GeeksAreMyPeeps

Okay, but I was wondering whether they would agree to allow you to include your own archival materials, if you requested. (But I found an old thread suggesting they would remove yours and use their own)

Funny. I read absolutely no suggestions anywhere that the character was whitewashed.

Last time I checked, Rene (Wild Dog) was a guy. I didn't say that "the archetype of a 'rich white male isn't relatable'" I said that Batman is the archetype of a particular type of hero. The inference is that transcends other things. And the characters working in comics is not the same as them working on television

You just wait until an issue that features a 1st appearance has a first cover appearance and/or first appearance in costume on the variant of the 2nd print. It'll be a thousand dollar CGC 9.8 as soon as the first slabs ship

The acting in Arrow is awful. The guy who plays Diggle and perhaps Thea and Rene are okay. the show is certainly no better than Iron Fist. Robert Downey Jr.'s performance is what turned Iron Man from B-list to A-list. And Batman is an archetype. Those tend to have longevity.

For ROI purposes, it probably helps more to consider who the *next* super popular character is likely to be, and focus on that. AF15 and IH181 are blue chips, no doubt, but higher returns could probably be had elsewhere, if you have a high threshold for risk.

Fixed that for you.

I'm still sitting on those Ultimate Marvel Team-Up #5s with the first African-American Nick Fury. Any day now…

Not sure if you realize, but for an insult to be effective, the insultee needs to care about the opinion of the insulter, and I value your opinion somewhat less than a well-read, unbagged copy of Turok #1. We do, however, all have a lot to learn. You, for instance, need to learn how to grade correctly.

I guess the interior paper is not acid-free, so it affects the cover stock. But the ink provides some protection. Since this would be the case on all books (that didn't have some sort of acid-free protection added between the cover and interior pages) I wonder if CGC would recognize that as an unavoidable universal issue that they wouldn't discount for. Makes me additionally wonder whether they would agree to slab book WITH some protective acid-free sheet inserted. I know they generally don't slab anything with the book, but this would preserve the book at the assigned grade.

The orange/red thing could also be fading versus a color variation, which is probably why a redder cover could go for a little more. Avengers Annual 10 is in the same boat.

How do you figure they were sent out if they were noticed on press? You have a reliable source for anything you're suggesting?

This

Promo for the first Spider-man movie:

I think the key might be selling them with associated book when they're in demand. I need to list these soon:

I'm not all caught up on the very latest books, but just in general, since the 2012 relaunch: • Fred Van Lente's run on Archer & Armstrong is one of my favorite comic runs of all time. (His Timewalker and Generation Zero are good as well, but A&A will always be my favorite) • Both Ninjak series (Ninjak and Ninja-K) are really good reads. • Joshua Dysart's Harbinger work (Harbinger, Imperium, and the Life & Death of Toyo Harada, the first issue of which came out yesterday) • The Secret Weapons mini • Lots of good stuff by Matt Kindt. I'm enjoying his current run on X-O Manowar. • Bloodshot and Bloodshot Reborn. (I still have to read Bloodshot Salvation, but Lemire also wrote that so I'm expecting good things)

There's Locke & Key

Ms Marvel is legit. Valiant does do a lot of variant. (They've recently cut down on incentives significantly though.) But they're order-alls are still printed in low numbers, if Comichron sales are any indication. A boost to their readership would make finding any edition difficult, especially for key books which tend to be hoarded more in advance by existing collectors.

Agreed. But for some reason, people still pay a slight premium for the books with the ads, as I discovered when searching pricing results for Thor 229 when listing one on eBay recently.

Not sure that the term "counterfeit" would apply. I mean, it's a legitimate copy of the book. And the copies without the foil are due to problems with the printing. If one of the problems is that the foil comes off easily, it's still a legit copy of the book. It just makes the departure from the intended result of the printing process more numerous.

I don't read Marvel or DC any more, but my take: Major X is some garbage that Liefeld is doing on a mutant title. Batman Who Laughs is a new Batman villain (from an alternate universe?) that is mashup of Batman and the Joker and could have staying power unless there is a planned end to the character. But then even if there is a planned end, as has been mentioned, corporate doesn't like to let a popular IP die.

The best thing about my slabbed OO copy is that I never need to look at that god-awful art again.

Here's my approach to answering the question. I'd say a "true key" has the following properties: • A book that isn't artificially scarce, so no incentive variants • A book that would have been available for pretty much anyone to order in advance at cover price (or a discount to cover price, with services that offer them) or been able to pick up for cover price in a store that ordered them • Has staying power past the run of whatever creative team made the book/character popular. (This is why I would discount many Image books, even The Walking Dead. I think once Kirkman is done with the book, that book will start to drop in value. It's never going in the dollar bin, but there will be a steady decline. Availability won't be significant, because too many people will be hesitant to part with the book if it's decreasing.) • Demand exceeds supply by a significant margin. With that in mind, I think the best bet (and this will probably come as no surprise, considering my avatar) is Valiant books. They're selling a fraction of the numbers that Marvel and DC are, they're publishing a shared universe, and they have movies on the horizon. The problem with books featuring Marvel and DC characters that will be appearing in movies/on TV, is that there's not a ton of room for growth, unless either company decides to push an obscure character (e.g. Guardians of the Galaxy). Everyone who is already collecting comics already knows who the major players from those companies are, and either are or aren't buying the comics. Comic-based movies/television doesn't do a lot to convert viewers into readers. With good movies, Valiant stands to gain readers *amongst people that are already collecting comics* but don't know enough about the characters. Since the 2012 relaunch, there have been a number of new characters introduced, and a number of characters that have been significantly redesigned to essentially be new characters. Many of these books have reported Comichron numbers below 10K, some around 5K. If good movies spurs enough interest in Valiant to raise their readership to even 2% of the market, then that's basically doubling their readership. Back issues are tough to find in many cases (even the non-variants). Add in a new fan base, and any key issue will pretty much disappear, if you can even find one out there now.

I don't think a character has to be as popular as Deadpool or Harley to be a "true key." I'd just say the demand has to far outweigh supply

The "X" is for "BotoX"