Sauce Dog

PMd

Interesting if true (and not more reporting) https://www.giantfreakinrobot.com/ent/jon-bernthal-punisher-series.html?fbclid=IwAR1s-gN1Kb-y3NEHUPdEy2s2g3viPy4JK6HI9pZHVdtnJEkXn2igcNLu-kc

That example has always bugged me and I really wish CGC (hell, everyone for that matter) would stop perpetuating it on its labels. Anyone who has even casually glanced at the books can recognize it wasn't even close to being his first appearance (He had two cameos in a pair of issues before his full named appearance as Death in #23, then in #24 he had his first cover appearance, and it only then dozens of issues later that he finally was given his 'Archangel' name). I personally think, much like the case for Gambit, adjusting the label would have zero impact on the price and desirability of the book (as it is the cover in both cases that make the books - that's why I only own #24 for display) - take for example Adventure Comics #46 vs New York World's Fair Comics #1, the prices favour the epic cover even though it isn't technically first appearance of Sandman.

Look what arrived in the mail today! This was the copy I bought raw last year after finding it at an estate sale. I was only looking because a friend was on the hunt for it but never ended up buying it off me afterwards, so I figured might as well get it signed and pressed - and boy, did a press help it! I was honestly surprised by the grade, and personally clocked it at being 9.0 tops but I'm happy to have been so very wrong edit: aaannndd I'm out. Less than 24 hours in the club before I've been made an offer I could not refuse

40...and I can feel it in my BOOOONNEEESSS!

I personally feel that those who are content with only a single high grade key from a run (and no other issues) are less concerned about the registry and just doing it to own the key issue - so while their epic book might be struck down in points it won't matter much to them (if they truly want to compete they can go and buy more than one single book for a set to actually try - it should never be a one-and-done purchase to win a set with a single book), whereas the collectors who are trying to build complete collections (not even necessarily trying to be the top scoring set due to budget) are the ones who are big fans of those characters, and I suspect the majority, and would love a chance to feel they can be competitive.

That is a very nice looking 2.0!

I've posted my pile of multiple House of Secrets 92 so many times before I think they deserve a break to let my other Swampy books a time to shine. Qualified (and Restored labels) looks so damn good with this issues colors

That first 'dream' poster is going to be on my most-wanted hunt list. Everything that comes out previewing this looks better and better than the last.

No argument there about it being cringe I only mentioned it as an example of people already joking about the name and implications.

PMd

I think it's less of 'over-sensitivity' towards trying to please everyone and rather people asking everyone to just be mindful. Changing a team name from a comic book doesn't hurt anybody, and is a valid consideration to discuss if doing so means we are being more considerate to a wider range of people who have been historically marginalized (I'm sure some comparisons to baseball team names will be brought up - though those are mostly explicit in their offensive nature). Though in this case I'm sure the corporations behind it are less interested in the ethical interests behind it and more so concerned with maximizing $$$$. This was simply an opinion/call to consider what it means for the brand going forward as both it and the fanbase grows - I know lots of non-binary/women/trans individuals who love the X-Men and have joked about the name (heck, they even call this out in one of the X-Men movies at one point I think) but they are still fine with it just the same (but they also recognize they are not speaking for everyone and its an interesting discussion to consider)

The most out spoken people vehemently opposed to any sort of adjustments to gendered language, such as pronoun usage (or even the mere suggestion of people kicking around ideas to be more inclusive) are 99% of the time the 'Gender Critical' crowd (which has a very large overlap with TERF talking points). I guarantee once this news spreads you'll see vocal individuals like Graham Linehan jumping onto it and making it a garbage fire of discourse.

This is a non issue, with only one persons (IMHO, correct) opinion that they "don’t know where the future is going...I think it’s outdated." It simply is addressing that is might something to consider as the brand looks to expand worldwide (let's not delude ourselves into thinking the entire world are big into the X-Men right now, let alone would care about a name change). Yes sure Old English, the word "man" was unisex, and often in certain contexts in ancient culture as well (such as within the bible, which is all over the place with this usage. People need to stop reading the KJV), but we are not stuck in the past and there are lots of reasons to utilize gender-neutral or gender-sensitive language - especially when it hurts absolutely nobody and takes zero effort. The only people I see kicking up a fuss about this online are GC incels / Terfs. We've had a million X-titles over the years, so if brand association is important use one of those. X-Factor is perfectly fine (though might be avoided due to obvious jokes & copyright issues with Syco Entertainment), X-Force, X-Corp, hell just slap a giant MXU on it (the Marvel X Universe) and give each movie a catchy subhead ala MXU: Inferno, MXU: Age of Apocalypse, MXU: Welcome to mutant orgy island, we have beer & clones.

Thanks so much for your efforts in tackling this beast of a project, I work with similar things and appreciate the kind of long term headache they can be for others I do agree that capping of the scores does sound like the easiest solution, and while I am not privy to all the numbers, I have the feeling that capping it out at 10,000 might suffice (as you can always go down more in the future but it might be harder to re-adjust to a higher number later if the lower didn't work out. But like you said, this will require looking at the grails/averages for a good number). The registry first and foremost is a place to have fun building a set, not necessarily winning outright, so it should incentivize people to try to build new complete collection they can show off (that is the big thing, showing off a fun looking set). Lots of people I talk to are happy with trying to get into the top 25 or whatever of a set (since winning would require grades out of their budgets) but most importantly want to aim for building a 100% set in whatever way they can get. Giving a completion % point bonus would go a long way, but for the short term maybe simply giving those who get 100% (regardless of if they are a top score or not) a small trophy/star/100 icon or something else visual on their set to make it stand out (we are simple folks, a shiny blue ribbon could keep any of us happy even if we don't win) A graphical icon would mean no database work (only checking if completion = 100%) but make it look spiffy

That is a really neat and awesome promotional item to give out!

First, I 100% would never ever bid on their auctions with their known history (now more so than ever since they are totally in charge of policing their own platform), but with that said, I decided to try them out via their fixed price Marketplace since a few of the Magic The Gathering cards I saw on their now-banned Ebay store were removed and relisted on their own platform for very low prices (on consignment - so no shill price increases....or so I thought). The marketplace buying experience is one of the worst I've ever dealt with. Period. Currently, you CANNOT buy multiple cards off the marketplace and have them all combined to ship together. Once you click a 'buy now' button on the marketplace it immediately pushes you to a finalized invoice, no checkout/cart system you add items into, and gives you the shipping for that single card (and for us Canadians that amount is $25us per card). I spoke with customer support and they said combining orders was never programmed in at all but they might consider it for the future. So if you want to buy a single card ever, then the experience is fine, but anything more than that and you are going to have to jump through hoops. The solution that was suggested to me (by another user, customer support didn't know how to make this happen and tried to get me to pay shipping x4 - in fact when I showed them their own website that showed combined International rates they said all that information and more of the site was still out of date...so it does say in the FAQ you can combine your orders, that is not the case when it comes down to it. Auctions might be different, but I only tried with Marketplace) was that when I purchase each card instead of selecting to have it shipped to me I instead set it to be added to the PWCC Vault service (where they store your cards for you in their warehouse with insurance). Once all the cards have been moved into their vault archive under my new account I could then request a mass withdrawal of all my cards and they would be shipped together to me. Note that in order to use the Vault service you have to pay a fee that is a % of each cards market value as well as other service fees. For me these fees 'only' amounted to an extra $6us per card due to the low prices I bought them for but anyone buying cards that are hundred of dollars are going to be hit harder. Regardless, this just seemed like a way for them to slap on additional fees and many additional steps over the course of a few days for something that is by default built into every other checkout system online. I'm a web developer and there is zero chance anyone building a custom new online store experience would 'forget' to add a way to buy multiple items at once. The prices for these consignment items were good, the dashboard and overall branding of the system looks good, but the user experience, questionable fees and crazy hassle of this all means I for sure won't ever be using them again.

This one is one of my favourites due to how well it contrasts the many GA covers that leaned into a maximalism sort of approach to covers. Minimal and clean artwork & layout, all separated well and colours contrasting in a pleasing way. (not my copy...the best condition one I own tops out at 4.5)

The other poster in this series was found to have used stolen fan art - so I'm going to assume the designer was equally lazy when working on all the posters and did the same thing for the above as well

I really do appreciate the admins considering this issue and kicking around ideas on what can be done. No one here knows how the backend system is coded up, so most of the suggestions we might think up could very well be impossible to implement (at least with a reasonable budget & turnaround time), but so far I love the idea of minimum % completion required to be considered for registry award ranking (as this technically changes nothing in the backend databases, but rather is mostly a front end check & styling - you can have all the sets that hit the % threshold appear at the top, and the rest that don't appear below them unnumbered/unranked and possibly visually different from the competitive ones above, perhaps slightly greyed out). As a web developer I can see this being the most feasible and the least amount of work needed on the site code itself / increasing database calls. As for other suggestions, I still maintain that pedigree books should offer some sort of point bonus (even small) over the equivalent Universal book. CGC spends lots of effort promoting and listing all the comic pedigrees on their website, so it makes sense to treat them like they do signature series books on the registry. I also still feel allowing NG books to slot into the registry is a good idea, if only to allow those without deep wallets to feel they have a chance to complete a set % (somebody who manages to get an incomplete coverless Action Comics #1 should have that count for something in a set, even if it is worth zero points as it would allow us to raise the completion %). I stress this as a way to be more inclusive towards the many people entering this growing hobby - no sense is making people feel they are excluded from ever having a chance at building a full set before they even start collecting

When it comes to TOS 39 I feel we still have yet to see its potential and find that it is very much undervalued for how epic of a key it is. I already have teens (17-19) contacting me on Instagram trying to buy my coverless copy off me since it is the only thing they could afford at the moment. Very few low grade copies hit the market, with mainly mid-high grade copies tend to float around at obscene asking prices. I have another complete copy (0.5 CGC) that is out being fully restored right now, but I would love to add another one to my collection seeing as he's both my favourite Marvel hero and an obvious great investment. Lock your copies away until the MCU generation hits their 30s and the full power of nostalgia begins to take hold in their collector minds (I'm also sure Disney could easily bring RDJR back to the role for a surprise in the future which would just ignite this nostalgia and amount to another massive money pile for them all)

That sounds like it should be fine, two of my books I have out right now are also going through a wash for conservation status and so yours very well might have fallen into that category. The only other thing I would be curious is the amount of conversation done in the past might be enough to flag it as restoration (I have had a book that had conservation only work on it, but CGC decided it was just a little too much work by 1-2 tear seals and flagged it as restored. It was reinforced on the cover and centerfold)

Like mentioned above the wildcard issue is "solvent bath", as based on that documentation it isn't clear exactly what that 'solvent' includes. That could be as simple as a ethanol/water bath and done to conserve the paper (such as correcting the PH/acidity of the pages, not restoration) while the use of other harsh chemical baths would be classified as restoration.

Better snag those 1st Grendels while you can before the new Netflix series debuts, I'm sure we are going to see a wave of speculation bumps finally for this issue

Well that's a welcome surprise. The one thing I had hoped was that due to all the MCU popularity we would start to see companies mine other non-marvel/dc properties, and hitting up Dark Horse is a dream for me. Let's hope this does well and even gives us some glimpses of Grendel Prime (which actually had a new modern comics series recently)