Off Panel

Hey, Ken. I am really sorry that happened. I think many of us can see ourselves making a mistake like that, which is one of the reasons your post was painful to read. After long ago perfecting my technique for changing boards and bags on books, I managed to get my first tape pull on a book in a very, very long time (at least thirty years). It wasn’t a key book, but it was a high-grade book that I really liked, and it’s not so high grade now. I really beat myself up about that for a few weeks, so I can only imagine how you are feeling right now. All of that is to say that accidents happen, everybody does something that makes us feel dumb every now and then, and I hope you stick around.

A quick tangent here. I will concede that a book where the line between the front and back cover hits the spine perfectly is the ideal. Having said that, a "white landing strip" is something that just doesn't bother me personally. I grew up in the South buying books off the drug store spinner racks in the 70s. I think the vast majority of books I picked up had that white strip, so to me, that's just what a comic book looks like. (To be fair, this book does bother me, because it's white at the top, but not at the bottom. But if it were a straight white strip all the way down, it would be A-okay with me.)

127 NEW buyers assumes the current 127 owners are willing to sell. I believe you've got two types of people currently holding on to IH 181's: 1) Speculators who bought high and will only sell when they can make enough profit to justify the initial purchase and 2) Collectors like me who see this book as part of our "permanent collections" and would only consider selling for a truly ridiculous price. Both mindsets push the price on this book higher.

8.5 or not, that is a gorgeous book. And I actually think it's really cool that Deni signed it, too. That is definitely a snapshot of a very particular point in time. Thanks for posting this!

Thanks, Wolverinex. When I handed this book to Dave Sim to sign, he squinted his eyes at me and smiled and said,"Is this a real copy or a counterfeit? You know I don't sign the counterfeits." I told him I was about 90% sure it was real, and he said, "We'll see. I can tell, you know." And he was kind of grinning, but also kind of acting like a hard-(case), and so I really couldn't tell how serious he was about it. He checked the front and back covers, then the inside cover, and then he looked legitimately surprised and said, "Wow. This one is real. Nice job!" I had brought a silver thin-tipped marker for him to use to sign the front cover (because a friend had told me 'that's the way it's done'), but when I tried to hand it to him, he said. "Nah, you don't want silver marker on the cover of a real Cerebus #1. It'll mess it up. I'll sign it, but I'm going to sign the splash page with a regular pen. That's the way you want it." And as he was signing the book, I realized that really was the way I wanted it. I'm not a big signature guy, and I really didn't want somebody to mark up the cover of my book. The fact that I was letting him write on the book at all was really a testament to how much I enjoyed Cerebus and loved Dave's work. (Yes, he was doing me a huge favor by signing the book, and yes, I had asked him to, but deep down I was actually fighting every instinct by not yelling, "Ahhhh! Don't write on that!") When he finished, he drew a head sketch of Cerebus for my wife, and was just as kind and charming a creator as you could ever hope to meet. I know people have very different experiences of Dave Sim, but in my case I can say that meeting him was a genuine pleasure.

Really nice book, Tbone. You’ve got to be proud of this one!

In honor of the 9.4 Cerebus #1 selling on ComicLink right now, I thought I'd upload my personal copy, signed and authenticated by the man himself... (Needless to say, my copy is not a 9.4.)

This is why I avoid auctions like this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMAZING-SPIDER-MAN-1-CGC-SS-9-8-STAN-LEE-SIGNED-10X-IN-COLORED-SHARPIES-1-1-/264742245901 Somebody made Stan sign this book nine times in 2017 using different markers so this seller could put it on eBay for a quarter of a million dollars. This guy, StockDoc777, always makes me feel a little sick when I see his auctions. If you look at his other items, it’s a bunch more signed and multi-signed books from Stan, and many are from the time when he was clearly being abused. I sometimes wonder if and how this seller was tied in to the circle of predators who made Stan’s last days so miserable, but I have yet to see any evidence (aside from his inventory). I wonder if any of our board detectives know the story of these books.

I bought a book from Charlie in his November auction. The grading was solid, the communication was great, and the shipping was quick. I'll be looking out for his next auction.

That auction started less than 24 hours ago and has 11 days left. Crazy. I’m watching some other books in the ComicLink auction and they are all off to a hot start (to my dismay). This one may be leading the pack, however.

I really feel like cremation might be more on brand for “Blazing”bob.

You have a very cool collection, October.

Daredevil'e Wooly Mammoth is bigger, Pebbles.

I love Basil Wolverton. It was really hard passing up all of his great Plop covers on my way to posting Wally Wood.

Yes! And I still recognize books that saw on the spinner rack in the 70’s and agonized over as I tried to decide on my final single-book purchase. Almost 50 years later and I’m still second-guessing myself.

MyComicShop may be my favorite online seller due to their super-strict grading, mostly reasonable pricing (I know they don't totally control this on commission books), and fantastic customer service. One quick story here: I have used their pre-order service since 2016 and never had a problem except for once. In that instance, the books just didn't show, and when I emailed MCS they provided proof the books had shipped and asked me to give USPS ten more days to deliver. Ten days later when the books still hadn't shown, I contacted them again and they immediately pulled a second copy of everything I had ordered and re-sent them to me via UPS. When the postal service finally found the the first box of books in their system and delivered them to me six weeks later, mycomicshop said "Keep 'em." They pretty much earned a lifetime customer that day (and I did choose to pony up for UPS shipping after that to avoid putting them in that situation again). I will keep the love-fest going for Greg Reece. Fantastic seller and I love buying from him. And I'll also reiterate the praise for Jim Payette. I generally buy higher grade books than what he typically sells, but I have learned that when he lists a book as NM/M, it's the real deal. I have bought from him four times and always been very happy. I also buy from ComicLink and Heritage, but mainly because they are often the only ones who have the specific books I am looking for. I've never had a bad experience with either of them other than a rapid depletion of my comic book funds. (Heritage is the guiltier party in this respect.) Bob Storms, I'm on your site all the time and will absolutely be buying from you when the right book catches my eye. One online shop is on my banned list. I had a problem with Midtown Comics a couple of years ago that was the polar opposite of my MCS experience. They had an awesome sale with fantastic prices on a lot of newer books, including variant covers. (I'm not a huge variant covers guy, but this was just too nice to resist.) I bought a ton from them and they shipped the books about as badly as any first-time ebayer ever could -- thrown side-by-side into a box that was way too big and the books just slammed into each other the entire trip. When I opened up the box of bent and mangled books, I contacted them right away. They wanted photos of the packaging, photos of each individual book, a list of all the damages, and I guess that was fair and I was okay providing it. I eventually got my money back after jumping through countless hoops, but my real issue was that they refused to replace any of the books and would not allow me to purchase replacement books (which they still had in inventory) at the original sale prices. Just as MCS gained a customer for life, Midtown lost a customer for life that day.

I want to update my earlier answer, since I had the opportunity to revisit Infinite Realities today. I can now confirm that IR has a healthy selection of Golden age (I saw some ECs, Bugs Bunny, jungle and war comics), Silver age (Tales of Suspense, Strange Tales, Tales to Astonish, pre-100 issues of Spidey and the FF and plenty of Silver DCs) and Bronze (lots of popular books from DC, Marvel, and Gold Key). I picked up a Fantastic Four 89 and a Mighty Thor 228, which looked to be around 9.0 condition. Most books are probably in the 3.0 to 7.0 range. The owners are super nice. While I shopped, they gave my wife a cute “chubby Pikachu” poster (while noting that they “don’t condone body-shaming Pokémon”). They are being smart about COVID and even offer a curbside pickup option (but of course I’m there to look through boxes). So, this is my current answer to “What’s the best comic shop to find Golden, Silver, and Bronze Age comics in the Atlanta area?” with one qualification: I still haven’t gotten a chance to revisit Dave’s Comics and Collectibles, so keep them in mind also.

Yeah, I'd really like certified 9.8's across the board, and ideally with white pages. That may be a complete pipe dream, but I managed to do it with ASM 121 through 129 over the last few years, so that has emboldened me. I'm already seeing a big difference though; in the 120's there were always lots of nice books that met my criteria and I just couldn't afford them, while in the run from 100 to 120, I can better afford them, but they aren't there. I actually saw an ASM 106 9.8 a couple of years ago with a lower page quality and passed. I wasn't focused on it at the time so I didn't think too much about it. I think about it now.

My 2021 goal is to either get a Spider-man 101 OR 102 in 9.8 condition, white pages. This is probably a terrible year for this goal, but I'm telling myself that there will be sellers who are very motivated to unload this book before March 19th when the movie comes out and everyone sees Morbius is not going to become "a thing." (And after the 19th, I expect prices will come down.) Really my goal has nothing to do with the movie. I've finally turned my attention to ASM 100-120 and I see 101 and 102 (and of course 106) as the biggest challenges.

That is absolutely awesome, batman_fan!

Hey, 01TheDude! You and I are First Comic Buddies. When I was eight, I was sick in bed with one of the childhood favorites (Summer cold? Strep throat?) and my Dad ran down to the pharmacy to find the grossest-tasting medicine he could (because those work the best). He probably felt a little guilty for just how successfully he accomplished that, because he also picked up a few comic books for me, which he had never done before. My first three comics were Amazing Spider-man 147, Daredevil 124 and The Mighty Thor 237. (Yeah, I know the Thor came out a month before the other two. I think our pharmacy was a little lax with their comics rack.) By my recollection, I wasn’t a fan of the Thor book, but I was big into both the Spider-man and Daredevil stories, which sadly both ended with the heroes getting killed. Just my luck to find something cool right as it ended. (I was super surprised a couple of months later to walk into the drug store and find both Daredevil and Spider-man still alive and having new adventures.) So yeah, ASM 147 was a great place to start collecting comics, although I think I would have preferred your Fantastic Four or Hulk to that particular Thor.

THAT’S the way to do it!