Get Marwood & I

I'm sure there are many reputable dealers, both here and in the US, who would jump at the chance of marketing and selling early pence runs of all the key Marvel characters. Have them graded, and the possible sale prices sky rocket (whether us raw lovers like it or not).

That's a shame, and explains things somewhat. Was he someone that you knew Albert?

Joking aside, I'm not going to send a big list Mike, if there isn't a dedicated technical resource in place to assess it. For some reason, I thought we were going to get a 'new Dena' who would have the time to look into and deliver technical site improvements. I will make this one suggestion though if I may. At one point the other week, I counted seven separate threads in CG about the same technical issue. We have a technical issue forum here: https://boards.cgccomics.com/forum/78-chat-boards-questions-issues/ How about if, when you spot a new thread or salient comment regarding site issues, you move it to that forum and manage it from there? All forum issues managed in the one place, accessible to all, with an associated announcement made telling members where to look. There are some really helpful members here who post work arounds for issues but they often get lost in comic related threads and forums. As an example, you could place all the access related posts in one thread, title it meaningfully (e.g. "Can't Log In? Read This!") and highlight any known workarounds. As members get used to you managing site issues from the issue management forum, they will go there and see the suggestions that would help them. We currently get a lot of CGC procedural posts on the technical forum - generally, new members asking where their submissions are and things like that. If you looked there every day, you could move those to the appropriate area and keep the forum for just the site performance issues that it was intended for. We have too many Q&A related forums here Mike, I think, which doesn't help members new or old. If they can't be reduced, refocussed or reshaped, one role you could play as Community Liaison would be to marshal their use more effectively. Aside of the obvious benefits of order, clarity and eradicating duplication, it'll give you something to do in the afternoons, now that you've seemingly stunned all the moderation obsessed loons into blissful (for the rest of us) silence

If I had known you were going to take the site offline with an update, I wouldn't have made it

Thank you Mike I know, I just thought the timing was funny as it stopped me posting about technical problems!

You couldn't make it up!

Gladly Mike, thanks. Notwithstanding your appointment, my understanding is that the technical people to whom you would refer any suggestions to are busy on other things and would therefore be unlikely to add any meaningful time and input. That has certainly been the case up until now. Accordingly, I'm interested to know whether CGC will be recruiting someone new from the technical community to work with us on a dedicated basis in the same way that you are now, very successfully, on matters of moderation. Matt's announcement inferred additional resources would be put in place to support you and I was hoping for some more meat on the bones of that. We no longer appear to have the direct technical support of Arch, Scott and Dena who for a time were our well known, visual, regular admin contacts. Are they being replaced? Or is the intention that as Community Liaison you will be the gateway for these types of queries in the future? In the meantime, it would be nice to see a regular staff presence in the Chat Board Usage Support forum, at the foot of the main page: There are some outstanding questions there which you could flag to your technical colleagues as a starting point. It seems that a good number of members are still having difficulties accessing the boards, even this late in the day. There are a number of things that could be done quite easily to make their lives easier and that is the kind of thing which I'd love to see the technical community taking the lead on.

It'll be interesting to see how some of the valuable first issues fair in that auction. You can request a condition report of course, but I'm always put off by a single photo for a £20K item. The AF#15 is still in its Mylar and covered in glare. Pretty poor marketing isn't it, given how grade affects the valuation. I've been to a few live auctions now and it's an eye opening experience. People will bid blind it seems and I've seen some quite inexplicable prices for books that are massively underwhelming in the flesh when compared to their online photos. Generic auction houses aren't comic dealers. They don't have the experience or understanding of the medium. They don't know how to treat or store them, chucking them around in piles on shelves. I'm sure the seller will get a nice lot of money for their books, even after the not inconsiderable commission is deducted. And I don't know their circumstances, or needs. But trusting such a collection to an auction like that is a puzzling choice to me, given the other options available.

Hello Matt, It's nice to see some communication here from the top brass, expressing renewed commitment to the forum. Thank you. Can you tell us a little more about how you will be supporting technical site issues please? We have a lot of problems around the place, some cosmetic, some less so, which detract from the overall user experience. This morning, a long time member told me by PM that he had only just managed to get onto the site due to the ongoing log in issues caused, I'm guessing, by moving the forum to a new address. There are things that could be done to help members in that position but there doesn't seem to be anyone visible taking the lead. Arch, Scott and Dena used to be on hand for the technical stuff - who will be managing that side of things in the future? I have a shopping list of suggestions to improve the place, if anyone is interested. By the way, was the incorrect spelling of liaison deliberate there in your communication? Hopefully Michael will be keeping more than one 'eye' on the place, now that you're paying him

Yep, the books in the last three posts are taken from it Stephen.

I had a look at that same original owner collection again, this time to see which of his issues have the 'Goldstar' oblong 10d stamp / circular shilling stamps for the October - Dec 66 cover date issues. Quite a few of the 'usual suspects' do: Daredevil #22: Fury #35 and 36: Spidey #43: Thor #133: ...and 134: And Strange Tales #151: The owner must have lived in a 'Goldstar' distribution area. I've checked most of the Marvel listings and the collection follows so many of the known patterns - UKPV where they were printed, cents stamped when not, and a large group of the known Goldstars - but not all - in evidence. It's nice to look at collections like these and see them back up all the research findings you've posted down the years. This FF #1 UKPV made me smile, with a subtle cover addition that the uneducated might miss. Can you spot it....?

I agree. I used to enjoy posting new images there. Just goes to show that there are no guarantees that the things we enjoy in life will always be there - regardless of the value they contain.

Always impressive to see these all together - I particularly love that #17-40 cover run. Great books, pence or cents.

The same owner had nice runs of Marvels populated with pence copies where they were produced and stamped cents where they were not. These two follow the pattern we've come to expect - no stamped TTA #62 (60-65 shown): Note that 64 and 65 are both stamped with an eight, indicating that they arrived in the UK together. This is entirely in keeping with my previous (incomplete) Marvel vs DC date alignment research:

We've discussed whether the October cover dated Superman #132 might exist with a T&P stamp a few times, our earliest recorded issue currently being #133. This original owner shot shows #131 to 137 and #133 is once again the earliest stamped issue (unless the stamp is hiding on the bottom right corner): The #133 is an eight stamp: Of the four copies I have captured images of to date, we have three eights and one nine. But still no stamped October #132. I'll keep looking...

Tried it. Now I have lots of dead birds in my back garden Ain't gettin on no plane! Someone down there keeps shooting at em.

I used it a lot back in the day when I was collecting Spidey MJIs Jim. The nature of these types of sites, which capture specific comic research, is that once the interested party has learnt what they need to know, there is no real reason to revisit the site again, especially if there is little by way of updates. Once the salient data has been recorded, there's nowhere else to go. MJIs are some of the coolest things on Earth though, and there will always be new collectors waiting in the wings to find, or be directed to, your site. You must have spent a lot of time and energy researching all that. It's your work. To many, you are "Mr MJI". So leave it up, if you can, firstly for those future collectors to one day find, but primarily as the enduring statement that long ago, you did all that work.

Pretty much everything I post is taking the piss Robot. Ten separate pence threads? That's taking the piss, surely.

I remember that one! It must have been hard, doing the western comics, trying to find ways every issue to make sure the protagonist never actually got shot. Look at Frisco's RK54 back there - eight shots fired and not one even remotely on target. Just a bunch of blokes shooting randomly into the air

There you go Bird

Cheers Bosco. I identified with the unfairness of it, having lost someone recently. And Craig is such a force of nature. I cry easily though. When the band returned to the violinist on the Titanic I was gone. You'll love it.

Did I do something wrong? Again. The film is superb Bosco. Craig is Bond. It's a testament to how good he is that people care. Well, I cared. Cried, in fact. Silly isn't it, for a grown man sitting on his own in the back row, watching the credits after everyone else has left.

I enjoyed it more on the second viewing this afternoon. It still makes me sad, but that's life.

Yes, it's a poster of Barry. I say a prize...

An angel's charlies