F For Fake

I think it really depends on the overall condition of the book. If the book is otherwise flat, sharp, and free of defects, and a tiny ding is the only issue, then probably, yes. 9.4 at least, which is really "near mint". I'm surprised to see the 9.8's with those issues, though. I know 9.8's aren't "perfect", but a really obvious crunch like these would definitely knock it out of NM/Mint or NM+ territory if i were personally listing the book.

Yes, exactly, I can only speak for the specific things I'm watching.

I've been buying 9.6's for the personal collection lately. Some very good deals, depending on what you're looking for. But with the stuff i'm personally picking it up, it feels like the 9.6's are gaining steam a stack well. It's about time, a lot of beautiful books sitting in 9.6 cases out there.

Oh and good call on the JLA Omni, as it’s sold out (finally) at IST, so prices will start creeping up soon. They also have the Justice League International V2 Omni cheaper than IST and Amazon at $64, and the Planetary and Aquaman By John’s Omnis on sale at about $44 before the discount. Hard to beat these sales any time, but especially when the original pre-sale price is better than the competition.

Was just popping in to make sure this info had gotten around! Some really good deals this round. I’m using this opportunity to get caught up on a bunch of Batman HC’s, Dawn Of X trades, and IDW Transformers HC’s. It’s been a while since we’ve seen the B2G1 sale, so I’m hopping on this one while I can!

CL has been pretty dead here for a couple of years as far as comic specific listings, but it's still the best place to spot ads for promising garage sales. Usually I'll take a look at all of the garage/yard/estate sale listings, and if they have pics that contain anything in the ballpark of the stuff I'm looking for, I'll give them a try. Lots of misses, but a few hits, for sure; at least enough to keep me getting up early on Saturday mornings to give em a look! CL seems to still be the place for these general sale ads, as opposed to the local paper or FB. As for specific listings for comics and toys, they've mostly moved to FB. FB marketplace was a great hunting ground for a while, but market being what it is now, deals are few and far between, and there are a lot more sharks on FB looking for that same stuff. The good times are over, in that regard.

Same. I sold every Invincible book I had over the last couple of weeks, and was very happy with the money. In some cases, VERY happy. Who knows what will happen? Chances are you'll run across the books again before the movies ever happen. They're out there, if you dig. In the meantime, make hay while the sun is shining!

Been slim pickings the last couple of weeks, finally found some fun stuff this weekend. Longshots are from my LCS. Man, that takes me back. If you're from my generation, you recall that Longshot was like a bomb going off. Art Adams forever and ever, amen. The rest are from a peddlers mall. I found the GI Joe 155 in a dollar box. My eyes nearly popped out of my head. I soon realized that it had been misfiled, and was NOT priced at a buck, but still, I had to have it. I think this is maybe only the second time that I've seen one in a box out in the wild. Pretty nice copy, too. (The X-Men 1 newsstand WAS a buck, though, so that helped!) Happy hunting!

Yes, absolutely, talking SA here. I swim in the small pond!

If I were the sort of person who were interested in DC’s, I definitely might say something like “buy every cheap SA Bat villain 1st app you run across.” Seriously though, yes, absolutely. Batman isn’t going anywhere in pop culture anytime soon, and those classic, archetypical villains are just going to keep showing up, again and again. It’s so odd that it’s taken this long for Bat 181 to start catching on, when the character has been a pop culture fixture ever since BTAS reintroduced her to the collective consciousness. Ivy, Freeze, Riddler, etc aren’t going anywhere. More to your point, I’ve often argued that DC’s two most popular characters are Batman and Joker, THEN Superman. The villains are their own thing, and they are enormously popular. I still love the cheap hero oddballs like the Atom, Hawkman, Metal Men, Challengers, etc but I don’t think anyone can go wrong buying Bat villains. As long as there’s a Batman, there will be his rogues gallery.

Per usual, Greggy knows what’s up. That run of X-Men was ground zero for me. 227 was my first X-Men comic, and it was all over for me at that point. Doomed to a life of awesome nerdiness.

I’ve been banging the DC drum for a while, which, in hindsight, was dumb. So: DC’s are dumb and worthless, do not buy them. Nothing to see here!

Yes, precisely so. If I sell all of my stuff, I’m just...gonna buy more stuff. May as well keep the stuff I already know I love.

I was able to get my extremely small submission entered with zero trouble, so I was not personally affected by the site crash. I would also agree that CGC didn't HAVE to offer any sort of warning period. That being said, the one-two-three punch of the price increase, the lack of apology/self awareness regarding the site issues, and the worthless extension of time to ship your comics...that's some chutzpah, CGC. They're rolling in money, and they do NOT care. I still sent my books. I am the problem.

Geez, Buzz, don't get so excited! What if you're wrong about the provenance of a plastic antenna? Boy, would you have egg on your face then! You'd never live it down!

I put in a few bids in the current CLink auction. Not sure why, maybe just morbid curiosity about just how far off I'll be from having a chance at winning? Such a strange time. Logic cries out "Sell! Sell! Sell it all! This can't last!" But...I just can't let everything go. "What if?"

I don't like variants for the most part, so I didn't chase the Marvel #1's. It didn't help that the covers were largely not great. I always considered myself a completist, but think I may draw the line at the end of the DH era and be done with it. I just can't justify buying 34 copies of the same book when I don't even like the covers. If I find them cheap down the road I may pick them up. I don't think any of them have really taken off, so that is helpful, should I change my mind eventually. I dutifully bought all of the Marvel vs Alien variants, and that left a bad taste in my mouth, so I may be done. Maybe if the series grabs me, I'll go back. So far...not so much. Meanwhile, I have no problem with buying more and more copies of the same DH books over and over again without admitting my hypocrisy, so it may just be that I'm some sort of loony!

When I started looking for my #2, there were two in the census. When I finally landed mine (years later) there were four. I got mine as part of a trade, and we valued it at about $700, and that was...six or seven years ago? Longer? At the time, #1 was about $400 by comparison (I'd "overpaid" $350 for mine, because I was desperate to have it. In hindsight, I did well.) All of those years, and there are still only a handful accounted for in grade. It's a legit tough book. I'd be really curious to see where one would end up in a fair auction. The math suggest that it should be worth more than the #1 due to scarcity, but more folks are interested in the #1 "key" than they are in finishing the set, no doubt. So I don't THINK it would surpass the $3k+ that the 1 is pulling these days. That being said, $1500-$2000 wouldn't surprise me in the least. I don't think I'd ever sell mine, but the conversation wouldn't even get started for less than $2k, because I simply wouldn't be able to replace it. (Again, not selling, just taking!)

I like the box! I have two, and filled them with my Aliens collection, may need to grab a third. Or maybe I should trim down the collection! No, no, not that, surely.

Love it! This is on my short list of piece I'd really love to pick up at some point, when I was a kid, my aunt had one of these at her house, among some toys she kept around for the various nieces and newphews to play with. Always loved it.

Agree completely! Ordinarily not a huge fan of their unique interpretations of the costumes, but this one spoke to me. And yes, aside from Constantine, the new Wolvie is the only other that I've ordered. I agree, it looks terrific!

Who's Who arrived yesterday, so now the Holy Text/Nerd Reference Library is complete. 3000 pages of minutaie and nostalgia. Also arrived today, the X of Swords HC, courtesy of an Amazon gift card my boss gave me this week. Can't read this one until I catch up with the Dawn of X trades, but looks like a nice book.

So, this arrived today, and it's going to be hard to top as action figure of the year, for me. I admire Mezco's One:12 Collective stuff, but don't collect it. When they first hit the scene, I dutifully bought all of the variants of the Dark Knight Returns Batman figure, and thought they were really neat. But as more figures were released, they didn't really jibe with me. A little too chunky, a little too stylized, just not really my thing. Plus, they tend to run $80-$100 a pop, which is a lot for a figure in this scale. BUT...I had to have this thing. And I'm so glad I picked it up. I love everything about it. I love the comic style box art. I love the cape. I love the magic effects. I love the book which is actually full of individually illustrated pages (!), I love it all. The light effect is pretty weak. Looks nice, but you have to have a pretty much pitch black room to see it, it's not very strong. I could have done without, but since it's here, it's fine. I've now preordered John Constantine. This may turn into a problem.

Love it!