F For Fake

SHHHH, some of us have been well aware of this for a while, and don't need others nosing around!

I'll say this: I've sold on eBay for 20+ years, and the number of trouble transactions has never been higher than these past few months. Tons of newer users bidding stuff up and then immediately asking to cancel after they win (I had two cases within a week of each other literally message me saying "I don't want it any more.") etc. eBay can't be beat for the number of eyeballs on the site, but it is also more of a hassle than ever. Meanwhile, fees go up, seller protections go down. It's not great. The boards are good for specialized items, high grade and rare books etc. But traffic seems lower/slower than the last few years unless you're one of a handful of big time dealers. Still tons of great books selling to discerning bidders, but altogether not the same as it was a couple of years ago, especially for the mid-level junk I'm usually peddling. Meanwhile, FB seems to be the best place to dump bulk stuff, drek, etc. It's telling that the sports card guys are out in force right now, and they are willing to gobble up the drek that folks here don't want, and people on eBay don't want to pay to have shipped. If they're buying, I'm selling! So far so good.

My imagination is willing to allow for a nice enough copy of Action 1 that I can afford a mid grade copy of Tec 27 AND Bats 1.

Changing of the tide, I suppose. I myself was skeptical for a long time, but I've had nothing but success lately. Like I said above, cash in hand, no paypal/ebay fees, no taxes. To be clear, I'm only talking about local FB. I don't ship FB sales. But while Craiglist has completely died for me, FB has more than picked up the slack, and I'm selling stuff there well above my eBay asking prices, minus the fees. I'm liking it a lot.

Horror fans are a different breed altogether, and are willing to spend serious $$$ on books that the guides ignore. The Chaos Halloween books have been hot for 20 years now. There's a chromium variant and a glow in the dark variant as well. They always sell strongly. The Topps Jason vs Leatherface mini has long been a hot and pricey run, as is the Northstar Leatherface series, Dark Horse's Army of Darkness mini, etc. These books fly under the radar at shops but always sell well for me.

Nice! In all the years of buying Dave books, I think this is still the only one I've never run across in the wild. I've seen them online, but never found one at a show or shop.

Sold a bunch more drek this weekend. I'm really feeling the local FB thing these days.

I've oftened fantasized about stumbling across an Action 1...so I could then sell it and buy a Tec 27. Superman blows. Batman rulez.

Finally, you have my attention!

Hmm, tried to add it to my cart and got an error that I "can not add item to cart", and then I just hit "Buy it Now" and was taken to a page saying that the seller is on vacation. I'm not actually buying one, but thought I'd add it to the cart and watchlist just to see if it sold through. Odd errors.

Yeah, I recall the character from Spawn, and was aware of how she ended up with Marvel, but since I haven't kept up with Marvel for some time, I wasn't sure how she fit into the Marvel Universe. Cool looking figure for sure, but without that nostalgic connection, it's still a pass for me.

That's funny, I've run into a bunch of Surfers around here, but I have yet to see a Mystique! (Or The Thing, for that matter.) I did finally find a couple of Mr Fantastics a few months ago. And yeah, Magik and Namor are still warming the shelves around here. And Yellow Daredevil and Ant-Man too. How long ago did DD come out? Two or three years? He's still readily available around here. The Punishers and Invisible Women finally dried up, I guess that's something. I agree 100% on Medusa's hair. I really expected either articulation, or bendy with a wire, or SOMETHING, you know? The Angela seems like a nice figure but I've passed on her as I don't know much about the character. I tend to stick with the classic versions of the characters I grew up with. I've also been seeing a lot of the Spider-man wave with Jackal, Gwenpool, etc but I don't care anything about those characters. Considered picking up Cloak, and may go back for him, especially if I can find a Dagger too.

Pretty nice copy from the LCS today.

The bargain JSA saga continues! Oddly enough, found this Wildcat at HPB today while trying to find something on which to spend my 50% off coupon. $15 seemed about right. What's next? Sandman at the Goodwill? The Atom at a swap meet? Stay tuned!

Just too awesome, man. Lovely set up.

Fun toy day today. First up, the cheap stuff. Walgreens Marvel Legends sale still going on, so I went ahead and picked up a couple of figures I'd been putting off. Medusa isn't great but will display well with Blackbolt, and the Surfer figure is really nice. For $13.99 I was satisfied. A month or so ago I picked up several DC Direct Golden Age JSA figures, and today the bargain collection keeps rolling with addition of modern Hourman, Dr Midnite and Mister Terrific, picked up on clearance at my LCS for $6 a pop. They'd been sitting on the shelf for a few months at $10. At $6, I decided to jump. Stay tuned to see how my cheapass JSA collection grows. Riveting stuff, I'm sure. Last up, Hot Toys concept Wonder Woman. I haven't bought a Hot Toys figure in a while (I think Ripley was the last I'd picked up) but I'd been wanting a Gal Gadot figure for a while. The mix of GG and the comic inspired color palette was enough to break me. The seamless body gives me some concern, but at this moment it looks terrific.

I saw two Donatello/Krang packs at a Target today, and those are the only ones I've run across so far. Thought about picking them up, but at $52 I passed. I don't care enough about TMNT to be in over $200 for a set of these, especially if it's going to be a real pain to get them all. But if I walk into a Target one day and see all four sets, I might talk myself into it.

Geez, is that finally happening? Man, I remember reading those as they came out, it took forever, and I eventually gave up. I LOVED "It's a Good life" but the Clyde Fans storyline just never grabbed me at all. I picked up a Palookaville collection 1-19 from a friend back in the fall, was surprised how well they sold. Definitely some devoted fans still lingering out there.

Yeah, regardless of your intentions, if you bid it up, you're on the hook, and it wouldn't be cool to try to wiggle out of it. Enjoy your new books!

Came into the thread to make this same comment, but you beat me to it. Keep it up, you're doing the Lord's work!

Ha, that was my same reaction: "What the hell is a Space Venom? And why do I want one now?"

My gut reaction on most coppers is that it's not worth subbing for anything under 9.4, and in many cases, 9.6 or 9.8. But this is now considered a "key", I guess, and it remains a hot books. I don't have GPA currently, but browsing closed auctions it looks like at least one 7.0 has sold for $50+. There are a couple of current listings asking $100+. Not sure that they'll get it, but I guess the perception is that it's worth that much to at least a few folks. So, for this particular book, which seems to be continually on the rise, I don't think you'd lose much in the long term if you slabbed it. But at this moment, if you slabbed and sold it, the profit margin may be tight, or negative once you factor in shipping and fees.

CGC has grading criteria???

Those of us (and I suspect it's a lot) who have actually opened the boxes fresh from Diamond realize that it's a miracle if a book shows up on the stands NM or better. I think the paper stock of the books goes a long way towards how well they stand up to shipping damage, which is why Prestige Format books and cardstock covers seem to hit 9.9/10 more often than their floppier brethren (anecdotal observation. I'll let the resident stats guys confirm or debunk that.) That being said, of the couple hundred books I've subbed (I've never been a big subber, even less since the switch to the new case, newton rings, books getting damaged, etc) I've had exactly one 9.9 come back, and it was a Valiant Unity 1 platinum. And as far as I recall, that was a "normal" paper stock book. So who knows? My PERSONAL preference would be if a book is "perfect" to the naked eye, it's a 9.8, and 9.9's and 10's would be reserved for those "perfect" books that also exhibit superior qualities, like perfect registration, centering, wrap, etc. But it's not up to me. I've seen 9.8's riddled with spine dings, and I've seen books that appeared flawless routinely hit 9.6/9.8. Then again, I'm not looking at the books with a microscope.