80s GI JOE & Silver Age Comic Find

[Den82]

I'm going crazy, seriously. This past weekend I went to a yard sale advertised on craigslist that mentioned "vintage toys". I went. Leave no stone under turned, right?

First thing I bought were 2 Shogun Warriors for $5 each. A busted up Mazinga and an OK Dragun. OK place holders I figured.

The lady was pulling out tons of stuff. She sold me an incomplete Terror Drome for $15 (not a bad deal, I must say). But....she has a butt load of 80s GI Joe vehicles and parts, including ones for the Defiant and Flagg. The problem is, she doesn't want to sell them. They sitting in her backyard under a BLUE TARP getting rained on. She said she wanted to piece it together and try to sell it on eBay or CL.

I left...but I had to go back. I made her a cash offer of $200. No dice. Exchanged numbers, the whole nine. I went back the next day. Offered $300, no dice. Called them them day after. Told me she is indifferent about selling it and that $500 would be the bottom number.

Anyway, the 3 times we went, me and my dad were looking at her husbands Silver Age comics. He only wanted $5 each and like $15 for "Tales of Suspense" #45. We didn't buy any...

Anyway, after checking out issues online. I am 98% sure he has Avengers #4. When I last called he mentioned he looked some up on eBay and told me some are going for $50, $60 and that my dad could of doubled his money on some.

Now I am thinking of calling them tomorrow, offering $450 for the Joe stuff and telling them I'll buy like $50 worth of comics.

But I am afraid I will be haunting them too much. What should I do? This lady is the hardest nut I've ever had to crack.

[Den82]

By the way:

Excuse on day 1:

She enjoys piecing the Joe stuff together (this woman is not stupid) and that it's fun for her and her son.

Day #2. The bottom line is that this was given to her brother who found it in a storage unit he paid $1,000 for. Last time I spoke to her and husband, he told me they were convinced they had that in Joe stuff.

[toys2cool]

when she's ready to sell it, she'll call you bro...don't sound to desperate

[Den82]

It's hard not to. I've heard that before too and they never do.

[Adam West]

I would make one final call and ask to come back over and look over the items again. This time bring cash in hand. No exactly what your absolute limit is but give yourself some room to negotiate. I have done this before with success. Just as an example, if I'm willing to pay up to $450 for something but want to start at $400. I keep 4 $100 bills in one pocket and $50 in the other. When it comes time to make the offer, pull the bills out of your pocket and offer $400 (let her see the cash). For some reason, seeing the tangible money in your hands ready to seal the deal seems to work better than just haggling over an intangible amount over the phone. Again, I wouldn't haggle anymore over the phone, just ask if you could look at the items one more time and the comics, pull what you want and pull the cash out of your pocket. If she doesn't budge, cut the cord and move on.

[Den82]

WOW...I am dumb founded.

I called again. I told him I thought about it and would do $500. He put me on with his brother-in-law who happened to be there. I told him I wanted it. He asked me what number they gave me, I said "$500". He said, "no way, I have no idea why they gave you that number. A lot smaller just sold for over $2,000 on eBay. So unless you want to come up substantially"...

Hung up, ripped number, tossed it in the can.

[toys2cool]

that's the thing, you asked so many times that they got suspicious and started researching, they probably saw some mib ones sell for that and now they're trying to sucker you in

[Figuremod73]

i think they were trying to get as much out of you as they could since you were interested

[Den82]

I thought the lady was just jerking me around, but now I see it's all her brother. He's an idiot. He paid $1000 for a storage unit and now wants somebody to pay for his mistake.

The $2,000 lot was one of almost 100% complete, near mint stuff with file card, a terror drome, silver pad Grand Slam and a lot of other great pieces. Can even compare it to his GI JUNK YARD.

[Figuremod73]

can understand your disappointment though, $500 sounds like to much to me (since i cant see pics of what was being offered) i'll be to scared to dropped that kind of $$ on a storage unit, i wonder if he even got a look inside...

[MegoSteve]

Whenever someone says "I could get X for this on ebay," I always think, "If you want to get an eBay price, put it on eBay..."

While I can understand how someone wants to get the most money for their stuff, it's unreasonable to expect to get the same price from a yard sale visited by a few dozen local people as you would listing on eBay with their audience of millions. Not only that, but eBay's a ton of work (take pictures, write a listing, monitor the listing for fake/suspicious bids, email the winner, bug the winner if they don't pay right away, pack the goods carefully, drive to the post office), they take a 10-15% cut or more including Paypal fees, and you might get stiffed by the high bidder and there's nothing you can do as a seller if they decide to claim your package never showed up or it arrived broken.

So, yeah, good luck on eBay!

[Den82]

He's another jerk that watched too much Storage Wars. It seems like the best stuff always falls into the wrong hands. It's obvious that he's uneducated about this stuff, other wise he'd know the difference between a near-mint collection and a scrap pile. Not to say he doesn't have some great stuff, he does. But it's not $2,000 great.

I thought his sister was a flake, but now I see why she was so reluctant to deal with me: her brother is a moron who wanted way more than what I was offering.

I believe what happened is he overpaid for the unit this stuff came out of and now he's trying to bail himself out of it. Sorry pal, but deal with the fact you took a loss.

I went to a local thrift store today and they raised the prices on the Nintendo NES games from like $2.99 to $18.99 and $14.99 each. A Mario Bros./Duck Hunt for $18.99, really? Stores are also taping print outs of eBay auctions (included BIN listings) to items.

It's insanity. I'm confident that this craze is going to die out, so as long everyone ignores these people. The value of stuff will not drop, but eventually these dopes are going to let go of their delusions.

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This is not to say I don't like people wanting to get their price. Hell, I sell toys, it's what I do. But it annoys me when it's uneducated outsiders with no interest in it other than the dollar amount. Hearing people talk about "value", "worth", "going for", "collectible" just turns me off from it. It sucks the fun out of it all.

[Adam West]

I like the show "Auction Kings" which just shows the duo buying storage units. I know some have said the show must be staged because they are want to be actors, but I think someone mentioned that they do in fact, buy these units and know a lot about collecting. They have said right from the get go that the 80/20 rule applies to storage units. 80% of the units have junk and they take a loss on it, 20% are the treasures that more than make up for the junk units. They only show the 20% which have the buried treasures. It's good to just walk away at this point...not worth spending any more emotional energy on it.

[boynightwing]

I'm afraid shows like American Pickers and Storage Wars are tainting the prices for the stuff we want...people watch those shows and think "all my junk is so valuable now!".

[Figuremod73]

I'm afraid shows like American Pickers and Storage Wars are tainting the prices for the stuff we want...people watch those shows and think "all my junk is so valuable now!".

i wonder sometimes if a great vintage toy can be saved from the trash is it almost worth it?