F For Fake

I'm not a "real" dealer, but I've sold a lot of books on ebay and here over the last 20 years or so. I don't really have a specific cut-off, it's really a case by case valuation. For a high dollar book, sure, I'm going to check it out very closely, but I don't deal with a ton of high value books. I'm a bargain bin diver, for the most part primarily dealing with copper and moderns, so I'm not going to spend a ton of time on the books, as those defects are usually readily apparent. I try to be as thorough as possible when selling books, though, and totally upfront. For instance, I sometimes do big sales threads of random copper and modern books, mostly cheap $1-$5 stuff. When I'm scanning hundreds of books, I am looking at every single book, but it's still possible that I'll miss something. So I try to give the buyers faith that I am generally pretty good at this, but mistakes happen, and if I make a mistake, I'll make it right. That's about the best I can do.

Two pages in, and this guy hasn't shown up yet?

Devil Dinosaur

Ha, good point! I guess they should carry on, then!

Agree 100%. Although there are definitely a lot of scammers out there, I'd like to believe that the vast majority of sellers are doing their best to be honest. Things happen. People miss stuff. The key is to be reasonable and communicate regularly, and almost anything can be worked out. Last year I sold a book to a boardie that had a coupon cut out. I hadn't noticed it, because I'd bought it from a well-respected boardie who hadn't disclosed it when he sold it to me, and I'd never bothered to look closer. My buyer could have flown off the handle with me, but instead was very calm and reasonable, and allowed me to make the situation right. We treated each other with respect, and we came up with solution that worked for both of us. I'd simply missed it, so it was on me to fix it. (I'd suspect the same was true of the boardie I bought it from, as his rep is stellar as well. He probably just missed it, but by the time I'd gone to sell it, so much time had elapsed that it wouldn't be worth bringing it up with him. The failure to inspect the book closer upon my receipt was on me, not him.) Mistakes happen. How we treat each other is what matters. Hopefully the seller here will open up communication shortly and this can all be resolved.

I've always found it sad that a lot of folks who spend their time scamming people over super hero books apparently never learned anything from reading them.

Opinionated, unyielding...you'll do well here!

Invisible capes are Harry Potter stuff, and that's at Universal Studios.

Thanks so much, and that is terrific! I love the BTAS line, and had them all when they were originally released (well, at least I had all of the unique characters. I didn't collect all of the flavors of Batman). I remember trading my first bass guitar (which was a cheap Fender P-Bass knock off) to a friend in exchange for a stack of BTAS villains (Clayface, Ivy, Freeze, Croc, and one other one, I believe). The show is still my favorite distillation of the character and his world, and the character designs were so minimalist, so sleek, they translated beautifully into plastic. Those BTAS figs are some of the nicest looking figures ever produced, so elegant, clean, and not cluttered up with tons of articulation.

I actually own and enjoy some issues of Rom, but when I was a kid, Rom was synonymous with "worthless". The fact that the wheel has turned to the point where #1 is a wall book is interesting to me. I would say "mind blowing", but in the current market, nothing really shocks me anymore.

This showed up a few weeks ago for me. What's odd is that sometimes the option is there, and sometimes...it's not. So I'm not sure if they're still working it out or what. It's pretty handy. When I'm selling large batches of stuff on eBay, usually once I'm done with shipping and paying my ebay fees, I'll then transfer that balance to a checking account I have set up just for this sort of stuff. Depending on what time of day I make the transfer, it could take a couple of days for the money to actually hit my account. Like, say it's 11pm on a Thursday night (by the time I get home from work, have dinner, get done packing boxes) and I'm ready to transfer my balance to my bank account, it's possible that since it's so late in the day when I make the transfer, the money may not actually hit my checking account until Monday. Meanwhile, that weekend, maybe I ran across some stuff I wanted to pick up, but my cash is tied up in the transfer. So, for 25 cents, I can avoid that hassle, and have the money instantly deposited. Not bad for a quarter. I won't use it every time, but I can see how it might be useful on occasion.

Well!

She-Hulk's ascendance isn't nearly as disturbing to me as the fact that Rom #1 is now a wall book.

Welcome to the boards! Wolverine 1 is a fun book, and in high grade is worth getting graded for sure. But it is also a pretty common book, so if it's not at least around an 8.5/VF+ or so, it's probably not worth the cost of grading. If you're new to grading comics, probably your best first step is to take some high resolution scans, then head over to the "Please Grade My" section of these CGC forums, and then really listen to what folks have to say. Good luck!

I mean, aren't Magic Erasers essentially some sort of finely ground sandpaper? I wouldn't let them near a comic book, but what do I know?

Wow, I love ALL of that! Kenner SW, BTAS, and Joe design stuff, it's win win win! May I ask what sort of case you're using for your BTAS figs? I picked up a few BTAS figures last month (including a nice Combat Belt Batman) and can't find a case that is the right size. It looks like there were cases manufactured specifically for these at one time, but I can't find one the right size now.

Good to know, I'll have to check it out, if I can even remember my log-in. I also used to love the Bowen boards back in the day, but that all went south pretty quick.

Awesome, thanks for the tips, I'm in the market for one of these if I ever run across another one, and this is all very helpful to know!

I like the Sideshow Freaks forums at sideshowcollectors.com Although it's ostensibly a site for Sideshow Collectors (duh) the forums really cover every kind of statue and figure out there. The forums are broken down into subgroups (Marvel, DC, Aliens, etc.) that are themselves broken down into forums specifically for toys or statues, and within THOSE forums there's a thread for every major new release from every company out there. Although I don't know of a singular database, spending some time in those forums can be very informative. I used to frequent the Statue Forums boards back in the day, but am not sure if they're even still a thing? If nothing else, you can always just go to ebay and search "statue" and the name of the character you'r einterested in, and that'll give you an idea of what is out there.

Sideshow produces their own statues, and they also distribute pieces for other companies as well. Prime One, Bowen (in the olden days), Tweeterhead, several others are independent companies that Sideshow does distro for. I guess it helps to keep their competition close by? When talking about superhero statues, you're also talking about XM, Gentle Giant, Diamond and their various imprints, DC Collectibles, Kotobukiya, etc. There are sooo many companies stretching those licenses so thin. Back in the day, if you wanted a comic book statue, you had Bowen, and that was pretty much it. Or pieces distributed by DC or Graphitti, some of which were sculpted by Bowen before he went out on his own. There wasn't a lot of selection, and they were pricey. Nowadays there is literally a statue line for every collector's budget. If you don't have much room OR money, Kotobukiya and Diamond make some really snazzy mid-sized PVC pieces in the $40-$60 range that don't take up a lot of space or break the bank, but still offer a wide variety of characters that look very nice. Or if you have tons of space and want to throw out $1k plus per piece, Prime One have you covered with their enormous 1:2 scale statues. Sideshow has plenty of spots in the middle ground, from their maquettes to their 1/4 scale premium format pieces. These days there's really something for everyone.

What we've seen of the WW proto looks lovely (of course the proto vs the actual painted factory piece is usually light years apart) but I can't believe SST is going back to the well on the big three again, and so soon! Ugh. So many second string characters and rogues gallery members we could have, and yet here's another PF each for the trinity. Oh well, saves me money, I guess (though I probably will break down and get the WW.)

While DC may have every legal right to make the statue, it just seems odd that someone in the creative department wouldn't reach out to Mike, just to keep the relationship positive. They've made statues based on his work before, (which I'd assumed were with his full cooperation, but now I'm wondering if that was the case after all?) and they were very popular. The Black and White statues went through two editions and continue to be a big seller, from what I can tell. So if there is clearly a demand for DC tchotchkes based on Mike's work, it seems like it'd be in DC's interest to foster the relationship further, in the event that they wanted to produce something for which they DID need his permission down the line. Just an odd way of doing business, even if it's within their rights.

I'm sure you're right! It definitely sucked my eyeballs in, leading me to buy all of these Joes! By golly, I fell prey to advanced retailing practices!

Yeah, I haven't kept up with prices, but I was pretty sure that $2500 was way out of range these days. Pretty neat to see one out in a shop like that, but I expect he'll be sitting there for a while.

Same here, had it when I was kid, don't think I ever realized there was an actual "game" to be played, I just like to have him eat my other toys. You can find the shark itself pretty easily, but with the box, in nice shape like that, not nearly as often. Great pick-up!