loadstone

First: What a collection appraises for and what it sells for are 2 different things. Second, the bulk of the value in a collection is in the key issues and hard to find in grade issues it contains. Rarely will an end collector want to buy the whole thing as they probably already own the common and lesser value copies and not care about comics outside their focus. Usually it will be the dealers and flippers that will be willing to buy it all at once but have to base their offer on the resell value they can turn a decent profit on. If you are doing so for insurance purposes just use Overstreet price guide, ebay, heritage auctions, and search Google for rare comics to get a list of the items you have that might be worth getting appraised. If your doing so for selling, contact one of the big auction houses or major dealers on here to see if they are willing to do a free appraisal with no commitment to consign, sell, or list. For free you could scan/photograph the major keys and post the front and back covers for and get tons of opinions which may give a consensus. Or respond to the private messages you're probably receiving but don't agree to any sale without getting at least a couple of independent appraisals.

I think people who actually "sell" books for high BIN either probably didn't list it high enough especially if best offer was used or it was a fake/shilled sale. As for those who "list" books for sale at ridiculously high BIN, I don't have a problem with it. Makes it easy to undercut them especially when theirs is the only listing for a book in that grade that I also happen to have.

Sigh. This might be the issue where I draw the line on variants. Unless the cover is amazing, I mean, it would have to be, WOW! that is the greatest cover of all time. But I just don't see it. Buying the OA to a 1:1000 could be even worse if the art isn't that great and price is run up due to the hype. The question I have is how many stores are going to be buying enough to qualify? Ive read on here a few collectors may have some deals to pay a portion of the 1000 book requirement but realistically, how many copies of this variant will actually see the light of day? And how many is Marvel printing and possibly holding back? Does the same argument as the dell otto 667 apply here? If only 15 stores qualify for the variant, does only 15 copies get produced? Or will marvel print the standard minimum and redistribute them later somehow? I don't see any good coming of this for both marvel and collectors.

Man, your books are awesome. Many of us would love to find books like yours and have a hard time letting them go if we found them in our dad's attic. However, when it comes to condition and pricing, this hobby is among the most anal and OCD and CGC has set the bar high forcing seasoned dealers and graders to adjust their grading standards. With grades like Near Mint Plus 9.6, Near Mint/Mint 9.8, Mint 9.9, and Gem Mint 10.0 allowing only the most minute amount of defects often barely visible to the untrained eye, books with grades previously thought of as NM and VF have been pushed further down the grade scale. You say you're becoming your own troll but actually you're beginning to recognize defects that impact the grade and improving your grading skills. While no doubt those are great books and in pretty decent shape for the years and storage, we have all been through our own trials and years of tediously analyzing grades to the point where it has become second nature to callously assign a strict grade to our books since that's what it takes to buy and sell comics in this day and age. So I commend you for being receptive and learning the system as you should take the comments on the grades as very helpful starting points for setting expectations. You want to see harsh, check out the Please Grade My (PGM) book section and see what grading enthusiasts assign to books that other boardies post for advice. It definitely helps save us $$ when deciding whether to have a book graded or just keep raw.

Press will pobabaly correct the spine roll and any NCB bends/creases but the severity and size of the CB creases alone would bring it down to a 6.0/6.5. I have a few CGC graded SA spideys that look similar without the chip and are at that grade or lower. The chip could bring it down to 5.0/5.5 territory assuming nothing else wrong on the interior or back cover. Stains, fingerprints, detached cover/centerfold, interior tears, water damage, even musty/moldy smells can affect the grade further. Either way the cleaning and resto pros down in sarasota should be able to tell you all you need to know to decide what can be done to maximize value. Keeping it unrestored is preferable. Of course there's always the silver age grade bump that special books like this sometimes get if right on the edge of a grade. Good luck!

Pull list strategies for retailers: 1. Require a 3-5 book minimum but not much more than that. 2. Offer a 10% to 25% discount to subscribers and even more for large pull listers. 3. Never sell any Wednesday comics before A. Cherry picking the best copies for your best subscribers B. Allocating all comics to pull boxes. 4. Set a 1 month grace period with either A. A late fee equal to 15% of the total due B. No subscriber discount for all books in the box C.email notification D. Notification of subscription cancellation if no response received after 45 days E. Sale of all pull box comic after 60 days F. All of the above 5. Give all subscribers first crack at variants 6. Insert no obligation recommendations to subscribers. 7. Offer long term hold/storage with supplied credit card. 8. update your subscribers pull list for requests to add/cancel titles 9. If you mistakenly sell out or forget to include titles for your subscribers, go out and buy the best available copy from another local retailer or online retailer. 10. Sell magic cards and hold games to help bolster profits when subscribers go delinquent Strategies for buyers 1. Set a budget and make sure you can meet your pull list obligations weekly 2. Call, email, or establish a trust with your LCS if you can't come in every week to pick up your books. 3. Communicate changes to your pull list both verbally and written via email. 4. Make sure you get your subscriber discount. If not, bring it to their attention and if they say no, look elsewhere. 5. If you are a condition freak ask for the mintyest copies but don't blame them if a whole order got damaged. 6. If they continue to add titles or recommendations after you've declined, hand them back with a note. 7. If they miss titles or sell out of a copy you were supposed to receive, request they reorder or purchase for you from another retailer the best available copy. 8. Request variants and negotiate for pricing on retailer incentives. 9. If cancelling a title anticipate up to 3 months in advance or expect to buy 3 issues beyond your cancel date. 10. Unless you are actually earning 2% or more cash back or 3x or more points for cc purchases at comic shops, pay in cash to help the retailer out and build good will.

Beginning of the decline or just now noticing the decline? http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/07/entertainment/walking-dead-dystopian-dramas/index.html

This was one of those nice easter egg comedic moments.

cmzare, I think you're doing the right thing at this point with your ebay listing. Not sure if you had but I would actually have tried ebay first with your desired BIN and make offer option. Sure you'll get a lot of low ball bids but it is also getting exposure, you're getting a look at different offers and seeing the floor price for the temperature of the book at this point, and can always pull it to list back on here or on one of the other auction houses should you want to try them. Since you bought it for $1k, with ebay + paypal fees + shipping that includes insurance and signature your break even would be approximately $1185. I would set a filter to auto decline anything below that amount or perhaps round up to $1200. I would imagine you're receiving offers between $1000 to $2500 or a little higher. Sooner or later a whale or someone who wants it badly might pull the trigger or at least offer you 80-90% of your ask. You know you're guaranteed to at least double your money which is pretty good for a $1k short term investment. Since you don't need to sell right this moment, you can wait as long as you like or accept the offer that suits you the best. GLWTS!

New case stigma/uncertainty. Reserve auction with unknown reserve. More 9.8s now on the census than during previous sales. Increased frequency of listed copies in a year than before. Buyers saving up for other purchases or holidays. Buyers being busy on vacation. Etc. All valid reasons the sale didn't net better results. Frankly if you want this copy badly enough you will pay whatever the seller asks and won't care about the case, reserve or number of copies coming to market. Clearly none of those reasons deterred me from bidding my max. I clearly just don't want/need it as badly as the price the seller is putting on it...and frankly neither are any of the other "interested" parties...at this time. I think the seller may have missed the window for a quick high sale. But if he can wait it out or is able to locate that 1 or 2 competitive buyers he could get his ask or more.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. I was the top bidder on the reserve auction. This was only a $1000 book a couple years ago. It escalated in price quickly. That 3500 sale, which may have been someone's grail purchase or shilled, appears to be the current peak. That isn't the market now. The market at that price has been filled. Remaining collectors interested in a 9.8 copy that represent the current market demand are setting a market price that is clearly below $3300 here and $2,247 on ebay. 50 watchers... i bet some of those were owners looking to see where it would end. I agree a reserve auction limits attempted bids and interest but if the expected market price for that book was $3500 why didn't at least 2 bidders test the reserve price at that amount? Instead it ended below my max bid. I doubt my max bid would have met the reserve price anyway but I wasn't surprised the next highest bidder was only in at $2247. It's also possible buyers didn't want to expose what they are willing to pay in a reserve auction. Another possibility is many already have a 9.6 and are satisfied. Personally I value a 9.8 copy of this book between $1900 and 2200 but was willing to pay slightly more to see where the market for this copy was. You now have solid knowledge of the current market for this book between the board PMs and recent ebay results. For the time being it seems the curent market for that copy is somewhere between $2,000 and $2250. This could always change. Perhaps selling in the spring during tax return season might net better results.

I found the ASM 546 variant in the wild. First at Heroes con on a dealers wall last year in cgc graded 9.4 White which I bought. The seller was so happy he found a buyer (period) that recognized what it was he cut me a deal on the price as I was the only person that showed any interest in it at all in the last 3 major shows he took it. He said he found 3 of them in dealer modern stock he bought from a store that went under a few years prior. I offered to buy all 3 but he hadn't brought the other 2. Second time was later that year at the baltimore comicon. I asked the dealer if he had any modern asm variants. He said no but I could look in his ASM stock. I sifted through and found a great looking copy that looks like it would grade out at 9.4/9.6 priced at $8. It was only in a dirty bag, no board. I found a few other variants too. It pays to look anyways. Unfortunately it came back a 9.4 white. I'm currently looking for a 9.8 white.

I have a 3 or 4 copies of the asm 330 jcp. Gotta check if i have any of the others now. Didn't realize how many different years and issues were involved. Pretty cool.

The terms and conditions and fair usage seem to make it clear but the legal standing of those terms and conditions does begin to break down when you get down to the core of what is being sought: raw item and sale price. The article seems to imply that the clarity and definition of what constitutes a true violation is vague an still being defined but centers around anything that harms the business, violates copyright content, and violates trespass chattel of the business systems. Based on that, as you: 1. Do not infringe on copyright (which raw sale item and sales data may not be) so long as you don't totally copy the content directly from their site and reproduce it in the same manner it appears on their website 2. Do not traverse or tresspass their servers/systems to obtain that data 3. Can prove that usage and resale of that raw item and sales data produces no harm to the business which can be likely accomplished via: a. Completely disassociating the raw data from the site. (i.e. unlike heritage, if the sites do not grant access to all sales data, then there should be no reasonable way to trace a sale item and price back to it's sales location. b. The site is not already providing a similar subscription service to users to access sale item and data. If there is a lucrative exclusive agreement to license that data with another site, then I can see this being an issue. c. Arguing that sales comparison data can both generate higher bids as well as lower depending on the free market demand for the items potentially listed for sale. I believe there is a way to obtain the raw item and respective sales data without violating those 3 currently defined legal restrictions to the data. If so, then this raw data should be legally permitted to be: 1. made available for free 2. made available for a fee IMHO, these sites should be trying to sell access to their data and make a bit of extra money. However, if the above still doesn't hold water, someone in China, Denmark or some other country out of the reach of US Fair Use laws could probably get away setting something up via Tor and thus the US loses out on tax revenue, employment growth, and business growth. Well I hope they open up about sharing or at lease selling their data outside of exclusive agreements. I wonder if they would agree to share/sell the data if you promised to reference their site when sale price is strong and leave it as anonymous if the sale price was weak. Thoughts?

Jeff, I hear you and wish they would cooperate with you. However, a bit of scripting could get the job done so long as selling it is legal. Should be if big data companies are allowed to plant cookies on our browsers and sell our shopping habits to companies. Why nit the other way around. Do they at least offer it for sale to you? Heritage may b the simplest to mine since all you need is a free account to search the archives. The rest may require you to have tracked the books. Comiclink, thought about this one for a while. The results for the last 5-10 books are cached for a bit while the auction is in progress and as other books are ending. Might requine downloading every auction as it ends to capture final bid. I participate in nearly all the comic auctions from those sites. If legal, for a free subscription to your site I'd be willing to send you the final hammer price on everything I track and bid on along with certs, page quality and even notes like eye appeal, centering, defects. If I could provide significant auction data would you be willing to pay a small comission for it?

This does make the most sense. So if there is a Carnage appearance, it will be Cletus in a brief appearance meant to lay the groundwork for the Sony-Marvel trilogy. I completely agree with the slow burn and overlapping cameo of characters that are slowly brought into the light and into focus as others fade. Since it sounds like Sony and Marvel will continue to do cross-overs, I would expect that the symbiot suit could actually be encountered/introduced in a similar manner Secret Wars #8 style via a tie-in with a space/alien setting while assisting the Avengers/Guardians in a lead up battle/conflict against Thanos. Though that might be too far out for ASM #2 on the list above, I do agree that the suit should be introduced no earlier than #2 and no later than #3 on the list. If I'm trying to maximize a long-term ASM spiderman franchise this is what I would do: 1. 2017 Brief Origin flashback to losing Ben, Parker fights random villain (Vulture, Dr. Octopus, Rhino (done right), Scorpion, Black Cat, etc (, Brock is introduced via cameo as a competing photographer, Kasedy is either left out or only a shown as a shadowy (face and body not visible) psycho killer (possibly in the closing credits) murdering or the aftermath of one of his serial killer crimes. 1.a 2018 Marvel tie-in: Guardian's of the Galaxy, Thor, or Avengers 3: Spidey is invited/caught in the middle/sneaks on-board a transport/ship/portal/bifrost to a far away battleground planet/realm where Marvel Heroes are trying to stop/block/defend against a great unknown powerful race/threat/Thanos/gem stones and in the process spidey comicly ends up mostly naked due to his suit being destroyed. During one of his brief scenes spidey stumbles upon the machine/technology/stasis chamber and unwittingly begins wearing the symbiotic suit. More battles ensue allowing Spidey to briefly show some of the features of his new suit. The early battle episode ends with Spidey and his suit being sent back to earth as the Marvel Heroes regroup. 2. 2019 Kraven's Last Hunt Pt 1 (A darker ASM movie) Parker is on the hunt for a serial killer in the city (possible tie in with Daredevil in a detective story style) wearing the black suit and encounters another major villain (Begin's Kraven's Last Hunt 2-part saga, Pete is captured by Kraven and is near death, Brock takes over as Bugle lead photographer in Pete's absence (development shows a good side to Brock: sick daughter, religion, using money from job to help someone), Pete ends up in grave by movies end, Kasady still a background character is referenced via news as an unknown serial killer at large in the city. Brock plagiarizes/falsifies photos/story on something (possibly naming an innocent man as the serial killer) earning him a reward and possible pulitzer candidate. End credits reveals a tattoo/hair/face/other identifying mark of Kasady and one of his most gruesome crimes. 3. 2020 Kraven's last Hunt 2: Spider-man is able to escape and defeat Kraven (possibly with help from the suit, Black Cat, Daredevil, etc). Spider-man resumes hunt for the serial killer and finds out that the suspect in custody is innocent hunts down Kasady (with Daredevil/Black Cat's help). Kasedy is found and parker exposes Brock's lies thus ruining his career (and damaging his relationship with: daughter, sick friend dies, etc). In the process Spidey begins realizing something isn't right and enlists the help of Dr. Strange/Tony Stark/Bruce Banner to reveal the secret of the suit. Spidey is able to escape the suit which soon finds a kindred soul in Eddie Brock. End of credits shows Smyth/Osborne/Kingpin plotting/recruiting/developing Sinister Six crew and suites and spider-slayers 3a. 2021 Bold part above could be the basis for this crossover: Spider-man Marvel Cross-over that sets up other cool stuff 4. 2022 Venom's Revenge: Spider-man v Venom in all out war. Venom starts off by helping to save a young girl being raped by attackers (or stopping terrorists) by brutally savaging them. She asks if he is spider-man. At first he is uplifted by realizing he was a hero, then he is angered by being called Spider-man, and then he hatches a plan to get back at spider-man. He then tries to discredit spider-man by committing acts of violence and crime while pretending to be Spider-man. While spider-man is fighting Smythes/Osbornes/Kingpins spider-slayers, venom trips him up from the shadows nearly killing him. By mid-movie Venom reveals himself, they engage in a city-wide, island-wide battle to the death possibly with Venom threatening/kidnapping Aunt May/Gwen/MJ (maybe even regretfully causing the death of Gwen in this version) At the end, Venom is defeated and Brock is sent to prison and the symbiot is at large/stored in Dr. Strange mystic stasis/etc. Credits show Smythe/Osborne/Kingpin's fully assembled Sinister Six 4a. 2023 Dr. Strange movie tie-in. In a battle/cameo where Dr. Strange's lair is attacked he loses his concentration/stasis chamber is broken and symbiot escapes unbeknownst to Dr. Strange. 5. 2024 Sinister Six movie? Spidey battles each of them 1 at a time and then all 6 of the sinister six throughout this movie. Incredible fight sequences ensues. In the meantime Eddie is cell mates with Kletus and we begin to learn more about Kletus. Brock has time to reflect on his actions and his life and begins to realize the monster he has become. He also begins to see the necessity for Spider-Man in the city without him. He also begins to doubt whether he deserves to live. Kletus is annoying the hell out of him too. Spidey enlists the help of Tony's tech and becomes the Iron Spider-Man to eventually defeat them all. Interwoven we flash back to Brock in his cell realizing that if he had a 2nd chance he could be the hero that the city needs when Spider-man is unable/unwilling to go the extra step. Kletus had been plotting to kill him and is readying to strike. As Brock ponders his 2nd chance, the symbiot has been outside waiting for Brock to choose live and leaps in and reunites. (Here's my version: Kletus lunges at Brock with a shiv as he becomes venom. Venom realizing what Kletus was about to do and wanting to teach him a lesson for all those murders bites off one/both Kletus's hands and breaks out of the cell and escapes. Closing credits shows Kletus in the prison OR with a Dr. attempting to reattach his hand(s) when they realize some ooze clinging to the hand that has just been reattached. Suddenly his whole body is consumed and he becomes Carnage! 6. 2024 Venom Movie: Venom begins his journey as the anti-hero stalking and hunting down the worst of human and superhumans. Cameo of Carnage killing more things. 7. 2025 Maximum Carnage! Begins with "Boy Who Collects Spider-man" Storyline. Spider-man stumbles upon Carnage and is nearly killed. Venom enters the mix and wants spidey to stay out of it but Venom is nearly killed by Carnage. Spider-man and Venom team up against Carnage and ultimately defeating Carnage but Spider-man is put into a coma. Venom assumes spider-man's crime fighting duties in NY. Closing credits reveal...GG/Hobgoblin/??? I'm sure they can do a much better job writing this stuff but if they can get somewhat close to making 7 movies encompassing the best of the spidey stories I'll be satisfied.

No doubt, the Heritage 9.4 AF15 is a beautiful copy of an AF15. It has great structure, great color, decent registry, etc. I would love to own that copy. Structurally it appears to be a NM or better copy. However, there are a few defects on it that might prevent me, personally, from wanting to shell out anticipated 9.4 prices for this book based on the scans. Notably: 1. The tanning 2. What appears to be a 1.5" horizontal dirty crease/printing crease at the mid right FC edge. (visible when zoomed in) 3. What appears to be a light horizontal 1/2" crease at the Bottom Right FC edge near spidey's foot. (visible when zoomed in) 4. The misaligned bottom staple Of course this is all from the Hi-res scan detail. If I were seriously interested in this copy I would, of course, go see this in person to confirm the true presence of those defects and how much they affect the beauty in my eye. Based on the scans, I would give it a lower grade. Not that it deserves a lower grade as that is clearly subjective, but solely my opinion because I am harder on tanning and creases than CGC. If I were in the market for a 9.4 copy I might underbid or pass on this particular book despite the possibility that another 9.4 copy is not likely to surface anytime soon. I would prefer to pay a strong 9.2 price for Barton's copy or a copy similar to his which appears and presents as well as a potential 9.4 with better eye appeal (again based solely on a scan and my opinion - I'd have to pay him a visit to confirm) rather than high 9.4 prices for the Heritage Feb auction copy. That being said, for the people interested in a 9.4 willing to afford it and don't mind the defects on this particular copy, this is a great opportunity to win a great looking AF15 with a CGC cert at 9.4 and I encourage them to bid their max.

Thanks for all the advice. Doesn't sound like the end is worth watching for much other than closure. If there's only 3 episodes left I'll power through but if it's more like 10 then I'll save those hours for something more enjoyable. I guess now's as good a time to start watching breaking bad and game of thrones.

I'm on episode 9 (I don't have time to binge in 1 day) and I'm nearly fed up with the stretch the writers have gone through to drag this thing with Kilgrave out. I mean how seriously stupid and inept do the writers have to make Jessica, Trish, and SpecOps Cop in order to facilitate her capturing and losing Kilgrave twice not to mention completely botching any chance of freeing Hope on legal grounds, sacrificing at least 4 more (that I know of) people at his hands in the name of trying to clear Hopes name, and a possible missed opportunity/attempt in neutralizing Kilgrave via a slow (albeit dull) and therapeutic conversion to a level decency even if means killing him later. I mean the guy is a man-child with a classic case of abandonment and mommy/daddy issues. So tell me, does it get any better? It started out great in the first 4 episodes and Kilgrave was making for a great villian right up until they humanized him. Is it worth continuing until the end or should I just save myself the time and brain cells?

Revat has been a great referrer of sources for buying comics whether it be here on the boards or on ebay. He helped put me in touch with some sellers with good rep that had some HTF HG books I'd been looking for. Well he finally had something to offer me directly and provided excellent pics and descriptions. Bought a book from him at a fair price and he quickly and safely shipped it to me with a few pleasant surprises inside. Very pleased with my purchase and would love to buy from him again. Thanks!

If the writers would be kind enough for that. Look what they did with Lori. Her death was never shown and the remains of her body never found. Sure we all heard the shot and saw a bloated zombie having consumed the placenta and afterbirth that Rick later finds and kills where she once lay and the consensus is that she's dead but we never get full closure on that one. Even Greg Nicotero appearing on the talking dead refuses to confirm her being dead after that episode airs. That was a huge loose end I'm still waiting on closure for. I know they did that to make the episodes where rick sees her in white and talks to her on the phone more interesting giving us false hope but it really pisses me off to be played like that. Dead or alive as long as they confirm his status visually would be appreciated. Btw, I couldn't suspend my disbelief further that the sludge zombies having no pectoral or abdominal musculature remaining on their torso could A. Do the necessary pushup to crawl up from the sewer and B. Be able to grab and attack Maggie let alone lift their skeletal arms. I mean come on. Forgetting even the sheer lack of connective tissue, how can a zombie move their limbs with the full strength of a person forceful enough to subdue Maggie with no freaking musculature left on their bones! Holocaust victims emaciated to the brink of death were unable to move limbs due to severe muscle atrophy and muscle consumption by their own bodies. Come on Greg, you've got to try harder or build in some kind of explanation such as the virus turning bone into something serviceable as muscle. You're seriously starting to lose some of your audience.

John read my mind and offered me up a sweet 35 cent variant CGC 9.0 that I didn't even know I wanted and I just couldn't say no. He was a pleasure to deal with, shipped the slab quickly and packed it very well. Maintained great communication the whole time. I look forward to more business with him in the future. Thanks!

I bought several raw modern variants from Brian over the course of a month via PM in response to my WTB thread. He is very patient, his communication is excellent, he provided full front and back cover high-res scans, and his grading is spot on. He packed the comics very well for safe shipping and got them to me right away. I am very happy with my purchase and will look forward to doing business with Brian in the future. (thumbs u

It was an ok S3 premier. Daisy still needs to work on her acting a bit more but I'm digging the low cut wife beaters, some scenes with Coulson felt like he was just rehearsing lines, I'm getting pretty tired of the Bobbi/Hunter drama, Daisy's "Teddy Bear" seems like a fifth wheel in a lot of the scenes, surprisingly I felt the Fitz scenes were the best. He's come a long way. Loved the action, new gear, and more inhumans to keep things interesting. A good pickup where it left off. My main complaint is that it seriously lacked Wen (Agent May). I need more Wen in this show. If she's out for the whole season I'm going to be going through withdrawals. It could be rough. Just met her at the Baltimore comicon and by God she looks incredibly beautiful for being 50 years old. BTW, what's with all the spoiler tags. It's a spoiler filled thread, no need for spoiler tags. It's in the title.

I went Friday too and went solely for the comics ignoring everything else. I did notice that the prices at a lot of the booths for non-key SA and BA raws seemed inflated by 15-30%. I even had to look a couple of items up on ebay and OSPG to see if I was just missing something and found some cheaper slabbed in the same grade online. I asked a few dealers if some of the books I wanted had suddenly gotten hot but they said no that was just what they were asking. I figured this is due to either the fact that it's the first day of a 3 day con and dealers are fishing or it's the built-in margin allowing for negotiation. What I found was every time I asked if there was wiggle room they readily knocked 10-20% off which brought it closer to OSPG but only if paying in cash. But when I tried negotiating further, it became a real haggle. I got some to budge but most were firm. They'd probably be more generous on day 3 but I couldn't make it on Sunday. Oh yeah and Jason is really cool. I always end up buying something from him.