jimbo_7071

I have several old-label books that I've owned since around 2001. I haven't noticed any changes to the books, but a couple of the thinner slabs have started to bow slightly, so apparently the outer wells aren't perfectly dimensionally stable over time.

The only time I've ever noticed changes to books is when I kept some in Mylar sleeves open at the top; with those books, I noticed some darkening along the top edge (after ~20 years).

We are Family - Sister Sledge

Don't Stand So Close to Me - The Police

1 hour ago, skypinkblu said:

Yes, that was his name. I'd rather not post what he said, it was a long time ago, I may not remember it all, but he got my name and address by buying something on eBay and he never mentioned "consigning". Meanwhile I had been high bidder on the Okajima that is on eBay but after the scan differences, I stopped bidding. 

I've wondered how he goes about locating collections to consign. Maybe one of his techniques is to buy an item from someone on eBay in order to acquire that person's phone number for cold-calling purposes.

On 3/30/2018 at 3:15 PM, skypinkblu said:

Neatstuff was one of the first sellers I ever dealt with on eBay, I bought from them numerous times. I stopped when someone named Greg was calling me at home to ask about my collection...weird questions. I know there were some issues with him later. 

Do you mean Greg Jortner? What kinds of questions was he asking? I'm just curious. Can I assume they went beyond, "Have you thought about consigning any books?"?

Lola - The Kinks

From Atta to a dog who deserves an "Atta Boy" . . .

Heat of the Moment - Asia

In Too Deep - Sum 41

Breathless - Jerry Lee Lewis

Arachnid to insect . . .

Jumbo #156

From ghost to spectre and from "Death is a Dream" to "Death's Highway."

1 hour ago, sfcityduck said:

Stocks and comics are an apples to oranges comparison.  Their is no "Dow" index for comics.  Further, while ever share of Nike is the same, ever Action 1 is not.   Even so, the 8.5 Action 1 which sold for $1.5M in 2010 is going to have to garner about $5M to outpeform Nike stock, which is not going to happen.  Obviously, you can pick many other stocks which have had greater appreciation.

I think for a lot of collectors, the fact that GA comics appreciate in value is the icing on the cake of being able to own and enjoy the comics.  

I don't even care whether my comics appreciate in value; I just don't want to buy comics and then have them lose all of their value. I'm sure most of my comics will be sold by my heirs, not by me, but I still don't like the idea of (potentially) squandering money. I'm not convinced that the recent high prices on sci-fi, horror, and books from second-tier publishers will hold, and those are the kinds of books towards which I tend to gravitate.

Patty O'Day to Maximilian O'Leary.

Creeping horror to crawling evil...

Regarding the funding of comic books with stocks, I more or less did just that. After losing quite a bit of equity in 2008 and getting most of it back in 2009/2010, I basically cashed out and bought comic books. I guess I figured that if there was nothing safe to invest in, I might as well keep my money in something I enjoyed.

One thing I would want to know in order to assess the health of the GA market is, how old is the average collector now vs. 10 years ago vs. 20 years ago? If the collector base is aging, then the robust GA market that we see now has an expiration date. I know that some younger collectors are entering the hobby, but I don't know how many. I'm 43, and offhand I'd say that most of the GA collectors I know are older than I am.

16 minutes ago, lou_fine said:

Are you sure this was in 1995 because as far as I can remember, this was the time that even dealers such as Metro were offering multiples of guide for key or even semi-key GA books, especially if they were in condition? 

I guess it also depends on what type of GA books you had and in what type of condition they were in. 

I had a mixed bag, but mostly mid—high grade GA, including Bats and Tecs. No key books but some Joker covers. I'm pretty sure about the year. My only outlet for books was local dealers in the Detroit area; things may have been better elsewhere.

I will have to trust lou_fine on the overall picture, but I sold many of my GA books in '95 for substantially less than I had paid for them in the late 80s, so I didn't witness the market going ballistic at that time. One dealer told me he was sitting on a million dollars worth of inventory that he couldn't move.

I was so busy last year, I'm not sure whether I bought a single comic book. I'm actually even busier now, but I have decided to try to make time for collecting again. As a kid, I always wanted to collect the Mr. Mind saga in Captain Marvel Adventures, so I may try to start putting that run together this year. I want to read the books, so I'll have to limit myself to raw copies, but I don't want absolute beaters. I'm thinking 5.0—7.0. Any higher in grade and I wouldn't want to read them; any lower, they'd be falling apart in my hands.

Yet another red dress in peril . . . 

Embraced by a man to embraced by a plant.

Really big hand to really big hand.

I submitted a couple of file copies to CGC a few years ago, and they added the notation without asking for proof. 

The next time I submitted a file copy, they did not note it on the label and did not contact me to ask for more information.

None of the file copies I submitted were marked, and I had no proof beyond the word of whatever dealers the books came from.

File Copies don't command a premium, so I didnt really care whether they made the notation on the label.