Dr. Balls

On 3/22/2024 at 9:21 AM, Sean I said:

Lucky Baru does have your numbers on the point that for as much as you all cluck most of you still use it.  At least the Nerdcrawler guy puts up an effort rather than this endless armchair retreading.

I am always surprised they still send out catalogs. Mine don't even get opened for the most part. I'd take the discount and go with the revised online listing. I imagine by the time someone who specifically remembers the piece from the catalog views it on the website with the revised description, they're not even going to recall the disparity between details in print and online.

On 3/22/2024 at 5:25 AM, comicwiz said:

I can't imagine the sting of being screwed by a company and to be compensated with credit to continue using their service.

From the land of obscurity: Iomega did this to customers who lost gigabytes of data from their Zip Disks due to 'Click Death' - where the disk failed and all data was lost (at the time, in the late 90's - many people archived data on zip disks due to them holding large amounts of data and less expensive than optical disks). There was a class action lawsuit against Iomega where the customer's reward was a simple credit coupon to buy replacement disks. Nothing for the - literal - hundreds or thousands of billable hours lost from the data on the disks. I can't recall how many hours my employer paid me for rebuilding files that were lost - but it was several hundred at least and took months.

I would not be surprised in the least for people to be given credit to CGC - while the Class Action lawyers do donuts in the parking lot in their new Mercedes after getting paid handsomely for bringing the suit to court.

Super cool SS books! GLWTS

I'd be up for a compartmentalized Alien-on-a-ship movie.

I enjoy Kirby's art more, as it leaves me with more to look at, but Adams art makes me study the technical form and function of his art. I can't really comment to the impact on OA for these two, as they are far outside what I focus on for original art.

For me, the two come down to different definitions:

Adams was a Master commercial illustrator, his job being to visually communicate a sequence of situations through his illustrations to form a cohesive thought process that the end user could interpret in a realistic way.

Kirby was a Master artist, his job to visually express his ideas in an orderly fashion that could be interpreted in a variety of ways by the end user.

Of course, they both crossed over into each others' areas - because they were both creative and illustrative - but Kirby's vision was based in his innovative styling, where Adams was a masterfully technical style. But, that's just my take.

On 3/20/2024 at 10:00 AM, AnnSteverson said:

It's simply impossible to do this. Traditionally, copyright belongs to the individual or group of individuals who created the work. Artificial intelligence, lacking personality and rights, cannot be recognized as an author in the legal sense.

Agreed. I'm sure they will figure out a workaround, but this is the basic gist of the concept of copyrighting something.

On 3/20/2024 at 10:37 PM, Silver Surfer said:

Unfortunately you may be 100% right about this. 

In Marvel's defense, there's lots of opinions on what they are doing wrong - and fans can't help registering their opinion. It's not like they are posting the same numbers they were years ago. It's an easy defense for "insiders" to say that comic book movies are too over-exposed now, but that also comes from the lack of quality in those movies. The hype would still be going strong if these movies were as thought-out as the previous ones.

I'll even go so far to say that they have an uphill battle after the Infinity saga because they are basically starting from scratch on the storyline - but that shouldn't mean that every project can't meet expectations. Marvel has changed their movie vibe as the world has changed it's vibe - but when you have a succession of failures, it's hard to ignore. I mean, the people involved in these movies are supposed to be the best in the business. No one is perfect, but there is a failure somewhere up the chain if this is what they are continually putting out.

It's easy to sit back and criticize, that comes with the territory in any business - but at some point, the criticism becomes valid when everything being put out has such monumental problems. Couple that with corporate politics, massive kickbacks and bonuses, golden parachutes, etc - it becomes really difficult to start over and rebuild. With the prospect of so many people losing serious money and power over a large-scale revamp, they've conceded to minor concessions with shifts in management - like CEOs getting fired, etc. I don't think those small adjustments can fix the problem.

On 3/18/2024 at 9:19 AM, Chip Cataldo said:

They need to scrap this. It's pretty simple to me...

FF movie. Silver Surfer movie. Doom movie. X-Men movie.

Then the heroes are forced to team up with Doom to save Earth against the threat of Galactus.

Doom saves the day in the end when the heroes are defeated.

I think Marvel's problem is that they have to keep generating revenue and all those ideas are years out. They've got all these craptastic corners they've painted themselves into like killing off Black Widow, introducing Agatha Harkness that has all the appeal of a substitute math teacher, a over-arcing movie villain that is painfully boring, saddling themselves with awkward political stances in their movies, and taking characters with lots of stories to tell and shoehorning them into movies with other characters, diluting their appeal and effectiveness.

Couple that with the fact it takes years to put together these CGI movie fests and now Marvel's real problems are pretty obvious. They've taken this universe that was filled with box-office money munchers to having absolutely no direction to go.

It's a bit staggering to sit back and see what kind of mess they are in - and how nigh-impossible it will be to get out of it.

I think you can request USPS, but the default is FedEx. I'm guessing FedEx is what they prefer for insurance purposes - if they have to send USPS on an expensive book, it probably has to go registered. It's been awhile since I looked at specifics, but the last few items I bought through HA have come FedEx.

On 3/20/2024 at 9:39 AM, PhilipB2k17 said:

I think an appeal could reasonably be made to Steve Borock that it behooves them to get as many eyeballs on their auction offerings as possible, to generate interest, results and better consignments. 

Depending on their marketing outlook, there is a definite avenue they could go down that is not being utilized by the other Big Two, which could position them better by embracing their basic auction formatting without resorting to a massive site rebuild. A concentrated, unique advertising campaign could be utilized across social media platforms to drive people there. The gamble being: would they convert people to accepting the basic format of their site or alienate their newly-introduced potential customer base?

Is there room for a Craigslist-type auction house? I think there is. But it's going to cost money to creatively implement a new branding strategy - you can't cheap out on this aspect thinking you could do it in house, this is ad agency-level development. You can play it safe spending money on a new site design to compete with the Big Two and hope that you gain marketshare with a new interface, or you can gamble and place yourself in your own category and "create" a new customer base. There's a lot of people out there to still convert to buying from auction houses - going after them with an approachable message and simple interface could build a lot of brand loyalty.

On 3/18/2024 at 4:07 PM, comix4fun said:

Did McFarlane ever reply or put out a statement? Not only did he choose an AI winner, that was not supposed to be allowed, but the AI winner is a complete Jag representing himself and the brand he's supposedly representing in the worst way possible

Yeah, I read his comments (the artist) on the contest and it's not surprising he's a Savannah grad - aside from one down-to-earth artist I've met from there, the rest come across as very self-important for having attended there. I mean, how hilarious is it that he name drops his college as reasoning why he's got the ability to draw - not practice. Not ability. Not creativity. Not drive. But his attendance at an art school. Yawn. I'm fancy, I went to Savannah!

On 3/18/2024 at 4:21 PM, xcantu said:

Lol yeah I placed a bid on one of the pieces he had on auction and was cancelled 10 minutes before it was going to end.  I was the high bidder at $50.  I checked the next day and he relisted it for around $475.  No communication aside from the bid cancellation email.  Just like you I have no hard feelings.  A word of advice to OP, if your site doesn't generate any traffic, don't host an auction on there.

Yeah, that was my initial thought on his listing.

On 3/6/2024 at 1:06 PM, BLUECHIPCOLLECTIBLES said:

It seems odd that the consigner was a clearly a big fan (enough to go to the Marvel offices where they were given this), but was neither a big enough fan (nor sufficiently curious to investigate) to realize, in 50+ years, that the image was the basis for an image that has appeared countless times on all sorts of common spidey merchandise?  

Speaking as someone who has discovered quite a few pieces advertised as 'unpublished', which were published (not anywhere near the magnitude of this one) - I think it's easy for people who might not have an avid interest in the subject matter to be curious if it were published at all. Especially if it doesn't look familiar. That's where this place is really pretty awesome.

When you think you know what a "guaranteed hit" is, you've officially crossed over to the same life outlook as the guy selling aluminum siding to elderly people. Which, is one step above the 'I'll Suck Yo D*%$' Crackhead Scene from Menace 2 Society, and two steps above 'Rock Bottom'.

When Disney says 'Captain Marvel 3' is off the board, that's likely the end of my interest in what they are putting out. I'll hold out some hope for X-Men when that finally shows up, but otherwise...yeeeeeesh.

I finally got around to watching season 2 after at least a year after I watched season 1 - it's just not grabbing me the same way. I'm going to try and work through a few more episodes.

On 3/14/2024 at 10:27 PM, szav said:

Are you saying whoever paid $4,300 for this after he "evolved his style quite a bit" didn't get a great deal?

 

 

On 3/15/2024 at 2:46 PM, seanfingh said:

I would almost be predicting a subscription crease unless the spine is wrecked like the other example.

Would a sub-crease be classified as 'light creasing' if it doesn't break color? Assuming a sub-crease would be the length of the book, do they not really allude to a crease being minimal or extraordinarily long? I'm asking because I have no idea if they call out sub-creases or just classify them generically.

Welcome, and yep. Undergraded. Crack that thing and sell it raw. I've seen more than enough evidence to show that a lot of slabs are now selling for raw prices.

On 3/15/2024 at 1:37 PM, Will_K said:

I'm ignorant of the OA connection other than they are the "Bob Kanes" of their stint in the music industry.

There a pretty good documentary on them, I think on Netflix. Definitely worth watching, even if you’re not into Pop Music

On 3/14/2024 at 11:55 PM, Xatari said:

I love that one too. I was tempted but have this one on my wall. 

The Capullo Angela went for $18K!

And that's a beauty page - I'll always be trying to find a Capullo Angela. Maybe the surviving member of Milli Vannili has one that I can buy that won't carry the Gaiman Tax.

On 3/5/2024 at 4:54 PM, Axe Elf said:

The "Large Spine Split" is probably a major culprit here:

2.0 GOOD (GD):  Back to Top
Shows substantial wear; often considered a "reading copy." Cover shows significant wear and may even be detached. Cover reflectivity is low and in some cases completely absent. Book-length creases and dimples may be present. Rounded corners are more common. Moderate soiling, staining, discoloration and foxing may be present. The largest piece allowed missing from the front or back cover is usually a 1/2" triangle or a 1/4" square, although some Silver Age books such as 1960s Marvels have had the price corner box clipped from the top left front cover and may be considered Good if they would otherwise have graded higher. Tape and other forms of amateur repair are common in Silver Age and older books. Spine roll is likely. May have up to a 2" spine split. Staples may be degraded, replaced or missing. Moderate staple tears and stress lines may be present, as well as rust migration. Paper is brown but not brittle. Centerfold may be loose or detached. Moderate interior tears may be present.

Agreed - I think the 'spine weak' notation (which I've never seen) maybe alludes to a brittleness in the spine only, and may not survive being encased and/or removed/handled? On the other hand, it seems odd to grade against something that hasn't happened - but I've handled a book that you can tell it's only going to last one or two more flip-throughs before the spine falls apart.

I'd like to hear when the suckage started. I stopped reading after the bulk of his Sin City stuff came out, so I can't really register an opinion.