Walls

Thanks for the condolences everyone.

Sigh, its funny we were talking about this yesterday because it looks like I hit the lottery. The PO Mafia must have been monitoring my activities on the thread. Or maybe its Karma over the glib comment about someone's wife leaving them. Anyway my Bats 253 was delivered hosed today. Looks like the letter carrier took a flying leap off the top rope and delivered a sharp elbow to my defenseless book. It looks like the book survived but I hope that's just a piece of plastic lodged to the bottom right of the 20 cent label. Jack & S**t must have left town because double boxing and peanuts did nothing to avert the damage to the case. Goes to show that if the Post Office really wants to skullf**k your book they'll do it. I'll guess I'll focus my frustration on the post office because if I mention Rocketeer I may be invited to fist myself. I guess I'll record the book in my registry and send it back to CGC. In happier news, my new 235 appears to have been birthed with no issues.

That's doable but a big number.

Blasted real life and adult responsibilities. Why can't we be 15 with the checking account we have today?

So how high do you think Rocketeer's Detective 400 might go?

Ok, you guys have convinced me and I'm in selling mode anyway. My CGC 9.2 undercopy of Bats #227 will be offered soon for sale and one of you guys will take it home. Stay tuned. But you know, I think this is also about supply and demand as well as perception. If multiple copies come up for sale in a competitive fashion I'd say it will drive the price down. In my case, if I would have seen multiple copies out there I might have held off on my purchase. Also, an appearance of increased supply would have impacted my purchasing decision. On the other hand, if there are enought buyers out there who can absorb the available copies the price may only go up. Of course, YMMV. I'm now trying to engage with the community a bit more so I can obtain more intelligence on my future purchases.

Now that's a nice signature, it almost blends into the image. I hate when a big, fat, black sharpie is used to scrawl all over the art, it's kind of a turn off for me and makes the book less desirable.

This is my sig.There are many like it but this one is mine. Oakman, you've got a fantastic signature. I think I'll go home and watch Full Metal Jacket tonight. Gunnery Sergeant Hartman: Today... is Christmas! There will be a magic show at zero-nine-thirty! Chaplain Charlie will tell you about how the free world will conquer Communism with the aid of God and a few Marines! God has a hard-on for Marines because we kill everything we see! He plays His games, we play ours! To show our appreciation for so much power, we keep heaven packed with fresh souls! God was here before the Marine Corps! So you can give your heart to Jesus, but your belongs to the Corps! Do you ladies understand?

It's definitely a seller's market on early bronze bats book right now. I'll certainly be contributing to the final sales price on your 225. Not sure if I'll be able to commit though. There's a couple of nice 9.8's on the comiclink auction that I'm seriously considering.

Nice, Batman 225! Any discounts for being a good customer?

My thoughts on one of the better but maybe less known artists from the 70s. Although, I was not born until 73 and alot of Kalutas seminal work, outside of Star Struck, seems to have occurred in the 70s, I find that he is an artist that ranks somewhere in my top five artists. Maybe number one even. I think for me the top five artists in no particular order include Neal Adams, Bernie Wrightson, Michael Kaluta, Todd McFarlane, and Charles Vess. Honorable mentions, for me of course, go to Alan Davis, Milo Manara, Humberto Ramos, Nic Cardy, Dave Stevens, maybe Sam Keith during his Sandman run but not so much afterwards and a few others. I think the work that did it for me was the Vampirella, Morning in America book that came out in early 91. I was 17 at the time and that cover absolutely captivated me despite the work that was currently being put out by the likes of Lee, McFarlane, Portacio and even Liefeld (although in my defense I think it was the McFarlane inks over the top of his pencils that really attracted me on some of the covers). The book depicts Vampirella standing in a circle of smoking candles placed in skulls fashioned as candle holders. The depiction of vampirella is beautiful and now that I have seen his depictions of Madam Xanadu and the hostess from Forbidden Tales of Dark Mansion I see some similiarities. Plus, she has the awesome J-Lo trunk going on before it was really appealing. Anyway there are various other occult creatures and paraphernalia surrounding her and Kaluta makes effective use, IMHO, of all available space. It is just a really beautiful cover to me and has stayed with me for I guess a couple of decades now. While the story and internal art are unmemorable for me that cover is one of my favorites. I really wish he could have done the inside but I understand the amount of time it takes to finish the work. A few years after, Kaluta worked on the covers for the Vertigo series, Books of Magic. That is one series that I followed from about issue 19 all the way to the end somewhere in the 60s, I think. But I found many of those covers beautiful as well, again despite the stuff that Jim Lee and other image artists were doing at the time. Now as an older adult, I have discovered his covers on House of Mystery, Doorway into Nightmare, his work on the Shadow series and others from the seventies which are just as beautiful to me. Anyway, I plan on posting images of Kaluta covers here as I find and acquire them here. Thanks for reading.

(thumbs u I dont recall ever seeing a 9.0 going past 450.00 I CONFESS, ITS ME!!! LOCK ME UP ALREADY WILL YOU! ITS ALL MY 9.2 COPY'S FAULT! Well no, not really but I guess you could say I have a motive and no alibi....

and here comes the mass PMs. Believe it or not, I got a PM offering for my 9.2. I guess I could get off the roller coaster for the ticket price if I really wanted to.

Thanks man, that makes me feel like I'm at least in the neighborhood.

Nice, way to rub it in conditionfreak. He forgot to mention the delivery person was a hot chick and he was able to get her number as well. This is certainly fodder for a good SNL skit...

I've been pretty lucky so far as well, knock on wood. But I know its just a matter of time before I get the letter carrier who's wife left him the night before and he takes it out on my package.

Nice, way to rub it in conditionfreak.

Being a government employee myself, I'm willing to give the post office some slack and would never bash them for no reason. But to be honest, I think the PO should be responsible when they do damage to our items in their system. I don't know how to make that happen from a business perspective but I'm not quite willing to give them a free pass on the problem. Just my

Actually, to be fair to the deal he had with etanick (and with all due respect to etanick) the seller actually did nothing wrong in the way he handled the deal from what I read. He packaged the book reasonably well, shipped it and it arrived damaged. The buyer declined insurance (at least I think he did based on what I read) and so the responsibility was all in the lap of the buyer. The seller volunteered $11 to reslab the book regardless and the buyer was a little disappointed that shipping to and from CGC was not included in the partial refund. I think the seller did more than he was expected to do in this situation considering the buyer declined insurance. Also, I could be wrong but doesn't Nick live in Sarasota? I know he used to. Right, I mean other than the vivid imagry used in some of the responses, the post office was the true antagonist in this thread. Funny, I recently sold a copy of ASM 194 9.6 on eBay and shipped it out yesterday. After reading this thread I went ahead and voluntarily added insurance for $3 as the seller. I kept having this vision of the book I sold arriving looking like it had survived a bear attack and I just didn't want to deal with an unhappy buyer and possibly lose out on the rest of the money. But then again this is a hobby for me and not a business so I'm not recording profits and expenses on a balance sheet and calculating net revenue, etc. Maybe if I was I'd have a different take on the situation and possibly take it alot more personally.

Mods are going to have to assign a parental guidance rating to the thread before long. Mature audiences only

Come on man, fistings are totally off topic.

I would certainly think its possible but I'll defer to some else's judgement. I'm completely paranoid, I see shill bidders under my bed, hiding behind bushes, etc, etc.

That's great that you guys have large comic book stores that have alot of good stuff available. Around the DC/Northern Virginia area we've got Victory Comics out at Falls Church, After Time down in Old Town Alexandria, Fantom Comics at Union Station in DC and probably a few others that I'm not aware of but it doesn't seem like we have an outstanding selection of older material. Oh yea, we have Hole in the Wall books but the place is cramped, closed in and difficult to browse through. We can get the new stuff all day long but I haven't seen a good browsable selection of Bronze age material. On the other hand, we do have several decent cons this way. The Baltimore Comic-con is about 40 miles away and I just noticed there's something going on out in Annapolis. And really Philadelphia is only maybe 2 1/2 hours away and New York is 4 hours. I'd like to check out that place in Fairborn if I ever make it out that way. Really nice find though.

Seriously only $75. That's awesome. I'd rather strike the better deal than have the better book. Plus you have that 227 Rocky Mountain pedigree in your signature to console you. You know, the one that I'm seriously coveting right now.

look at mine same date stamp but in different place I know, right? That date stamp is painful.