Get Marwood & I

They let you in early at 11:00 if you pay a fiver now. That gives you one hour of relatively free browsing. Then at 12:00 the flood gates open and the cast of Troy descend making it difficult to move or look at anything. I managed three hours in total. You realise you're getting old when you let out a deep groan every time you (try to) get up from looking through boxes on the floor. I've been going for 30+ years. It used to be monthly, but now it's much less frequent. And though I still enjoy it, it has an air of dying out about it. Same old stock, same old dealers. But the walk through the back streets of London on a sunny day to get there is always an enjoyable break from the terrors of one's daily existence. And the last time I did it I met Michael C Hall on his way to the Bowie rehearsals. All I could manage was "Dexter rocks!" Not the type of language I would usually use and stunningly embarrassing, but there you go. All good fun.

The high grade 9d Strange Tales #75 (first pence copy produced for that title) was a little out of my price range. Which is a shame, because who wouldn't want a 9d Taboo!

Not bad for an Alan:

This is what comics are supposed to look like! I was struggling to find a decent image of this one online for the file, so thought I'd snag it at today's London Comic Fair for a mere two and a half of our Englandville Pounds. No new finds though, so we're still stuck on 2,996 pence variants.

Speaking of taking two to tango, is that why....

What, and betray a confidence? What kind of person do you think I am? I want at least 15 answers to that. There may be a prize for the funniest.

I'm always looking for attention @kav. That's why I took this route to the London Comic Fair today:

I got an explanation from cgcmod11 by PM liz. It's a little bizarre. Suffice to say I don't think we'll be seeing the poll resurrected. Unless Arch steps in and starts waving his Massive Override Wand about that is. Depends what he thinks of democracy. As things stand, it looks like I'll have to make my mind up singularly

Hopefully Oak, yes If I do, you'll be one of the first to know of course, being one of my followers (along with that other SV Fellow. You know - the one who said "I can't hold the level of frustration I have being forced to watch you jump all over the couches of the house of CGC when you were just invited in". That one. Who follows me. Yes, him.)

No, that's not right, I will leave if it goes against me @CAHokie @Architecht @dena @Scott =) My poll has been pulled and I haven't received a warning or notice. It doesn't appear in the 'Your posts removed by moderators' section. Can you advise what is going on, either here or by PM please? I haven't broken any rules that I know of by starting it, so if there is one or more posts within it causing issues can you remove those and then reinstate it please? Thank you

Imagine the guys around the table in pre-production planning. "Guys, we've got carte blanche to use Darth Vader for a whole film. Darth Vader. For a whole film! Are we blessed or what! So, I propose 3 minutes screen time. Whaddaya think?"

A nice story to put a smile on your face, especially after just commenting in kav's thread (how to tell people their comics aren't worth anything)!

I don't know if it's my eyes but I think I can see a long non colour breaking crease on the back cover. Could be the scan. With the spine creasing around the lower staple and the very visual bottom corner ding I'd go for 5.5 to 6.0 if I were putting this on ebay. Cool front and back covers by the way ?

Good topic @kav I get this a lot in my job. When customers bring in donations which are, shall we say, unsaleable 'rubbish', it's very hard to decline them without them taking offence. As an animal charity, I always say "if I take that, and we can't sell it, I have to throw it away and our weekly rubbish collection costs us hundreds. So if I take it, animals will die". If you say it right, it can work ? On comics, we get them in occasionally as the guys know I know about them and bring them to me thinking we're in the money. All I do is call up the last unsold / 99p ebay sale on my phone and show them that. That normally works. Still waiting for something decent....

What an interesting question, which raises lots of conundrums. In this fictional case, if you could speak to the grader, and they could confirm that the removal of the lower graded cover would increase the final grade, this could be a significant financial increase, and hard to resist pursuing. But could you remove a cover without damaging either the book or that cover? Would you tear it off to avoid levering open and potentially breaking the staples? If so, you're damaging an Action #1 cover. Sounds bad. If you had the cover professionally removed, would that be restoration? Would it need to be noted? Is it likely that that information, on such a highly prized book, would not leak into the public arena? Would it put you off buying a single cover 8.0 Action #1 if you knew it was previously a 6.5 with two covers? Would a double / triple cover Action #1 be the rarest comic on the planet and, therefore, command either a premium or at least equivalent value to another example in its 'hidden' grade condition? Is an 8.0 hiding behind a 6.5 still an 8.0 in all but name? Someone I know posed a similar question about an AF15 with one trimmed edge. The question was, if you roughed that neatly trimmed edge up a bit, would it pass for chipping and therefore go from a purple to a blue, with a commensurate increase in value? If I cut the corner of an AF15 off neatly with a blade to remove a cigarette burn, it's restoration and purple. Tear it off and it's natural wear and tear and blue. Is that not slightly nonsensical? I enjoy pondering these types of questions. For me, I would never want to take any book away from its natural original status. I think a triple covered book is cooler than a cool thing and would revel in the knowledge that what I had was likely unique. But, on the right book, if I could pay off my mortgage by having a cover removed, or pay for a kidney dialysis machine with a three point grade increase, is that wrong?

We are in this thread @tomo! Good isn't it ?

Welcome to retirement Mike!

Cool. I'll look them up on the tube of the you.

No, I never went in for them. Any recommendations liz? Save me trawling

Same as it ever was....

I love a nice bit of poetry.

As well as the .

Wasn't that Fred Flintstone?

Neigh?