jimbo_7071

On 4/30/2024 at 12:02 PM, Robot Man said:

I have spent most of my time gathering knowledge and in most cases, underpaying for things. Yes, on occasion, I have overpaid because I had the spare cash or really wanted something bad. But, I’m a keeper not a flipper so due to the passage of time, I now laugh at most of those overpayments.

Now, if I were to get depressed or have suicidal thoughts over something like this, I would have some real world problems to address before I would continue to buy junk…

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.

On 4/28/2024 at 10:50 PM, Courageous Cat said:

As a gen X'er I can get behind this theory. I myself have drastically cut back on purchases and even sold off a good amount of books as of late. 

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 .

On 4/28/2024 at 11:55 AM, Hepcat said:

I suspect the item was "sold" to a shill bid. The seller was just trying to bid up the GPA for a comic in his possession that he hopes to sell in the next few months.

But who was the big name dealer of CGC comics who's account was briefly (all too briefly!) suspended by Ebay for shill bids some twelve years ago?

And was it Mastronet or Heritage who argued in court that they shoudn't all be jailed for shill bids because the practice wasn't illegal in Texas? Do they still do it all the time?

I recall back in 2005-06 Heritage had listed minimum opening bid levels for the comics in their catalogue. I pecked in my maximum bids for about six comics.  Well guess what? The bid prices posted the next day were all at my maximum instead of at the minimum in complete defiance of the laws of probability. When I phoned to "inquire" as to how this happened, they were confused. They had trouble even understanding my inquiry.

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).

On 4/27/2024 at 10:35 PM, Sauce Dog said:

You assume most ebay bidders buying raw KNOW how to grade correctly  No need to bring emotion into it when lack of skill will suffice. I'm sure some of em were thinking that was an easy 7.0.

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

On 4/27/2024 at 9:30 PM, Sauce Dog said:

Dunno, maybe people think it looks like having a shot at being the highest graded copy on census (which is a 6.0)? Maybe there is a pedigree for it due to that marking on it? 

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.

On 4/21/2024 at 2:37 PM, Professor K said:

Edit: I just read the posts next to the video. He said it was in a much bigger box before, even though there is a postal label on the little box we see. I'll take his word on that. Not my business anyway.  

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

On 4/21/2024 at 3:14 PM, sfcityduck said:

A lot of people have researched that one. There's never been any confirmation of Beerbohm's backstory on the collection. I would not be surprised if (1) the names were changed to protect the comics source (they got the comics in three batches and maybe thought there was more?) and are now lost to time, and (2) the how "Tom Reilly" died part as told by RB is exaggerated. None of that matters because the books are beautiful. But I wouldn't be paying a premium because of the backstory.

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.

On 4/21/2024 at 12:14 PM, Hepcat said:

I believe in the concept of intellectual property rights. The publishing, music and filmmaking industries and the livelihood of the participants in those industries are founded on intellectual property rights. Removing intellectual property rights would almost completely remove anyone's incentive to create such intellectual property.

Moreover I don't see how the public's interest would be served if any johnny-come-lately fly-by-night operator could publish "Superman" or "Batman" comics. Legacy, continuity? Those concepts would go completely out the door. (Admittedly DC itself hasn't done much better than a passable job in that regard either.)

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.

Subby foiling Japanese plans to Subby foiling capitalist plans.

On 4/17/2024 at 2:52 AM, Elder of the Universe said:

I had a strange situation about a year ago. I won a fairly worthless CGC graded book in an on-line auction held by a very well known comic book retailer. When I went to register the book, it came back as still being owned by someone else. I tried to register it multiple times, but had no luck. After the third or fourth time, I contacted the registry folks about it, and was told the previous owner was refusing to transfer the book because it was "stolen." I had repeated emails with the CGC registry person, and after explaining where I got the book, he asked me to send him proof of my winning the book in an auction. I sent screenshots of my account from the on-line retailer showing the book in my list of purchased items, as well as screenshots of the book in the auction listing, all of which included the registry number. After providing this information, and spending what amounted to hours of my time dealing with a book I won for less than $20, the CGC person never responded, and I have been unable to add this book to my set to this day.

Now, I'm guessing that the previous owner was possibly miffed that their book sold at auction for less than it cost them to grade it, but, after dealing with a CGC representative, providing all the proof I was asked for, all irrefutable by the way, I fail to understand how this company could simply stop dealing with the issue and fail to resolve it.

So, be aware everyone, apparently if you sell a CGC graded book you own, don't like the price you got for it, you can enact your revenge by refusing to transfer ownership and accuse the new owner of "stealing" the book and CGC will simply go with it. I can only assume the CGC rep decided that this worthless book wasn't worth his time either. Good thing under $20 isn't worth the time of law enforcement either, or I could be looking at some serious hard time for this. Or not. Well, no, not even remotely.

Makes a good story for my friends who think "professional" grading is a fiasco on multiple levels though.

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.

On 4/12/2024 at 6:26 PM, Telegan said:

If you're lucky, you may find some "deals" here and there, especially in mid-grade'ish (5.0 - 7.0) issues.  Other times, I don't see much of a letdown in prices in dang-near any grade with most PCH.  Especially not higher grades.  Then you have people on the lower end just wanting to get in the door with an issue and paying up for them.  This causes price compression in some of the lower-to-mid grades that'll be interesting to see how it plays out.  Lately, I've been trying to buy in the 5.0-8.0 range depending on the comic, and it's been hit-or-miss (mostly miss), but I've had more success than in the past.  Then you have stuff like Matt Baker covers where even some of the more mundane covers are still hot.

I keep saying there will be some cooling off, and, like I said, you see it here and there, but it depends on the issue, the grade and the auction.  I think a lot of SA/BA money may have jumped into GA at least temporarily causing this run-up.  I don't know how long it'll stay there.

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.

On 4/11/2024 at 2:46 AM, Telegan said:

This piqued my interest.  All I could find after a brief search was this OA that sold years ago on Heritage (read the lot description).  Interestingly enough, according to GCD, one of the stories in it is possibly by Ernie Schroeder, as well.  The indexer notes on the GCD entry describes how it couldn't be Palais and also notes the initials "J C" are also visible, but I don't see that - maybe someone else does.  The only other "Pelletier" I could find was the modern artist Paul Pelletier.

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.