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- Jun 25, 2011
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What are your best, most miraculous finds while adding to your collection? I'm not talking just Star Wars, but any collection. I thought of this because a friend of mine texted me last night and told me about an estate sale he went to last weekend. He didn't find anything worthwhile and was about to leave when he told the lady running it that he was hoping to find some books. She told him a book dealer had wiped them out the day before. She said all they had left was the dog book. When she brought it out, it turned out to be a first edition of Cujo. She said that since the dealer gave them more than they were hoping to get for the books, she let him have it for $5. He was ecstatic.
We got talking about great finds and I told him about two misses and one hit on my account. The first miss was in the late 90s when I was collecting POTF2 like crazy. My one collecting buddy called me and told me to meet him at the McDonald's we'd meet at way across town when we'd hunt over there. He had connections at a bunch of the stores and this guy at the Kaybee in an out of the way strip mall called him to say they'd found a box of old figures in the back room. He asked me to come along in case there was anything worthwhile left over after he got first dibs. As we drove over, he was excited because he was certain it was an old case of Shadow of the Empire figures. He'd somehow missed out on them when they were released. Instead, it was an old case of POTF figures. There were only half a dozen figures in the box, and nothing really rare, but we about flipped. They weren't worth as much then as now, but it was an awesome find. I forget if he posted about it in any of the forums at the time or not. Naturally, he bought them all so I missed out, but it was fun being there for it.
A few years later, I was mostly done collecting new figures, but I was searching for old figures from other lines. There was a toy shop nearby a friend of mine told me about. It was south of town and kept odd hours, but he said they had some really cool stuff. I went in and couldn't believe what a mess it was. Stuff was stacked from floor to ceiling and things weren't very well organized. I think there were a dozen different Star Wars "sections" in the store, a couple of which were just buckets of loose figures. In one of the sections marked "other toy lines," there were a bunch of figures in individual Ziplok bags. Some had cards, most didn't, and most were pretty beat up. It was all movie and TV action figure lines from the late 70s and early 80s. Nothing caught my eye until I saw a drab figure in a smaller bag with a $20 price tag. It was a Humanoid from the Mego Black Hole line. I nearly hyperventilated. I think they go for a couple thousand now. Back then, I think it was still a $200-300 figure. I took it to the register. The guy stared at it for a minute and a look of panic flashed over him. He was quiet for a second, then gave me a dirty look and said, "You don't think I'm that stupid, do you?" Before I realized what he was doing, he snatched it out of my hand then accused me of switching the price tag on it. I started arguing with him. He stuffed the figure into the cash register, closed it, then told me I had to leave. I argued a little more then gave up. He went out of business a few months later.
The time I made out like a bandit, I was at this little comic book store in the early 90s. The old guy who ran it was a bit of a curmudgeon and was ready to retire. At one point, he'd been the second-biggest shop in town, but he hadn't kept up with the times. His prices for back issues sometimes tended to be arbitrary and based more on his personal taste than the Overstreet guide. You could find some good deals, but you could also find really common books priced at 5-10 times what they were at other stores. Every shop in town had dime or quarter boxes. He had a dollar box. I was flipping through it and it was mostly garbage--low grade Richie Rich and Hot Stuff, things like that. Towards the back, I found a Hulk 181. I looked around and thought someone was playing a joke on me. I looked at it for a few minutes not really knowing what to do. I finally grabbed it and a few of the old Harvey comics and headed toward the register. I honestly thought I was going to pass out. When I got to the register, he flipped through the books. He pulled out the Hulk, looked it over, said, "Good book," then sold it to me for $1. I had to pull over on the way home to catch my breath, then flip through it to make sure it was the real thing. That's likely the best find I've ever had.
We got talking about great finds and I told him about two misses and one hit on my account. The first miss was in the late 90s when I was collecting POTF2 like crazy. My one collecting buddy called me and told me to meet him at the McDonald's we'd meet at way across town when we'd hunt over there. He had connections at a bunch of the stores and this guy at the Kaybee in an out of the way strip mall called him to say they'd found a box of old figures in the back room. He asked me to come along in case there was anything worthwhile left over after he got first dibs. As we drove over, he was excited because he was certain it was an old case of Shadow of the Empire figures. He'd somehow missed out on them when they were released. Instead, it was an old case of POTF figures. There were only half a dozen figures in the box, and nothing really rare, but we about flipped. They weren't worth as much then as now, but it was an awesome find. I forget if he posted about it in any of the forums at the time or not. Naturally, he bought them all so I missed out, but it was fun being there for it.
A few years later, I was mostly done collecting new figures, but I was searching for old figures from other lines. There was a toy shop nearby a friend of mine told me about. It was south of town and kept odd hours, but he said they had some really cool stuff. I went in and couldn't believe what a mess it was. Stuff was stacked from floor to ceiling and things weren't very well organized. I think there were a dozen different Star Wars "sections" in the store, a couple of which were just buckets of loose figures. In one of the sections marked "other toy lines," there were a bunch of figures in individual Ziplok bags. Some had cards, most didn't, and most were pretty beat up. It was all movie and TV action figure lines from the late 70s and early 80s. Nothing caught my eye until I saw a drab figure in a smaller bag with a $20 price tag. It was a Humanoid from the Mego Black Hole line. I nearly hyperventilated. I think they go for a couple thousand now. Back then, I think it was still a $200-300 figure. I took it to the register. The guy stared at it for a minute and a look of panic flashed over him. He was quiet for a second, then gave me a dirty look and said, "You don't think I'm that stupid, do you?" Before I realized what he was doing, he snatched it out of my hand then accused me of switching the price tag on it. I started arguing with him. He stuffed the figure into the cash register, closed it, then told me I had to leave. I argued a little more then gave up. He went out of business a few months later.
The time I made out like a bandit, I was at this little comic book store in the early 90s. The old guy who ran it was a bit of a curmudgeon and was ready to retire. At one point, he'd been the second-biggest shop in town, but he hadn't kept up with the times. His prices for back issues sometimes tended to be arbitrary and based more on his personal taste than the Overstreet guide. You could find some good deals, but you could also find really common books priced at 5-10 times what they were at other stores. Every shop in town had dime or quarter boxes. He had a dollar box. I was flipping through it and it was mostly garbage--low grade Richie Rich and Hot Stuff, things like that. Towards the back, I found a Hulk 181. I looked around and thought someone was playing a joke on me. I looked at it for a few minutes not really knowing what to do. I finally grabbed it and a few of the old Harvey comics and headed toward the register. I honestly thought I was going to pass out. When I got to the register, he flipped through the books. He pulled out the Hulk, looked it over, said, "Good book," then sold it to me for $1. I had to pull over on the way home to catch my breath, then flip through it to make sure it was the real thing. That's likely the best find I've ever had.
