Sad but true stories of your comic book collecting

[CromagnonMan]

I do remember once bidding on eBay for a copy of Wonder Woman 199 with the Jeff Jones cover. I won the bid (it didn't go for much) and when I got it, it was a perfectly decent issue, until I realized that on the cover Wonder Woman's white outfit was coloured orange. The previous owner had gone with an orange felt pen and coloured it. If I had looked at the scan on eBay, I would have seen that. So I counted it as my own stupidity and I soon got another copy of the wanted issue to complete my run of mod Diana Prince.

By the way, I recently bought a bunch of comics at a comic book swap meet, but as I had gone out of town immediately after buying them, I didn't have a chance to look through them until almost two weeks later. As often happens, some comics aren't in as good shape as I initially thought, but one comic has me perplexed. It's Superman 156 ("The Last Days of Superman") and it has the pungent odour of moth balls--otherwise it's in fine condition, but that smell knocks me out every time I open it up. How do you get rid of such smells?

i have heard of people putting used tumble dryer fragrance sheets in the bag with the comic. given enough time (say 1 year+) it might work..

[An Ear In The Fireplace]

i have heard of people putting used tumble dryer fragrance sheets in the bag with the comic. given enough time (say 1 year+) it might work..

This is what I thought about doing, but I wonder if it has any degrading effect on the paper.

[hayabusa]

About six years ago, a second comic store opened up in my town and I quickly began to like it a little more than the first one. Both were awesome, but I felt that the new one had a little bit better back issue selection on the series I collect, especially Star Wars and Usagi Yojimbo. To be more specific, he had the majority of the Mirage Usagi series. I mainly worked on my Dark Horse collection at the time.

In late 2007, the store closed and I somehow managed to miss it, especially the sale of back issues. Now, with the Mirage issues being my major gap in my Usagi collection, it's especially disheartening.

[grizla]

I still don't have all of the comics that I want.

Well...it's sad to me.

yes! That's exactly it! I hate that comics cost money! (But i like that writters and such get paid.... may be a bit of a disconnect there...)

[grizla]

The first comics i ever read came into my dad's thrift store as a huge crumbling cube of paper. Sgt. Rock, weird war, millie the model and few luke cage issues. I loved them. LOVED THEM. I even liked the way the paper felt, turning to dust under my finger tips. But then the sheer frustration of turning a page and finding a giant cupon cut out taking away half a page! None of books would have worth any money, no covers, tears, stains, cut outs- not to mention the fact that they were turning to dust. But i miss them. I could never afford replace them. (poor and a cheapskate)

[The Uncanny Poster]

On my first ever trip to a comic book store, I went to find issues of old EC comics series (Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror,etc.). When I asked the owner for their stock, she brought out a longbox full of books from the 1950s. I was extremely excited since most of the issues were around $7. I bought 3 issues of Vault of Horror and walked out of the store feeling that I had pulled a fast one on the owner and gotten a valuable comic for a small price. It wasn't until I opened the books and read them that I realized that they were Gemstone reprints from the 90's. Then I realized that they had ripped me off. Great stories and art though so I guess it was worth it. :P

[icctrombone]

On my first ever trip to a comic book store, I went to find issues of old EC comics series (Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror,etc.). When I asked the owner for their stock, she brought out a longbox full of books from the 1950s. I was extremely excited since most of the issues were around $7. I bought 3 issues of Vault of Horror and walked out of the store feeling that I had pulled a fast one on the owner and gotten a valuable comic for a small price. It wasn't until I opened the books and read them that I realized that they were Gemstone reprints from the 90's. Then I realized that they had ripped me off. Great stories and art though so I guess it was worth it. :P

I was a scumbag thing to do but They probably lost your business forever. Short term thinking on their part.

[The Uncanny Poster]

I was a scumbag thing to do but They probably lost your business forever. Short term thinking on their part.

Haha trust me I wont ever be going there again. It was store in Hawaii that I visited while I was on vacation there. A word of advice to other fans out there: NEVER BUY COMICS IN HAWAII

[Jezebel Bond]

Haha trust me I wont ever be going there again. It was store in Hawaii that I visited while I was on vacation there. A word of advice to other fans out there: NEVER BUY COMICS IN HAWAII

What happened? I've never been there but one of my dealer's sources is from Hawaii and he's never had a bad experience with this contact.

[The Uncanny Poster]

What happened? I've never been there but one of my dealer's sources is from Hawaii and he's never had a bad experience with this contact.

As you know, Hawaii is a major tourist destination for people around the world. Since many travelers go to this particular store in Honolulu, they can charge whatever they want on back issues since they are the only store on the entire island that is in the metropolitan area. Furthermore, many of the other islands don't have their own stores so they have to rely on this one as well.

[AZBarbarian]

In the late 80s, as a poor high school student, I had an opportunity to buy a mint, first printing, TMNT #1. I was very much into TMNT as I had the second printing #1 and all the larger format books. It was slightly out of my price range, so I passed.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

On my first ever trip to a comic book store, I went to find issues of old EC comics series (Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror,etc.). When I asked the owner for their stock, she brought out a longbox full of books from the 1950s. I was extremely excited since most of the issues were around $7. I bought 3 issues of Vault of Horror and walked out of the store feeling that I had pulled a fast one on the owner and gotten a valuable comic for a small price. It wasn't until I opened the books and read them that I realized that they were Gemstone reprints from the 90's. Then I realized that they had ripped me off. Great stories and art though so I guess it was worth it. :P

I was a scumbag thing to do but They probably lost your business forever. Short term thinking on their part.

Part of me wonders if the great condition would have been a signal that the books weren't from the 1950's. Because even with those great classic covers , I'm betting you would have to pull the comic out and check it.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

On my first ever trip to a comic book store, I went to find issues of old EC comics series (Tales From the Crypt, Vault of Horror,etc.). When I asked the owner for their stock, she brought out a longbox full of books from the 1950s. I was extremely excited since most of the issues were around $7. I bought 3 issues of Vault of Horror and walked out of the store feeling that I had pulled a fast one on the owner and gotten a valuable comic for a small price. It wasn't until I opened the books and read them that I realized that they were Gemstone reprints from the 90's. Then I realized that they had ripped me off. Great stories and art though so I guess it was worth it. :P

I was a scumbag thing to do but They probably lost your business forever. Short term thinking on their part.

Part of me wonders if the great condition would have been a signal that the books weren't from the 1950's. Because even with those great classic covers , I'm betting you would have to pull the comic out and check it.

[The Uncanny Poster]

Part of me wonders if the great condition would have been a signal that the books weren't from the 1950's. Because even with those great classic covers , I'm betting you would have to pull the comic out and check it.

They had policy of not being able to take the books out of the bags.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

They had policy of not being able to take the books out of the bags.

That would have been a good sign it wasn't on the level. If you can't see the comic outside the bad/board...they are hiding something . Like the ole sayin goes...if it sounds too good to be true....it usually is.