GeeksAreMyPeeps

On 10/31/2023 at 6:30 PM, Patriot6 said:

EBAy should force a minimum offer acceptance amount when you select that option.

Playing devil's advocate here: if you forced that, you'd have sellers that don't want that setting the amount at a penny lower than the BIN price. If you forced the auto-accept to be a certain percentage lower than the price, then savvy buyers are going to know that they can send an offer at X percent lower than the price and never risk losing out on the item.

On 10/31/2023 at 9:42 PM, ramithard said:

I always combine shipping on the invoice and discount it....or if they paid full shipping on items I ask them for their Paypal so I can refund some....or include cash in the package

Best to do a partial refund through eBay, as you'll get back part of their fees (they charge fees on the shipping amount you collect as well). Also, if someone decides to return everything as "Not as Described" you'll end up refunding that part of the shipping cost again

On 10/30/2023 at 3:29 PM, Lightning55 said:

I don't block lowball offer people, but I am considering it. Just yesterday I had an unsolicited offer come in at just over half price, like this: 82?

No question, no excuse me for putting in an offer where you obviously aren't looking for offers. Too lazy, just toss a ridiculous number out there.

My reaction was to reply, "No, and your offer is embarrassing. People say it doesn't hurt to ask. People are wrong. Blocking you now".

But instead I just ignored it, as the "buyer" expected I might.

Just respond "No; I'm rather young"

On 10/27/2023 at 11:38 PM, BuraddoRun said:

Did anyone else here pick up a copy or 2 or 3 of Blitmap? They had it at NYCC this year (I didn't attend) and it just released at local shops this past Wednesday. So, it's a sci-fi story about 2 artificial (robot) "races" of people: the Blitnauts and the Logos, both generally untrusting of each other and at odds. But then a 3rd race shows up, the Static, that is apparently a threat to the other 2. Will they set aside their differences to face this new enemy? Or something like that. I dunno yet, since only 1 issue is out. The story is OK. I'm interested enough to keep going.

But there are a couple of other pretty awesome things about the book. Number one, the IP is "open source." Basically you can use the characters, world, setting, etc. freely if you'd like to make your own stories, merchandise, etc. You just can't reproduce a copy of the exact comic book they've printed. Who knows if anyone will care enough to actually do it, or how big it will get, but it's a neat concept anyhow.

But here's the big deal for collectors, and I'm sure many issues will end up being slabbed. Every single issue has an exclusive, one-of-a-kind cover. They call it a collaboration between their artists and "algorithms." If you've ever heard of the card game Keyforge, I imagine the technology used there is similar. All the art is made by an actual artist, not AI. There are 7 different base designs for Issue 1, but various aspects are all changed via algorithm, including background, zooming, colors, accessories on characters, clothing, facial expressions, etc. It's a pretty novel idea and the covers are genuinely cool. It has a $4.99 cover price and it comes in a foil polybag so you can't see what cover is inside. Again, every cover is unique! It's pretty awesome! And the quality of the book is actually GOOD, like the physical quality. Much better than your standard Marvel $4.99 books. Titan publishes the book. I've attached a pic of the 2 covers I got locally. But I'm kind of hooked so I ordered 5 more copies online. LOL. Here's a YT video they made that kind of explains things a bit. If you bought any, share your covers here!

 

In the '90s, a small company called Triumphant dubbed themselves "The Collector's Universe" and serial-numbered their comics, so somewhat similarly, no two covers were alike, because they all had different numbers (if not different art), and you knew exactly how many were out there. I remember some of the titles being well done (I think Adam Pollina's first pro work was for them), but they didn't survive the '90s implosion. I think for this to take off, the story needs to be better than just "okay."

On 10/29/2023 at 5:12 AM, Colin Nash said:

I thought I knew what a first appearance was but, apparently not. I'm showing this recent Venom #23 comic with the new Symbiote Black Widow on the cover. A first appearance you might think but, apparently not ? The marketing for this comic said "Venom #23 - the first appearance of a new symbiote"

Inside the comic she appears in cameo but, in full on the cover. Because she doesn't make a FULL appearance in the story until Venom #26, this issue is recognised as her first appearance.

To my way of thinking the huge cover reveal on Venom #23 combined with the cameo makes this the first appearance?

I would love to know your thoughts ? 

 

 

First appearance (cameo) in story; first cover appearance. Other covers for this issue are only cameo appearances. Now how collectors should value this is a different question.

A cameo appearance is still an appearance, so the marketing didn't lie.

Based on the discussion earlier, I wonder if CGC intends on relabeling the Comic Bug Edition of Edge of Spider-verse 2 a reprint. That seems logical; printed 6 months later, and after the popularity of Spider-Gwen had taken off.

On 10/12/2022 at 2:38 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

Poor is a good choice of word, Axelrod.

Take a look at these two CGC slabbed books:

 

 

Both slabs are titled Brave and the Bold #28, both are labelled as the "1st appearance of the Justice League of America".

Look at the first book, by DC:

• If I said to you that book was called Brave and the Bold, you couldn't question it, because it is.
• If I said to you it was number 28, you couldn't question it, because it is.
• If I said to you it was the first appearance of the Justice League, you couldn't question it, because it is.
• If I told you I was going to file it against the census record of DC's Brave and the Bold, you couldn't question it, because it's the only logical place for it.

Now look at the Editora Brasil-America book, printed eight years later:

• If I said to you that book was called Brave and the Bold, you could question it, because it is called Os Justiceiros.
• If I said to you it was number 28, you could question it, because it is number 12.
• If I said to you it was the first appearance of the Justice League, you could question it, because it is isn't - DC's Brave and the Bold #28 printed 8 years earlier is.
• If I told you "Ah, but it's the first appearance of the Justice League in Brasil", you could say "Great. Well say that then", and I'd ignore you.
• If I told you I was going to file it against the census record of #28 of DC's Brave and the Bold, you could question it, because it belongs against the record of Editora Brasil-America's Os Justiceiros #12.

So CGC have created all those issues, just to get across that the subsequent international book shares the same cover as BATB #28. All they had to do was add a label note to that effect, and add the words "in Brasil" after the first appearance label designation. That's all they had to do.

The shame of it all, is that these 'international' books are FANTASTIC! And instead of praising them and gushing over how FANTASTIC they are, we're all here scratching our heads over a non-factual, inaccurate, misleading and wildly over engineered recording strategy.

 

What if I said to you that it shouldn't have gotten a 8.0, with that top edge?

On 10/27/2023 at 2:56 PM, valiantman said:

I don't think there is an answer that can satisfy everyone. A book like Amazing Spider-Man #667 isn't really worth CGC slabbing as a regular edition. Meanwhile, the Dell'Otto variant is one of the most sought after modern Marvel books. Requiring a $30 CGC book (such as the #667 regular edition) which is barely worth the cost of grading or shipping, in order to complete a "no variants" set is strange because there are other editions with the same content printed at the same time.

It's not strange to not allow a variant to fill the registry slot of a book that's not worth grading, if it gets people that are trying to complete the registry to submit a book that they otherwise wouldn't have; from the perspective of CGC's balance sheet, anyway.

On 10/28/2023 at 10:03 PM, fastballspecial said:

I think this book is one of the biggest hoaxes in the modern market. Its continues to hold some value without any supporting data to support the value. Its one book I will never touch unless I buy it dirt cheap. I feel sorry for people who bought it during Covid it will be years before they get their money back. Latest sales show it fluttering around $800 in 9.8. Its just book that has no upside right now for the gamble.

I think the book has plenty of upside (but not at that price, of course). It's the first appearance of a character, with a tiny print run (for Marvel), that hasn't appeared in other media, and hasn't really been a solid fixture in the comics yet (and by that, I'm thinking having his own ongoing title, or being the anchor for a consistently published team book. But without either of those, I think this is the sort of book that would be flirting with double-digit prices ungraded, and flirting with triple-digits in 9.8. I think it's going to take both of those things for the book to be worth $800.

On 10/27/2023 at 5:02 PM, paqart said:

Point taken regarding non-collectors vs collectors. If you want to look at only collectors, then I'd compare this to the group of collectors and stores who advised Overstreet to print that the Star Wars 35 cent variant isn't worth much more than the 30 cent price issue. Meanwhile, some dealers recognized that rarity of the comic and ignored Overstreet. Today, you can see the result for all of the 35 cent price variants, several of which are keys. Overall, it increases value even for non-keys, but values skyrocket for keys.

I think what's comparable there is that, until the market is studied for some time, there is uncertainty on availability, so people are going to value them differently based on their opinions of what the availability is (and, of course, whether the difference in the books matters). What's not comparable is that the price variants were available in a limited location, so they would not have been available to many people that would have wanted them when they came out.

The latter element in determining value (whether the difference in the books matters) is always going to be a factor. Many people won't think it makes a difference. For those that do, I think in time the values will settle into a tighter range. Right now, I still see too many sales listings for Newsstands from the '80s–early '90s that are prices way higher than their availability justifies for (and not even in high grade; sellers are asking silly prices for Newsstands in the F-VF range, which is going to be a typical condition for those books).

On 10/25/2023 at 7:46 PM, paqart said:

THis is a bit like saying that there are people who don't see the value difference between FF #1 (1961) and any of the later reissue #1's from the series. That doesn't make the original #1 less valuable. It just creates bargains in the hands of people who don't "believe in" the value of the originals.

Not really. There are always going to be people who aren't collectors that don't think a pricetag is justified. That's not what we're talking about here (at least, not the *only* thing). In the case of Newsstands, we're still dealing with a lot of uncertainty, as for the bulk of the history of collecting, Newsstands and Directs were lumped together when studying the market, so it's not entirely clear exactly where the numbers fall in terms of surviving copies, and copies in high grade. It's starting to get more clear as people study it, but there's still a lot of uncertainly, so results vary quite a bit.

On 10/24/2023 at 9:44 PM, paqart said:

I guess it would be, but on a zero starting price, not relevant to this conversation. I remember when this discussion started a couple years ago, some people expressed the view that there either wasn't a premium for newsstand comics, the premium was an illusion, or it was "an insufficiently_thoughtful_person premium" for people who didn't understand value.

What recent prices tell us that it isn't an illusion, and if it's for "insufficiently_thoughtful_persons" they are making money on the delusion, if it is in fact a delusion. A better explanation is that the premium is real and substantial enough to take into consideration when buying or selling. Personally, I'm quite happy with the 1,500 or so NS edition comics I bought over the past couple of years.

I think just be bringing the subject up, you change the equation. Certainly there are some people out there that don't care one way or the other, but figuring that other people do, will pick up Newsstand Editions because they think other people see value in them, even if they don't themselves.

On 10/19/2023 at 9:03 AM, Bookery said:

No... but does it matter?  The public's taste today doesn't seem to demand much in that regard, seemingly preferring retreads and standardized cliches (see modern movies) to depth or nuance.  If you can, like Jackson Pollack, splatter the movie or game screen with colorful CGI, the public seems content enough.  

Well, when *anyone* can create something that *looks* impressive, or structurally seems to be a story, why would anyone bother to pay money to read a book, see a movie, etc., when they can just make their own. The ones with those elements that can't be recreated by a computer will be the ones worth spending money on.

On 10/7/2023 at 7:53 PM, FloridianDemon said:

Hmm.. are the ones from the games the same character? or is it the acclaim/valiant version? 

Valiant's Turok (and Magnus) pretty much continued the continuity of the Gold Key books (but Solar was reimagined). But when Acclaim bought out Valiant, they rebooted the line of comics as Acclaim comics, and all of the Valiant characters (including the Gold Key characters) were rebooted. So if you're mainly looking for the first comic of the video game version of the characters, it would be the Acclaim Turoks (and Shadowman) to look for. Shadowman is a tricky one though, because the comic posted earlier in the thread was a variant of the first Acclaim Shadowman book, but it was printed a year after the regular version (which also has a variant printed at the same time).

On 10/18/2023 at 9:53 AM, Bookery said:

Eventually, perhaps.  But not based on that story, at least.  It reads like a Little Golden Book (you can almost visualize the accompanying illustrations on the opposing page).  I wonder if ChatGPT "intentionally" wrote it like a children's book, or if that's all it can handle at this point?  Serious question.

ChatGPT doesn't know jack about creating compelling characters.

On 10/17/2023 at 3:52 PM, Artboy99 said:

I also think it is a smarter venture if trying to obtain period currency to bring back items of value in the time machine to exchange/sell for the period correct currency. Gold items, jewels, etc.

Then you accumulate period correct currency in better condition for face value

1. Go to my spice cabinet and collect all of the bottles.

2. Travel back 500 years, trade for gold.

3. Travel forward to buy comics.

On 9/25/2023 at 3:16 PM, LearnedHand said:

Some observations:

• There are no professional graders.  Last I checked, there’s no curriculum at any accredited institution where one can achieve a comic book grading certificate or diploma for this (part science, part art, part subjective) skill. All we have ever had, since the dawn of people collecting and distinguishing between nicer/crummier copies, is evolving opinions based on gained and shared experiences, and varying degrees of talent or personal interest.  We know this, as there are myriad threads and discussion about how often sellers as well as even the so-called experts get it wrong. 

 

There may be no *certified* graders, but insofar as someone is paying CGC's graders to grade, that's their profession. Splitting hairs, I know. And in any profession, sometimes people get it wrong.

On 10/14/2023 at 11:22 AM, B2D327 said:

On top of the “altering history” plot hole, something that grinds my gears about time travel is how are people paying for the objects they’re purchasing from the past if the currency they travel with is from modern times? 10 cents wasn’t really a pittance 80 years ago so I find it hard to believe a merchant didn’t inspect a coin/coins enough to notice the difference in size and weight when they’ve been handling it on a regular basis, it being the most common form of payment for the time, something I think is an important aspect that “writers” never take into consideration 

I've thought about this problem, and figured that the solution would be to gather up the oldest bills you can currently find that aren't worth any more than the newest bills, go back in time to when they were new, exchange them for the oldest bills you can find that aren't worth any more than contemporary bills, and repeat the process until you have valid money from the time period you're buying from.

On 10/7/2023 at 10:26 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

I guess CGC witnessed someone doing the restoration?

What I wonder here is if the restoration was only on the outer of the double covers, shouldn't it technically still be a blue label, since the inner cover would still be in its original form. (Granted that the label doesn't indicate which cover was touched up.)

On 10/16/2023 at 1:15 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

It was a good shout Geeks. I'm pleased to see any comments really. I'm quite surprised by how muted the response to the discovery of a 30+ year old ASM variant has been. What can you do. My mistake was to post about it on a comic forum 

People probably saw it, and then started hunting for a copy for themselves.

On 10/16/2023 at 12:43 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

I see what you mean about the Spidey head UPC, but there's no real comparison there for me. The Shan-Lon books were smaller, repackaged comics, made for a specific purpose.

  Reveal hidden contents

That's not really what's going on with the 320 which is priced and in (largely UK) circulation just as a standard issue would be.

Gotcha. I had never heard of those before; just noticed that in the images you posted.

On 10/7/2023 at 8:22 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Hello 

It's always nice to discover something new when you're looking for something else, isn't it. 

The other day, while looking for Mark Jewelers copies, I spotted something about Spidey #320 that I hadn't spotted before. I'm wondering how many of you might not have spotted it either, despite it being 34 years old and sitting in plain sight. 

The GCD has the two known versions - newsstand and direct....

...as does Pete's place, the home of Spidey Completists worldwide (one of which I used to be):

 

Here are my two copies:

 

Anyway, I was looking for a jewelers copy the other week and found that eBay USA had 205 results for "Amazing Spider-Man 320":

 

Of those 205 listings, 168 (83%) where the Direct Edition:

35 of them (17%) were the Newsstand:

None of them, however, were this Spidey head UPC version:

On eBay UK, 3 of the 12 copies for sale, and 3 of the 8 sold were this hitherto (by me) unspotted version:

 

So, none out of 205 listings in the US, but 6 out of 20 in the UK.

Hmmm....

I ordered a Spidey head UPC copy so I could do a full comparison but the seller sent me the Paladin UPC copy (I suspect on purpose, as I ordered one of each type which likely brought it to their attention). From the eBay images I've seen, the only difference besides the Spidey and Paladin UPCs are a tiny production related line under the word 'LATE' which appears on all the Spidey head UPC copies:

The indicias appear the same - no indication of a second printing or anything like that.

I've ordered some more copies and will do a full review when they arrive, but in the meantime I thought some of you might find this interesting if, as I suspect, it has passed you by too.

Since the previous issue has that "Shan-Lon" giveaway edition with the Spidey head, maybe something similar was planned for this issue?

On 10/15/2023 at 1:16 AM, speedcake said:

amidst the sea of foil and forgettable exclusives at NYCC this year there are some gems.  Will be fun to see in the coming week or two which ones really pop.

The Spawn Universe Sampler already sold for $500 (Canadian).

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=spawn+sampler+todd+mcfarlane+&_sacat=0&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1

On 9/29/2023 at 5:07 PM, brettfes said:

i feel like this is probably something that has been covered someone here before... so please point me or if not answer.

i am looking for a reco for bags for the extra thick cgc slabs. i use 2mil comic pro line "graded - 8.75x13.5x1.5) for othe slabs but they obviously dont fit the extra thick ones. these have a flap and glue strip.
but if anyone knows a similar quality bag i would love a link or point me where. 
cheers
brett

I bought a bunch of these. Works well for the thicker slabs.

https://www.bcwsupplies.com/resealable-bag-for-graded-comics-9-x-14