GeeksAreMyPeeps

I found a box of old posters and other stuff this weekend. Will take pics and post. May take a while.

Found my Green Lantern: Mosiac promo ring.

I think they may have changed their policy to slabbing any counterfeit with "NG". Linsner had a huge issue with the grading. http://joelinsner.blogspot.com/2014/10/spotting-cfd-bootleg-part-1.html There's a good example of moire patterns in his post

yep. It's called sarcasm

Hmmm… looking at this image, I'm rethinking a little. I'd be interested in seeing a close up of this area from a confirmed counterfeit. (Not that all counterfeits are necessarily the same; different people could have produced different counterfeits.) What I'm seeing here (see my image below) is a noticeable border between the areas of the solid red and the tint of red under the black. If this is a fake, it's a meticulous fake, because a scanner wouldn't normally distinguish between those areas. So a counterfeiter would have had to recreated a red plate, matching the edge of the red areas from the original.

I think your copy may be a fake. The hardest thing to correct for if you're reprinting a book and your only starting point is a printed version of the book, is the moire pattern that comes from reproducing a halftone with another halftone. I was going to explain it for those that aren't familiar, but I found a link that does a pretty good job of explaining the problem: https://www.scantips.com/basics06.html The first four images above show a pretty consistent halftone pattern in the gray triangle, but in the last you see a variation that's indicative of a moire pattern (which appears more extreme in the sword in the larger image up the page). The article doesn't illustrate moire patterns from a single halftone on another single halftone of the same color. That can look like this (two examples depending on the angles of intersection): Granted it doesn't looks as extreme in the Cerebus cover image as it does in these examples, but could be due to some correction to try to minimize that. (Or it could be that I'm seeing a difference because of camera or scanner settings used in creating these images, and it is genuine; note I'm just pointing out the differences I'm seeing) As to the question posted above as to why Hulk 181 hasn't been counterfeited, it would be next to impossible to produce a counterfeit that would pass detection (I imagine that this is something that CGC would commonly check for on high-value books) of a 4-color book that was printed on cheap paper. To create a undetectable copy, you'd basically have to have access to the original art (so, not really a copy then, but effectively print a new edition), or you'd have to be so meticulous with removing the halftone pattern from every image on every page in every color, and then reprint the book on the same crappy paper that was used for the original. When you see new editions of old material that are recolored, the reason for that is that they have to be recolored, since it's less work to recolor it than to try to correct for the pattern i every color. I worked on the Acclaim reprints of Classics Illustrated back in the '90s, and the basic process was scanning in the original books, dropping out the color and cleaning up the linework as much as possible, and then having a colorist recolor it digitally. When you're dealing with old books, scanners don't do a great job differentiating what was originally printed on each separation, so in a lot of the darker colors that are a mix of CM&Y, it's seeing a lot of black in that. Add in the yellowing of the paper that is already not perfectly white to begin with, and there's a lot to clean up. If you're trained to look for evidence of counterfeiting, you're going to find it if an old book is copied.

Which one?

Nah. Fans would never go for that

I think things go in cycles, and we *could* get to the point where a family-based book is more popular. Not soon, but as a generational thing. I'm not saying that it will, but it's possible. Either way, FF will always be significant for kicking off the Marvel Universe. Hulk 181 may be on more wish lists, but I think FF1 will always be more valuable due to scarcity.

The problem with this analogy is that all athletes have a shelf life, so in 20 years Tom Brady may be lumped in with Starr and Unitas, while someone you're not even aware of now will be hot. Fictional characters don't have that drawback. I expect that with the X-Men and FF rights back at Disney, Marvel would find a way to do a decent Fantastic Four reboot that could make them bounce back. I think Avengers will stay the central focus for Marvel going forward, but there's lots of room for a resurgence of X-Men and FF. I think revisiting Silver Age keys in a few years could see X-men 1 close to the top.

FF 65. You can decide whether that appearance is significant enough for that to be the desirable book for a collection, but that's the first appearance.

It's a little odd that the first appearance of Manchester Black is getting a boost off of a Supergirl appearance, but the first Agent Liberty isn't doing anything, and he's been a bigger focus of the show this season

I think this partially depends on whether you're looking to held or sell. I think this book will continue to climb over time, so grading a 7.0 would probably be worth it if you're holding for a while. If you're looking to sell, follow the formula mentioned above

Getting a little more specific about available copies, let's say we have a run of Book X that has important events/first appearances in each issue. For the sake of argument, let's say each of these issues is equally desirable. Issue 123 has 50,000 copies out there in the market, issue 124 has 55,000, and issue 125 has 60,000 copies. That wouldn't seem to be a huge difference in availability. But let's say there are 45,000 hardcore collectors of Book X. Most of those, say 40,000, pre-order every month. When 123 drops, news of the awesomeness is immediate, and flippers go out and grab whatever they can find for that issue, and each of the two following. What we have then is 5000 collectors looking to find copies of these three books. Percentage-wise the print run difference isn't huge, but the copies of people willing to let them go is pretty significant. 10,000 copies of 123, 15,000 of 124, and 20,000 of 125. There were so many books printed in the 90s that even after you account for all of the books in the hands of collectors that want them for their collections, there are still plenty to go around. I had 8 copies of New Mutants 98. I've sold one, but still have the other 7 (5 9.8s, a 9.6, and one raw). Even if I was set on holding one for my personal collection forever, I still have some available to sell. Even though X-23 is less popular, a huge percentage of her first appearance are in the hands of people that want the book just to have the book, not because of the resale value. That leaves a ton of people who want the book and not enough out there to fill, the demand. We need a collecting term for what's available. The closest thing I could think of in investment terms (since market cap and such were proposed as discussion points) is the float. But of course it's tough to determine what number of hardcore collectors there are.

We're all just going to pretend that first Wolverine movie didn't exist, right? I'm okay with that.

Except Bird's is a 1st print. Different club.

Amazing Spider-man 375 seems to be getting a little traction for a book that was printed during the glut. I haven't been reading the Venom series, but my understanding is that there was some retconning going on with Eddie Brock's family? Could the first appearances in 375 be a sleeper?

The first thing I thought of when I saw the Deathlok cover was this one. Surprised no one posted it yet:

"-not" is a really useful search term

I'd say it's okay. If I'm looking for a 9.8 of something, I'd certainly be willing to take a 9.9 if it's a similar price, and I'm generally not going to be doing a search for a 9.9 unless I already know that one is currently listed and I need to find the listing that's there. I suspect the vase majority of collectors would agree.

Great. Then I'll never be able to list my issues of Not Brand Echh