jimbo_7071

You're probably not bipolar. A bipolar person has no control during a manic episode and might easily get into a bidding war and pay, say, $10K for a $1K book. That's the kind of financial recklessness that can lead to suicide once the manic episode is over. According to the NIH, between 25% and 60% of bipolar people attempt suicide at least once, and between 4% and 19% ultimately succeed.

I've been getting more cautious with my purchases. My buying pattern over the next few years will probably amount to picking up three or four keepers every year and then some very inexpensive raw books just for fun. I think it's OK to spend money on a hobby—people whose hobby is travel spend money that they'll never get back on airfare and lodging, for instance—but I do think of it as money spent. I don't know whether my buying will ever drop to zero, but my net buying will get close, meaning that if I spend money on comics, I'll sell other comics in order to help defray the costs. I'll probably keep my nicer comics and sell my "impulse buys" from the past 25 years .

People can do what they want. I see comics as carrying too much long-term risk to be a safe investment because I don't think that demographics favor the growth of the hobby over the long haul. I think that demand could go down as the Boomers and Gen-Xers age out of the hobby. Still, I'm sure it could be a good way to invest if you have a knack for picking the right books and selling them at the right time. I wouldn't recommend dumping everything you have into comics and holding them for thirty years. Guys could get away with that thirty years ago because the Boomers and Gen-Xers who dominated the hobby then and still dominate it now have seen their wealth and discretionary income increase dramatically during that time period. Because of that scenario, virtually everything has gone up in value exponentially. The same thing could happen with Millenials and Zoomers, but I don't think that those generations will ever participate in the hobby at the same level as the Boomers and Gen-Xers. We older guys who grew up riding our bikes to the corner store to buy comic books off of the spinner racks carry a passion for the hobby that few of the younger guys will share—note that I didn't say none, I said few. There will continue to be passionate collectors, but I don't think that there will be enough of them to sustain the sort of prices that we see today.

I don't know about the 2012 issue. Who was involved, exactly? There's an online component to all of Heritage's auctions, and shill bidding in any online auction would amount to committing wire fraud, which is a federal crime (and all federal crimes are felonies). If what you say about Heritage is true, then some of those Heritage employees should have been prosecuted; the federal laws against wire fraud were in place long before 2006. Are you in the U.S.? Did you file a complaint with the federal government? The statute of limitations would apply to your '05/'06 issues, but this is a link to the site you can use to file a complaint if you ever suspect that you're a victim of shill bidding again: Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).

That is definitely possible! If that's what drove the price, then somebody is going to be disappointed.

It could get a 5.0 grade from CGC but not a 6.0 grade. The mistake is in thinking that eBay bidders are rational. People's bids are usually driven by emotions—not wanting to "lose" since the auction houses have brainwashed people into thinking that a willingness to pay more for an item than anyone else on the planet makes you a "winner," FOMO (fear of missing out), mania due to bipolar disorder (which is often followed by depression and suicidal ideation over having spent too much money), etc. And that's if it's a real sale. With eBay, you never know.

Torn away cover to chewed away corner.

Well, I can't believe that Popular Teenagers 5 made the cut because that one sucks, but other than that I can live with the results.

You'll take a comic dealer's word for something? Dealers must love you!

One thing I question is the first name "Tom." The name really looks more like Allen or something similar. The last name does look like Reilly, but that isn't even certain. The first character could be a P, a stylized L, or something else. Here's a link to the WWII Casualties from California in case anyone has a lot of time on his or her hands and wants to scan the lists for a possible match. A while back, I spent a fair amount of time looking for possible matching census records for the family. That was before the 1950 census was available, so it might be worth another shot. Bob Beerbohm believes that the comic collection originated in Piedmont, California, which is in Alameda County.

No one is talking about eliminating intellectual property rights. Copyright protections are meant to encourage creativity. Copyright protections that last too long stifle creativity. Copyright protections have always expired a certain amount of time after the death of the creator. That allows others to build on and use old works for creative endeavors. Large corporations don't usually die (although some go defunct), which is why it is necessary to have an expiration date based on when a work is first created or published. Right now, the timeframe for copyright protections is excessive.

Open grave to open grave.

They should have entered the public domain a long time ago. The 1998 Copyright Protection Act was yet another example of Congress placing corporate interests above public interest.

Subby foiling Japanese plans to Subby foiling capitalist plans.

I wouldn't assume that the owner of the registry set is lying because collectibles are stolen from time to time. The book may have been stolen, pawned off on a comic shop owner, and auctioned off later. What is the book? Do you have any evidence that the registry set owner is the one who consigned it to the auction?

Rip Carson to Rip Carson.

Tojo being throttled to Hitler being throttled.

Skull on the wall to skull on the wall.

It seems like mid-grade prices have probably cooled, possibly because strong prices have brought so many copies out of the woodwork. Books that weren't considered worthy of slabbing are now getting slabbed. Single-highest-graded copies continue to sell for very strong prices.

I saw the GCD entry but also didn't see any "J. C." Maybe the indexer was looking at a copy with the signature partially cut off (as it is on many copies). I hadn't seen the OA on Heritage. It's interesting that they attributed it to Ernie Schroeder despite the Pelletier signature. It does look like the OA and the cover are both from the same artist. If they are Schroeder's work, I'm curious to know what's behind the signature. Maybe he didn't want to use his German surname since we were at war with Germany—but that seems a bit far fetched.

Chargers to Packers.

I guess you could call this kitty a 'fraidy cat.

War stamps back to war bonds.

Church horror book from 1952 in 8.5 featuring a baddie carrying an unconscious woman to Church horror book from 1952 in 8.5 featuring a baddie carrying an unconscious woman.