F For Fake

Rescued these from a used book store while out running around yesterday. Plenty dusty, look like they've been sitting on a shelf for god knows how long. But at $15 each for Zee and Canary, and $8 for Scarecrow, these were a steal. Was never a huge fan of the Alex Ross stuff, but the Canary figure turned out really nice. Zatanna has some...face issues. But you gotta love those authentic fishnets on both of 'em! Man, I loved DC Direct.

I haven't been in the movie/tv forum for several months, so I thought I'd do some browsing. This thread...it is not what I expected.

As far as the conversation about how steeped in this stuff you have to be in order to enjoy the show, my wife has seen all of the MCU movies, but has never read a comic in her life, and has practically zero interest in this stuff outside of the movies. And she is LOVING WandaVision. Like, LOVING it. She grins through every episode. Sometimes I'll offer up some tidbits after we finish an episode, some easter egg explanations, some theories, etc, but mostly she's just enjoying it for what it is. I like it quite a bit myself.

God bless the good people of IKEA! What would all of us book nerds do without them?? SO, this is a kinda dumb addition to the collection. When DC started releasing these post-Crisis copper Batman collections a year or so ago (Caped Crusader for Batman, Dark Knight Detective for Detective) I was over the moon, as this was really when I started reading the titles as a kid. So, I dutifully bought the first volumes, and then just as quickly lost track of them, as it was the sort of thing I assumed DC would keep in print. Well....I was wrong about that. They've done, I believe, 5 volumes in each series, and so far each of the volumes aside from the most recent has almost immediately sold out, with prices reaching stupid levels on eBay. This weekend I was tidying up some shelves, and came across these trades. I decided that since I primarily collect hardcovers, and since this series is so popular it will likely eventually hit HC, AND they were currently selling for dumb money, I could let my two volumes go. So, I tossed them up on eBay, and this afternoon they sold. As soon as the notification came through, I instantly had that twinge of "Oh, I wish I hadn't sold that!" regret. But, I'm an honest seller, so I packed them up and sent them off. Then, later this afternoon, I went to a local shop to browse, and lo and behold, not only did they have those volumes I'd just sold, they also had vol 2 of the Tec series. So, only an hour or two after having just sold these books...I bought them again, and was happy to do so! I figured this was the comic gods giving me one more shot, so I'd better take it. My reckoning is that if I decide, once again, that I don't need them, I should still be able to double my money. And if they DO reprint them, I'll be one step ahead in finishing the collection. As trades go, these are really nice. Like I said, I'm usually a hardcover guy, but these are very satisfyingly chunky books, the page quality is pretty nice, they're using the greatest cover images, and the trade dress is attractive. The quality of the material probably directly correlates to how old you were when you read these stories, but as this stuff goes, they're pretty solid for the era, and there's some terrific art.

My understanding is that bad weather is rolling in tomorrow, and may stick around through the weekend, so I decided to hit up some shops today and see what I could dig up. Went to two comic shops, one sports card shop, a book/music trade place, and a peddlers mall. I don't have much to show for it! Was able to knock a few more books of off this latest run of Sandman I'm trying to complete on the cheap. I think I've finally wiped out available supply around town, so I'll have to turn to the webs to get the last few, which is less fun. Oh well.

@smossbnow that's a room!

LCS had a super bowl sale, picked up some randomness.

Stopped by a LCS I just discovered a couple of weeks ago. They mostly do moderns and Funko Pops, but they have some random older books as well. They had a Super Bowl sale today, so I decided to pick up a few things, including these!

Yeah, and Lobo was HOT at that time. Rule of 25, nostalgia cycle, etc dictates that these are worth picking up on the cheap, for sure.

Huge Aliens fan, but otherwise I also loved Concrete, Masque, Sin City, Trekker, Black Cross, and so many more! Every issue was guaranteed to have at least one great story in it, and like @Parabellumsaid, there are some terrific covers.

Wow, that's cool. The Alpha Flight omni is OOP and sells for about $200. If the other omnis are from around that time, they could be sitting on a little gold mine.

Very sad story. What an awesome achievement. His attitude and outlook during this hardship are very admirable.

I love the whole series. They’re pure cheese, but never make any excuses for it!

Aw thanks bud, I appreciate that! Always love seeing your stuff, and watching that Punisher collection grow!

Some more pick-ups from the LCS. These aren't comics, but I'm thinking there's probably some crossover with the comic/magazine/horror crowd here. I don't see old Fango's hardly ever, at all. The #7 is a little rough (tanning on the interior edges, etc) but the others are pretty nice, for $5 a pop!

Finally scratched something off of my list, and am now nearly done with my DC Comics Super Heroes collection. The only figure I still need is the green-armed Aquaman. He's available pretty much any day of the week on eBay, but he tends to come from the UK, so shipping usually makes him cost more than I'm willing to spend. One day I'll have him. In the meantime, I finally tracked down a green-armed Green Lantern! I was unaware of this variant until a boardie pointed it out, I think @bane? I've been on the hunt ever since. Finally found a seller that had two GL figures for sale, and the picture showed the green-armed figure. I went ahead and bought both, hoping the second would also be a variant, but it's just the normal black/green figure. That being said, these are VERY sharp, with super nice unpunched cards, so I think I'll leave this set carded, and will open up the GL I had on a rougher card. This set it a lot of fun to complete, and won't break the bank. It's not a huge run of figures, but there are enough variants (four different umbrella variations on Penguin, the arm colors on GL and Aquaman) to make it interesting. The Superman figure appears to still be the most desirable, as he's now in the $80-$100 range on card, more if the card is really sharp. Glad I got mind for $40 a couple of years ago. Once I finish the collection I'll probably do a video overview of the entire thing. Now that these are 30+ years old, they're "vintage", so it's always cool to be able to complete a vintage super hero line, even if it's one that most people don't like! ha I like 'em, that's what matters. Also related, while digging around in some bins at a LCS today, I found this Bob the Goon figure! Bob was a peg warmer when I was a kid, which means now he's kinda pricey. Nice cards seem to sell anywhere from $30-60. Loose complete are more like $25-$35. This card is beat to hell, but for $20 I grabbed him. Once I complete my DC Super Heroes set, I'm going to finish up the '89 Batman line. Tracking down the jaw variations on Bats will be the challenge there. So there you go: fun, cheap-ish vintage-ish super hero toys!

Yes, the color scheme is really nice. The packaging looks nice from the front, but they cheaped out a bit, as there's absolutely nothing on the back. You can tell these were sort of the last gasp from DC Direct, they were cutting corners where they could. I guess I'll have to just hold my nose and pay up for Deathstroke, he won't be getting cheaper. DC Direct is finished, so not only will there not be restock, but the last wave that was solicited is apparently canceled, never to see the light of day. (BBTS still shows them as available for pre-order, but most of the other retailers such as Amazon have canceled all orders. BBTS is usually the last to do so, but it's likely only a matter of time.) The last wave of Batman the Animated Series figures (HARDAC, Grey Ghost, Scarecrow, Two Face) are selling for about $150-$200 each these days. With Deathstroke and Red Hood (and Azbats) being the last original character sculpts for the entire DCD animated line, I'd expect they'll follow suit. So I'll be getting Deathstroke sooner rather than later.

Stopped in my LCS this afternoon to pick up my books. For whatever reason a few of these books with Alien vs Marvel variants were delayed, so Hulk came out this week, and I think that just leaves Captain America and Black Widow that I'm waiting on to finish the set. I know there's the brouhaha about this issue being recalled. Is that actually true at this point? eBay seems to think so. It was enough to give me concern that my book wouldn't be there, but luckly I arrived and my two copies were waiting in my box. And what's more, they still had the regular issues of 43 on the stands, so I went ahead and picked these up. Why not? If there's indeed a brouhaha, better safe than sorry, I suppose. They'd put out a few more minisets, including a couple that I may go back for. Today I picked up this set of Justice League 24-30 for $12, primarily to get the $30. They're pretty sharp. They have a set of 31-50 that was a bit pricier, I may go back for it this weekend.

Well, one month into Managed Payments, and I'm pretty much hating it. With Paypal, I could have the money from my PP account into my checking account in seconds. With MP, it's taking several days. Once I get paid, the funds show as "pending" for a full day. Then they spend a full day as "available". Then another day they are "paid out". And then finally, the next day, the money is in my account. And weekends don't count, so if I get paid on a Friday, I don't actually get that money until Wednesday. I have my account set to "Daily" payouts, but "Daily" is hardly what is going on here. It's absurd, as eBay is surely collecting money on our money in that interim. There is no reason on earth why it should take that long for the funds to clear. And I know that because if it's money going from me TO them, it goes right away. I had my first return under managed payments a couple of weeks ago. I approved the refund, and the money was out of my checking account THE NEXT MORNING. So clearly they can get this money in and out as fast as they like, and are artificially inflating the processing times. The ONLY thing I like about it is that they deduct their fees up front, so I don't have to worry about setting money aside to pay my monthly invoice. Again, it might be nice to have a choice as to when i pay my eBay fees, but for someone who is absent minded like myself, it's actually a convenience to know that my fees are already taken care of, and I don't have to pay an invoice at the end of the month. But that is the only plus, for me personally. I'd love to be done with them, but they're still the only game in town, when it comes to the sort of stuff I sell. I do some occasional business on FB marketplace, and even Craigslist here and there, but eBay still destroys those for the number of eyeballs you get on your items. And that's why they have us over a barrel.

There are a lot of similarities between Harry Potter and Tim Hunter, who was created by Neil Gaiman in Books of Magic. British kid, learning about a world of magic, glasses, white owl, the whole shebang. A lot of fans (including myself) called it a copycat for years. Gaiman himself has been much more charitable, basically saying that the trope of a young boy learning magic isn't exactly an original idea in and of itself. There are enough similarities that make Books of Magic fans go "Harumph", but not enough to lodge a legal complaint, it would seem.

Doesn't the issue of Wolverine with the unfortunate "k" word have a notation about "slur"? I wonder if there will be something similar for this, though I can't imagine how they'd word it. Edit: Just looked, and the Wolverine issue has "recalled edition" above the serial number, and "recalled from retailers because of racial slur" in the right hand notes, so I wonder if they'll do somethign like that, should a recall occur.

Fair enough. And it certainly can't be ruled out. I guess I just like to think the better of people if I can. But to be clear, the end result is repulsive regardless of how it got there.

Yeah, it's gorgeous, but stuff like that is simply out of my range, so I don't even entertain the thought. That's awesome about cast signing, I remember reading about that back when it happened and was SO jealous of the folks that got to go. I guess it's not impossible that one day Sigourney will show up at a con, but sadly Bill Paxton is no longer with us, which makes me sad for all sorts of reasons. Bill was an awesome dude who did so much amazing stuff, and that's totally awesome that you got his signature. One of my best friends used to live in LA, and went to a special screening of something or other at the arc light, with a special guest. It was there that he got the one signature I'm sure I'll never get: James Cameron! I may have to steal that pic from his house one day.

Good luck! I still haven’t found Deathstroke, will likely have to pay up to get him. He and Red Hood seem to be the priciest, but Red Hood is a NICE figure. Azbats is also cool, and the Batman figure is a new sculpt, I believe. The Joker, Robin and Harley are all repaints as far as I can tell, but they’re getting pricey as well, so I’d recommend grabbing them if you find them a decent price. I went back and grabbed Bats today.

Awesome, congrats! I’m the same way, something about the color scheme just makes it so cool. Paid through the nose to get mine at an auction last year, but it’s probably my favorite piece in my Joe collection. Yours looks really clean too! Enjoy!