How I embarrassed myself at a comic convention with a key issue

I was at Great Lakes Comic Expo in Detroit last weekend, bragging to this group about my copy of Batman #423 I snagged for $80. This older collector just kind of smirked and asked if I checked the page count. Turns out I had been buying cheap reprints for YEARS thinking they were first prints. The bar code and cover price were totally different from a real first edition. Has anyone else fallen for that reprint trick or am I the only sucker here?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_reed1mo ago

Man I felt this one in my gut. My own comic shame moment was back in 2011 when I proudly showed off my "VF/NM" copy of Amazing Spider-Man #300 at a local show, only to have a dealer gently point out the glossy cover and white pages were dead giveaways for a 2009 reprint. I had paid full mint price for it too, like $120. Took me a good year before I could look at a Key Collector app again without cringing. So yeah, you're not alone in the sucker club, we just gotta laugh it off and learn to check those barcodes. Live and learn, right?

casey3931mo ago

That trick with the spine glue wyatt_shah85 mentioned is a lifesaver, I started doing the same after I got hit with a fake New Mutants #98. The bar code tip is solid too, I check that and the inside front cover for that tiny "Second Printing" text they try to hide.

wyatt_shah851mo agoProlific Poster

Started checking the binding glue on the spine after I got burned on a reprint of X-Men #1. The real old books have that distinctive split in the center where the pages separate naturally, but reprints are glued tight like a brand new textbook. I also started carrying a cheap loupe from Amazon in my bag to look at the dot pattern on the cover art original runs have a specific screen pattern that reprints can't quite replicate. That one trick saved me from buying a fake Silver Surfer #4 last year at a small show in Ohio. Your mileage may vary on how deep you wanna get into the authentication stuff, but for me it turned the whole hobby from a guessing game into something I actually feel confident about now.