F For Fake

SCOOOOOORE! Man, that's sweet. I'm a laser collector myself. I got into laser back in the day, as it was pretty much the only way to see movies at home in their original format (aside from a few random "letterboxed" vhs tapes). I remember the day I walked into Suncoast video to look at lasers, and the kid at the counter told me that DVD was coming, that it would kill laser in a year or two, and VHS within 5. I laughed. LAUGHED! Oh well, I'm an insufficiently_thoughtful_person. Anyway, I sold off most of my lasers as I went into DVD (and then DVD's as I went into Blu Ray) but I held onto a few. I discovered a laser group on FB a year or two ago and it sparked my interest again. You used to be able to find these things around town for $2 or less. Now they've dried up, as collectors are scooping them up. As for why someone would collect them, for me it's primarily the nostalgia and the beautiful large artwork, but I do enjoy watching them as well. As has been pointed out, if you have a receiver that can do AC3, it's hard to beat the uncompressed sound of the laserdisc. There are also many instances where movies have been monkeyed with endlessly over several releases, so if you want to see the original color timing, LD is the way to roll. SWEET score, @Rip

Auctions have been eating it for at least a couple of years now. So unless you're in a hurry to move them, if you insist on the eBay route, then BIN w/ BO is the way to roll. But as has been stated, if it's good stuff, I'd put them up here first. Boardies can be cheapskates, but cool books always sell, and after you deduct eBay and Paypal fees, it can be a wash versus the "board discount".

This. I've been reading Gabe's journal since it first began, though I never commented, because I was pulling for him. But things have spun out of control, and this isn't funny anymore. I believe that Gabe believes everything that he is saying is true. I don't think he's lying. I think he is being lied too, and he believes it, because he is apparently not in a great space mentally right now. Gabe, your decision making hasn't been great over the years, but you used to show some ambition and gumption. I hope you'll return to that. This fantasy-land about Sam isn't healthy, and I am sincerely worried about your mental state when you find out the truth. I'm not trying to lecture you, because I know you will react poorly to that. But please, get some help, and get your head straight. If you're still hung up on Sam, you need to get over this hurdle so you can move on. You need to Skype or Webcam or something so you can see who you're actually talking to, and then you can move on with your life. No excuses for you or for her, just do it, like ripping off a band-aid or jumping in a cold pool of water. May seem tough, but once you do it, you'll wonder why you waited so long. If she is what she said she is (she should be able to prove what she looks like and even demonstrate these "powers" via webcam) then that should light a fire under you to go ahead get your affairs in order so you can go see her. And if she is lying to you, which seems more likely, then you can finally admit it to yourself, and move on with your life. You've said your health isn't good. You say you're not sleeping. Fantasies about being trained to be a soldier by a super powered internet wife...dude, this is seriously alarming. YOU ARE NOT WELL. I wish you the very, very best. Get it together. This journal began as "your road to success". Get back on that road, bud! As for the rest of us: guys, this is a kid. A delusional kid. It was funny until it proved to be scary. Don't throw more gas on the fire. I'm not even going to look at this thread again because I don't want to be a party to it. I've said my piece. But don't egg him on. It's not cool.

Good luck! Adult books are tough because many of them are genuinely hard to find, but finding a venue and determining fair market value can be tough, as it's difficult to find completed auction information. I had two long boxes of adult books that I picked up as part of a larger collection, and ended up selling them all here. Was very pleased with the results.

My two cents, and worth even less than that, is that superheroes are going to be a part of pop culture for a long time to come. Too much money wrapped up in it now. Film, tv, video games, and toys, it's gonna be a superhero world. But the actual comics themselves aren't long for this world. Print media is dying. It's sad, but it seems inevitable, and I'm sure we'll see the end of comic publishing within my lifetime, hell, if not even in the next several years. I expect the market for keys will continue to be strong, run books will continue to eat dirt. As for kids, every kid I know loves superheroes, but none of them read comics. My niece is 11, and she reads comics, and "collects" them in that I give her comics and she puts them in a box I got her. She did ask for a gift certificate to the LCS for her birthday, and I complied with that. We took her to the shop and she bought some 75 cent Archie Digests, some little toys and a mood ring. However, as many have already pointed out, I didn't even know a lot of comic collectors when I was growing up during the boom of the 80's into the 90's. I knew exactly one other "collector" who was super into it like me. I had two other friends who occasoinally bought The Punisher and Ghost Rider, sporadically. And that was it. Comics never seemed popular even when they apparently were.

Man, I loved classic X-Men. It started up when I was just getting into Marvel comics, and it was fascinating to me to read a NEW issue of Uncanny X-Men, along with the Classic X-Men reprint, and try to figure out what had happened to those characters in the years between. Gave me a deep and abiding love for the continuity (which would later become a nightmare...) Also, as has been pointed out, those terrific back-up stories with art by John Bolton, plus terrific covers by Art Adams, Steve Lightle, and much later Mike Mignola and Adam Hughes. Great stuff!

Yes, that is absolutely the case. When I was a kid, "2nd print" was a kiss of death, basically worthless. Now I'm chasing down books I probably gave away 20 years ago!

Yeah, I had never had someone just straight up tell me "Oh, I don't want it anymore" until the last few months, and now I've had it several times. Of course, they want you to just cancel and move on, but I put them through the whole process. Open a nonpaying bidder case, go through the motions, let them get their unpaid item strike, etc. Of course, with this sort of buyer most of them don't even CARE if they get a strike, they'll just open another account, etc. But I don't let people off the hook. I'm that petty. ha

Most of my listings are BIN, because auctions are dying a slow death. However, when I have a large collection of similar items (a collection of Transformers, a collection of Marvel Legends, etc) I find that running a big auction with several listings will get some traction and will outperform BIN's. It's in those instances that I have the problem with non-paying bidders. But yeah, by and large, BIN w/ Best Offer is the best way to roll on the 'bay.

It's absolutely the truth. I've been selling on eBay for 20+ years, and have never had so many "bad buyers" as I have seen this last year, or even the last few months. Retractions are one thing. What I'm seeing more and more is buyers asking to cancel the order within a day of the auction ending, stating they "don't want/need it anymore." There seems to be very little sense of accountability with the newer buyers/bidders these days.

I sold a bunch of Cherry books here on the boards a few months ago. The books that didn't sell here, I took to ebay. eBay yanked the auctions and issued a warning within a couple of days. They are very hit or miss with their enforcement. As you can see from searching completed auctions, many are sold without any problem. But I personally had my listings pulled a few months ago. Threw them in the "adults only" section, and as expected, got zero traction, because those listings don't come up in general search, and there's not much traffic. Ended up selling them locally on FB. What a pain. I'd say if you have some nice ones, put them up here on the forums, there are definitely interested buyers around here! Now, if anyone can point me to where I can sell a stack of 8mm stag films, I've got a small stack that I can't find a venue for (eBay also yanked those.)

I haven't noticed any sort of price difference between the printings, anecdotally. They're fun to collect but I don't think the various printings are on the radar of most collectors, at least not yet. The good @Cpt Kirk would know more, I'm sure, as he's the sort of collector looking for every printing. I'm much more casual about it, but have never paid a premium for any of them. Since so many went out in 3-packs, and it was a mid-80's DC, I imagine print runs were pretty decent.

I can't say if McFarlane was influenced by Adams or not, but I think you can draw a straight line for both of them back to Michael Golden, more than any other artist (and no matter what Todd says about Kirby, Buscema, and Kane.)

I'll take that.

Hello, Kentuckian here! Just chiming in to say that I actually identify as "Louisvillian", and still hold out hope that one day we'll erect a dome around the city and secede from the state. Ok, that may be going a bit far, but suffice to say that there are plenty of progressive, forward thinking folks and cities in the state of Kentucky who are not as well represented as we'd like. I'll refrain from saying much more for fear of stepping into the "politics" arena and getting the thread nuked. But yes, there are plenty of us who would have much preferred to have our pension system shored up rather than watched money be put into an ark. I love my city, I love a lot of little towns and cities around the state, and to be sure, it is beautiful. But on the whole, it can be a frustrating experience, living here. Will stop here before I'm tempted to bring up certain Terrapin-American Senators...

@porcupine48

No no no, it was a sin of omission!

@porcupine48 Jimmers is excluded from these epithets, obviously. It goes without saying, as evidenced by the fact that I didn't say it! In fact, this will be a gathering IN HONOR of Jimmers, see?

Boy, you're not kiddin! Different times, my friend, different times.

That settles it, if there's a board meet up, I'm hanging with @Mystafo and @DavidTheDavid. The rest of y'all are NARCS and squares!

Communication is absolutely the key. I don't really do consignments per se, but I do occasionally sell things for friends. I put everything into a nice Excel spreadsheet explaining what the item sold for, what I received after eBay and Paypal fees, how much shipping cost, etc. Of course, nowadays it doesn't take long for money to clear, you can have money deposited from Paypal to your bank account in seconds, but back in the day you could expect a few days for a transfer to clear, or weeks for a check. As long as I kept my pals updated, everyone was happy.

Capital idea! I think I'll do something similar with the wife tonight, only we'll probably watch a Jackie Chan movie instead of Endgame. I liked it, but I saw it twice, so that should hold me for a while.

PS: I think customs are cool as hell, but I don't have the patience or talent to do them.

A. When I picked up that large TF collection earlier this year, there were a lot of broken figures, which I sold on eBay. There's definitely a market for them. People use them for parts for their own broken figures, customs, etc. I was able to sell figures missing wheels, doors, even broken in half! And if you have any parts to that Jetfire, they may be worth selling as well. I got about $45 just for the fender thigh clips. So, personally I don't keep broken figures, or do customs myself, but I do sell them rather than trash them. B. I have a few toys on my desk at work, some are things people gave to me (I have several knick knacks from my niece over the years) and a few random action figures. There's no rhyme or reason.I have the Ramones and Chuck D standing up in the window, Cap-Wolf and Hot Rod by my desktop. Just adds a little color to the place.

I'm putting everything into Naive Interdimensional Kung-Fu Koalas, Geriatric Gangrene Ju-Jitsu Gerbils, Cold Blooded Chameleon Commandoes, and Mildly Microwaved Pre-Pubescent Kung Fu Gophers, (Well maybe not everything, but I definitely bough 'em back in the day!)