Mercury Man

Some of my personal favs...

19 hours ago, Jaylam said:

The Fantastic Four have been a victim of their own success. I mean, how do you follow up what Lee/Kirby/Sinnott did with the title. It's just one of those special moments in time (that was so cutting edge) that it can't be replicated, duplicated, translated or updated beyond what it originally was. The Marvel Universe could never be what is/was without it, but this is why it keeps failing now. The nostalgia and respect for it's importance is just too great. It's a masterpiece of its time, thus nothing can compare to that and anything else is just a disappointment and insult. 

Byrne did fine with it.  Claremont and Waid did fine with it.  Writing a FF title in 2017 can be done.  Marvel is just too lazy and/or greedy to write it 

19 minutes ago, Philflound said:

Toy trains is another area that won't see much collectibility in the future. Most kids don't care about trains at all short of riding one at an amusement park. Train collecting is probably a 40+ if not 50+ age area.

Great episode on 'American Pickers' about this.  Essentially they went to an old, closed upm toy train store.  A huge place full of old trains. The owners son (the owner has since passed on), was liquidating, he said kids just don't collect trains, and the adults that did, are dying off. 

I think Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle (at least his rookie) cards will continue to do well.  But is a mid 1960's Sandy Koufax or Willie Mays going to command a few hundred dollars like it used to?  Stan Musial was a great player, is somebody born in 1999 going to be saving up hundreds of dollars for one of his early cards?  Or will they taper off.  Me-thinks so. 

Then the Speed Force can undo the latest alternate-reality-bending -mega-event that the Cosmic Cube created, or the other way around....ooooh my head... 

But the sport is starting to check into the nursing home.   From marketwatch.com

"Baseball has the oldest viewers of the top major sports, with 50% of its audience 55 or older (up from 41% a decade ago), according to Nielsen ratings. The average age of baseball viewers is 53, compared with 47 for the NFL and 37 for the NBA, according to the ratings. And fewer young people are playing the sport: The number of people between the ages of 7 and 17 playing baseball in the U.S. decreased by 41% from 9 million in 2002 to 5.3 million in 2013."

Your link is both fascinating, and cringe worthy.  Refractor cards remind me of the Modern variant stupidity in comics. Whatever frenzy we see in modern baseball cards online, I don't think will sustain in 20 years, unless baseball fixes its aging problem.   In the year 2050 you are not going to have Millennials or Centennials looking for an Albert Pujols or Mike Trout RC at $15K.  

Cash or Money Order could have avoided this

There was a time when The Thing was one of Marvel's most popular characters.    

So much so, that he was the lead in Marvel Two-In-One for years.   Look at the Marvel ephemera he was on in the 1970's, ads, posters, t-shirts, pillow cases.   The First Family was doing something right for many years to be that popular.  

Can we draw a comparison between them and Superman?   He isn't what he used to be in Comic-dom either.  He WAS THEEE comic book superhero.  Now, neither of his books even crack the Top 20.   The Flash, Jean Grey and Cable outsold him.   Are they heroes that just don't translate well to a new Generation?

1 minute ago, bababooey said:

 Infamous Iron Man is the current FF series if you need a fix of Doom doing his Superior thing & fighting rocky guy, stretchy guy etc... etc..

Bah!  Don't get me started on what they've been doing with Tony Stark.  Superior Doom and RiRi is RiRitarded. 

The fact there is NO FF title being published by Marvel right now is pure insanity.  Obviously Squirrel Girl, Devil Dinosaur or US Avengers needed their utmost attention and support (pffft!!!).   I don't care who owns the movie rights, FF needs a monthly!  They ARE Marvel. 

I always thought they should be permanently stationed in Space.  Enough of tearing up Manhattan every 2 months.

Space Station 4!  They can do Negative Zone, Skrull-Kree, Thanos, Galactus, Silver Surfer, Ronin, all the Cosmic stuff.  Maybe even team up with the Nova Corps or even become the Scientific body of the Nova Corps.   Possibilities!  

But no.....Great Lakes Avengers needed their efforts because it was such a great title the first go-around.  

3 hours ago, NoMan said:

I just love 'em is all. Great! Great! Great! 

I understand completely, however, that his newer work sucks balls. I read two of the new Dark Knight book can't eve get myself to read the rest even though I bought them. I even man handle the books when I'm reading them, you know, bend the cover over cause I'm so mad it sucks so bad

He's one of my favorite characters, and his title always goes through extreme highs and lows.  Either it is really good, or really bad.   The Volume II run had some really good arcs.   The current Daredevil is one of the few Marvel titles I still read.  It's still pretty much stand alone from the rest of the Marvel garbage going on, so that makes it more tolerable.  

They were pretty hot books when they came out.  I remember people who never read Daredevil were picking up that run back in the 1980's.   I imagine there's still many to be had in great condition. 

I love Kirby.  He's one of my top 5.  But there is a strong camp out there that hates his work, and thinks he stinks.  Do you think they would honestly pass on owning some of his OA if they had the option, especially say at an affordable price?  Or are they blinded to the almighty dollar?  I tend to think most of them would want to own it, given his place in comics history, more so than liking or even tolerating his art. 

I can't draw, so anybody who makes a living or even gets paid for their artwork is infinitely better than me.  So I guess I never looked at it like you are presenting.  I do admit I hate John Romita Jr's style, but he is still better than me.  I used to like Rob Liefield, but as 20+ year pass, I realize that he is also not my cup of tea, and would have no problem not buying any of his books or art. 

19 hours ago, SECollector said:

Shouldn't this be in the Bronze Age thread? 

Beat me to it.  

Not to mention all that writing on the cover 

2 minutes ago, SteppinRazor said:

true, but it is in there, which helps the hobby.

I know, I know, just joshing.  But I do think there is overkill as to what people are sending off and having encased. 

32 minutes ago, SteppinRazor said:

The main difference between them and comic books is that baseball cards do not have content.  You don't get anything out of a baseball card other than the cover.  There's a whole saga inside a serialized comic book.

Unless the comic is a CGC'd comic-  because its unreadable saga is in sealed plastic 

21 hours ago, TheSSurfer said:

I agree the new Cap America story isn't the best. I was just wondering because I collect for the art, history, and story. Also as a way to spend money and eventually make the money back or even earn a little if possible, but I make sure I buy characters I like so I'm not disappointed entirely. I do consider the chances of said comic going up though, that's for sure.

I dunno, when talking about NEW comics I don't buy them off the shelf 'thinking' it's going to be worth something later.  

I treat it like a regular book.  I buy it, I read it, I keep it.  Someday my book may wind up in a garage sale, and I get a few bucks for it, but ultimately I paid for entertainment of the story.  

Now if a new comic book I purchased for some reason becomes 'collectible' due to some circumstance (hot character, first appearance, harder to find), ok, bonus for me, but I don't actively seek out a profit on a new release comic, nor expect one.   I got Batman 24 a few weeks ago.  I read it last night not knowing there was some 'surprise' ending.  Well, said comic is now going for 4-5 times cover price on EBAY.  Why?  Speculation.  Speculation is a terrible word for any hobby, and it's the speculators that cause the unwarranted fluctuations, crashes, and sell offs.   Should I sell mine for $15, even though I paid $2.99??  Not interested.  I am reading/collecting the run.  What if said book eventually winds up in the $1 bin, and I missed out on that $12 profit?...oh well.   What if Batman 24 becomes HUGE, and somebody offers me a GRAND someday. Awesome, that's great.  But I am not buying umpteen copies now hoping.  I am not holding on to it right now, expecting it to skyrocket. I just have it, because I read it, and I like the character, and I am collecting the run. 

And then there are the variant lemmings.  They have created their own sub-market, and they will be the first ones to bail out. 

Baseball Cards and Comics are both affected by real world influence.   I remember back in the late 1980's when Baseball Card Shows were big, Hall of Famers like Mickey Mantle, Ted Williams,  Joe Dimaggio, etc., got huge crowds, and even back then they were getting $50-$100 per signature.   Baby Boomers couldn't get enough of the 1950's/1960's Topps sets.  So modern speculation began, and then traded sets became the hot rookie cards, then Upper Deck and Ken Griffey Jr. came along. 

Now since then, we had a strike that basically killed a season, the steroid revelations, and a younger generation not even paying attention to baseball games on tv, so the baseball card industry today is  shell of itself.   Yeah the blue chip cards will still sell (a recent Ty Cobb stash of cards from an old man's dresser drawer, and didn't another Honus Wagner card just auction off for big money?), but the stuff coming off assembly lines today...pffftt...You can't even find a baseball card show in many major cities anymore. 

Now comic books.  This boon of movies, and reintroduction to pop culture has given comics a bit of a mainstream renaissance.  Comics, t-shirts, posters, bed sheets, this stuff is everywhere in stores.  There definitely needs to be a correction, as pointed out earlier, but this is really up to the comic companies to screw up (and Marvel is definitely trying its best to screw up).  I think print comics will still be around a long time, they just need to write a good story, give us some good art, and stop screwing with the characters so much. 

How I display:

On 6/18/2017 at 9:00 PM, Drbearsec said:

Yeah but not the fault of the VIP pass holders.  Blame the poor management by the cons.

Definitely, and that is kind of my point.  Poorly run.   Stan is on a treadmill, they should just cap the tickets sold, and had a numbering system.  I think they just said 'Stan you will be signing as much as you can in the allotted X hours', as the VIP's filtered in, and peons stood in place for essentially 4 hours.   Again, by the time I got out of line, I just wanted to go home.  Left money in my wallet and not with a dealer.   This is all 20/20.  Evidently he is done.  If he comes back next year, I am not going.   FINITO! 

Only what somebody is willing to pay for it.

Cool

2 hours ago, reddwarf666222 said:

Honestly the demand isn't what the majority of the people in line want his autograph for. They are paying the $100 plus fee in hopes that they can get up there say hi, shake his hand, and ask him a question with him directly in front of them. The autograph is the consolation prize of what a lot of these fans are really looking for

Yes and no.   Why do many people need a 'witness' from CGC before it gets entombed, or why are they given the option to purchase a hologram (on top of the $120 autograph fee?!?!)  to prove Stan Lee signed their item.  Aftermarket.