VintageComics

Thou dost lack perspective.
It's not about having fun or not having fun.
It's about dishing out decent money to watch something 2nd rate when other franchises (Planet of the Apes, Marvel Cinematic Universe and others) can really deliver something special that you can't wait to talk about with people or see again.
I called JL a stinker without seeing it but I still went to see it.  I went with Lou last night to see it and we dished out $100+ at a VIP theater with dinner. I expect value for my money when I choose to watch a movie.
While not an absolute stinker, it's still an amateurish film in my opinion.
They throw a bunch of new characters at you with no real development, they make up a lame villain to move the plot along, they ram too many things into one 2 hour movie (something the were guilty of with BVS as well - that easily could have been several Billion dollar films if it were done right) and then they try pass it off as a top shelf movie.
It isn't.
Sure, it's fun watching superheroes use their powers, but ultimately quality wise it just felt rushed and I felt like they could have done better.
Wonder Woman was a much better film. It was crafted and well paced start to finish.
DC, what is the hurry? Why not make every film great?
At this point there just seems to be a rush to rival the Thanos saga that Marvel has been building up for nearly a decade. Well, it ain't working. The emperor has no clothes.
 
 

Before this newest era of free money with zero interest, comics appreciated slowly. Calling key Marvel issues dead in the water is like saying the ocean is broken because the tide went out.
Metropolis sold a Hulk #1 in 9.0 for $300K a few months ago and prices have generally appreciated for Hulk #1 across the board (the higher the grade, the greater the price appreciation).
Hulk #1 nearly doubled in price 3 years ago. So because it doesn't double in price this year it's dead? Oh my goodness this new generation is impatient and in need of a history lesson. 
 

Co-incidentally, I read this after making my post above and this critic and I seem to see eye to eye on everything.
https://www.monkeysfightingrobots.com/justice-league-review-the-flash-cant-save-this-poorly-written-tale/
The one thing that I appreciated about the movie was Elfman's soundtrack. Bringing in the 1989 Batman theme and the Superman theme from other movies really worked well.
I just wish the rest of the movie was as solid.

Thou dost lack perspective.
It's not about having fun or not having fun.
It's about dishing out decent money to watch something 2nd rate when other franchises (Planet of the Apes, Marvel Cinematic Universe and others) can really deliver something special that you can't wait to talk about with people or see again.
I called JL a stinker without seeing it but I still went to see it.  I went with Lou last night to see it and we dished out $100+ at a VIP theater with dinner. I expect value for my money when I choose to watch a movie.
While not an absolute stinker, it's still an amateurish film in my opinion.
They throw a bunch of new characters at you with no real development, they make up a lame villain to move the plot along, they ram too many things into one 2 hour movie (something the were guilty of with BVS as well - that easily could have been several Billion dollar films if it were done right) and then they try pass it off as a top shelf movie.
It isn't.
Sure, it's fun watching superheroes use their powers, but ultimately quality wise it just felt rushed and I felt like they could have done better.
Wonder Woman was a much better film. It was crafted and well paced start to finish.
DC, what is the hurry? Why not make every film great?
At this point there just seems to be a rush to rival the Thanos saga that Marvel has been building up for nearly a decade. Well, it ain't working. The emperor has no clothes.
 
 

Hi Marwood & I,
Two things,
1) that's pretty grim.
2) that's pretty grim.

Before this newest era of free money with zero interest, comics appreciated slowly. Calling key Marvel issues dead in the water is like saying the ocean is broken because the tide went out.
Metropolis sold a Hulk #1 in 9.0 for $300K a few months ago and prices have generally appreciated for Hulk #1 across the board (the higher the grade, the greater the price appreciation).
Hulk #1 nearly doubled in price 3 years ago. So because it doesn't double in price this year it's dead? Oh my goodness this new generation is impatient and in need of a history lesson. 
 

I never understand posts like this.
NOTHING is without risk. Nothing is a sure thing. Real estate was a no lose investment? People lost their shirts and lives over the crash in 2008.
------------------------------------------
Alibaba is one of the largest financial viable companies in the world. Not in the US. In the world. Read this quote from 2014 when this thread was last visited:
Yahoo could make anywhere from $8.3 to $9.5 billion from the IPO, and its remaining stake will be worth another $26 billion. In 2013, two of Alibaba's websites handled $240 billion in sales. That's double the size of Amazon, triple the size of eBay, and one-third more than the two competitor companies combined How about this quote from Sept 2017?
Amazon has had a good year, but Alibaba has had an even better one — and it's now within striking distance of surpassing Amazon as the world's biggest e-commerce company by market cap. Amazon is up 30 percent this year while Alibaba's stock has nearly doubled as both companies race to a $500 billion in value. Bulls have reason to love both. They dominate e-commerce in their respective markets (Amazon in the U.S. and Alibaba in China) and both are expanding into new businesses such as groceries, original content and cloud. IMO comparing Alibaba stock to Amazing Fantasy #15 is like comparing a bicycle company to an automotive company.  You might make better money on the small bet but the larger company has way more capital to stay afloat in rough waters.
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Comics have gone up and down. You youngin's forget about big books going up and down over the decades and only remember the recent run up since the low interest Fed policies after the economic crash of 2008.
The only thing Superman #1 has going for it is age?
It's the 1st comic book devoted to the greatest hero of all time and it's rarer than hens teeth unrestored. There are not enough copies to meet demand.
I sold a 4.0 last year for more than what an AF #15 9.0 was worth at the time.

So let me get this straight.
On the top pic, the Pence copy is on the left, but when you are showing the interiors the Pence copy is on the right and the cents copy has the green misprint?
@DiceX
Dice (or anyone else that has worked in the printing industry) is there any way of explaining the color differences between the two issues to give any clues as to earlier or later printings, or could inks and cutting blades be adjusted at any time through the printing process and it's all just random changes with no real clues as to a timeline?
I notice that not only are the greens deeper in the corner box on the Pence copy but there are better colors on Dr. Doom and in all the other greens on the Pence cover. It's definitely not fading as the Reds are solid on both.

@DiceX worked in this exact field for many years, which is why I posed the question to him. He'd be able to say definitively.

I'd be curious to know if there are more chipped Pence copies or less chipped Pence copies out there as they may have been off the presses before the US copies.
Did we ever settle that?
 

It's on the high side of a normal range. It's typically a $130-150K book although there are outliers.

It may not have been a conscious plan, but there may have been some sub-conscious workings behind it.
Personally, I don't believe in random co-incidence.

Yep. I've thought about this for decades.
You're the 1st person I've ever seen bring it up.

Because when you're printing 100,000's of a single coming, the production quality changes over the print run. Inks run out (which is how you get color variation), cutting blades get dull (which is how you get chipping and pre chipping), staples don't always get placed properly, covers don't always get cut square, etc, etc.
These were throw away magazines, not hand crafted artwork.
Marvel chipping also happens on DC books, just not as often as on Marvels because DC had a larger financial backing and could afford better quality production.
Marvel was a fledgling company that was operating on a shoe string budget.
So you don't see well centered copies sell for much more than miswrapped and miscut copies?
You don't see poorer page quality sell for less than optimal page quality copies?
I would disagree with you. Final prices realized always factor in things such as quality and eye appeal. MC is just one thing out of many that collectors consider when buying.
And like I said, some don't care about it in much the same way that they are not picky about other defects. It's not a science. It's all just personal preference.

The problem for all Wizard shows is the same. Their high booth prices push out smaller, local dealers who are the bread and butter and draw for many people. There used to be wall to wall comics.
The international dealers, who operate on much larger budgets can still afford to come but the small local guys can't. They are all but gone completely.
This year there were empty booths that people chose not to pay for.
Even artist's alley was a fraction of the size it used to be. They used to fill the entire room with the show. Now they don't.

I agree. It was amazing.
I took my 16 year old daughter and after laying a solid foundation by explaining the original, she actually really enjoyed this film.
Sure, the film was slowly paced. That's part of what makes it even better. The slow, drawn out, brooding and thick-as- butter atmospheres were phenomenally crafted. I loved every second of it.
What I appreciate most is how hard Scott worked to keep this film looking like it was filmed circa 1980 even though it was filmed almost 40 years later with special effects that could eclipse anything done in the original (which is timeless, by the way and one of my favorite films of all time).
A terrific sequel that faithfully follows the original well.

I thought Thor was a fun watch from beginning to end.
I thought Cate Blanchett was really good (and she was even hot in costume - not a way I'm used to thinking of CB ). I liked the story.
One thing I did not like is that there was too much humor. They could have toned it down for some of the serious battle scenes.
Other than that, I enjoyed it.

While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I'm a lifelong collector and relatively newly turned full time dealer but I still miss the love for comics without the values) the discussion about values is a necessary byproduct once a hobby goes mainstream.
Values drive in more viewers.
Would the hobby be better without all the speculation? Tough to say, but at the same time it would also not be as easy to find books we want.
So to me, ultimately it's like the advent of social media - it gets really messy out there but if you can choose how to use it to your benefit, it can be fun. You just have to filter out all the stuff being thrown at you that you don't want to see.
I remember being 11, 12 maybe 13 years old in the early 1980's and sitting with a calculator in hand adding up what it would cost me to own every book in the runs I wanted to complete (mainstream Marvel titles). I remember coming to a value of something like $21,000 and trying to figure out how I was going to save that money to be able to by all the books I wanted. There was little thought about reselling the books - it was all about collecting out of a love for the stories.
Unfortunately, this site has lost it's 'innocence'. I joined back in 2004, a couple of years after it formed and it was very different. While people talked about values in the past, they mostly spoke about surprising sales prices out of general interest.
This site has likely become the de facto investment site as people speculate not only about values but about future interest, movie possibilities and other angles.
I don't love it but it is a necessary side to the hobby.
 

Jim, I took a similar stance on some things with my kids as well.
I told them, at some point I will not bail them out of poor decision making and they will have to learn the hard way.
It's a tough thing for a parent to do but they need to find their own boundaries on their own or they never will.

I thought Thor was a fun watch from beginning to end.
I thought Cate Blanchett was really good (and she was even hot in costume - not a way I'm used to thinking of CB ). I liked the story.
One thing I did not like is that there was too much humor. They could have toned it down for some of the serious battle scenes.
Other than that, I enjoyed it.

While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I'm a lifelong collector and relatively newly turned full time dealer but I still miss the love for comics without the values) the discussion about values is a necessary byproduct once a hobby goes mainstream.
Values drive in more viewers.
Would the hobby be better without all the speculation? Tough to say, but at the same time it would also not be as easy to find books we want.
So to me, ultimately it's like the advent of social media - it gets really messy out there but if you can choose how to use it to your benefit, it can be fun. You just have to filter out all the stuff being thrown at you that you don't want to see.
I remember being 11, 12 maybe 13 years old in the early 1980's and sitting with a calculator in hand adding up what it would cost me to own every book in the runs I wanted to complete (mainstream Marvel titles). I remember coming to a value of something like $21,000 and trying to figure out how I was going to save that money to be able to by all the books I wanted. There was little thought about reselling the books - it was all about collecting out of a love for the stories.
Unfortunately, this site has lost it's 'innocence'. I joined back in 2004, a couple of years after it formed and it was very different. While people talked about values in the past, they mostly spoke about surprising sales prices out of general interest.
This site has likely become the de facto investment site as people speculate not only about values but about future interest, movie possibilities and other angles.
I don't love it but it is a necessary side to the hobby.
 

While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I'm a lifelong collector and relatively newly turned full time dealer but I still miss the love for comics without the values) the discussion about values is a necessary byproduct once a hobby goes mainstream.
Values drive in more viewers.
Would the hobby be better without all the speculation? Tough to say, but at the same time it would also not be as easy to find books we want.
So to me, ultimately it's like the advent of social media - it gets really messy out there but if you can choose how to use it to your benefit, it can be fun. You just have to filter out all the stuff being thrown at you that you don't want to see.
I remember being 11, 12 maybe 13 years old in the early 1980's and sitting with a calculator in hand adding up what it would cost me to own every book in the runs I wanted to complete (mainstream Marvel titles). I remember coming to a value of something like $21,000 and trying to figure out how I was going to save that money to be able to by all the books I wanted. There was little thought about reselling the books - it was all about collecting out of a love for the stories.
Unfortunately, this site has lost it's 'innocence'. I joined back in 2004, a couple of years after it formed and it was very different. While people talked about values in the past, they mostly spoke about surprising sales prices out of general interest.
This site has likely become the de facto investment site as people speculate not only about values but about future interest, movie possibilities and other angles.
I don't love it but it is a necessary side to the hobby.
 

While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I'm a lifelong collector and relatively newly turned full time dealer but I still miss the love for comics without the values) the discussion about values is a necessary byproduct once a hobby goes mainstream.
Values drive in more viewers.
Would the hobby be better without all the speculation? Tough to say, but at the same time it would also not be as easy to find books we want.
So to me, ultimately it's like the advent of social media - it gets really messy out there but if you can choose how to use it to your benefit, it can be fun. You just have to filter out all the stuff being thrown at you that you don't want to see.
I remember being 11, 12 maybe 13 years old in the early 1980's and sitting with a calculator in hand adding up what it would cost me to own every book in the runs I wanted to complete (mainstream Marvel titles). I remember coming to a value of something like $21,000 and trying to figure out how I was going to save that money to be able to by all the books I wanted. There was little thought about reselling the books - it was all about collecting out of a love for the stories.
Unfortunately, this site has lost it's 'innocence'. I joined back in 2004, a couple of years after it formed and it was very different. While people talked about values in the past, they mostly spoke about surprising sales prices out of general interest.
This site has likely become the de facto investment site as people speculate not only about values but about future interest, movie possibilities and other angles.
I don't love it but it is a necessary side to the hobby.
 

Are you making excuses for the sale price?
If it didn't have issues it wouldn't be a 6.5. It's a mid grade book, not a high grade book.
It was a decent looking 6.5

While I agree with you wholeheartedly (I'm a lifelong collector and relatively newly turned full time dealer but I still miss the love for comics without the values) the discussion about values is a necessary byproduct once a hobby goes mainstream.
Values drive in more viewers.
Would the hobby be better without all the speculation? Tough to say, but at the same time it would also not be as easy to find books we want.
So to me, ultimately it's like the advent of social media - it gets really messy out there but if you can choose how to use it to your benefit, it can be fun. You just have to filter out all the stuff being thrown at you that you don't want to see.
I remember being 11, 12 maybe 13 years old in the early 1980's and sitting with a calculator in hand adding up what it would cost me to own every book in the runs I wanted to complete (mainstream Marvel titles). I remember coming to a value of something like $21,000 and trying to figure out how I was going to save that money to be able to by all the books I wanted. There was little thought about reselling the books - it was all about collecting out of a love for the stories.
Unfortunately, this site has lost it's 'innocence'. I joined back in 2004, a couple of years after it formed and it was very different. While people talked about values in the past, they mostly spoke about surprising sales prices out of general interest.
This site has likely become the de facto investment site as people speculate not only about values but about future interest, movie possibilities and other angles.
I don't love it but it is a necessary side to the hobby.