F For Fake

For giving you the bookend idea, I'd like to nominate myself for a Forumite of the Year award. Two if possible. You know, for bookends.

This hits upon a danger that I've mentioned before, which is that if I DO slab something, it is much more likely that I'll sell it. Keeping a book raw, in a mylar, full back and top loader, I can just love and admire the book. The grade is subjective, I have my opinion and that's all that matters. Once I slab a book, suddenly there is a hard grade and a corresponding GPA value, the book is much more liquid, and I start seeing $$$$. So, my collection is much safer raw!

I will look up Charles Soule's work, thanks a bunch! Did he write the original Vader series for Marvel? Because I seriously loved that. I'm not even much of a Star Wars guy, but I thought that was such a nice job of world and character building, I really dug it. I know there's a more recent Vader series and it has been fine, though it didn't hit me as hard as the first series. Will add Soule to my list, thanks again!

Holy cats, I've been here for 10 years and I always assumed the "Best Forumite" thing was just something the boardies made up. CGC actually sent you a plaque! That's too cool! I have a few "Top of Registry" certificates, I'm always surprised when they show up. It's pretty cool of CGC to engage with board members like that. When does the voting or whatever go in for 2019? We need to get you another one, you know, for bookends!

For reasons pointed out previously, such as restoration check and a generally agreed upon third party grading system (or at least fairly close to it...as always, buy the book, not the number) I think CGC is a great service for Gold, Silver, even high value bronze/copper/moderns. It's when folks started grading common moderns, and the price discrepancies between nosebleed grades grew so large, that things got a little goofy. At least to me. Books that are practically worthless in 9.4's, but sell strongly in 9.8. Seems crazy, and has no appeal to me. However, there is an unforeseen benefit to me, the cheapskate: I'll happily buy beautiful raw 9.6's that "weren't good enough" to be slabbed at 9.8's, for a massive markdown, all day long. I know the 10 point scale is the industry standard these days, but I'll always be a GD/VG/F/NM guy at heart. raw 9.4's are generally ok with me for the personal collection. So, for many years, it was fun to snap up high grade raws at a fraction of the "full market value". Good times. Of course, things change. It seems increasingly common for sellers to ask GPA slabbed prices for "9.8" raws. I'm not falling for it, but I guess enough people are to make it a fairly common practice.

I was already in high school, but I remember diligently showing up at McDonald's to pick up all of the Animated figures and cars. They were very well made for a Happy Meal toy, and I always loved that Batgirl sculpt. Once again, very cool stuff, thanks for sharing.

WOW. Love the story and the pieces.

I'd say that is worth being broke for a while, for sure. Congrats!

And like I said, the time I met Byrne was late 90's, I'd say around 96 or 97 probably? So it's entirely possible that he's come down to earth since then. People change. Maybe he had a bad day. But I've heard enough similar stories that I figured I'd continue to steer clear. He may be a lamb nowadays though, and I certainly hope he has changed, and people have a good time meeting him.

The one time I met him, I brought a single book. Walked up to the table, said "Hello Mr. Byrne, thanks so much," and he couldn't even be bothered to look at or speak to me, and I was not the only one in the line that he treated that way. Haven't had any use for the guy since then. I try to be extremely polite to all creators, and I am not one to bring a stack of books to anyone. I don't care what anyone does or doesn't charge, just treat people with basic respect. Steranko is a real character and a ton of fun to talk to. Have met him several times, always a pleasure.

That's interesting to hear. The one time I met him, he couldn't be bothered to speak to me, or anyone else in his line. That was nearly 25 years ago, maybe he's more humble these days.

yeah, I read that whole Avengers storyline first, "No Surrender" in Avengers 675-690 or something like that. And I thought that was pretty good, a story we've seen time and again but I still enjoyed it well enough. So I read all of that and then Immortal Hulk. And like I said, I wouldn't say I DISLIKED Immortal Hulk. It was fine. I just didn't get out of it what so many people seem to be loving about it. Donny Cates is a name I keep hearing but don't know his work. I will check out Venom. Looking for more recs!

Yes! The second pic was just sort of a random pull, but I specifically sought out the Krakoa page for the first pic, love it!

Love it!

I haven't bought a regular Marvel comic in years, but about once a year or so I'll sign up to Marvel Unlimited for a month and blast through a bunch of stuff, all the reading I can cram into 30 days for $10. I usually get caught up on the Star Wars books, which I casually enjoy (particularly the first Darth Vader series, that was pretty great.) and then just scan around for other stuff to read. So, last weekend I was at a show, and everyone and their mother was raving about Immortal Hulk. Everybody's reading it, everybody's looking for it, everybody's buying it. SO, knowing that i was going to be heading out of town this weekend, I loaded up the app with the Avengers storyline that introduced the character, and the first 6 or 7 issues of Immortal Hulk, and went on my way. I read them all over the weekend and was pretty underwhelmed. I mean, it was FINE, there was nothing really wrong with it, but I didn't see anything special about it, and compared to the hype, I was fairly disappointed.After the raves I was expecting something pretty special. I...didn't get that from reading them.And I was excited going into it, so that was a bit of a bummer. SO...what else is worth reading from Marvel right now? I've got about three weeks left on my Unlimited sub, what should I check out? People keep talking about new Venom and Thanos series. Are they worth checking out? I don't care about either character, but that hasn't stopped me from reading books with them in it before. What is worth reading from Marvel that I can jump in and out of fairly easily? Talking about books published in the last couple of years. I'm well versed in the classic Marvel books.

Thanks! I tend to be a little conservative when showing my purchases, but you are correct, it's a pretty nice copy. I'm happy with it for sure!

Thanks bud! Indeed, 10 whole years. I'd like to say that it was time well spent, but I think we all know that simply can't be true. So, here's to ten years of killing time at work while my life slowly drips away. Thanks CGC!

Also, strictly for the purposes of science, does Pamela Anderson smell nice?

Looks like you had a fun show! Love the wall books pics.Wish more dealers would do the big prices like that, so I'd know if it's worth asking to have them take it off the wall. I usually only ask to look at something if I'm seriously thinking about buying it, having those huge prices would cut down on a lot of needless chit chat.

I know there's a lot of poo-pooing of the bulk of this collection, but my personal experience is that pretty much every big character book will sell in large lots, and there's money to be made at 10 cents a book. Even stuff that I would have thought was completely worthless, like big chunks of the 90's/2000's Superman titles, sell well in large runs. I've bought a few collections of stuff like this locally, usually the 10 to 30 long box range, at 10 cents or less per book, and have always made money. Of course, you have to be willing to put the work in. If they're bagged/boarded/sorted, the lion's share of the work is done for you. My maximum comfort range is right around 6 to 7 cents per book, but for mainstream superhero books in nice shape, I'm not arguing at 10 cents per. Then again, I enjoy working collections like that. It's my hobby.

That's one of my favorite runs from Dark Horse, beautiful Bolton covers and funky Kieth interiors. Great series.

Anything even vaguely associated with comic books is collected by someone. Overstreet is an institution of the hobby, so of course, it has its own collectors. There's a market for back issues of the book. Variants just allow one more revenue stream, one more thing to make the collectors chase. As for me, I just pick the cover I like the best, and add it to the library. By the time the new edition is published, the market reports are mostly out of date, and the prices frozen in amber. But I still love them. I look at them as a nice hardcover "year book" for comic collecting. And they look snazzy all lined up on the shelf. This year the covers leave me cold. Guess it's the Davis cover by default for me.

Love the TTA book. One of my all time faves, have never understood why such an early Spidey crossover (and cool cover!) isn't on the radars of more buyers.

Wait a minute, there's a lot going on in this thread, but this part is making my brain scream: do some of you guys really think that every woman with short hair is a lesbian??? My follow up question to those who answer in the affirmative would be: Have you actually ever met a woman, in person?

Sweet! Some of those little parts can be a real pain. My friend who bought my Flagg many years ago is STILL searching for a battery cover to the loudspeaker, the only thing he hasn't been able to find. Keel Haul's gun is a tough one too.