Martin Sinescu

I don't even like selling raw comics 'cause I'm so worried they'll get damaged. Is that neurotic enough? Honestly, newsstand buying on the 'bay is just a total minefield, not just shipping but all around. I bought a "NM" run of books a few weeks ago that had clearly had some liquid spilled on them at some point before they got B&B'd, so technically I can't even toss them in the recycle bin.....but they were issues I needed and a few were decent if you squint when you look at them, so I just decided to suck it up until I can locate upgrades. Even now I just let out a huge sigh of disappointment thinking back on it, it's just painful, but it makes the small victories so rewarding. Also left my first neg in years for a seller who just popped my ASM purchase in a soft bubble mailer with no other protection. I just frisbeed the book across the room when I opened it and saw the condition -- later when I went to collect it after I'd calmed down I couldn't tell if the toss had had any effect on the condition, it was that bad.

Had to un-bury my DC Rebirth box to pull out my newsstands as I'm working on completing the Bats and Tec run in newsstand now. This was my haul from the local B&N when Rebirth started up. Was tough to find nice copies, but I grabbed any that looked decent. Unfortunately, B&N was out by the (very crowded) local mall and about 20 minutes out of my way to get there, so I didn't follow up to get every new release. Glad I at least grabbed these....

@Not A Clone I don't know that I would read anything into CGC's point system for the registry as signifying a change in age. They can be all over the place at times and probably just have 365 lumped in as a common book instead of a semi-key, but maybe there is something to it @ADAMANTIUM The Batman 234 note dates back to before the Bronze Age had a name. It's been referred to as 1st SA Two-Face long before CGC came around, so they just continued with the accepted hobby designation of that issue. Plus, 1st bronze appearance might also make it sound like he might've appeared in Silver, so it's kind of confusing either way. @valiantman Always enjoy your input in the Age vs. Decade discussion even though we disagree. I'd thought of McSpidey as well. It's undoubtedly a key point in the character's history and it was an earth-shaking, perhaps even revolutionary, event for the industry as a whole in terms of both igniting the multiple cover craze, even if it wasn't the first book to try it, and being, at the time, a new pinnacle for the Hot Artist craze. Maybe it ignited the polybag craze as well? Still, it's absolutely another valid marker for the beginning of a new era for the character and the industry.

I've always thought of that period somewhere around 365-400 as moving beyond Copper, but that's if you subscribe to the idea of a Chromium Age between Copper and Modern. I think the gimmick covers which would be considered one of the defining characteristics of that age would be indicative of that change in the Spider-Man titles, although I don't think there were any major moves for Spidey that happened in there. I've also seen 361 pitched as the start point for that era with the debut of Carnage. He's just a brighter Venom to me, but I can see the argument as he moved to the forefront of the Rogues Gallery through the rest of the 90's. 361 and 365 were in mid-1992 and I kind of look at the talent exodus which created Image Comics that same year along with Death of Superman/Knightfall over at DC in 1993 as the break points into a new era, so those would be similar transition points for Spidey. Beyond just the shiny covers, another thing that struck me back at the time was the huge changes for the interiors as publishers moved towards higher-quality paper and digital coloring (not sure when this happened with Spidey as I was more of an X-Men reader by that point, even though I continued to pick up ASM through 400). I don't have time to get to my back issues now, but would be interesting to see when Spidey moved off of the newsprint page and onto the premium stuff. It was a little later in the 90's I'm sure, but just think that supports the idea that this period shouldn't be considered late Copper as just everything looked and felt different at this point. With X-Men they were even doing two different editions on the monthlies with high- and low-quality paper, so it was a pretty significant change. Once Ultimate Spider-Man debuted, that's definitely a hard transition to the actual Modern Era in my mind. Changing Wolverine's origin around the same time was another huge move. It just felt like nothing was sacred anymore

Totally agree, I've got quite a few 9.4 and 9.6 newsstands that are absolutely "keepers" for me. Waiting for a 9.8 will either leave you empty-handed or empty-walleted. Here's my contribution to the Black Mirror 9.6 club....

I've only done one crossover from a Voldemort slab that I can remember, that was on a Bronze Age book and it dropped from a 9.8 to a CGC 9.6. Lost a couple hundred in value, but the other book from the same arc that I already owned was also a 9.6, so I was actually okay since it gave me a matching pair. I would expect Voldy to have similar grading criteria to CGC, but I wouldn't read anything into one or the other having higher standards at a certain level. It's all subjective and opinions/observations can vary, which is why we have the oft-mentioned looser vs. tighter grading periods at CGC. If you can find the thread that was started on the crossover service (when CGC started heavily promoting the discount) you'll see that the success rate varied, but the difference was rarely off by more than the next increment up or down.

@Brandon Shepherd You should go back to Detective 529 and pick up the Nocturna storyline from the beginning to really understand her appeal as a sympathetic character. Well worth it, IMO.

That issue had just come out during my sophomore year of high school as I was getting into more adult comics and my friend that was kind of mentoring me in what to read gave me his copy to introduce me to ASM. I've been a huge McFarlane and Hobgoblin fan ever since. I don't have a scan handy, but I've also got a 9.8 newsstand.

Here's one I've always loved..... red ink! And one that I don't have anymore, but from back in the days when CGC noted "Date Stamp on Cover".

take

take

Take both

Is that the one that was on the 'Bay last week? I was going to go hard after it as I have the 3 Batman books from this arc in 9.8, but decided to hold off as I had other stuff coming up at the same time. Beautiful book and the wrap looks really great. Congrats!

take it

I'll take this

I'll take it

Take the Cap and one Power Pach

take it

Take it

I bought Groo off the stands as a kid and held them until the mid-90's when I sold off a large chunk of my collection. I don't remember any of them being worth anything except the issues Shadroch noted (the independent series/appearances and 1st Marvel issue). $20-30 back in the late 80's would have been a very significant amount of money for a modern book. Actually, let me just get off my duff and grab a CVM. Here's July 1989 listings for Groo.... As a point of reference, the Punisher Limited Series was $22 in this issue and the Wolverine Limited was $18 GI Joe #2 was $35 and Groo #1 (Marvel) was $15, so the $20-30 range is really out of the question for this book during that period. I jumped up a couple of years to an Overstreet Monthly from 1991 and this issue isn't even broken out. Maaaayyyybeeeee a few years after and just before the crash, but it doesn't really stand out as anything significant in my mind and I tried to stay up on any hot books through that period. I feel like Wizard would've had to really be hyping this issue to get that large an asking price, but maybe someone else has a different recollection.

take 359

Ima takin' alla dese guys

Take it