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Got a half a millions dollars?
Jeffrey - Apr 21, 2003
  Jeffrey Apr 21, 2003
I thought video game prices were high. Look at this casual auction I stumbled across which the seller hopes will get him and extra 1.5 million dollars.

Is this for real? The zero feedback scares me.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&cate...

The title of the auction sure wont get many lookers...

 BooBoo2003 Apr 21, 2003
At 1.5 million bucks, only a hard core collector with alot of money and no life what so ever would buy them.

If i had that sort of cash, maybe my computer and game console collection will be complete. Sounds like i dont have much of a life.

 tsumake Apr 21, 2003
Problem: He has zero responses. He's new to ebay - it's hard not to find this auction suspect.

 BooBoo2003 Apr 21, 2003
Suspect yes, but this is probably the only chance this poor bastard has at cracking the big million.

 racketboy Apr 21, 2003
nobody is stupid enough to give that much money to a zero feedback

but then again, their are some pretty stupid people

I'm not a comics person, but they do look kinda cool

 schi0249 Apr 21, 2003
I'm with the rest of you, a zero rating seems way to suspect. That and some of the books are incorrect. Classic X-Men, for example, was entirly reprints of older comics. There are other mistakes on his list. However, if he truly had the big titles, the collection would be worth a lot of money, probably close to what he hopes for.

 VertigoXX Apr 21, 2003
Major comic geek here. Most of the books listed in that auction are worthless. Anything with 2099 in the title, really anything published in the 80's or later listed there can be found in quarter boxes. A few of them are even mis-listed. SENSATIONAL Spider-Man came out in the late 90's, not 1979, and is worthless. Which New Warriors #1? Both are worthless, but the reader would want to know. Indiana Jones comics in 1980? Ummm... no.

The only books listed there that would interest me are Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, Detective Comics #1, and X-men #1 (1963). HOWEVER, looking at the pictures... Action Comics #1 is the most valuable comic ever, easily fetching over $1 Million in the condition you see there. BUT, the one he has pictured has the title in a WHITE box. The first print of Action #1 had a YELLOW box for the title. The one you see there is a REPRINT that came out in 1993, and is only worth, at most, $10. Detective #27 is likely a reprint that came out in the same year. Detective #1 is likely the reprint that came out three years ago, and is worth $4. Notice how he doesn't have it pictured, even though if a first print it would be worth several hundred thousand dollars. Probably to hide the DC MILLENIUM EDITION logo gracing the cover. That leaves X-men #1, which is also not pictured anywhere. It was reprinted in 2000 with a foil cover, easily distinguishable from the original. But it was a limited edition that fetches a whopping... ten bucks. There have also been a handfull of giveaway reprints that aren't listed in the price guides due to being worthless.

This guy has had an eBay account since 2000, but no feedback. There is a chance that he honestly does not know anything about the books. He probably inherited them or something, looked in a price guide, saw the listings for the Action and Detecitve issues as first prints, and decided to put them on eBay not knowing he had reprints: Not even knowing how to tell if they were reprints. On the other hand, the books that have easily distinguishable reprint markings on them are not shown, indicating that he knows what they truly are. Either way, nobody would bid that much money without knowing what they were bidding on, and knowing enough about comics to recognize the reprints as I just did.

 Taelon Apr 21, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			I WILL SEND COMICS NEXT DAY SERVICE WHEN I RECEIVE



                          PAYMENT. Will accept check,money order or wire transfer.


Riiiight. Not a single word about HOW he's going to ship them. With $1.5 million, you'd think he'd be a bit more elaborate - is he going to use a courier, insurance, proof of delivery? Would he arrange for personal pickup?

And what of the payment options? You send him the money, then try to prove you never got the merchandise so you can get the money back. He'll have better luck keeping it.

It just screams 'scam'. To me it's not even a question of whether it is one or not.

I'm surprised that eBay allows first-time eBayers to set such a large opening bid anyway, although I do know you can't use buy-it-now or reserve until you have at least a rating of 10. Just weird.

 Quadriflax Apr 21, 2003
If this is a scam, and I have no reason to doubt VertigoXX's knowledge on the topic, then it's a stupid fucking scam. Scams are only good if they make you money and you don't get caught. No dumb ass is going to bid $1.5 million, let alone actually pay it, without verifying his/her purchase first. I sincerly hope he's just misinformed. Else he has a better chance with posting "FREE XBOX, GAMECUBE, SONY PS2 AND MORE!!!" type auctions.

 Lyzel Apr 21, 2003
He actually got a bid on it, but it looked like it didn't went through. Also, the bidder was suspended.

Interesting??...

 Caelestis Apr 21, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by VertigoXX@Apr 21, 2003 @ 04:10 PM



 Major comic geek here. Most of the books listed in that auction are worthless. Anything with 2099 in the title, really anything published in the 80's or later listed there can be found in quarter boxes. A few of them are even mis-listed. SENSATIONAL Spider-Man came out in the late 90's, not 1979, and is worthless. Which New Warriors #1? Both are worthless, but the reader would want to know. Indiana Jones comics in 1980? Ummm... no.



The only books listed there that would interest me are Action Comics #1, Detective Comics #27, Detective Comics #1, and X-men #1 (1963). HOWEVER, looking at the pictures... Action Comics #1 is the most valuable comic ever, easily fetching over $1 Million in the condition you see there. BUT, the one he has pictured has the title in a WHITE box. The first print of Action #1 had a YELLOW box for the title. The one you see there is a REPRINT that came out in 1993, and is only worth, at most, $10. Detective #27 is likely a reprint that came out in the same year. Detective #1 is likely the reprint that came out three years ago, and is worth $4. Notice how he doesn't have it pictured, even though if a first print it would be worth several hundred thousand dollars. Probably to hide the DC MILLENIUM EDITION logo gracing the cover. That leaves X-men #1, which is also not pictured anywhere. It was reprinted in 2000 with a foil cover, easily distinguishable from the original. But it was a limited edition that fetches a whopping... ten bucks. There have also been a handfull of giveaway reprints that aren't listed in the price guides due to being worthless.



This guy has had an eBay account since 2000, but no feedback. There is a chance that he honestly does not know anything about the books. He probably inherited them or something, looked in a price guide, saw the listings for the Action and Detecitve issues as first prints, and decided to put them on eBay not knowing he had reprints: Not even knowing how to tell if they were reprints. On the other hand, the books that have easily distinguishable reprint markings on them are not shown, indicating that he knows what they truly are. Either way, nobody would bid that much money without knowing what they were bidding on, and knowing enough about comics to recognize the reprints as I just did.


Phew... you just saved me. I was about to shell out $1,500,000.00 for it.



Ok, so maybe I wasn't...

 gamefoo21 Apr 21, 2003
hehehe to blow a feedback rating like that.... i wonder if he did it just for kicks or he realized and ran scared.

 Jeffrey Apr 21, 2003

  
	
	

		
		

			Originally posted by Taelon@Apr 21, 2003 @ 08:39 PM



 




  
	
	

		
		

			I WILL SEND COMICS NEXT DAY SERVICE WHEN I RECEIVE



                           PAYMENT. Will accept check,money order or wire transfer. 
		

		

	





Riiiight.


Let me go down to the local Currency Exchange and see if they'll give me a

***** $1.5 MILLION DOLLAR MONEY ORDER! *****

I am going to get you guys to do detective work on every auction before I bid!

So check this one out. No feedback, poor condition, considerably less.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewI...&cate...

By the way, I happened to be surfing the police sites and found this:

http://www.lapdonline.org/get_involved/sto...on_su...

hmmmm.... some connection perhaps?

 VertigoXX Apr 22, 2003
Looks like he edited it at some point, adding a photo of the X-men #1. It looks authentic, though in a less than pristine condition. (I'd estimate it at around a 4.5 judging by the photo.)

Comparing the pic of the book from the 60's with the pics of the books from the 30's though, the older books have to be the 90's reprints. That Action #1 cover shows NO signs of age whatsoever. With the high acid content of the paper used back then, that would be impossible unless the book spent the last 65 years sealed in a vaccum tight container and exposed to no light.

And I could be wrong about the yellow title box. Browsing around, I am seeing a white box pictured. However, my Millenium Edition reprint has a yellow title box, the US Postal Service reprint (to commemorate the Superman stamp a few years back) had a yellow title box, and the photos I've seen in various price guides have had a yellow box.

But again, the condition is too pristine to be authentic.

Also, if this guy really did have the authentic first prints, he would be have to be smart enough to get them graded by the CGC. Even a lower grade CGC sealed book will go for more than the same book in the same condition ungraded, and it is the best way to guarantee authenticity.

 Jurai Apr 25, 2003
hardcore collectors collect stuff from the beginning, not buy it all at once on ebay