SeniorSurfer

On 7/3/2022 at 3:36 AM, lou_fine said:

I could tell from your Batman 27 avatar that you was clearly also into collecting vintage comic books and really meant more as a general comment on the hobby more than anything else.  

Heck, at least you was smart enough to have made only one speculative buy and that was for your son, whereas I have made hundreds of speculative buys back in the day and I don't think any of them has really worked out that well at all.  

Your $300 figure reminds me of a funny story that I have told on the MA boards here before.  Went into one of the suburban LCS's in my area in the latter part of the 80's and the owner hands me a book which he had special ordered for one of his customers.  Told me that he could also special order a copy for me direct from the publisher and it would only cost me $300.  Being a mainstream type of comic book collector, I opened up the book and thought right away who in their right mind would shell out $3 for this fugly putrid piece of toxic looking doggie poo poo, let alone 300 big ones.  Boy, what kind of a no-brain idiott or sucker did he think I was.  Handed the book back to the LCS owner as fast as I could and if this had been 2021 or 2022, would have gone for the bottle of hand sanitizer as fast as I could.  

To make matters even worse, being a Miller fan at the time, I ended up instead ordering a signed and numbered limited eidtion of the Dark Knight for $40 which is probably worth less than that nowadays, which is certainly not the case for the TMNT 1 which I had just passed up on.    

I never even got the chance to sniff the first print of TMNT 1 back then but was curious and ordered the second issue.  I thought it was an interesting idea, given how they incorporated all the latest "hot" book series into the title, and I wasn't averse to going off the mainstream every now and then (more Underground books than new publishers though).  When I got #2 and read through it, I also thought it was really a "#2" alright and didn't pick up another issue, following the tried-and-true "buy what you like" mantra.  I don't regret it, since for every TMNT there were copycats (like "Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters") so who was going to guess right and shell out dough for all the different titles that were hoping to hit it big?  (As an aside, they parlayed their idea into a big money-making franchise and hey... more power to them, but I still wouldn't read or buy one of those stool samples for love nor money.  Like they need me anyway.). 

Thank you for the report.  Between this and some live IG sales feeds I felt I was there.  Maybe next year I'll make the trip from FL.

Thing is... by CGC taking in these volumes of drek - and of course they're not to blame since they're in the business of making money - they are taking away personnel and time from the legitimate grading of "things that really deserve to be graded" (Monty Python take note).  Sure there are some submitters that just want anything in a slab for their collections, but judging by the amount for sale on The Bay/IG/FB that number is dwarfed by the hordes more that are just submitting crapola in the hopes of hitting it big.  Or maybe they're just buying into the hype of variant covers, "key" issues in the 14th incarnation of a Spider Man title, 9th printings that are "scarce" or sketch covers of Wolverine by their nephew.  Meanwhile, here we are waiting long months for submissions that normally would have taken (at most) half the time.  

As noted above, I hope things normalize at CGC when these individuals learn the hard lessons.  Maybe.  I don't know as much on coins as I might on comics, but I can't picture myself just reaching for the change I get from the grocery and indiscriminately sending in handfuls to be graded/slabbed in the hopes of making money.  Actually I can't picture getting any change from the grocery lately, but that's another story.

On 6/26/2022 at 9:23 PM, frozentundraguy said:

This book was my first Marvel Pre-Hero book.  Tape, writing on the cover, creases throughout, well worn, the book has it all.   Then about 20 years to upgrade to a better copy.  The better copy is currently in scheduled for grading status.

 

With some luck, you'll get it back before another 20 years pass.

Mark Evanier notes in his 1/19/17 article (which in turn was a re-run of one from 2/14/02) that more than a strong resemblance to a young Jack Kirby can be seen in the floating head drawing of Mr. Fantastic on the cover of FF #7.  As this was a cover that Kirby himself inked and as Mr. Evanier knows a thing or two about Jack Kirby, I can believe it. https://www.newsfromme.com/2017/01/19/fantastic-find-2/

On 5/7/2022 at 8:20 PM, dupont2005 said:

She looks scantily clad

I concur... her cladding is quite scanty.

On 5/7/2022 at 4:19 PM, Rip said:

Haunt of Fear 17

Slight bend to numerous interior pages.

Some minor staining on back cover

VG/F $1000

per PM.  Thanks!

Like everyone else has noted, it's basically just an attention grabber to have you buy the book, and it's difficult to come up to the standards of a Frazetta or Adams or Wrightson or etc. cover unless the whole interior is by them.  Even without using Frank Robbins as the go-to guy who's work is (by definition) worse than any book's cover artist, I was going to feel disappointed and a little cheated.  For example, I had nothing against Frank Springer, but he couldn't sharpen Steranko's pencil and it was a real cold shower shock when I cracked open SHIELD #7:

Uh  oh...

On 4/21/2022 at 6:59 AM, Ryan. said:

On 4/20/2022 at 2:02 PM, mlovest said:

Yes, I've been frustrated by that as well.  I always enjoyed pretty MJ and Gwen, but today things are getting crazy.  I'll take the 60's thru 80's any day!  Just me...

It would have brought a higher price if they had sold the complete set with Ditko and Kirby.

Never seen that Vic Flint!  He sounds like one of the character names the MST3K guys came up with for that "actor" when they riffed "Space Mutiny" (Buff DrinkLots...Roll FizzleBeef... Biff McLargeHuge...Thick McRunFast...Punch RockGroin...Splint ChestHair)

I don't see it happening, at least not anytime soon unless some anomaly occurs like:  A character being selected for a major motion picture or a warehouse with 3/4 of an available book going up in smoke (reminds me of Dangerfield after he encourages the audience to "bust up the joint" then tempers it by saying "all right... all right... wait 'till next week after the fire").  Otherwise it seems unlikely and younger buyers are making the classic mistake of buying manufactured "limited edition" collectibles (see Beanies, Precious Moments, Franklin Mint anything, etc.) as opposed to ones that became collectible due to their scarcity.

A look at Reddit, eBay, IG, Facebook and any other individual selling platforms shows beacoup moderns for sale at any price with captions like "thinning out my collection" or "trying to concentrate on just..." or even "spring cleaning."  A look at most dealers will show little interest in buying books that don't have a ".25 or less cover price" and certainly not trading even truckloads of modern "variants" or "keys" or "grails" for GA and SA.

As we've heard ever since we started this collecting hobby:  Buy what you like to read and don't think so much of future riches as you're likely to be disappointed.

On 3/22/2022 at 4:12 AM, Ken Aldred said:

Regardless of venue, the asking prices in general have turned ridiculous and unaffordable for most people, for anything with a hint of key desirability or vintage.  It’s painful to look at offers anywhere; eBay, elsewhere online, or here, compared to the cheaper, happier, more carefree days of yore.

It is a shocking and scary situation, as indicated by the OP’s thread title, and I personally prefer to distance myself and not stare into the abyss.

On 3/22/2022 at 5:49 AM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

These past few months have gotten to the point that even I (who admittedly have a high tolerance for pain) have been discouraged or even flat out pissed off not only by the asking prices, but even more so by the prices some of these books are getting at auction.  I'm talking about junk run fillers (in high grade, but still junk) going for multiples of anything reasonable.

This just can't go on forever, it makes no sense.

Add to that buying fees or eBay taxes and the situation is really untenable.  There's no getting around auction house fees (for those that have them) but I was scalded by that eBay tax they're collecting now from pretty much every state.  

It was talked about on another thread here, and I read it too, but came the moment to buy something and, as it had never affected me up to that moment, I forgot.      There were a few books someone was selling, I bundled them, made a reasonable offer, and the seller was nice enough to accept.  When I got the eBay invoice, pretty much everything I had negotiated off was wiped out by a 7% tax added (on a 5-figure deal).  I was tempted to tell the seller and just cancel, but a deal's a deal and it wasn't his fault so I just paid up and learned a lesson.

It was a slow month for interesting titles or covers on my birthday.  MCS shows a smattering of Funny Animal, Archie, DC, Romance, Dells and some horror - none of which I collect or would have bought (if I had pockets in my diapers).  What I did notice was an incredible amount of men's "adventure" magazines which had some lurid covers, none more so than this one that caught my eye.  Get rid of most of the cover writing, change the title to a "Blue Beetle" or "Crimes By Women" and you've got a Pre-Code specimen that would have made for a chapter if Wertham would have written a follow-up book.

On 3/2/2022 at 5:58 PM, gadzukes said:

I'm trying to wrap my head around seeing 100 ten year olds running around the Zoo with their .22s and Bows and arrows.

Imagine the chaos.

Yeah, that's what I thought about too, especially seeing that last kid going off panel encouraging others to sell the stuff.  The end result implies cities full of kids running around with guns, bows and arrows, but of course the reality would have been this company using kids to push gobs of their salve on unsuspecting relatives and neighbors.  You'd probably have to sell gallons to even get a sniff of a bowstring.

Incidentally, a quick Google search shows this stuff has been around since 1860, is still being made and is described as a "white petrolatum salve" to prevent and temporarily protect chapped, chafed, burned or irritated skin anywhere on your body.  (Insert jokes here).

And now that I've done a Google search, I must prepare for the inevitable barrage of advertisements on body salve that I'll be receiving.  Just another bullet to take for the CGC Boards.