Aweandlorder

Yes Albedo 0 Yellow (50 copies est) is the grail of all grails for me. No other book comes even close to it. I would take that over a TMNT 1. There I said it

Congrats! Sweet book!

I started subscribing to Mile High and NICE around late 87. Up until Dec 88 (the date of which I started archiving this journal) Chuck didnt really rant too much other than on his quarterly Mile High Features Catalogs. The newsletters prior to that date were very short (around 10-12 pages) and mainly consisted of entries put in by Leanne C Harper, which continued highlighting special books even after Chuck started his Guts & Glory columns, in a section called "From The Clubhouse". She nailed all of them though, even New Mutants 98 (although she didnt think it was anything special). I remember ordering Wolverine 1 & PWJ 1 from MHC when they came out and thinking those were very smart buys back then. In fact I subscribed to both titles through Chuck and remember being pleasantly surprised when I received Wolverine 10, not knowing it had Sienkiewicz work and Sabretooth in it. That was a huge book for me back then. As far as PWJ6, I did cover it HERE although I didn't highlight it

Yes DC made a few of these for their DCU RRP titles as well in 96-97. Those are great "books" to have around for signing/sketch when the artists/writers are around

Awww... Im sure it is

Yup they cap it at $75 total for me. But that's $75 I don't get from eBay bucks so win all around ??

Well that's a little high but I'm not complaining. They deserve what they ask for I may just bring a limited set of books than. Thank you!

Just thought I'd mention that Chase Freedom card offers 5% cash back rewards on any Paypal transaction from now till June 2018. And since my paypal is linked to my Freedom card I am cashing in on this rather quickly. Not sure if other banks/cards offer the same program, but that is pretty neat. Youd have to activate that feature if you do have a Freedom card as it wont kick in till you do so

Yes I did too (when it first came out). Faust was another book that Chuck missed out on but I ordered because I loved Vigil's work. And every time I think about it I get mad because Chuck had shortages on that issue and I was sent a 2nd print months later by the time it was a $30 book instead of the 1st print which I ordered. Of course I can get it now for $5-10 but I will never forget how angry I was when I finally received it back then and it was a 2nd print... Shame on him! (but I still love him anyways) Come to think of it, Im pretty sure I also ordered Caliber Presents #1 and was never sent this book because of shortages. I just loooved Vigil back then and cant imagine I wouldnt order it from him when it came out

A few months into 1989 and Chuck's NICE newsletters expanded in size, mainly due to more book reviews and the large appetite in investing by comic collectors. All of that while Indie books were starting to cool off But that didnt stop Chuck from advising us on hot upcoming new indies: Whats that youre telling me? A new adult line of books, with 2 variants? tiny print run?? lord have mercy, this will HAVE to be the next Cherry/Omaha! Or maybe the next Black Kiss? And yes, of course, Abyss will naturally the next Aliens! See how this all makes sense? Lets continue: How amazing is it to read about all these spec books which ended up being complete duds? I cant imagine anyone even thinking of buying any of these books today even for nostalgic purposes. But if you think Chuck ran out of ways to sell you on books, think again: But Chuck didnt just stop at speculating on comic books. There were also RPG, boxer shorts and mugs: And Ill end this entry with a little bit of Chuck past spec history, from the man himself: I would have looooved to see a spec article from him about Marvel's New Universe when it came out. Why, he'd probably push the heck out of those titles and guarantee you a sure premium on Merc and Spitfire! EDIT: I did want to mention that this month saw the release of Vampire Lestat #1 which became Innovation's first commercial success and soon after launched a series of other Anne Rice adaptations all resulting in a major boost in secondary market prices. And yes, this was another big book that Chuck missed, much like all of them really.

Nice. Im going to see him at the end of the month. What does he charge for signing do you know?

I guess Mark was saving the best for Les

Very nice find. And particularly rare. This was the 1st of 3 Redfox fanzines which came out in 84 prior to the Harrier series. I'd hold on to it if I were you, if not just for the good memories of a great era in comic history!

A quick note before we continue. As I was editing the next installment I was thinking to myself, waitaminute A&L, anyone reading this who wasn't actively collecting in the 80s may find this very odd. All of these titles that Chuck recommended didnt just get picked up out of the blue (although some, I have to admit, were rather strange picks). They were mostly referenced as potential investment books based on existing current trends. So lets focus a bit on what was ALREADY heating up on the secondary market at that time period; Marvel: Punisher - Punisher's limited series took off quickly and with it boosted alot of Bronze appearance by the character including his first appearance of course. In 1986 ASM129 was a $5. By 1988/89 after the success of the LS and the launch of 2 more ongoing titles, it was a 150.00 book. The limited series was getting anywhere from $20-30 for the 1st issue alone. Also, Punisher War Journal #1 was being speculated due to a reported large quantity of the print run being damaged during shipment. Marvel Masterworks - Hardcovers and TPB were the next big thing in 1988. And Marvel Masterworks were leading the pack with prices soaring between $70-90 Nick Fury vs Shield #1 was a $30 book and was hot hot hottt Excalibur #1 12.00 and went to 2nd print, DD #254 15.00, all Groo books were scorching hot at $10-20 for #1s all across the board (Marvel, PC etc) Independent Indies were absolutely KILLING it. Not to suggest that they were outperforming Marvel/DC in sales, heavens no. They were actually selling very poorly by 1988, but some of the titles published in early 80s-1988 carried a hefty price tag, which resulted in a big interest and in my opinion the main reason why Chuck's spec column was even created. They were the fire that sparked interest with comic book collectors again. Lets look at them closely: The big three - Cerebus - $500. TMNT - $200 Albedo - $350 Although Cerebus was a Bronze age book it heavily influenced the B&W indie market. TMNT - need we say more. Albedo - the minuscule print run on the 1st issue (#0) was enough to make it very sought after by most indie collectors. Yes these were all B&W books and all featured anthropomorphic characters. But both trends were actually coming to an end by 1988 The 2nd tier - mostly mature underground and some obscure B&W titles like Love & Rockets ($120) Grendel ($30-80) Quadrant ($130) Flaming Carrot ($115) Cherry ($50) Omaha ($25) Dark Horse was doing well with Concrete ($20) Aliens ($20) Gladstone were doing tremendously well with most of their Disney titles but mainly with Uncle Scrooge & Donald Duck ($15-25). Yes I kid you not, Disney was hot back then. Recent hot series included - Tick ($15), Speed Racer/Racer X ($15-20) Rock n Roll Comics ($50) Black Kiss #1 ($20) Faust #1 ($30) Japanese/Manga books included Lone wolf cub, Naausica, Lum, Kamui and also Ben Dunn's Ninja High School's series were doing well (although the latter wasnt manga) DC Its clear that Batman was the leader of the pack. Frank Miller's Dark Knight was a $20 book almost overnight, and by the time Batman was adapted to a movie a few more titles generated interest in the secondary market. They were: Cult #1 (anywhere from $10-20) killing joke ($25) and of course bats #426-429 which were moving at $100 per set. As I mentioned earlier, HC and TPB were all the rage and had a huge demand, and that reflected in (mainly) Batman books: Greatest Batman/Joker Stories ($60) Son Of Demon ($55) and the biggest one of them all Dark Knight s&n Hardcover Edition ($600). Watchmen was extremely popular as well, and on a side note I truly dont remember any book other than Dark Knight maybe, that has never stopped being popular since it first saw print. Also, a new trend was forming with D&D comics: Dragonlance & AD&D were seeing $10 or higher prices. Insane right?

I have similar books running on eBay, Amazon, fb & ig at the same time. No problems. Just a little risky if you're offering very popular books at a competitive price since u may get shortages. Otherwise no problems

As far as eBay is concerned - yes, eBay has a way to highlight certain sellers/listings over others. This is not a secret as they actually tell you this when trying to convince you to become a top rated seller. That's part of the "benefits" you receive as being a top seller. The only thing they don't tell you is that they can do this to anyone. And they do. "Best match" is their default setting. One which is set factoring a "secret formula" that "intelligently computes" preferred listings based on your search criteria. Yeah right. They are running a very tight platform over there. Most of their research is done to promote what it is their best at - selling sellers listings. And that includes store campeigns, ads, listing insertion fees.. the works. They make 100% profit from selling you their listings. They only make 10% from your sales guess what they'll push? in fact, they make LESS percentage from top rated sellers, so even though u get a top rated status, and a certificate in the mail, that top rated status doesn't mean anything if your listing shows at the bottom when a buyer logs to eBay and buys a random item he/she wants to get without much research put into it (price point/location etc). Amazon does pretty much the same thing but only with very popular items (mainly top selling books & electronics) not so much with slow asin items (yes, regrettably most secondary market comics are slow asin books) so you get the same fair chance any other seller gets when listing your books. And that means one thing and one thing only - price. If your comic is the lowest priced one, that means that when a buyer locates a book he wants, he sees the lowest priced one first and even has an option to buy without even knowing he's getting it from you. Rarely do buyers on the Amazon platform click on the listings and research condition and or look for pics. again, I'm not advocating one platform over the other. It's just a shame that eBay runs such a monopoly with their listings/sellers and don't stick to what they promise sellers. But then again, maybe if they would, some sellers won't get ANY business at all

This is what my blood pressure looks like when Im sniping last second on my phone in a poor signal area and ebay shows me this

This is your final warning @ygogolak please be less witty with your humor Your friendly neighborhood, Amazing Smartass-Man

Where? On eBay? if so, I can tell you one thing I learned about eBay. They always play with sellers listings. Like. Always they control who's listings they will boost and who they won't and they always move it around. I'm a top seller on eBay. Been selling for close to a decade. It's always up and down for me even though I have hundreds of listing, competitive prices and a top seller status. I learned to live with it. And no, I won't attribute it to a down time or any economy backlash crisis because I also have an Amazon store and I can tell you that 99 percent of the time my eBay store is slow, Amazon is still kicking a** as always. Amazon is a lot more stable for me sales wise throughout the year as opposed to eBay. But hey, it's their system so they make the rules. I learned to accept it

Here are some of them..

Yup, that adds to my theory that McFarlane key books are going nowhere anytime soon. Im willing to bet they wont plummet in price either. Look at Spawn (wellllll, its because of the movie Awe) ASM 300 (welllll its because of the movie awe), bats 423 (welllll its because its a classic cover awe). No. Mcfarlane has earned his title as a superstar. And god only knows I hate his art. (ok in fairness, other people knows it too)

I really feel bad when sellers list them at 0.99 auctions with free shipping.. I got a whole Mage set for less than 10 bucks that way. Hey at least they get a very nice fb from me so dont say im not generous

That is definitely one tough cover. All white on the front. All black on the back. That's like the asm301 of TWD