oldmilwaukee6er

Now that's a good Godzilla mean mug! It's got the right amount of camp

Agreed. FWIW before that we lost a bunch of pics when Photobucket went from free to paid monthly. Esp the older threads

B * tch Planet 1-2 Lumberjanes 1 Darth Vader (2015) 4 Rebirth - New Superman 1 Poe Dameron 1 ^ these need to marinate longer than 3 yrs tho

My scanner died But I've got some good reading - Image Grand Design / Disaster flipbook - fan project to benefit the Heroes Initiative

Or that the mere act of sketching on it would render the PLOD moot

Agreed. When I bought my raw 3.0-3.5 X-Men #1 for $1700 in 2013ish... I thought I'd sell it for $5k. Now it's pushing $20k+ for a slabbed example and I'm thinking (likely wrongly) it'll be $100k by the time I sell. I've also begun to become really bullish (in my mind) on Spawn despite some crazy money for back issues. Emboldened by the book, and the potential of Spawn Universe and another 20yrs of Spawn ... embiggened! Now I believe I will see a $100k Spawn collection sold one day. Maybe it'll even be mine!? And I used to hope that SOMEday maybe someone would pay me $10/issue. It's really amazing to think that my comics, this hobby that I've enjoyed for so many decades, these journeys that I've taken with creators ... Can actually help my future financial independence. I still have hope it does!

I would echo a lot of what you've said. I've been to a couple local shows now and starting to get my own feet wet again. I don't like buying on feeBay, I prefer to source books locally and regionally. I find myself priced out. But thankfully I'm in a pretty good place collecting wise. I have a few Modern titles that I buy from the LCS, I am content to chase the variants on those and they keep me connected to the hobby. I was wise to complete my Spawn run 2 years ago, I would have been priced out of 20 or more issues by now if I had not. I got lucky on a few Usagis that I needed for my run a few years ago and am 'ok' with knowing I won't own an Albedo 2. I thought that before the recent runup. And I finished my goal of X-Men 1-19 right before pandemic, so I've captured some gains there. But I feel the hobby moving past me. My most recent local show I was skunked and didn't spend anything. The one before I spent $20 on some long-term spec. Most local back issue bins are thrice picked over and new spec plays fly off the shelves long before I arrive. I guess I'm lucky enough to have collected long enough now and have felt this way before, been priced out of a genre or collectible and had to move on ... There's ebbs and flows to collecting and this sure feels like an ebb.

Admittedly I have a few slabs that I haven't read, usually they are the only copies that I've owned. I have yet to come across affordable reader copies. It's more likely the case that I have multiples of something or designated reader copies but it's true I have collected items I haven't read.

And to be fair... There is a lot more money that goes into processing the collection that wasn't flip friendly from the start - new boxes, new bags and boards, grading fees, time, storage, overhead / sunk costs.

Mandarake is supposed to be amazing

I think it's a tough time of year. Springtime mania, maybe a lack of sleep, disruption of circadian rhythms, coupled with alcohol... What was the question again?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.comicsbeat.com/the-retailers-view-trying-to-find-worth-in-a-bad-idea/

The latest tight phase also seems to coincide with the uptick in SS events that CGC is hosting. Volume increases. It's like two pipelines for books, a fast tracked get it signed turn and burn, and the normal 9mos process of grind / undergrade. I've seen some soft 9.8s and 9.6s in yellow labels, especially during the McFarlane event.

I think it's reasonable to assume collectors are now targeting character appearances in the Spawn Universe. Some I'm trying to clean out locally are (still fodder) Hellspawn 7 - 1st Raven Spawn and 1st app of Micheal Moran (Miracleman) in Spawnverse Hellspawn 15 - 1st Nightmare Spawn

Opened the Spawn Kickstarter and the comics go into the collection Wondercon @ Home pickups from Stan Sakai's website

Opened the Spawn Kickstarter and the comics go into the collection Wondercon @ Home pickups from Stan Sakai's website

I feel like that was a WELL known warehoused book, even for a casual collector like me. I remember some guy selling dozens upon dozens of CGC 9.2s, 9.0s and 8.5s ... I got one 9.2 for $19, less than the cost to grade. At Comicverse show the other weekend it was a $300 wall book for 4 dealers tho.

Normal. Slabs we're sonically sealed at the corners back then, which would crack and break upon tampering with the slab. They were not designed to be airtight. The newer CGC slabs have a more uniform seal / seam.

Comics are typically solicited to retailers 3mos in advance ... So while you got your order in before the ship date, you were well after the final order cut off, and thus copies of the book were allocated.

Plus Kirkman had Skybound, not only to handle TWD merch and licensing but also as a 'higher touch' (vs Image) ala carte publisher of books. He really was bringing some value to the Image brand when they made him partner. As an aside, Invincible is weird ... I haven't read it or paid attention so only based on the show, more than a little derivative but with just enough of a twist to keep me interested thus far.

It's the worst part! Not having the books for almost 9mos depending upon tier. You can also walk the books through Sarasota or submit to CGC directly at a larger regional / national convention to help reduce the stress of shipping to CGC.

Yes and no I had the goal of a Spider-Man #1 for a long time and the closest I got was a GD copy at WWChicago that was $2k at the time. That would've been all my money, plus all the lady's, plus dinner and then maybe some more (just couldn't justify it at the time). I wanted to put together the best runs of Freak Brothers (1sts) that I could afford. I made that goal back in 2004. But I sold my best copy of Freak Brothers #1 and I cannot find Freak Brothers #12-13 much past VFNM. I think IF the cartoon hits I'm probably priced out. I did finish X-Men #1-19 (Lee/Kirby run) right before pandemic and it felt good because I sold some extra Spawn to pay for #6 and #35. I'm bad at selling. That goal took 8 years and now I'd like to extend up to my #35. Spawn 1-current in NM+ except the 30 most expensive variants, some are so pricey they aren't even on my want list I finished Usagi Yojimbo, all comics except Albedo #2. There are some recent store exclusives I chased and some I didn't.

RE your question about crypto buyers ... Yes we do have evidence of other hobbyists eg. Card collectors entering our markets at higher price points. There is a good thread in Modern that challenges some old guard assumptions RE price vs popcount. We don't have specific evidence of a crypto buyer yet, but it supports the general theory that part of the runup during pandemic is due to other hobbyists entering comics speculation. RE... Your quote above. The thread in Modern does establishes the idea that the new guard doesn't care for the old guards rules. And that's probably true. And power to them for collecting in the manner they choose. If they drive up NM 98 to prices that are unaffordable to me then it is on me for not buying and holding sooner. And I admire your optimism even if I cannot fully share it. But I remember the bubble bursting once before. I remember my high grade raw, Pre-Unity Valiants being worthless for 15 years and 3 crosscountry moves. Valiant was partially blamed for the crash, the books were almost pariahs. It wasn't until the Valiant boards and the seismic shift that was CGC c early 2000s that high grade was really cool and oh hey Valiant is cool again. Miles Morales is cool, Deadpool, Harleybut there's going to come a time when he's not cool anymore or there's some other unforeseen pitfall that drives the value of ones collection down. And I'll be there, steady picking. But I don't know that's why I put up the old guy emogi. I was hearing some depression era stories about my grandparents the other day and thinking 'you can leave the depression era but the depression era doesn't leave you.'

Spawn was a top 10 book for almost 2 decades. It outsold X-Men the same month the X-Men movie debuted with the 6th highest opening weekend (at the time) in 2000. Some moved away from the book when Al was replaced by Jim Downing (after endgame storyline), others dropped off at a milestone issue like 100 or 200. By the 240s the book was down to about 12k copies. Then 250 came around and saw a bump, add to that the movie -script talk, Blumhouse hype, Spawn Resurrection #1 which brings back Al Simmons, damn near effed the book up in the early 260s with some rushed Larsen pencils ... But it really was the way he built toward 300 and Stan Lee'd the whole process that has refreshed the title ... 296-297 offer a recap of Spawn history and a good jumping off pint for new readers. 298-299 homage homage 300-301 covers covers homage homage. Todd says he envisions Spawn for another 300 issues Pandemic - Todd says publishers must act so he decides to break Kickstarter records for an action figure reboot and begins free over shipments to retailers as returnable And now it seems like every month it's cover appearance of new character followed an issue or two later with actual app of new character. Thankfully he's backed off the 1:50 incentive variants for the time being.

And if McFarlane accomplishes what he is talking about RE universe building over the next 20yrs... Spawn pushes past 500 issues... ?