Aweandlorder

Funny how he listed these originally for anywhere between 150-200$ a pop

I know there have been some sales of this book for over 100$ for 9.8 but if u take a look at his copies it looks like the majority of them wouldn't even pass an 8.0. They're just all dinged up and bent.. and for a prestige format book that's not gonna press flat ever. So this is probably the biggest waste of money any investor ever spent on a whole box of... well.. drek

Apparently the apocalypse has arrived and its gonna rain Batman Movie Adaptation rain soon https://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=leos42&hash=item1a490b3386%3Ag%3A0TkAAOSwgLlabflW&item=112894620550&LH_Complete=1&LH_Sold=1&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313.TR1.TRC0.A0.H0.XBATMAN+MOVIE+ADAPTATION+.TRS0&_nkw=BATMAN+MOVIE+ADAPTATION+&_sacat=0

I only like Byrne in the 80s. Fantastic Four, Supes & Hulk were the ones for me. Anything past that was already done

Its a Spider-Pez symbiote!!

I bought hundreds of comics, and most of my purchases are kinda great hehe. I can count on one hand how many comics have been damaged bcs of poor shipping, including this one which I listed, and there have been PLENTY of badly executed packaging efforts (we're no longer even talking about bags and boards). So as aggravating as it is sometime to receive poorly packaged books, I always look at the bottom line - was this delivered in the same condition as stated. I guess nothing else changed on earth today - everyone's different

So much to say but I'll keep it nuts and bolts: always bag and protect keys bcs of value obviously. Non value keys - it depends. I do a pretty good job bundling books without bag/boards but I always state it in my listings. HOWEVER the bottom line is this- are the books in the same condition as stated. I could receive them floating on the roof of the mailman's truck but as long as they are in the same condition as stated I'm happy. Heres a recent purchase to demonstrate my point: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pack-of-3-Limited-Collectors-Edition-C-31-Oct-Nov-1974-DC/112867095103?epid=85498469&hash=item1a4767323f:g:VgUAAOSwZ2laqByu and here's how I got them

Kavsighting!

This was in February of 1989 and Marvel had just been sold to Ron Perelman's MacAndrews and Forbes for $82 Mil (Taken from Mile High Futures Catalog #49 dated March 1989) Happy days! So you think Chuck would have made better investment spec's this month? Guess again: But if you thought that Chuck ditched Batman because it was a DC property and because DC wasnt sold to Elon Musk, I mean Ron Perelman, for 82 mil. Think again. Needless to say, this was very bad spec, Batman Death in the family was and still is a staple copper Bat book, Batman as a character became much bigger within time, while Marvel would suffer major losses in the near future as a result of this new deal. Short and sweet - You cannot speculate on comic books, as you do not know what the future holds. PS-

Vertical line on top left of front is gonna cost some points. That is usually the case with most of these although it appears to be faint in your case also back cover next to dominos hand near the spine seems to have slight color breaking dots, not sure if thats a scanner issue or actually on the book itself

Love him or hate him (and I think that everyone hates him lol) he supports the hobby, by supporting his business. No harm in doing that unless you're scamming others. Well it's kind of a sensitive topic I suppose.. but as chuck illustrated, there were many who did just that by sitting on near complete inventories and hiking prices till they cashed out. That is a trade which goes on till this very day by the pump n dump blog warriors. Yes uncensored mouse was a big deal. To borrow from your analogy, if that happened today, the after market prices would've been insane. The presentation of this book contributed a lot to the buzz; a sealed book with a black cover about an American cultural phenomenon.. so taboo! Great call indeed. A bit surprising about his Innovation write up as I didnt recall hearing about them until then. The 1st two titles I remember seeing from them were Stargazers & and a fantasy title by the name Group Larue. Those were the two solicitations from them that month. I picked legends of the stargazers of course but not because of chuck. Mainly because of that Hughes cover. I was big into Frazetta inspired artists back then and Stevens & Schultz weren't enough for me that cover really got me into his stuff and I became a fan since (I think he only did maze agency & death hawk prior to that) I still have all the books I bought from chuck. They're all located in a separate section of my collection I think I bought only one copy of Fist of North Star because I was already burnt from all the manga/martial arts/Asian books that came prior to that (remember Jademan comics which came out earlier that year? I bought ALL the #1 issues on those titles ??). Btw the Master Editions of Northstar which came out in early '00 are very rare and going for crazy prices. Particularly volume 6 & 8 are $150 books if you can find them

So today lets look at 2 months worth of speculation from the Wizard of Mile High. All which were full of blank specs with the exception of one which took off for a few months.. But before doing so, try thinking of what comic books looked like back then, Indie's were still pushing hard, and remember, this is before Image or Valiant, also there were no marketing gimmicks at the same level as there were just a few years later. No crazy #1 reboots, no variants, it was still pretty flat compared to the 90s-today. But still, Chuck was adamant about honing his craft Wow! Elementals!! I mean, at that time I think that even I didnt like Elementals anymore. And Comico, who was solicited by DC at the time, was putting out such crappy books, I just couldn't believe anyone in their right mind would plug such fluff. He did make a valid point about TMNT though, although that particular book, nor series, ever took off, TMNT was definitely gaining momentum and remained to be a safe long term investment. Oh and the part about "Every toy manufacturer reading obscure comics for their next animation project" is just bnkers Lets dial up the following month here: So admittedly it was a very slow month, and Chuck probably felt compelled to give Bill Black a boost with a title that had no shot at ever making it to a top 100 list. OK Uncensored Mouse was definitely a book that made a lot of sense to me. And it actually did experience a bump in price after the title was cancelled on the 3rd issue. Good call there! I wonder if other speculators saw it coming or was Chuck really ordering heavily on it and beat the competition to it. This was a $20 book by the Fall. But even more surprising was that Chuck missed this bad boy He sure did write extensively about it in his May newsletter And by 1990, Rock n Roll history was made and the indie market has found a new gimmick to market to us So you see? When speculating, you really really have no way of telling which new book, series, or trend will grow popular and become the next big thing. Even when you're in the business for so many years To be continued....

Those numbers are kinda bonkers.. I wouldnt even be surprised if they were somewhat inflated.. I mean im sure he got those to fill orders, but not just to spec around... But then again who knows? Only Chuck does Im reading those newsletters and it sounds like the wild west days, so much money was going on spec, I did it conservatively, but I had 2 other friends who collected and were orderings tons of each.. Insane! Funny how quick DC went and put out that DITF trade.. It was out and ready a few days after the story arc completed! Thats why they used real cheap paper on that TPB, I cant remember any other trade that came out in such poor quality.. It looked like a mini yellow pages

The year is 1988 (this newsletter was published in Dec 1988) and Batmania is in FULL EFFECT. With Dark knight being a 2 year old book, Killing joke absolutely KILLING it in the secondary market and the Tim Burton movie buzz on everyone's lips. Anything that had to do with bats got collectors very excited. And so, as I was walking home from the post office picking up this month's N.I.C.E. newsletter, this is what I read I nearly got hit by a truck crossing the street reading this! My first ever lucrative spec has materialized! And it wasnt even thanks to Chuck! So yeah, my single copies of Batman #426-429 were well secured and thanks to my own intuition I was on my way to financial freedom hitting it big with a whooping $100 profit on this one set! Needless to say, I blew all of my dividends back to chuck by the time I finished reading his spec choices for that month alone (I circled the most entertaining ones for convenience purposes) : Oh Em Gee... Theres just so much THERE there -Those 2 big investment books were motivated by #1 issue hype & Batmania. Following up on his Bats 426-429 write up You already know I bought 10 copies of the latter spec -But even more entertaining was his MCP #18 spec based on Byrne's return to Marvel. Is that really a 1st appearance? no. Is that a 1st Byrne book? no. But it sure seemed like thats what he was aiming for. -A new Universe book made the Chuck List? Or maybe he meant he wont buy any, but still wanted to mention that it may be a hit? Who knows.. -Oh didnt you know that Avengers #304 is the next Punisher/Wolverine? Now you know! Go buy 'em!! Quick!!! -Poor Art Adams, he was such a huge star back then, this really seemed like a safe bet based on his track record.. You know that Art was so hot, that Chuck didnt even bother mentioning McFarlanes ASM 316 which dropped the same month with a 1st Venom on the cover. ... And I just mentioned Spots because I still have my copy But Chuck wasnt always so bad, here, at the end of his spec column he offered 2 great specs, which ended up (finally) working for me! Not too shabby! Whats funny to me is, if you read my previous entry, Chuck was complaining about price hiking with some dealers and overstock which was purchased by those dealers secretively. And here, lo and behold, we have Death Rattle #8 dropping to $2 from being a $15 book almost within just a couple of months AMAZING So what did Chuck miss on this month. Well ASM #316 was one book, Crow #1 was another that came that month, and last was this one: In fairness, Deadline #1 didnt take off until much much later, when Tank Girl got big! In fact Leanne Harper ( who did a great job listing new books for Chuck on the newsletters) didnt even mention Tank Girl on the cover of issue #1, but still thought I'd mention it... Last, I thought you may find this quite entertaining as well: Looks like Chuck's not the only one sucking at specing for Mile High In the next installment, you get not just one, but TWO newsletters worth of speculating! Stay tuned!!

Before we continue to the next installment, a little introducion to how the pump n dump machine worked back in the 80s from Chuck himself (Taken from Mile High Futures quarterly catalog dating September 1988) I thought it would be interesting for new speculators to read how hyping books was done back then, even though its obvious from Chuck's own writing, that the agenda to expose this scam was for him to make more $$$ So even there, nice try chuck, but no cigar

YES on all counts sir. GI Joe #2 was a considered "scarce" and was going for around $40-50 (double of what #1 went for at the time). I somewhat doubt that Chuck thought of that book in his Meltdown #2 spec otherwise he wouldve been ALL over that comparison, but good call nonetheless And judging from your avatar, I think you're going to REALLY like my next installment Stay tuned

Ever thought how privileged we are to actually have a debate over keeping or selling our collectibles?

These are from 1975, but Americomics/Bill Black were really bigger around copper years. Staple good girl books if youre asking me... A #2 just closed today at a whopping $56. I didnt see that coming!

Im with ya there, the seller that has the Supes 106 has a whole buncha other drekky books, and hes in Brooklyn (about 25 min drive) so its not like im gonna go and tell him - hey hold on to that sup Im coming for it! but if he was in my neighborhood Id probably swing by for it

Thanks for this. Makes me feel sad. I met trimpe several times. All the way till his last day (at east coast comicon 2 years ago) I always admired him and knew his story and how he went through some really really bad times with Marvel. I always thought of him as this good hearted man who didn't have a mean bone in his body. Sure he wasn't the best artist. But he came from the school of working hard to make a living no matter what it takes. It's amazing how this whole shift in art took place in the 80s. You could probably say that mainstream comic art changed in that era. And yes brush inks were out and pointed pen/rapidographs were in. First it was Michael, then Art took it to the level where everyone took notice, then it was Todd, Rob, Lee, Whilce, Erik, Ron.. everyone really They all changed their style bcs of that new kid on the block. To me, the most noticeable one was Kubert & Silvesty.. you'd see their work on uncanny x-men before and after and it's like day and night So yeah, I can understand why Trimpe changed as well

It had to be done:

In December 1988 Chuck made a revelation Give it a try Chuckster, give it a try -So in Fairness, this was 1988, Cerebus #1 was a $500 book and the indie B&W explosion was in full swing (although didnt last much longer after that). -Also #1 books were all the rage and to an extent so were Japanese/Manga books... But come on... Havok & Wolverine #2??? -Oh and loved the GSXM & Excalibur special comparisons. Excalibur #1 was a $10 book at the time (which was a really big deal back then in the early spec age) but even if that comparison was relevant, as a speculator I doubt I would put a new hot book in the same bracket as a (then) 13 year old $120 key. And comparing a random JLI book (which in fairness was a hot title at the time, as issue #1 was $12 book back then) to those 2 was a little much Lets continue... -So Longbow Hunters #1 was a $21 book then and went to 2nd print. I remember missing on that boat and thinking to myself I missed on another Dark Knight Return! However James Bond never took off and that spec was DOA -Chuck Loved Xenozoic Tales, Im pretty sure that the reason why that book was a $10 dollar book (1st print) was because he pumped it hardcore! Still is a favorite of mine, but alas that spec for the 2nd print never worked . -Punisher Return to big nothing was Mike Zeck's return to Punisher. HUGE deal! Yup I bought a copy even though I had probably never spent over $15 on a comic prior to that. And hearing chuck say it could be a $100 book was all it took for me to pull the trigger. Sadly that never panned out. So Lots of misses and no hits... Actually there was one hit that month.. Just not one that Chuck speculated on: Thats all for today, but tune in tomorrow for some more spec fun with even more great misses, and a big reveal on a, back then, HUGE key that Chuck admittedly missed... Care to guess what it was??

Wizard had NOTHING on Chuck R's pumps. In a way I'm glad I experienced that at the time and learned my lesson when I didn't have a lot of money if you guys would like I could share some of his craziest spec articles from back then so you could have a laugh I got tons of his N.I.C.E. Guts & Glory newsletter articles at home from back then (88-91)