Spent $60 on a 'rare' first appearance comic that turned out to be a reprint from the 90s

Picked up what I thought was a legit copy of New Mutants #98 at a flea market in Nashville. The seller was all hyping it up saying it was the first appearance of Deadpool and I totally fell for it. Got home and looked closer at the paper quality and the colors seemed too bright. Looked it up online and found out it was a 1994 reprint from some random collection. Lost 60 bucks on that mistake and now I triple check everything before buying. Has anyone else gotten burned by fake reprints at flea markets or yard sales?

2 comments

2 Comments

rose_murray12d ago

I paid $40 for what I thought was a first printing of Amazing Spider-Man #300 at a garage sale in Memphis. The guy swore it was legit even showed me some worn edges. Got it home and my buddy who actually knows comics pointed out the barcode on the back was totally wrong for 1988. Ngl I felt like a complete idiot. Now I always pull out my phone and check for those little details like the price box and the UPC code before I hand over cash. Live and learn I guess.

simon_chen12d agoMost Upvoted

I used to be one of those people who thought you could just eyeball a comic and know if it was real or not. Had a buddy who swore he could spot a reprint just by the paper feel. Then I saw a post from @rose_murray about that Spider-Man #300 and it got me thinking. Went back and checked some of my old garage sale finds, and sure enough I had a couple that had the wrong barcode numbers or the color was slightly off on the spine. Now I always look up the specific printing codes on my phone before buying anything over ten bucks. It's amazing how many little details the fakes get wrong once you actually know what to look for.