FineCollector

I'd be paranoid that the books on the edge of the shelf would fall off!

Layered looks better to me, but if you leave them there long enough that they fade, it's going to be very evident.

The prominent "4 for a $1.00" inspires all kinds of confidence, doesn't it? I see stacks of 90's Actions and Lady Pendragons in someone's future...

A word on Iron Man: the supporting cast was always fun, but Tony Stark was a pompous jerk who can't admit his mistakes. No one else argued with Cap and pulled that "I'm a founding Avenger" garbage more than Iron Man. Look at Iron Man 22, death of Janice Cord. She's a bystander, and Iron Man continually foils Titanium Man and Crimson Dynamo's attempts to push her out of the way. She finally dies because of his bumbling, and he blames them for it. I never understood the appeal. He's still a pompous jerk in the movies, but at least his heart is in the right place... and he sounds like Spider-Man, that helps too!

Back on point, Iron Man is an A-list hero. My sister grew up in the 70's, and was not exposed to comics beyond the Wonder Woman tv show, and still knew who Iron Man was.

I have a Journey into Mystery 83 and I have never read the series?

I regret to inform you, on behalf of the CGC Board Society, that your copy of Journey Into Mystery will now be confiscated for lack of interest in the title, and redistributed to a needy run collector...

A question I'm struggling with... the increase in price on these modern keys is attributed to the influx of new buyers. How many new buyers are willing to drop $1000 on a comic in their early collecting years? I'm a cheapskate, I still don't like spending $1000 on a book, but these new, young buyers are reportedly tossing big bucks around.

To the dealers: how long do you have to nurture a new customer before he's confident enough to spend 4-bills on one of your books? Do you have any customers you met as a kid who are now big spenders?

All this talk of "bubbles" and no one has mentioned the currently worst offender of all? Batman Adventures 12 . The fantastically overpriced kiddie book, adapted from and based on a TV cartoon that contains the "first appearance" of a cartoon character but only in comic book form, in a vacuum outside of said character's current incarnation in story continuity.

Continuity? You think people are actually reading these books? That's sweet!

The fact that it's a kiddie book means that no one took care of it. What does the census on BA 12 look like compared to Deadpool and Venom? I wouldn't buy any of them right now, but BA 12 has the most justification for its current price.

Settle the Venom argument: for those of you with kids, what villain is on the t-shirts and backpacks? For many years, it's been Venom. If that's who kids grow up with, that's who they'll be nostalgic for.

I don't think New Mutants 98 ever reached dollar bins where I was, people looked after them. X-Force 1 fell out of favor because of ridiculous quantities, but later New Mutants were at least bin stock. Wizard magazine singled out the 98 as a multi-key issue (1st Domino, Deadpool, and... Gideon?), so people picked it. It may have been a $5 book, but I never saw it out for sale.

Has Million Comix on Pierce improved? Last time I was there, it was jammed with dollar bins and no wall books.

I have personal issues with Hunter...

Naked breakfast is still worth it though

I went to a place like that once. The waitress looked like a lap dop with acne. If they're any kind of hot, they're strippers by night, and still loaded in the morning, not serving breakfast. Like I said, save it for books.

Yes, Montreal has tons of strippers, St-Catherine St is littered with strip clubs. Don't waste your money, save it for books.

Carsley's downtown in an office building on St-Catherine near Peel often has good stock. Small place, but it should do.

Have Flash prices been affected by the TV show yet? Any movement on key Rogues appearances that have already appeared on the show, or are upcoming? Weather Wizard, Grodd, Captain Cold, Heat Wave, etc?

 

I know that the early Flashes were hot when considered very scarce years ago, then cooled off ... Think the TV show will boost Flash back to a hot book? Or has it already begun?

Most of the classic Rogues' first appearances were expensive to begin with, so you wouldn't expect a lot of movement. Reverse Flash has obviously charmed our speculator friends out there, who can't let any Silver Age key sit below $1000 anymore, but it's a key-driven market. After the 139, no interest whatsoever in Reverse Flash that I can tell.

In truth, the only Rogue I've ever had trouble finding nice issues of is Grodd, namely 106-108, 127 and 172. I wonder if setting him up as Flash's archnemesis in the animated JLA cartoon caused those issues to dry up all those years ago?

Not sure if it counts, but I went diving in a local old style record store. He's got random other stuff including old magazines and comics, mostly monster stuff. I picked up a decent copy of Where Monsters Dwell 6 (reprints the first Groot) for $5. It's a solid 6.5.

Dude, you live at Wanda's in Montreal? That's a better story than the Groot!

I'm already fed up of people chasing after Detective 474... beyond the obvious annoyance of seeing the pickers busy doing their thing, Deadshot's all wound up and out of character. They fine tuned his personality afterwards.

 

Isnt that true about most characters?

 

Why am I not seeing any board pursuit/interest in Batman #59?

Plenty of pursuit, people have been asking for it, but there ain't any around.

I don't see Will Smith in the role. Either he'll overact, and he'll ruin the role, or play it completely deadpan, and people will say he was boring. He doesn't have Deadshot in him.

I'm already fed up of people chasing after Detective 474... beyond the obvious annoyance of seeing the pickers busy doing their thing, Deadshot's all wound up and out of character. They fine tuned his personality afterwards.

I've decided that I'm watching Constantine because it's a comic show, and not because I'm genuinely interested. I see this one getting the axe sooner rather than later.

Ugh! You picked one that cuts off the men chanting his name!

Great mags. Very affordable in mid-grade, although singles are tougher to find than they should be. They're not a priority among dealers I've frequented, most people have 3 or 4 loose issues for sale in various grades. The cover stock was thin, so spine splits and detached staples are common.

I recently bought a set off a private collector just to finish off my run, and still need another #10 to replace the one he had, which was detached.

We do lots of garage sales throughout the summer. I don't find much comic related stuff, but I have been wanting to post to this thread for some time. Here's the best I got so far that is remotely related to comics. Hopefully, not too far afield.

 

I bought a big pile of Life Magazines with about 125 between 1939 and 1945 (most between 1941 and 1944). The war year propaganda is fantastic. There are several ads from this period for which I have been searching (I'm doing a book on Nash Kelvinator ads). The first copy I picked up (USSR Scientists, lower left) has a letter from a woman explaining why pin-up art may give servicemen unrealistic expectations of women when they return home. She even included a drawing showing the differing proportions. Plus, there are ads with George Petty and similar art. Great stuff all around. This was a craigslist find for $135. I wish I could buy 125 early 1940 comic books for $135...

 

 

Nice buy. Lots of interesting history in those.

 

And they are becoming harder to come by. I have obtained a few issues here and there but never seen a boatload.

I've seen more ad pages that have been cut out of Life Magazines than I've seen complete mags. I don't know what the market is like on those, but it's sad.

Not on eBay. I've sold them for $3-7 each (both Marvel and DC). I can't get an offer for more than $23 on the Conans above and they're in really nice shape.

 

Peace,

 

Chip

Subtle.

I really hate it when people hoard EXTREME multiple copies of books. Why would anyone need 500 copies of a comic i will never know. It's not even an isolated case. We all know Cal and his IMSM 1 fetish and i bet there are hundreds of people who hoard copies of various books. Two, three, ten. Fine. 500?

 

MTU #1 , I was thinking about getting one of those but not anymore, I will just stick to my golden age stuff

 

Why wouldn't you want it because someone has 500 copies? It's not an expensive book and the black cover makes it tough in high grade.

because golden age stuff is just TOO cool to me and not only doesn't anyone have 500 copies of any issue in many cases you might wait years to find an available issue period of say..... oh for example an early "Strange Adventures" and it would cost way less than MTU#1

I don't want to wait years to find a copy of a book I want. I want lots of copies for cheap, and then I can pick the copy I like. You're collecting all wrong...

I keep mine slabbed because it gives me a sense of security when I display them in my room

Curious, anyone dropped a slab before? When you get a concussion, your soft brain crashes against your hard skull, and that's how damage occurs. I picture dropping a slab having the same effect on a book. If you drop a mylar, the bag splits and the corner of the board absorbs the shock. Clumsy as I am, I've found silver-gold fullbacks to be life savers.

I suspect the powerful attachment to slabs is from a newer generation of collectors, ones too young to have bought books off the rack that turned out to be valuable after many decades, and who haven't bought back issues in the unslabbed or cracked out state so they could build runs to be read and re-read.

A lot of that is our fault. The wisdom of those who survived the 90's is to buy what you like regardless of value... but you really want to stock up on keys... money, money, money. Anyone wonder why 20 year olds are asking for keys of characters they've never read, and ignoring everything else?

The $3 thread will live forever!

I'd still like to know who is buying 9.8 NM 98's at $1000. Is there one person on these boards who bought one at that price?