Darthdiesel

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A&P overgrades their eggs damn that A&P!!1 I'm never shopping there again? Do they slab their eggs sunnyside up or over easy?

True - you have been pretty charitable when it comes to Bronze and Silver Age high grade, so you are capable of positivity...now start sharing the love..... Join the CGC love fest and we could all get a nice "orgy cover" going for scottish...some 10.0 books in the shot....some avatar pics from old man and shuley...work it baby, yeah!

Then Darth says he has bid on a DVD auction of mine - a DVD - not even a comic - and he will "haggle" over the price - then says I should be "scared to death" of him? And nothing from you. (and I will say it made my shoulders and stomach torgue to block Darth - I have never done anything remotely like that before but for some reason Darth felt that a dvd auction was fair game because of my opinions. Jesus - that because of my opinions ( or Darth's perceptions of my opinions) someone could just say "I will bid and then haggle."? And you find that acceptable? (I truly wish I could retract that but ebay does not allow it. Best I could do was remove Darth form my banned list.) Now I feel bad I would have bought that DVD, you know, and at the price I won it for. I'm not a total jerk especially on eBay where you could neg me for such behavior. I was using that to make a point (I guess not clear enough) about how you were comdemning (in my impression from your posts) dealers for selling comics and I just lumped you in with the diehard bargain hunting comic constiuents that feel "entitled" to the best deal they can get at the expense of the seller. And I don't mean a reasonable deal here...the kind where it's "the closest to FREE as you can make it, otherwise you are just a scummy seller ripping me off and I'll tell that to everyone who wants to hear me". I never said you should be "scared to death" of me - I don't posture or make physical threats here (maybe challenge comic wiz to a comic box bench-off at most ) - the words were "I can understand that you would be SCARED TO DEAL with me" If you will let me I will re-bid on your DVD, I'll gladly pay up when and if I win Who can't use a Sopranos first season on DVD? I may start using that kind of talk around here more often

Gene - you and CI should both take a lesson or two from the "banana box" bulk comic auction seller, take pictures of your boxes, a couple goodies or two and unload in a bargain bulk deal...set the reserve at $15000 and start the bids at $0.01 - get the thrill bidders all over it... Remember to plagarize some of that seller hype and "cheese" that those guys use too...throw in somthing about a repo man coming to take your car awayand having to sell...gets 'em everytime Or you can always consign to guys like me and bronzebruce who make the time to post on ebay or sell on the side...

I could take some after-hours consulting and make far more per hour than selling funny books I didn't know one could profit so well from "doom and gloom" consulting? You must be a guidance counselor with your unique outlook on the future You da man, CI!

"Quis videt custodes?" is right. I don't chastise you for that. You may be looking out for your friends which is cool, but others may need to learn for themselves what the hype is all about and may actually get into it. I think that too strong of a warning may scare them off completely from even checking out the CGC phenomenon. I'm just wondering if you flip your unwanted books? If not, why not? You have the resources, knowledge, and potential marketbase of great sellers like ReynoldJay and Bronzebruce to back you up. Can't you consign through them? If you know that these books are going down in value, why are you still holding on to them...release while you still can get something for them, I thought this was the whole point of your me page "rant". I would be truly impressed if all the people (not just you Gene, maybe CI too) that claim CGC has "had it" out there on eBay, with the rare exception of hi-grade gold, silver and bronze, put your goods where they are and get out of the market. Liquidate already...I'm waiting for all your stock! I know, Gene, you have some nice books that you've outbid me on. Dump 'em. The prices are all going down the tubes anyway...

You must be kidding me. Darth - 95-98% of the auctions I bid on are just to track the market. Sometimes I make multiple bids to keep things interesting. Almost everything CGC that I really want, I have already accumulated. These days, I mostly just buy new issues for my reading pleasure and am looking to fill in a couple of runs and upgrade a few books. sorry about the sour grapes comment. I believe you I think however you are breaking one of the "collector"'s unwritten commandments: Thou shalt not bid unless you intend on buying (not make it interesting). Otherwise you are driving the price up on another fellow collector...

But I know there are people out there playing Russian roulette with their savings, betting big on comics as an investment vehicle. And I know that there are dealers out there spurring them on with Movie Hype voodoo and other dubious arguments. You are just like CI here, playing comic industry guardian angel? Don't take this wrong but who appointed you? Who appointed us, sellers in general? I believe in protecting the customer from outright fraud and deception and any illegality, but come on, here's where I use the "I can't hold everyone's hand" argument...what people do with their savings is their business. Tell all the casinos and gambling houses to close down because people are throwing their lives away. See how inane and futile that seems? I do...

Hey, I'm a capitalist first and a comic collector second. But I'm NOT going to make spurrious arguments to the buyer like "this book is going to soar if Daredevil breaks $150 million domestic at the box office". Absolutely perfect sense there, and if you see me using that, then slap me one. I do throw a line in that the Spideys movie's success has increased demand on the USM books, but that's true. So I guess there is a fine line as to what can be said and respected. As Kevthe mev says and I agree with is that hype is part of marketing and you as the knowledgeable buyer must be able to weed out all its influence b4 buying a product.

Now why would we want to burn these folks by fomenting speculative excess that will inevitably lead to a bust? Once again, opinion. I don't believe we are burning anyone. or at least I'm not, IMO. If you feel that way, that I'm "ripping off speculator fools" to line my own pockets then I'll just have to deal with that. Your idea of a reasonable price may not agree with mine, or my buyers, but is no reason to condemn that. Maybe people just have more disposable income now. If this crash comes, won't the comic industry still survive? It did after the Valiant craze. I haven't always been there for comics, collecting year in and year out, but when I needed or wanted to go back to it...it was still there.

As I write my auctions, I page through the books, re-read some, do a lot of smiling and then talk about the stories in every single auction I post. Funny you should mention this...I do the exact same thing! Probably why I list about 3 new auctions everyweek and the majority of "quickies" are relists of multiple copies. For example, I just re-read Lucas Cage's Origin in Hero for Hire 1 and when he first met Iron Fist, actually fights him, in Power Man 48...two issues later the title becomes Power Man and Iron Fist! Now with Modern books, I read them once they come out on Wednesday and store 'em . It's these older ones that I love to "rediscover" Happy reading Joanna!

I just realized what we had our first fight over...my calling restos "frankenstien books" and the fact that I wouldn't acknowledge the distinction between light restoration such as spinal roll removal and C&P vs. heavy resto, like CT and tear seals, staple replacement, solution wash... Honestly, I would not listen to anything I had to say about restoration, as I've never had one restored book, never bought one, never known anyone to do any, can't recognize shaved books and for the most part deal only in modern books that would not be restored anyway.

The wise voice of reason has spoken Thanks Kev - duly noted and will lighten up. Poverty...just don't get me rambling again...

Pov- taking kev's advice in mind, let me try this sans vitriol... Right now that "market" seems to be on a downslide. This is opinion relative to which part of the market you are looking at. Supply has gone up for certain books in higher grade, therefore demand has also decreased once sated. I think you will agree that the prophecies of a year or two ago where "any cgc in the 9's is going to break records" (and several "authorities" were making that prophecy) are now defunct. I agree to a certain extent, but not enough was known about CGC back then to make a qualified informed statement. Maybe if someone said "any CGC'd key issue in the 9.6 and up range is going to break records" they would have been closer to the money. The CGC phenomena has proven what has only been specualated about for some time. I am not sure why there even WAS speculation, since comic collecting as a "hobby" with some force has been going on since the mid-sixties. But what has happened is that the 9.0 and the 9.2 were supplanted by the 9.4 - and now the 9.4 is often not good enough and the 9.6 and above are where the current market is I agree here 100%. With the increase of supply of available higher grades, the market has shifted, but isn't that natural? I don't know enough economics to make the informed call there. More people are using CGC and doesn't that foster the collecting hobby when all is said and done? Those issues locked away in collections would have stayed there if not for the impetus of providing a higher standardized grade key in better condition than anyone else. It will last as long as someone is willing to buy CGC books and someone is wiling to sell them. Maybe I was overboard, and it's all in my head, but you just rub me the wrong way...I've gotten into it with you on another occassion and I'm not about to waste my time digging up old wounds just to get ammo on you as to why I don't think you are in favor of CGC sellers making a buck. And if you hold me in such a light as to take my comment about tampering with your auction seriously, then you already have a formed low opinion of me...what's the point in changing that. You want emoticons?

This is what ticked me off tonight...care to explain that there was no sarcasm in that quip? I'm glad you "love" comic collecting and reading. That is positive and applaudable. Whether you ban me on your auctions or not is your call. You taking that "haggling bit" literally is ridiculous, but I can see where you would be scared to deal with me.

Not at all. Some of my favorite folks are comic dealers from the old school. the ones who know that the phases are just that and that maintaining real standard So no new dealers/sellers are worth a damn? I guess this is the "bunion" that you keep stepping on. Maintaining the real standard - come on with that load of . It's just because they don't sell CGC books at your so called "outrageous" multiples of NM guide that you "respect" them. Don't you think they would if they could? Too bad if you actually cancel my bid, as I actually do come through an pay for all my auctions regardless of what I think of the seller personally. Everytime, I see you come out with a post, touting your "I ,collector, holier than thou, lowly seller" attitude, it will get you a nice "flying off to hell and back" post. Plain and simple, guess I just don't like you. Do you see me flying off the handle for anyone else (maybe CI, but not as of late) ? Maybe it's the latent disdain in your retorts to my posts that incite such a flow of bile from my innards into these forum posts. No law says I have to like you. Currently I don't. Big deal. It's late and you are getting me cranky again.

No, what's wrong with loving both??? Money and reading comics? One can't provide a service and enjoy the books as well? Someone has got to sell you the books you read, right? Go to your Barnes and noble or Waldenbooks then? Oh that's right ...they don't sell comics? Darn, guess you'll have to deal with those morally deficient comic sellers on eBay... That attitude is what I got on you about. God forbid someone sells comics for a living...they are instant scum for doing exactly that - selling...for a living.... yeah and I'm one of those people who enjoy a good comic as well. Just because I sell them, in your worldview, this prior statement of mine can not be... For some reason people like you feel entitled to own the very best of everything and should be handed to you. Don't work hard for anything, anytime you have to exert yourself, it becomes too much so you complain and whine until someone takes care of you. Should I sell you all my comics regardless of market demand and value at their 15 cent, 20 cent cover price? Short of this, nothing will stop "people like oyu" from person_without_enough_empathyin and moanin... Sometimes I just get fed up...this exercise is futile..You beleive one way and I another.. Yeah I just bid on your Sopranos DVD...hope I win. SO then I can haggle the price with you because I as a customer and DVD collector should be "entitled" to the cheapest price possible for the love of my hobby...

why not? What's with the question? What don't you get? Oh yes, another collector first and foremost...

Knowing what you know about me, what is your prescribed cure for my "lameness"??? Submit my mid-low grade Silvers and Bronzes and sell those for less than grading cost? That's all I have. How am I going to compete or break into the market that guys like Native, blazing bob, and meth have cornered with their hi-grade 9.2 and up old key issues? Even Bronze is taken with sullypython, bronzebruce and reynold jay's wares.... My moderns are the only real high grade I own that can turn a real buck or two in resale. Please play devil's advocate as the new retailer here, and given your knowledge on the market and where money is to be made, and share...just like I've been doing with my experience....without the unnecessary judgement on "lameness" please...

Short of having my buyers fill out an affidavit swearing that they are not buying this book for the CGC Investment craze, I know of no possible practical method to avoid contributing to this so-called "fleecing"? I'm not giving away the darn books either...

I'm a collector first and foremost and a market pundit second. That Gene is why you spout your rhetoric the way you do and I do things the way I do. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=721311811 I've started to update my hype and point more to the writing and art's appeal for the comic, but I still and will continue to use the "movie hype" to sell my books, and feel no shame or moral/ethical qualms in doing so. In this day and age where there is still a high percentage of American illiteracy and the majority of daily stimulation occurs visually, I believe in MARKETING an angle that a majority can connect to. If this means appealing to what has been recently touted and "hyped" by the media, Time, Newsweek, CNN, Wizard, CBG, etc. ad nauseam, then so be it. Gene, I have no problem with you or your me page. You can post however you want, live and let live is my motto. You are not doing anything to promote the hobby as a collector by being so negative, but as a collector, regardless of how much you make or can afford, you are out to serve yourself first and foremost and would like to get your books as low as possible. Let me ask you, if you are so against this effect of movie hype on the industry, would you turn down the offer for one of your books you can let go if the offer was a high multiple of NM guide, just so you can say you are a man of principle? I think not. When it comes to comics, I beleive every man has his price that he will sell at. I think the best advice is not to get in over your head. Bid and pay what you feel comfortable with and even if the market crashes (or has crashed, though I see nor feel any evidence of this, personally), then you have what you wanted to gain - a nice collection that you paid sensibly for. Sour grapes for everyone beating you out on your bids is seen as just that: sour grapes. You and I bump heads often on auctions, especially USM/UXM junk, but I bear no ill will at all, as that is the name of the game. As for speculators and investors, some may know what they are doing, some may not, but it is still a free country to do as they choose and see fit, barring any illegalities. If you are as patient as you say you are, then bear these folks no ill will and wait until the crash arrives and snap up all the books you want to collect. You don't seem to keep in mind that to get these books graded is a costly expense and selling them goes towards someone's livelihood. Dealers do not serve the bargain buyers like yourself solely and have to chase sales elsewhere. If you want to be my sole source of income, and provide me capital to keep giving you bargains on key graded issues, my family would probably starve in the span of 2 weeks.

If speculating in modern hulks...I would go for the McFarlane run and David run...still plentiiful in great shape, nice art!

Excellent point Odin? How do those companies that cater to the autograph minded fit into this view, such as Dynamic Forces, or Jay and Company. They have the connections to get those sigs. should we think they are basement COA pirates overall, faking their wares?

ASM 300 CGc 9.4 White = $50 and that's conservative