VintageComics

I like to be generous with people but it all has to remain within the limits of my own conscience, which is really the perfect barometer when someone isn't owed ANYTHING. Yep. Without that story line that Zeck page would be a bird cage liner somewhere. Well, not really but you know what I mean. Excellent example and you absolutely contributed to the rise in pulp interest. The ideology that everyone is owed something is destructive at it's final conclusion and the only reason it's appealing on it's face is a humanitarian desire to be 'fair' and kind, but I've always said that 'too much kindness is not a good thing' and you have to draw a line between what people are owed, and what you want to give them If you blur that line, you're philosophically destroying concepts that have got civilization to where we are now, and creating a precedent that will devolve it. What came first? The kind heart or the unkind one? Until you can answer that 'chicken and the egg' question you can't solve the problem of inequality.

And just so that people don't think I'm an Ogre, if I'd got the $3.8MIL check for selling that piece, I would likely cut a chunk of change to Mike Zeck as a thank you. How much? I don't know. I don't think he's OWED A SINGLE DIME but I think most good hearted people would do something for the guy.

I haven't seen the last few Avengers related movies. I thought they were all pretty bad and didn't look appealing. I'll have to watch Endgame again to really know how I feel. It was so-so to me the 1st time around, but I was tired. I think a lot of the new movies are missing the inspiration that the 1st ones had and are churning out a lot of garbage. DC movies are even worse. My kids and I walked out of Suicide Squad it was so bad. I do think that a mutant movie series could go either way, depending on how much they pander to various groups. I'm expecting them to be bad, actually. I like to keep my expectations low as I get older.

Of the movies or the value of the comics? I know the movies will crush. They're probably the most popular franchise Marvel owns and have been a fan favorite for over 40 years.If they build an MCU the way they did with Avengers this could be huge, just like the Avengers run was. I was speaking more towards whether people think an already hot comic market on X books can get any hotter.

It's going to take dump? What are you talking about? No, I'm torn as to what will happen when X-men movies start appearing with the rest of the Marvel characters. I've been talking with some friends and I'm not sure. Some think the title has more legs while others think the run of the last year has maxed it out. It's unprecedented territory.

What do you guys think is going to happen when Marvel starts releasing mutant material?

Prices only drop when people oversell and if comics were mostly bought with discretionary income, most people won't sell unless they have to, Especially the wealthy. Having been back into comics full time for only 20 years, even in those 20 years I've seen lots of up and down cycles, but the down cycles were a shift in focus, plateaus and minor pull backs only to march forward again. I think short of a cataclysmic meltdown in the world economy, you're not going to see prices cut dramatically across the board. The wealthy are going to stay wealthy unless they do something dumb.

It's not a round about way. It's a 100% direct correlation. People need to stop sugar coating things. Sure, the little guys with $600 a week didn't buy a GSX #1 CGC 9.8 but you might be unaware of how much money millionaires got when they didn't actually need it. And we can't talk about the pandemic here, but I'll just say that you are 100% wrong. Not sure what you mean by 'turned around'? I'm not a 'big player'. When I'm in LA I hang out at the Whiskey, the Rainbow and the Viper. Those are at the base of the Hollywood Hills and I've driven through them to sight see. Anybody can.

The common people have no idea how much of that stimulus money was used fraudulently. The LA Lakers got caught taking $4MIL and then handed it back when caught. Just imagine how many people with lower profiles didn't get caught. Like I said, I know a guy with a jewelry store and they were having massive government checks literally signed over to buy jewelry. They had to stop taking them, they were coming in so fast. What we've seen is just another massive wealth transfer from the poor to the rich, and the poor will be paying for it forever.

For sure. For us poorer folks, that money we didn't spend eating out gets spent on other things like comics. But those things didn't cause GSX #1 to be an $80K book or AF #15 to be a $3.6MIL book. There are millionaires out there who profited from the pandemic and the stimulus money in ways we can't imagine and it's those people who drove the market on big purchases.

Yes, but money also lost it's value because people had more of it. That's how economics works. More supply = less value.

Correct. Stimulus had pretty much nothing to do with it. As oakman said, there are other things people have taken up due to Covid. For a while you just could not buy a new bicycle. Stores were just caught short. And yes guitars. Has anyone else who has to do zoom calls how many are in the background? Pre-pandamic, Gibson Guitars and Guitar Center were close to bankruptcy. Due to the more electronic and vocal style type of current music, kids just wern’t playing like my generation. My local guitar store is always very busy now. Covid has seriously affected our daily lives more than we can imagine. Life will return to normal when it finally passes. Actually, stimulus money has a lot to do with it. You can't print trillions into an economy and expect it to not have an effect. That's ludicrous amounts of money and we've normalized it. The main reason we're experiencing the worst inflation in 40 years is because of this, and yet people wave it off and it's become normalized. It's not normal. It's insane. Stimulus money was not just lower class people getting a few $100 a week and spending it on beer and weed at home because they couldn't go out. Sure, my musician friends in LA have never been happier, getting more money to stay home than to play gigs, and they had their rent paid as well. But the bigger companies and small businesses ALSO got stimulus money and many got more than they needed. That ended up pouring BILLIONS into the economy as these people spent money they didn't really need. My restaurant and bar owner friends, who got lots of stimulus money all tell me with a wink that 'they did really well' and 'have no complaints' I have friends in LA that tell me all sorts of stories about how wealthy people were coming in and cashing 5 and 6 figure checks to buy jewelry for themselves. If you drive around the Hollywood Hills where the ultra wealthy live, you could see that almost every other home was either a new build or getting renos that cost so much, would be enough for me and you to retire on. So, from our perspective it doesn't sound right that someone would get a few extra $100 a week to spend and the market would rise, but the wealthy got WAY more than we did and they did spend it. Also, $1-2Trillion in Crypto money was pulled from the market last year. That money also came out of nothing and we saw more millionaires come into existence than any other time in history. THAT money went into the economy as well. One of them bought the Staples Center name and named it after themselves. So, stimulus money ABSOLUTELY is the most likely cause for the cost of EVERYTHING going up and anybody who tells you otherwise has looked at the big picture.

Moms notified.

This is what everyone in the hobby wanted, right? Everyone wants comics to be more valuable. My momma always said, be careful what you wish for.

My mom told me the world is a cold place.

He was being sarcastic.

Hence why I didn't say 'every'. You are always on my mind.

It's just that it makes you wonder how deep and authentic the market really is, or if it's just a big shell game between a few deep pocketed players to create the appearance of ever increasing prices. I don't understand this logic. Nearly every dealer in the hobby with the exception of maybe a few isolated people either were or still are collectors. And nearly every collector is now a dealer. So your point doesn't make sense.

Gang, I'm open to reasonable offers on these books.

It did. It was a headache at the time, but it did go through. One day I'll tell the entire story.

I had a dealer stand over my shoulder once as I was doing a big deal with another dealer. I was a bit irritated because I know how some dealers can be, trying to back door people. Afterwards, I had a talk with the dealer who was watching and he assured me he'd never, ever back door someone. I became friends with this dealer, and sure enough he's about as honorable as they come. He just wanted to watch, nothing more. Fast forward a few years and some lies started to come out about my deal and how it went down, mainly because the seller had seller's remorse and rumors started circulating about me and how the deal went down. While I normally don't like it when someone is watching me look at a book, I'm so thankful on that particular deal someone was watching, because it did actually blow up after and I had someone who had my back after.

I actually put a slight bend into every one of my fullbacks. Vertical and convex (when looked at from the front). True story.

This might be the funniest thing you've ever posted. Even greggy might give it 1 star.

This is a very helpful community. If he shares some information there are many people who would be glad to help. The post and run and the vague info is a little disconcerting.

The homeless problem is truly brutal. Warm climates attract the homeless because they can sleep anywhere so the West coast is prime real estate for them and LA is a gold mine. Lots of money, drugs and perfect weather. I don't dislike homeless people. I actually know several in my neck of the woods and keep in touch with them, but it is a very difficult problem to tackle. I don't know that I've ever seen a homeless problem like I have in LA. I've watched it grow from small pockets of tents to literally tents everywhere in the last year or two. Lining tourist areas, over and under freeways. Literally tent villages in some areas. When I was in LA they cleared up Venice Beach. There was literally MILES of homeless tents along the boardwalk, one after the next and then one day they were all gone.