ExNihilo

How convenient of him to turn this into some sort of alibi when it turns out the books are in fact missing. Now he'll just plausibly deny selling the books because they were stolen instead.

I've been on holiday since this whole thing exploded and there's no way I'm reading nearly 300 pages to get caught up on it. I get the gist of it though...someone found a way to open cases, swapped to lesser books, sent for reholder, and rinsed and repeated. How this was all figured out is lost on me. As are any other deeper points. At this point... ...i'm too afraid to ask.

"Because I think you lacked understanding the first 14 times I Said it."

Uhhhh....wow. Like, I shouldn't be surprised by this...yet somehow I am.

Yes, in the original thread, several boardies offered to help cover shipping costs. When he said he didn't have time to press books, answer emails, follow the thread, AND send out books, several boardies offered to help package and ship books. Each time was met with belligerence from Mike. The boards showed him more kindness than he deserved, and each time was met with excuses and animosity.

I'd probably send this person a list of all aggrieved parties that we're aware of along with estimated dollar amounts. Something I know others were trying to collate in this thread. They might not be able to do much for one person, but I imagine if you can show that there are a number of aggrieved parties with assets totaling in the hundreds of thousands, they might take this more seriously or assign it to someone willing to take on your case.

I did finally buy the mylites/fullbacks and I've slowly bagged about 70% of books. Organization-wise, it feels like everytime I sort a pile of books onto the shelves, a new pile emerges. I have a somewhat complicated indexing system for my books, one of the steps being to catalog all my books and their location on my shelves in Excel. The objective is to then print a table of contents and tape it to the front of a plastic dividers on each shelf to help identify what is on each shelf. I've basically done this for my DC books, but Marvel makes up some 60% of my collection. Which segues into my second goal which was to possibly limit or stop monthly subscriptions. Yeah...that didn't happen, the number of monthly titles is about the same as what it was at the beginning of the year. The thought of stopping though continues to grow while the space available for books continues to shrink.

Might be better to start a new thread? OPs post history is basically the start of this thread and they haven't logged on in 2 weeks.

I've considered this, but a part of me still wants to collect to see the diversity of titles. As costs mount and space diminishes, I'm constantly thinking it might be time to downsize and keep only a handful of issues, but I can't get myself to do it. As others have mentioned, you can read the issues digitally and then buy the ones you like. I know it sucks that you might miss a book that pops off as a result, but you're likely saving yourself hundreds in the long run. Like why bother spending $75/month on books that will be forgotten in the hopes that maybe one or two a year will be worth keeping? Might as well just read the books digitally and then buy that one book inflated to $60 on the secondary market while saving money on everything else.

Sounds like the Mile High approach. As someone who is beginning to build an ASM run, I'd like certain books to be a certain grade. For example, all modern books I'd like to get NM, and NM books are more readily available. But the older the book, the less fussy I am about grade. I'm presently completing issues 200-250. If someone has a NM copy for $10 and someone has a VF copy for $3, I'm gonna take the VF copy because many of those books aren't special keys. They're books that I imagine has little demand, so it doesn't matter much to me whether it's NM or not. It needs to look nice enough and not be falling apart at the staples. If there's a small color breaking crease, no biggy, it's just going to sit on my shelf anyways so I can say "I have a collection of ASM vol 1". Increasing the price of books reduces the number of collectors you're catering to. He values money over time and he's really just looking for one collector who values the opposite: time over money. Someone who is looking for the convenience of finishing off a collection hastily and has the money to do it. For a lot of us, I don't think that's how we operate. There's a "thrill of the hunt" of finding these books at reasonable prices. If I have $9k, I'm certainly not buying issues 400-700 like BA777 was quoted. I'm putting that money towards a graded ASM1 of AF15.

Man, glad I didn't waste my time inquiring about his collection. Sounds like it would have been a good laugh at least.

I'm not one for fancasting, but when that one was first thrown out there, I thought "oh my god, that's perfect. Taylor and Ryan are already friends anyways so this seems like a no brainer" Haha. I'm well aware. Sigh...guess I should bump this book up my "want list".

You misunderstand...as a Swiftie, I'm now concerned I'm gonna have to fend off others in an increasing market. I guess I should buy it soon.

, is that a legitimate thing I need to worry about? Swifties driving up the prices of Dazzler 1?

Kinda on the path to what you might be looking for. You can set to List View and get the titles, then expand that to see the issue numbers. Similarly, you can leave it in the default view and see the different covers. Ex_Nihilo's Comic Book Collection | League of Comic Geeks

Each credit card issuer has different terms, but the most I've seen was 6 months. Chase and BofA show 60 days. AmEx is 120.

Yup, when selling it's a matter of time vs money. You either sell the books piecemeal to maximize return while simultaneously expending YEARS of energy to unload the entire collection, or you sell the books heavily discounted and just wipe your hands clean of everything quickly. Also, realize that any eBay sale is going to take 10% off the top, plus apparently shipping (and I have no idea how much it would cost to ship 130+ issues). Recent eBay sales for WoSM run were $500 and $700 for NM+, though they appear to use the same image so not sure if one was canceled. Both included free shipping. The net return was probably $400 on that one sale, which would probably be a reasonable expectation for anyone looking to buy in person for their own personal collection. A shop/retailer is obviously going to want less than that. The other consideration is demand. The number of people interested in buying sets is smaller than those interested in individual issues. If I want a full run of WoSM, I might want most, but not all books, and as a result, I'll be less willing to pay a premium for any duplicate books. All this is to say the $42k estimate is waaaay too high and I would pare back expectations.

You would have thought that would have been the case in July, yet people still sent him books in August. I get it, no one's perusing the internet for every reference of a business, but it's clear there are still people out there who are still blind to what's happening. Or so he claims. I dunno, from the prior thread, he seems the type to be very eager to defend himself and play the victim card. I can't imagine him just restraining himself and not saying anything. Far easier for him to just delete his account in July and turn a blind eye to everything. For him, it's better to be ignorant than informed.

That's a great point about the natural lighting. It's so subtle that it didn't even occur to me, but you're absolutely right. The high ceilings between each level, and the windows that stretched all the way from the first floor to the roof brought in a lot of light which added to the sense of spaciousness. I heard that in 2022, the Expo only utilized floors 1 and 2. I'm not sure if that's related to budget constraints as I'm sure the event agreement was based on space used and not like the Expo was given the whole building for the weekend. I'm also aware that a car show was going on at the same time in 2022, but that the car show was cancelled for 2023. But whatever the case, by all accounts, everyone seemed to agree that 3 floors was better than 2, so hopefully that's the standard moving forward. My one suggestion (and I don't know if this is something you have a say in), is that at the end of the night, the UP escalators should be reversed so that all escalators go DOWN. When I exited the Hamill panel, all guests were forced to use the stairs, elevators, or the standard DOWN escalators in operation, all while a pair of escalators uselessly went up when no guests were going in that direction. As it is, escalators serve as a bottle neck since you go from wide open floor to a narrow set of moving stairs, so distributing foot traffic would make exiting easier. I'm guessing as a matter of safety, one escalator should be going UP, but that still means 3 of the 4 can be set to bring guests back down to the ground floor.

Picked these up from SF Fan Expo this weekend. Marc Silvestri pre-con sketch. He had about half a dozen to choose from including Mr. Sinister, Wolverine, Beast, and some others. Unfortunately, he wasn't doing sketches at the expo and only accepted remarque requests. No matter, I love the eyes and hair on his 80s Storm. There's something about the simple line work, the heavy inking around the silhouettes, and the way he draws curvy facial features. Contrasting against Silvestri's lean tones, Adams leans more into the "baby face" (for lack of a better descriptor). Whatever the case, something about that draws me to it. Maybe it's because I'm a Disney fan and it borders on a Disney-esque animated style. Either way, Sometimes you have a blank sketch that's just waiting for a specific artist. Art doing Jean/Emma just seems to work so well. I'll admit, Psylocke is my favorite female X-Man (thanks Jim Lee). I was hoping for a Silvestri/Adams sketch of Psylocke, but when doing busts or head shots, there's not much that really jumps out and says "Psylocke" about a female figure with hair. Joyce was offering full body sketch opportunities, so I asked if she could do a piece and she was more than happy to. Two things I love about this. One I appreciate that she's dual wielding a psi-blade in one hand and a katana in the other. Two, the simple bamboo background adds a small level of dimensionality to the piece.

PANELS LotR Hobbit Reunion with Billy Boyd, Dominic Monaghan, Elijah Wood, and Sean Astin. It being SF, they were asked to come on like a 90s sitcom and were given themed wardrobe (hence why Sean is in the gold jacket) The many voices of Alan Tudyk Hamill basically conducted a fire side chat, even bringing one of his dogs out. Hamill got on late because he was busy signing autographs, and then went a half hour over the scheduled time, but it's not like anyone's gonna be upset getting more Hamill. The Expo closed at 9 that day, he finished at 10. Waited 1h45m to talk to Ashley, and a few people ahead of me was this couple who were expecting. They had an envelope from the doctor and asked Ashley to be the one to reveal the gender. They had already decided that they were naming their kids after Star Wars characters so a boy would be Caleb (or Kanan) and a girl would be Ashla. Needless to say, Ashley was more than happy to be the master of ceremonies and the crowd cheered when it was announced they would be expecting a baby Caleb. Katee Sackhoff, Carl Weathers, and Emily Swallow from The Mandalorian. The Rebels panel ended when Stormtroopers entered to take the panelists (Taylor Grey, Vanessa Marshall, and Ashley Eckstein) away for questioning. William Shatner Ewan McGregor Billy Boyd CLOSING A great Expo and hopefully something they continue to build and develop. The size of everything feels just right. It's not so large that it's difficult to see and do everything, but it's also not a small local one day convention with only a handful of D-list celebs you might see. I didn't get the opinions of any of the retailers so I don't know how the comic vendors did in terms of profitability, and whether or not they would return next year. I think if you're looking for books, you're better off with the comic focused local cons like the Berkeley Comic Show. But if you're looking to meet creators and celebrities, I got the sense that this was a good show for that. (Again, I don't have a point of reference having never gone to any big shows like SDCC), but David Mack, Joyce Chin, and Art Adams sounded like they enjoyed the extra real estate of the creator tables as opposed to being right on top of each other. They noted that the aisles were far less manic and that in general it was a better experience meeting fans in a more relaxed setting. The biggest downside for the Expo sounds like its positioning on the calendar as it falls on Thanksgiving weekend which makes it difficult to attract talent since people want to stay at home with family. I do think moving the date would create more interest from talent and attendees alike.

FOLLOW UP (ART) Last day of the expo was by far the chillest. Whereas Fri/Sat had long lines to enter before Expo hours, Sun had no line. If you wanted to meet a creator or get a celebrity autograph, Sunday was the day to do it because you could arrive when the Expo opened and not have to wait long for your favorite celeb. The downside was some celebs and creators came in late. (It's Sunday, I'm sure they want a slow relaxing morning). But by and large, at least you were assured a good spot in line. I went back to the exhibitor floor where I found a few more comic sellers. Overall, it was like 4 big ones, and then 2 or 3 smaller ones. I hardly bought any comics, but like I said, my budget was really for original art and got the following pieces from Marc Silvestri, Art Adams, and Joyce Chin. I also bought a signed print of Marc Silvestri's Ghost Rider because it's a great rendition of ole flamehead. Last were prints from David Mack, with the Destiny print signed by Neil Gaiman. If I'm not mistaken, he doesn't sign all that often (though, he did have a recent CGC in-house signing). Beyond the fact that David's watercolors are gorgeous, I just love the quotes for each of the respective characters.

SHOW REPORT I want to preface by saying SF Fan Expo has been my first "big" comic convention. I use quotes because it's nowhere near as big as SDCC or NYCC (I imagine). Pre-pandemic I went to Sac Comic Con which was a smaller day or two show with a very small number of creators and minor celebs. Other than that, I've been to the Berkeley show a few times, but that's FAR different since it's 100% focused on comic vendors and virtually nothing else. I'm gonna apologize because I know with traditional show reports people post pics of the vendor aisles and comic walls. But the truth is, I haven't spent much time on the exhibitor floor. I passed through and saw maybe 4 dealers, but they happened to be big quality players known domestically and/or locally. Harley is set up there as are Bronze Age Batcave, Cape & Cowl, and another dealer who had a LARGE selection of backissues (I didn't see the name). The truth is, I'm reducing my focus on runs and "small" keys and have my eyes set on saving for something big (AF15). It's going to take a while, especially with my lack of restraint in buying other stuff (which I'll get to below). To start, I purchased a 3-day pass and my #1 priority was meeting Ashley Eckstein and getting her autograph (though she would only appear Sat/Sun). So Friday, I hoped to meet Marc Silvestri, Art Adams, check out the comic creators for sketch opportunities, get a lay of the land, and attend a panel or two. Badges had to be picked up on location and then activated which meant getting in one line to pick up your badge, then getting in another to enter the convention building, all while activating your badge on your phone. I knew there'd be lines, yet I still wound up arriving later than I hoped (3:50, door opened at 4). All things considered, the lines moved pretty quickly and I was inside by 4:10. Now, I've heard stories from SDCC of how creator lines can fill up and convention sketch lists filling up so I had sort of resigned myself to having missed out. But when I went to the 2nd floor where comic creators are located, I was shocked to find the area devoid of many guests. Marc Silvestri wasn't taking sketch opportunities, but he had a few pre-con head sketches available. Art Adams had two people in line. And the rest of the tables were still settling in. That was basically the same story throughout the weekend (or at least Fri/Sat to date) every time I passed through to get to panels. Speaking of navigating, floor 1 was full of exhibitors, comic dealers, and other pop culture shops. Floor 2 was for comic creators, artist alley, and smaller panel rooms. Floor 3 was live action/animated/video game celebrities, professional photos, and the main theater for the large panels. The layout has honestly been fantastic and I love the clear separation across floors for the distinct interests. Everything is spread out and it doesn't feel congested when walking from one area to the next. Obviously the aisles of artist alley and the exhibitor floor are narrow, but they're not primary paths to get between key areas. The comic creators seem to have a lot of space as do the celebrities. Obviously, bigger celebs are in a larger room to accommodate lines, but otherwise, it all seems fairly tidy. I heard that before the exhibitors and creators were on the same floor before and that felt cramped, but I guess last year they only used two of three floors, whereas this year, they're using all three floors of Moscone Center. As for the panels, I must be scarred from my D23 Expo experiences and the difficulty in getting into the more popular panels. That has not been the case for the biggest panels. Generally, as long as you show up 20+ minutes early, you're guaranteed a seat. Mark Hamill Friday night was the big thing and I wound up with a great seat in the middle. Lord of the Rings reunion was tonight and similarly had no problems with seats. In fact, the hardest one to get into was the Rebels panel which was held in a smaller room and filled to capacity that they resorted to standing room along the walls and back of the room. Celeb autograph lines move slowly for the more popular celebs, but that's to be expected when they take the time to actually chat with each person. I got in line for Ashley Eckstein this morning at 10 and couldn't have been more than 10th in line, but as soon as VIP guests arrived, they were given priority until at a certain point, they started mixing at a 2:1 ratio. Even then, VIP ticketholders kept coming that it ultimately took me 1h45m to get my turn. Still, she's a wonderful person to chat with and I just kinda expected a wait so it didn't both me. Though, if I had to do a similar wait for 4 or 5 celebs, that would very nearly take up your whole day, especially if they go off to do a panel for an hour. Panels are hit or miss. The large panels have been entertaining, but the smaller ones only loosely pertained to the description. The 60 years of X-Men and Avengers panel didn't dive into the history of the franchises and was just a big guest Q&A with Art Adams, Tom Grummett, and Kevin Maguire joking about how they have no idea why they were selected to discuss the subject when they spent almost no time on the respective main titles. In fact, many of the small panels followed that formula of 15 minutes of moderated discussion followed by 30 minutes of guests approaching a microphone and carrying the direction of the conversation. It's good because it's more interactive, but sometimes I just want to dive into the actual material described. Overall though, it's been a fun weekend and I look forward to coming back next year assuming there are creators/celebs whom I'm interested in seeing. I blew my weekend budget on day 1 getting original art and some prints, and (for better or for worse) will walk away with no comics. I'll post my haul tomorrow when I collect it. (In case anyone is wondering about logistics, parking is a breeze since there is a giant parking structure next door. The only downside is 3 full days of parking cost me more than the actual 3-day badge. Though, tomorrows Sunday so hopefully I can find free street parking nearby. There are two mall food courts within two blocks of the convention center so you have a decent number of options for food. I didn't even bother exploring what food they had on the expo floor.)

For anyone who's attended in the past, how difficult is it to get into the discussion panels? I've never been to a major convention other than D23 Expo. Do I need to camp out to get into some of these bigger ones? Or are the rooms plenty large enough that I could reasonably wait 15 minutes and be okay?

How exactly does this work? Presuming you had the OA before they decided to make it a cover, where are they sourcing the image from? Does Rob (and every artist) take high res scans of all their work prior to sending it out so they can use it as cover art? Additionally, how do you know yours is the original art the image is coming from? I mean, asides from the obvious that everything looks the same, but don't artists also do rough preliminary sketches? For example, this unpublished cover looks very similar to the actual cover used, yet, it isn't. Jim Lee Batman #616 Unpublished Cover / Contest Original Art | LotID #232001 | Heritage Auctions (ha.com)