jbud73

Don could teach Auction houses and Large National dealers a thing or 10 about packing slabs. Beautiful books, if you are in the market for HG ASMs this is the place to go. (thumbs u He's great at taking digital pics without the glare too - how do you do that? I had to buy a legal scanner cause I was so bad.

NEWCASTLE!!! page so jealous. At least it went to a good JC home.

That might be the best registration I've seen on a DD 8 and I've owned and looked at quite a few of them.

Rob you ever want to rid yourself of that unsightly stain on the collection, make sure and let me know ASAP. (thumbs u I can't even believe I keep it in the house, it's so unsightly I know what's the world coming to. I recommend throwing it into an envelop post marked to Monterey ASAP.

Western Penn

Rob you ever want to rid yourself of that unsightly stain on the collection, make sure and let me know ASAP. (thumbs u

A close up of the Hulk KS 1 and a few nice Bats books from WonderCon

Andrew Colman aka goldust40 the "mate" was the clue. i would've said Ron Murray I didn't need any clues. I've met him many times. You need to get a clue

The Monterey copy (CGC 9.4 White) of KS Hulk Annual 1, sold to me at WonderCon by the guy in the picture - no prize if you can guess who. Thanks again mate, Go Spurs (not the Basketball team). Nice to see everyone this weekend. Sorry for those that traveled expecting comic books at a comic convention. WonderCon has gone the way of SD, its more about the spectacle than the books.

Awesome (thumbs u

HOM 187 Neal Adams Cover OAKLAND

The registration on those books is awesome (thumbs u

A lot of mine are raw and not scanned - the BA Oakland's seem to be really nice IMO. White Mountain White Mountain

Thanks Harry, I happen to think that the X-Men book is gorgeous, but I really have to say that - as they appear with so much less frequency, 10 and 12 cent DCs in 9.0 or better always catch my eye at cons more than anything these days. As Brian said nice to see you on the boards, I have actually tripled my posting rate for the year this week. So maybe a return of some old schoolers

DD 14 - Ohio

DD 43 Western Penn Copy

Nice books El, the THOR looks better that 9.2 (top right corner?) love the miswrap notation on the old label too - ah the old days.

I've been looking for a nice example of these two for a few years; while not new in the collection this week, the scanner is back at it this week.

Hey I thought you were GA only these days, get outta by BA back yard If you every feel the urge to move the DD 89 WP lemme know as I own a bunch of the WP DDs. It'll stay with the country, if not in the country. Hope all is well Jason

I have to. This thread is the only place in the world where somebody might appreciate how hard it is to find a non-reprint super-hero book from 1972 in high grade. There some other tough Thors from this era. Although they're not as hard to find in 9.4+ as #198. It took me a long time to find 9.6 copies of #195, 197, 204 & 205. I'm still looking for a #206. Iron Man #44 is another oddly tough super-hero book. I can understand it when Millie the Model and Li'l Pals are hard to find in high grade. But it's surprising for a mainstream super-hero book from 1972. Haven't visited this thread in a while nice Thor's 198 is a toughie and it took me quite some time for a HG 206 - though I still think that X-Men 79 in 9.4 is the Maltese falcon of Picture Frames. Did Gil Kane draw every PF Cover? Man just seeing them all he was busy in the early 70s.

It's fair to say that Mr Bedrock has a motivation to be biased towards pressing because of his sales. It's fair to say that relative to what he makes off of comics both in back issues and retailing that the motivation is inconsequential. I would contend it is unreasonable and, as a general admirer of your thoughtful posting, that it is unusual for you to press a point this far. I personally see no more reason to view his thoughts with any less authority than someone who might be disappointed due to having to back away from slab collecting due to a personal dislike of pressing. While it may be out of character to call someone out, I am fundamentally opposed to opinions that seek to discredit the existence and discussion of comic manipulation in the HG slab market as whining or sermon laden elitism. That is especially true for vendors who profit from the enterprise. One may argue that the level of profit is a factor in considering the bias of the perspective, I however do not view that as an afforded luxury in this hobby. Comics are an unregulated market and unless the collectorate hold comic proprietors and their products to some level of accountability this hobby will continue to be a haven for unscrupulous individuals and enterprises. You've called me hypocrite, a liar, and now unaccountable... Thanks buddy (thumbs u You forgot disingenuous. Your welcome; after saying that you do not profit from comic manipulation and that all pressing does is make a comic flat, I haven't drunk the koolaid and am obviously inclined to disagree. Jeff before you jump all over that, I'm not saying that you have drunk the koolaid, as I know you understand what pressing is capable of, its potential effects and that dealers profit from it in the marketplace. I also understand THOUGH VEHEMENTLY DISAGREE WITH the PR positioning, that dealers are not going to disclose their books were pressed in all proprietary settings. The CGC forum thankfully at least has tacit expectations that this sort of disclosure is forthcoming and (insert olive branch) Mr. (Evans) Bedrock has indicated he will disclose those books which are pressed and that he is offering for sale. On pressin (sic) the point too far. Mr. Bedrock made statements I obviously disagreed with, he pushed me, I pushed back. Usually a little back and forth discourse is a good thing, in this instance the argument probably went further than I would usually consider taking it. However I firmly believe that non disassembly pressing and its application in the hobby and marketplace has a tip of the iceberg potential. Combined with attempts to limit the proliferation of information and understanding of what is really possible inside a Blue Slab, pressing may lead to a slippery slope whereby sellers feel they can do anything to a comic book as long as it sports a CGC blue label and this tactic will still be accepted by collectors and the marketplace at large. So I apologize if Mr. Bedrock took my statements against him personally. I felt that the statements were seeking to inaccurately portray a situation that is occurring in the hobby that has increasingly dire implications in terms of precedent and acceptable business practice. The irony being that he practices disclosure in the marketplace where others do not, so maybe that is why he is tired of hearing about it, however until his brethren follow suit I feel it necessary to point out the disparity and potential problems it creates for the collector.

It's fair to say that Mr Bedrock has a motivation to be biased towards pressing because of his sales. It's fair to say that relative to what he makes off of comics both in back issues and retailing that the motivation is inconsequential. I would contend it is unreasonable and, as a general admirer of your thoughtful posting, that it is unusual for you to press a point this far. I personally see no more reason to view his thoughts with any less authority than someone who might be disappointed due to having to back away from slab collecting due to a personal dislike of pressing. While it may be out of character to call someone out, I am fundamentally opposed to opinions that seek to discredit the existence and discussion of comic manipulation in the HG slab market as whining or sermon laden elitism. That is especially true for vendors who profit from the enterprise. One may argue that the level of profit is a factor in considering the bias of the perspective, I however do not view that as an afforded luxury in this hobby. Comics are an unregulated market and unless the collectorate hold comic proprietors and their products to some level of accountability this hobby will continue to be a haven for unscrupulous individuals and enterprises.

Bob I'd tend to agree with your first point about pressing bringing down the HG slab market being a tad overstated. I do believe that the precedent it sets (manipulation that is undetectable by CGC being acceptable in the marketplace) as having the potential to adversely effect the HG slab market to an irreparable degree . I guess it all depends on how many manipulation tactics can be implemented and pass through CGC and further how many of those become know to the public. The longer I have collected OA the more I feel that comic book market comparisons are not applicable. I will say that I feel that High Grade Comics and your fellow dealers can only dream of the influence that the cabal of OA dealers enjoy. Imagine no CGC, no Overstreet, minuscule market data (Heritage is a bastion of light in the OA world in terms of determining market prices), all those trade deals. I mean can you imagine if 50% of the comic books for sale at High Grade, Metro and Clink were priced with (Inquire for price)

Please explain to me, in great detail, how each of the above statements is false. Well great detail should not be necessary. You stated that pressing has made you less than 5K over the past year, but the point is that it has made you money, so by definition you have made money. Pressing has the ability to improve the technical grade of a comic and thereby increase its value, I'd call that a pretty significant effect in the context of the HG slab market given the established multiple differentials between 9.2 - 9.8. As you yourself said earlier - $10,000 isn't much to a collector making $50 million dollars. I guess there is a point at which that degree of utility comes into play. In my case, from your perspective, 1% is that point. In other words, since 1% of my sales are affected by pressing my views can't be regarded as unbiased. I call BS. As for pressing...a press can only flatten a book. As you yourself have stated, it can't make you buy it. As a proprietor of pressed comics books I'd question the objectivity of your opinion on the impact that manipulation tactics have, or how important that knowledge is to a collector of HG slabs. So I call BS too. I'm not sure where I said pressing can make you buy a book. I think that pressing can make you buy a book regardless of the manipulation, or not buy a book. I don't think there are large numbers of collectors out there looking for pressed books as preferred examples. This argument is essentially about proliferation of information. I think what David said earlier about collectors and dealers relating to pressing is generally, though not always true. For dealers manipulation has the potential to increase their revenue, for collectors it has the potential to decrease their monetary outlay, desire and utility of comic purchases. These perspectives will of course always be fundamentally at odds with one another. We have seen so many examples of this over the last few years; dealers trying to suppress manipulation information and collectors trying to increase their knowledge base of its occurrence.