MAR1979

I'd like to add "More Ron is what More Ron does" . I've never accessed the site but seems to me its rife with sheep who love being fleeced.

Possibly a contributing factor in why the majority of shops did not survive that decade? What works during a bubble is usually poison during a bust. Wonder how many sellers will learn that in these times? A buddy of mine opened his shop at start of the bust in 1994. He only survived his first full year due to POG sales - remember that fad He then quickly learned make a big deal with signage about offering books at 25% below Wizard. After 26 years he closed shop the Summer of 2020, not due to the pandemic but to semi-retire. Actually he was going to do that in 2018 but received a great rent break on renewing his lease for 2 more years.

I was reading go collect earlier - you know where Matt Tuck shamelessly tries to hype any comic for which he has multiple copies to sell - yet another ponderous, self-serving "article" on Spider-Verse alleged "investments" and I got to thinking... How many collectors are going to seek all these books most of which in few months will sell for a fraction of their hype induced cost? Seems to me Collector's Fatigue will only increase and those clueless folks who buy stuff when hot will jump off the treadmill. As the number of those jumping off increases expect less books without true substance to become hot and when they do - cool down faster and faster. IMHO it's good thing but of course I don't sell comics so no bias that comes from lost income or prospect thereof.

I'd rather have one of those in 9.8 over Hulk 234

Marvel then Disney also pays the creators an amount less than that which in most towns costs to park in a meter spot for 1 hour .

Based on your parameters: The Comic Book Heroes - Gerard Jones, Will Jacobs (1996 edition) Marvel Comics: The Untold Story - Sean Howe I give my highest recommendation on each one of these, except 1940-1944 which for me was a bit of slog, still it is very good : American Comic Book Chronicles: 1940-44 American Comic Book Chronicles: 1950s American Comic Book Chronicles: 1960-64 American Comic Book Chronicles: 1965-69 American Comic Book Chronicles: 1970s American Comic Book Chronicles: 1980s American Comic Book Chronicles: 1990s Comic Book Implosion - Keith Dallas, John Wells

Great cover and final issue - no i dont count the 2 issues tacked on 8 years later for the 1986 film release

Wonder Woman art as DC goes is blue chip. The only thing it does not have going for it are truly classic storylines.

On the comics side it was a 10-12 year hype run up of Shazam 28. I wonder if even big time Duane Johnson fans now have any interest whatsoever. To anyone that spent top dollar on #28, hope you sold it to some other rube before foul stench of that film permeated the market.

When I started Original Comic Book Art Hobby it was by seeking out what I liked. The old saying at least for me is true; "But What You Like and you Will Never Lose". The time to start worrying is if a Character has 5+ year lapse of not being seen and no way that is happening especially given TV and Movies are now more important for a Character than printed comics. Will be on Daredevil next year then likley a Punisher Season 3 the following year. Of course I could be wrong and it could be Superman situation where the Character was not seen again after 1993.

While not your intention the last 2 words of the thread were only going to make it political. Easiest way to get thrown off these forums are to talk politics in non-free-form sub-forums such as a Comics and Original Art. Want to spew out politics then use the "water cooler" type sub-forum. Honestly the vast majority of folks are both sick + disgusted of hearing endless political rantings regardless of which side of the fence it's coming from, so at least here in the CGC Original Comic Art sub-forum and in the CGC Comics sub-forums hows about you giving us a break!

Agreed, Art for Classic and Historic story lines or appearances will always command a premium. Adding to your example; art from Iron Man Demon In A Bottle issues command more coin than other Romita jr_Layton issues, 1980s DC Alan Moore works bring in more regardless of the artists involved, Avengers Korvac Saga issues regardless of artist - the Wenzel pages go for solid $ on the rare occasion one pops up. Perez Crisis Infinite Earths pages go for more than most NTT pages from the same era

We lost Bucky and Prof X in the late 60, Gwen Stacey and the Green Goblin in 1973, Thanos in 1977, Jean Grey in 1980, Flash and Supergirl in 1985, Iron Fist In 1986, Robin in 1989, Superman in 1993, then Captain America,Thor, and The Human Torch a decade later, Wolverine about 10 years ago, all never ever to be seen again, now the Punisher... Oh Lord, when will the madness end? Soon there will be no comic book characters left

Current state of the post bubble market - at PSA10 varying levels of profit can be made depending on the sticker. PSA9 for most stickers the grading + round trip shipping expenses will syphon off most or all profit. CGC9.5 falls closer to PSA9 than 10 in terms of current selling rates and collector perception. It is critical to note the average sticker ripped from one if these packs will be a PSA 6 or 7, with one PSA8 perhaps every other pack. A clean fresh box if one is very lucky will yield 4-5 PSA9 and perhaps 1-2 PSA10 although getting zero 10s is more likely. My opinion worth far more sealed due the rarity. If packs look nice get the packs themselves graded/slabbed

Ends up? or spikes to? Law of gravity applies. remember the folks a year ago who were paying hot prices for first Illuminati issue HAHAHA!

If that is light scratch on the slab, I have had good luck on mine with PlastX. Takes some effort/force but usually reduces or removes the scratch. I don't use the sandpaper

If it was not before your time, did you go crazy when Byrne and folks completely changed most of the Superman mythos? Most of it was undone as decades passed but the Businessman Tycoon Lex Luthor continues to the day replacing the evil scientist Luthor. Then the 2011 New 52 Superman debacle (in my mind at least) that transformed Superman into what by my account was a deee--baggggg I mention Superman only in this post as the character inspired a genre and has been part of the fabric of Americana since WWII.... Batman has been altered as well multiple times. Inevitability it will all regress mostly back to the mean. If you don't like it don't buy it which is exactly why I've not purchased a single DC book after New 52 started and I know I'm not alone...

MCS I do understand as that makes good sense fiscally, however based on your post not clear on why you would use Heritage and not Comiclink. Additional cost per $100 is much less on CL. Heritage collects tax and they factor it in after their nasty 20% buyers premium.

Not easy money to make from an overall required effort perspective but likley extremely self-satisfying to grind out that coin each year from trash in effect. That's an example of how you stay in biz, keep cash flowing and prosper - any moe ron can make money in bubble. Difficult to believe their are some on this very forum who either don't understand cash flow or somehow believe taking in money is not a good thing for a comic dealer (seriously there are those here that believe that)

Think you nailed it with the part I bolded.

I strongly believe CGC grading standards were much more strict for 9.8's back from 2000 (actually late 1999) - 2003. However I do feel they were less strict on 9.2's and 9.4's during that time compared to modern day. Still even back then unless it was borderline miscut centering of wrap was not taken into consideration. Now of course the tiniest color loss becomes a 9.6 maximum, yet IMHO ugly spine hits can still garner a 9.8 if no color loss. Wraps are personal preference thing in most cases which I feel is biased to the back cover showing on the front yet many of the same collectors have no issue with part of the front cover showing on the back...

Did you mean San Mateo? San Mateo County is east of San Jose and a bit south of San Francisco.

CGC's new policy in effect is that the rings are your fault and your problem - seriously that is the policy! The only way things will change is if people stop submitting and stop buying the slabs. I do not think that will occur. This is what happens when there is no real competition

For $30 I recently picked up a 9.8 of a book that at the start of 2022 ran me $220. I average it out to 125 each not sure it helps... I overpaid for 5 books during the bubble. My mantra of never being the sucker who buys a book when its hot saved me a ton that im now using to buy stuff