dumb luck
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gary
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dumb luck
About 2 years ago I was driving around my neighborhood and stumbled across an unadvertised estate sale. As usual I was looking for old fishing tackle or old billiard cues. None were there but there was a box of 300 plus new comics individually bagged and boarded. The price was $50. They were Valiants which I had never heard of. So I passed on them and left. Next day, while running errands with my wife, we drove near the sale and stopped. The comics were still there, unsold. I offered $20 figuring I couldn't lose much. Well, I got on the web and found this website and discovered Valiant comics have a loyal following. As I searched through the cache of comics I found I had 15 Rai 2's, 21 Rai 3,s 3 Rai 4,s and 15 magnus 12's. The rest were very common. Last year I sent 5 to cgc for grading to see how they fared. The 3 centered Rai 3,s came back (2) 9.8 and (1) 9.6. The 2 Rai 4,s came back at 9.4 each. I have not sent any more in but am quite happy with th initial submission. How's that for dumb luck. That's my story.
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Daniel Jackson
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Re: dumb luck
Wow, with that many Rai's and Magnus #12's the guy must've owned a shop at one time or been a serious speculator. Nice story, welcome aboard.gary wrote: As I searched through the cache of comics I found I had 15 Rai 2's, 21 Rai 3,s 3 Rai 4,s and 15 magnus 12's. The rest were very common. Last year I sent 5 to cgc for grading to see how they fared. The 3 centered Rai 3,s came back (2) 9.8 and (1) 9.6. The 2 Rai 4,s came back at 9.4 each. I have not sent any more in but am quite happy with th initial submission. How's that for dumb luck. That's my story.
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greg
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Re: dumb luck
Awesome story!gary wrote:About 2 years ago I was driving around my neighborhood and stumbled across an unadvertised estate sale. As usual I was looking for old fishing tackle or old billiard cues. None were there but there was a box of 300 plus new comics individually bagged and boarded. The price was $50. They were Valiants which I had never heard of. So I passed on them and left. Next day, while running errands with my wife, we drove near the sale and stopped. The comics were still there, unsold. I offered $20 figuring I couldn't lose much. Well, I got on the web and found this website and discovered Valiant comics have a loyal following. As I searched through the cache of comics I found I had 15 Rai 2's, 21 Rai 3,s 3 Rai 4,s and 15 magnus 12's. The rest were very common. Last year I sent 5 to cgc for grading to see how they fared. The 3 centered Rai 3,s came back (2) 9.8 and (1) 9.6. The 2 Rai 4,s came back at 9.4 each. I have not sent any more in but am quite happy with th initial submission. How's that for dumb luck. That's my story.
You better not be in central Arkansas, because that sounds exactly like the "treasure trove" I witnessed in 1993.
The father of some kids I knew had a longbox of pre-Unity books.
I specifically remember the Rai issues... over a dozen of #2 and #3, but only about 4 of Rai #4. I think I traded him some of my books for a Rai #5.
(Since I had never seen any of these books in a comic shop, I was astounded that he had so many duplicates!)
I saw that guy again about five years ago and told him I wanted his Valiant comics someday.
He laughed and said he hadn't thought about those in years.
A while back I was in an LCS and found 11 Rai #3 for $.10 cents a PIECE !! I quietly picked them up, giggling and doing the happy dance at the register and then practically ran out of the store, making eye contact with NOBODY. I sped off in my car, narrowly missing a motorcycle and a bus of Columbian midgets (every one of them had green eyes and webbed feet... how odd) visiting Tucson while on a vacation slash business trip which involved dehydrated pork and stilletto shoes (very attractive I might add)... anyways, I get back to the house where I take out my great looking ten cent copies of Rai #3.............. to find that there is an ink stamp on the first page of every copy. An ink stamp that had the name and address of the comic shop on it.
At that point, I think I went quite mad actually. I sent my entire family to my wife's mother and father. They own an emu ranch in Tombstone, AZ and it is far from the beaten path of civilization. Doing this to protect them from myself, I then went on a drinking binge consisting of Ouzo, coke a cola and shots of tequila which is not hard to come by considering we are fairly close to the Mexican border. Hard booze was not hard to come by... nor was the level of violence that the states of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico had ever seen. I believe at one point the Nevada Air National Guard was called out to apprehend me or at a minimum provide some kind of 'tracking status' so that small towns could be notified and either evacuated or gasoline trenches dug and ignited. The flames keeping me at bay and the cries of women and children disorientating me to the point of tears. At one point, I remember trapping a young women in a shoe store. I thought her a young child at first but she was indeed a miget. She seemed to calm me then. Talking to me softly, almost cooing like a small fragile bird. I remember getting tired as she had me lay in her small diminuative lap. Stroking my hair, singing Hotel California by the Eagles... I was almost at rest... at peace. My inner fires of rage and anger nearly burned out..... until I saw her tiny... webbed... feet. The rage, the anger, the sheer wanton destructive urges again rose to the surface and.... well, I do not recall the things that happened after that. The next thing I remember was waking up at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Heavily sedated, strapped to the bed, naked from the waist up and wearing a muzzle like the one worn by the madman in Silence of the Lambs. Lastly, I remember having this feeling, this QUESTION that haunts my very soul to this day.... words that echo in my skull like the very bells of doom that will be heard during the last days of our existance on this planet... "Why, would someone put an ink stamp of a comic shop on the first page of a Rai #3 ? Why ?"
At that point, I think I went quite mad actually. I sent my entire family to my wife's mother and father. They own an emu ranch in Tombstone, AZ and it is far from the beaten path of civilization. Doing this to protect them from myself, I then went on a drinking binge consisting of Ouzo, coke a cola and shots of tequila which is not hard to come by considering we are fairly close to the Mexican border. Hard booze was not hard to come by... nor was the level of violence that the states of Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico had ever seen. I believe at one point the Nevada Air National Guard was called out to apprehend me or at a minimum provide some kind of 'tracking status' so that small towns could be notified and either evacuated or gasoline trenches dug and ignited. The flames keeping me at bay and the cries of women and children disorientating me to the point of tears. At one point, I remember trapping a young women in a shoe store. I thought her a young child at first but she was indeed a miget. She seemed to calm me then. Talking to me softly, almost cooing like a small fragile bird. I remember getting tired as she had me lay in her small diminuative lap. Stroking my hair, singing Hotel California by the Eagles... I was almost at rest... at peace. My inner fires of rage and anger nearly burned out..... until I saw her tiny... webbed... feet. The rage, the anger, the sheer wanton destructive urges again rose to the surface and.... well, I do not recall the things that happened after that. The next thing I remember was waking up at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Heavily sedated, strapped to the bed, naked from the waist up and wearing a muzzle like the one worn by the madman in Silence of the Lambs. Lastly, I remember having this feeling, this QUESTION that haunts my very soul to this day.... words that echo in my skull like the very bells of doom that will be heard during the last days of our existance on this planet... "Why, would someone put an ink stamp of a comic shop on the first page of a Rai #3 ? Why ?"
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Heath
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betterthanezra
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