OrangeCrush

I do want to add one last thing. When you select a print on Zazzle, like the Ms. Marvel Comic #2 Variant Poster I am using in this example, you wind up at this page:

 

As you can see, its a full bleed print with no white border at all. And the paper type and print size options are on the right side. You can really change the paper at any time, but you should really select the image size before going through the steps I am about to list. In order to get a white border or change the position of the Marvel Logo, you press the customize button at the top right. That will bring you to this page:

 

On the right side you will see the text and images section. This is just like layers in photoshop. If you select the Marvel Logo, your able to move the logo and change the size of the logo. If you select the image, that allows you to edit the actual image. If you want to add a white border, select the image in the text and images section on the right and then press the minus button, which is located in the scale section on the bottom left. I only press the minus button once as that gives a roughly 1" white border which is perfect for me. If you do it more than once, it makes the border too big IMO. This is what it will look like after you press the minus button once:

 

As you can see, its shrunken the image size down a bit. The checkered boxes are basically empty space. Since the Marvel logo really isn't in a good position, I then select the marvel logo in the text and images section and then move the logo so its properly centered and in a better position. Here is a picture that shows the Marvel logo selected

 

And here is a picture that shows the marvel logo centered. You can move the logo once selected with the arrow keys.

 

Once your finished shrinking the image down and adjusting the logo, if one exists, you simply press the "done" button at the very top right. The final page will then look like this once you press done:

As you can see, you now have a roughly 1" white border and the Marvel logo is in a much better position overall. At this point you just add the print to the cart. You also have the ability to save your designs and the nice thing about that is you can go and pick out all of the prints your planning on buying during Zazzle's big Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale, pick the size and make the proper adjustments and then just save the designs to your account. That way when the sale does start, its just a matter of adding those saved designs right back to your cart. All the work is already done. And it still keeps those saved designs in your account so if people selling these prints ever decide to reorder a particular print, the design is still saved so you just have to add it to your cart again. That makes placing reorders extremely fast and easy.

Anyways, I hope that helps!

1 hour ago, thehumantorch said:

What sizes are these prints?

13x19, but you can make them any size you want, literally. You could make 11x17, 13x19, 13.5x19.5, 18x24, etc. You have the ability on Zazzle to personalize various aspects of the print including the size. 13x19 is my favorite print size in regards to storing prints in portfolio's so I always buy 13x19 prints with Zazzle's sales. If I am planning on framing a print, I tend to go with larger sizes like 16x20, 18x24 etc.. Here are a couple of screenshots that show all of the various preset sizes and it also shows the input boxes at the very bottom where you can literally enter any size you want, thus making your print any size you want. 

This will be the last time I mention prints in this thread as the topic has already been discussed in full and I certainly don't want to derail or hijack the thread's main purpose. Anyways, I showed the pictures of the prints that are up on Zazzle, but I never actually showed how nice the actual prints are in person. So I figured with my last post regarding prints, I would post up a few pictures of some of the 13x19 Zazzle prints I received this last year so people can get a better idea the level of quality of these prints. Again, I get all my comic prints made on Zazzle's premium archival matte paper as I think comic art looks 1000 times better on matte paper. So here are a few pictures I took last night while trying to organize my print collection. I literally had a stack of like 200 new prints I purchased over the last 6+ months that have just been sitting in my studio. I Just hadn't gotten around to organizing them and putting them in portfolio's yet.

Its important to note that I took these pictures in pretty flat lighting and then just used levels in photoshop to help boost up the contrast. So these actually look a bit nicer in person in regards to the contrast and colors. And I have terribly shaky hands so you might see a tad bit of blur with some of them. That is not the print. These prints are just razor sharp.

IMO, at just over $5.00 a pop, these prints are one of the best deals all year long in regards to any comic related collectibles. Their 13x19 so their a great size and their made with premium archival matte paper. All in all, its one of my single favorite sales all year long and I highly recommend everyone that enjoys prints takes advantage of it. And it doesn't have to be comic art. It can be any artwork they carry on Zazzle.

Anyways, with that being said I will finally put this issue to bed. 

8 hours ago, lizards2 said:

I've gotten damaged comics packaged like this several times.  If they use scotch tape to secure the books, it breaks and the books fly down into one corner and get crunched. 

You need to use good, strong tape, and put an extra oversized bag over the books, or wrap them in newspaper / craft paper, or both, then secure this inner package snugly, then tape it to the sandwich boards.  

Once again, this goes right back to having the proper skills and using the proper techniques. Using scotch tape is completely inadequate and people who are experienced with packaging should absolutely know this. You have to use shipping tape and one of the best techniques is using the back end of a pair of scissors in a back and forth motion over the tape once its applied. You do that and you literally cant get the tape off without it tearing part of the box/cardboard off with it. 

As much as I wish this were the beginning of the end, I still think were at least a couple years from that happening, at least in regards to the variant market. IMO, one of the biggest factors is going to be the decline of super hero movies at the box office and on TV. Every crash need's a kick to really get it going and I think that kick will be the inevitable down turn of super hero movies at the box office and TV. Once the general population really starts to tire of super hero films, which is 100% inevitable in my book especially given the massive amount of content being released now, we should start to see a noticeable decline in all licensed super hero collectibles being sold. IMO, that will be the precursor to the crash of the variant comic market.

And I absolutely 100% believe that a crash is coming. In fact, IMO out of all the bubble markets we have seen in the entire collectible universe, modern variants are by FAR the most obvious bubble market we have seen to date. All of the key signs are there for an impending crash. Speculation has become a bigger and bigger part of the market and is now one of the primary forces in the market, the number being produced has absolutely skyrocketed, and prices continue to reach higher and higher levels. Its just a matter of time before the whole house of cards comes tumbling down, but again I don't think were there yet. I give it like 2-3 years, maybe 5 at most, before that inevitable crash becomes reality. 

IMO, the best way to protect yourself as a seller is to simply learn how to properly package things up and get insurance if its something valuable. I can't even tell you how many damaged shipments I have received over the years, for both comics and art prints, where the damage could have EASILY been avoided if the seller had only learned how to properly package items up. I can package up comics and art prints to the point where they are bomb proof (the term used in the shipping industry to represent a package that is packaged up EXTREMELY well). You could literally drop them off a 10 foot roof and chances are they wouldn't be damaged at all. 

Its basically the same premise for both comics and art prints (shipping prints flat). All you do is get 2 pieces of cardboard or foam core that is at least 1" larger in diameter (both horizontally and vertically) than the comics or print. You then secure the comics or print in a comic bag or print bag centered on one of the pieces of cardboard and then sandwich it between the 2nd sheet of cardboard and tape the 2 sheets of cardboard/foam core together. That extra 1"+ of cardboard will be what winds up taking the hit if the edge of the package does take a serious hit during shipping. In all my years of buying off of eBay, I have yet to recieve a single damaged comic or print that was shipped in this manner. All of the damaged comics and prints I have received from eBay were ultimately damaged due to weak packaging skills.

10 hours ago, speedcake said:

ya this very nice. I assumed it had to do with low order numbers and the 1:15 variant aspect. $30 doesn't seem unreasonable then for those few really tough ones. Are there 1:15 variants for every issue 1-20? Are they all Parrillo?  Looks like after that, later in the run, other artists do some of the variants.

No, not all of them are 1:15 variants. I don't have the official number, but in regards to Warlord of Mars, I think its like 6-7 issues that were 1:15 Parrillo variants. I will do a bit of research and see if I can get a more accurate figure on that one. 

Ok, just checked Dynamite's website and its 9 - 1:15 variants in total for the Warlord of Mars run, which ended at issue #35. Here is the complete Parrillo run.

Warlord of Mars #1 - Alex Ross (30%), Joe Jusko (30%), J. Scott Campbell (30%), Lucio Parrillo (10%)

 

Warlord of Mars #2 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #3 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #4 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #5 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #6- 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #7- 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #8- 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #9 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #10 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #11 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #12 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #13 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #14 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #15 - 1:15 Variant

 

Warlord of Mars #16 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #17 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #18 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #19 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #20 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #21 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #22 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #23 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #23 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #25 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #26 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #27 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #28 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #29 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #30 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #31 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #32 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars 33 - 50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko

 

Warlord of Mars #34 (50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko)

 

Warlord of Mars #35 (50% Parrillo & 50% Joe Jusko)

On 3/1/2018 at 12:18 PM, Maverickcomics said:

Hello all. Just wanted to pop in and introduce myself. My name is Tom ive been lurking for years but never got around to participating in discussions. Some of you might recognize me from the forums across the street but I haven't been active in the last year. Bought a house, new car, promotion at work and going back to school after 15years out has made for a busy schedule. 

Got the itch again recently and hooked up on a little golden age collection that should be in route. So I need somewhere to humblebrag? Check out the golden age forum in the future if you want to see more.

I hope to get more involved in the community as I get back into my books this go around. 

 

 

On 3/5/2018 at 6:07 PM, Ak49 said:

Hi, started collecting during the 1970s, stopped after the 80's. All my comics are Silver or Bronze for most part. Still have most of my collection but learning about grading and selling off a few. I have a preference for Iron Man and Avengers, so keeping most of those .. Also really loved Unknown Soldier for years

 

 

Welcome to the boards!

On 3/6/2018 at 12:07 AM, speedcake said:

Ya every time you post these I want them that much more.  Why are these particular covers so tough to find? 

Well, their 1:15 variants and I don't think that series as a whole had a really big run. That was really right around the time where Dynamite really started to get much more popular due to adding Red Sonja and Vampirella to the IP's they own. So its basically a comic that had a relatively small run overall and again, those Parrillo covers are 1:15 variants and I don't think many comic shops were purchasing 15 copies for that run of comics. IMO, that seems to be the most logical explanation as to why some of those books are so rare. I am not joking when I said it took me years to finally track down those #14 issues. Maybe I just had bad timing and they wound up being listed and sold before I saw them. Either way, I checked eBay pretty much daily and it really did take around 2 years for me to find those 2 copies. 

On 3/6/2018 at 12:38 AM, speedcake said:

There is a #15 on ebay right now but the BIN seems a bit high

Yeah, I have seen a couple of the #15 posted thus far this year. Thats a flurry compared to the number I saw posted last year. I wound up purchasing one of them and that is actually the kind of pricing you see on a lot of the 1:15 Parrillo variants for either Queen Sonja, Vampirella, and Warlord of Mars. I wound up paying $29.99 each for the #14 issues I posted up. So while its definitely high compared to the various price guides out there, if you really want a copy its likely your going to have to pay those kinds of figures. 

Personally, I just love Parrillo's style. Its the perfect balance between realism and that comic book quality artwork. And I LOVE that he paints his covers like Del'Otto and Ross. IMO, painted covers just have a quality to them that digital art just can't match. I love being able to see some of the brush strokes. Here is a perfect example by Del'Otto where you can really see the various brush strokes. 

Again, I just love that quality to painted covers. Oil painting just have a really beautiful quality to them. 

On 2/27/2018 at 3:19 PM, shadroch said:

Assuming your math works, why not go big? Order 25,000 copies.

Cause it still adds up to be like $17,000 per individual comic you want to buy like this. Sure, it sounds great as the numbers are very compelling, but Just 3 comics like that and your already up over $50,000. As someone that understands the costs associated with starting up their own business...well, I certainly would never have been able to throw cash around like that in the first couple yeas after starting up. If he is able to spend that kind of money without hurting other parts of his business or risking his business altogether, then I would agree that it makes sense to buy big.

1 hour ago, speedcake said:

That chaos #1 virgin cover is pretty sweet. I'm also thiiiiis close to beginning my own Warlords of Mars collection. THANKS. Thanks alot 

Yeah, that virgin really is a great Turner book. Really happy that I finally found a set at a decent price. And IMO Parrillo's cover runs for Warlord of Mars, Queen Sonja, and Vampirella are some of the best cover runs I have ever seen. Each cover is just amazing and they just get better and better. Unfortunately, some of those 1:15 variants are REALLY REALLY tough to find. It took me roughly 2 years of searching eBay on a pretty much daily basis to find those 2 - #14 issues and I had to pay 300% book value to get them. At that point, I honestly didn't care about how much they cost. After looking that long I just wanted to be able to scratch it off my list. If you do try and get Parrillo's Warlord of Mars run, the books your going to have the most trouble with are #10, #14, & #15. 

Received a couple shipments yesterday for some more modern comics. Scratched off a few of the remaining Turner covers I need to complete my Turner collection. Getting very close to the 100% mark, both with signed and unsigned. Also received 2 copies of Parrillo's Warlord of Mars #14 cover, one of the hardest comic's I have ever tried tracking down. Also picked up a few signed Campbell comics and a few misc variants.

 

 

 

6 hours ago, bronze johnny said:

Great collection! Especially the Bowen stuff. Been collecting statues and busts since the 90s and while the other companies have done excellent stuff, no company has captured the "essence" of Marvel Comics like Randy Bowen's Bowendesigns did. 

I love Bowen statues and during the time they were without question some of the best statues on the market. That being said, IMO most of them just really can't compete with a lot of the new 1:6 statues being released today by companies like Hot Toys and Sideshow. I think that's why your seeing so many Bowens listed on eBay these days. People upgrading to newer, higher quality pieces. I would have done the same if I still owned mine, but the house fire we had wiped em out. I might have kept a couple of them, but I definitely would have sold off most at this point. 

Don't get me wrong, they are still great statues and always will be and there will always be a market for them. Its just many of the newer pieces are just much higher in quality (more detail, more detailed paint app, higher quality sculpts, etc). Just look at the detail on many of these newer pieces:

3 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

I don't think buying storage lockers or going to estate sales and other type of "hunting" activity is for everyone.

Like anything else, the harder you work and more experience you get, the better the results.

But it is by no means a glamorous undertaking and often requires an amount of luck along with the effort. Those people earn their money.

The folks who lose their valuables due to not paying storage fees are the real losers here though-- well at least in the cases where the value of the items inside far outweigh the cost of the rental. It is sort of the reason I hope to never use one of these facilities for my own stuff.

Side note: The way some of these videos play out is sort of gross to me in a way. They need to empty the storage area -- got it. They want to make a video and toss stuff around like it is garbage at the same time saying how valuable it is. Here's a thought-- just move the items out of that facility to your processing area and show the results later. You can video the storage locker contents as you progress without opening boxes and pawing through the items. Pulling out books from a long box, bending the book back in order to read the title (without a speck of knowledge about what they are reading), then slamming the book back in the box-- rinse/repeat.

The guy says in the video "I know a lot of you are saying we are handling the items rough BUT we are working over 8 hours here just trying to get this stuff out of here and we are tired"-- then he states the "stuff" might be worth this large amount of money. So act like the items are worth moving carefully and handle them later when you have time. This sort of speaks to the overall intelligence of the people making these videos I guess. While most of us would carefully move the stuff into our vehicles and into a garage or house somewhere, they are trying to show off the find as they move it and TIRED. Much more efficient to get the items elsewhere. Focus on your task. Seems simple enough. Not that I don't appreciate them sharing the find-- but do it later when you have sorted it out and can show the items worth seeing in the first place.

Actually, a significant number of them wind up being people that passed away. Its not just people slacking on payments. And I think one of the reasons why bin hunters are so successful is it just doesn't make a lot of sense renting a storage bin to just store a bunch of junk. I think most people would weight the yearly cost vs the items actually being stored. I know that's what I have always done when I rented bins and that's exactly why I wouldn't rent a bin to store all of my empty Sideshow statue boxes. The idea of spending hundreds of dollars a year to store empty boxes just made no sense. Obviously some still do rent bins to basically store junk, but I think in most cases people do at least some factoring of value into renting bins, especially long term.

Here is a decent bin by me that is currently up for auction. Its currently at $70. 

I'm interested in those medical tables in the 2nd picture. Might just have to bid on this, but this bin is a LOT of work. I tend to stay away from bins that require this kind of moving commitment. Would have to rent a uHaul to get everything out. The fact that this has a sign in it saying Universal Health Group and the fact that it has medical tables and various exercise equipment makes it pretty easy to figure out what else might be in here. 

Now that I think about it, I really should have rented a bin for just one month and stored all my empty Sideshow boxes in it and then defaulted on it purposely. Oh man, that would have been so worth it to attend that auction and see people's faces when they opened it up and saw 45+ statue boxes and replica weapon boxes. It could have sold for a LOT of money. Of course, people would have no idea if the statues were in them or not, which would have made the decision to bid high on it all the more gut wrenching. On the one hand, that would be an awful thing to do to storage bin hunters, but on the other hand that really would have been a hoot to watch first hand. I could have videotaped it, lol. Such a missed opportunity there!

On 2/27/2018 at 9:00 AM, F For Fake said:

Yeah, I don't really like this costume either. I'm really only interested in the original costume. Of course, since it's SST, I'm sure they'll release another one in a year or two, so I'm content to wait.

Yeah, we will definitely see another Harley in the next year or two, especially given how popular she has been the last couple years. I'm in the same boat with Supergirl as I hated that portrait. One of the worst hairlines I have ever seen. So i'm anxiously waiting for the next iteration. Given the cost of these statues now, it really makes no sense to buy a piece unless you absolutely love it. 

3 hours ago, spreads said:

Do you think the people on storage wars aren't skids?  Aside from Barry, most look and act like dirtbags - they haven't demonstrated any level of education.  I haven't watched an episode of Storage Wars in years, but from the few minutes I could stand listening to that Rene guy in this clip he didn't sound very smart or educated. 

As if the people on Storage Wars was an actual decent sampling of the kind of people you see at your average storage bin auction, lol. I have been to well over 60+ live storage bin auctions and again, the VAST majority of people that I have seen look just like average joe middle class Americans. And you RARELY ever see the kind of drama that is shown on those shows. Those shows specifically pick out people with particular personalities that will be entertaining to follow and by doing so they ultimately pit them against one another. What you see on those shows is not indicative of what you see at your average storage bin auction at all. And considering you have never actually been to one....well, you will have to excuse me if I don't take your opinions of them seriously, especially when they go against everything I have seen first hand. Don't get me wrong, if you want to think storage bin auctions are disgusting places where the white trash of America hangs out...well, your entitled to your opinions no matter how wrong they may be. Ultimately, your just 1 less person I have to worry about showing up and outbidding me. 

1 hour ago, GM8 said:

I have seen Hard Core Pawn and always liked their rawness as compared to Pawn Stars.  The customers they get in that store are enough to scare anyone out of the pawn business....just argumentative about everything and many are just trying to hustle every second. They seem to do well despite it so kudos to them.

If 4/5 people make bucks and many make $100K I'd be surprised honestly.  That quote is from an auctioneer so he has every reason to exaggerate. He makes more money the more competitive it is.

That's too bad about your Salvation Army closing.  Try Goodwill, they will take almost anything clean and useful too. I use the Givebackbox all the time and it's free to ship them donations. http://www.givebackbox.com/

Yeah, I have seen many of those customers first hand. They can get pretty crazy at times, but you really don't have to worry when you go there as they have a really great security crew. If you go on a day when they aren't filming, if someone makes a ruckus, they are out on the street like that. When they are filming they tend to let it go on a bit longer, as long as its not something legitimately threatening to customers, no doubt to make the show a bit more entertaining. If anyone even mentions a gun or says they will hurt someone, the police are called immediately and they wind up showing up in no time at all. Les Gold doesn't take any cr*p from people. If your really familiar with that show then you might remember who Rich Pyle was. He worked there for like 15-20 years and was then fired. Its never been made public why he was fired, but I was pretty sad to see him go as he was always a really friendly guy. He's actually now on a National Geographic show called "Meldown", which focuses on precious metals. 

And I don't know how accurate the 4/5 is, but I do know that there are quite a few people out there making a lot of money on storage auctions. We have met quite a few people over the years at various auctions. This one couple we know just made like $25k on a bin that was full of brand new Harley motorcycle parts that were like 30-40 years old. 

And thanks for the Goodwill tip. I forgot all about Goodwill as we have always used the Salvation Army. And it does suck that our Salvation Army shut down as that has been there since I was a kid. At least 35-40+ years. 

6 hours ago, GM8 said:

They are real with some BS thrown in. They subsidize the "stars" buys hence they appear at all these far-and-away places where they wouldn't normally go.  Then you will see some random item they need to get an expert's opinion but that item is totally out of character for the unit. Those are often planted items to keep the show interesting.

 

I often wondered what do you do with all the trash you ultimately get from any of these units? The storage facility I use has no dumpsters or garbage bins so you have to haul everything away. Seems like unless you really know what you're doing and you're lucky its a break-even or lose big-time, time-waster.

The place we drop off our recycling has 4 huge dumpsters in the very back that is just for garbage. That's where we dump the stuff that is literally garbage. We also have a Salvation Army a couple miles down the road, which unfortunately just closed down, and we would drop a lot of lesser valued items there that weren't junk, but you would have a VERY hard time selling. They would take just about anything there as long as it wasn't garbage. And I'm not sure if you have ever heard of the TV show called Hardcore Pawn? Its a reality tv show based on the pawn shop "American Jewelry and Loan", which ls located in Detroit. That store is only around 20 minutes away from us and we have moved quite a bit of stuff through them over the years. You don't get a lot of money for the stuff, but it definitely helps move some of the lesser quality stuff that you don't want to keep and would have a hard time moving otherwise. The whole idea behind storage bins is getting the good stuff while getting rid of the rest of it. The Salvation Army and American Jewelry and Loan have definitely been 2 of our go to places for getting rid of most of that lesser quality stuff. Not sure what we will do now that the Salvation Army has shut down. Need to see if there is another one that isn't too far away.

And supposedly 4/5 people make money off of storage bin auctions, with the 1/5 either breaking even or losing money.

"“Four out of 5 people make money and 1 out of 5 breaks even or loses money in this business,” he said. “I know more than 100 people who make over $100,000 a year doing this.”

https://www.sparefoot.com/self-storage/blog/13143-how-to-make-money-at-storage-auctions/

We have won around 20 bins over the years and there are only 2 I can think of that we wound up losing money on, and neither were huge losses. One wound up being a bin that literally had about 30 medium size plastic storage containers that were literally full of cheap flip flops, lol. We dumped that entire bin on the salvation army and amazingly, they took all of them as even tho they were cheap flip flops, they were all brand new so they still took them. They just send them to the main distribution center and they then get sent to different Salvation Army stores in that region. 

5 hours ago, spreads said:

Agreed.  And it's not like you're working in a professional, office-environment.  I'm sure there are many dirtbags that go to these type of things - no thanks.

This isn't true at all. Most of the people that I have seen at storage bin auctions look just like average middle class Americans. And I'm not sure what kind of environment you would expect. It takes place right at the storage facilities so its exactly what one should expect. Many of the facilities are actually very nice places, in very nice cities. I'm certainly not going to any of the storage places that are located in slums. This is just a complete misconception of what its really like. 

5 hours ago, Shawnismaximus said:

Ive been watching the storage lockers that sell in my area looking for a good deal. It's all online here. Anytime I see something remotely interesting it ends up going for 200 to 300 dollars. There seems to be a lot people looking at these right now. I've spent a lot of time analyzing photos for things I could sell but I've never seen anything exceptional. Lots of used beds, unmarked boxes ect. 

A lot of the time, that is where you find some of the most interesting stuff. That antique camera collection I spoke about earlier, that entire collection was stored in plain brown unmarked boxes. The reason I purchased that bin was because it had a nice gas style pressure washer. The camera collection was literally impossible to see. And that's why storage bin auctions are basically gambling. Your not allowed to go into the bin to look around so you can only see a few things with most bins and you have to make an educated guess from there as to what else might be in there.

How organized and clean a bin is can be one of the key's to the quality of the items in it. And having a general knowledge for various markets like antiques definitely comes in handy. For example, one of the bins we won, my wife immediately recognized a few pieces in the bin that were depression glass. I have no experience with that and thus would have never recognized it. It wound up there were like 10 boxes in that bin that were full of depression glass and its pretty easy to move that stuff on eBay.

17 minutes ago, Alf Pogs said:

I like good covers too OC but I gotta have the whole package. 

So do I. I rarely ever buy comics just for the cover. The only time I do that is with my absolute favorite artists like Parrillo, Campbell, & Del'Otto, but that doesn't mean I can't appreciate the beautiful covers that are being produced. I never said people had to own the comics.  This is simply an art appreciation thread, nothing more and nothing less. 

14 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

I think the post title should have been a bit more specific "Best New/Modern Comic Covers".

That being said, I really like Tyler Kirkham's covers. 

I didn't want to just limit it to covers as a lot of people get various commissions made or get sketches done at art shows. That kind of artwork is perfectly suitable as well. If its new and someone thinks its a beautiful piece of comic art, its fair game.

I compromised and changed it to Best New Comic Covers/Artwork!

24 minutes ago, Alf Pogs said:

But are the insides any good? I find many new books art just rough sketch layout talking heads with lens flares and color gradients. The ads look better than the stories on many books these days. Without a master storyteller artist on the inside those are just square pogs to me.

I have no clue as I don't own any of these comics yet and the stories are really completely irrelevant. The point of this thread was about posting up the best new covers being released, not what comics have the best stories. And I disagree 100% on your last point. I don't need a quality story to appreciate a beautiful comic cover. That's one of the main reasons why I am such a big comic print collector. I can appreciate the artwork just on the basis of the artwork. Again, I don't need a quality story to appreciate beautiful comic art. 

There have been a few big comic finds over the years with storage bins. I'm actually surprised more people in here aren't active on this front given that fact as they really are a lot of fun. My wife and I have been going to storage bin auctions for at least 6-7 years now. Unfortunately, they have gotten more and more popular over the years and that rise in popularity has definitely raised the average price many of the bins wind up selling for. When we first started going to storage bin auctions, there would only be a small group of people in most instances. Now many of them can have pretty large groups of people and again, its definitely raised the average price many of the bins wind up selling for. One of the things they really don't show on the TV shows is just how worthless, dirty and smelly many of them are. The TV shows tend to only show the quality bins that wind up having decent stuff in them. Definitely make sure you bring a quality pair of working gloves if you ever decide to start attending and bidding on bins. And its a LOT of work and requires at least a truck or van to move many of the items. You usually have 24-48 hours to clean the bin out after the auction is over.

We have definitely won some great bins over the years. I found a substantial antique camera collection when we first started attending storage bin auctions. It was just the 2nd bin we had ever won and that find really got me hooked on storage bin auctions. Another big bin we won had a TON of older Coca-Cola memorabilia and a bunch of misc fountain shop equipment. We wound up making around $6,000 on that bin. And we just won one a couple weeks back that had these really cool blue storage type lockers that wound up being perfect for storing art books. It also wound up having a really nice Milwaukee tool chest, which had a large set of Snap-On tools, like 8 full boxes of quality hardcover books, a digital dart board, and a couple of cool lamps and end tables. Unfortunately, I have only found comics once in the roughly 20 storage bin auctions we have won over the years. There were 6 short boxes full of mostly silver age comics, but the condition was only around 5.0 on average so while it was still a nice find, it just wasn't anything earth shattering. One of the boxes was like 75% full of silver age Wonder Woman comics and most of those still have a decent value to them. 

A word of warning tho, storage bin auctions can get addicting. Its really no different from any other kind of gambling. 

One of my single favorite aspects to comics has always been the artwork and IMO, there has never been as many talented artists working in the comic industry at any give time than we currently have right now. The sheer number of high quality comic artists currently working today is pretty amazing. Anyways, as someone that absolutely loves comic art, I figured it might be nice to start a thread that focused purely on the best new comic covers either recently released, or are currently up for pre order. And by recently released I mean anything released in the last couple of months. I don't want this to be a thread where people start posting their favorite covers from like 5-10 years ago. This is purely for comic art that was recently released. Or any original comic art people might have gotten made via commissions and such. 

So I'll start things off with a few of my favorite recent covers.

Mighty Thor Vol 2 #705 Cover B Variant Stanley Artgerm Lau Cover

 

Infinity Countdown #1 Cover C Variant Adi Granov Captain Marvel Holds Infinity Cover

 

Injustice 2 #25

 

Flash Vol 5 #47 Cover A Regular Howard Porter Cover

 

Dejah Thoris Vol 2 #4 Cover B Variant Diego Galindo Cover

 

 

Batgirl Vol 5 #20 Cover B Variant Joshua Middleton Cover

 

 

Green Arrow Vol 7 #40 Cover A Regular Tyler Kirkham Cover

 

 

Grimm Fairy Tales Presents Hellchild Inferno One Shot Cover C Jay Anacleto

 

 

Duel Identity #3

 

 

I loved this film and am super excited that sequels are in the works. 

I don't think I have ever been this anxious for a movie before. The build up to this film has been absolutely brilliant and there has really never been anything like it before in the entire history of Hollywood. 10 years, 18 films, over 13 billion grossed just off of ticket sales alone. All from a company that was declaring bankruptcy in 1996. The most impressive thing for me has been Marvel's casting. There hasn't been a single character to date that I didn't like. I was actually really disappointed when I heard they had cast Chris Evans as Captain America (one of my least favorite comic characters on the comic side) as all I really knew him from were the Fantastic Four movies and I really didn't care for either of those films or his performance in them, but he would up being an absolutely perfect choice for the role. IMO, Winter Solider is the best super hero movie I have seen to date. That Super Bowl trailer for Infinity War actually gave me goosebumps when I first saw it. And what a perfect ending to a trailer. Thor and his "who the h*ll are you guys" comment to the Guardians of the Galaxy" was just classic.

The sheer number of quality actors and actresses in this film is just insane. Even Peter Dinklage from Game of Thrones is getting in on the action. 

13 hours ago, fmaz said:

Just picked up a lot of 13 Avengers-related Marvel mini-busts, which did a nice job of filling up some empty spots in my shelves...

 

 

I am really not a big bust person, but these are some of the nicer busts I have seen as at least most of these have arms. I just can't stand busts where they cut off the arms at the shoulder. The Black Widow & Captain America busts are a perfect example. Have never understood why busts are designed in that manner. 

20 hours ago, F For Fake said:

See, I don't like this HQ portrait either. It's an improvement over the hideous mug on their first PF, for sure, but still not something I'd want to own. I bought the exclusive of the first one and sold it when the prices started popping up, because I couldn't stand either head sculpt. Was hoping that one day I'd replace it with something I liked better. This ain't it.

I agree the portrait on the first PF could definitely be better. I still like the statue overall as when I am standing roughly 5-6 ft away, which is the usual distance I am at for most of my statues, its still a really nice looking piece IMO and goes really well with a lot of my other female DC pieces. And I like the pose. Sideshow has definitely upped their game in regards to the quality of portraits since the time when that first Harley PF was released tho. Just a few examples of pieces with amazing portraits IMO include Thanos, Huntress, Captain Marvel, Dark Phoenix, Harbottle's Red Sonja & the newest Red Sonja, Aspen, the new Wolverine, Lady Deadpool, etc. I do think this piece has a nice portrait quality wise, although I will agree that its just not the kind of portrait I am looking for with a Harley statue. This is the best angle IMO. 

Again, I think its a quality portrait overall, but again just not the type of portrait I am looking for with Harley. At least for me, Harley should have a playful portait and this portrait she just looks angry or frustrated.