VegasJeff

Here is my first effort at giving back to the community since a few others on the board have hooked me up in the past. I picked up the codes for 5 free digital copies of Guardians of the Galaxy (2015) #1. If you haven't tried any digital comics yet this would be a good way to try one out. You must create a marvel account which is easy. First 5 gets them. Limit 1 per username.

I remember buying comics as a kid on newstands in the late 80's and early 90's. I first discovered comics on a magazine rack in a convenience store. At the end of the 80's and early 90's, I can tell you for me, it simply started getting hard to get comics outside of a comic shop, period. That's why I kept asking my mom to drive me 30+ miles to get to the first comic shop I went to. A lot of places that had comics on the magazine racks simply stopped carrying them due to kids stealing them, not wanting to deal with riff raff, etc. or whatever the reason was. If you did find them on a magazine rack such as in a grocery store, a lot of the copies could be beat up from people looking at them and/or the selection might not be good. That's why would you want to go to a comic store. If you did find the rare place that was an entire store dedicated to be a newstand that sold every sort of magazine they usually would have some comics and a better selection but that selection would be nothing like a comic store. In big cities, which I did not live, the book superstores showed up at some point and they would have a better selection of comics than a typical magazine rack at a grocery store/convenience store.

That looks like the Suzuki SX4 hatchback. Suzuki doesn't sell new cars in the U.S. anymore but when they did, this was the cheapest new car you could buy. Wouldn't surprise me to see a lot of these in lower income areas of Kansas City. Sort of like the Geo Metros of yesteryear.

Best advice I ever heard when completing runs or sets is to get the keys first. The most important reason is that it tests how serious you are. If you can't afford the most expensive key from the start then you probably should re-evaluate your collecting goals. Perhaps take on collecting a run or set that would be easier or cheaper to complete. The secondary reason, you want to get the keys first, is that prices generally continue to head upwards and buying them first will keep you from getting priced out and prevent you from failing to complete the run or set. Don't start anything you can't finish!

Just curious, how many years did it take for your books to go from $500 to being worth $10k+?

How rare is AF15? Does anyone have an estimate as to how many copies are left?

When he was at the last convention in Vegas he was pretty much sitting the whole time for photos. I gotta warn you though, if you want to get a photo with him, he's a lot shorter and smaller than I thought and the photographers usually provide no direction (which is lame). So make sure you get really close to him to get a good picture.

Those are some amazing press job examples.

Best way to measure page whiteness and quality? I saw there is an OWL card that Overstreet made for measuring paper quality and whiteness with designations such as off-white, tan, brown, etc. I also read posts somewhere that stated this card needs more levels of color such as cream, etc. Is this OWL card the best item a collector can get for measuring paper quality or is there anything else out there that can be used?

Sounds like the "drek grail"

Does anyone know how bad "homemade" backing boards made from corrugated cardboard could be? I was recently going through some comic magazines I acquired a number of years ago and inside the poly bags was corrugated cardboard cut from boxes to fit the size of the bag. These comic magazines were printed in the '70's so who knows how long those boards were in there. I've personally never been completely satisfied with backing boards for magazines as they generally don't seem rigid enough for the weight of the magazines. However, despite their unarchivalness, the homemade backing boards made from corrugated cardboard seemed very rigid and did a good job in that regards.

Just got a different copy of Bizarre Adventures#27 in from Ron C. and I can say he is top notch and packs his comics very well. I just did a quick flip through and the Moon Dance back issue ad in the back is very interesting. It's cool to see what back issues of magazines and comics were going for back in 1981. I'm surprised Savage Tales#1 was already a $65 mag then.

Is there a size that fits magazines?

Nice set! I wish they would have made these in the late 80's. I certainly would have bought a few off the newstand if they would have still been making them.

Nice looking comic even with the 2 color breaking creases on the cover.

To second what Sqeggs said, for this price level with no returns, we would certainly need current higher quality pics of both the front and back so we can have a better understanding of why this is a 4.5? It looks very nice in the small picture you have provided. If there is any stain we need to be able to see it better. To repeat myself, we need current pictures. I don't know how long this has been sitting in your safe deposit box and I've known safe deposit boxes to damage collectibles. I hope you threw some of those chiclet packs in their.

Very cool covers. So what is on the inside? Is this some giant checklist of comics produced by Marvel?

Personally, I don't think CGC should adopt those numbers. Reason being, as a coverless book or just a single page is still an incomplete book. Maybe you could come up with a special incomplete grade (or maybe a qualified grade already covers that).

CGC Signature Series after the fact? Still learning how this CGC Signature series works. So I got a few comics signed by Jim Lee and a few people were handing them in to get them slabbed. Is it possible to send one in after that fact? I even got the receipt as I bought the comic to sign there and a photograph of me and Jim Lee. I don't know if a photo of him would help as you may know him but not me. haha

That's an amazing signed Back to the Future comic.

I'll have to dig out my box of 90's Valiant Comics from storage to see if they are still worthless. Even though they were gimmicky, I still love the chromium/foil covers like Ninjak had. Still awesome.

If there is one left I have not read a Bizarre Adventures yet.

Savage Tales of Solomon Kane? I just stumbled across this, The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane. Has anyone else seen this? Does anyone know if this contains reprints of magazine comic stories or is this new stuff in here? Apparently, Del Ray has a whole library of these with books for Conan, Kull, etc. Anybody read any of these yet?

Definitely a good deal for the winner. Nice set.

I think we need to realize the Marvel we grew up with as a kid is dead. This is now Marvel owned by Disney. So I personally think a lot of these changes are being forced by above. When the race of a lead character in a movie such as Star Wars is more important than their acting ability, it is a sad day. Diversity is the new racism.