F For Fake

Same, mine is waiting for me at Walgreens. The irony is that I assumed I wouldn't be home (as I never am when FedEx comes around) so I had it redirected to Walgreens, and then...we had a snow day, and I was allowed to telecommute, so I ended up being home after all. oh well. I should have time to go grab it tonight.

This weekend was the third annual GI Joe Winterfest. itself a spin-off of the annual summer Kentuckiana GI Joe Fest. They've moved to a new venue about 15 minutes outside of town. A bit of a drag, but the facility is much larger and more conducive to having a real toy show, as opposed to being spread out through several ballrooms at an airport hotel. I was debating whether or not I would go, because I just paid out a chunk of change on my one true toy grail (which I will share with you all as soon as it arrives!) so I really didn't have much money for Joes at the moment. However, being nearly broke never stopped me before, so off I went. Tons of great deals, but I had to keep spending very modest. I saw PILES upon PILES of GI Joe Classified figures for $15. Army builders could have gone nuts on the BATS and Alley Vipers available for that price. One booth had all Classified figures at $15 each, OR get 5 for $50. So, at $10 a pop, I had to pick up a few Cobra Infantry for my army, the Storm Shadow which I've not seen around here, and Flint, as I felt like $10 was finally the price I was willing to pay for him. I needed a couple of extra Dreadnoks for dioramas, so I picked these up for $10, and I also wanted to get ONE nice figure that day, so I got a very sharp Chuckles. This figure has gotten oddly expensive, like $40-$50 loose complete, so I felt like $30 was a fair price. Also picked up this Kingdom Scorponok for $15, as he's one I just never got around to finding. And that's that! My prize will be here in a week or so (fingers crossed) and then I can start saving up for the summer GI Joe show.

Pulse did a restock of Mindbender and Serpentor back at the end of October. They sold out again pretty quickly, but I managed to get my order in that time, and I'm not a Premium member. At any rate, I'd be surprised if they offered them a third time, though it's possible you'll get versions of them single card/box without the accessories. In fact, it's likely, as Hasbro never met a mold they wouldn't beat to death.

Grades in! I tried to not overthink it this time, but now I"m thinking I should have done more thinking!

Great stuff! I used to run into that Johnny West stuff at estate sales, but never complete and in nice shape like those. I also love the Pepsi Moon glasses. I used to collect them, I've bought and sold them a few times. Only have a couple in my collection right now, but someday may go back to complete them. They look so cool.

Yeah, it was the real thing. I've held both in my hands, and can tell the difference. This was the real deal, from a dealer I trusted, but I just couldn't make myself pay that much for it. I was tempted to pick up a nice copy of the counterfeit for $150 not long after that, but again, gave it a pass as that seemed high. Probably should have sucked it up and bought both of them!

I had one in my hands at a convention a few years ago. Nice looking raw book. Asking price was $2k. I thought about it, but that was a lot of money at that moment, couldn't do it.

Oh for sure, i'd be all over that!

I was very excited when that one was announced, and will be picking it up for sure. Much like the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe/'89 Update and DC Whos Who/Update omnis we've seen, this is exactly the kind of ephemera I'd love to have collected. Can't wait!

I remember being SOOOO disappointed when I read that book as a kid. oh well, the cover is still cool!

Well, my package was indeed at my home last night (who knew, writing your name on a piece of paper and sticking in the door. It works!) and I got it opened up, and...everything is fine! I give CGC their fair share of carp, but in this instance, aside from the TWO MONTH wait time, I will report that the book is now correctly labeled, and the slab is in nice shape. No scuffs or shards or damage that I can see. There are a couple of VERRRRRY small newton rings, like, way too small to actually complain about, so I won't. So there you have it, the saga is concluded. Wishing you all the best of luck. I don't plan on subbing anymore, at least not for some time, so I am done with CGC for the time being. It's kinda sad, I do miss those glory days. Oh well.

Just found out about this when shipping out several auctions that ended this weekend. Those Geminis that were around $5.38 (or thereabouts) are suddenly $6 when shipping out to sunny California. Going to have to bump up my rates. I usually just charge a flat $5.50 on first class.

So, I went a little overboard in 2022. Between the Black Friday sales, Cyber Monday sales, holiday clearance sales, sale priced items showing up at Outlets, etc I amassed a fairly large pile of plastic. I'd told myself "no opening until after xmas", and I was good in that regard. I've been fairly busy, so this weekend I decided it was finally time to get some of this stuff out and PLAY! First up were my titans. I bought Black Zarak during the Best Buy Black Friday leadup. Metroplex was a gift from my folks, bless 'em. I am not familiar with this iteration of the character, as the "Unicron Trilogy" stuff is basically a blank for me. But, still, a giant horkin' huge robot is still a giant horkin' huge robot, and I dig his big funky weapon. And Black Zarak is just tooooo cooooool, dudes. I love 'em. These are my plastic sons. The wife hasn't accepted them as family yet, but she will in time.

Oh no! I wish I could say that surprised me, but with FedEx, NOTHING surprises me. I'm just glad it worked out ok! As for me, I expected FedEx to attempt their third delivery on Saturday, and I knew we'd be home all day, so I was prepared to stakeout the front door. That morning, I receive notice that my package will be delivered on MONDAY, 1/23. I just about blew a gasket. Why wouldn't they deliver on Saturday? I could accept if it was only on "business days", but I had another package on its way from FedEx arriving that morning! So, I called FedEx and tried to get ahold of someone who could help, perhaps get me to the local hub. Eventually the person I spoke to told me that I could just sign a piece of paper and leave it in my door, and they'd deliver it. He said he'd leave a note for the driver to look for my paper. This was a first for me, but I figured I'd try it. So, about 10 minutes ago, I got a text saying it has been delivered. Huzzah! Will it still be there when I get home? Likely, as I've never had a package go missing in 10 years at that address. Will the label be corrected? Will there be other problems with the case? Tune in later and find out!

Thanks, much appreciated, I will give that a try if I'm not able to connect with the driver today. What a bunch of junk. Oh well. Thanks again!

So, FedEx attempted delivery today, and I am pretty much never at home when FedEx comes, so I assumed I'd be able to redirect delivery to my local FedEx location. BUT, it won't let me do that, saying that the shipper won't allow it. So...what do I do? I know that there was a hubbub when CGC announced they were exclusively switching to FedEx, but I haven't subbed anything for a couple of years, so I didn't realize that also meant that they wouldn't even let you redirect the books. I have no idea what I'm going to do at this point. I will surely miss their delivery tomorrow, so that means I'll have to sit by the door all day Saturday. I really, truly hate FedEx. I had a ComicLink shipment right before xmas, and while they let me hold one package at a Walgreens, they wouldn't release the other one for some reason. So, I had to sit and wait, and on the third day, I watched out the window as the FedEx truck pulled up to my house...opened the door...then shut the door and took off. Didn't even pretend to attempt delivery. And this happens ALL OF THE TIME. So, I ran out on the porch and when he turned around I flagged him down. Again...I hate FedEx. So...does anyone know, do I have any options here, or do I just have to pray that FedEx actually tries to deliver the package while I'm there waiting for it?

Oh for sure, nostalgia is a huge part of all collecting, and I'm right there with you on cassettes memories. All of those hours on the school bus with my yellow Sony Walkman, zoning out with my tunes. Like you said, there's a lot of physical sense memory attached to it, the opening, closing, fast forwarding, etc. If I could find clean copies of the tapes I listened to the most back then, I'd pick them up and put them on my record shelf, probably. The problem is that there aren't many local shops that will carry them, and the ones that do tend to treat them as collectibles. The peddlers malls and flea markets were cleaned out a long time ago, same with VHS. But as far as listening, at home it's pretty much always vinyl, and a few CD's, and they sound great.

You can guarantee that pretty much any kind of media that exists, or has existed, has some sort of fanbase out there collecting it. Like @awakeintheashessaid, the cassette thing isn't as big as vinyl, but it definitely has made a bit of a comeback. We're seeing "collectible" rereleases on cassette, even new releases issued on the format. I don't expect it to have legs like vinyl because unlike vinyl (and cd's), cassettes degrade pretty quickly. Of course, the people collecting them are probably not really listening to them, so that is maybe not even an issue. I buy vinyl, but I buy it to listen to. I still have a handful of CD's, mostly box sets and stuff. You can get cd's SO cheap right now, I do wonder sometimes about stockpiling them. DVD's as well. DVD is the most popular home video format of all time. If I can find them sealed for a buck or two, I may be tempted. They're not hard to find, that's for sure.

That's funny, I've also heard for years that this was "low print run", but I just don't see how that's possible. I've seen hundreds of them over the years. I did always like the simplicity of that white cover, though. Really enjoying the thread! I've never really been a "Spawn Guy", but I do admire how he's managed to keep the character alive and afloat all of these years. It's odd to think of Spawn as one of the last true "legacy books" on the stands these days.

Oh no, I hadn't heard that, I use the Region A boxes all of the time! Nuts.

I can say that 2023 has already been leaps and bounds better than the last few months of 2022, for me, as a seller of drek and junk. The fall was especially brutal, BINS didn't sell and auctions went for peanuts. Meanwhile, buying was great as far as CLink was concerned, for that little window, like August through November. Things seemed to pick up for them on their last big auction, but that was the fancy stuff, not the drek that I deal in. Anyway, yeah, it's not a hard data point or anything, but anecdotally I can say sales have been very good for me so far these last couple of weeks, what little bit that I sell. We'll see how it lasts. I'm also bidding on a bunch of junk at CLink, we'll see if I win anything. Hoping things turn around for me, but not in any hurry for the prices to go up on the stuff I'm buying!

Today, exactly two months after it was marked "received", my ME has been changed to "shipped". NOW the real concern begins: 1. Will they have actually fixed the label? 2. Will there be any NEW defects such as a scuffed case? 3. Will FedEx actually deliver the book? Stay tuned!

Man, I really loved Wasteland, spent SO many hours on it as a kid. I'm 100% certain that my love of Fallout these days is drawn directly from those Wasteland days.

I'd agree, not CRAZY money, but a strong finish for a niche book. Congrats on the sale @Kramerica! I threw a big in early but had to drop out, glad it went strong.

My ME (a simple label error) received by CGC 11/15 as of this morning has moved to Grading/Encapsulation/Imaging. So, hopefully not much longer now.