Timeless icons

On 2/24/2022 at 12:03 PM, telerites said:

I think some of those off angles pics from some sellers is purposeful to hide defects.  

@Tri-ColorBrian I always add some boolean to my saved searches to get rid of some of the gunk like photocopies and such. e.g., -dvd -photocopy...  It does clean up some of it.

Even for those that give good FC and BC scans or pics, I want more, especially inside FC and inside BC and CF.  It would also be great if there was some reassurance that the book is complete.  I often ask how many pages before I bid on a book.

 

I also believe some sellers use those angles to hide defects as well. I would rather see someone post a book straight on even though it may have their reflection in the image, than to see off angle pics. 

There are definitely those honest sellers out there that just take bad pics but even though there may not be any bad intentions with some...it still prevents me from buying what i can't see just the same. 

On 2/23/2022 at 6:57 PM, bpc3qh said:

@domuhnator will you be reporting to GPA?

 Yep... started reading the first few pages and didn't even see the post before mine. 

does anyone know if they report to GPA?

Pics that have terrible angles.  

Pics with blurry images. 

In this day and age, if you can't manage to take detailed pics with your cell phone, then get something better suited for the task. When your pics are all on angle and I can't see how well the book was cut or if its off sided, then its a hard pass. Is it that hard to get a pic of both front and back cover with detail and those shots being straight on so everyone can see the book's overall structure? There's a seller (several actually) that have their books on E-Bay and on at least one other site and some of these books are of interest but had they posted better pics, they would have had a few sales but those books are still sitting there as a result. 

On 2/18/2022 at 1:40 PM, Kevin76 said:

Just sell him yours    

Hasn't been used much lately but I do have a stack that I need to press. Its served me well thus far. 

On 2/16/2022 at 12:10 AM, Tony S said:

Lot of jokers here...
The correct type of press is a dry mount heat press. These presses are manufactured for and used by photographers/frame shops to mount printed photos to backing material for framing/display. Seal or Seal/Bienfang (now manufactured by D&K) is the most common and best known brand. New these are a couple of grand and sold at photography stores. So good used ones are your friend. 

As for used, they remind a lot of used motorcycles as far quality goes. Used motorcycles seem to mostly come in two flavors. Rode to death or barely rode.  Dry mount presses are the same.  What you want is one used very little by an amateur photographer that thought they would start mounting and framing his own photos. And either got bored and stopped or discovered it was worth having a framing shop do it for them.  If the pad is not in good shape, you'll need to purchase a replacement (again, photography stores that sell the presses new) These have gotten a lot more expensive used the past several years, but you can still save a bunch of money buying used. 

That they are expensive is why people persist in buying T-shirt presses.  T-Shirt presses are not the right kind of press.  The proper replacement pad for a dry mount heat press costs more than many T-Shirt presses.  Picture three items laying on a table. A photograph, a comic book and a T-Shirt. Which two items are most similar? 

OP is a good friend. I absolutely had to give him a hard time. It's ok R&S...I'm sure you'll pay me back later. Glad to see a few people chimed in to help him a bit. 

On 2/14/2022 at 8:58 PM, s-man said:

I like the Beckinsale and Kirkham but I hate to say not the Stan Lee.  The Thibert would've been better served to sign in silver.

Stan would have been better somewhere else on the cover but still happy it wasn't on his face. I would have preferred Gold on Bats since it would have stood out better than both black or silver. Nice spot though.

The Spidey 798, Underworld Blood Wars and Batman Arkham, all have good sig placement as far as my preferences go.

The Cap 6...let's face it...Stan never had the best placement when signing. I've had some really nice placements with his sig too though but I'm very happy that at least he didn't sign on the Winter Soldier's face on this one. Easily my favorite SS book I've ever owned though. Signed by Stan Lee, Chris Evans, Sebastian Stan and Joe and Anthony Russo. 

On 2/14/2022 at 6:49 PM, r&s collectibles said:

what would be the better press to purchase when it comes time to start pressing comics instead of a regular tee shirt press

On 2/14/2022 at 3:52 PM, Sweedy said:

Like I thought, I edited my post to include SCS. I thought you might just be confused 

I can never seem to remember the acronym for some reason but figured you would get the idea. 

On 2/14/2022 at 3:42 PM, Sweedy said:

What is "shock syndrome"?

When CGC ships an order (25 books for example) they ship in the upright position and through transit, when the books get loaded and unloaded on to trucks, they shift up and down in their holders. This causes the interiors of the books to sometimes tear away from their staple points and damage the cover. As a result, the interior of the books can be seen hanging out of the covers. This link can give you a few examples of what that looks like. Over the years, they have used these hard as rock "L" shaped cardboard runners that line the bottom of the shipping boxes and they seem to think that they absorb shock well for some strange reason but they don't. I've never had this issue with their competition. Not to say it doesn't exist but I've had tons of books from their competition and not one single book had the issue. 

On 2/13/2022 at 1:06 PM, Simone saracchi said:

I am really speechless ... I read that CGC would allow you to get back the comics with Newton's rings only if the case is serious ?! What does serious mean? In my opinion a purchased product must not have any defects, even a single small Newton ring is too much, because that will be enough to ensure that you will not be able to sell your comic if you want or need it, because any buyer will prefer the same. Newton's ringless cartoon, albeit small in size. If I think we are talking about 'collecting' and therefore looking after aesthetics, I don't know what to say, I am truly dismayed and speechless. At this point I also wonder if (in case the comic is sent back to remove Newton's rings) the procedure in question cannot cause some other kind of 'damage' to the packaging ... has anyone had this experience? Was he then satisfied? Thanks and sorry for the outburst

It might be of interest to consider going with their competiton for future submissions to avoid all of CGC's quality control issues. Unfortunately, they have too many. At least these newton rings won't directly damage the book but shock syndrome does and there are tons of CGC books out there that suffer from it. There are arguments on both sides as to which grading company is better for certain reasons (I wouldn't waste time with PGX though). Even though CGC books typically sell for a bit more than their competition in the same grades, you likely won't have to deal with many of the same issues and that saves time, which in turn saves money. Good luck with this batch of books either way though. Hopefully, they rectify the issue for you. 

"If anyone is interested in some Silver Age Aquaman comics - I have quite a few in the shop over on eBay - auction ended this Sunday. 

New shop - so any advice is welcomed  Figured it wouldn't hurt to throw it out there"

I read your article the other day on your site. Good luck with your venture. 

On 2/6/2022 at 10:42 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

Hey, that one was mine.  Glad you're happy with it and thanks for buying it!  

Nice! I was definitely happy with it once in hand. If that Hulk run is also yours, then GLWTS SweetLou.

On 1/10/2022 at 10:40 PM, dover said:

A few sweet Neal’s from @blazingbob

 

That Phantom Stranger 18 is a sick cover. Absolutely love it!

On 1/21/2022 at 8:42 PM, onlyweaknesskryptonite said:

This just made it back to me. Extremely Happy with how this came out.

You can read about it here .

 

That's a serious bump in grade. Congrats! 

On 1/24/2022 at 10:27 AM, DeadpoolJr. said:

Doubt it. By the looks of it I think it was just a framing choice to cover the middle part so the top with the title and page info could be seen better and act like a title card.

Value wise looking at some of the recent prices for pieces penciled by, Nichols it wouldn't be a ton not to say it doesn't have a lot going for it. If I had to say its cons it would be not a big artist, and some forgotten limited series. Pros would be good page content and images, desired and currently hot character, and from an issue one page though technically a mini series so not really impressive compared to a regular running title.

 While not seeing any pages for this series at auction or for sale, the best I could compare it to would be nicer pages from Marc Specter: Moon Knight series which have come to auction recently with nice pages from it going to around $400 with artists who aren't the most well-known. I'd say maybe around the $400-$500 with possibly more. I gave yours a higher estimation because of how close the show is to release which drives hype combined with the high prices currently paid for normally cheaper pieces in the market, and because of a lot of moon Knight content on the page.

Thanks for the estimates and opinion.  Much appreciated. 

On 1/24/2022 at 9:30 AM, Will_K said:

Was the top of the page cut off from the rest of the art ?  That would bug some people.

I'm pretty sure it is intact. When it was framed, I don't recall that being an issue but ill have to double check. 

On 1/24/2022 at 9:13 AM, Mighty Hal said:

So much of a page's value relies on nostalgia, image, character and--further down the list, regretfully--the artist who did the work, with some notable exceptions. I know Art Nichols more for his inks than his pencils. On a ranking of Top 100 Comic Book Artists (1970s to date), I wouldn't put him on the list. YMMV.

This particular storyline isn't special, but there are some strong images in play. The big win here is that there's lots of Moon Knight with a side of Shang-Chi thrown in.If there was ever a time to sell the page, this would be it. Until recently, I'd have said this was $150-250 page. But in this market? All you need is two hungry bidders.

Thanks for the insight. Great points and it seems to make sense to me. It looks like I may do just that. 

hello all

I picked up this page from a few years back and haven't done anything with it. Since I don't buy much in the way of OA, I figured I'd get a few guesses from those more tuned into pricing. The pic from my cell doesn't do me any favors. Is it enough to buy a soda?  The pic shows distortion along the edges but the art is in excellent shape. 

Moon Knight Special # 1 page # 3.

Pencils by Art Nichols and inks by Chris Ivy