GeeksAreMyPeeps

Yep. The reward for a job well done is more work, not more money.

I think my theory about movie theater concession stands applies here. I observed years ago that when you have a line at a concession stand, and multiple people working, the line moves at a crawl. When it's one person, it seems to move a little quicker. I think that's because with one person, they know that they're going to have to take care of the entire line by themselves, and want to be done with it. When multiple people are working, if you slack off, other people will handle the bulk of the work.

The Green Hornet covers were very nice.

Don't forget Buckaroo Banzai

Wait: Mikey was using both "Oliver" and "Stone" as a pseudonym? Oliver… Stone?

I actually just poked in a little while ago, but otherwise have not been there in ages either. Stopped visiting regularly when Dinesh & co left Valiant

I did hear though, that apparently he stopped signing Valiant Comics. My understanding is that someone involved with one of the valiantfans board projects that involved getting BWS to sign a bunch of comics absconded with the signed books, or the money raised that was supposed to go to charity, or some other nefarious deed. But that was before I joined the board there.

It would be nice if Barry Windsor Smith would do a signing. I'd like to get some Valiant books signed without breaking the bank.

With new books it's going to hard to know for sure, so if you're looking to get books graded to hold for long-term returns, I'd go with books that typically do get long-term returns. That would be first appearances of popular characters, or stand-out covers. Since there are so many exclusive editions being produced these days with covers by popular cover artists, it might be harder to identify one cover that people are going to gravitate towards. One of the reasons that books may not have been graded all that much is because people don't see the value in grading them.

I was focused on how the comic is offset by the exact same amount at the bottom here. Or the overlap in this other picture, on all three auctions:

Care to share how this happened?

Out of curiosity, I looked up the census, and they *are* rare in 9.8 (probably because there's not a huge demand for them), but 2 of the 3 are available for not-bank-busting prices on eBay: 7 in 9.8: https://www.ebay.com/itm/135028646767?itmmeta=01HWHCZWR4N882AQ8N6Z1ZFW41&hash=item1f7055a36f:g:4joAAOSwbKFmJcsI&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4B62Dv%2F9cigu3NjGaywBOw3Tg8vFcmzornWGxwqYfYm%2FFQB4jEeakaBHGLGe8e3Iem0uJs6xQars71QXFXSLrlvPKBIENLTp5pR9x04DVPr1l9wpj4Fiwa239JQDHZaBrKpQTlaCcBOk6LmOd7Iajswo6iLV%2Bi0cqZNWuJcErLF6N8YilMGAnlZV7hhP0gJqkspP9SgCyUxCXEMlzlgYa0BItCiTXECMhjX89gP%2B19sWieUNXEnz3ZBrMVbznntWvTwJ4Ry6Wuudf9wmLgii5%2BkW7AEaJkVukPdCq5OnNihY|tkp%3ABFBMlMz_rORj 17 in 9.8: https://www.ebay.com/itm/315300607933?itmmeta=01HWHCZWR4JTJRS2Y2Z57T2HBA&hash=item49696177bd:g:xu8AAOSwtYJmH8wm&itmprp=enc%3AAQAJAAAA4JZOhT2mxyBCYFzu%2FszSmvaE1CON0RLFOtTjoOxeAEdArpKH94%2FkVYgcptY6kn4g81qYwc%2FHJk3s%2FlkfAdVhjRQoljGwIAjz36fJjXJgmYlfdDwQdZ9YR1mwB4i38JFl113Wpe2m47ZE8njOo8RxjcMD%2BKsqJokGImvaHUh3VDrdr89IBHyRrs8AWLhNEvUDaVpikh4DIeMm48kY47TEcAaM7Zp6WwkTcJK16J%2FE9ou5Au%2FWGLDtrnmARbieCUum1z5SmlUOqidYuv4l7QQ4H7rH14pMKnUVhDccI2dpiAdm|tkp%3ABFBMlMz_rORj

This got me wondering whether the Marvel Questprobe books were on the list. I think they're probably common enough, but maybe not in 9.8.

Whoever the writer or editor wants to win

When you're dealing with Exclusives, a lot of the early sales are going to be completists or speculators. Consistent sales well after release indicates heat. I imagine a lot of the buyers here hadn't heard of this particular variant, and are grabbing it up "just in case"