Gatsby77

Wait - so...the share's lost money during the once-every-few-months trading window? But...it's and FF # 1! How can this beeee? Actually - that's interesting. If those numbers are correct the total float of shares are slightly under FMV for the book (last GPA being $96,000 from 1.5 years ago). So $45 / share is an arguable bargain. What was the initial IPO price of the shares?

:ROFL: I watched this last night. He's definitely having a normal one here, especially from the 15-minute mark on. 1) I'm 90% sure he's "MintCollector," whom folks might remember from these boards ~5 years ago. He was a newbie to comics - and it showed. Aside from his constant railing against comics as a long-term investment, he didn't seem to understand why he couldn't pick up white hot movie-related Silver and Bronze-age keys here for under GPA. 2) The main flaw in his anti-Marvel card argument - he readily admits that one of the two drivers of the explosion in key comics values over the last 20 years was the advent of CGC; yet fails to see why PSA grading comics cards might do exactly the same thing. Also, I don't think he gets that the centering in the 1990 Marvel set was horrendous - such that you're likely to find fewer than 10 potential PSA 10 candidates per box. Yes - there are millions of these cards out there, but potential 10s? Likely only thousands.

Agree. Jim Lee's work is arguably better in Batman: Hush and even in WildCATS than it was on Uncanny X-Men, yet the X-Men pieces will always be more expensive. Context is all. Ditto - Nobody cares that Steve Ditko did artwork for some relatively early Valiant books (including X-O # 6, Shadowman # 6 and Solar # 14-15).

This. I almost included John Stewart in my original post listing alternative characters I believe Miles Morales has already surpassed but frankly I'm not sure Miles is there yet, as Stewart's been around longer, been featured as the primary Green Lantern in at least one cartoon series, etc. But what would have tipped the balance re. your point? If he'd been *the* Green Lantern featured in the Justice League movie, as was the original plan for George Miller's aborted project, featuring Common as John Stewart. I grew up with Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, primarily due to watching Super Friends - I didn't learn about Guy Gardner, Alan Scott, John Stewart, etc. until far later. But if Warner Bros. had gone with John Stewart rather than Hal Gordon for the 2009 film and/or Justice League movie, it'd be a different story - while my generation may always identify with Hal Jordan, the generation below mine may well have identified with Stewart. Just like most people in the U.S. believe Nick Fury is African-American. Absolutely nothing wrong with that. But to me, it's the "alternate version that finds popularity / resonance" -- not just "African-American version of Spider-Man" that helps drive Miles' importance. For example, I think we'll see the same surge in popularity with alternate characters like Batman Beyond and Spider-Man 2099 going forward, due to planned media projects.

This. I think going forward Miles will be a more significant comics character than either Deadpool or Harley Quinn. He's *already* more significant than alternate characters like Tim Drake, Kyle Rayner, or X-23. And for reference, I own New Mutants 98 and Batman Adventures 12. I don't own Ultimate Fall-Out 4.

Exactly - and people seem to forget how little villain first appearance books matter 3 months after a film’s release. Iron Man 55 may be a notable exception but even that’s been flat in GPA over the past two years. Basically 0% growth in CGC 8.0-9.8 since 2019.

Wasn't Mephisto the big bad in the first Ghost Rider movie? Blackheart (Wes Bentley) turned out to be just a lackey / henchman for Mephisto (Peter Fonda).

I think Miles both is and will be a far more significant character going forward. Also interesting to read that this cover is the only physical art available for the whole issue - including both interiors and the variant cover.

Or - ya' know, as we've been saying all along. She pulls a reverse "House of M" and simply whispers: "Mutants."

I forgot about this movie.

Hence the theory that this will turn out to be a reverse House of M, with Wanda bringing mutants into the MCU by whispering "Mutants" rather than "No more mutants." For that to make sense, neither she nor Quicksilver can be mutants themselves. And gives credence to Feige's not undoing the Perlmutter retcon in the comics.

That’s a great book! I won the Doctor Solar #s 14, 15 & 22. Those upgrades give me the set of 1-31 in avg. CGC 9.4. It’s absurd that 22 in 9.2 sold for as much as 14 did in 9.6 but 22 had been a royal pain for me to find in grade - it was my only issue in the run below 9.0.

Comiclink’s 7.5 copy of Star Wars # 1 ($.35) sold last night for $6,300. Pretty sure that doesn’t equate to a 9.0 being worth $30,000+.

How about this: Rally Road owns at least 51% of the shares. Rally Road sets the price, which is only open for trading one day per month. In at least one case (the Jordan Rookie card) Rally Road was also the ultimate buyer. When one party is the (majority) seller, sets the price (in an opaque way) and is the buyer? That pretty much qualifies as insider trading. They are privy to (and acting upon) asymmetric information. Maybe not technically (I'm not a lawyer), but it's neither transparent nor ethical.

This. Star Wars # 1 / $.35 # 1 are not part of the Disney+ speculation bubble - unless you count a cover-only appearance of Obi-Wan Kenobi ahead of a supposed Ewen MacGregor show. His true first appearance was # 2, and that one (as the first Han Solo) didn't do bupkis in the run-up to the Solo film. In any case, we'll know more in 8 hours about probable comps, as C-link has 7.5-8.5 $.35 variants of # 1, 3 & 4 ending tonight.

This is precisely what was described earlier in the thread, where Metropolis Comics "sold" a book to Rally Road, allowing them to put only 20% down, while guaranteeing that the rest of the "sale price" would be through the IPO 45 days or such hence. And given that Rally Rd. definitionally owns 50% of the shares themselves (so nobody else can gain a controlling interest and force a sale), they're effectively using other people's money to subsidize the purchase of their assets, even before the insider discount arrangement with Metro.

I'm with you - especially because I grew up with the Overstreet's Grading Guide - where anything less than perfect wrap = instant VF / VF+. I'm *still* annoyed that the copies of New Mutants # 94 and X-Men # 269 that I bought off the newsstand 30 years ago had bad miswraps.

I agree with the "obtainable perfect" reason. But will also note that the distinction NM+ vs. "Perfect" distinction also pre-dated CGC. People had a *cow* when the first Overstreet's Grading Guide came out in (I believe) 1990 because of how strict its standards were. 100-point scale, *far* more strict than generally-accepted grading standards to that point, and (unlike) CGC deducted for bindery defects/mis-cuts -- which knocked you down to an immediate 85 (VF). "Near Mint" was 92-97 whereas "Pristine Mint" was 98-100 - and included perfect centering and razor-sharp corners. It instantly devalued dealers' stocks around the country at a time when Chuck was only a few years out of his full-page advertisements with his iconic grade "Fine-Mint."

Thanks to this week's Comiclink auction, I reached a milestone in my Doctor Solar collection, finally achieving the full run of 1-31 in average CGC 9.4. Books bought this week: # 14 (9.6) # 15 (9.4) # 22 (9.2) For the 31 books spanning 1962-1982, that now gives me: 1 in 9.8 9 in 9.6 14 in 9.4 4 in 9.2 3 in 9.0 While this is good for # 2 on the registry, it's not in the same league as the mostly 9.6+ collection that @namisgr put together -- and then sold -- a few years back. And it doesn't come close to touching @Rosland's museum-quality # 1 set - which includes merely 3 lowly 9.4s - and all among the pre-1965 first 10 issues. But I'm proud of it. I've worked on it slowly and steadily since 2013 or so, when upgrades to my Magnus set were becoming fewer and farther between. Many upgrades yet to be made, but it feels good to have curated a solid Silver Age set in avg. 9.4 without ever feeling like I was breaking the bank.

It's worse than that. The fine print for Rally Rd. indicates the share owners have no actual claim to the underlying book itself. You're trading based on the speculative share price only. With the average 30% mark-up, I truly don't understand why people don't just save to buy the books themselves, or - you know - buy it on a credit card and pay it off over time. As I (and others) have noted, overpaying by 30% is the same whether you pay $13 for a $10 book or $130,000 for a $100,000 book.

Exactly. The sheer audacity of Marvel having the confidence to produce a slow-burn mystery series featuring Wanda & Vision as a 1950s sitcom couple is mind-blowing. Meanwhile, DC's over here trying to figure out how to do a solo Flash feature film and reboot Superman. I truly don't understand how we've not had two solid Flash films already, with a third on the way. He's a *far* better character than Thor or Ant-Man.

I've loved it so far - and agree, 2nd episode was stronger than the first. But as a comics fan it's clear to me that it's House of M-based, *of course* Wanda is nuts, and this is just her way of dealing with Vision - and Pietro's - deaths. Also - to your point, more than a few folks on Twitter Saturday morning were theorizing this would point to a reverse-House of M scenario... Where instead of saying "No more mutants" she might just say "Mutants" -- thus introducing them into the MCU.

This. I get the notion that "suspension of disbelief" has little place in a a sci-fi or superhero film where folks are wearing tights, flying, etc. - but that's a cop-out. Films should follow the internal rules they set up, amid the world-building they've set forth, with consistency. You can't set the rules of the universe and then simply disregard them for plot armor reasons. Good Example: WW84 establishes that Diana's lasso works both ways. Not only does it force folks to tell the truth; it also forces them to know, understand and accept the truth when it's being told to them. This is established early on and then brought back (I thought brilliantly) in the climax to explain why everyone on earth relinquishes their wishes, greed aside. Because Diana's speaking to them, via the lasso, via the satellite feed. Bad Example: You only get one wish. This is established when Max Lord asks his worker/minion for something (I believe the appointment with the president) and is told he'd already granted him the wish of a new car. So it doesn't work and Max goes off to find someone else. Later in the film: Barbara gets two wishes. Bad Example: Max's son wishes for his dad to return to him. And nothing happens. Bad Example: We discover that Diana can make things (like the jet) invisible just by touching them. And yet she never uses (or even refers to) that power again, despite it arguably being useful in several subsequent fights. Further, she's been living underground for 70 years - to the extent that she asks the mall occupants in the second scene to keep her appearance there a secret -- when she could have used the invisibility power for much of that time.

I understand what you're saying in theory - but didn't Superman reveal a new ability to (checks notes) *turn back time* in Superman: The Movie? I don't recall that power from the comic books. And it seemed a far more egregious deus ex machina than an explanation of WW's invisible jet that could make sense. Clarification: after some googling, it appears the pre-Crisis Superman actually could time travel via faster-than-light travel, esp. in some Silver Age storylines. But a key difference is -- the time travel only affected him, not every plant, animal, person and thing on earth - as in the movie.

“But they can’t fly commercial because Steve doesn’t have a passport.” “The guy he’s possessing probably has one.”