Randall Ries

https://www.facebook.com/jdouglas33/posts/10164757559960234

Ah. Might have included the grading notes plus a shot of the back cover in the 1st place, yes? Nevertheless. Should have been a 7.0 green.

https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/07/17/20-superheroes-you-probably-didnt-know-were-lgbt/

I THINK I have two of these or perhaps 2 of #7 signed like these. I hadn't seen this particular placement before. His was usually a sprawling signature.

Is Hawkeye the Aquaman of the Marvel world? Maybe not. I remember reading Avengers stories in the 1970's and Hawkeye stood out for awhile. Wasn't he Goliath for awhile? Memory....failing.

On 12/26/2021 at 1:01 PM, da.amazing.spiderman said:

I promise.  My last post on Wonder Woman #204...

You stated, "Say WW204 now commands  $2000USD or $2500 in CGC 9.8..."

I understand that you're not a fan of this book (that's cool), but your current assessment (along with GPA and GoCollect) of it's value in CGC 9.8 is way...way...off base by a few hundred percentage points.  I've received a half dozen private offers in the past +/-2 years ranging from a low of $3K to a high of $12.5K (Yes!!!  I said $12.5K!!!) just a few weeks ago for my WW #204.  This price appreciation (speculation) has occurred without confirmation yet by DC of Nubia in the upcoming WW #3 movie. 

Question...Now, why would someone offer me $12.5K for an item that is supposedly valued considerably less???

• Could it be that the "smart money" knows that WW #3 movie related news about Nubia is coming soon?
• Could it be that there are only (5) copies of WW #204 in CGC 9.8 according to the census and that the "smart money" wants to move in before the herd?
• Could it be that the "smart money" is also swinging for the fence and understands the market fundamentals of supply vs demand?.

IMHO, I think it's because the "true value" of Wonder Woman #204 in CGC 9.8 is just starting it's vertical trajectory and the price this book will eventually command in a few years from now will shock most comic investors.   

This. It's one of the reasons I bought a nice, raw Bat 222. The Neal cover, yes. Always. But also the fact that Paul McCartney won't live forever. Neal won't either. I suppose it's the same gamble as buying because of a movie rumor or an actual appearance in a movie of a minor character now a major character. The difference is that the movie may or may not do well. And ultimately will fade from view a bit. WW 1984 was a bomb and people won't forget it. And Gal Gadot alienated a lot of Jews. But McCartney AND Neal will remain deceased forever.

BUT! Like yourself, I buy what I want to buy. Because I like it or want it. Watch Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade again. When Panama Hat tossed the envelope of money over his shoulder flippantly to Fedora and his diggers. That's how I am. Toss the money and don't look back. Look at the object with love and pride of possession. It's a great 3 seconds of that film. Really subtle.

On 12/26/2021 at 1:15 AM, kimik said:

Um, Smart Money has been around long enough to know that the market cycles between Marvel and DC. The smart money was locking in Marvel BA keys 2016-2018, not now when they peaked at the start of the year and have plateaued/started trending down. Expect Marvel BA to trend relatively sideways/minimal gains for a 3-4 years now as prices consolidate after a big jump, just like we have seen with every run up and peak since 1997 or so.

DC SA and BA spikes after the Marvel run-ups. Smart Money buys DC when prices are weak and then cashes in when they have their delayed run up. There have been plenty of DC BA books that have spiked the past couple of years as well. Take a look at any of the BA Batman or Tec keys/classic Adams covers. Smart Money bought them during 2016-2018 as well. 

Smart Money is publisher and genre agnostic (GA GGA , Romance and Horror have had their recent spikes as well to be played), it follows the trends and profits from all of them that it can.

And, Smart Money will not tell others when they are accumulating books.

I wish Smart Money would shut its damned mouth about buying raw as well.

On 12/19/2021 at 10:57 AM, Brian48 said:

I'm surprised ST 7 is not more popular than it is. For awhile, it was practically ignored by Bat fans.  I know there's a lot of copies out there, but considering the craze for vintage Batman related books, you'd think more fans would be interested in Wrightson's take of the Dark Knight. Good to see it finally get more attention.

 

I was just reading Swamp thing 10? 12? In it, one of the letters to the editor was complaining about issue 7 being lame. Or whatever word we used in 1973 to describe "lame". I read this in 1973. And reread it a thousand times since Was the first Swamp book I went after in the 1-10 series when I began collecting again. Was fascinated with the way "Alec" finally got fed up with Batman and knocked him on his Batass.

On 12/26/2021 at 3:01 PM, jharvey said:

I didn't realize a comic with a partially popped staple could ever get a 9.0 grade, but apparently it can! Crazy stuff. Seems like the staple could easily pop completely loose from just a mild shake or two.

https://www.cgccomics.com/certlookup/0344132007/

 

 

I'm not seeing it from this photo. It looks as thought it got all Hell pressed out of it but it doesn't appear to me about to pop.

I have seen staples where I could see daylight between the spine of the book and the arc of the staple. Not to be confused with the arc of the covenant. But the staple still had a good grip on all the pages.

On 12/26/2021 at 10:00 AM, shadroch said:

How does the seller determine the price at an auction?

By setting a reserve? I was thinking along the lines of a normal selling situation. Perhaps even at auction - as we saw last year - two or three potential winners drove the bidding up into the stratosphere for common, well populated books because they were 9.8's.

A 9.8 Bat 227 sat on Metro's site for well over a year. When someone bought another 9.8 at auction ($40k? Something like that) Metro revised their ask from $9k (Unreasonable price to begin with) to $30k overnight. The high offer on that book at Metro was $7k-ish. Still is. It wasn't selling for $9k. No-one else has bid and yet there it sits at $30k to this day. Greg Reece upped his ask price as well for his 9.4 overnight. And Metro is trying to sell a signed 9.6 for $6k. And there they sit. The difference between a 9.6 and a 9.8 is negligible.

I have never had an offer accepted at Metro even though they say they accept offers. Accepting an offer only seems to mean "You can offer whatever you like. Doesn't mean we will accept the offer."

At least, 2020 was a weird year and as yet I haven't seen prices drop very much for keys. But if 2020 was an outlier year, then ask prices should have settled back down to what they were basically before COVID. Maybe they have and I haven't noticed. But if auction prices are determining a books real value, then a lot of collectors are left out in the cold.

It used to be a books rarity was its desirable quality. When 9.8 Transformers #1 start selling for 10's of thousands, then it's the seller determining the values if buyers are willing to pay that much for mediocrity. Then again, I may be confusing a collector with a speculator. And speculators shoot the collector in the face when they do it. When I start seeing speculators spending 10's of thousands for 1980's Gold Key Looney Tunes books, I'll start collecting stamps and coins again.

The only correct name for this lounge is Crewman Six Social Club. Crewman Six - as you may know - were the red shirts on Star Trek. The first to get vaporized. The first to get taken by a salt monster. The first to get executed by space Nazis. The first on the firing line. The misfits. The Nomads and the silent genius'.

On 12/25/2021 at 8:50 PM, MGsimba77 said:

Sure I'd agree if not for the fact that a number of threads in the water cooler about hot potato issues didn't end well. The COVID thread had to be closed despite being heavily moderated. 

If the mods want to experiment with it then great. All I'm saying is I wouldn't be too optimistic of the outcome. 

....guess we'll find out.

The point is to have it NOT heavily moderated. That causes another dimension of stress. Do you know that when a cop is introduced into traffic flow, accidents increase by a large %? 

And there is such a thing as dud topics. COVID is polarizing. Vaccines are polarizing. It's either you are going to or your not. Both have consequences. Data suggests those who aren't vaccinated are the ones dying by a gigantic margin. Nothing really more to say about it.

I am the forever pessimist. But the lounges I have seen are successful, not always tranquil and not for the sensitive or the thin skinned. Most importantly, they are not governed by moderators like a nursery school. Moderators are members too and can certainly join in and usually do. But moderating a free forum usually does more harm than good. Don't ask me how or why, but lounges - the ones I have been in - work.

On 12/25/2021 at 8:01 PM, mattn792 said:

Goth books, Goth food...

On 12/25/2021 at 7:51 PM, shadroch said:

Looks like he specks for the majority of people who care to voice an opinion.

We all have one of those. Irrelevant. And now - since there is a newly created lounge - beside the point.

On 12/25/2021 at 7:43 PM, kav said:

CGC Mike can ya call it Kav's Lounge?

Huh. Usurper. Just call it "The Lounge" and be done with it.

On 12/25/2021 at 7:46 PM, Shawn Everidge said:

A lot of people seem to be confusing "not being able to take a joke" with "being annoyed by the same inane responses by the same inane members". If your post is clever, it will be taken as such. If you are annoying people, maybe your posts aren't as clever as you think.

Maybe you don't speak for everyone.

On 12/25/2021 at 7:41 PM, kav said:

On 12/25/2021 at 7:40 PM, CGC Mike said:

I have already stated I am not opposed to having a thread in comics general where off topic posts can occur.  A lounge area so to speak.   I will start a thread and pin it at the top of the forum.  

Thanks! I believe it would take some pressure off. I think it's prudent.

On 12/25/2021 at 7:41 PM, kav said:

Similar to the situation here-many think the stuff this warning thread is about is funny.  Very funny.  Those that dont however get to shut it down because they persoanlly do not find it funny.  I myself have never felt much urge to tell others how to behave.  In fact I have turned down supervisor positions at jobs for this very reason.  If something annoys me, I just shrug.  Its a big world, I figure.

Agreed. I think a lot of comments are hilarious. Also a lot are just ridiculous and not worth commenting on. It would never occur to me to run tattling to a moderator like a 4 year old girl. Grow some hair and roll your eyes or have a laugh  but keep moving. We are all adults. Learn to cope.

I have supervised landscaping crews and given grown men their instructions. They only go from instructions to orders when someone questions them and can't hack the answer. I never liked it to get to that point. Never liked telling anyone what to do. Do the job with your style, but get the job done.

On 12/25/2021 at 6:16 PM, MGsimba77 said:

Right but from what I take, the idea is not to have "no moderation" but less moderation with clear rules. The thing I see is the number of subjects that could easily wind their way into politics is very large! You would have to so limit the allowed topics in the thread as to defeat it's purpose. It would be tough to make it actually free flowing. I tend to agree with the skepticism with so many members possibly chiming in. The idea is definitely well intended!

Well, if you are going to "limit" the topics, then of course it would be tough to make it actually free flowing. It's beyond well intended, the idea. It actually works and has for decades.

I myself used to pilot a music trading page. One of my caveats was "feel free to talk about whatever you like. Religion, politics, sex, violence, love, hate, movies music. I don't care. An I have instructed the mods to stay off peoples backs about it."

It worked just fine. We respected one another and trusted one another enough to let people have their say or share their observations. I only removed one person for an unrelated matter. He revealed the sites name publicly and it was a private site. No one needed to know about it. Security first.

On 12/25/2021 at 7:08 PM, Buzzetta said:

I cannot help but wonder if it is the same music site that I am familiar with.  For the rest of the site it is the same rules as those which have been established here.  However there is a section of that board, much like the water cooler that is completely off limits and anything goes. 

It was a bit... much.  

"Much"? For you? I find that hard to believe. Nevertheless, it illustrates my point. You - on that site - have a choice as to whether to participate or not. As much or as little as you want to. Your judgment of "much" has no bearing or validity. It is "much" for you. But not to others who enjoy it. And there lies the rub. When others feel that something is over-the-top but go one step further and inflict their opinion onto others and in fact solicit support from moderators or even owners of a site to get their way. And here - by intimating "much" - is a veiled attempt to kill an idea before it is even tried.

While you are one person who feels it is "much", there are hundreds that DON'T.

I'd love to know the name of the music site. Feel free to PM me the name. I'm a member of a lot of them.

On 12/25/2021 at 5:50 PM, kav said:

An unmoderated thread would become a nucular chain reaction.  This radio activity would then spread to the rest of the threads as ppl began hating each other's guts.  I like the idea in general but only if it was an isolated website somewhere.  The ditch forum allowed anything goes for a while and it was ugly-and it also spread over here and led to at least one banning.

Well, lounges aren't "unmoderated". They still fall under the auspices of "the rules" but the idea is to be able to create topics or threads that are beyond the basics like talking about music on a music site. The lounge is a lounge. I have rarely seen people "hate" one another in a lounge. Because? It's understood that when you go into the lounge to hang out, it's not "anything goes" but it's looser and more random. The warning is there. Enter at your own risk and don't cry if you can't hack it. The lounges on those sites have been there for 20+ years and work quite well.