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List of GA dealers online...
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Started by Norrin_Radd,

531 posts in this topic

szav

szav

Posted
Posted
On 9/2/2020 at 8:47 AM, Jginsberg79 said:

They have no pics and no ebay. Is Terry still open? Getting into Golden Age Timely now (yes I'm capital L Latee). Just looking to figure out where to start and using this thread.

Pretty sure he's still open, you can always email at the address listed on the site and ask him for scans.  He usually responds within a day but can sometimes be a bit slower if he's on the road.

If you do check your spam box for the response, I have had some occasional issues with his, or his manservant Jason's, emails  going into my spam email for unknown reasons.

Gotten several good deals from him over the last couple years, easy to deal with too.

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telerites

telerites

Posted
Posted
On 9/2/2020 at 10:47 AM, Jginsberg79 said:

They have no pics and no ebay. Is Terry still open? Getting into Golden Age Timely now (yes I'm capital L Latee). Just looking to figure out where to start and using this thread.

He does have Ebay listings - just nothing currently; however, he had some that closed mid-August so I assume he will be listing.  You may have meant that when you said no Ebay but just in case - https://www.ebay.com/usr/terryscomics

And like Scott @szav said above sending him an email is best.  I pm'ed here on the boards once and he did tell me it is best to email since he does not come on here too often.

And it is never too late to join the GA train.  When I started, it was mail order only or the occasional no other choice absentee auction like Wooley's or Comic Heaven. So many books out there now and so many places to source from.

Welcome to the party. 

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Jginsberg79

Jginsberg79

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, telerites said:

He does have Ebay listings - just nothing currently; however, he had some that closed mid-August so I assume he will be listing.  You may have meant that when you said no Ebay but just in case - https://www.ebay.com/usr/terryscomics

And like Scott @szav said above sending him an email is best.  I pm'ed here on the boards once and he did tell me it is best to email since he does not come on here too often.

And it is never too late to join the GA train.  When I started, it was mail order only or the occasional no other choice absentee auction like Wooley's or Comic Heaven. So many books out there now and so many places to source from.

Welcome to the party. 

Thank you telerites! Yes Action Comics have captured my heart atm. We shall see where this crazy journey takes me.

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Callaway29

Callaway29

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Posted
On 5/27/2019 at 12:57 PM, mustang33guy said:

Second that. I’ve bought many great books from Joe over the years, but his process is daunting. If a book is over $100.00 he won’t just sell you the book if you tell him you don’t need scans. That’s if you can reach him as others have said haha. He recently changed the way the site functions even though the layout is the same the search functions sort stuff in semi alphabetical order but somewhat jumbled. It takes an already tedious system and adds an extra element of frustration. It’s a shame because I’m sure there are some nice gems in that large haystack.

I realize this is old but...my 2c. Joe 100% has the goods, but he requires pictures because undoubtedly the returns were extensive. His grading is horrid. I've bought a couple books where restoration was not advertised/disclosed as well... I've given him my business several times, but as others have stated...the experience is daunting and I have settled on it not being worth the trouble.

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mustang33guy

mustang33guy

Posted
Posted
13 hours ago, Callaway29 said:

I realize this is old but...my 2c. Joe 100% has the goods, but he requires pictures because undoubtedly the returns were extensive. His grading is horrid. I've bought a couple books where restoration was not advertised/disclosed as well... I've given him my business several times, but as others have stated...the experience is daunting and I have settled on it not being worth the trouble.

No worries on it being old haha. 

But to your point I have to tend to agree with you. The last few books I have attempted to buy from Joe were either very over graded or horribly misrepresented.

I was working out a deal for a nice looking Timely and asked him to send me not just the front and the back scans, but centerfold as well. He obliged and sent me a few pictures of the interior with the front and back. Upon my investigation I the interior shots didn't look right. I immediately went online to find the free scans from one of the open domain sites that have the back catalog of golden age books. Turns out he had sent me scans of a Young Allies book that wasn't the interior of the TImely I was considering buying. I don't know how he messed that up given I assumed he was scanning the interior just for me. I let him know and he apologized and then I finally got the correct scans. Then I come to find from him that upon inspection the book had a detached cover with a potentially replaced staple. This book before this review was graded on his site as a VG 4.0. Now its a 2.5-3.0 R lol. 

Basically after my long winded story I want to say that 4-5 years ago I had gotten some great books from Joe that I still have to this day. They were graded fairly and the prices were fantastic. Whether or not I picked the few anomalies over those 4-5 years that were outliers is unknown. But somewhere in the last 2 years he has gotten not only sloppy in his grading but he realized that his pricing was off compared to current market values. Everything on his site is listed as a dream price until he scans the book for you and then tells you the "real" price, adjusted for 2020 values. 

I continued to give Joe the benefit of the doubt since we have had nice transactions in the past. But the last few books I attempted to get from him were as Callaway29 pointed out horribly over graded and missed restoration. 

I almost never ever like to talk ill about someone since it's not who I am. But I feel that when people have a negative experience similar to mine it's best to share that so others don't repeat those mistakes. 

It's a real shame because he does have a lot of good looking books hidden on that site, but like Callaway I agree it's almost not worth the trouble.

 

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Callaway29

Callaway29

Posted
Posted (edited)
34 minutes ago, mustang33guy said:

No worries on it being old haha. 

But to your point I have to tend to agree with you. The last few books I have attempted to buy from Joe were either very over graded or horribly misrepresented.

I was working out a deal for a nice looking Timely and asked him to send me not just the front and the back scans, but centerfold as well. He obliged and sent me a few pictures of the interior with the front and back. Upon my investigation I the interior shots didn't look right. I immediately went online to find the free scans from one of the open domain sites that have the back catalog of golden age books. Turns out he had sent me scans of a Young Allies book that wasn't the interior of the TImely I was considering buying. I don't know how he messed that up given I assumed he was scanning the interior just for me. I let him know and he apologized and then I finally got the correct scans. Then I come to find from him that upon inspection the book had a detached cover with a potentially replaced staple. This book before this review was graded on his site as a VG 4.0. Now its a 2.5-3.0 R lol. 

Basically after my long winded story I want to say that 4-5 years ago I had gotten some great books from Joe that I still have to this day. They were graded fairly and the prices were fantastic. Whether or not I picked the few anomalies over those 4-5 years that were outliers is unknown. But somewhere in the last 2 years he has gotten not only sloppy in his grading but he realized that his pricing was off compared to current market values. Everything on his site is listed as a dream price until he scans the book for you and then tells you the "real" price, adjusted for 2020 values. 

I continued to give Joe the benefit of the doubt since we have had nice transactions in the past. But the last few books I attempted to get from him were as Callaway29 pointed out horribly over graded and missed restoration. 

I almost never ever like to talk ill about someone since it's not who I am. But I feel that when people have a negative experience similar to mine it's best to share that so others don't repeat those mistakes. 

It's a real shame because he does have a lot of good looking books hidden on that site, but like Callaway I agree it's almost not worth the trouble.

 

I also hesitated in sharing my experience, but decided to anyways...for all the same reasons. The thing I never figured out is...surely someone with his level of experience in the hobby, and his size of collection...knows how to grade. So either he's intentionally misrepresenting books' conditions, or he's using his own "Nacca Grading Standard". I read somewhere that he isn't a fan of the CGC movement, so perhaps he just never adopted their standards...

Edited by Callaway29
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fifties

fifties

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Callaway29 said:

I also hesitated in sharing my experience, but decided to anyways...for all the same reasons. The thing I never figured out is...surely someone with his level of experience in the hobby, and his size of collection...knows how to grade. So either he's intentionally misrepresenting books' conditions, or he's using his own "Nacca Grading Standard". I read somewhere that he isn't a fan of the CGC movement, so perhaps he just never adopted their standards...

I remember winning books several times offered by Nacca on eBay, and his grading was indeed atrocious.  This was maybe 15-20 years ago, and swore I'd never buy from him again.  Sounds like he's never changed AFA accurate grading, and it was always in order to favor him.

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gorgoguy

gorgoguy

Posted
Posted
On ‎9‎/‎2‎/‎2020 at 11:47 AM, Jginsberg79 said:

They have no pics and no ebay. Is Terry still open? Getting into Golden Age Timely now (yes I'm capital L Latee). Just looking to figure out where to start and using this thread.

He is absolutely still open.  Very easy to work with as well.  Ordering and working with him via email has worked great for me in the past.   We just completed a transaction in the last month+. 

 

I've also found his books to be spot on or under-graded. 

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Courageous Cat

Courageous Cat

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 10/16/2020 at 11:26 AM, mustang33guy said:

No worries on it being old haha. 

But to your point I have to tend to agree with you. The last few books I have attempted to buy from Joe were either very over graded or horribly misrepresented.

I was working out a deal for a nice looking Timely and asked him to send me not just the front and the back scans, but centerfold as well. He obliged and sent me a few pictures of the interior with the front and back. Upon my investigation I the interior shots didn't look right. I immediately went online to find the free scans from one of the open domain sites that have the back catalog of golden age books. Turns out he had sent me scans of a Young Allies book that wasn't the interior of the TImely I was considering buying. I don't know how he messed that up given I assumed he was scanning the interior just for me. I let him know and he apologized and then I finally got the correct scans. Then I come to find from him that upon inspection the book had a detached cover with a potentially replaced staple. This book before this review was graded on his site as a VG 4.0. Now its a 2.5-3.0 R lol. 

Basically after my long winded story I want to say that 4-5 years ago I had gotten some great books from Joe that I still have to this day. They were graded fairly and the prices were fantastic. Whether or not I picked the few anomalies over those 4-5 years that were outliers is unknown. But somewhere in the last 2 years he has gotten not only sloppy in his grading but he realized that his pricing was off compared to current market values. Everything on his site is listed as a dream price until he scans the book for you and then tells you the "real" price, adjusted for 2020 values. 

I continued to give Joe the benefit of the doubt since we have had nice transactions in the past. But the last few books I attempted to get from him were as Callaway29 pointed out horribly over graded and missed restoration. 

I almost never ever like to talk ill about someone since it's not who I am. But I feel that when people have a negative experience similar to mine it's best to share that so others don't repeat those mistakes. 

It's a real shame because he does have a lot of good looking books hidden on that site, but like Callaway I agree it's almost not worth the trouble.

 

 

WE need to stop making apologies for Joe. His grading blows and he knows it. Now, having said that, in person he's a swell guy, but perhaps just a tiny fraction off :insane: if ya know what I mean. Even with this being said and I'm fully aware of his deplorable grading, I did break down last week and buy a GA book from him. It was graded at G+ so I just planned on having a fair book delivered to me, and yep! Sure as $#@$, my G+ book arrived with a completely detached cover. Regardless, at 150.00 I'm just gonna hold onto it because its a fairly scarce book.

He has a pretty extensive collection with some hard to get books, but buyer beware if he says Fine, expect good at best

Edited by Courageous Cat
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fifties

fifties

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Courageous Cat said:

 

WE need to stop making apologies for Joe. His grading blows and he knows it. Now, having said that, in person he's a swell guy, but perhaps just a tiny fraction off :insane: if ya know what I mean. Even with this being said and I'm fully aware of his deplorable grading, I did break down last week and buy a GA book from him. It was graded at G+ so I just planned on having a fair book delivered to me, and yep! Sure as $#@$, my G+ book arrived with a completely detached cover. Regardless, at 150.00 I'm just gonna hold onto it because its a fairly scarce book.

He has a pretty extensive collection with some hard to get books, but buyer beware if he says Fine, expect good at best

I'd be the last one to defend him, but a G grade does allow for a detached cover, and G+ offers this; Fits the criteria for Good but with an additional virtue or small accumulation of virtues that improves the book’s appearance by a perceptible amount.  So maybe he was actually accurate with your book.

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Courageous Cat

Courageous Cat

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, fifties said:

I'd be the last one to defend him, but a G grade does allow for a detached cover, and G+ offers this; Fits the criteria for Good but with an additional virtue or small accumulation of virtues that improves the book’s appearance by a perceptible amount.  So maybe he was actually accurate with your book.

Sorry, I meant spine completely split. .05

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