miraclemet

one thread is simple. You dont even have to look GPA up. Take his price, subtract $75 and that's what the last sale was of the book (and 90% of the time it was the same book within the last 6 months). Do these guys think we dont know what books have sold for? And yes markets move, but we're talking about mid-grade GA books that are only in moderate demand...

well it's all moot. On a hunch I asked if the book I was interested in had been pressed, he said yes. I dont really care about pressing or not (especially for this era of book) , but the fact that the book had been pressed, and he hadn't disclosed it in the thread, and it took me asking... well I'd rather not deal with someone like that.

To the best of my knowledge these 3 points above are correct. I would also interpret your first example as the seller abrogating all responsibility. I was under the same impression, until I received a damaged marvel omnibus. My local PO gave me the forms to fill out and I included pictures of the damaged item and they gave me the check after investigation. I haven't had to make a claim before or since, but that was what happened in my instance. interesting; how did you show proof of insurance purchased since the shipper bought the insurance?

that's the way it feels. Like as soon as he's been paid and the book is in the mail hes going to wipe his hard drives, burn his passport, change his name and move to Zimbabwe to begin life under a new identity.

Picasso: Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando Giotto di Bondone: Apprenticed with Cimabue at age 10 Leonardo da Vinci: apprenticed with Andrea del Verrocchio at 14 Paul Cezanne studied at The School of Drawing in Aix Rembrandt apprenticed with both Jacob van Swanenburgh and later Pieter Lastman Kandinsky attended Anton Ažbe's private school and then the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Claude Monet, maybe the closest to "self taught" though he attended an Art school for his secondary education (think 8th-12th grade), and then when living in Normandy he was mentored by Eugène Boudin I could keep going.. the point is the best artists might be self taught (initially), but they all REFINED their raw tallent either in schools or by apprenticing under another established artist. So if it's good enough for Picasso, Rembrandt... and so on...

What do you guys think about buying under these conditions: 1. Requiring buyer to pay for full value insurance (beyond the flat $50 insurance covered with priority mail) 2. No returns for any reason 3. Insurance claims are on the buyer to submit, manage and deal with. I've only had to deal with one lost book in the past. I was the buyer, the seller bought insurance and charged me for it (as we agreed). When the book was lost the seller/shipper initiated the insurance claim since he bought the insurance and because the USPS informed him that investigations start where the book was shipped from, not where it was headed to (which makes sense). While investigating the seller refunded me 1/2 my payment (we agreed that way we were both equally "out") and that we'd split the insurance if it ever came thru. Eventually the book was found before they paid out the insurance, and I re-payed the 1/2 that I'd been refunded and all was well but the point being in my experience: 1. the insurance is owned by the buyer of the insurance, who is the shipper 2. the insurance claim and investigation process has to be initiated by the buyer of the insurance, and the investigation is initiated with the shipper. 3. The USPS only works as hard as you push them, and it requires calls from both parties to get any favorable outcome. so knowing all that, I dont know why a buyer would agree to the seller terms I stated at the beginning, right? It sounds like the seller is taking zero ownership, zero interest in a lost book. And while I know that is no issue 99% of the time, I would hope a seller would partner with the buyer to resolve/progress an insurance claim, but when a seller is so black and white in their sales conditions it makes me leery. thoughts?

Better subtitle... X:Men Nuggest of Goodness

nope. he'd see that you outbid him, and that the lot was now bid up to ___(whatever)___. He wouldnt/couldnt know that the amount was the top of your bid.

Did the mystery bidder cancel a bid that left you as the high bidder? If no, then how did he know when to stop bidding. cancelled bids, especially from someone who does a lot of bidding, but not winning with just a few sellers is a red flag. this just looks like a new bidder who bid until he quit. For all he knew, you had put a $75 bid in and were going to keep winning.

Ok. Kav can only speak to his personal experience which was based on his decisions on his path and his skill and his drive all in the direction of his goals. Kav's advice is only bad in the sense that one shouldn't let someone else's failue dissuade you from trying. Now Im not saying ignore his advice, listen to it, let it be part of collection of information that you use to make your decision. Ignoring it (since it seems at least some what applicable) would be silly, just as saying "well Kav said it was a bid idea so I'm not going to do it" I would say Kav's way of presenting his experience and advice (as an absolute) is bad, but anyone foolish enough to take Kav's (or anyones) personal experience as some sort universal truth has a whole 'nother set of problems to deal with! Kav, you have the benefit in your future of knowing you tried to do the thing you were passionate about. That's a big thing. Plenty of people hit 40 and wish they had tried to do the thing that pulls at their soul. You gave it a go. Thats awesome. It didnt work out. That sucks. But it doesnt work out for 99% of people. But you gave it a shot. Plenty of other people didn't and then spend their 40s, 50s wondering "what might have been" (when we all know that what it might have been was a swing and a miss). The questions is what version of "giving it a shot" will be enough for the OP down the road. Maybe to him "giving it a shot" means going off to school in Vienna. Maybe it means practicing nights and weekends and putting his art in a local craft show in a few years. Both are just fine ways to "scratch the itch" IF they ring right and true to the OP. I think art, and most "creative" areas of expression require a strong network to be successful (and successful can mean making a living doing it, or just having as many opportunities as you desire towards sharing your art). My advice would be to look at alumni of the school you are looking to attend, that will be your best initial network for getting work, getting introductions, getting gallery contacts or how ever you want to share your art. Also look at what sort of alumni services the school has (if any). Since it's an "abroad" school, will you come back to the US leaving your contacts and classmates behind? And remember, so much goes into "succeeding" in any field. Only a percentage of it is related to talent and/or effort. I've seen brilliant people fail (repeatedly) because they lacked any of a number of "soft skills"... communication, social awareness, ability to relate, flexibility

Mercurius, talk to your employer about taking a sabbatical. For some employers its a viable option over outright quitting. If your life allows you to take such an opportunity, go for it!

Great idea. I'd pay to see this film. I like this idea, too. But I think it'd make more sense with Peter in college. With him in high school the relationship with Connors makes less sense. Unless they dual enroll him, high school student in some college classes. That'd be a nice twist as well, and very plausible. Fish out of water scenario since he's smart enough to take college courses. and its well establised that Parker is a smartie. PS please note the lack of origin story in my synopsis. Origin would be encapsulated in a few fast shots hitting the high points leading up to the movie title splash leading right into Spidey swinging through Manhattan #NoMoreOrigins #GetToTheGoodStuff (and glad people like the story idea, thanks!)

when did 3% become 4%?

I always thought the perfect Spidey movie would have Kraven and The Lizard. Early in the movie Curt Conners turns into the Lizard, going on a rampage in NYC, which leads to the city calling on Kraven to come hunt down this lizard that is terrorizing the city (I can already see theJJJ OpEd piece calling for it). During the hunt, Kraven (becoming obsessed with his prey) becomes the real threat, working above the law and endangering the public.Spidey comes in to try and protect his friend (Pete knows that The Lizard is really Curt) from Kraven and Kraven then sees that Spidey is the read 'big game' in NYC so he goes rogue and tries to take out Spidey. In the final battle between Spidey and Kraven, the lizard gets a sense of his own humanity, recognizes Peter Parker/Spidey in some way, and comes to to Spidey's aid, attacking Kraven. This gives Spider-man the opportunity to regain the upper hand and defeat Kraven.

Aerial battles between The Vulture and Spidey would look amazing on the big screen (and with well done CGI), just please make sure there's a plot. And try not to have 4 different villains in one movie, ok?

Um how did we forget about some of the worst movies ever. Transformers more then melts the screen!. Age of Extinction was 18% RT, 1.1 Billion Worldwide. Transformers Revenge of the Fallen was 19% RT, 402 million domestic, 832 million Global. oh god I forgot about that steaming pile... I feel like the global markets dont react the same to reviews as the domestic markets, so I wanted to look domesticly... T1: 57% RT....$319m T2: 19% RT....$402m T3: 35% RT....$352m T4: 18% RT....$245m So the question is... do we see the DCU take a downturn in box office results (domestically) like Transformers did? Does that make them reevaluate the cast?

I always wondered if there was more 'funny business" with the movies that have more "points" shared among the actors, directors and such, where as the movies that give away no points are more likely to show a greater profit (since all of the profit stays in house). granted for tax purposes it's never good to show a profit, but there's only so much "fudging" that the IRS can take...

yeah, these books just keep going up. Interesting side note. Wantedcomix seems to have a near endless supply of these venom variants I remember them selling the venom variants grouped with a TPB in 2013, 2014 and 2015 , they were ending in the $5 - 30 range. over and over again. They are prolly kicking themselves now. They have sold Dozens and Dozens of each individual book. It seems to me they must have somehow acquired some, or all, of the remaining undistributed copies. Go look at their feedback, if you feel like digging and adding them up. This is what always scares me about these modern 1: variants. The print run numbers are complete guesses based on ratios and there is no guarantee how many were actually printed, and where the undistributed copies end up. Here is an old sale from page #200 of their feedback: More than a year ago JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY #633 1:50 VENOM VARIANT COVER SCARCE & FREE THOR HERUCLES 1 (#400550069813) US $22.50 22 bucks and a free TPB They have sold dozens of this book, and it seems they still have more. I notice wantedcomix has auctioned off a few of the JIM 633 Venom as well. They seem to be the only one that has auctioned any off. The last one, they said was in raw 7.0 condition and it still went strong. With only a ~23,000 copies of the regular cover distributed and it being a 1:50, it's hard to fathom any scenario where very many more than ~400 copies of the variant being distributed, let alone printed. -J. Wait, you cant fathom a scenario where a Venom variant cover might be over produced? I can think of a decades worth of scenarios... (especially after seeing the demand for other venom variant covers....)

Is there a comp for this aspect of Batman vs Superman? BvS was a wildly successful franchise movie, with very low critical response. 27% RT, $328m domestic run. What's the comparable? I cant find one... Marvel hasnt had a movie with as low a critical response. Thor Dark World is the least well reviewed of them. It still had a 66% RT, it did $206m domestic, so it still out-grossed its predecessor (which itself had a 77% RT), but Im, curious to see if the next movie takes a step down in returns as these are the least well recieved movies of the MU. Iron Man went 94, 72, 79 in RT, but has gone up in $ (318, 312, $409m). So again, is there a franchise blockbuster out there (super hero or not) that had such poor reviews, and what affect did that have on subsequent movies in the franchise? X-Men Origins Wolverine? It was down at 38% RT, and did $179m in domestic... but the X-men rebounded well with Days of Future past (91%RT and $233m) and it appeared that audiences did not let the stink of origins carry over to Days...but that movies was a little more "ancillary" than where BvS fits in with the DCU... thoughts?

more selective market reporting... he doesnt invoke GPA, but just says gpa 90 day is $195. That 90 days does include a $255 sale and a $240 sale, but he doesn't mention in his range that there have also been recent (within 90 days) sales of: $140, $148, $153, $189, and $190 (some of these are more recent than his $250 ceiling sale) couldn't he have just said "this book is hot thanks to the Daredevil TV show on netflix" and left it at that? let the buyer beware when he lets the seller convince him of the market price...

someone should start grouping these books, looks like lots of us love the same books!

My favorite Planet cover, and a nice Space Babe to boot

I need a better scan... and a better copy!

this collection is truly outrageous...

I use those comics as packing material for my Modern Variants and Pogs. Never thought to keep them, huh....