F For Fake

Thanks friend! Hope to have something cool to share pretty soon!

Been too busy/broke buying toys, I've been slacking on comics. These two did show up this week, though! I used to have a complete set, which I then eventually sold in favor of the hardcovers and trades. But then a couple of years ago I got most of the set back in a large collection I bought from a friend, so I've decided to go back and complete it again. Only need a few. The first print is a placeholder until a nicer one comes along, but the 2nd print is really nice, super glossy. I'd forgotten that the first prints were smaller than the 2nd and beyond.

It seems like a frivolous use for a time machine, but I get my kicks.

I didn’t even ask about the Defiant, it would probably just make me sad to know ha I’ll ask next time I go in. Jetfire was the one TF I got that xmas. and I loved him. I didn’t know about Macross/Robotech at that age, but I still loved the robot mode. I didn’t understand why it was different from the cartoon, but I thought it was infinitely cooler! I just love how enormous the box is, and the jet looks so nice in package. I may just leave him like that. I’m scared of breaking the accessories anyway!

Thanks! Yeah, had to have the Jetfire. The box is rough, but he’s still nice and white. Reminds me of the Christmas he was waiting under the tree. So happy to have one again!

So, some guys I’ve dealt with before have opened a toy shop, and my bank account is going to be feeling the pain. Walls and cases full of carded Joes, boxed Transformers, MoTU. They’ve got the Flagg, Terror Drome and Defiant, including a boxed Defiant. They have a boxed Eternia play set. My eyes were popping out of their sockets. I’ll take some pics next time I’m in. This is what i picked up today. I have my eyes on several other things, but won’t jinx it by mentioning them. Gotta sell some stuff to buy some stuff! Zemo has some light yellowing to the bubble, but is unpunched. Galvatron is missing the poster but has an unused decal sheet. Boxes are a little rough but everything is complete. Jetfire is still nice and white. This place is going to be hazardous to my health.

I have cash in hand to cover my expenses, my savings, and my normal collectible spending budge. I save towards larger goals, but for me it’s more fun to find stuff organically. If someone offers me something out of the blue for, say, a couple thousand bucks, that may be beyond what I have immediately available for “fun money”. Sometimes buying opportunities have a short window, and with PayPal it was much easier to do some fast and loose horse trading. More fun, too. As I said, it’s an inconvenience, and an adjustment, but not an impossible one. But I don’t think it’s unreasonable to be annoyed by eBay unnecessarily holding our money for days when PayPal could process it in seconds. If you guys are loving Managed payments, more power to you. I’m mildly annoyed by it. I think it’s a valid viewpoint.

Which is fine if you have a constant flow of money/sales every day. But a lot of us aren’t full or part time dealers. I sell stuff to buy more stuff, it’s not a business. In the past, if I wanted to raise some quick cash, it was as easy as throwing the item up on eBay, making the sale, and I’d have the money in my checking account within seconds. That is now a three to four day process depending on what day the item sells. It’s preposterous for eBay to hold our funds for two days before disbursing them. But as I said, that is how it is, so it’s been a mental adjustment, as well as an adjustment to my selling habits. Now I try to always have stuff up for sale, so that there are regular payments coming in. But if you want to make a quick sale on eBay and have your money that day, that is no longer an option.

I’m hoping that the shirtless Wolvie and Callisto mean we’ll be getting some copper age stuff. Mutant Massacre through Outback era, hopefully. My biggest wants are Rogue in the green/black tank top outfit, and either pink or armored Psylocke. I’d take an updated Longshot too, but the old one is fine for now. Would love for the BAF to be Bonebreaker to go along with the other Reavers. If I could get all of those, and the upcoming Excalibur set, I’ll be done with Legends. Can’t think of anything else I’d really want/need. Oh, an early X-Factor Jean Grey! THEN I’d be done.

This is my business model, apparently.

Yes, this is the one thing I like about managed payments 100%. I was always a procrastinator about eBay fees, thinking “I’ll take care of that later.” Not having to think about it is nice, since I apparently lack self discipline! I’ve found that my selling habits have changed. I used to post stuff when I wanted to raise some cash, and the money would come right away. Now I just post stuff all of the time, and the money trickles in throughout the week. Still annoying to have to wait for it, but I’ve adjusted my expectations. This is just how it is. It’s not as easy to raise money quickly if I suddenly have an opportunity to buy something I’d been looking for, but now I’m getting into the habit of always having money coming in, and it works out. Not a fan of the system, but this is how it is.

Took a trip to the lake with the wife for the holiday weekend. Rained most of the time, so I was able to get caught up on some comic reading! I took a detour into reading some novels over the last couple of months, so I am way behind on the four color crack. Dawn of x volumes 7-12 = 36 issues I’m way behind on this, but am still really enjoying it. The quality fluctuates from title to title. I’d say the Hickman penned books are easily the best, but I’m also enjoying Marauders, X-Force and Excalibur. Overall I’m still invested in this line wide vision and am interested in where it’s going. Bat who laughs hc = 8 issues Thought I’d see what the fuss is about. I don’t get it. I’m so sick of multiverses and character mashups and grim dark stuff. Not for me. And whoever designed the grey/black word bubbles with red lettering should be sent back to design school. Gave me a headache trying to read this junk. Three jokers hc = 3 issues Overall, I’m pretty tired of the Joker, and wouldn’t mind not seeing anymore Joker stories for at least ten years. This story was…fine. The star here was Fabok doing his best Bolland Killing Joke 9 panel grid impersonation. Doesn’t quite match the master, but it’s a solid bit of mimicry. You could do worse. City of bane v 1&2 = 12 issues King’s Batman run really never gelled for me. The conclusion was more of the same. Maybe I’m just old, but I felt like I needed a flowchart to keep track of the story’s various time jumps. Dark designs hc = 11 issues Joker War = 13 issues Tynion’s new direction feels like more of the same. I was into the Dark Designs story, but the Joker War stuff, with Punchline and Clownhunter and etc ugh. It’s just too dumb, and too much. Still, it’s colorful and a breezy read, so I guess that’s an improvement over the King stuff. Looking forward to not seeing the Joker for a while, fingers crossed! 83 total issues for the weekend. +221 previously read 304 total for 2021. Way behind the eightball, but working on it!

The managed payment system is a huge annoyance, and I hate it, but eBay is still the biggest game around. There is no comparable market for moving the kind of stuff I sell and getting it in front of the most eyeballs.

I can respect that, but must disagree in turn. To me, Silvestri was fresh and new on his first X-Men run, and prepared the way a more radical, “modern” style on the title. By the time Image and Cyberforce came around, it all looked the same to me. Silvestri, Lee, Liefeld, McFarlane, and all of their acolytes, were just a big homogenous blob of 90’s sameness. As for his second X-Men run, that must have been after I dropped X-Men, I have no recollection of it.

Not a huge star at that point, sure, but I’d say that he was definitely a harbinger of what would soon be the house style at Marvel, then Image, then everywhere. That’s why I’d say at that point in his career he was more “influential” than mega-star.

Agree completely. Most folks always point to Jim Lee as the copper/modern X-Men artist, but Silvestri set the table for him, for sure. Hugely influential artist.

I’m not even a huge Byrne guy, but as a reader who started around 85/86, there’s no question that Byrne, Miller and Perez ruled the roost. Then Art Adams showed up and blew the roof off the dump. McFarlane, Silvestri, and then Lee and Liefeld and co, followed in the collective wake of those four dudes. Now, if the argument were over who the BEST artists of the 80’s were, for me it’s Dave Stevens, Mark Schultz, and Jaime Hernandez. But that’s a different can of worms altogether…

Hey, whatever works! We still get to be in the Gentlemen of Good Taste Club!

Highest possible compliment I could receive! Standing way back in your shadow, sir!

Took an early lunch and ran out to a second hand book/movie shop this AM. Dug up enough junk to make the trip worthwhile!

Awwww man, that Turtles standee takes me back! When I was a kid, I found one of these in the kid's clothing section at JC Penney. No idea why it was there. They sold it to me for $5. I had it in my bedroom for years. When I "outgrew" it, it moved to the basement, where it was eventually destroyed when there was some flooding. Love seeing it again!

It's been a lousy couple of weeks, so it was nice to get out yesterday and run around to the local shops. Scared up a few things. The NM98 is a little rough, but had a nice prize inside!

I haven’t kept a lot of “run books”, but I’ve kept all of my Bolland WW covers. Classic run. The fact that I sold all of my AH WW stuff but kept the Bolland’s speaks to how much I love them!

Hey bud! Sorry for the delay in responding. Ever since my employer started blocking the CGC boards a month or so ago (the nerve!) I'm not on here as much as I used to be. How dare they prevent me from loafing at work! At any rate, yes, looks legit to me, and is an absolute steal at $5, regardless of condition! The true 35 cent variants have 35 cent price in a square box, and upc code in the upc box. The reprints have blank upc's. So yes, I think you picked a winner for sure!

I sometimes forget to give them a look, just because I’m usually looking to buy something specific, and their site is more like a treasure hunt. But when they do have something I need, it’s pretty much always a great deal. I bought movies from them for years before I even thought about checking out the books.