VintageComics

People always say this but pricing doesn't happen in a vacuum. You wouldn't walk into a car dealership and pay $100K for a $50K just because you feel like it. People pay based on past market performance.

This is very different than GPA being Gospel. It's now recording erroneous prices which skew data even worse than anything previous. And I've noticed that several sellers are specifically looking for GPA highs on their goods, making it even more difficult to buy books at reasonable prices. This is not good.

Greg, thanks for doing the honors. I recruited a few people in SD but forgot to make the post here on the chat forum. Joe from @Superworld should be there as well. GAtor told me he's in. Since we're not putting on a music show this year count me in as well! I've been working on my crossover.... @Bighaley21 said he might make it. Anybody else?

Thanks, Harry!

And that's another factor that doesn't come across in a scan. When a book feels and smells like it's brand new, that it can add to the grade because it adds appeal to the book. The grade is not just about technical defects but also factors in things that you can't see or feel through a scan or a slab. So if you have a tweener that little extra might be just enough for a grader to think it's a nicer book on a given day.

I don't disagree with you Roy, with the only exception being that I've been on other collectible forums with active marketplaces where the "I'll take it" rule would have kept things a lot more honest, and sellers bound to their own rules. Having a seller back out because someone else, who happened to be a friend, closer to them location-wise, or even offered more just to have the piece, would have been a very welcome rule in other online marketplaces, especially since there was no probation system in place to keep transactions fair and honest for everyone. I can easily count on one hand the amount of times where I had a seller subvert the PM system to pit buyers against one another, and if an "I'll take it" option existed there, I would have saved myself a lot more money in at least a couple of instances where the seller sold it higher than their original asking. I do agree that there will be rare situations (like this one) where common sense would dictate a commitment needed to be honoured the minute payment terms and details were exchanged, but I wanted to offer a different perspective on why I think there's a level of transparency that needed with the "I'll take it" that should be considered. I guess in a perfect world but most of the time when there is tomfoolery going on, someone is outed at some point or that info makes it's way out at some point.

From what I understood that book didn't sell. And it's not on their site any longer.

It's impossible to say. The current comic market doesn't follow any previous logic or historical value. They only follow whatever big money is pumping on TV this week. Thor could easily become more valuable than Hulk one day or it could easily never be more valuable. I agree with @namisgr Thor had great story telling. And I've heard (but can't remember the source) that it was Kirby's favorite to draw. Certain the art can be magical in those stories. It was my last big SA collecting endeavor before I became a full time seller. Love Thor. And Hulk #1.

I don't disagree. We had this discussion years ago when Spider-Dan had a similar issue in his sales thread. The rules are the rules. But I still think it's a very unusual rule and I only think it's used because other people copy it from old sales thread. There's no logical reason for that rule and it's actually caused more problems than good over the years. Personally, I think the sales forum rules should be amended to include that any made commitment needs to be honored regardless of how it sells.

I don't know whether it was edited in or not (and if so, when it was edited in, in relation to the 1st sale to GG) but I still think this is a silly rule. Who cares whether the book sells in the thread, in a PM, via text or through a phone call? The important thing is that it should sell to the 1st person who reaches an agreement with the seller and the seller SHOULD honor that agreement or that seller will likely be tarred and feathered by the chat forum.

No it did not, and it has already been established that the seller has told a couple of porkies in this regard. I posted the exact pm regarding the sale. It's there to read. Kav is peaking out of either ignorance or stupidity or both, or just a desire to stir the pot. Well, if that's the case then the seller went back on his word. Not something that is taken lightly around here (as I said, this isn't eBay - what you do actually matters).

So, like, it's like high school prom? If you post a selfie with your new dress for prom online nobody else can buy the same dress? But I agree. People dress up to try to be unique. If you manage a costume that nobody else has thought of yet, you're more unique than the next person for a show or two until it catches on. Oh, the heavy weight of 15 seconds of fame. How burdensome it can be to attain it.

Unless you have already stated that an in the thread must be posted to consummate the sale. That's a good point. Silly rule as a commitment is a commitment but according to the rule of law, yes that would be true. I didn't bother checking his sales thread. Did it state that?

This place isn't eBay. When you commit to something you're supposed to follow through with what you committed and tell the 2nd buyer that the book sold privately. As for mot shipping internationally, I just don't understand why some people in the US have a problem shipping to Canada, especially if it's a well established board member.

That was exactly my point. Pop culture is not only about the quality of the product, it's about the palette or landscape that it's brought to market on. Elvis, the Beatles, etc were all brought out at a time when there were less people , less competition and they were outrageous for their time. Today everyone is outrageous. It's much harder to stand out in a crowd that way. When Marvel hit the scene reading was a primary form of entertainment. Now there are a zillion other distractions. So for someone to be really popular today, they need to stand out of the current crowd they are in. I can think of an example in the current world but I can't mention it without getting zapped by the mods for politics.

That's what I tried to say. Although I will say that Comic Connect's pics don't do their books justice IMO. Their pics look a bit dark IMO.

The best you can expect is to try to take a pic in bright sunlight but find an angle for the camera and the book with the least amount of glare possible. The sunlight give you the best color saturation and means you don't have to use a flash. Comic Connect and some other dealers use a photo set up specially set up to take photos of slabs. If you can't use a special photo set up a legal scanner is the way to go (make sure you get the right one that captures slabs correctly).

It's like comparing Silver Age comics story quality to Bronze Age comics story quality. Both are great in their respective eras but society itself changed in those decades, as did everything else. Trying to compare the story in a JIM #85 to Thor #337 would be preposterous. Both are great.

Over the years there has been plenty of complaining about grades from certification services and some of it IMO is warranted and some isn't. People expect a 9.4 book to be perfect. It isn't. You can have a variety of defects on a 9.4 book depending on how deep, long, prominent and distracting they are. Those defects can range from corner creases to spine stresses , to tears, small pre chips, etc (or an accumulation of them - yes, even on NM range books) Comparing a scan of a 9.4 to a scan of an 8.5 is also not a valid indicator. You can have an 8.5 book that looks like it's a 9.8 but a water stain on the inside keeps the grade down - and yet people will swear the book is undergraded. Most of the talk of how a book is drastically over graded is based on people looking at digital scans on a digital screen. Digital scans can be deceptive - just read up on all the grading contests here. People call 9.4 books 7.5 and visa versa. Why? Because in the process of converting an image into binary code, digital scans can introduce defects (or hide) that are not actually on the books themselves. Meanwhile the book has passed through the hands of several experienced graders. The real test to me personally is how I would personally grade a book if it was mine and then sending the book off to CGC to see if it gets the same grade. After studying CGC grades for about 15 years I think I have a pretty good handle on how CGC grades and my accuracy percentage is pretty high (just check my kudos thread for raw book sales. )

Are you guys really comparing Star Trek to Star Wars? Both have cult followings but it's an unfair comparison. It's like comparing the commercial success of Chuck Berry to Jimmy Page, even though both were great. Different eras, apples and oranges.

I feel for you because I understand that some people just don't like the haggle aspect. In some parts of the world like in the mid and far East it's actually a way of life. They haggle EVERYTHING. But back on track, it's actually not about making buyers feel like they "got a deal" It's done because no matter how cheap you price a book people will still come along and try to haggle or wear you down on price. Even if the book is a screaming steal and they are looking at a gift horse in the mouth, people will haggle. So dealers build in a little cushion in preparation for this. Plus, sometimes a buyer comes along and just pays full price because they don't care. It's rare but it has happened to me.

That's unfortunate, because most of the market is priced to expect negotiating. There are very few sellers who price books, especially desirable ones at prices they expect to move them at out the door.

They will if you can slab them.

I wonder if Brent will be there?

Wizard Returns As A Magazine, With Brian Walton As EIC Really? OK, so it's just a quarterly mag with digital daily news. But still, really?