Cocomonkey

Ah, I love flea markets...is this thread only for recent pick-ups, or can we post older finds here?

X-Men #`1, still saving up for a decent eye-appeal copy. Hoping for something in the 2.0-2.5ish range. Also X-Men #4 in the 4.0-ish range. True price-wise, NM 87 and 98 to come down to reasonable prices (hah!) to complete my NM run, but that's likely out the window at this point. I'll have to be satisfied with my 2nd print NM 87, I suppose. As for 98, saw someone 8-9 years ago on a street corner with a table of comics set up (gotta love NYC) who had a copy for $25, and still kicking myself for not picking it up. Sadly, it was after I'd stopped buying and before I'd re-started collecting

I get my books graded more for long-term safekeeping than resale, and don't have nearly the budget to get more than a handful graded every couple years (I only have around 15 graded books to date, but all submitted by me, none bought already slabbed). Any $$ spent grading is less I can spend acquiring more to complete my UXM run, or picking up anything of random interest. So when I'm figuring it out, my factors are-- 1) Is the book really important to me? I made sure to get my 9.0 Swamp Thing 37 graded because I love Constantine, for example. Same for my 7.0 X-Men 60 SS signed by Neal Adams (and if I had a higher-grade copy of X-Men 58, I'd have gotten that graded instead/also), because I love his X-Men art from back then. (Although to be fair, I submitted the Swamp Thing at a CGC event doing free submissions for modern books, and just had to pay shipping.) 2) Is the book a key or semi-key and in danger of condition loss if I don't get it slabbed? I have some lower-grade SA semi-keys that I got graded because I wanted to make sure they got protected, in case anything happened. 3) If my grading is reasonably on-point (and I usually ask my LCS for their opinion before I send anything through them, just for a second set of eyes--though we've both been wrong at times, and I've had books come back higher and lower, because it's all a roll of the dice), is the difference between Graded FMV vs. Raw FMV more than the cost of grading the book plus shipping? It isn't worth it money-wise to get a book graded if the slabbed value isn't at least as much as the raw plus the cost of slabbing. I have a column for both on my inventory spreadsheet, and when I'm thinking of getting books graded again, I'll check the ones that have the highest difference first, then update their values, see which still qualify, and pick X number from those (assuming I don't have any falling in either of the first two categories above). And when I'm picking for reasons 1) or 2) above, then that's my motivation and what determines what I send in, fitting within my budget.

Aw man, looking at the 2016 SS reveals makes me even more intimidated by the level of awesomeness!

Wow...I wanted to do the raffle, but looking at the 2016 list, I'm kind of intimidated by some of the items...

Wow, that looks awesome. To me, it looks like it should be 3-D, which fits the sci-fi theme and general time period.

There's something delightfully ironic about there being pence variants of the first U.S. appearance of Captain Britain This makes me sad. Sigh. Well, it's a shame that pence variants are worthless, and nobody really wants them. If anyone needs to ditch their X-Men pence variants to clear up some space to fit more polybagged copies of X-Force 1, feel free to send them my way. I've got some empty longboxes I could squeeze them into, I suppose....

Ooh, I qualify as well! Looking forward to these

Having grown up with 90s comics...blame, all the way blame! I wasn't sure, setting out, how much the 90s stuff still mattered, or if the more recent relaunches were hard reboots. I'm still interested in the 90s stuff, but maybe I'll go from 2012-today first, and then start backtracking, especially as it sounds like 2012 was basically a hard relaunch? Like, I read the Bloodshot relaunch #1 earlier this year, and it starts off with like, 4 Bloodshots in there, so clearly there's history existing before that #1. Guessing if I go back to 2012 and start there, I'll be fine? It isn't so much disappointment with Marvel/DC's current output (though that is a factor, at least with DC, and chunks but not all of Marvel...) or the higher quality of Valiant's current output (I couldn't judge that, not having read the earlier output). It's been a back-of-my-mind thing to do for a long time now. I like tackling comic reading projects (all of the Star Wars comics from the original Marvels on, all of LoSH from their 1st appearance on, etc.), and have been trying to figure out a new project. Seemed like a good time to finally catch up on Valiant (that and/or GI Joe from the start--but I was more of a Transformers kid than a GI Joe kid, so that's a little lukewarm to me).

Also, how many pouches, oversized weaponry, and unnecessary muscles will his signature have? Is the signature just made entirely out of giant guns, strapped with pouches?

Thanks for all the advice and the link! Valiantfans.com looks like a good resource. I'll keep digging around there, but it looks like there are a few reading orders listed...some of which conflict with some others, of course I'll keep digging around there, see what I can put together...I'd rather go chunk by chunk than jump title to title with each issue, so I may lean more towards following this list over something like the one in this thread, but not sure.

I just started Artemis on Tuesday night, around 42% of the way through it now (it isn't that long).

I don't have a picture of it (and they don't appear to allow searching past auction items?), but I remember there was an Uncanny X-Men 121 on Comic Link about a year or two ago that had no black ink on the cover.

Not sure if this is the right spot (figure it is?), and tried searching but couldn't find another thread on this topic... I grew up almost entirely reading Marvel and DC, and have since gotten into various other publisher titles, but have largely stayed away from Valiant, because unlike most of the others, Valiant is an actual shared universe, whereas most of the others have self-contained titles (unless there's some kind of Manifest Destiny/Savage Dragon/Outcast connection I'm unaware of...). However, while I enjoyed Stalinverse and some of the more recent books that have come out, they've also highlighted how little I know about Valiant and its characters. I want to get more into it, but don't know where to start. Anyone know of any decent kind of reading order for the Valiant books, or have any suggestions on where to begin? Even if it's just a matter of "Read A, B, and C titles until they hit X event/crossover, then read that, then continue with them plus D and E until Y event, etc.)." Mainly just trying to figure out where to begin and how to tackle them Thanks in advance!

Seconded...this was (unfortunately, story-wise) the era of X-Men I grew up with. Also Shadowcat, but that was probably influenced by the whole "nice Jewish girl" thing...and that I think her power is one of the better ones.

So glad you were able to get it up off the ground and running! Been following this thread since the start, and rooting you on (silently, from my lurking spot in the corner...). It's sadly a little too far for me to visit from Queens (I almost never go out to LI, and only for specific reasons when I do), but I'll be sure to stop by if I ever see a booth of yours at a local con (or if I do somehow manage to get out that way and visit the store). Hope the rest of this year is a good one for you!

Hi all! I've been lurking these boards on and off for a few years now (a bit longer than my account's age, I think it took me a bit to even make one), and figured I eventually ought to start actually posting instead of just reading... Anyway, I'm Adam, from South Florida originally (a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale that probably only other people from South Florida would've heard of), but live in NYC now. I'm 33 (god, where does the time go), and have been hooked on and collecting comics since I was 5, when I got my first Marvel Masterworks (vol. 1) as a gift from my parents, and which I still have, among some other volumes from the early editions--though sadly, the dust covers did not survive my early childhood... I read pretty much everything, and have a few longboxes worth of random books from when I was growing up (though only about half of what I used to have, after having to part with a portion of them), but other than a few scattered semi-keys I've picked up here and there, I'm mainly focusing on trying (on the limited budget I have) to put together a full Uncanny X-Men run, which is currently at around 66% complete (but only 53% complete in the conditions I'd like to settle at), excluding variants (which I'm including in my ultimate goal, but at a much lower priority). Though in just vol. 1, I'm at 75%/59%. With a ton of dupes, at this point, hehe. Right now, I'm mainly squirreling away what I can to try to snag myself a copy of X-Men #1 at next year's NYCC in something around the 2.0-2.5ish grade, preferably with good eye appeal. Aaaaand yeah, I can't think of what else to mention! Hi!

Literally just noticed this last night in one of the May Heritage Signature auction lots while I was reading through the catalog... Jumbo Comics #14 CGC even notes, "1st appearance of Lightning, (on cover only)." Can't figure out a way to link a picture of the cover, but the lot is here.