jimbo_7071

Even those of us who are expecting a decline in prices didn't expect it to be immediate. The effects on the economy in general and the collectibles market in particular won't be clear for many months. What if a collector owns a buffet-style restaurant? How much will business be down this year? What about a collector who owns a martial arts studio? How many parents will pull their kids out of extracurricular activities? How many people won't buy that new car because they decided to work from home permanently? That car salesman who relies on commissions might have to let go of a few items from his collection. The belt tightening will begin in earnest six months or so down the road when people have run out of rainy-day money to spend on comic books. Some people will do just fine, but the supply-and-demand curve is going to shift.

What do you call a long-time collector? I started collecting GA books when I was still in elementary school (circa 1985). My car was paid off about 11 years ago, but my house is nowhere close.

Well, the numbers weren't based on the 1918 info. The death rate was calculated from what's been documented for this particular virus, and the projected percent infected came from mathematical models based on the estimated R value for this virus, how that R value will decrease as some people acquire immunity, etc. - In 1918, many people lived in very rural areas and may have escaped exposure. Few people today will have that advantage.

Scary-looking dame to scary-looking dame.

The world population is supposedly 7.7 billion, so 1% dead would be 77 million dead worldwide. - Some experts have estimated that 81% of the population will eventually be infected, and the World Health Organization has estimated that the overall death rate for the coronavirus is 3.4%. 7.7*10^9 * 0.81 * 0.034 = 212,000,000 (212 million) dead worldwide. That's more or less in line with the 1918 flu pandemic, which is estimated to have killed about 50 million worldwide when the population of the planet was around 1.8—1.9 billion. - Using the same formula for the US population of roughly 330 million: 3.3*10^8 * 0.81 * 0.034 = 9,088,200, or about 9.1 million dead. That's probably a worst-case scenario. 1% of the US population would be 3.3 million.

Question mark in the lower-right-hand corner to question mark in the lower-right-hand corner.

Peter Panda to Andy Panda.

There's more slabbed GA material on eBay than usual. I always search "CGC" and then filter the results to the Golden Age category. For as long as I can remember, there have consistently been nine-thousand-some-odd total items available. This week, the total has consistently been over ten thousand. I haven't seen anything great, though. Most of the extra offerings seem to be low-grade and mid-grade copies of not-particularly-sought-after issues.

Wizard to Magician.

I don't"t display my books. Artificial light will cause fading; fluorescent bulbs are worse than incandescent bulbs.

Bucky getting slapped to Bucky getting rescued.

I like the artwork on the strip Connie by Frank Godwin. This page is from Famous Funnies no. 105.

Webbed flippers to webbed feet.

L. B. Cole to L. B. Cole.

No, not out of 7.7 billion yet because only a small fraction of the population has been exposed thus far. I'm more alarmed by the 97,574 recovered versus 14,597 dead.

I continue to look at the stats. The stats are alarming, unfortunately. This screenshot was taken a few minutes ago from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

I just got a survey in the mail from Heritage. If I fill it out, I might win a trip to Comic Con. I wonder what the response rate will be for that survey.

There is a trend right now where teenagers are filming themselves deliberately coughing on produce in grocery stores and posting the videos online. Young people are not taking this seriously enough to slow the containment. - Overall, though, your timeline looks pretty good. - It's been about three months since the virus attracted attention in China, and they're well past the peak but not quite through the crisis. We'll probably be where they are now by the summer solstice. - The effect on the economy could last much longer than the pandemic, however. How many small businesses will fail? How many people will wait until next year to buy that new car? How many parents will pull their kids out of sports and other extracurricular activities and keep them at home for the next two years? How many people will forgo flying somewhere for vacation this summer? Etc., etc.

Who is the woman in Green in the background?

9.4 Crowley to 9.4 Crowley.

Jumbo 146 to Jumbo 156.

Some (non-labor-intensive) products will come back. I was working in the auto industry in the early 2000s, when many products were being moved to Asia. Ford hired a consulting firm called Booz Allen to study the impact of moving components overseas. Booz Allen concluded that moving components to Asia was more expensive than regional sourcing due to potential supply chain interruptions, quality issues, etc. However, it was determined that those risks could be placed on the supply base because the suppliers never considered those variables when providing quotes. Therefore, Ford moved many parts overseas in order to get lower prices from the supply base. (Needless to say, many of the suppliers went belly up when they were hit with those hidden costs.) Suppliers aren't as naive as they were fifteen or twenty years ago, so the bargains are no longer there for big companies to take advantage of. Now that the suppliers are on to them, companies will gradually move to regional sourcing (which is already happening). I can't swear that that's true outside of the auto industry, but it stands to reason that it is.

White automobiles to white horse.