F For Fake

Thanks guys! That makes me feel much better. In my heart I thought "This looks like a 5.0 to me" but I was really worried that the water stain would bring it way down. Much appreciated and look forward to any further grade opinions!

Late to the party, but I'd say throw them in the bin and let the chips fall where they may. For me, I actually DISLIKE an organized dollar bin, because that takes away the thrill of the hunt. It's much more likely to have been cherry picked. If someone wants a bargain, let 'em dig for it. And in all my years, I have very rarely seen an organized dollar bin. It's kind of the whole deal we make, as seller and buyer: these aren't in order, they're all over the place, but hey, they're only a buck. You get what you get! As for the bagging and boarding, as a buyer it's nice when they are bagged/boarded, because after months of being pawed over, the books are going to get pretty ragged. However, I'd also agree that they're likely not worth the resources and time. The way my LCS does their big $1 and 50 cent sales, the books come the way they received them: if they were bagged and boarded, they go in bagged and boarded. If they were raw, they go in raw. Those sales go gangbusters, no one seems to care.

Hey Gang! I haven't subbed anything in about a year, but am thinking about sending this one in. I am generally confident in my grading, but must admit a lack of experience with subbing stained books. I don't think I've ever subbed a book with a stain. I know the consensus has generally been that CGC hammers stains. So with that in mind, what do you think the ceiling is for this book with that water stain on the back cover? Could it still hit 3.5? Dare we even dream of a 4? Could use a press to assist some of the front cover waviness, but I don't think anything can be done about that back cover. Thanks as always!

Same. She's actually one of my favorite characters during that era. The solo title never really grabbed me, though.

I've always considered a "dealer" to be someone who sells as their primary source of income. Not necessarily their ONLY income (though in my eyes that would make one a "Professional Dealer"), but a major part of it. As a collector, it seems pretty common to sell books to buy more books. It's practically the same as trading books, just with some cash involved, and no one seems to get their panties in a bunch about trading. I guess I'm a "part time" dealer, as I used to sell enough to qualify as a small business in the eyes of the IRS. Once that happened, I scaled back, and now make sure I don't hit that magical $20k threshold where I have to pay taxes, register for my tax id, all of that stuff. Does that make me a "dealer"? I wouldn't think so, but this guy probably would. To me, wheeling and dealing is a part of the hobby. Selling or trading stuff you don't necessarily want in order to get funds to get something else you DO want, I dunno, that's always just been part of collecting, to me. Like many, I can't afford to buy everything I want, I have to be selective with my funds. But I truly believe that even if money WASN'T an issue, I'd still enjoy selling/flipping/"dealing". For me, the biggest thrill of collecting is the hunt and the chase. Once I have the book in hand, there aren't many that I feel I couldn't live without. Selling the books off allows me to begin the chase again. It's fun!

Very sad news. RIP Bob, will miss hearing from you here.

Man, I loved this one as a kid. Took it and the Spider-Mobile everywhere. Beautiful colors on the card here!

A couple of beat but complete pickups from my LCS this afternoon. I dig the 12/22/45 date stamp on the back of the Exciting. Also the Bonnett's stamp on the Superman, I don't think I've personally had one of those before.

My morning yard sale experience put me in a comic buyin' mood, so I dropped by the lcs this afternoon and picked up a truly random assortment of stuff. First up, this set of Resident Evil comics. I didn't really know anything about them, but experience tells me that at the right price, horror movie/game tie-ins from this era are a pretty safe bet. At around a buck a book, I took a chance. Looking at eBay now, it seems like I did well on the gamble. Next, a couple of first appearance beaters. Not in great shape, but for under $10, again, I'm not going to pass 'em up. Last up are two random GA books! The shop doesn't get a ton of Golden Age material, so I'm always interested when they do, as they are pretty fair in pricing. Had to bring these home with me. And now...I'm broke!

It's absolutely one of my all time favorite books. Heavy nostalgia vibe for me. Somewhere there's a yearbook with a picture of me in 7th grade proudly wearing my Excalibur shirt for my school photo! ha It's a beautiful cover as well, and instantly transports me to those middle school years. Kitty and Nightcrawler were always my favorite X-Men, and as you point out, Davis' art is terrific. No one ever drew those characters better, IMO. I buy them whenever I see them for a buck or less, and have a pretty healthy stack. It's fun to seek out the different variations. There are at least four: the 1st print no cover price version with barcode on back (not sure if it was actually a newsstand, but it has a bar code all the same. Some folks sell this as a "newsstand". I've never actually confirmed it), a first print WITH cover price $3.25, 2nd print with cover price of $3.50, and a final 3rd printing with $4.50 cover price and "Sword is Drawn" logo on the front cover. Over the years of picking them up, I've accumulated a stack of a couple dozen or more, and the 1st print w/ cover price far outweighs the others. 2nd print $3.50 is the scarcest according to my experience, but I use "scarcest" in the loosest sense of the word and only my limited buying pool to judge by. I've only got a couple of the no-price 1st prints as well. Of course, none of them are scarce. BUT, if you're a big fan like me, it's fun to track them all down on the cheap!

50 cent yard sale pickup this morning. Not perfect (around a 9.0) but for fifty cents I'm not complaining.

50 cent and $1 pickups from a yard sale this morning.

Went to a yard sale this morning. Spotted it on Craigslist last night, advertising comics, and they had pics of at least six long boxes, so I figured I'd give it a shot. We all know what to expect, and indeed, 99% of it was the 90's drek you can hardly give away. However, at 50 cents to $1, I managed to find enough to make it worth getting up at 6:30am. Most notable find was the ASM 4 for 50 cents. That kinda blew my mind. It's not perfect, but it's worth 50 cents for sure. Runner Up was this nice little batch of DC Universe Logo variants. I don't think any of these are the particularly hard to find issues (I don't recall seeing MoS 36 before, though) but still worth the pickup. Otherwise, there was a nice Nexus magazine with the flexi disc intact for 50 cents, and then a stack of drek only I care about, like more copies of Excalibur Special 1 and Strikefore Morituri 1 for my horde, and some random issues of Justice League and Aliens. All in all a fun morning of digging, and not a total waste of time.

I was at a yard sale this morning, and sure enough, found a copy of Sonic Disruptors 1 in the comics! Almost bought it just to share, but even at 50 cents the price was too high!

There are a lot of insufficiently_thoughtful_persons in the FB groups, it's true. But there are also plenty of legit sales run by folks like the esteemed @MrBedrock Personally, I've done a lot of buying and selling on FB Marketplace, and a little bit in the groups. Marketplace is hit or miss, but has seemingly replaced Craigslist for local sales. It's the same group of folks, lots of tire kickers and junk, but I've found some really good deals and also sold many books, zero fees, cash money.

This is true. Your chances of winning the lottery are ALMOST nothing, but it's an honest almost nothing. Whereas the odds of winning a raffle largely center around whether or not the person running it is honest. And the only person that knows if that is true is the person doing the raffle. Have we ever had a thread asking for examples of boardies who've actually won one of these raffles? I'd be curious to see the results. Am too lazy to make a thread though.

Considerably more than a regular board, yes. I've only got a handful of books using the acrylic backers, just the special stuff that I like to pull out and gaze at from time to time.

I hadn't bought the last four releases of the Barks library, because I was waiting for them to release a gift set, like they always had before. Every Xmas, this is what I ask for from my mother in law. I love the look of the slipcases on the shelf. But I realized that four had come out with no set in sight, so I contacted Fantagraphics, and they said they didn't know if they'd be doing the gift sets anymore. SO, I guess I'll go ahead and pick up those last four books, and if they end up releasing a box, I'll sell them off and buy the set. Kinda drives me nuts that they're not going to be uniform on the shelf, but I suppose I will get over it!

I definitely think people should collect what they love, and not have to apologize for it. I personally love promo posters and point of sale promotions from shops. That stuff is great. So my beef isn't with the stuff itself, or the collectors of said stuff. The part I find amusing is the seemingly never ending stream of newly discovered "first appearances". But to be clear, people should buy what they like.

Marvel Age selling the way it has is certainly a sign of the apocalypse. But on the flip side (or the flipper side) I've certainly made a lot of money selling Marvel Age to folks. I bought a near complete set of Marvel Age last year for about $17. Did very well. And a bonus is that I don't have any regrets about selling them, as I don't collect them myself.

For a time I enjoyed the look of a "tight fit", but found that over time, the books would sometimes warp depending on the shape of the board, etc. Eventually I settled on silver age full backs and bags. The boards are stiff enough that the books really shouldn't be moving around very much, and it protects the books by leaving a margin around them in case there's an impact pulling the book in or out of a box, or whatever. For the nice stuff I like a SA mylar and bag inside of a golden age top loader. I got a few of those acrylic backboards as well. mylar/acrylic board/ga top loader is sturdy and clear like a slab, without the cost/annoyance of slabbing! However, I've not read enough about the chemical properties of the clear boards, so they aren't really for long term storage.

This doesn't bother me as much as the folks desperately digging to find an alternate "REAL!!" first appearance, like a coloring book, an ad in an earlier book, the cover of Amazing Heroes, etc. It's getting kind of ridiculous. Then again, if I don't care, I don't have to buy it.

Oh, it didn't SERIOUSLY bother me at all. Now excuse me while I return to putting the final touches on my Brian Azzarello voodoo doll...

Nope, quit buying moderns a while back. The only new books I get are Love and Rockets and Aliens related stuff. The final nail was when I quit getting Batman. Hadn't missed an issue since the 80's. Sold them all, bought hardcovers of the stuff I wanted to read. I like the look of hardcovers on the shelf rather than boxes of single issues I'll never look at again.

I get it. Walt is one of the few pros I haven't met over the years, and I'm thinking about sending something in just because i love the guy so much! I've got his signature in a hardcover that came pre-signed, but I'd like to get a comic signed by him one day, just to have. Uncle Walt is the best!