Martin Sinescu

Wouldn't be surprised if we have quite a few of the same, I've got lots of doubles and even triples of some issues as some numbers just don't seem that hard to find. My spreadsheet has holes all over, but the 620's and 680's are where I'm hurting the most. I think I'm a little over halfway to completing the last 100 issues. The 500's are also patchy for me, especially later 500's, but I've had some good pickups lately to fill a few of those gaps.

I'm back in partially, the new mailers are a big improvement, but condition is still hit or miss. Unfortunately, two of the ASM's I really needed ended while I was at a doctor's appointment and they shield the office so you don't get a cell signal

Nocturna's getting some love, finally Last Bats 363 9.8 sale hit $200.

She's the only one I know of. 11 would be the other important issue for her, although I'm not clear on if it's her first appearance in the BW costume or just a "full" appearance and the previous appearance is a cameo. I haven't read the series, but have actually heard pretty decent stuff about it.

Nice work, Bishop. I'm not sure I've seen any newsstand 52's until now.

Here's a few scan of the book raw before I had it graded: .

For sale is a gorgeous copy of Amazing Spider-Man #20, first appearance of the Scorpion. I purchased this book raw from Chris Foss a few years ago who bought it in a high-grade original owner ASM run. I submitted it last summer for grading and had it pressed by CCS, mainly to take out some NCB spine tics. Just a splendid copy, vibrant colors that bowled me over when I first saw it. Case is in excellent condition, no cracks, scratches or other cosmetic blemishes that I can see (has been stored in a thick acrylic case since I unpacked it from CGC). This issue has had a healthy surge in the last few years, GPA has recent sales of $2000 and up in this grade. Great key first appearance of a classic Spidey rogue in incredible condition. I've been selling on the boards for a few years, but have been a longtime seller on the 'Bay (since '98) under the name qburt with feedback over 1800. The rules: • "Take it" in the thread or by PM wins and trumps any negotiations. I'm open to reasonable offers, but am not open to trades right now. • No members of the Hall of Shame or Probation List please. • USPS Priority shipping in the U.S. is $30.00 which includes full insurance and signature confirmation. Book will be packed securely in a sturdy box with plenty of packing materials. I don't take chances with shipping. • No International shipping for this item due to value. Sorry, can't take any chances! • PayPal (goods and services) and personal checks accepted. • No returns on CGC-graded comic books. Amazing Spider-Man #20, CGC 8.5 (2050552001) OW-W pages --MOVED TO THE BAY-- Grader Notes: light spine stress lines breaks color light wear left top of front cover breaks color very light crease right bottom of front cover breaks color

With the definition of success in the eye of the beholder.... by my standards it's easily McF. For most artists/creators, influence in your medium is more difficult to come by than money, and to me a better measure of success, but Todd beats Lee in both anyway. I know people will point to previous artists like AA as being the foundation for Todd's style and I'm sure that's valid, but the impact his art had coming out of the 80's into the 90's has no equal. Jim Lee made his name after Todd paved the way for the next generation of superstar artists, who mostly made their names adopting the hyper-detailed style that Todd popularized. That alone is enough to say Todd is more successful. What would most of the art in general for the 90's and beyond have looked like without McFarlane's influence? I'd say Lee's art is just a more dialed-back, less cartoony (if not downright rigid) version of Todd's style. Later Marvel built a whole Spidey title around the demands for more McFarlane (who did both art and writing) and it was, at the time, the biggest selling comic ever... Jim Lee again comes along a bit later with his own X-Men book. More successful sales-wise? Sure. First to do it? No. They both challenge the dominance of the Big Two along with other artists by founding Image, which was revolutionary for creators' rights... Todd's initial creation is still chugging and now stands alone as comics' longest-running independent title. When he decided to make a toy line for his Spawn characters, he forever changed action figures because he wanted plastic interpretations comparable to his art... and there was nothing to compete with Spawn in the toy stores, it was revolutionary in terms of detail, scale and value. Again, Jim Lee later came along later with a short-lived toy line for Wildcats, but only after Todd broke ground. To me, Todd is a risk-taker/innovator/visionary and that's why I think he's more successful by far. I don't see Jim Lee as that type of dynamic pioneer, who's always looking to push boundaries and standards, so it's hard to say he's more successful in a way that I can see as meaningful. Great artist? Heck yeah, I loved his stuff back in the day, so I'm not knocking the guy. I just don't see him on par with McFarlane who was a true force of nature.

Ha, I know what you mean about the price on UXM 266. I used my 'bay bucks to cover the cost of an ASM 361 newsstand 9.6 'cause I was so irritated at how much that book had blown up and refused to pay actual cash for it.

Nice work, Corona! I've been building a UXM run when I can find them, but the New X-Men I've only got 1 issue (a super-sharp 115). This Morrison run is one I need to start being more aggressive on, just got too many pots going at once on the newsstand stove. I really regret passing on 128 and 129 newsstand 9.8's when they were selling for the same as direct copies, but they're not impossibly hard to find, so I'll have to get these books back on my radar.

Thanks for the reminder, I've been sitting on 3 so-so copies including the most recent one which I picked out of a box for $5 at Heroes last year, just never got around to doing anything with any of them. I'll add these to my "scan and list" stack

I got a few more in the mail today from the first wave of purchases... these came in smaller manila envelopes that were tighter inside, so they had less room to move around. The first order I received had four books with plenty of room to move to and fro, so when the package took a hit in one corner all but one book suffered good-size dents. The one that didn't was the Legion of Monsters 1 which I paid a good bit on, so that's good news, but I also got the X-Men 544 and that one did get hit (so much for that upgrade). The next wave to ship will have some ASM's and a UXF that I went after aggressively, so I'd hate to see those suffer the same fate as these are the first copies of those particular issues that I've been able to find after nearly a year of looking. I've been really fortunate filling in my ASM run this week, though.... picked up probably 15 or so books from various listings that filled in many of my gaps in the 600's. BTW, that was me you outbid on that Cap 618, I have several in the 600-619 range and wanted this one to add to it, but I backed off after my first delivery showed up with the dents, so I'll accept that as a little payback from the 'Tec 854 we were both after. Also, the 'Tec 880 that same seller had went for a very strong price for a raw copy.

@Corona smith Have you received those books yet? I bought quite a lot from the same seller over the last week. Shipping on the first batch was.... not ideal.

Yeah, it was pretty nice. I think the advertised grade was right on the money. I was a bit surprised that the ASM I got in the same batch was a bit lower, though. Like you said, can't win 'em all.

I actually ended up winning that one. Hadn't checked this thread in a while, so didn't know I was bidding against you

I haven't been tracking mine, I just let the forces of nature do what they do, but catching up on this thread made me antsy, so I caved and looked.... just shipped today! Mine was already graded, but the grade stayed the same, so no worries there, Now just have to wait and see how the sig looks

Thanks for the recommendation, Wolvie. I'm definitely going to check this out. Big fan of both movies and the original story (there's a comic adaptation of that as well, FYI), looking forward to seeing what this series does with the concept.

Love me a good Dale Sale! Glad to hear you had an awesome year, one of the nicest and fairest dealers in the hobby!

I'm all about instant gratification here.

655, hands down. People will debate what constitutes a "first appearance" (see debates over Wolverine, Bloodshot, or, less directly analogous, Darkseid), but 655 has way more demand than 656. 655 is also Grant Morrison's first issue as writer and the issue where Joker gets his face blown off and falls off a building, so it's got that going for it, too. 656 might be more of a companion to the previous issue, but I think the number of people that would choose 656 over 655 in a taste test would be very much in the minority.

add to the stack, please