Buyer’s Remorse

Have you ever purchased a comic or collectible that you paid too much for? Have any regrets? Walt and Chris have. That’s what they decide to talk about this week. Let us know what you think.

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Walter Durajlija
Walter Durajlija

Walter Durajlija is an Overstreet Advisor and Shuster Award winner. He owns Big B Comics in Hamilton Ontario.

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8 Comments

  1. A fantastic topic!!! That Chris Owen is a smart little cookie…

    I really liked your comment about being a ‘good practitioner of the hobby’ – I’m certainly no expert but I’ve developed my own system when receiving books and I immediately go back to sellers with any problems.

    1. every book gets removed from it’s bag & board (those are recycled)
    2. the book is then inspected; page quality, cut outs, firm staples
    3. the cover is then cleaned (using magnifying lenses)
    4. the book is then pressed
    5. now I grade the book and insert it into my spreadsheet/app
    6. a microchamber interleaving board is inserted into the center of the book
    7. new E.Gerber MyLites2 bag & new backing board
    8. most important: the book is then put into a short box and is read – by reading your books you pick up so much about their condition. it’s vital.

    By the way, as a ‘slab;cracker’ (one who buys slabbed books and cracks them open to return them to ‘raw’) the GCG error rate is just as high as my raw experiences: which leads me to my biggest loss!

    A CGC slabbed silver-age ASM at 8.0 but when I cracked the slab and opened the book it actually had a detached centrefold at one staple, so that’s that’s a 4.0 – I lost 3/4 of the value upon opening the book! (with no respite)

  2. The only regret purchase I have had was a copy of Valiant Magnus Robot Fighter (was it 12?) with the reintroduction of Turok that I purchased at half price at its speculative high that I still lost money on. I just let it go in a whole box of Valiants for $20. Nobody wants Valiants.

  3. Oh sorry… I also regret buying those Leifeld Captain America’s which I did sell but not even for cover price. Go ahead Spider… laugh!!

  4. Oh…one more and NOT a regret… Chris and Spider… sold the ASM 129 for $1200. I paid $35 20 years ago.

  5. Spider! That ASM story is a heart breaker for sure. Ugh. And believe me, all my books get a thorough look through when I buy them. Twice if I get them from Walt!

    Gerald! Great stories. I think we all got burned by Rob Liefeld books. I know I did for sure..but it sounds like you made up for it with the 129. Any more copies for sale? 🙂

  6. I actually forgot a step:

    6.5 Take picture of book after cleaning and send to Mel Taylor & LiveFrog to trigger discussion about art, artist, character etc.

    Very valuable step there!

    Gerald, I’m not laughing mate, getting rid of any Liefeld books out of my PC was a real step forward for me – if the book doesn’t bring you joy, cull it!

  7. Spider – Are you implying that after Step 8 – after reading the book, you are regrading the book, recording in spreadsheet, etc.

  8. Hi Chess, yes, I’ll often find flaws that i didn’t pick upon first clean/press – and I’ll have another go to fix them…the other thing I do is after initially cleaning I put them in a short box and red them a few weeks after (that’s why I always have a short box of books as my reading queue) – it is possible that creases/dents can revert after a little while, so just cause you think you got them out the first time, a fortnight later, they return!

    If a friend drops a book off for me to do it’s a minimum 3 day process; day 1 I do a clean, day 2 I’ll inspect it and see if I missed anything, then press it (that can involve a few runs on any problem issues, day 3 it’s relaxed over night and I can see if anything needs a retouch…then hand her back to the owner – it doesn’t have to be a long process of actual handling time…but the time in-between is helpful to me.

    Hope this helps!

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