F For Fake

I'm pretty sure I've seen books with completely detached AND split covers still get a 1.0, if the cover presents well enough. Looks like a 1.0 to me. Nice buy!

I remember way back when I first started reading the boards, maybe even before I joined, pressing talk was taboo. The keys to the kingdom were held by a select few, and no one was talking about how it was done. There was only one video on youtube, the "infidels" thing with the guy in the mask, which was (and probably is) still hilarious. The secrecy was infuriating! Give us the information! Nowadays, there are literally dozens of pressing videos on youtube, and I'd say that the majority of them are doing it wrong, and are introducing and popularizing dangerous practices. They're cheered on by a gaggle of commenters who are like "Wow, so I can just place the book directly in the waffle iron?? Thanks bro, doing it today!" The blind leading the blind. What I'm saying is, although it seemed needlessly hushed up at the time, I think we were better off back when it was still a secret cabal thing.

Yikes, well I certainly wish you luck with that! My Complete Miller volume is definitely a little loose, because I read it over and over and over again when I was a kid. My checked my copy of Stacked Deck last night, and it is holding up well, but I don't think I ever read it more than once. Still, they're both lovely books.Even if you can't open your Miller volume, you can dig that snazzy cover!

The market is shifting. As more and more speculators enter the fray, and with keys (as well as "keys") skyrocketing, you have an increasingly large buying pool trying to find the next special thing to pump and dump. These faux first appearance books are the perfect prescription. It will be interesting to see how many of them stick. This hobby is still very young, only decades old. If it manages to stick around for more than another 10 or 20 years, I'll be curious to see if any of these "first appearance" books have become accepted as such, or if they all fall by the wayside. We're already seeing things change. Hulk 180 will never catch 181 (181 has that cool cover, obviously) but there's no question that 180 is booming relative to where it was only a few years ago. 181 is out of reach of a lot of folks, 180 is the next best thing, so it's off to the races. And look at Black Spidey. Secret Wars 8 was the book everyone wanted for years, but today it is considered, what, the third or fourth appearance of the black costume, and ASM 252 is king. We're in the midst of a very volatile period in the hobby. I'm very much interested in seeing where it all settles. Also, I did buy a copy of MA97 in a lot for about 10 cents and then sold it for $25 a couple of days later, so, hey, keep bringing us these new first appearances. As long as they sell, I don't care if they're "real" or not.

Also, my understanding is that even today, while some Omnis are stitched, others are still glued. It depends on which factory they come out of, and the cover price, I believe. This info is over on the Masterworks board somewhere...or it may have been the CBR Collected Editions forum. Or maybe I made it up! But I'm pretty sure I read that was the case.

I know I recently talked about the Complete Frank Miller Batman, which was the volume that preceded the Stacked Deck collection. It hasn't exactly started falling apart yet, but it is a little creaky. I don't open it often, I'm trying to keep it intact, as it was my first comic book HC and the one that kicked all of this off for me. Beautiful volumes, but not really built to last, I'm afraid.

I really wish someone had told me that 10 years ago, sheesh.

That thread is truly the gift that keeps on giving.

I have no idea why that image is tagged "traveling via canoe" but I love it so I'm leaving it on there.

We also hated Homecoming. It's just not for me. I liked Michael Keaton in his villain role and would have liked to have seen more of him, but otherwise this movie wasn't for me. I didn't even feel like Spider-man. Iron Man Jr, sure. Spidey, no. Ragnarok, though, I loved. I love the colors. It's lovely to look at. The humor is fun. Ragnarok may be in my Top 5 Marvel flicks, if not top 3.

I thought the same thing, but I also respect that he's a dude of a certain age and all of this is still probably fairly new to him. I don't know or understand a lot of the terminology being used these days regarding gender and identity, but I try my best. I think that's all most people can do, try to have empathy and have a good heart, and in that, hopefully others will be understanding of the occasional lapse in nomenclature.

Huh. Well, good for him!

I think that's a good plan, and I've been doing the same. Also, anymore it seems like they use the classic art as the variant, and commission newer artists to do the "main" covers, so the variants are what I'd prefer anyway. Like the recent ASM 4 Omni. I don't know who would want the Cho cover, which may be why the Romita version seemed to sell out extra fast.

I'm so glad to finally find someone who can relate to this very specific disappointment from my childhood. And the hype was real! I was very young, but I had a tape cassette that I'd recorded of myself pretending to be a young reporter talking to people about the excitement around Gorilla at Large. Man, I wish I still had that tape.

I see what you're saying, but at the end of the day, to me personally, it's not worth it, because either your buyer will ultimately suffer, or your reputation will suffer, or both. Passing on a hot potato is not a good way to build client trust. It would also, personally, feel kind of icky. If I bought a book to sell and I believed the book was a-ok, but it turned out down the line there was an issue, these things happen. If I bought a book forearmed with the knowledge that it is most likely problematic, I would feel gross, no matter how much money is on the line.

I used to say "I'll sell to anyone as long as their money is green." Nowadays I guess it's more along the lines of "I"ll sell to anyone as long as their invisible string of 0's and 1's is accepted by my digital holding room for invisible 0's and 1's."

I enjoyed Captain Marvel well enough. I thought it was fine, which is what I think about most superhero movies. I like Brie Larson in the part. I loved how much my young niece and wife enjoyed it. I also don't think it's constructive or correct to base the quality of a performance on whether or not that lead actress has a butt. That being said...it's true. She has no butt. No butt at all.

Fantagraphics?

While that may be satisfying in the short term, I like to cultivate potential relationships in which I may profit in the future off of jerks.

All I know is that I had two copies and they both sold quick this weekend, as I didn't price them up when they spiked.

I think honesty is the best policy. If you're 100% sure it hasn't been pressed, say that. If you aren't sure, but feel pretty confident that it hasn't been (you picked it up from an old school OO collection, whatever) then say "I can guarantee it hasn't been pressed since I've owned it, and I don't believe the original owner was familiar with pressing." And if you have no idea, say that. As long as you're totally up front with a buyer, I don't see how they can fault you once they make a decision based on full disclosure, good or bad.

Yeah, the more I think about it, if you didn't specifically guarantee a CGC grade (did you? I'm too lazy to scroll back) as long as the book came as you actually described it, printer defect and all, I'd say the guy is SOL. Buy the book, not the projected possible slab.

...maybe. I dunno, do the people who have $12-$15k to throw around on keys actually spend that much on PGX books? I'd think anyone with that kind of money to spend would be wary of the label. Just my two cents, of course. I'd still avoid it altogether, as there would still be a chance of headaches down the road. Even in a cash and carry situation, I wouldn't want some knucklehead tracking me down at a show and giving me a blackjack across the nape of my neck because he figured out that PGX = poop.

I really wish they'd done the Origins: Magneto movie as planned, because the "Magneto: Nazi Hunter" stuff was my favorite part of First Class. Would have loved a movie of just that stuff.