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Biggest Regret or Score in the last decade?
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120 posts in this topic

16 minutes ago, Montezuma said:

Back in the 1980's when i worked in North Dakota a co-worker was after me to look at some Captain America Comics he had, He was younger than me and I figured probably a bunch of Bronze Age, maybe Silver, nothing too exciting. One day I brought in some pictures of the Timely Caps just to check him out, he pointed to the Cap #1, and said, that one's there for sure.

Needless to say we were immediately in my car heading for Orrin ND, about 75 miles away, when we got there the old guy living in the house said he'd gotten tired of all the Junk in the back room, and last week he'd taken it all out and burned it.

I scored a number of Golden Age collections out of ND over the years, but that one always bothered me, missed by a week.

Yikes. You would think the guy would look at the comics, see how friggen old they are, and decide "hmmm . . . maybe I won't burn these ones." haha. 

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16 minutes ago, Montezuma said:

Back in the 1980's when i worked in North Dakota a co-worker was after me to look at some Captain America Comics he had, He was younger than me and I figured probably a bunch of Bronze Age, maybe Silver, nothing too exciting. One day I brought in some pictures of the Timely Caps just to check him out, he pointed to the Cap #1, and said, that one's there for sure.

Needless to say we were immediately in my car heading for Orrin ND, about 75 miles away, when we got there the old guy living in the house said he'd gotten tired of all the Junk in the back room, and last week he'd taken it all out and burned it.

I scored a number of Golden Age collections out of ND over the years, but that one always bothered me, missed by a week.

Yikes. You would think the guy would look at the comics, see how friggen old they are, and decide "hmmm . . . maybe I won't burn these ones." haha. 

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Was walking through a Con here, last day so it was fairly quiet, and a Booth Guy beckoned me over. He asked me if I was interested in anything. I saw his prices, and my fiance at the time, who was right next to me, would have killed me if I'd spent that much on a single comic. This was primo product with a price to match. He confided in me that the con was a bust, and he wanted to make anything at this stage, to recoup his basic set-up costs. He showed me an X-Men 137, the death of Phoenix. First time I'd ever seen it in person. The price tag said $120 (that's Australian dollars), but he said the last guy to look at it had bent it. Such a shame because it was pristine before that, etc etc. Sure enough there was a tiny crease, a few millimetres on the bottom right corner. I asked how much. He said $8. I snapped it up, and bought a few SA books he offered me for $20. I was stoked with the deal. He was much more wistful about it, but he really had made my day. 

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3 hours ago, kilowatt said:

Biggest Score...a guy on Craigslist posted some comic books for sale and I contacted him. We met at a coffee shop on a cold December day and he brought with him a tote filled with books. He was looking for $50 and told me his father said no less. The guy was around 20 or so.  I looked through the books (just about all 70's stuff) and on the bottom were some Creepy and Eerie magazines. We were told that we could not use the shop for business and we were asked to leave. I figured around 200 books and magazines, why not. Gave him the $50 and we left. The score was minimal, I could maybe double my money, a lot of common comics, but they were in great shape and they filled some holes. So I kept them. The next day I get a phone call from the same guy and he tells me his father wants to speak with me. I'm now thinking these were his Dad's books and wants them back. To my surprise he has more books and wants to meet. I meet him at a gas station near his house, and find out the guy's legit. He's around my age and after talking awhile we head over to his house. He begins to tell me his parents owned a small Mom & Pop store in the 60's and 70's and when the comic books and magazines were changed out weekly or monthly his father stacked them in egg boxes till they were filled and stored them away in his basement. He proceeded to take me downstairs and as I hit the last step I nearly fell to the ground. There were literally 50-60 boxes stacked neatly in a small room. I opened one of the boxes and there were multiple copies of 70`'s Amazing Spider-Man, X-men, Action Comics...you get the point. These copies were as fresh as the day they were printed. The guy wanted $50 a box. Sight unseen. I wouldn't be able to open any more boxes, and as long as I bought 4 boxes or more a month they were mine exclusively. I decided to buy 2 boxes to start. I picked two of the bottom boxes towards the back of the stack, handed him the money and walked out the door. I didn't want to seem too eager but once I left the house I parked in a shopping center parking lot and opened the first box. There were multiple copies of Tales of Suspense, Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, X-men, different titles all from the late 60's. I went back there every couple weeks and bought up every box he had. I later confirmed the books dated from the mid 60's till the mid 70's. Star Wars #3 was the latest book in the collection. In total I paid $2650 for 53 boxes with roughly 340-350 books in each box. That's around 18,250 books. The Magazines were amazing! Creepy 1-66, Eerie 2-56, Zombie, Mad, House of Dracula, the list goes on. Highlights were;  Hulk 102, Iron Man 1, Conan #1, 4 copies of ASM 129, Hulk 181, 6 copies of Submariner #1, 5 copies of Star Wars #1, multiple Batman, Detective, Flash...  there's no way I can tell you everything in this collection. In short it was a once in a lifetime score for a comic book collector. There was a risk in paying $50 for the unknown, but in the long run it was the best decision I ever made. Now many of you won't believe this story, and I don't blame you. It is far-fetched, but my nephew is on this site and he knows the truth. It really did happen.  

why can't this ever happen to me :cry:

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Not too many regrets, but if I had to pick, it’s probably selling my Tom Sale LH & DV pages (especially the DV).  Or trading my Hulk 181.  Still, at the time, they were all fair deals.

Biggest score was an art collection me & a buddy picked up a few years ago.  Just tons and tons of stuff.  Some of it really good stuff.  We ended up doing really well selling it (and we each got to keep a few cool items as well).  Pretty sure I’ll never again find something like that (there were a few complete issues in there; front & back covers and full interiors).

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This thread reminds me of the old Forum magazine. For me my biggest score was picking up a high grade late silver early bronze Marvel collection of close to 3000 books. Regrets, I've had a few. But then again, too few to mention. I did what I had to do (eBay) And saw it through without exemption. 

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I've been collecting on and off for over 40 years. Any time you're involved with something for a long time, you're bound to have regrets or wins.  Sometimes that book that you overpaid at the time may end up being more valuable over time. Sometimes that surefire investment you got at a bargain turns out to be a dud. You win some, you lose some. Hopefully you win more than you lose.

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On 2/14/2018 at 11:32 AM, Robot Man said:

Biggest Regret:  Not buying Action #1 from Cherokee Books for $300 in 1972. (Not that I could have afforded it anyway at the time)

 

Now there's a regret story! 

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On 2/15/2018 at 11:15 AM, batman_fan said:

Biggest score would be buying my Batman 1 in 1999. Still have it

 

nice!   20 years later that must be worth so much more than what you paid. 

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17 hours ago, kilowatt said:

Biggest Score...a guy on Craigslist posted some comic books for sale and I contacted him. We met at a coffee shop on a cold December day and he brought with him a tote filled with books. He was looking for $50 and told me his father said no less. The guy was around 20 or so.  I looked through the books (just about all 70's stuff) and on the bottom were some Creepy and Eerie magazines. We were told that we could not use the shop for business and we were asked to leave. I figured around 200 books and magazines, why not. Gave him the $50 and we left. The score was minimal, I could maybe double my money, a lot of common comics, but they were in great shape and they filled some holes. So I kept them. The next day I get a phone call from the same guy and he tells me his father wants to speak with me. I'm now thinking these were his Dad's books and wants them back. To my surprise he has more books and wants to meet. I meet him at a gas station near his house, and find out the guy's legit. He's around my age and after talking awhile we head over to his house. He begins to tell me his parents owned a small Mom & Pop store in the 60's and 70's and when the comic books and magazines were changed out weekly or monthly his father stacked them in egg boxes till they were filled and stored them away in his basement. He proceeded to take me downstairs and as I hit the last step I nearly fell to the ground. There were literally 50-60 boxes stacked neatly in a small room. I opened one of the boxes and there were multiple copies of 70`'s Amazing Spider-Man, X-men, Action Comics...you get the point. These copies were as fresh as the day they were printed. The guy wanted $50 a box. Sight unseen. I wouldn't be able to open any more boxes, and as long as I bought 4 boxes or more a month they were mine exclusively. I decided to buy 2 boxes to start. I picked two of the bottom boxes towards the back of the stack, handed him the money and walked out the door. I didn't want to seem too eager but once I left the house I parked in a shopping center parking lot and opened the first box. There were multiple copies of Tales of Suspense, Amazing Spider-Man, Batman, X-men, different titles all from the late 60's. I went back there every couple weeks and bought up every box he had. I later confirmed the books dated from the mid 60's till the mid 70's. Star Wars #3 was the latest book in the collection. In total I paid $2650 for 53 boxes with roughly 340-350 books in each box. That's around 18,250 books. The Magazines were amazing! Creepy 1-66, Eerie 2-56, Zombie, Mad, House of Dracula, the list goes on. Highlights were;  Hulk 102, Iron Man 1, Conan #1, 4 copies of ASM 129, Hulk 181, 6 copies of Submariner #1, 5 copies of Star Wars #1, multiple Batman, Detective, Flash...  there's no way I can tell you everything in this collection. In short it was a once in a lifetime score for a comic book collector. There was a risk in paying $50 for the unknown, but in the long run it was the best decision I ever made. Now many of you won't believe this story, and I don't blame you. It is far-fetched, but my nephew is on this site and he knows the truth. It really did happen.  

wow great score

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I've had scores and stuff I could have done better on had I waited, but really nothing I regret?    I just don't care, for the most part, as even the stuff I sold but should have kept, whatever I made helped the way for something else.    Done better by hanging around longer term in other hobbies though.     Comics there aren't so many opportunities to buy truly cheap.    Conversely though they are easy to liquidate for the same reason.

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Virtually all of my selling has been done over the past decade.  I've parted with near complete or complete slabbed runs of Silver Age Amazing Spiderman, Fantastic Four, Journey Into Mystery/Thor, Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales, Avengers, and X-Men, along with Hulk 1-6 and Amazing Fantasy 15.  While I sometimes miss this slabbed collection, and could get a lot more money now for some of the keys, there are no regrets in selling it.  While I made little to no profit on the majority of the books, a few were big scores from having been bought in the days before CGC and during its early existence.  

For instance a sweet copy of Strange Tales #110 bought as a VF/NM back in the mid-'90s for a bit over $1,000 was graded 9.0 unrestored and sold at auction for $20K. Here's my scan of it before slabbing:

ST110front.JPG.5e5aaee4c5287123b9bded8a42e8bbeb.JPG

 

Edited by namisgr
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