Number 6

I've always thought these were some of the nicest looking figures produced at the time, a very underrated line. Did you ever acquire the mail-away western village playset they advertised on the back of comics?

The Rogers cover and interior art is nice, but to me the stand-out is the Michael Golden art on the inside: I'm not trying to pimp this book, but I truly believe this is an overlooked book, not just because of the art but also because of this key story development: This is the story where Ras preforms a "traditional" wedding ceremony (for his culture) and weds Batman and Talia. The further evolves the dynamic between Batman, Ras and Talia, is a key plot point for the graphic novel Batman: Son of the Demon, and from that you have all the Damian stuff. If it's not key, I certainly think it's a semi-key development in the Batman storyline. It's not mentioned on the CGC label so I don't if most will ever sit up and take notice of it, but it's a great book all the way around. Oh yeah, this is a nice panel too.

My February Comiclink win came in the mail this week. I had some reservations when I bid, but it presents really well in hand. I owned a really nice 9.0 about 10 years ago but was forced to sell it. These is a great replacement, hope this can be a keeper. Picked this up in the March auction to spread out shipping costs. Wasn't really a priority book for me but I've always loved the cover on this.

I think the resolution that Rich as proposed is an excellent one. However, this is the thing that's always puzzled me about not just this situation but others like it: This attitude of 'poor me, the mean ol' nominator won't come up with a solution and let me off the list.' If I somehow landed on the PL and wanted off, I think my reaction would be 'I screwed up, I own it and I want to make it right. Here's option A, B, C, and D. Nominator, you choose the one that works for YOU. Or a variation of the above. Or something else entirely. I'll do what it takes to make it right.' To me, that shows recognition of the mistake and the sincerity of wanting to make things right. (the above isn't the same as unilaterally deciding what restitution will be - such as making a purchase) If I've landed on the PL, it means I've likely waisted someone's valuable time and caused them aggregation. Why would I just sit back and expect them to waist more of their time and energy trying to devise a method for ME to get off the PL?

My recent Comiclink wins. Big sigh of relief, no arrival date stamps on the back covers. Guess I'll have to keep these.

I think this is the key thing. If somebody buys something from me, I'd like him to buy again. That's not likely if I hassle him about a return. If somebody gets a book and decides that a crease on the cover looks worse in hand than in my scan, or a stain seems more prominent, then I would rather them send it back--on my dime--than stew about it and write me off as a seller. One of the reasons I brought the issue up was what I thought was a common sense argument --- that defects can look different when a book is held up close and that when selling long distance one should be sensitive to scans and photos not being full communicators of information. Our own grading forum makes that a core tenet of its approach to grading. I know that when I grade a raw book in my collection, I look at the book and a scan of the book to be sure I am not missing anything. It's actually quite common that the scan either reveals or hide flaws. When you return a CGC book for this reason who, in your opinion, should pay the shipping cost? The buyer both ways. There is no misrepresentation involved. Personally, I have absolutely no problem with that. If a buyer contacted me and wanted to a return a CGC due to personal disagreement/disappointment with CGC's grading and was willing to pay all shipping costs, I would be more than willing and would gladly do business with them again. I think the problem is that the majority of buyers - particularly on eBay - expect to do this sort of thing all on the sellers dime. That's where the rub comes in. You what know gets me about the whole "no returns on CGC books"? Like I said, I could kind of see why a seller would be disinclined to want to take returns on 3rd party graded books. But it's the whole tradition of providing only a front cover scan, usually the size of a playing card - or sometimes no scan at all. Especially considering they're expecting a premium price for a CGC book, you'd think it wouldn't be exceptional to expect a back cover scan too You combine the front-scan-only tradition with the no-CGC-returns tradition, that's an annoying combo.

I think this is the key thing. If somebody buys something from me, I'd like him to buy again. That's not likely if I hassle him about a return. If somebody gets a book and decides that a crease on the cover looks worse in hand than in my scan, or a stain seems more prominent, then I would rather them send it back--on my dime--than stew about it and write me off as a seller. One of the reasons I brought the issue up was what I thought was a common sense argument --- that defects can look different when a book is held up close and that when selling long distance one should be sensitive to scans and photos not being full communicators of information. Our own grading forum makes that a core tenet of its approach to grading. I know that when I grade a raw book in my collection, I look at the book and a scan of the book to be sure I am not missing anything. It's actually quite common that the scan either reveals or hide flaws. When you return a CGC book for this reason who, in your opinion, should pay the shipping cost?

Actually, it is a reason. There was a thread started in CG awhile back that asked the question: Would CGC issue a refund if the submitter disagreed with CGC's grades? The answer was a nearly unanimous, resounding "no". Therefore, it's generally understood and accepted within the comic coloecting community that CGC refuses to accept financial responsibility for their grades and none of their customers - submitters or purchasers of slabbed books - expect them to be responsible. So the the argument could reasonably be made that when you buy a CGC graded comic you're buying into the concept that the entity who graded the book isn't responsible for the grade. And since the seller went through the expense, time and risk of having the book grade (probably for, among other reasons, to avoid debates about the grade) I can understand why the seller would be hesitant to accept a responsibility that CGC has flat-out denied, even CGC is the one who graded the book.

Because when you pick a book up, look at it, and put it down at a convention it doesn't cost the seller anything. When you buy a CGC book through the mail and decide it doesn't meet your criteria, unless you're offering to pay shipping both ways, the seller is going to be out shipping costs at least one way, which is going to be about $12 minimum. The two scenarios are not analogous. The simple retort to your question is why can't the buyer simply ask questions before the purchase to sufficiently determine whether the book will satisfy their criteria so they don't have resort to a return.

I did a straight copy/paste every time, still not working. You sure there's no capital letters or something? Otherwise, gonna have to let this one slide.

This is coming back as invalid user i.d.

For someone who spends so much time bloviating about his selling prowess on eBay and other venues, his selling threads always seem to be a cluster-*spoon*

Got a couple books this week that I'm very happy with. Sold my 9.4 copy of this as it was nicer than I really need, too much money on the table. So I got this as a replacement: Presents really well, better than I thought. Looks like most of the defects holding it back are non-coloring breaking curling/slight bending to the outside corners. I think it would have a really good shot at pressing out to a 9.2. Tempted. But it's got a tiny coloring breaking crease in the top right corner: I'm afraid if I mess with cracking it out, pressing and re-submitting that corner might pop off and that'll be all she wrote. I'm leaning towards just leaving it alone. I was also trying for a really nice 9.0 Detective 408, really wanted it but my snipping program hasn't been working. Had it been I probably could have won it. This was my consolation prize: This was a gamble as the picture in the listing was pretty poor. Turns out, it presents extremely well for the grade. I can see why it got a 9.0, but the defects are real subtle. Wish all 9.0 books looked like this..

"Possible 4-figure deal" I would venture that most everyone here genuinely wants to see others find happiness and success in pursuing ventures that they truly believe in and are passionate about. And they'll do whatever they can to encourage and support that success. I think most of the comments and advice here have been offered in that spirit. But there's a fine line between helpful encouragement and enabling. And I think we're pretty close to crossing that line if we haven't already. I sincerely wish you the best. But at this point, for me, to offer anymore advice or encouragement would be like handing an alcoholic another beer.

I have a feeling that my advice will likely be disregarded just as everyone else's has, but I'll give it a stab. One of the reasons that getting a "regular" job is so important is that it gives you a stable foundation to work from. That includes a budget for discretionary spending - which would include a hobby. When others here suggest that you start with comics as a hobby, they're not suggesting that you go out and pay full market value for high-grade keys and hot books. There's 3 ways to pursue comics as a hobby: 1. Pay FMV by buying from comic retailers or bidding aggressively at auctions. 2. Get for a significant percentage off FMV (a "deal") by scouring yard sales, swap meets, used books stores, classified ads, local comic shop back-issue bins where they may have overlooked something, etc. 3. Doing a combination of the two. Most collectors will do both, but will resort to #1 when there's a book they want and aren't particularly concerned about resale potential. I think when others suggest that you pursue comics as a hobby, I think they have in mind that you stick almost exclusively to option #2. Option #2 will really benefit you because it will help you develop the leg-work skills and connections to source material with big enough margins that you can make a profit when you sell. And I'm not talking about finding some hidden specu-key. I talking about finding books 50 cents - $2.00 that you know you can sell for $5-$10, maybe more. Doesn't sound like a lot of money but it's a healthy profit margin and doing it over multiple books will add up. And that means it will force you to become more knowledgeable about what the true market is for a broad spectrum of comics is, not just the flash-in-the-pan hot stuff. By pursuing a collection this way you'll also have far less money tied up in your collection. So if you ever loose interest or it seems that selling comics as a business won't come to fruition you can sell your collection and at the very least make back what you made plus nice little profit. Or hold on to the books and be comfortable knowing that you're not out much in terms of money. Option #2 requires a lot more of your time, energy and some gas money for driving around but the reward is that you'll put together a collection for less money than retail and develop the skills necessary should you decide to shift into selling later. Starting by collecting using option #2 will do something else that's very important: it will help create passion for the hobby, and that's so vital for success. Another member here - I think it was mintcollector - spoke one time about how he bought and flipped antique glass for profit. He said that you could go out and buy a book on antique glass values and identification, and then hit yard sales and antique stores looking for pieces to flip. But the only way you could be truly successful at it is if you develop a passion for the antique glass itself. And I think that's true of anything collectible, especially comics. Right now it seems like you're chasing every shiny new thing that somebody else thinks is "hot" because there's a movie coming out or some development deal has been gossiped about. It seems like the only thing you have a passion for is having the bragging rights to flipping some whale book for thousands of dollars and looking like a B.S.D. dealer who's made phat stacks off a comic. That's not the kind of passion that's going to lead to long term success. Forget that stuff. Start with the collecting rule of thumb using option #2: collect what you like. There's all kinds of things you can sell for profit. So why are you focused on comics? What is it about comics that attracts you to them? What characters do you like? What stories mean something? Which writers and artists work do you esteem? When you answer those questions (and have a stable job that gives you disposable income) than use option #2 to start pursuing those books. Sure, keep on eye out for books that you think others might be interested in down the road, but make sure you're picking up books you personally enjoy. That keeps your passion up which in turn gives you the motivation to learn and stay up on the market. I understand that you really want to be you're own boss now, but you've really got to stop fighting your dad about getting one. As mentioned, having a day job will give you the financial foundation to pursue comics as a hobby, which in turn will give you the skills and passion to later pursue comics as a business. But getting a regular job will do something else: it's going to force to cultivate patience and discipline. Those qualities are absolutely necessary for running a successful business. Anyone here who's run a business will tell you that it often require sacrifice - giving up something that may be important to you in the short term for something that's more important to you in the long term. And when you work a 9-5, 5-day-a-week job that's where your hobby comes in: Friday night you get off work, sit down and start planning on what yard sales and swap meets you're going to hit on Saturday and Sunday, maybe hit the back issue bins at a LCS, follow up on a couple classifieds. If you truly enjoy comics as a hobby, that's how you recharge your batteries for the next work week. That doesn't mean buying collections of multiple long-boxes of 90's drek, or buying expensive key books. Just a few books every weekend that you enjoy and that you know you're getting for well below market value. Slow and steady.

Unless eBay has changed it recently, I've had a blocked user message me and ask to be unblocked.

He didn't come out "guns a blazing" - he contacted you first to resolve the issue just as he was supposed to do. It was your refusal to accept responsibility for the over-grading and poor packing to moved him to bring the issue up here. Granted, he posted in the wrong thread, and had he posed this in the form of a question it may have gone a bit better. But since it took 'the boards speaking' on the matter to finally move you to do the right thing, it would seem bringing this issue up in public was required in order for it to get resolved. If you don't like being "called out" then perhaps you should be less accusatory of buyers who contact you with a legitimate issue. "Deflecting blame"? Like accusing a buyer of having "buyers remorse" when the real problem is your over-grading and poor packing that caused the issue? And then using a loop-hole in your return policy to get out of accepting responsibility for the issue? (Incidentally, you need to decide whether you have a return policy or not. The "buyers remorse" qualifier of which you're the sole arbitrator is a b.s. way of getting out of accepting returns.) What in the world does his lack of a link to his eBay sales have to do with any of the issues that are being discussed? So, because there's no link in his posts to his eBay sales, he must be doing something shady? I don't have a link in my posts to my eBay sales. Does that make me shady? That's a really weak straw-man attempt to cast aspersions and again blame the buyer. You've repeatedly remonstrated the buyer for how bad he's behaving. To be frank, you're not coming off so good yourself. You've listed books I would be interested in, but based on your picture taking skills, over-grading, poor packing and hostile customer service, I wouldn't buy from you. Maybe a little less finger-wagging and bit more introspection is called for.

Funny you should mention that scenario, it has come up before. "I owe you nothing."

Frankly, I don't know. I asked him to send them back, multiple times, and I would refund him. I have no idea what his issue really is. I suspect he wants 9.8 copies, at 9.2 prices, and doesn't have any idea how to grade. So, he gets books with a couple of CB spine tics, and it's the end of the world. If I had to guess, it sounds like he's quoting the written descriptions for grade designations from Overstreet or some other guide and applying them with electron-microscope precision. I get the impression that he's relatively new to acquiring high-grade comics and has little actual hands-on experience with grading comics. Doesn't make it any less block-worthy, just speculating on where he's coming from. Too bad for him; he'll burn a lot of bridges before getting a handle on grading. He didn't actually use the word "feedback", hope the the drones the in eBay customer service will be reasonable enough to see "review" as an equivilant.

Yes. You're lucky. -slym Well, it's certainly a bit of luck that's for sure. A couple of years ago I went through a spat of NPBs. Every time I'd list I'd sell about half a dozen books and one the buyers would turn into a NPB. This went on for about six months. Then it stopped. Since then I've had a couple slow payers, one who needed a NPB alert to goose them into paying, and a couple of transactions that were potential candidates for this thread but were enough of a grey area to shrug off. I'm not doing anything really different than a couple of years ago, so it's definitely luck of the draw. But at the same time, a dozen less-than-stellar transactions in three years isn't too bad either. I think everyone's bad transactions compiled in one thread makes it seem worse than it is - at least on an individual basis. Of course, if I ever get stung on a high-dollar book I'll probably be singing a different tune.

Can you elaborate on exactly what the problem was?

Who's the character with the goat heads and pentagrams?

A couple of quick questions: How much does Neal Adams charge to do a remark/small head sketch on a book? I checked his web site but he doesn't list prices. For those who've had experience with this, about how large of an area would you recommend for the above remark? Not just the window bag itself but the "open area" in the front cover artwork that would be conducive to a small sketch. Thanks!