fantastic_four

If you collect but don't flip, your collection is smaller than it otherwise could have been. I don't flip myself--at least not that often--but it isn't because it's evil, it's because I'm lazy.

May have been the case for the buyer but there were many others that would have spotted it's potential and bid against him accordingly. Anything advertised as unpressed, as the mound city books were, will be reviewed very carefully for potential. Some were successful in getting upgrades after pressing others didn't. I can't decide whether this is the biggest "pressing success" of the Mound City auction or the AF15 that went from 8.0 to 9.0 is the biggest.

Looks like it to me as well. Here's a pic of the Mound City copy from the iCollector web site:

Why does he have a copy--was he inspired by Ian Levine?

I think you just really like looking at guys in scaly bikini swimming trunks. Are we really having a Dr. Doom versus Sub-Mariner popularity/coolness debate? Doctor Doom/Darth Vader wins HANDS DOWN!

If by that you're likening the fruity Sub-Mariner to post-Robin and the ultimate badass Doctor Doom to pre-Robin, then I AGREE!

Whoa, you're who won that at the last ComicLink auction, NICE PICKUP!!!

It's just common for this time period in general. My FF #10 doesn't have a printing ripple where yours does, but my FF #9 does.

My FF 48 is the first perfectly-wrapped 9.6/9.8 copy I've ever seen for sale in ten years of looking. With the large population of them out there I was somewhat hesitant to go for one with off-white pages, but that doesn't matter to me personally at all and I got it at a discount I'm guessing specifically because off the ow pages, so I'm happy with it.

Good lord, that's some insanely nice centering on that issue which is almost always set with the front wrapping to the back...REALLY nice copy there! The issue is so readily available due it being a part of a warehouse find, but even given that, it took me many, many years to find the two copies of the issue I have with perfect wrap...it seems like only 1 in 5 or 10 of the issue has a nice wrap.

He used to, a lot - the IRS identified him as a PowerSeller and he opened up a second ebay account, but mailed a package with his exact same address to an acquaintance of mine, who tipped me off. What does that mean? first time I ever heard of the IRS doing that. I've seen some threads in Comics General claiming that the IRS is making E-Bay report a list of their members who sell over a certain number of transactions and dollar amounts--something like more than 100 transactions or more than $20,000 in gross sales--either this year or next year, I'm guessing that's what he means.

If either of these techniques worked and the stench was completely removed would the seller then have to disclose? The answer to your original question depends upon the OSL (Overstreet Stinkiness Level) of the odor; if it was worse than an OSL 5 as it sounds like the book is, then it wouldn't be any higher than 6.0 Fine. As for whether or not you would have to disclose the removal of the odor, the answer is YES, of course! It's restoration to remove the stink. Also, if the odor smells of corn nuts and feet, then most likely the odor came from one of the press operators at Sparta taking a dump on the book, and in that case, CGC wouldn't downgrade for it at all as it is a manufacturing defect. I wholeheartedly disagree with this...I really don't think it should matter whether or not it's the press operator or a 7-year old kid with the runs who does it, a dump is a dump is a dump and should be downgraded for accordingly.

That's a nice copy! That's one of my favorite early FF covers, lots of action on it!

I guess that counts as a "double win" for her when she refuses. Nah...luckily she's a member of the "Sex and the City" generation of women who just gotta have it.

Uh yeah. I love comics and have read/collected them since I was about 5, but I've never felt it necessary to ask my women to read them. I do ask her to accept them being in the house.. but read them? Let's not get greedy here people! Whenever the latest issue of Walking Dead comes out, I withhold sex from my girlfriend until she's read it.

If you mean X-Men #1 lags behind AF15 and in a few years will be at the same levels AF15 is today, then yea, it probably will, although AF15 will have gone up itself by then. If you mean X-Men #1 will catch up to AF15 and be worth the same as whatever it's worth in a few years, then no, definitely not. Spidey is far more popular than Professor X, Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Beast, Iceman, Angel, Magneto, or the 1960s X-Men team as a whole. That specific set of characters is quite the opposite of popular, it's one of the least popular comics that Stan Lee created, one of the few superhero titles he started after Fantastic Four that eventually got cancelled. The X-Men wasn't a popular title until 1975 and Wolverine joined. Some of that success has translated back on the title to make X-Men #1 more valuable, but it never all will, it translates more into Hulk 181 and GS X-Men #1 being more sought after. The prices of those books will never approach the Silver keys though given the comparatively massive populations of those Bronze books on the market.

Nice Spidey 30!!! I thought you were selling all your Spideys?

That's gotta be the first year of CGC you're talking about there back in 2000, they've sold for $1500 or more for since at least 2001...you're showing your age here old man.

NICE! Is that the Mound City copy? It's odd that went from an 8.5 offwhite to a 9.0 cr/ow...makes you wonder what it'd end up as with a third resubmission. I thought you were selling all your FFs!

It makes me feel hypocritical to act that way...I value high-grade books kept in pristine condition yet I refuse to keep my own books in storage conditions that will keep them that way? So the books were great until they got into my ham-fisted hands? I can't do that. Rotating can work, but most likely won't. You'll get tired of rotating and eventually some set of books will end up not getting rotated for 5 years, 10 years, or however long you end up living in the same house... I display my books as you're suggesting, but I do it less permanently than wall-mounting--I stand them up on shelves using plate stands where there's zero work to place and remove the book from the stand. But even the books I put on the stands end up getting displayed in light for too long, so I tend to shelve those for long periods as well. It's all inferior to blown-up wall posters of your best books anyway because you can see the posterized versions across the room. Just take a high-res scan of books you like and get them turned into posters...it's win-win, no harming of the originals AND they look great across a room.

That has always been my biggest worry. I've never hung a book on my walls for fear of fading. Has anyone had any experience with this? I worry that even interior light could ruin a book... A window-less room where the lights are only on when I'm in there - I'm not worried: UV protection built into the frame isn't as important as what mschmidt is saying here--if you're going to hang comics and you don't want the colors to fade, you HAVE to control the light into the area ENTIRELY and keep it dark the entire time people aren't in the room. Sounds simple, but it really isn't. You have to use curtains that allow in absolutely zero light to the room if there are any windows at all...I almost never see people use the right types of curtains, or even if they do, I rarely see them used correctly, the rooms still get bathed with ambient sunlight. It also needs to be a room you don't go into very often, which is the opposite of what you end up wanting--you typically want to show a book off, so people tend to put them in offices, dens, or computer rooms where there's a lot of human traffic that leads to longer periods of light exposure. If you want to hang something in a higher-traffic area, make sure it's something you don't care much about, as you can expect it to fade over a 5-to-20-year timespan. I eventually gave up on this because I go in and out of most areas I'd actually want the comics to hang in, so I just hang low-grade cheapies that present well via the frame--and I'll eventually replace those with larger, poster-sized blowups because they're better than comics for wall-display purposes--they present MUCH better and are easier to see across a room. As for the interior lighting, low-wattage standard light bulbs are great. I always forget this, but standard white bulbs are flourescent, right? Whereas the long bulbs people use in office buildings are incandescent? Or do I have that reversed? If I'm right that long-bulbs are incandescent, that's not what you want to use around paper and art at all, that type of light fades art--standard bulbs have much weaker light that minimizes fading.

Can you rearrange your sig to have Gina NEXT to the graphic of Batman? Hugely tall sigs like that are one of the reasons so many people here just turn sigs off completely...

Clearly trimmed and missed due to a close cut and white pages. Nice book and grats! (thumbs u

Really? It is? I do? Pray tell why don't you be so kind as to explain on what basis you're saying this is so. And write carefully my friend because people who don't know what they're talking about it when they talk make themselves look like fools.

From that perspective, nobody is ever defrauded by him who doesn't want to be--he always takes returns. I decided to keep my book to teach myself a lesson.