Doktor

Rom is probably never going to happen. Especially with IDW currently publishing it. But even that... the people that are buying the current Rom title from IDW and their insane mega-event with Transformers & MASK and GI Joe and Rom and everything else all mixed together? Those properties are all owned by a couple different companies, aren't they? So if I was buying them from.... say... Comixology... and 5 years from now, Hasbro or whoever changes the license on Transformers but keeps GI Joe with IDW, all those comics you "bought" right NOW during this event, unless you've downloaded them to your local device, they will simply vanish from your collection. Because IDW isn't allowed to continue licensing them or distributing them (which is what they do every time you download it or re-download it or even simply "stream" it to your devices) and all you've done with a digital copy is essentially purchased the right to use their digital license according to the terms of that publisher's contract with the rights holder, and it expires when their license does as well. In practical terms, this would be like someone from Marvel coming into your house to go pull all the old issues of GI Joe you bought in the 80's out of your long boxes. Obviously they can't do this, but the reason why (aside from the practical issue of this being impossible to do that) is because you own the paper bundle that it's printed on, but you're obviously bound by only "fair use" rules on what can be done with the content contained in that paper bundle. But with digital, you're just leasing the rights to access the content for an indeterminate period of time.

Additionally, the problem with digital is that you don't "own" it in the same way as you do with physical formats. You can go over to your long box and re-read anything you want that you bought at the time of release or go pick up back issues of stuff you missed, but if the publisher or distributor (which is what Marvel Unlimited is, a distribution system) loses the rights to distribute or publish it, you lose the right to be able to read or re-read it with services like Unlimited. Unless you have it saved locally, any cloud based services is only as good as their current rights deals. It's like Netflix. They don't care if you're in the middle of re-watching the X-Files. They lose the rights because that contract ended, so you can't finish it. I mean, think of old back-issues of Micronauts or Rom? Wanna read it digital or in TPB or whatever? Too bad. The rights are complicated & Marvel can't reprint it or distribute it digitally unless they work out an agreement.

Only of books older then 6 months. Marvel Unlimited is fine for back issues, but if you want to in any way stay up to date, you're paying the same as you would for print.

got my shipping notification on the gold today.

I asked him on twitter & he said that the only cause for the delay in shipping was that it took a lot longer to get out the ASM 25 variant sets then expected. I had asked if there was a printing delay with my initial question, so I don't think the delay was due to waiting for a "fixed" reprinted interior portion.

In fairness, Axel had a rather lengthly tenure at Vertigo somewhere in there. And then was senior editor at Marvel when he jumped over there shortly after JoeQ took over as EIC. So it's not like he didn't have a series of successful titles that he oversaw prior to being named EIC when Joe got promoted to CCO. That said, everything else you wrote was legit. This does stem from him. He's the one that makes the hiring decisions. (and has blacklisted everyone with a "differing" political opinion from working for Marvel) And ignoring all that, he's the one that's overseen a company that had a writing pool of Millar, BKV, Brubaker, Fraction, Hickman, Bendis, Ellis, Ennis, Rucka, Remender, and more & are down to Bendis & a bunch of nobodies now. A lot of writing talent has jumped ship under his watch.

The thing is, I don't think they care. Nick Spencer is the exact kinda guy that the current regime likes & the only types they hire currently (ask Chuck Dixon about even trying to get work at Marvel sometime). The guy is a failed political hack turned comics writer. Sometime around 2008-2012, the culture changed there. They went from focusing on story & leaving their personal politics to themselves (even when the story was relatively political, it was mostly kept pretty vague) to being pretty vocal about it, in the media, their social media, & their product. And while the publishing division is a small part of the Marvel brand at this point & an even smaller part of the Disney brand, I doubt being that politically active in such a public manner goes un-noticed by the Disney higher-ups. If they had any interest in stopping it, they would have already. I mean, until 2008 or 2012, I didn't know the first thing about Bendis or JoeQ or anyone elses politics there, but now I don't even follow them on twitter anymore because it's a constant deluge from them and everyone else with an even relatively important position at Marvel. There's no way that Disney doesn't notice it, and if they cared, they'd have stopped it already.

Fair enough. I just refuse to buy anything with Nick Spencer's name on it because he's such an obvious political hack. Not much else I can do personally.

Just try to remember that in 5 years, Nick Spencer will be to 20-teens Marvel what Chuck Austen was to mid-00's Marvel. A name that will be only spoken in hushed tones & quietly swept from the history books. And maybe, just maybe, we get my wish: Franklin Richards wakes up after a really intense fever dream and we find out in a full-on "bobby ewing stepping out of the shower" moment, that everything from about 6 months before Civil War 1 was a really really bad hallucination from being super sick with a Skrull Flu or something.

Make sure you save the email from him which states that he planned to offer it to you again (but conveniently for him, didn't) because of the international bidders BS. Since he cancelled the auction under the premise that the book was no longer in stock or lost. I mean, not only do we know that it's BS, but he admits that the reason he told eBay that he cancelled the order was a lie. This will likely prevent him from being able to get the neg removed.

Fair enough. I just recognize that any book I might be buying, while I might want it, I also know that it's only one of thousands of them out there. And there's no real scarcity. I'm super patient with books. So if I have to get inconvenienced once in a while because the seller sucks at packing or shipping, while getting the book I want at the price I want and doing the deal in a way that I prefer, then so be it. For instance, I hate negotiating, so anytime I'm at a show & a dealer has a book I want but puts that 20% "negotiating room" bump onto the price so that they can really sell it to me for the real price, I just walk away & go elsewhere. And if I don't buy anything because everyone in the room has that same price bump built in? So be it. I just hate doing that dance to get to the real price. I just want to look at a price and buy or not. It's also why I only buy a car once every 10 years or so & do my own labor. If I could just build my own car, I would. I hate that negotiating dance. I can do it & do it well. I just don't like it so I avoid it when I can. And it's the same for buying a book. I don't want to see how the sausage is made. Have 1 price. That's the price I'm considering. Not a penny more or less. And I'll decide form there if I want to buy it. And after that, it's on the seller to get it to me in good order. If they don't? Then I just get my money back & move on to someone that can keep the deal simple AND hopefully get the book to me in good order.

I actually avoid most of the auction houses for this reason. I rarely buy from CLink or anything else because of all the fees added on afterwards. It's obviously not penny-auction level fees & charges, but it's pretty damn close. And as for buying a high-priced comic & needing to know if they know anything about proper shipping/packaging? That's what Paypal & ebay buyer protection is for. I don't have any significant risk. Worst case? The seller sucks at packaging & I get my money back. That sounds like a them-problem, not a me-problem.

I prefer having it folded into the BIN price on a high-priced book/slab. At least then, there's slightly less of a "how the sausage is made" feel to it. When I see the breakdown of the price for the book & the price of the shipping & the price of insurance & blah blah blah, I get less interested. I just wanna see the flat rate for purchase.

No total numbers available for the Jean Grey set? Plus the Blue set had a 10% print run over the initial order for the Gold set? Plus the Gold set got a print run boost? Plus it still hasn't shipped a week after the scheduled shipping date? Hard pass. It wasn't even a book I was really looking forward to either.

LOL! Pull off the wheels, install furniture feet and it's no longer a rolling tool chest. Problem solved.

Maybe see if you can find some architects drawers for blueprints. They're like very very shallow filing cabinets or tool cabinets that you can go maybe 1-2 books stacked and about 3-4 wide and sometimes even 2 deep in the drawers. And they generally have about a dozen or more drawers in the cabinet. Plus, you can use it as a table as well.

Nothing terribly amazing, but I managed to find this somehow at $3. Not in perfect shape and it has a really unpleasant fold like someone rolled it up in half of something down the middle, but with a press, it'll be pretty ok. And at $3, I wasn't complaining.

I still think that's what Nick Spencer is trying to do with his career. Nuke it by stuffing so much of his propaganda into it so he can get back into politics (that was where he came from) from the headlines & attention that his crappy political hackery attempts at comic writing creates. or maybe that's just my hope that he goes away & becomes the Chuck Austen of the twenty-teens.

Not yet. Haven't gotten anything on the X-Men Gold yet.

It's like a movie that just keeps getting remade & remade and remade here & it's good every time: Seller tries to cancel an order because the price ends up low with a BS excuse. Bidder/buyer posts here. And pretty much universally ends up getting the same advice to just neg & move on. Seller doubles down on their stubbornness instead of back-tracking & being like "oh wait, I found the book. Pay for it & I'll ship tomorrow morning. Sorry bud!" to save their reputation. Seller finds out about the CGC boards thread. Still doesn't backtrack. Opts to take umbrage with it instead. Seller nukes their reputation by the end of the thread. When will these guys learn... don't auction things without reserve or with a starting point below your lowest accepted price. And if you screw up & do it, don't offer BS excuses. Just sell the stupid book for the price you got for it. It never ends well for them.

That's something that Brevvort had been pushing for, for a long time already. Essentially aping the TV model of "seasons". He was talking about it on his Twitter & Tumblr accounts for about a year (from right before he was made VP of publishing until about 10 months later) right before Marvel switched over to a constant-relaunch system. Except that they neglected to note the season # on the cover alongside the issue #. Maybe that would help? Because as it stands, without digging into the indicia for a publishing year or using some online service, if you have any of a few different Wolverine or Punisher volume #1's in a box at a store or a con, the customer can't tell "is this the one I need for this run? Or is this a variant? Or a one-shot? Or what?" But either way, this has been Marvel's attempt to ape the TV "season" model in comic form because they thought it was less "intimidating" for potential new readers, not realizing that in creating "jumping on points" for these mythological "new readers", it created a lot of "jumping off points" for existing readers.

I differentiate between my forms of entertainment: passive entertainment (movies/music/tv/etc) I can live with digital versions. Active entertainment (books/comics/etc), I need physical versions. Sure, I will throw some books on my iPad when traveling so I don't need to carry 2 or 3 or 4 books or a stack of comics in my bag or while sitting on a beach or an airplane or something, but for home reading, it's gotta be a physical copy.

Neg him & move on. And if he contacts you to try to convince you to withdraw the neg? Only agree if he sells it to you at your winning bid price. Otherwise? Let him live with the neg. It's a great looking book but screw that guy.

How it took them 3 movies to finally use Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song is beyond me. It seems like it was tailor made for getting used in a Thor trailer. But especially with the slightly GotG vibe that this movie is gonna have (similar space craziness stuff), it fits perfectly.

any apology that comes out of this will be back-handed & half-assed. Probably blaming the people that said "isn't that kinda not cool in an X-book?" for finding it or taking issue with it. And something about supporting their creators' rights to free speech or something.