VintageComics

I would have expected the 9.0 to dip in the upper 40s. I thought it would had eked a bit above $50K It sold cheap. Agreed. I spoke to the owner last week (at least he told me he was the previous owner for the 9.0) and although I didn't follow the auction or this thread I immediately thought someone got the book cheap. I'd have paid $38K for that book without batting an eye.

That is what the companies with soft bids are hoping for. The soft bid allows more time and flexibility in my view than a hard time which, once gone will not return. Got to drop the kids off to bed? Throw in a soft bid and extend it a bit...that sort of thing.

I've currently got an 8250 and the only problem is that if the inner well has any curvature to it, that glare shows up.

Like this one? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Microtek-ScanMaker-i800-Desktop-Scanner-ICE-/260845837770?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3cbb9f9dca Yep. (thumbs u Very cool, seller has no feedback at all, but if it stays at 20 bucks i'll give the guy a shot. Now that you've publicly posted the link prepare to be outbid.

A scan is worth a 1000 words.

The truth is that nothing is sustainable forever and everything has a life cycle. What goes up always comes down somewhere. There's very few things that are perpetual. We are just a little emotionally attached to this one as collectors and happen to be in the middle of it cyclically speaking. (thumbs u

It's always about supply vs. demand, right?

This certainly makes you wonder about just how shallow the pool of buyers out there really is, though. If a decent percentage of the TC books were bought from Heritage by dealers looking to press and flip the books, how many real end buyers are there, or is this just a big shell game of a few people passing the same assets back and forth to each other at ever increasing prices, thus creating the illusion of rising prices? Being a full time dealer sheds a little light on what happens behind the curtains. Going into it, I was a little worried about how shallow the pool is. I can say that there are more buyers that I used to think there was when I was a part time dealer. Without giving anything away, I'll just say that they come from the most surprising places. There are many buyers don't even bid on auctions, and some bidders will only deal with certain auctions and not even look at others. For that reason I haven't auctioned a book in a long time (nearly a year). I just wait for a book to find it's buyer. Eventually, it does. (thumbs u

Your post makes a lot of suppositions that might be incorrect. First off, you are assuming that the Twin City books were not pressed originally before they were auctioned at Heritage. Second, you are assuming that only the books that upgraded were pressed. Thirdly, you are assuming that the bidding pool in Pedigree Auctions are indicative of the entire market. They are not. They are indicative of Pedigree's market. Fourth, you are assuming that auction prices are indicative of the FMV. They are not always, as auctions are based on timing and bidding pool. Finally, bringing the same books back to market so soon (1 month) will invariably have an affect on the outcome since they were all recently available. Pressing will increase availability or supply to a degree, there is no doubt about that but that is not the entire picture.

I'm not sure I believe this.

I think this is what i see: From what I can gather Cal has a lot of history with some people and he's trying to prevent what he has gone through from happening to others Cal wanting respect brought to the boards by having experienced collectors and dealers paying their dues to eliminate disrespect towards CGC and the community at large. Unfortunately, that's not the way the internet works. It's a wide net that catches all kinds of stuff in it. That's the way the old world worked before GenX and Y got here. Roy who thinks he understands Cal.

A credit card, a drivers license or social security number is neither a deterrence or a pre-crime tool. Outside of the privacy issues relating to requesting these to confirm a persons identity, the absolute best you could hope for is forcing people to confirm registration via textback using a cellphone number tied to a specific person. Free email addresses should also not be allowed because it's a breeding ground for unsavory types, and I've already explained in great detail in the past on these boards why I think they are a bad idea when transacting with a person. So a unique 10-digit cellphone number which cannot later be re-used when they're banned and are jonesing to create a shill account or two is the best case scenario, because every other road leads to legal entanglements and liability headaches. ...and this was the entire point of the discussion...to come up with ideas. The 10 digit cel phone idea is a good one.

I think the primary point is not really about the actual money as it is the additional accountability. By tying someone's identity down you force them to think twice before they pull anything funny.

I'm fixing to sucker punch you in Chi-town. Watch out.

Or we could just go back to talking about eBay, beer and Shay Laren.

Sharon, in my mind the difference is that in a case like this where a threat was made there would be some hard legal recourse rather than just a scrambled IP address for people to hide behind. First off Roy, keeping credit cards on file leads to other problems, hacking...stolen numbers, etc. 2nd, it creates more work for the people allowing people to join. 3rd, credit cards can be cloned, borrowed, etc...or do you want a credit check on each person? It's messy...and what would stop me from borrowing my daughter's card and signing up as a shill? Or my neighbor's card.. Then what happens when the cards expire? Do you have to give a new number? I think you may have mistaken my quoting you as me being a proponent of the credit card idea. I wasn't really pushing the credit card idea. I actually mentioned a few posts ago that some people do not use credit cards so that idea may not work the best. I'm just trying to have an open minded, open ended discussion on improving the quality of these boards by introducing some personal accountability that is not available when someone needs just an email address to register. We've already seen that people are more socially responsible in person than they are on these boards. With the nature of the threat, I'm sure CGC would want some check point in place as well so that there is no liability on their part. I know I wouldn't want to be on the hook for something like that. In the end, it's just a discussion on our part. I don't have a stake in the matter either way. CGC are the ones that are going to have to deal with it.

Sharon, in my mind the difference is that in a case like this where a threat was made there would be some hard legal recourse rather than just a scrambled IP address for people to hide behind.

Yup. I realize that. It would eventually adapt, just as it always had though. I wonder at what point convenience is more important than safety, though.

Perhaps there should be a nominal membership fee to join the Boards with CGC holding each Boards member's credit card on file. Something that keeps a person from staying totally anonymous, for sure. (thumbs u Some people don't have or use credit cards but more than an merely an email address as the sole identifier. I wonder if CGC regrets having the chat forum up after it being here for approx. 10 years now.

I think personally, that Cal has a valid point. It is a little exclusionary but allowing people who actually use the services of the company to post here (nothing would prevent people from reading) would greatly reduce the riff raff, drive by postings, spam etc. That's not to say that there wouldn't be any trouble with the system if it was harder to post on here but it would allow people who are truly serious about the product to discuss the product rather than just have an open door and no accountability. It would also keep people from doing stuff that they normally do under complete anonymity. There's certainly advantages to a stricter policy.

Is Daredevil77 his new alias?

Different book. I didn't bid on the other one.

I now have a trifeca. I'm even more tempted to keep them.

I agree, and given the choice I would have taken a blue label. In this case I didn't have much of a choice. I was truly shocked...the seller saw my reaction when I laid eyes on the book!

Well, here's my SDCC pick up. I'm not one to search out sig series books but when I saw what sort of shape this book was in I couldn't resist. Might just be the nicest JIM #84 I will ever see, and I've been looking for years. Some people who saw the book thought it had a shot at 9.2 on resub (didn't even cross my mind until they mentioned it). I simply bought it cause it's one of those "snooze and you lose" books.