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Anyone here ever acquire OA from a garage/estate sale "recently"?
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20 posts in this topic

30 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

Reading the Jimmy P story got me thinking....is it still possible to find OA out in the wild today? Not from a collector, talking about someone sitting on a stack that has no idea of value or importance. 

 

I'm sure it happens. 

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There are batches of art out there to be found and I've got a story about four pieces found at a flea market for $20 total.

Back earlier in 2019, a guy called me and said he had gotten my number from the local comic shop, where the owner knew I bought original art. The caller said his daughter's uncle found some pages of what they believed to be original art at a flea market in southeastern Ohio for $5 per page and, although she wasn't into comics, her uncle knew she liked to draw, so he bought them for her. He took them to the comic shop to try to sell them, but when the shop owner said he didn't buy original art, he suggested the dad call me, which he did and he asked me to take a look at them and make an offer because she wanted to sell the art.

The very next day, I drove nearly two hours to look at the art she had - which turned out to be four pieces of published Mike Gustovich art - three splashes and what they thought at the time was an unpublished cover or pinup. The dad showed up with the art and we met at a McDonald's. There was the cover to Marvel Age 139, a splash page from Warlock and Infinity Watch 42 featuring Warlock fighting Maxam, a splash from Fantastic Four Annual 27 featuring the Thing in a trench coat and a splash to Icon 8 that was penciled by Mark Bright and inked by Gustovich.

The dad told me that the Marvel Age cover was unpublished and they knew this because they'd researched it (turns out it really wasn't but was actually the back cover to Marvel Age 139 when they were doing flip covers). He knew what the other pages were and the characters because he and his daughter had researched them to try to come to a price.

He asked me to make an offer and I made him a very solid offer. The offer was so good, the dad seemed very pleased and surprised. He changed the subject quickly and said he and his daughter had gotten tickets to see Hamilton, and she wanted some cash to spend and didn't have anything in the pieces, so she figured she'd see what she could get. I told him I'd increase the offer by $200 just to sweeten the deal and to ensure that I got them. He said it was a very good offer from what they had researched and he would confer with her and call me back and let me know if she would take the offer. He said he felt sure she would sell them to me and that, if I wanted to hang around town for a couple hours, he would let me know as soon as she got out of school. So, I stayed in the town for several hours waiting on him to call me back. Finally, I called him back and he didn't answer so I texted him. No answer. Eventually, late that evening around 8 p.m., I got tired of waiting and went home.

I texted him that I would increase the offer if that's what she wanted or for them just to give me a price and let me see if I could afford them because I really wanted to buy all four. He finally called me back and said that she had decided not to sell them because she was really into art (but not comics) and thought she'd hang onto them. If she sold them, he said, they'd give me first option on them and would let me know. He said to give her a couple weeks and that she'd probably be ready to sell by the time they went to see Hamilton.

Well, after they went to see Hamilton, I called to check in and he said she had a great time at the play but still wasn't going to sell the art at this time. Again, he told me that they'd give me first option on buying the art and to keep checking back. I waited several weeks and texted to see if anything had changed and didn't get an answer. When I didn't hear from him a few months later, I had a suspicious feeling that I'd been used to develop a price point for them to sell to someone else and went online and, sure enough, there they were for sale on a buddy's site. I texted the dad again and asked if she had decided to sell (knowing they were already sold to a dealer, but I wanted to see what he'd say) and never received an answer. I didn't get upset that the dealer had bought them; heck, I'm sure he had absolutely no idea that I had been trying to buy them. But, I was very disappointed in the man and his daughter for being so underhanded with me.

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I feel like the amount of time required to scour flea markets and garage sales is never worth it. Sure, it will happen for someone somewhere, but the odds are so low that the time investment can't possibly be worth it. Expected value goes up if you gain some enjoyment from the search and have non-OA targets as well to increase probability of ROI.

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53 minutes ago, Blastaar said:

You couldn't pay me to sit through a musical. Did you at least get the flea market contact? Cut out the middle man. 

Yeah, but there wasn't anymore art. It was a fluke that the art was there to begin with; the guy selling it didn't have a clue what it really was.

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My wife and I would hit up yard sales before we left San Jose, CA and we’ve hit up yard sales here in Texas. Of course, I go to find those collectibles. All ppl have to sell is junk. Like really. I’m talking stationary from their job 20 years ago. Electrical cords that’s belong to who knows what. 3-legged chairs. I don’t even make the effort to go anymore. 

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Makes me think of the time I found the Ark of the Covenant at an estate sale in Jersey. Apparently the estate was that of a guy who worked as a night watchman for some big warehouse or something.

Anyhow, by the time I got to the Auction, it had already sold. $127.50 if I remember correctly. I offered the buyer twice that in cash right then and there, but he said he needed more storage for his tools at home, so he declined.

I bought a nice bronze Art Deco lamp, and called it a day. When I went around back to pick it up, I saw the guy and his friend trying to get the Ark into his pickup bed, and they dropped it. Thing shattered into at least 12 pieces. I dunno, it seemed such a shame, I just couldn’t bare to look. So I just heard all the screaming and yelling over there, but I focused on getting my lamp secure, and going home. 

It’s a shame, as it was one of a kind. Some folks don’t seem to understand we aren’t just owners of this stuff, we are caretakers.

Anyhow, not sure if that guy was able to glue it back together or what. But if you ever see it for sale, buyer beware. I definitely saw it damaged.

Donnelly’s probably have it, repainted in gold auto paint from Pep Boys.  

 

Edited by ESeffinga
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3 hours ago, NelsonAI said:

I have found comic strip art on occasion but never anything super-heroes related.  Nothing special.

 

Yeah nothing recent, but I have a story from the 1990s when I was still employed by the US Postal Service.

I picked up some Neal Adams Ben Casey dailies, Joe Kubert Green Beret, Al Capp dailies and this was just before the internet.

I'll try to embellish, but right now, i will just post this.

Thanks, David S. Albright

I still have a nice 1940s Abner daily in the Lena Hyena thread, an early Adams Casey on my CAF, the Kubert is gone.

The consignor was having trouble getting paid by the auctioneer, and by a fluke, I got her contact info from

a paper scrap on the floor after the auction.

I helped her get her money.

Her dead husband was a war time buddy of one of the Caplin brothers, and Jerry (?) sent this man some art.

Forgive me if you have heard this story before.

I paid $800 and so she was waiting on her take and it isn't a nice story, but a happy ending.

David

 

Edited by aokartman
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I have seen, but not purchased original comic art and covers out in the wild (many years ago, during a period of little money and lots of debt) In the past 10 years, I have found (and purchased) early 20th century illustration art and what I believe to be the (possibly) earliest existing complete Sunday originals to Happy Hooligan, Maud the Mule and Foxy Grandpa, and a single Katzenjammer Kids panel (all 1905) out in the wild. I genuinely believe it's out there -- you just have to be lucky. 

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Yeah it happens. I’ve had a few good wins over the years from garage sales and local auctions. My biggest buy ever the guy won a storage locker for less than 500 bucks and tucked away in it was 6 figures of original comic art. I ended up buying it all, was my best financial move ever.

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4 minutes ago, zhamlau said:

Yeah it happens. I’ve had a few good wins over the years from garage sales and local auctions. My biggest buy ever the guy won a storage locker for less than 500 bucks and tucked away in it was 6 figures of original comic art. I ended up buying it all, was my best financial move ever.

Uh huh. Go on. :popcorn:

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15 hours ago, zhamlau said:

Yeah it happens. I’ve had a few good wins over the years from garage sales and local auctions. My biggest buy ever the guy won a storage locker for less than 500 bucks and tucked away in it was 6 figures of original comic art. I ended up buying it all, was my best financial move ever.

let me pull up a chair ... 

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