Comic Book Collection SCAM - Waste of 4 Hour Drive... 

A guy came in my store and grabbed a bunch of books out of the quarter bin. I was up front pricing books and the guy comes up and im adding his books up and one of the books (a Champions book, I don't remember the issue off the top of my head) I had just priced at $15. It was in beautiful shape and I told the guy 'I just priced a copy of this book at 15 and you are getting it for. 25c today.' I don't play that crap. I dont pull books off the shelf that are selling for higher prices on ebay before they hit the shelf. I know that awesome feeling of finding gems in quarter and dollar bins and I dont take that experience away from anyone. In fact sometimes if I have a few extra copies of a key or hot book I'll put one in the quarter bin just to give someone that rush. Treating people is just good business. Im sorry that happened to you. And im glad you made this video and I hope it puts people and stores on notice. When you did your worse things about collecting comics video I seriously almost commented that these situations are one.

Once the wife gets involved, it’s over.

That guy was probably pumped about selling his collection the night before then he mentioned something to his wife and she was instantly a comic value expert. That stinks.

Even outside of comics, this is such a good life lesson. A man is only as good as his word.

I had to go take my blood pressure pill after I heard what you went through. Hang in there, comic karma will prevail! :-)

As a collector of some 53 years, seven more as a reader, I can say this. When a book falls into your hands as a gift, or as a once in a lifetime bargain, it becomes something you treasure the rest of your life. For my 18th b-day, I was given by a late aunt, a copy in decent shape of the first appetence of thor in journey into mystery 83, she had bought for about a dime at a flea market. On the other side of the issue, when one is both burned and treated in a rude manner by a seller/trader, the memory of how shitty the deal made you feel, is never forgotten, even if the book was a rare key in decent shape.

Green Lantern Quarterly 8 is a $50 book in a 9.8. Who would pay $50 for that raw

I can do $50?! Man I would have walked out that LCS and let the owners put back my dollar books. Props to you for not calling out the first guy by name. His wife clearly makes the pants in that family. I hope you hit on some dollar bin gold to make up for all this. Have a great rest of your day!

The absolute nerve of them to jack up the price, both the comic store and the collector. You did the right thing to walk away

*Edit* Green Lantern Corps Quarterly #8 is not the first cameo of Kyle Rayner but the first cameo of him in his GL costume which predates his full costume GL reveal in GL 51. Thanks for the support guys!

05:50 :"I'm not going to drive 4 hours for something I can buy online, in my underwear. Eating cheese, ArE YoU oUt oF YoU'rE MiNd?!" I had to quote that

hey same thing happened to me in alabama It's illegal to charge a different price for another price that's why I filed a consumer complaint w/ the Attorney General

That is an absolute maddening story, and I can only imagine the difference in your train of thought on the way down vs on the return drive. I'm not sure what I would have done in your shoes, put I probably would have left the shop without the other books, either. Someone wants to jerk you around, they don't deserve your patronage! Keep frosty!

that's the state of current comic collecting. A local shop actually did the same thing to me. I found Justice League 50, Blue Beetle #3 and Flash #197 in the 3 dollar bin but the owner decided to price check them and overpriced them to a total of $130 and I just straight gave them back and said no thanks and left

I can’t believe they didn’t have the courtesy to tell you that the wife wanted to raise the prices before you took time off work and drove four hours. So disrespectful. The dollar bin story is ridiculous too. Yeah prices do change. That’s your job as a shop owner to keep up with. I can’t imagine doing that to someone with a straight face.

As soon, and I mean AS SOON, as he said "we looked up prices" you should have just turned around (saying nothing), walked back to your car and left. Huge red flag that he was trying to #$&@ you and waste your time.

As soon as that guy said 50 you should've just turned around and walked out, nothing said.

Same thing happened to me. Found a book with a 5 dollar price tag at my LCS, took it to the counter and they said they couldn't sell it for that price. Dont shop at that place anymore.

I was big into comic collecting back in the 80s, when comic collecting was starting to become very popular. My friend and I saw an ad in the paper for someone selling a collection. We go and check it out and they've got some good books, but they were from someone who wasn't a collector (i.e. no bags or backer boards). So these were in VG - F, nothing better than a 6.5, and we got the same sort of thing, "Yeah, I bought the Comic Book Price Guide and there's some valuable books in here." He started quoting NM prices and my friend and I burst out into laughter! We told him that none of these books were worth what he was asking, and then we left. We didn't even try to negotiate with him because we knew there was no point. So, yeah, this story reminded me of that.

Oh man, this sucks! And also awful behaviour from the comic shop. Today I picked up the first appearance of Jessica Cruz for £3 from my local comic shop, and he knew it was worth more but he still honoured the sale for £3. It’s just good business and honestly creates loyalty!

Just said on jernos vid and about to watch comic toms after this. These videos of you guys brining awareness is amazing. Your doing an important service for buyers and sellers of all collecting ages. Thanks for the dope vid. Keep educating

Thank you for this. This has been on my mind for the last few weeks. I’ve been struggling with comic book shops that are lazy and have a sticker price on their book but then look up the books online when you bring it up to the counter and change the price. I love digging through boxes of books looking for gems. It’s like treasure hunting. I as the customer invest my time, hours sometimes, going through boxes looking for gems only for the store owner to jack the price up once I find something good that they didn’t even realize they had. Great video.

Dude, kudos for you for having some integrity. I know there’s gotta be a part of you that wants to just blast whoever these people are, and I totally get that. Way to stay professional about it while sharing your experience, takes some guts even putting out a video like this. Keep on rockin dude. You put out some meaningful and impactful content for this hobby. (Plus it’s only a matter of time we meet up someday bro) so cheers!

I can give you my experience in dealing with selling items for people. I find that younger people (in their 20-30s) back out of agreements a lot and women in particular of any age love to think contracts are just vague suggestion Older guys never give us issues, but wives love to try to cause issues

That is a bummer dude. Unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens when buying collections. I was supposed to go look at a collection last weekend. Set everything up during the week. Spoke that morning to confirm. Everything seemed cool. And then last minute they totally flaked, didn't show, and completely ghosted my calls and texts. And honestly... it has been bugging me all week since.

So glad I came across this channel! Definitely getting some pointers on how to get rid of my collection!

It works the same way as a seller sometimes-I’ve had boxes of comics on Facebook marketplace with plenty of pictures and then meet up with someone and they try to lowball me(saying they’ll give me 1/2 price) after I hauled them out to the meet up. Buyers shouldn’t say they’ll buy something if they don’t like the price either...very annoying(good video by the way 😊)

I feel for you. Changing prices after a 4 hour drive is WHACK!

Once you hear "my wife" just run away. That comic shop price hike for a dollar book is messed up. What shop is that? So I never go there.

The moment the wife stepped in the deal is off you walk.

Happened to me too. Guy had bad and only partial pictures, gave me a price on a box of old beat up western and Disney books of $200, I said I could drive and take the chance for that price, drove an hour, and when I got there his girlfriend stepped in and said she'd contacted people while I was driving up there and offered them more. I looked at them and the price had pretty much gone to full on the box, at $300 and I asked him to meet me in the middle, which was $250, and he kept looking to his girlfriend for answers and she kept saying no, despite I was trying to work with them. I finally just walked away.

It's a good policy to never buy books from someone who either changes the price, or, just as bad, has unpriced books and looks the price up when you bring them up to pay. You're just doing the hard work of locating the "valuable" books for them.

My LCS owner has never jacked up a price like that on me. He's also never come down on a price. There have been times when I wish he would cut me a deal on something because I do plunk down a lot of $ in his business, but at least he is consistent. The price he has the books at is the price he sells 'em for. I'm starting to appreciate that as a virtue.

Man I’m so sorry to hear about the stories and the things you have experienced it’s pretty messed up and people are out there just money hungry. They just don’t know about how passionate we are about this ! It’s a very disappointing and human beings are not worried about the principal! Keep up the content Please love it dude !! 🙏🏻

That sounds super frustrating man but keep your head up! Can’t wait for more DC videos, your Swamp Thing video made me start reading it also!

Sorry, man. I remember a time when , if you find a good book in the dollar bin, the owner put it there on purpose. Sort of as a prize for digging.

Hey James, sorry you went through this. I’m back in the hobby just six or so months thus far and have been fortunate enough to make some real quality buys, but I’ve also dealt with a lot of shady characters. I completely agree that as a business owner, it’s up to you to inventory your books (even your $1 or $0.50 bin books) so that if you see a book gets speculative heat, you can pull it out and price it accordingly, if you don’t, it’s not the customer’s job to do the work for you. And more often than not those bin books are not going to be high grade because NO CARE went into banishing them to the $1 bin anyways. Better days are ahead for you my friend. Keep your chin up.

Man, this is why I hate dealing with people face to face for weird markets like comics. If he GAVE it to you or sold it for $1 you probably could have gave him a shout out, but screw that! KNOW YOUR BUSINESS like you said!!!

You are absolutely right, you stood your ground and didn't settle for that BS ! Your doing great and there's probably something better heading your way !

I totally understand this. I have had this happen to me with both Comic books and Magic Cards. I remember going to a shop that was a 2 hour + drive from where I lived one way because I had heard good things about it. I see an item that I want in one of the cases (a Magic Card) with the price written on the outside of the card holder they have it in and I pick out that one and 3 more cards from the case (all of them with the prices written on their card holders). The guy pulls them out. Puts them on the table and then proceeds to grab his smart phone and write down the prices that all of these cards are going for on Amazon and Ebay. He takes the highest price he can find between the two sites and starts added up the total. Keep in mind that none of these cards had been graded. So I stop him and say that the prices he is writing down is not the price that is listed on the card. He looks at me, rolls his eyes and tells me that he has a business to run and he is going to get top value out of these cards. I once again point out that the prices are listed on the cards and that is not what he was charging me. I also point out that the prices he is looking up are for mint condition copies and that these cards have not been graded because I can tell you that none of those cards were in mint. One had a visible crease in the corner. He just stares at me "Are you serious?" He then looks at me and informs me that if I want to buy the cards I will pay what he is charging for them today. At this point I laugh in his face and roll out in my wheelchair. Few things annoy me more than when some business takes a priced item and try to charge you the current rate that it is going for on ebay or Amazon right now. Listen, either take them out and reprise them or do not have prices on them at all, because if I am going to be paying Ebay or Amazon prices for that day when you already have a price on it then why in the world am I going to buy it from you? Wouldn't it just be better for me to buy it straight off of Amazon while watching TV in my underwear and have it delivered to my house with free shipping then to drive X hours to your shop to pay you the exact same price? Unless it is a huge swing then you should just sell it to me for the marked price because that is just good business. If they are just going to look and sell it to me for the price on Amazon then why not just wait the extra day and not even have to leave my house? It makes me chuckle that so many businesses are following this strategy and then complaining that people are not coming into their stores anymore. You want to sell your wares for Amazon and Ebay list prices and then get angry when people bypass you and would rather buy it off of Amazon or Ebay. 😆 I find that amusing.

Sucks about the bum deals. This is becoming one of my favorite comic channels and I'm not even much of a DC fan.

I have a similar experience. I drove one hour to buy toys, not comics. He wouldn't send my any more pictures because of work, camera problems etc. I got there, I saw all the toys were broken. Very disappointed. I turned it down and left.

If those people didn't understand that they totally waisted your time and money, what did gas cost you $75?, then they weren't brought up right!

Man, sorry you had to deal with two separate sellers like that, I've been to a store that drastically overcharges prices for books and its infuriating

I just came across this video and man I glad I don’t collect comic books anymore, seems like a cutthroat business more so than ever. Fuck all this comics and comic vendors with shady practices. Good luck to you on your future hunts.

Totally agree. But on the flip side: Back in 2004, I put an ad a free newspaper to sell 1000 comics for $1 each(my wife wanted me to thin out my collection because it took too much space). The guy came and and said he used to have a comic book store and that told me that he was a comic book dealer and knew his stuff. So after about 20 minutes of looking at my stuff(mostly 80’s/early 90’s marvel/dc) he said ok here’s $100. And I was like what? I told him that the ad said 1000 comics for $1 each. He said that’s not what he read and of course I didn’t have the ad in front of me to dispute it. I folded and took it. Because of that sale, I lost my whole secret wars 1 run(including #8), my amazing Spider-Man 300, among other stuff. This was just before those books became hot. And I spent the next 15 years getting some of those books back. I’ve not trusted LCS or anyone since. I also got burned at a comic book convention at 14 yrs old back in 1985. I sold a savy dealer 110 comics for 10 cents a piece netting a whole $11 and going home depleted and comic book less. I despise people who take advantage of other people. I no longer sell anything or buy anything unless it’s $1 or a new trade.

Two stores here in Las Vegas NV that you have to look/pick the comics you want. Then go to counter/clerk. They look up prices on eBay and price guide books, then tell you how much the comics are going to sell for. Crazy way of doing business. I don't go in nor I support these types of comic book stores. Put a price on comics $ or $$ then sell it. Don't change the prices!! These stores just get me angry. I know exactly how you feel. As for me I WALKED AWAY BOTH TIMES FROM THESE STORES. Never again, Thanks for the video.

This video touches on a subject that I thankfully haven't had to deal with much. Bait and switch pricing is just a plain terrible business practice. Now the deal that was worked out for the reason of the trip. I have seen a couple of videos from other collectors that have been burned by the wife of the collector looking to sell. I think you got burned by the Happy Wife over my collection game. The wife tried to dictate the sale by voiding any agreement that may have verbally been in place. 4 hours of your life that you can never get back. My condolences.

You could have easily put dude and this store on blast, so that was nice of you. Sucks when people waste the literal life time of others.

You made my day today Listening to your story is just putting a smile. The part that got me was when the man tried to change the price on you for the green Latin and that Part Had me rolling

What a tough day... I totally sympathize with your story.Last week I drove 2 hours to go in a comic shop where I was fortunate enough to buy 2 full set (1-5) of Adam: legend of the blue Marvel for 16 € (around 20 $). Before going to the counter to pay I was also afraid that the seller suddenly raise the price after a quick check online. Lucky me, he had no clue but like you said it's their responsibility to check what they have in store and adapt the price before putting it on sale for the customer...

I saw the "dollar bin book" thing at my LCS. Guy was checking out a big stack of dollar bins books. All of sudden a dollar book was selling for $60.00 " I can't let it go for a dollar". Shop owners should check their dollars bins more often.

Once the wife got involved you should have just done a complete 180 and got out of there fast and furious!

I really appreciate your advice in the video and am sorry about your bad experience. Do you have any tips for making purchases safely? My closest city is Las Vegas, and I’m a bit worried about being robbed if I show up somewhere to purchase a collection.

"Me and my wife..." The second you hear that you know the agreement is out the window. My ex-wife was always "just curious" about the value of my collection but I was never stupid enough to tell her. They're never "just curious" when they smell dollar signs.

I'm honestly glad I don't collect anymore. I'm disappointed that I sold all my books before everything blew up, but I'm glad I don't have to deal with people acting this way. It sucks you had to deal with all that. Great video though.

This video makes me realize how lucky l am having 3 lcs within 45 minutes of me that are run by really solid people. These shops have been a great help to me getting back into the hobby. They know what I’m looking for and have set stuff aside for me to buy later (next payday). They don’t have to do that. Haven’t been gouged either. Great video. Next time bring along a hired goon for muscle. Lol

Sorry for the aggravation you faced. Integrity is important and something I've tried to uphold in my personal/collecting and professional business. Related note: I've had on my list to JOIN your channel because I've really enjoyed your content. I just did it now after watching the video. A little sunshine on a gloomy day in our NJ/PA area.

Great video my friend. Most of us have definitely been there. I’m dealing with someone at the moment that I’m expecting this to occur. They are graciously letting me do the work to price out their collection but I know they will turn around and ask 9.8 prices for VF raw books. It’s inevitable. LOL

People are frenzied about comic book prices lately. They don't even know what they're talking about.

BRO, I FEEL YOUR PAIN

I'm curious...where in Virginia? Also, I'm brand new to your channel. I just subscribed. Love it! I picked up Spectre #5 and Batman Annual #11 per your suggestion! Thanks! Keep it up!

I’m just starting getting into comics and I love your page so much and I’m sorry for this happening to you

Hey man chin up, sucks to hear you had a rough day. But remember that 98% of collectors are awesome folks. Don’t let that 2% ruin your thoughts on the group. I say this as a teacher who if I focused on the 1-2 difficult students instead of the 25 doing their best for me I would have quit years ago.

I would’ve left AS SOON as he told me he was raising the prices. 8:08 😳 OMG!!! This was just a dip. Your next deal is going to be crazy good for you

“I’m not gonna drive 4 hours to buy something I could have bought online in my underwear eating cheese for less” - MintHunterComics 2021

Damn man, that's a rough one. But I agree with your thoughts on the situation, especially after all that time you put driving and going through boxes. Shady selling practices indeed. Hope you find a really good collection in the future. 👍

I would’ve lost my damn mind!!🤬🤬🤬 some people just need a slap upside the head!! I feel your pain man.

Damn man, got the ole bait n switch. You honor your word. .

Kind of is a double edged sword. Many times collectors are happy when they take someone’s collection for pennies on the dollar. As you said,”stay humble my friend"

Sorry to hear about your experience with people that do not have comic book etiquette.I have had similar experiences but not to this extreme. Hope you have a good week.

NO NO NO! For one thing, stick to the deal you made beforehand. Secondly, OK, you have books that went up. What about books that probably dropped in value? I deal in Customer Service as a Manager and I hate it when I’m talking to a guy and his “Karen” wife jumps in. Then, that comic book dealer wanting to jack up his price on the dollar book? My LCS is great on honoring their prices as posted. Sorry about your waste of time. I’d be pissed too.

What a horror story.....similar scenario has happened to me once or twice in the past......keep the books sell the wife. 😃

Great video! I've got 2 stores in my area. One jacks the prices up and the other offers me discounts for being a good customer. Guess which one gets ALL of my business?

You're right to walk away -- too many people cave in to price bullies like that.

Totally screwed up man, and I think we've all experienced at 1 point in our time in the hobby! I know I was selling a Very HTF video game on ebay for below what Price charting stated, it sold in 10 minutes! Within 15 minutes of the sale people were telling me to cancel that deal, they would pay literally $500-$1,000 for it. I declined, because I set my price ($334) and it was paid, and I would not do that, as I don't want that done to me! Karma gets those kinds of folks I think!

Its always the wife. You have no idea how many deals went down the toilet because the wife decided to screw the initial price for something totally different. It is worst when they are present at the time of the deal and you can see the poor guy being frustrated...

You should not have given that shop any of your money after they pulled that shit...you're a better man than me for putting up with that

Hafa adai brother! Thank you once again for another Fantastic Video to help our Amazing Community keep well-informed. Sadly, we may run into a few Bad Apples along our Journey. Looking forward to your next Video. Enjoy The Chase! IslandJ

That was rough.

When buying collections be on the look out for Duch Bags !!!

I've had similar experiences over the years, both at stores, and trying to buy private collections. I'm up here in Canada, and we've had few if any shows or conventions since the pandemic started. My fear is going to shows now, and seeing all the heavily inflated book prices. Until the market gains some sanity, I'll probably stick to buying new stuff, and the artist alley ! Nothing better than coming home with 5 - 6 prize sketches.....

this just happened to Jerno's comic's and pop cultue channel ! guys at LCS changing the prices at the counter, once they are marked at a certain price. i experienced the same thing as you did, drove 2 hours to look at a collection, that was told to be silver age marvel. only to find out it was late bronze age, and Nothing really worth what was quoted to me on the phone. i didn't experience one woman, but 2 women. i quickly left. you do a great job, love your video's.

Feel for you man, it sucks when that happens. But please do not start smoking over that. Stay healthy and spend that cigarette money on comics...:)

Is have no issue with some one reevaluating their books after making a deal. Especially if it was months later that I was buying the books. Where the dude went wrong was not telling you that befoe you left to go get the books. Comic Books have been going crazy lately. He should of communicated with you and saved you alot of time and money.

I'm not really a fan of Marvel or DC comics, I collect more on the indy side of comics. With that said, I watch all of your videos because you always provide solid information that I can apply to the way I collect, buy, and/or sell. These types of videos are what I enjoy most because you're able to take a step back, evaluate the situation from multiple perspectives and find the good. You're passionate about collecting and it shows in your videos. Keep up the great work!

Same thing happen to me. Went to a store I was going to regularly looking for the a Wolverine Origins 10. Couldn’t find it, but he had a variant box. He said, “All book in there are a $1 more than cover price.” And guess what I found. I brought it over to the counter and set it down. “Found it.” I says happy. His wife starts yelling. “You’re not walking out of here with that for at least $30. (This was 10 years ago). I said no thanks and never went back. Store is closed now.

I feel your pain but sometimes you gotta be the bigger man. Spouses usually throw a wrench in it...man or woman. As far as the store owner...i woulda left all the books and walked. The husband and wife are probably in a heated argument about what she pulled...there goes there mortgage payment. Sounds kinda sick but i am happy with that. Chin up fine sir.

Lol tell em to sell em on eBay then. See how long it takes 🤣🤣

Totally agree. Comic shops that dont take care of their own inventory, and change the price on customers at the register dont deserve to be in business. To make a sale, they need to price it correctly... changing the price at the register is so scummy.

Great video. I recently brought two short boxes of my collection from 30 years ago out of my parents’ basement. In one was New Mutants 98 - high quality too (I took good care of my books). I knew the book had value. I priced it out through several sources. I went back and forth internally about whether to get it graded. I tried selling it a couple of times raw. I set my starting price on the high end hoping to negotiate something I and a buyer could both live with. First potential buyer asked for additional pictures of the back and first page. He felt I was high but never countered and went silent. Second potential buyer was similar. Third was the charm. I gave hime extra pictures. Pointed out issues I could see on the book. He said my asking price was fair. Then he countered and we agreed on a price. We closed the deal and both of us were happy. I don’t know how it would have graded but it would likely have been a 9.4 or 9.6. I never once thought of backing out of the deal or changing the terms once we agreed on a price. That is just so shady. I have another 8 or so short boxes and about 4 or 5 long boxes to pull out of my parents’ basement in the spring when I visit. Lots of high value books. I’d prefer to just pull some books to keep and sell all the rest in a single deal but it’s not easy to find someone like that around my area. Again, great videos.

Do your collector fans a solid and name the dishonest business. Help save your viewers from the same anger you experienced. Review the crap out of them online, that is a legit piss-off. Normally I would say leave negative reviews in your thoughts, but you got shafted.

He and his wife gave u thumbs down on this video 😂

I have been hearing more and more stories like this where shop changes price at counter

Hey man do you know where that VA comic shop is called?

Jerno just posted a video about going through the same thing with a shop in California, where it is illegal for a retailer to change a price from what is posted on the retail floor at checkout. Laws may vary from state to state, but that shop owner could be violating the law by changing the price from what was marked on the dollar bin.

How long have you been doing this? It would have to be potential sale of 5 figures for an 8 hour round trip.

The local comic store that I went to well over 10yrs lost me as a customer because of multiple similar incidents. Here are 2. I bought a big stack of books from their $2 bin purely for cheap reading material. The employee starts pulling books aside. "Where did you get these? I don't think they were meant to be in the bin". He ended up putting them aside. The books weren't worth anything and I saw the same books in plenty of other discount bins after that. 2nd story fustrated me more. I played/collected a miniature game called hero clix and I impulse bought 2boosters. This was on top of my weekly pull list. The set had been out over a month and Iogistically the odds of getting anything i wanted weren't good.They also charged more then other places. I at the register and I m being rung up. The employee that basically runs the place comes in, says hi to his coworker,then says "oh that's sold out. Raise the price $1 per booster". The employee awkwardly asked me if I still wanted them. Like a fool I said yes and he had to redo my order in the system. I've been upset ever since.

There is a LCS that's 45-50 minutes away from me that I drop off books for pressing and CGC/CBCS submission. They usually have $1 bins and I was able to find a $100 (1st Savage Opress) book and 2 others. He just gave them to me for free. Good business. Way to turn the negative event into a positive. Way to keep the good vibes up...sorry it happened to you man i'm sure good karma is headed your way for taking the higher road!

Damn that does suck brother. It’s unfortunate but you can come across people like that and the fact you do these videos can put a target on your back to increase prices at a dime. Appreciate you doing these since I am collector in anything comics, Funko pops, lightsabers and sports memorabilia. If you are ever interested send me a chat and I can share with you my collections. Take care brother and keep on finding those gems!!!!!