F For Fake

It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing. For anything over $200 I add signature and insurance. For $1k+ I do registered, generally.

Oh, I'm including myself in there. I'm a beardie baldo, and have been known to flaunt a Hawaiian shirt in my time. I'm just saying that within comic convention circles, our numbers are legion.

I'd agree, it's like a conveyor belt. Best I can tell, Stan is just sorta aiming for the middle. I doubt he even sees what he's writing on.

My clearest memory of Amalgam was that I was working at a LCS at the time, and customers were very excited about these books, but no one, NO ONE, knew how to pronounce "Amalgam". I mean, it's not a difficult word, but it really and truly stumped hordes of nerds at our store.

Boris the Bear avatar seals it. You can stay.

For what it's worth, I don't read or buy any of this garbage, I just like to stay informed enough to feel justified in my mockery.

Absolutely! There are real deals to be had out there, if you're willing to roll the dice. With buyer protection, as long as we're not talking about crazy money, I will sometimes take a leap of faith.

I've selling on eBay for 20+ years (100% positive feedback, top rated power seller, the whole bag) and buying longer than that, and my experience is that it's the buyers who are going to waste your time and money. As has been pointed out, as a buyer, you are protected via Paypal and credit card (if you pay that way.) As a seller, you're selectively protected by eBay and Paypal, if they feel like it at that moment. I've had to eat it a few times as a seller. I've never been left holding the bag as a buyer. It can be inconvenient to have to return something and wait for your refund or for eBay's final ruling, but by and large, buyers are in power, no question. Lots of good feedback can be a good indicator, but is not foolproof, for sure. Clear scans, and just a gut feeling about whether or not the deal you're looking at is "right", goes a long way.

Loner weirdos unite! Or better yet, don't!

Not talking about cons specifically, just their lives in general. Women and minorities are, in general, dealing with more creeps (at best) and threats (at worst) in their daily lives. But is that what happened? Maybe I misread, but my understanding isn't that straight, white males were turned away from any mixers, they just didn't have any events set up specifically for them. Did a white dude try to get into a party and was told he couldn't come in? I'd be surprised if that was the case.

Ahem.

No word here either, but again, it's always taken a month or more in the past, so no surprises, and no worries. He gets to it when he gets to it, I don't really care.

I'd take the Capullo simply because I'm a Batman collector, and it would look ok on the wall. But at those prices, big nope to both.

The House of Ideas: Spider-Gwen, GwenPool, Gwenom, Weapon H, and now...Red Goblin! There's no two characters we CAN'T smoosh together! Give us yr $$$!

Defenders of the Earth is actually a pretty cool little toy line, which brought together a bunch of old King Features comic strip characters like Flash Gordon, Mandrake and The Phantom. It was a real hodge podge, but if you like classic comic strip characters AND 4" scale figures, it was a neat little bunch of toys. I've been looking for nice MOC examples at a good price for a while, but haven't come across a deal that I like yet.

PS: I've never gone to a "mixer" either, or VIP party, or any of that stuff, because I'm an antisocial weirdo who just wants to buy his comics, speak to the fewest number of people possible, then retreat to his hotel room with a bag of treasures and take out pizza.

I think in general a "mixer" at a con is exactly along the lines of what you're thinking, it's a small party meant for small social groups to gather at a larger event. I guess my question, given the tone of the linked article, is whether the writer was truly looking for a white, straight, male mixer, or if they were just looking to stir up trouble because of the other mixers being exclusive? I can see why women, or black people, or LGBTQ people, or any other minority, might be looking to have a small event where they don't feel like they have to look over their shoulder. I'm not sure why a white dude at a comic show would ever feel that way, as they/we (again, straight, white male dude here) overwhelmingly represent the majority at these events. But as for whether or not the con itself is sponsoring discriminatory events, that could very well be a valid legal question, and I'd have to defer to the legal eagles on the boards to weigh in on whether or not that is kosher.

For most of my life, every comic show I went to was something very close to being an all white, straight, male mixer, 24/7. Nothing intrinsically wrong with being any of those things (I am actually all of those things!) but it's not like if I wanted to gather with "my group", I'd have a hard time doing it, or would need a protected space to do so. I'd think that those "exclusive" mixers are something more like setting up a safe space for those groups to do their thing. I see no problem with it. If you're wanting a straight white male mixer in the comics world, we're all practically living in one, unless you count "bald w/ beard" and "Hawaiian shirts" and "fedoras" sub-species deserving of their own mixers as well.

On the opposite end, I'm looking to invest $3 for comic book speculation. Please forward your 50 cent and $1 recommendations to me ASAP, I'd like to maximize the potential of my investment capital.

That's the danger of slabbing, for me. If a book is raw, I can hold onto it forever. But once I slab it, it becomes so easy to sell, I have a hard time resisting. Keep 'em raw!

What a great story! I used to get so excited when CBG would show up in the mail. So much great stuff to dig through, especially the ads in the back.

Any time Comic Coin is brought up on the boards, my heart grows three sizes.

Nice!

Its CERN's fault. The large hadron collider shifted us into a parallel dimension. No other way to explain Trump.