What is your greatest Buy or Flip?

I am a beginner compared to everyone else on this forum in terms of flips. I thought it would be fun to list some of everyones greatest buys or flips. A couple of mine are buying Raw copies of batman adventures 12 and x-men giant size off ebay and pressing the books. BA12 graded at CGC 9.8 and the X-men Giant Size # 1 graded at a CGC 9.6.

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I think I’ve mentioned this before but one of my best flips ever in terms of return on investment was nabbing Batman New 52 #2-5 (during it’s height on heat) for about a buck each at Half Price Books and selling the lot for around $130. So $4 turns into $130 is a great flip.

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I found a Marvel Age 12 for 25 cents at the flea market. I pressed/cleaned/graded it and it came back a 9.8 that I sold $550. It is going for a bit more these days, but I cannot complain about a $530 return.

I have two that I am pretty proud of. Back in my college days I lost my financial aid. I left in the middle of a semester due to my my having leukemia. She was pretty sick and given at best a 50/50 shot. So I took off to be with her and help at home. I ranked and my gpa dropped. So needless to say financial aid was cut and didn’t have the cash to pay for the next semester. I ended up walking around town and came across a yard sale. The old lady had a metal amazing Spider-Man trash can. Inside were nice copies of early ASM comics. Most below #20. She had a $5 price tag. I gave her a $20 said keep the change and left. Needless to say I sold the books for enough to cover my semester. Once in a life time score.

Ultimate Spider-Man Niagara Falls Variant was my other great score. My girlfriend (now my wife) and I flew up to Buffalo and went over the boarder. At the time these were selling for $80-$100 a copy on eBay. We went to the Marvel attraction at the falls and I asked if they had them. She said yes. I think I paid $2.25 a copy for the remaining 100-150 copies they had left. I started selling them on eBay at $85 a copy. A large retailer contacted me and asked me what I would take for the remaining copies. We settled on $60 a copy. Boom. Packed them up and shipped them off. Made out really well. Paid off some debt. Needless to say I have seen the retailer at conventions selling the books for about $20 a copy now trying to recoup their initial investment.

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Wow, I cant believe you were able to press a book to 9.8 from the flea market. Amazing.

Purchased Ultimate Fallout 4 1:25 CGC 9.8 SS for about $1,500 (a ton of money) a couple years ago. I believe it’s worth a lot more than that now. However, I also sold some UF4 new stands for $400 and they are now about 10x that much. You win some. You lose some.

anthony, these are great stories.

Mine isn’t a buy so much as a find.

Growing up I read some comics but I was never a big collector. Certainly not a kid who saved comics for later on in case they were worth money. I also was an awful judge. (I’ve found old Allen Iverson cards from like his 5th season in giant protective containers while I had Kobe and Shaq rookie cards just sitting in piles with a rubberband…)

Earlier this year when Last Dance was blowing up, I remembered in our attic I had a bunch of old Bulls and Jordan stuff from when I was younger sitting in a box from my parents’ house. So I wanted to bring it down to see if I could find anything in there to sell since Jordan was super hot again. Ended up finding a bunch of things like championship hats and shirts with the tags still on, so sold most of those.

But at the bottom of the box, full of Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan things, was a single copy of Marvel Super Heroes #13 (the first appearance of Carol Danvers). I don’t remember ever owning it, it’s way older than anything I would have read, and neither of my parents ever collected comics. I honestly have no idea how it got in there. But my girls are huge captain marvel fans so it was a lucky find.

Ended up sending it off to get pressed and graded, and got it back a 7.5. Now it sits in my office in the filing cabinet until I decide which daughter will get it one day haha.

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Similar story which is more of a find. I use to collect baseball cards when i was a kid and have over 100,000 cards, 99% are worthless because of overproduction. however after watching the last dance i went back to see if i had any jordan cards. I started going through the cards and pulled a 1985 star court #298 Michael card. the things is i have no idea where the card came from and the first thing i am thinking is its a counterfeit because currently there are so many jordan counterfeit cards. But were they making fake cards in the 80s. So i sent it to PSA to be graded and hopefully it comes back as real. the card was in a card holder and in great condition. another bummer is PSA takes 6 months to grade one card.

I found a raw ASM #300 last year for $120. I’m not a pro grader, but I’d have guessed it was an 8.5. Sent it in to CGC’s Todd McFarlane signature event and it came back a 9.2 after pressing.

Yeah, except for the Leukemia part.

My best flip is also my biggest comic regret. A local store had a Detective #28 come in that I bought for $4k CDN in early 2009. It came back as a universal 2.0 or 2.5, due to rodent chew on the back cover. I moved it in a cash + trade for $9200 USD that fall to raise $$$ for an investment. I believe it is a $40K-$50K book now. My investments have done well since then, but damn that was a cool book to own.

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Bought a UF4 CGC 9.8 for $234.99 in June 2018. Just watching it climb…

I also bought a small collection at a garage sale for $80 and it had a copy of Rappin Max Robot that I got graded a Cgc 9.4.

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I don’t know if it’s the best I had but it’s the one I recall right now…I bought a Bone #3 1st print signed by Jeff Smith for $30 off ebay. I sent it to CBCS and it came back a 9.8 with verified signature and I sold it for $400.

Earlier in the year I found 3 copies of Miles Hip Hop Variant for $4 total, it was a buy one get one free deal. I sold one for $200 and traded another for a CGC 9.8 Batman #655. I kept the best copy which I think is a 9.8 contender.

Gabbed a few copies of Strange Academy #1 for cover price when they first came out and sold some for $60-65. I also bought 2 sets of the Peach Momoko covers for $20 a set, I have sent one set to CGC and sold the other for $350.

I ordered 25 copies of Thor #5 and paid $3 each for them and got the 1:25 for cover price. I resold them for $35 each. I have 5 copies left as well as the 1:25, yesterday I found another 3 for cover price. I’ll hold them as I’ve made more than enough to cover their cost.

Grabbed 3 copies of Venom First Host #3 2nd prints at the same time I got the Miles hip hop covers so was also a buy 1 get 1 free at cover price. Sold one for $220 and sold another to buy a New Teen Titans #2 CGC 9.0 have one left for my collection.

Those are a few recent ones that come to mind, been a good year for growing the collection.

I have a ton of amazing buys but that was just going prices 10-11 years ago. Best flips Harley Quinn Dell Otto that was my $900 sale when it came out. Escape from Monster Island Female Boba Fett variant print run 100 copies I owned 29 of the 100 copies. I found them for $19.99 at a online shop in California no idea why they would have so many zenoscope books specially a ultra limited variant not a store variant. Called them he said he had 29 copies I bought them all $19.99 each sold all but one between $150-$80. They were all sold within a 6 month span which is just crazy for anything zenoscope. Even to this day when one comes up for sale people go after it.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/ESCAPE-FROM-MONSTER-ISLAND-1-STAR-WARS-BOBA-FETT-COSPLAY-EXCLUSIVE-MANDALORIAN/114561989023

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Cause that is a great cover. Still love that cover.

I’d kill for an early signed copy of Bone… Unfortunately by the time I got into collecting comics Bone was already super popular so I didn’t want to spend for it. And now it’s even more expensive haha.

I once saw an ad on Craigslist for 15 short boxes of comics for $850. Database was listed as well. Some interesting things caught my eye uncanny x-men 266 2 copies a few other copper age keys but 1 book on the database intrigued me as it was the walking dead #1. When I got there I asked if I could see box #15 as it was titled on the database. Low and behold in that box with no bag and board, naked as a jay bird was a legit first print walking dead #1 in NM condition. I forked over the $850 and asked if he’d help me load the boxes. :slight_smile:

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So far my best are an inhumans 5 I bought for $3 and sold for $75 and a Spider-woman 1 that I bought for $15 pressed and then had graded and came back 9.8 and then recently sold for $310.