F For Fake

yeah, I picked up a couple of them out of dollar bins over the years, but those days are long past.

Again, not really a "toy", but this still seems like the best thread to post in. A few months ago I finally landed a nice sealed copy of the Alien game by Green Valley, and now, at long last, I've got a sealed copy of Aliens the Computer Game! I've been searching for one of these, sealed, for a long time. About a month ago, one popped up on eBay, and I put in what I thought was a pretty aggressive bid of $200. It sold for $203 or thereabouts, I just missed it. Didn't think I'd find another one, when suddenly I get an ebay alert a couple of days ago, a BIN of $100. Couldn't believe my eyes, but I snapped it up! It got here two days later. So happy to have it. I had to save and save and save to get this game when I was a kid, and I played the ever loving carp out of it. Lots of great memories here.

Yeah, based on the description there's really only one person I can think of, and that would surprise me, because I always thought they were on the up and up. As for me, I can't imagine spending money on a raffle/mystery box. They seem like scams, even if maybe they aren't. Would rather spend the money on something I KNOW is a good deal.

Some very cool stuff, love that gold claw Wolvie book!

Agree 100%. So much variety, so much cool stuff, and a lot of it can still be found cheap if you're lucky! When I was old enough to start going to comic shops, I'd dig through the 25 and 50 cent bins (and they even had a 35 cent bin, for some reason) and pick up anything that looked cool. So I was buying X-Men and Spider-Man, but that also gave me a chance to sample stuff that seemed strange and exotic, like Grendel, Love and Rockets, Critters (and lots of other funny animals of the day, like Dog Boy, Captain Jack, Boris the Bear, etc.) Copper saw some of the greatest works released by the big two, but the indie explosion helped keep things weird and exciting.

The "sales data to justify the $5k bump" is that the last one sold for $30k. Why would they list their copy at an equal or lesser price? In the current market, everything is UP UP UP. Until that changes, the assumption is that every book is going to keep selling for more than it did previously. $5 seems like a fairly modest bump on a $30k price. Do I personally think it's silly? Yes, yes of course. But that's the market right now. Someone will eventually get stuck holding the hot potato, but until that day comes, the prices will keep going up incrementally.

As far as tracking sales goes, I used to really love Paypal's reporting features, the financial summary, which I could run whenever I wanted, to get a good idea of how much I've made and how it breaks down. It was fast and easy to read. Since I'm new to eBay's managed payments (like most of you), I'm not finding much facility with their reports. There's a very basic report which gives you everything in a big, ugly CSV dump, and sure, I can sort that and throw in some quick formulas to get totals, and make it prettier to find out what I wanted. But does anyone know if there's a simpler/cleaner way to get an instant update on how much money I've made so far this year? Yes, I can work with the csv they have, but I AM BEING LAZY! For taxes I'll take this ugly info dump and clean it up, but for daily usage, is anyone aware of a faster/cleaner way to get a quick summary? Am I missing something obvious?

There was a copy of XMen 1 that was on local FB marketplace for a few months, late last year. $2k, eventually came down to $1.7k. And I thought long and hard about it. But it was an uggggggggly copy. Cover detached, huge stains and yellowing, etc. I love low grade, but this below even what I’d usually accept. I definitely should have bought it. I’m not knocking on doors, but I’m definitely looking locally, because those are the only deals to be had these days.

I slipped that joke in, in case any other boardies are CBB fans.

Some pretty nice X-Men from a local shop. Pretty, pretty, pretty nice.

Same. I got all of the standard variants at my shop for cover price, but didn't order any of the incentives. A week or two after the fact, none of them seem to be exploding, even the 1:500's. So, I'm glad I waited. Alien has a big fanbase, but it's not Star Wars. Hoping there will be some summer shows where I can grab these out of boxes on the cheap.

Well, on one hand I don't want to disappoint you; on the other hand, I'd like it if the wife kept speaking to me!

Been mulling a Devil Dinosaur related tattoo for about 25 years now. One day?

Hey, leave Love & Rockets alone. Surely worthless. Nothing to see here. Move along...

Wow, I probably would have jumped on the Rai 0, just because I always LOVED that cover. But the rest, yeah, would have been an easy pass. When I worked at my LCS in 96/97, they had at least full longs of AoS 500. They may still be there, for all I know!

All joking a salad, I actually do like Hawkman, but then again I do like cheesy old SA DC's. Yes, #4 suffers the same fate as Strange Tales 110, with the major first appearance not being on the cover. Still a cool book, though!

But...he's Hawkman. He flies. That's pretty cool, right? Who cares about some sawed off Canadian alcoholic with a body hair problem?

You know, I balked at the box sets at first, just because they're so HUGE. But I got the COIE and X-Men CoA sets, and I really love them. I'll likely get the BN/BD set at some point. Beyond that, it would have to be something I really cared about to commit to another set taking up that much real estate on my shelves. With Marvel, I didn't care about Infinity Saga or Civil War, so those were easy passes. With DC, I'm a sucker for those big crossovers, so I could probably be talked into just about anything that collects material from the 80's or 90's. With FF, my interest begins and ends with Jack Kirby's run, so I'm good with the first four omnis there. I saw yesterday that a reprint is coming of the Hickman FF omnis, apparently that run is pretty great. I may check those out.

Yup, the Blackest Night/Brightest Day set looks really snazzy! It was supposed to have been released back around November, but was pushed back, and just came out a month or two ago, maybe February? It's smaller than the Crisis set, so it's also a bit cheaper, only $178 at IST. I haven't picked it up yet, but plan on doing so at some point. I sold my Blackest Night 10th Ann Omni back when this box was announced. The Omni is pretty comprehensive, but is missing a few random tie-ins. I assumed the box set would rectify this, but apparently the Blackest Night contents are identical to the omni, and the Brightest Day stuff has been added. Oh well. It's still a nice looking set. https://www.instocktrades.com/products/jun200537/blackest-night-brightest-day-box-set Yeah, if they go with a single title over an event set, FF would be my guess as well. Of course, that material is available in Omni, MMW and Epics, but hey, so are the X-men, and they got a box, so anything is possible.

Children of the Atom had such a spotty release due to COVID, I wonder if that interrupted their plan for future sets. When CoA was released in the spring, it sold out in an instant. Restock came in back in the fall, lasted a few weeks, then was gone again. Meanwhile, DC did get their Blackest Night/Brightest Day box released, and it is still in stock at most places. The CoA box is indeed lovely, but I probably wouldn't buy a second collection as I have all of that stuff in Omnibus and floppy form. Unless the box is reaaaaally pretty. As for other potential box sets, what's left? The did Civil War, Infinity Saga, and that first collection of all of the original SA Marvel stuff, right? What would be a good candidate for another box set?

Uncanny X-Force is my favorite X-related book since my childhood. Remender did an excellent job of mixing fan service with new ideas. So there are callbacks and references that are steeped in X-lore, but also a totally new, original storyline. That book was a blast. I enjoyed the follow-up Uncanny Avengers as well, though not quite as much as UXF. If you enjoy X-Men at all, including Whedon and Morrison, I bet you'd get a kick out of it.

I haven't read the series (yet!) but started grabbing cheap copies as I found them a couple of months ago. Seems like regular "run" issues haven't really popped yet, but there are several issues that sell pretty well. In addition to the 110 I sold last night, I had a VFNM/NM- 19 sell for $47, and a nice NM 89 1st print sell for $30. I was satisfied, I didn't pay more than $5 for any of them.

Also in its favor: Animal Man is awesome.

Ha, I wondered if that would make the thread! That’s my book, and can confirm that the buyer paid within an hour of close. Trust me, no one is more surprised than me! I listed a bunch of Invincible books last week and was curious where this one would land. I think I started it at $10 or $15. Was thinking I’d get $30-$40 out of it. Then on Friday it showed up on the CBSI Hot 10, and suddenly it had 40 watchers. To be fair, it’s a really sharp copy. I conservatively listed it as NM, but it looks like a 9.8 to me. But I don’t list books as 9.6 or 9.8 because I can’t guarantee it, and don’t want to disappoint people. So, the buyer is getting a really nice copy. Is it $200 worth of nice? I wouldn’t have thought so, but these days I have to accept that I know nothing. And this is another good example of why I think auctions work on large groups of hot stuff. Of course I had several other issues that didn’t even sell at $5, so it’s not foolproof. But I’ll just hang onto them for a couple of weeks and try again.

The Jack Kirby Collector magazine used to print a lot of pencils, and they were a real delight, particularly when the mag switched to the oversized format.