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One of my interesting collections purchases (or part of a collection as you’ll see) happened when I lived in Arkansas. We ran a small classified ad and one of the calls that came in was for a collection of comic books found under a barn. My wife called it “the barn collection.”
What happened is this particular gentleman was part of a crew taking apart a barn when they found a stash of old comic books under one of the floorboards. I guess comics were taboo in that family since the kids had to hide their contraband under the barn. It’s a great story. I can imagine them sneaking out to the barn to read their secret stash of such controversial characters as Katy Keene!
We got the call and went to view the hundred or so books from the 1950’s. Needless to say, the condition wasn’t great on these books. Under a barn floorboard in the dirt isn’t the ideal storage environment for comic books. Miraculously, they didn’t have water damage, so that was a plus. The collection contained mainly television tie-ins, funny animal, and some girl books like Katy Keene. Not bad stuff, not great. The story got interesting when we started to negotiate.
It quickly became obvious that the wife of the gentlemen who uncovered the comics in this story decided since these books were a “find” like uncovered treasure, and they must be worth a fortune. We wouldn’t be dealing with the person who found the collection. No, he didn’t know what a find he had made. We were dealing with his wife now.
When the reality that these books were worth far less than she imagined came out, she would have none of it. Many were torn, dirty, rolled, missing pieces, coupons cut, you name it. They were very well-read to say the least, and probably had to endure many hasty returns under the floor to hide the collection. No, she had a “guide” in front of her and there were the “Near Mint” prices staring her in the face. She even thought those prices were low for some of the books in this amazing find!
Now, for many this would be the end of negotiations. But if you think outside the box you may just get something you want. I cover the technique of breaking out comics you want from the collection and making an offer in the special report. That’s what we did. We collected Katy Keene at the time, and for the collector part of us, these were the books we would keep. We made an offer on just those books which the wife found satisfactory. In her mind the Katy Keene comics were worthless because she hadn’t heard of them. She had heard of the television stars. The reality was the Katy’s were the more valuable part of the collection.
Some creative thinking and negotiation created a win-win solution. Those Katy Keene’s are still in our collection, though now being stored in a more comic friendly environment than beneath a barn. I can only imagine that the other books are still stored with that lady – the treasure that they’d found to strike it rich!
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