kHAoS

On 9/13/2023 at 8:10 PM, Real Frantic One said:

X-Men #113
9.0 VF/NM
$75

i’ll take this w/ 30% off

On 8/24/2023 at 9:50 AM, Real Frantic One said:

X-Men #119
9.2 NM-
$50

i’ll take it w/ 20% off.

On 9/12/2022 at 7:20 AM, The Meta said:

See, my confusion came when you kept saying McFarlane variant, made me think he did a cover, but it was the toy reprint

reading over the entire exchange, i can see how it’s not entirely clear. i should’ve just uploaded a pic of the entire slab instead of just the label.

On 9/11/2022 at 11:16 PM, The Meta said:

But that is the Jim Lee cover

Is the McFarlane 2nd print the same cover as a 2nd print?

yes, it’s the same jim lee 608 cover except the original being produced in 2003 vs 2022, as denoted by the CGC label.

On 9/11/2022 at 2:27 PM, The Meta said:

So, its a reprint?

i would consider it a reprint of some sort. the ads are different from the original 2nd printing and produced exclusively by mcfarlane toys.

On 9/11/2022 at 5:29 AM, The Meta said:

This is a Jim Lee cover?

yes, it is a jim lee cover. this reprint has the new DC logo and not the old DC bullet logo in the corner.

guess the graders haven’t gotten the memo that the mcfarlane batman 608 reprint is different from the real 2nd print. i hate to be the poor guy that just bought this book.

On 8/28/2022 at 7:30 PM, Dreamsleep said:

G.I.Joe 21 9.6 $650

per PM, i’ll take it.

On 9/1/2022 at 7:27 PM, Dreamsleep said:

Secret wars 8 cgc 9.4.  Last sale $295. $275

per PM, i’ll take it.

On 9/1/2022 at 9:08 AM, ft88 said:

What If 27 NM to NM+ $15 each

3 copies

is the middle copy available? if so, i’ll take it.

On 9/1/2022 at 6:57 AM, ft88 said:

X-men 121 VF- $95

i’ll take it!

On 5/6/2021 at 3:23 PM, nicka said:

Marvel comics presents # 72

nm.   90 ( 5 available) ( 3 left )

i will take 1 copy.

5 hours ago, Buzzetta said:

You do not have to do 30 day returns or returns at all.  I have said this before, set your listings to no returns because it does turn away certain types of buyers.  When I sell it piece of jewelry it dissuades the type of buyer that wants to 'borrow' the piece or 'rent' it for a week.   I have had buyer's outright tell me that they would not buy from me because of my return policy because they only wanted to wear it to a wedding or something like that.  Um... Since I am not a lending service I am comfortable with that buyer not shopping with me. 

I have not had any headaches due to this as it keeps problematic buyers away and everything eventually sells anyway be it the day after I post something or a couple of years.  Enough things sell between that time frame to keep it interesting. 

if this is how ebay wants to run their site, it might benefit them to break-up the site or have different categories for sellers. this one size-fits-all standard for sellers is troublesome. i wouldn’t mind seeing something along the lines of a part-time hobby seller status of sorts.

personally, i use the site to buy and sell as a way to fund my hobby interests. i’m not selling new retail product, it’s mostly video-games and collectibles. i’m not looking to run it like a full-blown business and it’s an unreasonable expectation to bear all these extra costs. i get that that it’s ebay’s site, so they get to set the rules. but after 20 years, it sucks to feel that you’re getting squeezed out. in all probability, i’m just probably old and this new age of buyers have different expectations of the ebay buying experience. i’ll get off my soapbox now...

On 8/14/2020 at 8:19 PM, jsilverjanet said:

Here' a perfect example of why this new system sucks.

All my sales from 8/13 are still processing, I've been now notified that payment for these items will not be sent to my bank until 8/17. That means I won't see these funds till 8/18 in my bank account

so ebay holds my funds, but also pressures me to ship out right away? i use ebay as a hobby, but they sure know how to suck the fun out of it.

at one point, the goal was x-men GS 1 thru 544, but space became an issue, so it got trimmed back to 300. honestly, if space weren’t an issue, i’d probably collect every wolverine appearance, but since that’s not feasible, my wolverine run got trimmed to wolverine 1-69. i’m tempted to cut to down to the end of the silvestri run at 58, but the tex run was entertaining.

On 7/22/2020 at 6:49 PM, StreetPreacher said:

How many of the digital editions have had the art modified from the original print editions?  I assume this has been discussed before, but I just noticed that, for instance, the cover art of Incredible Hulk 340 is a bit different in the digital edition available on the Marvel website than it was in the original print edition.  It appears that the digital edition has added or widened the white 'glistening' colour on some of the claws, while the original art on the print cover had the Hulk's reflected face visible across the entire width of each claw.  Is the version on the website from a omnibus release or something, or is Marvel just making random changes?

Marvel Digital:

 

 

Original Print:

I haven't made a point of searching for alterations, but does anyone know if it's common for Marvel to make minor changes to the digital edition artwork?  Or are these 'director's editions or something?  Hope the pictures are ok, I just found them on google images, if they're for sale then I'm not affiliated...

regarding hulk 340 specifically, that art has been altered for publication a bunch of times. the white effect on the claws was added in a pin-up compilation from the 90’s. foreign variants of that cover also changed the changed the background color or had the image reversed. and oddly enough, the marvel poster featured a green hulk and orange background. marvel probably cropped whatever reprint edition of this image they most recently used, instead of scanning the original. personally, the white effect butchered the original art, not sure why anyone would think this is an improvement?

2 hours ago, Roo_Phillip said:

Besides the slowdowns everyone else is experiencing, I've had two recent purchases end up in the "no tracking movement dead zone" for weeks, only to show up at my door anyway.  In other words the items did not get scanned somewhere along their journey, tracking still shows them stuck somewhere, but I have my stuff.  Maybe I've just gotten lucky in the past but I've never seen this before.  Since I'm an honest person it's no harm no foul, but what's to stop some dirtbag in the same situation from simply claiming "The stuff never showed up!"?   This has me a little concerned about items I've recently sold and shipped that are still sitting out there in tracking purgatory.  Did the stuff get delivered or not?    

these types of shipping problems are causing headaches on ebay. if you’re a top-rated seller, you’ll lose that preferred status if shipments are marked as arriving late or not scanned as delivered. i feel like ebay should ease off on it if it’s systemic with the post office and outside of the seller’s control.

21 hours ago, Yorick said:

You've gotta have some before and after pics.  This looks like a manufactured fresh-outta-the-box vehicle to me...

Good job?

the only pic i have of the donor vehicle is from the ebay listing. i can’t take too much credit, all i did was give it a good bath and purchase some repro labels. the street fighter jeep is a good shade of green and it’s an overlooked hidden gem. i just like the added bits from the stinger and the molded shovel to give it a slightly different look compared to the original VAMP (side-by-side pics added for reference). 

i got a cool story about that VAMP, though. as a kid, i missed out on it and never tracked one down at the flea market or yard sales. back in the crazy early ebay days, i scored this factory sealed one for $20 shipped. a part of me thought about keeping it sealed, but gi joe was pretty dead in 97 and i’ve kept it all this time, so i don’t regret assembling it!

39 minutes ago, GeneticNinja said:

I haven't ordered from them in a while. I know they are a lot more popular now. I really want to get back to going to a comic shop. But when I did receive damaged items from Midtown, which was only a few times. They always sent me replacements. Or if it was sold out, a high discount or let me keep it if was really damaged. Usually, like with all online dealers, I try to order a lot so I get shipments in a box. That's always best to me. But it all depends on the packing and your luck with the mail carriers. I've received damaged items before that look like they were run over with a truck.

during this pandemic, i’ve been ordering from them regularly and all of my shipments have turned out great. a couple of times, the mailers got crumpled, but the comics were all mint. i’m actually impressed at the condition of the comics considering their volume and i’m assuming their packers aren’t anal collectors, like most of us on this board.

finally finished up a custom project this week. i’ve been leaning towards vintage gi joe’s lately and wanted to mix in something new. the donor vehicle was from the 90’s Street Fighter line with added parts from the Cobra Stinger and VAMP cannon.

a couple of odd things to note, while the shell looks like it should’ve been the same mold of the VAMP or Stinger, it’s not. and the plastics on these items are becoming brittle; certain parts are becoming really fragile. the jeep rolled off my couch and the cannon got chipped. i got an idea for another project, hopefully i can get it to come together as nice as this one.

i owned 4 more hulk 340 slabs, but those were sold earlier this year. i still have about 25 more copies raw. at one point, my goal was 50 copies, but i stopped once i hit 40 copies because prices were climbing and there were other books i was chasing at the time.

i have multiple copies of the wolverine mini-series and wolverine #1, so you can tell the copper-age is my collecting sweet-spot.

On 8/2/2020 at 9:40 PM, F For Fake said:

This makes a lot of sense to me. I know that my wife and I have been working from home since March, and have saved a ton on gas (we both used to fill up at least once a week. Now it's more like once a month, and gas was also much cheaper for the first couple of months), as well as money we used to spend eating lunch at work, ordering out, etc. We're spending more on groceries for our at home meals, BUT that food/money goes a lot farther. The home reno stuff is also true, at least out here. A couple of weeks ago, each of the three houses next to ours was having  work done the same week. I came out one morning and saw contractors and constructions guys in each of those driveways putting in bathrooms, kitchens and pools on the same days. Meanwhile, I hung some new blinds on my own, and walked around the house feeling like Bob F'n Vila.

Personally, I expected it to be a good time to buy, but instead, everything I'm interested in has exploded, particularly vintage toys. GI Joes, for instance, have gone nuclear in the last two or three months.

this is a weird revelation for me. around 10-12 years ago, i noticed that star wars and transformers were steadily gaining all the time, so i figured gi joe would not be far behind. i started thinning out my collection, but prices were really flat. i was so bummed, i stopped selling altogether and figured i’d be stuck with them for the long-haul. fast forward to the beginning of the year, i sold some foreign joes for absolutely zany money. i regret selling some of my rarer pieces in the early 2000’s, but i’m relieved i didn’t purge everything 10 years ago.

i’m seeing more orders sitting at the local post office for a day or so before making it to the main distro center. but the other thing i’m starting to notice is more packages being routed to the wrong state before landing in the proper state. i’ve had 3 packages this month zig-zagging across the country for no apparent reason. at least from what i’ve observed, the local post office personnel do appear to be overwhelmed at times.

5 hours ago, F For Fake said:

Thanks! Yes, they are much lighter/flimsier for sure. And not just the figures. In handling these I've been very cautious because it feels like bubbles are extremely thin and may pop right off of the card. Unfortunately none of this stuff was built to last.

the bubble on my flight pod separated a few years ago and the mirage is hanging on for dear life. the bubbles are definitely thinner. great to see a fellow joe collector on the boards 👍

1 hour ago, F For Fake said:

All right, at long last, I'm ready to share my KYGiJoe fest haul! I'm sure you were all waiting with bated breath. Probably couldn't sleep well either, could ya?

As always, expect several long-winded posts. Feel free to skip to the pics.

SO, did I go to a toy show during a pandemic? The answer is yes, and I'm not proud of it, but here's why I went:

1. The organizers promised strict safety guidelines, including limiting entrance to half of the room capacity, mandatory masks for vendors and guests, hand sanitizing stations, and all of that stuff. And they stuck to it. It was all very well organized and they had full buy in from vendors and guests.

2. While this is a terrible thing that continues to rage on, our state has done relatively well from the onset, and our numbers are much better than neighboring states.The risk was relatively low.

3. We'd already paid for the table!

So, we sucked it up and set up at the show as planned, and feel like it was all handled really well. I'm fully aware that it wasn't perhaps the smartest choice, and I've placed myself back in self-quarantine for two weeks since we returned. So let me say that I'm not advocating for attending public gatherings, I don't think it was the smart move, but it's the move I made, so I'm living with it. My anxiety since we returned is such that I probably wouldn't make the decision to go if I did it all over again, but the truth is that everything is probably just fine.

So, public service announcement and justifications out of the way, let's get to the toys.

One of my oldest and dearest friends is a hardcore Joe guy, has been collecting pretty much his entire life. He has a more or less complete set of every figure and vehicle produced between 83 and 91 or so, with a select few pieces from the later years. He moved into his new house a couple of years ago, and finally finished setting up his dedicated GI Joe display, which is like a mini-museum.

But part of that process was deciding to let go of most of the stuff he'd picked up post 91, including the 25th anniversary figs, and lots of other random stuff. So we decided a long time ago to get a table, and he'd sell off his extras at the show, and whatever was left would go on eBay. 

I split the table with him in order to get the early admittance to the show, and have a nice spot to stash my buys. I brought a few token things for sale. I sold about $63 of stuff Saturday. He made about $4k. He was happy.

Before the show started, I picked up a bunch of his later stuff. I'd been picking at it slowly over the last few months, but this weekend I went ahead and picked up one last chunk. His prices were already well below market value (he just wanted the stuff gone) and he added a "best friends since we were 12 years old discount", so I got this stuff for a song. He knows he can come visit it whenever he likes.

First up, a complete set of the 1997 and 1998 TRU packs. No vehicles and no Stars and Stripes set, but everything else is here, and they are sharp. I always enjoyed this line. The 97 series had some cool re-decos, but the 98 series are some of the best repaints they ever did in the line. The Cobra Polar Force, Navy Assault, and Oktober Guard sets are particularly rad.

Next up, I picked up a smattering of his 25th figures. I'd already bought several over the last few months, so I went ahead and added more to the stack, including all of the convention exclusives and the Doc mailaway. I still don't love the body styles of these figures (those long, skinny torsos still look weird to me) but there's no denying that they look pretty neat on the card, particularly the foil ones.

 

nice pick-ups! be careful with those TRU figs, the build quality and plastics have not held up as well the OG joes. i’ve had more than a few figs with arm joints separating and if the knees are frozen, the pegs tend to break.

that flight pod is a thing of beauty, just wish the stickers weren’t cheap paper ones.