grapeape

“Gee that looks heavy Mr. Connors. Let me hold that for ya.”

We’ve been Rifleman rolled!!!!!

Batman 251 sitting at $396 K with BP. Cap 103 reserve revealed today at $200 K so next bid, that's $240 K with juice. FF Annual 2 splash ($115 K w BP) and page 11 ($75 K w BP.) Ditko ASM 10 $55 K with BP. Sal Buscema looking like a bargain at gulp $4080 w BP What do you think? It's still early but we're closing in on final bids next week. Do you see fatigue in the bidding on some of the other lots?....will there be game day madness? The jury is till out on the ASM 10 page. Many of us had it at 100 K plus. Will Cap beat $250 K. Will that Sal cover beat 5 K? I think Batman 251 is right where it should be if momentum has the chance to carry it past $500 K and beyond.

You're not the only one who thinks Conway was wrong. My brother to this day curses Conway and Marvel for what he felt was a heartless betrayal of the readers. Gwen was the perfect girl, the girl Peter Parker deserved. Like every dirty trick foisted upon real life hard luck fellas, just when one of their own finds the perfect girl, she's taken away forever. Conway's execution of what he saw as a pretty face-non-entity may have been a knee jerk power play against an irritant. Clearly what resulted was a more deeply injured alter ego of the world's most misunderstood superhero. Gwen was never going to be the woman to stand behind the man, who dressed beneath the costume of Spider-Man. She counted that masked hero as the murderer of her father. She hated him. As for MJ it turns out she would and did stand behind Peter Parker and Spider-Man. The rest as they say is Marvel history. ASM 121-122 has forever recorded the controversial and classic Death of Gwen Stacy. It's something my brother and I still talk about all these years later.

Is this a case where Ryan Reynolds and the DP movies simply told a more compelling story than any of the comics managed to do? Until the movies I knew of Deadpool but to this day can’t tell you about a memorable comic I read with him in it. I’m not knocking the character Deadpool fan so easy does it. I don’t know much about him or how close the movie is to the comic depiction. What say you Deadpool fans other than Blastaar? Also I resisted calling on (DP fans) as I envisioned scores of Mensa boardies typing (DP fan) into their search engine and finding sword carrying characters not wearing a uniform:

I asked the seller and he could only say he found it in a storage locker with a comic collection and other items. Maybe it hung in a comic shop at one time? “Selling shown as is”

Wow that’s great. Exactly what I was counting on that you all would tie the art to the moment. Seeing these images especially in the context of your unique discovery at the library is thrilling.

Los Hermanos Del price gouge

Oh man I remember this one. I still remember sitting at my desk and bag and boarding this powerful issue.

Incidentally it's been covered before but here is what Russ Burlingame reported on September 6, 2017----an exert below from Gerry Conway's book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story. “She was a nonentity, a pretty face. She brought nothing to the mix. It made no sense to me that Peter Parker would end up with a babe like that who had no problems," Conway is quoted as saying in the book. "Only a damaged person would end up with a damaged guy like Peter Parker. And Gwen Stacy was perfect! It was basically Stan fulfilling Stan’s own fantasy. Stan married a woman who was pretty much a babe," Conway continued. "Joan Lee was a very attractive blond who was obviously Stan’s ideal female. And I think Gwen was simply Stan replicating his wife, just like Sue Storm was a replication of his wife. And that’s where his blind spot was. The amazing thing was that he created a character like Mary Jane Watson, who was probably the most interesting female character in comics, and he never used her to the extent that he could have. Instead of Peter Parker’s girlfriend, he made her Peter Parker’s best friend’s girlfriend. Which is so wrong, and so stupid, and such a waste. So killing Gwen was a totally logical if not inevitable choice.”

It could be the day Gwen Stacy died. It could be the day Uncle Sal bought you your first comic book. It can be any significant comic moment in your life. Even better if you have a piece of art from that comic please share it. Mostly this an exercise to whittle a way the next week until we disappear into HA bid or not bid mode. Have fun.

If he ever read the boards he would. Since he only randomly posts, uhhh....he probably will be the last to know.

A worthy cause

Oh the torment we put ourselves through. I’ve felt relief at times being out bid. I’ve felt angry at coming up short. I’ve said WTF did I do? after winning a highly contested and costly piece. Seems there can be no pleasure in this game without the excruciating pains that come with it.

Tradd Moore Silver Surfer our new market health indicator? These are exciting times.

Brother you’re not the only one.....this auction top to bottom is going to be a smash. Best we come bid guns a blazing.

Ha ha that’s right Ricky. I’m staying positive!! This thing of ours has gas in the tank and many more miles to travel. I think The Donnelys and Romitaman should leave their collections to the Library of Congress. Rather than flood the market the loss of that inventory to collectors will strengthen art collections. Available art will sell robistly. Mike Burkey might be open to that. Now Los Bros? We’ll have to wait until that one bro “asks his brother.” Now who the heck wouldn’t want Venom art for Christmas? Bah Humbug

I think you’re going to see your art perform well in the end. Here’s what I see. I have my eyes all over that auction. It’s near impossible to focus and if you know grapeape his mantra is always focus focus focus. Bidders are really wrestling with how the next 7 days are going to play out. The worst case scenario bidders freak out paralyzed and star struck. Good art falls off the radar and underperforms. Active bidders become sad faced voyeurs. Now, here’s what I think is actually going to happen. A very few were ready for this auction. The rest of us trying to catch up as the inventory of primo offerings grew and grew. On the final day most of us are going to come to our senses. Batman 251 is probably not going to be ours and so on. Despite that sadness of that self realization, a weight will lift. The daydreaming about where you should buy the lucky power ball ticket sinks into the floor. Now the focus will return. Where can I grab a solid gold lot? It’s not over it’s just begun. The Fever will rise in all of us. The battle for Batman 251 will be our Super Bowl. We the giddy drunken side line spectators. The rest of the art will somehow seem obtainable in comparison and we will bid bid bid!!! I think this auction will set records and it will drag all lots upward yours included. To our buddies delekkerste and zhamlau. your early disappointments I believe caused merely by the fog of war. When the dust settles you will see well bid sales for your lots. Right now Sal Buscema is underperforming. Yet can there be any doubt that Sal will rise from the shadows and win the day? Take heart

I’ll start the opening bid 19.84

I wish you well. It’s early so may the late crazed bidders find your auctions. May they lose their senses and bid with abandon.

I saw it sold at HA 15 years ago but no make owner an offer option unfortunately. May have changed hands since. Not listed on CAF either.

Well for nearly every reason you have stated I stand by the assertion that we should tread lightly on throwing out there nefarious intentions and potential AML violations. A transfer of funds for any amount can trigger a Suspicious Activity Referral if the behavior is deemed untoward for any reason. There is no cash involved In this transaction so anything over 10 K does not apply as an automatic reporting in this case. PayPal transfers and bank wire transfers from a traceable account are different than cash deposits into an account. Actually to avoid AML reporting the worst thing you can do is reverse a transaction. Huge red flags. The point of Mike’s post was 1) I made a mistake 2) PayPal is keeping fees placing profit over a long term good client because the policy changed. Any individual or business can have an unusual or suspicious activity reported by the bank to the IRS. It has nothing to do solely with a dollar amount but more the behavior of conductor or nature of transaction. Mikes intent is likely irrelevant in this case on the face of it. He did not expect to pay fees at all. He paid fees and rules say he can’t get them back. PayPal did not to our knowledge say Mike can’t have his money back because they see a pattern of abuse of friends and family transactions that should have counted as business. it appears on the face of it Mike and friend paid fees because that’s the rules and PayPal asserts its not able to be flexible. Fair enough? Most folks hate fees so I don’t know how objective folks can be. Do you scream at your bank teller when you see a non sufficient funds fee or any fee? Are you satisfied when the bank tells you its in the rules that if A happens then B you pay fees end of discussion? if anyone reading this had a similar experience but actually received a PayPal refund After policy change please chime in. That would tell us a lot about what PayPal is thinking. If everyone truly is treated the same (that’s the policy too bad!) then PayPal users should weigh value of (see BCarter27) vs Mike’s position (burn the mother down.)

That's true and that spirit guided my initial response to Mike's experience. I'm not thrilled with the changes. I believe the holding of fees collected in error should be returned. I'm not a legal expert. Let's see if anything is done about it.

Props to dichotomy for bringing my attention to Trad. If you haven't seen it check out what he did with his sweet pages for issue 3. See the link above on this threads initial post.

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