That time a collector at my LGS tried to trade a beat-up copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 for 3 brand new omnibuses

Last Saturday I was at Comic Quest in Anaheim and this guy walks up to the counter with a rough copy of ASM #300. I'm talking spine damage, a big crease across the cover, and some stains. He wanted to swap it straight up for three brand new omnibuses that were like $75 each. The owner, Mike, politely explained the condition knocked its value way down and offered him $40 store credit instead. The guy got pretty upset and stormed out. Has anyone else seen people overvalue their personal comics based on cover price or raw eBay listings?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_claire4d ago

So this reminds me of the time a guy at my local shop tried to trade a first printing of Watchmen that had a big coffee ring on the cover. He swore up and down it was worth $200 because he saw one on eBay for that much. The owner showed him that the listing was for a mint copy from a top rated seller, not one with a soggy stain. He got all huffy too, said he'd just sell it online instead. I don't think he ever came back.

gracethomas4d ago

nancy_king29 makes a good point about condition vs. value, but at the end of the day it's just a comic book, @the_claire. I get why the shop owner turned him down, but the guy's reaction seems pretty normal for someone who bought a coffee-stained copy thinking they found a goldmine. Is it really worth getting worked up over a few bucks on a beat-up Watchmen though? Plenty of people overvalue their stuff online and get disappointed when reality hits, and that's just how the market works sometimes.

nancy_king294d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly, I saw this post on another forum where someone pointed out that the gap between "eBay prices" and actual local shop value is huge because people forget condition and seller reputation matter. Ngl, I've heard collectors say a beat copy of a key issue might only be worth half or less of what a clean one goes for, even if the cover price was tiny. Tbh, the guy in your story was probably just frustrated that his idea of value didn't match reality.