Crimebuster

So... I've been wanting one of these for quite a while, but until this year I didn't have the money for it. I have a complete run of Usagi Yojimbo, all three series, just working now on tracking down his earlier appearances in Albedo and Critters. Now that I have the money for a #2, though, I suddenly don't have the money for a #2! As I mentioned, I was one of the many (way) under bidders on the 6.0-ish #2 that sold last month for $1600 on ebay. In case you guys haven't been watching, another copy in that range - maybe slightly worse, even - appeared on ebay earlier this week and was purchased same day for a BIN of $2000. https://www.ebay.com/itm/ALBEDO-2-NOV-1984-THOUGHTS-amp-IMAGES-STAN-SAKAI-1ST-APP-OF-USAGI-YOJIMBO-/162974803061?hash=item25f20e2475%3Ag%3AaRUAAOSw73NawDAe&nma=true&si=I3h%2BMapsK2csKiU95b1ZKBvNRLE%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 Yesterday, another copy was put up for sale. I'm guessing the high prices are convincing people to let go of their copies. This newest one is a CGC 7.0, and in one day it's already up to over $1200, with 5 days left. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Albedo-2-first-appearance-of-Usagi-Yojimbo-CGC-7-0/232723927937?hash=item362f6d5381:g:9coAAOSwAKlaxo9t Just when I finally think I can get one of these, the market goes nuts. Why couldn't it have waited another few months to go crazy?! Man, I hate TV/movie speculation. The same thing happened when I was in the market for a Strange Tales #110 to finish my Dr. Strange collection. Tripled in price in like 3 months, and I never got one. Bleah.

Howdy. Just a quick question for the Comics general masses: anyone ever returned a book to Heritage? I just received a recent purchase - my first - and am not happy with it at all, as there is some damage to the book that was undetectable from the scan, and was not mentioned in the description. The website indicates they have an unconditional 7 day return policy, so, that's cool. I just wasn't sure how it actually works - just send the book back along with the initial invoice and they refund the money? Is it really that simple? Has anyone ever had any issues returning books to Heritage? I'll be calling them on Monday when they reopen for instructions and to clarify the policy, but I thought I'd see if anyone has any experience with this process. Thanks!

As a kid, I liked it. Read almost the whole run, but this was like 30 years ago now. I remember the first half being kind of goofy and dumb, but it got much better/weirder towards the end. The GN might be a little too relevant today, as it's about a sleazy Hollywood producer who gets involved with Dazzler. it's pretty good. Written by Shooter.

I got a bunch of emails from Comic Link saying I had successfully sold like 15 issues of Captain Marvel Adventures. Only, you know, I didn't, because I've never sold anything on Comic Link and I have no idea whose books they are trying to send me money for. I'm going to straighten it out with Comic Link, but this isn't the first time they've tried to send me someone else's money, so I was hoping I could track down whomever it is Comic Link thinks I am. Because I'm betting they would prefer to get the money they are due instead of Comic Link sending it to me!

Hey, did any of you guys happen to just sell 15 or so CGC issues of Captain Marvel Adventures on Comic Link in the auction that ended tonight? If so, please send me a PM! Something a little odd is going on with it. Thanks!

It seems to be getting decent reviews, not great, but pretty good. Here's my review, as a fan of the book.

I'd keep it sealed personally. Lots of opened copies around, not many sealed. The recording is on YouTube if you want to listen to it.

Some more raw books from my collection:

Just got these in:

Finally got Sgt. Fury #1 to finish my run! Here's #1-13:

Sorry, my bad.

Got this for like ten bucks : 1st appearance of Bill and Hillary Clinton?

Just got this in today:

And my nicer Captain America frame books:

I've been going through my collection, scanning some books, and I was reminded how great frame covers are. The only design era in comics I like more than Marvel's 20 cent frame covers is the DC "Big 25 cent" design they had at the same time. What a great period for cover design! Anyway... mine are all raw, but I've been scanning some of my nicer ones. It's a miracle I ended up with any nice raw books since I always bought to read, so whatever was cheapest. But I did get some good stuff despite this. Here are my nicer Avengers frame books, all raw - I've read all of these copies multiple times since acquiring them many years ago, but I think the days of reading these copies is done. I'll post my Captain America frame books shortly!

1.0/1.5 though it's pretty close.

If it had gone for half that, I would have been a happy camper, as my girlfriend was trying to get it for me for my birthday and was top bidder at $812 with 20 minutes left. And then... this happened. With the extensive scuffing on the front cover I didn't want to go any higher. But what do I know, apparently.

Well, I don't quite have the high grade CGC stuff you guys do, but I do have a story some of you fellow Avengers fans may find interesting. I put together my Avengers run when I was in high school, so I didn't have much money. Through some good fortune involving Christmas money, I had acquired a bunch of low-mid grade books from early in the run, but I had a massive gap in my collection from #57-100, only owning a couple of them. This was in the mid 1980's, pre-internet, and none of the stores in my area had any of the issue from this period for some reason. Late SA - the 15 cent books - were just impossible to find. So one day I see an ad in the Want Ad, which was like craigslist, but printed once a week and sold at newsstands. It's from a guy in Boston, about an hour away, who says he has a bunch of old comics he is selling, by appointment only. I was 14 at the time, so I talked to my Dad and he agreed to spend the day driving me in to meet this rando at his house to buy some comics. So I called the guy and set up an appointment for a Sunday afternoon. I scraped up some money - not a lot, maybe 70 bucks or so, but it was all I could get my hands on by hook or by crook. We go in, and this middle aged guy escorts me and my dad upstairs to this empty bedroom where he just has all these long boxes laid out, his whole collection, all priced and ready like a store, except, you know... it's in some guy's guest bedroom. I knew I only had money for Avengers books, so I asked to see that and never even looked at the rest of the thousands of comics there. I ended up spending every dime I had on Avengers books, and other than a VG or so Avengers #5 I paid him $12 for, I focused entirely on that elusive #57-100 gap. Though a couple of them, like #100, were mid-grade, most of them were much nicer. It turned out this guy was the OO and had bought them off the shelf himself, read them a few times, and then kept them socked away. Here's what I ended up with that day: I paid $10 each for #57 and #93. #92 and #95 were $5 each. All the rest of these were $2 each from the OO. Not shown are lower grades #5 and #100 that I bought that day for $12 and $6 respectively, as well as super high grade copies of #68 and #70 for $2 each that each unfortunately have one popped staple, so I didn't scan them when I did the rest of these. That was quite a day in the life of a young Avengers fan!!

Good catch on the mark on the Executioner's knee! I didn't notice that. I've had this book so long it's great to get a fresh pair of eyes on it to pick up stuff I am no longer seeing. I don't think the back cover stains go through the cover, but I'm skeptical they will come out. That is a faint crease above the E, and through the Enchantress's leg.

I have it at an 8.5/9.0 depending on how they view that thumb crease. Staples okay? They look a little dark in the scan but I can't really see them well enough. Just want to make sure there's no rust.

Finally getting around to scanning most of my cooler books, so there's a lot more coming where this came from. Back cover has some schmutz on it. A cleaning might help this one I think?

Jose Luis Garcia Lopez! This is a reprint of an earlier Charlton cover, but the original had a big inset box covering some of the image, which is no way to treat Jose Luis Garcia Lopez art. An instance where the reprint is better than the original:

Here it is: