jimbo_7071

Jungle girl rescuing a dude to same.

. . . which could end up being sooner rather than later.

Dude! You need to tell your wife that you will wash the dishes from now on and hang on to your comic books. Problem solved! And you don't even need to wash the dishes. Just get a dog. Your wife will never know the difference. Just make sure that you "wash" the dishes while she's out of the house.

I bought a bunch of fun, inexpensive books this year, but nothing major. These were my four biggest purchases, and they were all under $1K each. In 2024, I hope to pick up at least one personal grail. Otherwise, I'll probably stick to midgrade books with with covers that I like and nice pages.

I picked up one book. I cannot afford pre-Robin Tecs, so an early-50s mid-grade run filler that doesn't have Robin on the cover (although he's mentioned—you can't have everything) is the closest I'll ever get.

Private Dogtag to public dog attack.

Prehistoric monster to prehistoric mammal.

Thanks. That clears it up.

OK, I'll bite. What was special about '53?

I don't think they would sell in a year or two. I returned to the hobby in 2012 after a long break; there are still books on eBay that were already there when I first came back 11 years ago.

Bookend to bookend.

I'm good with that.

72 hours seems shockingly tight to me; I often go longer than 72 hours without even going online. If I responded to someone within a week, I feel I was being sufficiently prompt.

I don't know anything about the scams he was running, but I do know that psychopaths are very good at acting contrite, and they know all the right things to say to manipulate people into advocating for them. I don't know if that's what's going on here or not, but if I were you, I would at least consider the possibility that he might be playing you like a drum.

I've always liked those covers, but I don't agree that 213 and 214 are the most coveted; 214 may be in the running, but not 213. 216 used to be the most sought after by run builders because it was considered less common in high grade. Based on the census, it doesn't appear to be as scarce as people thought. All of those books are pretty common; I think they're pretty risky at current prices.

Vat of acid to vat of molten metal.

You may have created an addiction that will suck up all of his discretionary income for the rest of his life! Good on ya, mate! Those of us who will be aging out of the hobby in the coming decades may be hard pressed to find younger collectors to whom we can sell our books. Like the old woman said when she peed in the sea, every little bit helps.

I am convinced that some comic/coin/card/antiques dealers gravitate to the profession because they don't have the social skills to succeed in more ordinary work environments. That doesn't characterize all dealers, but people on the narcissism/ASPD/psychopathy spectrum seem to be over-represented, at least at the level of local cons.

What's that you say? Bidding in an online auction can be affected by emotion rather than just coldly logical business acumen? That's crazy talk!

The Man Who Changed to the man who survived.

I read Richie Rich as a kid, and even I have no interest in collecting them. The concept is inane and the cover art is boring. $14.4K is still too high. That's a $3–$4K book all day long once the superhero/supervillain movie crazy is a few years in the rearview mirror.

Twinsies.

Boarded with what? I don't use full backs for anything worth less about $50. For books in the $10-$49 range I stick with half backs. I don't bother with boards for reading copies. I seldom use polybags unless the comics came in them, though. (I have not bought any polybags since the 80s.) I usually use 2-mil Mylars. Some guys will slide a closed 2-mil Mylar or 1-mil Mylite into an open-top 4-mil magazine-sized sleeve (which allows you to look at the back cover). The stiffness of the 4-mil sleeve makes a board unnecessary.

I would only buy a brittle book if I had a parakeet that liked to read comics and I needed something to line the bottom of its cage and provide reading material at the same time.