Buzzetta

Thanks ! I like picking up the WWII Captain Marvel and Whiz covers as well as a few others...

I did a lot more buying over the past 30 days than usual... more than the rest of the year combined I think. Only one thing is not here yet and that is because I am waiting for the commission part to be done. I bought a 19" by 13" print of a vintage Bloom County cartoon from Berkely Breathed directly with remarque sketch of Opus. It had to be personalized so mine will say, "For Andrew." It should be here in about four more weeks. And... here we go... there will no rhyme or reason to this... In honor of Greggy.

5.5 with the press

I have always learned from these threads to scan both front and back before I send a book in.

Mostly when certain signers got a hold of the books. I seem to remember that Stan Lee and a few of the senior generation just grabbed and signed. Stan's facilitators and teams were not known to be as easy on the books either.

+1 On both counts.

Good point... Another reason I use Global Shipping and am done with it.

I've got just under 27,000 tracks saved to an external hard drive which is also backed up by the cloud... so long as there is electricity there is something playing...

Just got home... I took a screen shot of something that might help you. Go to your feedback page if you have not left feedback already and go to "report the buyer" or in the dispute page. There is a specific option for "buyer made a false claim" and then claimed an item was not received when tracking shows it was delivered.

Thunsicker is right. It doesn't matter what anyone cares about the experience. If it is profitable then the reader will adapt. Look at the music industry. How many people said, "NO!!! I need to have a physical CD or Record, or Tape." The world changed. The music companies love selling and distributing digital music. They do not love file sharing. However they recognize that people were ripping CDs and distributing it on their own anyway. So by switching to digital they cut costs. Yes, Tower Records and other music stores are gone. However, the world changed. Look at what is going on now? I am not going to lie, I've kind of become used to curbside service to pick up food. However with Covid more people have changed in how they consume items and purchase household necessities like food. When everything closed, (I'm using make believe numbers here), say 30% of the population switched to purchasing groceries online. How many people are going to continue to order groceries online? Amazon Fresh was absolutely wonderful as the prices were very competitive with my local supermarket. Whole Foods is offering free pickup and delivery... if all I have to do is pay a tip rather than sweat it out in the grocery store, I will continue to do this. Comics are going to eventually change whether we like it or not. It was FlyingDonut that said, digital distribution and then collected TPBs. I now agree with him and believe that is where we are headed whether we like it or not. Unless they crowd source comics each month

Recently I had a situation with a Facebook sale. I am not going to screen cap it since by the end of the transaction I believe the buyer was acting in good faith and we fixed it. He immediately paid for a $15 Lego set. As soon as he paid he asked me to ship it to a different address than the one that PayPal would ask me to ship it to. It told him that I would not and his choices were a refund less PayPal fees to which he could buy the item again OR I ship the item out to the address as registered with the sale. He chose for a refund less fees. To my surprise, he actually fixed the address and paid for the item again to which it was shipped out. My "scam alert sense" immediately went up at the beginning because it seems to be a common scam to say, "I didn't get the package, you must have printed the label out wrong or used a bad service." The buyer that is trying to scam someone has nothing to lose in this case. If they are successful then they get the item for free. If they lose out, then at the worst case they paid for what they got and can sell it later. Ten years ago when I joined, I was obstinate and thought I knew it all. I used to just handprint the labels until another board member beat it into me to always print labels directly from eBay or PayPal... They were definitely right for me to do that as it has saved my rear end numerous times. Either way, hope it works out and hope all is well.

The laws vary for the United States but if you printed your label through eBay / PayPal then eBay PayPal usually takes the funds from you to compensate the buyer and then after you file a claim under seller protection, you get reimbursed. This has not happened to me in a couple of years so unless anything has changed here in the states... that's the way it is. However, like I said, it might be different for other nations.

Yeah, I am really impressed with what Hasbro is doing. I have been a frequent critic of Hasbro's moves over the past decade in regards to getting product to shelves, creating new product instead of repainting molds from over ten years ago... things like that. However, with the absence of SDCC and Hascon, several times a week they have a panel that introduces new product across several lines. It has been the same type of panel as you would see at a SDCC. They have opened up question and answer articles to leading fan websites that discuss their product. They have revised their format and operation to get their name out there... and it is working. Lego is doing the same thing with their "Lego Community" and ideas website. They have also stepped up their game by releasing images and information to sites like Eurobricks and Bricks Brothers to be their news outlets to get information into the hands of their consumers. Covid definitely pushed these companies further into the arms of streaming and embracing more of an online presence where they reach hundreds of thousands for a fraction of the cost that it takes to reach thousands in Hall B at SDCC. On top of that... and here is the obvious... I am not walking around on a concrete floor all day... waiting for a panel or a show or something. If I miss it I can easily watch the recap at my convenience.

I believe he has taken a step back for the time being by his own choice.

And suddenly I know what I am getting my brother for Christmas.

What's the construction like on the MOTU figures... are they like the old ones where the insides are tied together with the band?

I got the woman with the British accent.

I really wish we could have the serial number to verify it. I would love to see the notes on this in the verification tool on the main page.

That won't ever happen again. Think about it... when the Javits center sees how much money Reed makes they want more of a take and increase rent for Reed to host NYCC. These big vendors keep it afloat... Now, when you have vendors like a Hasbro and Lego pulling out of NYCC (happened years ago) because of the cost for floor space, and creating or attending other cons and getting the same results, Reed found other large vendors. However if those vendors disappear, the Javits center is still going to want their cut and the high cost of rent for the place. That means it would be years if not decades before you saw a hard reset where floor space was affordable for more dealers to justify the cost. It is more likely that you would see smaller venues or more isolated and dedicated events like Comic Book Art Con in NJ.

Decision made for me.

As y'all said... no NYCC Something interesting is coming out of this though and that is something that might have put a knife in the back of cons all together. I have already mentioned how Disney, Hasbro, and other properties had been developing their own cons in previous years which eliminated the big spending necessary to have a presence at SDCC. With the 'rona' raging... companies like Hasbro have become innovative and hosted their own daily cons once a week using Facebook and other streaming sites to have a presence and to showcase new product. Because cons have not been available fans have become used to this the companies are capitalizing on it. When Hasbro started doing this it was a 'fan friday' event... now it seems that each product line is getting a day during the week to drop an announcement for new product. It's become a successful model. Hasbro pulled away from NYCC years ago and instead of renting floor space they rent a suite at a local hotel or some place else to announce new product. They were generating the same interest off site from the main showroom. The facebook streaming has probably launched them into new business models and some that others may adopt moving forward rather than commit themselves to cons.

I don't think it's going to go anywhere because if there was a market for it, someone will pick up the license to distribute or make their own.

I wince in agony knowing you hang a $150 statue by a chain.