blazingbob

After the kool aid gets put down lets ask ourselves what has really happened? The venture capitalist side of the "other grading company" has been replaced with a established grading company that has history in the sports card market. Their reputation in the sports card market is that they "are stricter" in grading vintage material then the other grading companies out there. I have heard this but since I don't buy and sell cards I am only going by what I hear, not what I see. Will Becketts bring their stricter grading standards to "other grading company? They don't grade comics so who is going to bring that experience to the acquired company. I haven't seen that the grading team of "other grading company" was leaving. Steve wasn't bought out or maybe he was. I don't know that. All I can assume is that unless something changes I will be seeing the same pricing/turnaround times and grading that I saw before. Maybe that will change with the new management team. Maybe it won't. Will the acquisition of the "other grading company" by Beckett's get me to submit books to them? Why? What is the "other grading company" going to do differently? Grade stricter? Undo their loose grading reputation by being bought by a company with a stricter grading reputation? You don't undo a reputation just by being bought out. You undo a reputation by doing, not by saying or changing ownership.

All your friends in one place. I'm going back to work selling New Mutants #98's to strippers with buyback protection.

Well since I'm not afraid to give advice it would not be a bad idea to look at a prior purchase and look at possibly taking some money off the table. Sell the 8.0 and downsize to a lower grade copy. Pay off one or as much of the other as you can. Take some of the profit and do something fun with it. I live in my comic collection. Would I be a lot "wealthier" on paper if I didn't sell it. Yes, but I wouldn't have my business or somewhere nice to live.

1). I never said you were the Gene Park from the Big short. 2). Wall Street talk has nothing to do with the subject at hand? You definitely have very selective memory. You did write the below response on Sunday the 22nd. Well, isn't both the entire stock market and comic book markets pretty much overvalued at these record high levels? " Just because something is at record highs does not necessarily mean it's overvalued. But, in this case, yes, you are right. " 3). You never shorted a stock? You worked for a hedge fund that didn't take short portions. Offset risk? Buy puts? Really? I'm not on a Hedge fund forum so I have no idea what your firm bought and sold and to whom. Since you only share opinions and no "advice" I have no idea what your current investment positions are as a Private investor. You deal in the comic art market where there is no price guide, no GPA. Whats not to love and I have heard this from Art dealers. I can put any price I want on a piece since it is "One of a kind". Have I sold something to a collector where I misrepresented it? Am I on here pumping and dumping books?

There will always be bubbles where money is involved. Because as you know I am cold calling everyone offering them comics with Adjustable rate deals. Buy the comic today at 5% down, teaser interest rate now and rate adjustment in 2 years. Don't worry because in two years that comic will be worth more and you can refinance. No income, no problem. I'll package that comic and sell it to comic investors who are dying for this stuff. I'll create the Comic and Poor rating agency to stamp those packages for a small fee. God I can't make this up fast enough. Its all been done before.

The below is a JOKE but if the collectibles market is in a bubble and I'm going to be considered 'Strutting around" I'd like to point out that I didn't come from a industry that did this. I'm thinking of using another model to help propel this bubble along. I'm going to package Comic keys into Collateral debt obligations. I'll create CDO's by Category. Value will be determined by GPA at time of creation. There will be a start date and a end date. 1 Year, 5 year, 10 year, 30 year Categories will be considered Tranches (Tranches are pieces, portions or slices of debt or structured financing. Each portion or tranche is one of several related securities offered at the same time but with different risks, rewards and maturities) Here are some examples of what I'll sell to the market. Gold A - Action #1, Batman #1, Cap #1, Det #27 Gold B - All Select #1, Marvel comics #1, Gold C - Suspense #3, All Flash #1, Marvel A - AF #15, AS #1, , Incredible Hulk #1, JIM #83, TOS #39, , X-Men #1 Marvel B - DD #1, FF #1, TTA #27, Incredible Hulk #181, Giant Size X-men #1 Marvel C - Amazing Adventures #11, Avengers #57, Defenders #1, Hero for Hire #1, Tomb of Dracula #10 DC A - Showcase #4, Showcase #22, B&B #28, Justice League #1 DC B - Flash #105, Green lantern #1, Mystery in Space #53, etc DC C - Green Lantern #76, Green Lantern #87, House of Mystery #174, Strange Adventures #205 etc I'm then going to sell options on them, calls and puts. I'm then going to sell Credit default swaps on the comic CDO's. People can take both sides of the bet that prices will go up or prices will go down. I will collect monthly premiums on the Credit default swaps that are betting against price appreciation. I will collect interest on the shorts of the CDO's. As I collect that money I will hold monthly hooker and blow parties. I'll let you leverage these up as high as you want to go. Screw the Graded comic business model. Lets go with the Wall Street Deriatives model.

One of my favorites. Just in case anybody out there feels that the stock market is all rainbows and unicorns - Disclosure - I am here on the boards to share my opinion (Do as I say, not as I do), no advice.

Another movie clip that comes to mind when I'm reading Gene's posts

One of my favorites scenes which is exactly how I feel when Gene Posts -

Don't get your panties in a twist. I'm sure the Ritz Carlton won't revoke your membership based on my posts.

You have been yukking it up on facebook with Seeberger. And I'm sure when you are filling up the ferrari John will tell you how overpriced gas is in California.

Attack the messenger? More like state that you have said this for years. This isn't a new stance you've taken. We have gone to task on this before.

Came out today? As with your current posts it is not like you haven't posted the same thing from years past.

In case anybody missed Gene's "opinion" - http://scoop.previewsworld.com/Home/4/1/73/1017?articleID=52605

This is you right? Former HF portfolio manager turned independent trader/private investor. Longtime Arsenal FC supporter and comics/pop culture fan. Tweets = opinions, not advice.

If a baseball can go so can comics. What? I can dream. What, Star trek isn't real?

Of course those mortgage backed securities were all "AAA" rated. Didn't matter that math genius's couldn't figure out what these securities were worth when it all came crashing down. You never really knew how much of this was on the banks and wall street firms books until they couldn't borrow against them anymore. Cut the money cord and it all came crashing down. Didn't matter that deriatives didn't trade on the open markets.

You are my Peter Schiff of Comics. Gold will hit $5K.

Actually the wild wild west of derivatives and the slicing/dicing of mortgages (interest part, 1st 10 years of payments, 2nd 10 years of payments, 3rd etc) into little pieces that the banks could package and sell by Wall Street had a lot to do with the crash of 2008/2009. Extremely loose credit standards by the banks, Wall street firms eager to slice/dice and package up those pieces all "Guaranteed" by Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac. Because as we all know Wall street is so transparent and clear with how they do business. Wall Street firms riding the Mortgage wave, 40x/50x leverage and when the lines of credit got cut off down it came. And when the dust settled none of them go to prison and the taxpayers wind up holding the bag.

Because all of this will come crashing down. This is not the first time you have eloquently written out the collectibles doomsday post. Which is fine but I've seen it for a long time. Eventually you will be right and I'm sure you will have your day in the sun.

Then I guess neither am I. I am just buying and selling books from money that I started my company with years ago.

I agree that comic art is overvalued too - I believe I said as much somewhere earlier in this thread. That said, you are wrong that I'm still buying it - I stopped buying in 2015; everything I've acquired since then has been in trade for other pieces (whether direct trade or selling to buy). Trade is selling Gene. You value your piece, you take a piece at a perceived value so you are still buying/selling. Don't spin this that you are above the rest of us when it comes to Art. I know it must pain you to hang around with us commoners.

So is the art you buy but you still buy it.

Shhhh, this is a "hobby". We just buy and sell books at our costs and don't make any money. Don't confuse those "Expert" posts as anything else but HYPE - Hope You Paid Enough. Except for "I'm only curious" the next thing I always hear at shows is "I'm selling books to buy more books". Funny, that is what I do and i'm a DEALER.

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