I love posting these up here as it showcases one of my favorite aspects of owning the business. The ability to purchase collections is a major perk and one of the ways that we’ve acquired such a vast inventory. Be it Comics, action figures, Pops, statues, or graphic novels...if the price makes sense then we snag it.
At this point of going into 11 years, we have people call or come in pretty much daily to shed their collections. Happens for a variety of reasons that include moving, marriage, having a kid, going to college, inhereted, found, or the ol’ acquired through a cleanout.
I always ask a bit about the collection before taking a look. I want to find out the background of whatever they are bringing to me. Was it theirs? A loved ones? Did they find it cleaning out a house? I let them explain and the reason for that is because we do not want to buy stolen shit. We’ve had it happen a few times in the past where we were pretty damn sure it was stolen. Vague story, killer books, ugly antsy and willing to take pennies on the dollar. We pass on those as it’s not worth the hassle. We try sometimes to get a number “for a friend” Incase we hear about stolen goods matching what was brought in but nothing has come of that yet.
We only purchased 2 collections in the past that turned out to be stolen and both...yes both completely separate instances, it was a deadbeat drug addict brother that sold stuff belonging to the non deadbeat brother. One was a lot of statues and the other was a collection of miniatures for a game called Heroclix. Both instances were resolved when the brother saw his Clix at our shop and saw a customs piece he painted. He didn’t even know it was missing. We gave them back to him once we figured it all out. The staturscwrre discovered by the father calling around to comic shops and asking if we purchased a few pieces. He came down and explained the situation of the one twin being a complete scumbag and yanking em from his brother to buy heroin. Pretty sad. The pops told us he would buy them back for his son as Theresa no reason we should be out money. I tried to split it with him to make the burden bearable but he insisted (he has $$$) and he purchased them back fir what we bought them for. Nutty situation though!!!
Anyway, just thought I’d show this off. We purchase 2 long comic boxes yesterday from a gentleman who got them from his friend. He helped him move and the buddy no longer wanted them. Told this guy to sell em and make something. These boxes looked like they were submerged in raw sewage as they were doo doo brown in color. Luckily the books inside were all in plastics. Unlucky that the plastics were old as dirt and were literally bonded together and yellowed. Gross!!!
I couldn’t even separate lots of books. They were stuck together. I did see some and the only thing I noticed was Hulk #271 which is the 1st Appearance of Rocket Raccoon. It has a little tear but will still move. I couldn’t even separate the books at that moment as it was too time consuming, so I offered $20 bucks a box fir a total of $40. We ended up agreeing at $50 total and fir that, the gamble was worth it. Worst case scenario there would be tons of boxes to fill the bargain dollar boxes.
Well once I had a few minutes I started carefully peeling apart each book. He was sooooooo close on a few biggies like 1st Appearances Iron Fist and Wolverine, but it looks like maybe those were already plucked at some point.
Some of the more notable books are below. 1st Appearances of Falcon, Abomination x2, Doc Sampson, Red Guardian, Rocket Racoon, Wendigo, Ultron (cameo), Him (Warlock), 2nd Iron Fist, 3rd Wolverine, McFarlane Hulk’s, and a lot more. I only plucked a handful out but there are more treasures.
Conditions vary on the books ranging from beat to shit...to pretty decent. Well worth the gamble as we will move one book and be up, leaving 500 plus books to earn on. Just gotta get em all out off these ratty ass plastics ASAP!!!
Thx for checking this out with me!!! Until the next collection...
Blewitt