Hockeyflow33

Not even close to winning, oof

On 2/1/2022 at 3:22 AM, Randall Dowling said:

FWIW, for those that are feeling like this is an overreaction to what the McMinn School Board did and that nobody is trying to cover up or minimize the holocaust, I can tell you that I have multiple family members that are pushing exactly that.  More and more, they say explicitly the following things:

• People's reaction to Nazis is hysterical and overwrought.  Hitler did a lot of good things and the bad things are questionable.
• The holocaust is probably not as bad as Jews have been pushing and if you're going to teach that you should teach the other side (whatever that is).
• Slavery wasn't really a bad thing and was actually a beneficial thing that Europeans did for Africans.  Almost none of them were actually whipped and they were given food and shelter in exchange for work.  A perfectly reasonable arrangement.

These things are happening in the US.  And they are increasingly becoming mainstream in certain groups.  Both my parents have PhDs and they believe these crazy ideas fervently.  And the reason why is simple- there are those that are actively trying to reengineer norms and morals to a place where cruelty is not a bad thing if you believe you're looking out for the greater good (again, whatever that is).

So, I don't believe pushing back against it is an overreaction.  I think it's the only sensible thing to do.   

Absolutely wild. To me, it's why teaching actual events instead of using allegorical materials like Maus is so much more important. 

There is a real lack of historical knowledge both nationally and internationally and there are all sorts of valid reasons why trying to teach children and kids heavy-fact based data can be tough. There's only so much time so you're forced to pick and choose topics which will leave out tons of very important ones. To circle back to comics, Brad Meltzer and Chris Eliopoulos put out a fantastic series of children's book titled "I Am" which are biography-based books about historical figures geared and drawn for kids. I certainly don't know how you tailor this material for something so dark and horrific as the Holocaust, so maybe events such as these are best taught straightforward. 

None have risen to the level of the Holocaust but there has unfortunately been plenty of genocides with the Armenians, the Irish (disguised as a potato famine), the great starvation of Soviet Ukraine, Rwanda and I'm sure many more that I'm not aware of, including the possibility of one occurring right now with the Uyghurs. As far as I'm aware the Holocaust is the only one taught in schools, and clearly not very well. Education should continue after school ends and so much of today is centered on other distractions instead of making learning a lifelong pursuit. 

On 1/31/2022 at 1:52 PM, jaybuck43 said:

I am a bit curious, and this isn't meant to accuse you of antisemitism, but did you know any jews growing up?  You absolutely need to expose middle school aged children to the horrors of one of the worst atrocities ever committed, not just to make the point that it was bad (cause it was), but to start asking the more important questions like "How did we let that happen?" "How did people just go along with it?" and "What's preventing something like that from happening again?"

You think 12/13 is too young to be exposed to Maus?  which itself IS the  "watered down" version.  Let me tell you the bed time stories I was told at a significantly younger age.

My family was born in Lodz, Poland.  My grandfather was the youngest of 10.  His father, Chaim, owned a moderate sized factory in town.  He did well for himself, not a millionaire like Mr. Spiegelman,  but well enough to care for his kids, have a governess to help raise the kids etc.  When my grandfather was only 18 he was drafted with his brothers into the Polish Military to fight the Germans.  That uh didn't go well.  The Germans took control of West Poland (with East Poland seized by Russia).  My Great Grandfather's factory was stolen (sold to a Polish Gentile without any renumeration), my family thrown out of their home at gun point and forced into the Ghettos.  After a few years of starving, living on rations, and having to barely get by in a tiny one bedroom apartment for multiple people, the Germans and their Polish puppet government decided that my family had it WAY too good.  My great grandparents were pulled out of their new home and shot in the street for the crime of being "too old". My grandfather and his younger brother went and joined the Polish Resistance.  His older brothers weren't as lucky and were ratted out by neighbors and had them sent off to various "work camps".  You probably heard of one of them, Bergen-Belsen, this is where Anne Frank (along with my Uncle) died.  Two of my uncles were sent to a place you probably never heard of.  Majdanek, which was on the border of German Poland and Russian Poland.  There my uncles were forced to work until they died.  Below is a picture the Russian's took when they liberated the place.  Somewhere in that field of skulls and body parts, of 50,000 dead, are my uncles, cousins, and other relatives.  My grandfather himself was captured twice while he fought the Germans and escaped from Bergen-Belsen and then from Auschwitz-Birkenau.  In all, my great grandparents, four uncles and one aunt were murdered in the Shoah.  

So no, I'm don't care its a bit uncomfortable that kids have to be exposed to horrors of mankind, some of us didn't have choice.  My Grandfather didn't.  I'm not interested in "romanticizing" the Holocaust and making it more "tasteful".  Not gonna "Gone with the Wind" this.

 

You're purposefully obfuscating my point and also accusing me of antisemitism, thanks! 

Again, I'm not advocating for or against a book just pointing out the pitchforks can probably go away if you read the actual quote from the people who made the decision.

On 1/31/2022 at 8:27 AM, Rick2you2 said:

So, in other words, we don't really want the kids to feel the horror of what happened, and thereby help prevent it in the future; we just want to mouth the words and let it blend together with other words like "in 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue." 

It's been awhile since I was 12/13 but I'm sure there are other age-appropriate books that can convey the same message to the kids. You don't need to expose middle school-aged children to the horrors of the worst atrocities ever committed to make a point. 

On 1/30/2022 at 11:42 PM, pemart1966 said:

...and the best news?  They ain't making any more of them!

You can always smash a bigger one and create plenty of smaller rocks haha

On the flip side, these are children who are 12. If you read the quotes the decision-makers thought it wasn't age appropriate so it's not a banning so much as probably not the right age group. 

Everything is so polarized, the board members went out of their way to say how important and valuable the book is. There's no reason to call them Nazi's, (which completely diminishes the horrors of the very book people are claiming to support).  

On 1/30/2022 at 11:20 AM, Timely said:

I disagree with this assessment. Just because a hobby now costs more than it once did, that does not preclude it from still being classified as a hobby. You want a cheap hobby that never goes up? Start a rock collection! Lots of inventory out there and 99.99999999999999% of it is free!

Where can I buy rocks with crypto though? 

This type of art turns me off books and has really led me away from a lot of modern books. The overly-digital art lacks soul.

I'm sure it's much faster for artists but the transition away from pencil/ink has not been good. If you look at Juan Ferreyra's original art he has this beautiful use of watercolor and shading with his originals and then whatever process they use to color his pages absolutely ruins the feel of his art. 

On 1/2/2022 at 6:44 PM, cstojano said:

I wonder if the circle won't come full circle and people will get back to t1:6 statues again.  I mean, who needs a 1:3 or 1:2 scale bust of Sauron in their house??

The 1:6 pieces are like $600 plus $1-200 shipping nowadays, it's nuts! 

Iron Studios produces 1:10 statues that look phenomenal but are anywhere from $160-350. Shipping is definitely reasonable but the prices are nuts for longtime collectors, (I still buy them haha). 

Unpublished by Romeo Tanghal - 13x19"

On 1/2/2022 at 2:31 PM, cstojano said:

I cashed out of most statues several years ago. I hop onto the old boards occasionally just to see what is up. The hobby seems sort of dead to me. How many of the same characters can these places possibly make? The entire hobby seems to have gone more high end as you note. Sideshow ruled the day, then these new start-ups studios started appearing where bigger is always better. My last purchase was the Uman Witchking, for which they delivered a 900 dollar shipping fee on a 1290 dollar statue. Its just too big. The boxes (yes multiple) take up so much room I cannot imagine how anyone with a large collection stands the clutter.

I just received the new XM Hawkman 1/6 statue a couple days ago and the box is like 30"x20"12" and weighed 22 lbs. What was the biggest Bowen box? Thanos on Thone or Sentinel or Giantman and that was not even half the size if memory serves me. 

Totally true on the space, I only have a handful of 1/4 or larger statues and the boxes fill up my basement 

On 1/2/2022 at 8:37 AM, John E. said:

Up until yesterday I was a regular seller on eBay for 8 years selling a mix of collectibles and household goods, and man, it has really affected the way I see the value of things. I don’t consume a lot because l understand the lack of resale on a lot of this stuff. Whereas in the distant past l used to justify frivolous purchase because if it didn’t pan out I could always throw it eBay. Now I look at something at the store and estimate it’s resale value and how much it costs to ship and just put it back on the shelf. Case in point are DVDs (don’t hold value) and bulky toys (not cost effective when it comes to shipping). Also men’s dress shirts (for starters they flood secondary markets like thrift stores and chic second-hand clothing stores). That’s how I justify the money I dump into OA; outside of that I don’t buy a lot of junk. It makes it that much harder for my wife to shop for me for birthdays etc because she doesn’t see me buy things. 

The statue world has really lost the secondary market over the last few years and people act like you're a monster for wanting "collectibles" to at least hold onto their value. It was great when you could buy a Bowen for $200 and shipping was $13, you'd never worry about losing too much money, if at all. Now a statue is $1,000, the initial shipping is $200 and you get hit with sales tax. The secondary market has totally collapsed for the majority of pieces when you need to sell that same piece for almost $1,600 just to break even. 

I'm not an accountant but as I read the tax provisions in Mass and got clarification for the Dept of Revenue at the time since it was only being reported to the State and not the IRS, there is a yard sale exception for people who aren't involved in a business. I had sold a bunch of statues that first year Mass decided to change the law in the middle of the year and had like $7k in ebay sales. After meticulously going through emails and card statements to find the original costs and postal expenses I called the state and they said it was unnecessary and so long as it wasn't income from a business, I didn't need to report it to the state. Of course, this could have changed over the last few years and if it's going federal I'm assuming they want all income to be reported.

It seems overly cumbersome and unrealistic to expect people to keep track of all deductions and costs for items they've owned for a long time 

On 12/29/2021 at 10:12 AM, Ryan. said:

$600 has been the threshold here in Massachusetts for years.

That was a fun time when we received 1099s out of nowhere from PayPal. 

This isn't quite as user friendly as Comicbookdb but it's the closest I've found

http://www.mikesamazingworld.com/mikes/

On 12/1/2021 at 8:21 AM, JadeGiant said:

Conversely, gives you another shot at an item that you didn't bid enough on. If you really want it, you have another shot which doesn't usually happen. 

I hang out with the low-class buyers so it's out of my range already haha 

On 12/1/2021 at 1:14 AM, cloud cloddie said:

Annoying for sure. But were you outbid or forget to bid? Your first pic says you bid $25…

Reminder bid and then it went above what I wanted to pay in live bidding

Always annoying when a piece you were outbid on pops up back for sale so soon 

On 11/27/2021 at 5:34 PM, Will_K said:

Not referring to any particular dealer, piece or price... but I've been very wary to participate in any discussion regarding the $$$ for a certain piece whether before or after it sells.  I'm not following sales closely so my opinion would be worthless.

After all, the only price that really matters to me is what I've actually paid for a piece.  Or the price of something I've sold (it's been a while).  If I'm an underbidder or also-ran or non-buyer, well that was my state of mind and state of my finances.

For me to have an actual opinion on a price before or after a sale, it feels like I'm spending someoneelse's money.  If something sells for X, I might think "Wow, that's a lot of $$$".  But I highly doubt I would think "Yeah, that sounds right, it's worth the $$$".  This stuff is still a luxury.

Of course, I don't mind paying less.

If you're the underbidder on a piece that gets bid up to a dealer that then sits unsold on their website for years...

I have very high hopes for this as the old Boston show was always very good

They're also overseas so some of this could be lost in translation