factory sealed

2nd pic is commemorative.

For MOTU collectors, would you concur that the commemorative series now 20ish years old is the closest retro we will get to the original 80 eight backs? I finally was able to get to a WaMart the other day to check out the retro $18 figures but seem to recall the commemorative were the closest we will get as I don't have a small fortune laying around to dump into a NM slabbed 8 back Skeletor

I really appreciate how your interests go way beyond comics. I have a massive amount of calendars from the 70s and 80s. This is probably my prize single possession sealed new in shrink wrap in addition tpothe one I had in real-time as a kid that is absolutely hammered. Do you collect any of the sealed LP/record storybooks from this era? Good times.

That is epic. I actually did a similar tactic a couple times as well in a grocery store and department store but completely forgot until you mentioned this

I vividly remember in elementary school the painful countdown to 3PM dismissal. We would just stare and watch that clock. Time seemed to stand still. Waiting and waiting as we could not wait to get home and get our hands on toys or ride our bikes to 7-11 and see if the newest comics had been pushed out to the rack. It seemed this would take forever and never ever end. Or maybe it was a song on the radio you absolutely adored that was on heavy rotation played on an hourly basis that you thought would never go away. I remember distinctly my daily adventures with Atari 2600 and the hot sunny day when I ended Yars Revenge and the screen went totally blank with a message that I can't recall. I ran to tell everyone upstairs. But as fun as that was or playing with our Star Wars, Transformers, MOTU or other toy collections etc. and reading comics that eventually at some point, somehow everything ended and wound up in boxes and sold by our moms or who knows what. And now these moments are lost in time forever and are long gone. Yes I have been drinking bourbon heavily this afternoon and in yet another worm hole reflective space. If you remember that last time you experienced something collectively cool, please share. Ironically not much has changed because for most of us; I just bought some slabs online. The package arrived and I inspected them and placed the slabs in a box that go into a closet which who knows when I'll actually look at them again; we have come full circle and just hope that the wife doesn't find them

Those medallions rule. I have a box of those Supes Bday ones buried somewhere.

Many USPS locations now offer with their PO box service the ability to utilize the actual street address syntax with your box # so any shipping carrier service can deliver to you. This is the best route to go as the destination will be blatantly obvious to any potential drivers who are not familiar with the area especially versus say dealing with condo/apartment type complexes or a business/industry/strip mall type destinations.

Fair point. In the 60s, 70s, heck 80s never heard of boards, so all of our comics were treated same as magazines or books. Any OO comics I have now from these decades are absolutely hammered. When we would bike down to 7-11 in the 70s and slowly/carefully spin the rack around to see what new issues were out, you couldn't help but notice the back covers in the highly anticipated carousel like process of the rack turning. We would play a game placing a bunch of comics face down and guess whether it was DC, Marvel etc. My uncle had stashes upon boxes and stacks of comics as part of his business would entail him traveling a large territory and picking up unsold/unwanted comics from merchants; mind you this was in the era well before they started tearing off covers so his collection is absolute off the charts. And for some reason he would store them face down, so when you crack open a case or stack etc. you'd always see the back covers first. Long-winded way of me simply answering your question by simply saying deep rooted nostalgia and reliving moments lost in time is what drives my back cover visibility preference.

Learned something new. Thanks!

Thanks. I just posted in GA that I'm looking for viable ways to create that slab-like appearance. Not being able to have access, presentation wise because they are boarded, to the back covers drives me insane. It's a big part of the nostalgic experience. I have thousands of comics so slabbing everything is not really a great value proposition for me. I'll look into these further. I also thought of getting the thickest gauge Mylite possible, say M4, and mounting in a tight top loader for older era comics that are more book in terms of structural sturdiness than comics.

So I have a full run of Bats, Supes and a ton of other random comics in GA period. One distinction that I have always admired and respected about the comics from this era is that in terms of the page count, multiple stories, overall in-hand sturdiness, larger dimensions size etc. the experience genuinely feels more "book" than say a puny modern "comic." At best my overall hoard is mid grade and below so spending a small fortune to slab all these comics and not even land on the first couple pages of the registry is just not a viable value proposition for me at this point in time. In general having my raw comics boarded which prevents me from seeing the back cover just drives me insane and that's why the appeal of the slab, in terms of the very efficient presentation, is so appealing and hence my conundrum. I'm specifically wondering for you more OCD folks, have you tried perhaps placing the comic in say the thickest gauge Mylar possible (maybe M4) and then mounting in a tight top loader without a board? Or more succinctly, has anyone had success in emulating the front and back cover(access) of a slabbed presentation for their respective books?

What I'm saying is, in addition to the final value fee on an $8500 slab and the shipping; they also would ding you for yet another near $100 just on the sales tax. In other words, they are also applying that 14% fee against the sales tax they collected and deducting that as well against your net proceeds! Does that make more sense??

Last year I needed a quick cash raise and wanted to unload an IH 181. For me the deal breaker on eBay was the revelation that they will take their14%ish final value fee and apply it against the sales tax collected and then deduct that from your net proceeds. So say you sell an $8500 book and sales tax collected on their side is $680. They will then deduct nearly $100 from your net proceeds. That is just absolute bonkers unless someone else more astute with eBay selling experience can break down this logic for me. You would never have this on MCS nor CL, CC etc.

@gadzukes I'll take that TOD #1 off your hands! Awesome pickups.

I maintain an immense archive of bidding style auctions. But this is all I could come up with on this one. (pretty stale dates on these)

That's a great point. Succinctly put for me, nostalgia is a very strong yearning to go back to a place or time that you never can again. These comic books, toys, cards, etc. are archived artifacts and it's that ultra deep connection we have with them from the past that gives us this time machine like effect i.e. in other words it's just not a random memory, rather it's much much stronger and more potent of an experience than that.

You should have a bowl of Weetabix now for old times sake Whenever asked what do you want for breakfast or lunch or dinner or snack??? Answer was always the same; toast or peanut butter and jelly. We would make triple decker sandwiches all in a strategic effort to blast through the bread quickly to ultimately say, hey we are out of bread, have to run to the store!! Sometimes if we went to the store at the right time in the morning, we would catch the vendor putting out all the new loaves. This gave maximum potential for acquiring the cards we wanted Also wanted to add, you made me think of something else in one of your other comments. When it came to comics, I always read them immediately and was not gentle with them at all. However interestingly enough there was something always mesmerizing by the old school toy stores when you walked in how the end caps and aisles were so neatly stacked with tons of carded figures and boxed accessories etc. right to the ceiling. Especially in the early 80s as I got a little older and appreciative, I would actually not open my figures right away. I remember when I finally got a G1 Megatron; I actually left it in the box for over a week just to look at it and imagine what could be. When I came home from school, I would play this game with my friends where I was running a toy store and putting merchandise out etc. Same deal with MOTU; I would leave them sealed on bubble for days. I think the longest I ever waited was when I scored an imperial shuttle space ship that was on clearance. The box was absolutely gigantic and I left it sealed for nearly a month. For trading cards; my uncle had a small grocery business downtown that was located right next to a very large wholesaler. You could not just buy a pack of something there; you had to buy a box or a case. If you bought a case, the savings vs. retail per pack cost was incredible! On a side note my uncle was one the greatest collectors I have ever known. So forward looking and brilliant. Never opened any wax packs for sports and nonsports cards; always left boxes sealed. Same thing with toys; he was crazy about toys and model kits. For comics he had this gig where he would go all over the territory and pickup all the unwanted/unsold comic books from merchants; this was before they started tearing off covers so all of this in addition to what he actually purchased, amassed into a gigantic collection from the 60s and 70s. I think regardless of your current status in life or how balanced or not your day-to-day is, what you're doing career wise or maybe taking a trip somewhere; just in terms of the tangible actual feelings of excitement, anticipation etc. nothing comes close to those days when I would walk into that wholesaler and immediately get hit with overwhelming smell of tons of candy or I'd go to a toy store hoping to see the latest MOTU end caps and crossing fingers some G1 transformers might be around. Heck I remember walking into a K-Mart right after I saw Star Wars Episode IV and in the main aisled centered to the entrance were these giant fenced bins with tons and tons of the original 12 backs all for $1.99 each. I reached in and got a Stormtrooper and Luke Skywalker.

We put so many hours into playing this game. That slab gives me chills of joy! It was a Saturday night during winter and too cold to go out. Started playing GNG around midnight and just a bit past 4AM completed the entire game. Couldn't believe it. Those late stage boards are nearly impossible and some of them you have to have a specific weapon type or you are not completing it.

All above BAT slabs now 10% listed price. New Add here: Batman Family 19 CGC 9.6 $100 Shipped

Timing is everything. Didn't the original Micronauts line come out ten years previously? But honestly across any cartoon villain story arch, the team of Megatron, Soundwave, Shockwave, and Starscream is absolutely unbeatable. Whether you are talking the episodes or the incredibly rare and impossible to find G1 toys in 84/85; I remember vividly when we finally scored the last remaining constructicon we needed to finally fully assemble Devastator and the entire neighborhood was at our house to watch in real-time.

10% NOW Off on All. Wil also be Adding a Batman Family 9.6 slab shortly.

In the 70s Wonderbread had some incredible non-sports trading card promos. You could sneak a peak through the plastic wrap too so at least avoid getting duplicates. We would eat through the bread as fast as we could to move onto a new loaf.