Most valuable comic you HAD as a kid...then lost/traded. 7 7

[01TheDude]

One of my regrets when selling was from 1985 when I sold about 6 X-Men (low 100-112s) and the KISS blood in the ink mag issue (marvel Special Edition #1 magazine) that bought off the rack less than 10 years before. They gave me $55 for them and these were in excellent condition IIRC -- so they are probably going for way more these days.

The other are more recent when I sold some Marvel SA I had picked up as a teen in the 1970s - which I got a pretty decent price for but those prices have since gone nuts. ASM 31 and FF 52. I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't change my collecting focus to include FF Kirby books. There will have to be a crash before I see either of those books in my collection again.

In the early 1980s,  recall some collector.dealer type came by to check out my collection and while I don't recall what he walked away with, I recall him giving me a ton of really nice copes of Powerman and some other titles that I still have. He probably cherry picked some of my hot books. Wish I kept better records then to know how that trade worked out. For years, I had convinced myself that he took a copy of IH 181 I owned but later research revealed I never had a copy of that issue -- so the whole encounter is a real mystery.

[marvelmaniac]

I started collecting in late 64, early 65 and when we had to move in 69 I was not allowed to bring my books with me because space was at a premium so I gave all of my books except for a couple to my only friend that also collected.

Two of the books that I kept were F.F. 25/26, 25 is the book that got me excited about Marvel and 26 was an "Amazing" crossover completion of the story.

A friend later on (70/71?) asked if he could borrow those two books to read and I agreed, over time and with Girls on my mind I forgot about those books, he joined the Navy and I never saw those books again.

[Hollywood1892]

Wolverine 1

[Krismusic]

15 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

One of my regrets when selling was from 1985 when I sold about 6 X-Men (low 100-112s) and the KISS blood in the ink mag issue (marvel Special Edition #1 magazine) that bought off the rack less than 10 years before. They gave me $55 for them and these were in excellent condition IIRC -- so they are probably going for way more these days.

The other are more recent when I sold some Marvel SA I had picked up as a teen in the 1970s - which I got a pretty decent price for but those prices have since gone nuts. ASM 31 and FF 52. I wouldn't mind so much if I didn't change my collecting focus to include FF Kirby books. There will have to be a crash before I see either of those books in my collection again.

In the early 1980s,  recall some collector.dealer type came by to check out my collection and while I don't recall what he walked away with, I recall him giving me a ton of really nice copes of Powerman and some other titles that I still have. He probably cherry picked some of my hot books. Wish I kept better records then to know how that trade worked out. For years, I had convinced myself that he took a copy of IH 181 I owned but later research revealed I never had a copy of that issue -- so the whole encounter is a real mystery.

its the Mandela effect  

[Krismusic]

48 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

Wolverine 1

care to elaborate on the story or what Issue of Wolverine your talking about? Frank Miller mini series or others... 

[Hollywood1892]

Just now, Krishosein said:

care to elaborate on the story or what Issue of Wolverine your talking about? Frank Miller mini series or others... 

No

The continuous run.

I dont think I had much of an idea about comics back in those days...probably not much different now.

[Krismusic]

4 minutes ago, Hollywood1892 said:

No

The continuous run.

I dont think I had much of an idea about comics back in those days...probably not much different now.

ok.

well keep reading and researching...  Best of luck you will get there eventually.. We all start off as Noobs at sometime in our lives. 

[Hollywood1892]

2 minutes ago, Krishosein said:

ok.

well keep reading and researching...  Best of luck you will get there eventually.. We all start off as Noobs at sometime in our lives. 

Thanks

But what I realize is I cant retain value for my purchase

Tried to sell a 9.8 Edge of Spiderverse for $525 Cnd but the best offer I got was $250

A little reluctant to use ebay at this point

[Gonzimodo]

On 7/9/2019 at 8:50 PM, ThothAmon said:

Regrets?  I have more than a few but none more than this. Sold for a pittance in the early days of eBay.  I consider that lost  

 

My best friend's mom ran an antique store for a few years until she recently retired.  She got wind of a comic collection being sold by a recently widowed woman in the area, so she went to check it out.  She initially balked at the price ($600 or so, as I recall), but ended up buying the whole collection.  Then she contacted me (the only comics guy she knew) to see if she had made a good purchase.

It was probably 250 or so Golden Age books in various conditions, including a lot of early (teens and twenties) Batmans.  Not being a Golden Age expert by any means, I knew she had made a good investment and assured her she would at least make her money back.  I remember the big excitement was going through the coverless books to see if she had a Detective 27 or something like that, but no such luck.  Still...

I'm pretty sure this Captain America book was in there, because it's such a striking cover and I'd never seen it before.   (For some reason, I remember the issue number as 6, but that's the cover I remember with the creepy claw hands, so it has to be the one she had.) When she sold the books on the 'bay, she couldn't believe how much she was getting, and this Captain America book was probably the biggest surprise when it brought in something like $1,200.

This was probably twenty years ago at this point, so I can't even imagine what that collection would be worth now. 

(Sorry, that's a bit off-topic, but this book really sparked the memory.)

Edited July 12, 2019 by Scott W.

[Gonzimodo]

On 7/9/2019 at 8:13 PM, Robot Man said:

I put Walking Dead back on the rack after thumbing it and thinking it was ...

I did the same thing!  Luckily, there was enough word of mouth that I started buying at issue 7 and then bought a set of 1-6 on the 'bay for like $35.  

Edited July 12, 2019 by Scott W.

[Gonzimodo]

The only book I really remember from early on that I wish I still had was the GI Joe #1 Treasury Edition.  I loved that book and have no idea what ever happened to it.

Most of my bungles are from 15-20 years ago when I was selling a lot on the 'bay.  I sold an almost complete run of the 1997 Deadpool series (1-50 or so, plus the annuals, Encyclopaedia Deadpoolica, Baby's 1st, etc.) for something like $60 around 2003.  Oops!  I apparently sold my run of the 70s Eternals around the same time, although I don't remember doing it or what I got for them - I'm sure it was only $15 or so.  I sold a couple New Mutants 98s that I picked up at Half-Price Books back when they were going for $10 or so.  I only paid $1 each for them, though, so no biggie, and I still have my original that I bought off the stand.  I sold a high-grade NYX #3 (also a $1 buy from HPB) for like $40 because I figured it would never go higher than that.  

I've sold a lot of other things over the years that I should have held onto, but those are the ones that stick out.

On another note, I have a buddy whose family ran our local newsstand for years, and he had a Star Wars #1 35-cent variant in HIGH grade that he held onto forever.  (And yes, I know that he actually had it and that it wasn't the Diamond reprint, because I've personally seen and held it a few times.)  He moved away years ago, but I emailed him about it a couple months ago, and he said he had put it up for consignment a few years ago at a card shop.  Apparently it mysteriously disappeared along with the shop owner when the shop went out of business.  

[Gonzimodo]

Oh, I also remember getting rid of a GI Joe 155 in mid-grade at a garage sale for probably 20 cents or so.

[Smokinghawk]

I was a huge fan of Conan, and saved my lawn mowing money all summer to finally buy Conan the Barbarian #1. 

My mom later found out about the adult content in the movie and Savage Sword, and was appalled, and punitively tore my comic book in half because it offended her morals. 

As for a book I had and sold or traded though, Amazing Spider-Man #1 in G, sold for $750 to get Christmas money one year. 

[shiverbones]

Nothing huge as a kid, probably my x-men 129, but have had several since then. The tricky thing has been replacing some of my choose your own adventure type books

[shiverbones]

This one in particular was tough

 

[01TheDude]

8 hours ago, Krishosein said:

its the Mandela effect  

While perhaps plausible, I don't feel the Mandela effect was involved (other peoples memories clouding my own). I came to this belief long before in the mid 1980s or any discussions about the book. I had sort of collected the Hulk title and the one piece of evidence was a cut out Marvel Value Stamp of Shanna The She Devil #54 - a stamp also found in IH 181. Then so many years later while reading some information in these forums, it led me to investigating the MVS website-- where I found out that this stamp appeared in 2 other issues. Through some image checking, I was able to rule out that the stamp came from the Hulk book based on what was on the back of the stamp not matching known images of the IH181 stamp page. Further evidence was in my home made check list where no remnants of an erased check mark were found for the issue (something I usually accounted for by the lost being made AFTER the big trading event). It probably came from a small desire to own this book and even in the late 1970s it was already becoming coveted as something special-- though you could get a really nice copy for 20-25 bucks. I was not about to spend that much. Regardless-- I have no intention of owning the book because while I agree that it is a key, there are many other books I would rather have with that type of money.

[kav]

If you keep journals all your life from 5th grade on and dont read them till you are 50, you will find that your entire life has been Mandela'd and nothing you remember happened when where or how you remembered it.  

[MGsimba77]

3 hours ago, Smokinghawk said:

As for a book I had and sold or traded though, Amazing Spider-Man #1 in G, sold for $750 to get Christmas money one year

See that's interesting because even 12 year old me who knew little about comics in my early days of going to a comic shop knew that was a grail. I mean even in rough shape. I think the cgc equivalent to G is what like ~ 2.5? I wonder if whomever you sold it to still has it?

[JohnH19]

It's difficult for me to pin down what my most valuable book was. I had a very nice silver age collection as a kid, most of which mysteriously went missing not long after I "outgrew" funny books in 1972. The weird thing is that I didn't even notice they were gone for 20 years until I started collecting again in the early 90s. When I stopped collecting I stopped caring about comics and moved on to other interests. My mom never threw my stuff out so I don't know what to think. The only books that survived were my Detective Comics collection, including Batgirl's first appearance in #359.

I didn't have any of the early Marvel first appearances but some of the books I know I had are Avengers #2 and a beat up copy of #4 along with almost every other issue up to #106. I had the key FFs from 45-53 and a lot of lower numbers. I had the Canadian version of Spidey Annual #1 and most of the issues between 20 and 81. I had close to a hundred issues of Journey Into Mystery/Thor up to #206.  I bought all of the premier issues in the 1968 Marvel explosion off the racks; Iron Man, Subby, Hulk, Cap, Captain Marvel, a complete run of Surfer 1-18, etc. I also had a bunch of mid to late 60s DCs, including Poison Ivy's first appearance in Bats 181, but there aren't many other big money DCs from those years.  

[piper]

Unlike many here, I didn’t have anything of consequence to lose when I was a child.  I was more about quantity over quality.