HighStakesComics

Nice catch!

Does anyone have the final tally before the poll went poof? Wasn't the ratio of yes/no votes close to 7:1?

Whosetricked?

Vaillant Yep. Sorry about that. I've always been bad with names, KPG.

Alright. Like I said I have faith the elders of the tribe. Just felt there was merit for further discussion. Valiant, hopefully there are no hard feelings. Hope all of enjoy your weekend (thumbs u

If Valiant were replaced with Hustruck and the exact same thread were duplicated I believe it would draw much more ire, yes. Once again, my goal here is not to offend you, but just for us as a community to more clearly define some of the grey area moving forward. Hustruck, or someone like him, could easily have called in a favor to announce his buddy as the winner without him actually winning anything. The benefit? Well if the BIN was $1000 and the highest bid was $375 it would give the seller an out if he was unhappy with the highest realized price. Once again, Im not saying this is the case here. I believe your heart is pure, Sir, but IMO offering up books via auction to anyone but the highest non-PL/HOS bidder is a recipe for abuse. I just wanted to clarify for you and I don't believe any rules were broken. I just wanted to clarify my position.

The grey area that I witnessed following the thread is he (Valiant) literally summoned the winning bidder to come and give his testimony somewhere on page 3-4. There were other guys pouring their hearts out, telling some very sentimental tales of their childhood and some other gentlemen posting some very creative essays in an attempt to win the book. I have not been here that long, but Ive read enough posts to know Valiant really loves his comics. But if this behavior was demonstrated by Hustruck a month ago he would have been virtually tarred and featured. I'm not defending Hustruck in the least. He showed zero respect and like most things in life you will get out of your experience here what you put into it. But if we allow one member to execute this type of subjectivity in a sales thread we are really opening up the floodgates. If you want to have an essay contest do it in CG. If you want to offer up a 9.2 FF 67 to your buddy for a song shoot him a PM. But don't pass either off as a sales thread. Lets leave this place as a market for interested parties to interact on equal ground. Not as a theatre to expose the vulnerabilities of others under false premise. That's all Ive got. I've also read enough to trust you gentlemen (as well as the occasional lady) know how to handle our business. If you decide to allow these types of threads to continue I will be at peace.

That thread just bit the dust. Although I feel Valiants auction was well intentioned there were probably too many variables IMO. If you want to sell someone a book at a dream price just contact that person directly. No reason to give others false hope.

Someone took out all my FF 67's and Thor 165's the other day. Sold a low grade TTA 44 and a higher grade TTA 35. Those seem to be rising. Brave and the Bold 25 & 60 are both gaining momentum. Avengers 57 & FF 52 are white hot but I suppose you gentlemen already knew that. Just thought Id share my observations. Good luck out there. *Correction. One 165 left.

What is the highest you have seen, DivaD? 6.5-7.0?

8.5/9.0

I will check those out. I do believe though that the first mention of 6 Infinity Gems is a critical moment in the totality of Marvel comic book literature. It opens the door for one of the great storylines. FWIW, Id say a minor key at least. Certainly good value <$10. The 2 that Ive been accumulating are Avengers 87 and New Gods 2. As FF 52 continues to climb I think collectors will start to veer towards the 87. Nice cover and a key Panther book. FF 53 is good too, which is also the first Klaw. New Gods 2 is the first Darkseid cover, as well as what I believe should probably qualify as his Origin issue. I like it for reasons similar to Avengers 87. In my opinion, for Darkseid collectors it is right behind only JO 134 and FP 1 in terms of importance. All just my

I'm having issues uploading the 2nd panel. It's late and I leave town tomorrow it will have to wait, but its in there. Have a great New Year, gentlemen.

fixed it. I agree with Sersi 1st Infinity Gems on the MTU 55, right? Yeah I was confused on MTU 55 as well. We see a couple of the gems, but not all right? I haven't read that issue for years. Here's what I have for you, Fastball. I had to bust out my copy. I believe Paul knows his stuff and I saw some sellers noting this as 1st Infinity gems on Ebay. Here's what's in the book. 2 panels stand out. Panel 1 is the Stranger mentioning there are 6 Infinity gems. This is huge and caused me to pick up another copy since mine is 6.5ish. Chronologically speaking, I know believe this is the first reference of the 6 gems at the forefront of the Marvel movie universe. Panel 2 contains some dude named the Gardner showing up to bail out Spidey and Warlock from the Stranger. Since the Stranger plays a role in this storyline, Id give a slight bump to XMen #11 here as well. It's his first appearance. My conclusion. MTU 55 is a key Warlock book and possibly more than that. Still some cheapies left online but no über high grade. Chuck R had a few 6.0's for <$10. Here are the panels to reach your own conclusions. Kudos to Paul as well.

Yup, Thanos gets all the credit, however, he will even tell you he's a Darkseid knock-off...

fixed it. I agree with Sersi 1st Infinity Gems on the MTU 55, right?

I have to agree. It would eliminate a large portion of the possibility for deception. +1 +2

I disagree. I believe the crack in the slab and the absence of chipping in the notes are obvious tells. Not long ago, chipping was previously noted on the label itself. I do not believe they would remove mention of it from the notes completely.

You guys are hilarious. And, yes, that is his girlfriend.

Bah, cameos! BWA-HA-HA-HA... -slym Those hacks will never amount to anything . . . That Rose fella amassed a pretty good career despite being a disembodied head Long live the King!

I have cracked out many books in my CGC collecting lifetime. Most of the time I can successfully retain a reusable slab, a slab with only a small hairline crack on the side, near the post, not visible from the front. I then use the slabs to put my favorite raw comics on display. If you were to inspect these 'slabs' in hand, you would be hard pressed to notice any obvious damage. Here's a couple pics of my display stand..... I guess that rules out data entry and the North Koreans.

I love that card.

He even looked like more of a blatant Darkseid knock-off back in the early days.

That is awesome. Highest grade I can sniff out with noticeable chipping is 7.5 though.

Under the old regime they would note chipping on the label. Hard to believe nowadays they would make no mention of it at all.