Sweet Lou 14

Regarding the domain name, it looks like I might have gotten a little over-excited. https://mcucosmic.com/2019/02/08/the-captain-marvel-website-is-not-teasing-annihilus/

The official Captain Marvel web site is an homage to classic 1990s sites from the embryonic web: https://www.marvel.com/captainmarvel And here's another interesting little detail. Notice anything about this alternate URL for the site? https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/movies/captain-marvel/

This pair is awesome! Now you just need to fill in the rest of #1-10 in corresponding grades. The only tough one should be the #10 in 10.0.

Well said. I got back into the hobby in early 2017, almost exactly two years ago ... and at the time I didn't make FF a priority but I did focus on X-Men. My X-Men run has all the keys except #12, which has been notoriously hard for me to track down in grade. A year later I did make a run at FF, and I've done a pretty good job of filling in the run but obviously had to pay through the nose to upgrade #45, 48, 52, etc. because they'd already gone way up (with #48, there's been even further movement so I can take some solace in that). I'm extremely happy that I grabbed FF #2 well before the Skrulls were confirmed in the Captain Marvel movie. But I'm still sitting on a want-list that has #1, #4, and #5 on it. I'm more or less resigned to the fact that it's going to cost me big-time to get those. Getting back to the topic of this thread, AF #15 was my #1 priority in 2017 so I am one of those who bought a copy that summer. While I wouldn't say I regret the purchase, as an investment it has been a flop -- my 5.0 has stayed more or less flat relative to what I paid for it. Had I spent the same money on an FF #1, I could have afforded an 8.0 and it would have doubled by now.

Not sure I understand the premise that Marvel is "moving in the direction of casting unknowns." Other than Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johanssen, they were all relative unknowns: Evans, Hemsworth, Ruffalo, Renner -- even Hiddleston and of course Tom Holland. They've sprinkled in plenty of big names in supporting roles (Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Natalie Portman) but the heroes carrying the movies didn't tend to be household names. I think it's always been a mix, but if anything they've moved in the direction of casting bigger names to the lead hero / villain like Cumberbatch, Swinton, Blanchett, and Brolin. Boseman might not have been a household name superstar before playing Black Panther, but he had already been headlining movies like 42 so I would put him here as well.

What about Fantasy Masterpieces? Always a favorite of mine ... Silver Age reprints of the Golden Age!

I didn't mention Essentials because I can't imagine you settling for black and white.

Are you into the various modern reprint volumes at all? Masterworks, Omnibus, etc. etc. ... some of these are themselves expensive collectibles, but I think many can be had for cheap especially if they're beaten up a bit.

Best of luck with the submission and subsequent sale! If you're submitting to CGC, do they have ways to gently remove some or all of the pencil marks without that being considered restoration?

Congratulations!

Really excited to finally join this club after a long time watching eagerly from the sidelines!

Yep, that's the one. I wasn't going to, but since you asked KJ ... I'll go put it up in the JIM #83 club.

Thank you very much for the kind words -- but my 9.4 run generally goes back to a certain point (varies by title) and then it goes down to more affordable grades. The only major Marvel title for which I have a true 9.4 run would be Daredevil -- just a few more issues to go and I'll have #1-109 complete. But that's because Daredevil is easily the most affordable title of the bunch. For JIM, I *just* picked up a 7.0 of #83 and I can now say I have a complete run of #83-125 with several issues I'd still like to upgrade. My dream is to someday own a 9.0 of #83, but I would also consider upgrading to 8.0 along the way.

Interesting. Seems like a low result relative to other recent sales -- I wonder if somehow people knew about that history or if it's more about the slight miswrap turning away the super picky types.

It's a great list, but I would just point out how hard it is to set expectations on price, especially for a complete novice. There are several books on your list with prices that really jump out to me as low. If you find a JIM #83 8.0 for $22,500, please let me know immediately so I can buy it.