Westy Steve

Call this a rant, if you like. Crom and Mitra, but I'm seeing stupid prices on things and it's dam irritating! Books a little nicer than normal...books I turned my nose up on a couple of decades ago...cost as much as I'm willing to spend on a used car for my soon to be college student daughter. I just don't know that I can enjoy tying that much money up into something that isn't really the very best and/or that I don't find captivating. Kudos to you guys who got in early and avoided the temptation to sell over the years. I really do love books with a vintage look to them. But I can't afford vintage anymore...especially in light of other things I can buy with that money. I'm having a hard time with the fact that spending $100 can buy me something absolutely beautiful and interesting in other collecting genres, such as vintage video games, but $100 might get me a first appearance of Spidey's black costume in an acceptable grade. Puleez! I just can't get excited about that...it doesn't move me and it's not rare. I want rare, beautiful, interesting things. There comes a point where I refuse to pay big dollars, not even to buy the gems, but (to extend an analogy) not even to buy the agates or the slightly prettier stones. I feel bad about all of the nice books I sold in the past, and the rising prices continually remind me of those mistakes...this stuff is supposed to be fun, right? (not jog bad feelings) I'm just saying I can have fun going to flea markets and actually finding other kinds of collectibles. But if I want something remotely interesting in the comic book genre, I have to buy it from a wall at a show. There's nothing in the wild of interest unless I have the luck of a lottery winner. Tired of that. On the bright side, I'm still here. I do love my Conans, and I have a head start on a nicer set of those (I have the keys), so I guess that's what I'll pursue moving forward. I know that the money I spend on them won't be wasted because people collect Conan for the love of the series, not because he's going to be in a movie soon, so maybe if a crash ever comes, they won't take a hit. Holographic covers, anyone? And that Barry Smith Artwork looks so freakin' good! Yeah, that'll be my fix for comics, other than reading low grade good bronze stuff. And best of all, I won't look at my collection, constantly wondering if I should sell, or not enjoying them because I have so much money tied up on them when I have kids needing school books. So I'll buy Conans and retro video games. Because they are cool and still cheap. I'll be an early adopter in that genre, I guess...

What's interesting about this thread is that collecting lower grade as an answer to the affordability problem doesn't seem very popular. People who want to collect "Comic A" but can't afford it in high grade have resigned themselves to collecting "Comic B" in high grade. Personally, I'd rather collect low grade just to have the book. I think it would be fun to put together a silver age key set in 1.0. Of course, right now, I'm not sure I can even afford that! :)

Reduced. I didn't realize I was above GPA...so I fixed that.

bump

Another book. Xmen 94. CGC 8.5. White pages. A little faded which is reflected in the grade. Reduced to $660 firm.

(Xmen 96 is sold. The Xmen 94 is still available) Hey, Terms are first "I'll take it" trumps on-going negotiations. CONUS only. Free shipping in a box via USPS priority. I'm selling this Xmen 96, CGC 9.4 with white pages. The back of the case is cracked, so I'm discounting the price. Picture shows extent of crack (It's not that big). Price is $SOLD for quick sale:

Xmen 96 White pages. Cgc 9.4. Slab is cracked on back side (see photo). $215

Closed until further notice Terms and conditions. First “I’ll take it” trumps any ongoing discussions in private messages. Asking price includes shipping and insurance. Accepting PayPal only. Will ship via USPS. Any known defects are stated. couple of books for now xmen 100. Cgc 9.4. Old Label. $300 or best offer. Will consider partial trades on NM raw Smith Art Conans.

Hey, Dormian is a good friend of mine so I'm close to this issue. I just wanted to say in his defense he wasn't even sure he was going to go through with a purchase. And I'd like to point out that when he talked about making this purchase, there was a large minority here who advised him against it. Of course I'm going to say he's a stand-up guy because he's my friend, but...(he's a stand-up guy). He's never intentionally screwed over anyone in the 30? years I've known him.

So instead of scraping off a color touch, how about you just re-mark the color touch with a contrasting color so it stands out? Then it's not deceiving.

Aww, don't out the seller! I didn't post the number on-purpose because I don't want to step on toes, but I forget how many of you guys can figure out a book from a small picture. Hmmm....I don't have time to do it, but that would be an awfully cool contest for this site...post close-up pictures of books and see how many ya'll could guess.

Thanks for the great feedback, guys. There is hope yet for those of us who shove our books into the bag. :) I was under the impression that you couldn't go about a 9.0 without that defect, but I guess if the rest of the book is a standout, CGC gives it a little bump for being so nice. At least that's the logic I'm going to apply in my head. Steve

Hey guys, I was looking at pictures on ebay trying to get a feel for how a book I own would be graded. Then I saw this on a CGC 9.2 book. This kind of corner web/crease is allowed on an otherwise nice book for a 9.2?

Hey guys, Anyone else get a notice from Paypal credit that they were acquired by another bank? And they are changing terms? What I didn't like was this little gem: Late Payment Fee: We are increasing the dollar amount to $28.00 (or $39.00 if you failed to pay at least the Minimum Payment Due by the Payment Due Date in any one or more of the prior six Billing Cycles). See the “Fees” section for more information. So, I wonder what that means if you had a couple of late payments in the last 6 months. Can they hit you twice for it? Can they keep hitting you for it until a late payment is 6 months in the past? Can I reject these changes? Seems like B.S. that they can just arbitrarily change a mutual contract in the middle like that. Hell, why not make the late payment fee $1,000? Steve

That's one increment more than I would have thunk. Joey must have done a great job. Kudos to you for your decision making.

Congrats on your 30,000th post? Sending you a PM.

In your experience, what percent of market value do dealers pay knowledgeable sellers for key books at shows? Like if I brought a key book worth $1,000 to a show with the idea of selling it, how much could I hope to get? Maybe as a percentage range. 75% to 85%? I'm speaking about reasonably "hot" keys here. I hope this is an acceptable question for this forum. Steve

Technically also Colossus' little sister, Illiyana, had a first appearance there too.

Thanks guys. The wife comments was humor. But...yes...they apparently don't split payments up. Too bad, because that would have been convenient for me.

Hey guys, Trying to keep from being killed by the wife. So I have a question about using paypal credit to buy something. Suppose I wanted to buy a comic book that I bought on EBAY for $1,000. And I still have $600 of credit left in my paypal credit account. Is there a way I can apply that $600 for the purchase, and then have only $400 come out of my bank account? FWIW, I know when I have a paypal balance I can do that, but what about a credit card balance? Thanks guys. The life you save may be your own. Steve

I have to admit that my money seems to go a lot farther in collecting video games than comics. A few hundred $$$ in the genre of comic book collecting won't buy me anything in the upper half of the average comic collector's wish list. But a few hundred $$$ in the game collecting genre buys me stuff that's firmly in their upper half.

Thanks. They look like I was expecting.

Do you have a picture of the back of it? Apparently there aren't any on the interwebs. I'm beginning to wonder if the back of that box has a hole in it. :)

What color Porsche are you going to buy? That sale completely rattled the industry/market. And the analogy they are using holds water. I read an account that discussed the difference between Detective #12 and Detective #27. Both are rare, but one is rare and important, which is why your former game took the lead. Fascinating stuff, really. So will you someday regret selling?