and many were pretty heavily played.

Fast-forward to 2011 and I received a $5000 stipend from my job.  I thought I would reacquire some of those cards.  Looking on ebay quickly showed that that amount would not be near enough.  I'm sure it is much worse now.     

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Well... You did what you thought was right right then. My own philosophy is that any money I make from selling any of my collectibles goes back to my collecting.

I have sold some nice things, but what keeps me sane is that I used that money to get other things for my collection that I would probably not afford otherwise.

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I've probably mentioned this before, but at 16 or so I sold a VFNish AM15 for less than £100 to buy clothes to impress the girls. And to add insult to injury, it didn't work. Catweazle meets Doctor Who wasn't the look they were looking for, apparently. :sorry:

 

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1 minute ago, KirbyJack said:

I am currently in the process of foolishly selling a pretty nice collection. 

Bye-bye Hulk 1, AF 15, Showcase 4, X-Men 1, yada yada yada. I'm keeping lots of great stuff I truly love and paying off the house. 

Zero sellers remorse thus far, wish me luck that it continues!

Nothing wrong with that. Who needs Hulks and X-Mens anyway when you can have the Kids instead :headbang:

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17 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

I've probably mentioned this before, but at 16 or so I sold a VFNish AM15 for less than £100 to buy clothes to impress the girls. And to add insult to injury, it didn't work. Catweazle meets Doctor Who wasn't the look they were looking for, apparently. :sorry:

 

BRUTAL STORY  :sorry:

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My older brother stopped by the house on Christmas Eve and we got into a discussion about what happened to some of the cool stuff we had accumulated in the late 1970s/early 1980s as we transitioned from high school into college. He mentioned that he had taken in a handful of John Buscema original art pages from Buscema's early Savage Sword of Conan run to trade to the local dealer. The dealer gave him a choice of books and he chose a Savage Tales #1 that was valued at about $100. It wasn't a terrible deal because he figured he had picked up the original art pages at about $10 each in the late 1970s.

Then he casually mentioned that he probably should have chosen the Amazing Fantasy #15 instead of the Savage Tales #1.

Todays value after quick internet check:

Savage Tales #1 VF $300

Handful of Buscema Original art pages $7000-$10,000

Amazing Fantasy #15 VG $30,000

He still has that Savage Tales #1.

 

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Not Silver Age and I may have mentioned this already, but in the early 2000s I took a bunch of what I thought were drek books to the local comic shop just to make room at home. I had a pile of these dumb DC books from the early to mid 90s based on the Batman cartoon of the time. Out of continuity kiddie books was my opinion of them back then. Traded them all in for about a buck each in store credit. Of course, Batman Adventures 12 was in there, right after 11 and right before 13.

Makes my stomach hurt just a little every time I see someone post that book on these boards.

Edited by Dave2739
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19 hours ago, Von Cichlid said:

I had a whole set of MtG between Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, plus much of the Arabian Nights and Legends expansions.  I had four of each duel land, one of each of the power nine, and probably four of anything that was allowed in Type I tournaments.  (When you are single and in the Army, you have a TON of disposable income.) ...Fast-forward to 2011 and I received a $5000 stipend from my job.  I thought I would reacquire some of those cards.  Looking on ebay quickly showed that that amount would not be near enough.  I'm sure it is much worse now.     

Oh, it's worse :(  Without knowing what you had in terms of Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, Even if you had the cheapest versions of all of that stuff, you're easily around $25k counting the 40 duals and the partial AN and LG sets. When you start upgrading the Unlimited stuff to Alpha and Beta, we could be talking double that figure or more depending on how much of it you had and which cards were A/B. Alpha has finally come into its own in the MTG collector world, as everyone now recognizes just how rare that first print run is.

Edited by Vorpal
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1 hour ago, Dave2739 said:

Not Silver Age and I may have mentioned this already, but in the early 2000s I took a bunch of what I thought were drek books to the local comic shop just to make room at home. I had a pile of these dumb DC books from the early to mid 90s based on the Batman cartoon of the time. Out of continuity kiddie books was my opinion of them back then. Traded them all in for about a buck each in store credit. Of course, Batman Adventures 12 was in there, right after 11 and right before 13.

Makes my stomach hurt just a little every time I see someone post that book on these boards.

I was going to 'like' this as a sign of support but then realised it's probably not nice to 'like' a story about another's misfortune. So I was going to 'sad' it instead. But that could be construed negatively. So I've concluded that we need a new reaction to use on those 'sorry for your loss' occasions hm

5a53874f02533_JokerKiss.thumb.gif.e7c1acc5d00c200cd7c7857812aa6384.gif

In the meantime Dave, I'll let your mate do the talking.

Spoiler

"Hulk no like puny 'kiddie' books. Kiddie books non-continuity. Have no place in Hulks serious collection. But if Hulk throws out kiddie books, and throws out a super valuable kiddie book with them without knowing, then Hulk will smash!"Hulk.gif.5b719d8520d552a90684b6824cd83f61.gif 

 

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16 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:

I was going to 'like' this as a sign of support but then realised it's probably not nice to 'like' a story about another's misfortune. So I was going to 'sad' it instead. But that could be construed negatively. So I've concluded that we need a new reaction to use on those 'sorry for your loss' occasions hm

5a53874f02533_JokerKiss.thumb.gif.e7c1acc5d00c200cd7c7857812aa6384.gif

In the meantime Dave, I'll let your mate do the talking.

  Reveal hidden contents

"Hulk no like puny 'kiddie' books. Kiddie books non-continuity. Have no place in Hulks serious collection. But if Hulk throws out kiddie books, and throws out a super valuable kiddie book with them without knowing, then Hulk will smash!"Hulk.gif.5b719d8520d552a90684b6824cd83f61.gif 

 

Thanks for your support and sympathy, Marwood & I (and Hulk).

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23 hours ago, Getoutandstayout said:

I was in the perfect place at the perfect time to be buying up comics - the late 80s/early 90s (pre-Internet/pre-eBay) and buying up all the key Marvel comics I could get my hands on. I was single, living with my parents, and had almost no expenses while I brought in daily cash working at pizza delivery. Everything I made went to Silver Age comics, and there was a great comic shop in town that made me great deals. I wound up with six long boxes of comics - which doesn't sound like much, but what was in it! An entire run of Thor, going back to JIM #75 or so, with assorted JIMs going back to #13. At one time I had Amazing Fantasy #15,  JIM #83 (VF), The Incredible Hulk #1, #4, #6, #181, X-Men #1, #94-102, Giant-Size #1, Avengers #1 (VF) and #4 (NM), #57, the Silver Surfer run in NM, including double copies of #1-4, FF #4 and #5, #8 (NM), #48-50, IM #55, Strange Tales #101, #110, Tales of Suspense #58-110 (NM), and lesser keys down the line. I also had a Golden Age Captain America and All-Flash comic. I once spent my entire income tax refund ($650) on two comics at a Atlanta Comic Con - a Journey Into Mystery #83 (VF) for $340 and a Hulk #1 (VG) for $290 (one moment - I'm gonna be sick).

(Ok, I'm back). Working pizza, I didn't make a lot of money and was always living on the edge. Instead of just getting an additional job, or finding one that paid more, I got the extremely bad idea that I could fill my pockets with cash if I just liquidated my comic collection! And not to a collector, who would pay me what they were worth, but to a dealer! Right! A dime on the dollar, like a pawn shop. What was my asking price? A grand total of $1,000! Even for back then, it was a horrible financial move. Two months later I had spent all the money, had nothing to show for it, and now had no comics. I figure that if I had kept everything from back then to today, I would probably have close to $100K in comics.

Oh My God! Thats terrible. How could you do that?

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4 minutes ago, Mr bla bla said:

Oh My God! Thats terrible. How could you do that?

sympathy
ˈsɪmpəθi/
noun
  1. 1.
    feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
    "they had great sympathy for the flood victims"
    synonyms: commiseration, pity, condolence, consolation, comfort, solace, support, encouragement; More
     
  2. 2.
    understanding between people; common feeling.
    "the special sympathy between the two boys was obvious to all"
    synonyms: rapport, fellow feeling, affinity, empathy, harmony, accord, compatibility; More
     
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2 minutes ago, Marwood & I said:
sympathy
ˈsɪmpəθi/
noun
  1. 1.
    feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune.
    "they had great sympathy for the flood victims"
    synonyms: commiseration, pity, condolence, consolation, comfort, solace, support, encouragement; More
     
     
  2. 2.
    understanding between people; common feeling.
    "the special sympathy between the two boys was obvious to all"
    synonyms: rapport, fellow feeling, affinity, empathy, harmony, accord, compatibility; More
     

I once let a complete FF run #1-24 go - to a dealer also. So I know the good ole feeling ...!

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Just now, Mr bla bla said:

I once let a complete FF run #1-24 go - to a dealer also. So I know the good ole feeling ...!

Any collector who doesn't know the feeling is, I suspect, a big fat liar :wink:

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23 hours ago, Marwood & I said:

I've probably mentioned this before, but at 16 or so I sold a VFNish AM15 for less than £100 to buy clothes to impress the girls. And to add insult to injury, it didn't work. Catweazle meets Doctor Who wasn't the look they were looking for, apparently. :sorry:

 

I plan on selling my pence copies to you so I can complete my Billy Bunter meets James May look. hm

1 hour ago, Marwood & I said:

Any collector who doesn't know the feeling is, I suspect, a big fat liar :wink:

I've been collecting for the last 5 years so I haven't actually sold any books in an emergency measure yet. I did sell off my JIM collection because it didn't interest me but zero seller remorse involved. However I do have sympathy for some of the rash decisions described in this thread, especially the OP, that must hurt.

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8 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

I plan on selling my pence copies to you so I can complete my Billy Bunter meets James May look. hm

Lock up your daughters! Billy May and Doctor Wheazle are hitting the town! :headbang::headbang:

(How much for the pence books :gossip:)

8 minutes ago, Harry Lime said:

I've been collecting for the last 5 years so I haven't actually sold any books in an emergency measure yet. I did sell off my JIM collection because it didn't interest me but zero seller remorse involved. However I do have sympathy for some of the rash decisions described in this thread, especially the OP, that must hurt.

They're often only rash in hindsight. Who knew they'd go up like they have? And don't get me started on that house I sold in 2000 :frustrated:

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10 hours ago, Vorpal said:

Oh, it's worse :(  Without knowing what you had in terms of Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, Even if you had the cheapest versions of all of that stuff, you're easily around $25k counting the 40 duals and the partial AN and LG sets. When you start upgrading the Unlimited stuff to Alpha and Beta, we could be talking double that figure or more depending on how much of it you had and which cards were A/B. Alpha has finally come into its own in the MTG collector world, as everyone now recognizes just how rare that first print run is.

Fortunately, my Mox's and Lotus, time walk plus all of my duel lands were unlimited.  All were pretty heavily played too, as they were purchased by me from another player who was selling out after Stronghold came out.  That makes me feel a little better.

But, I had really nice alpha and beta versions of Time Vault, Time Twister, Ancestral Recall, Gauntlet of Might, Forcefield, Chaos Orb, etc.  

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