jimbo_7071

Underwater conflict to underwater conflict.

In your face to in your face.

I don't remember for certain. It could be a reference to the Northland copy of Avengers #1, which was sold by Pedigree Comics in 2012 for $185,000 in 9.4. The same book was re-sold through HA in August of 2013 and went for $95,600 at auction. Aside from looking every bit like an 8.5 despite the number in the corner, it's also possible that the book was "face jobbed." A "face job" is when the spine (and spine tics) of a comic are shifted to the back cover during pressing in order to get a higher grade. I don't know whether that was done to this book, but the spine tics certainly do look worse on the back cover. @namisgr and @MasterChief would probably remember if that's what was being discussed.

Redhead in green to redhead in green.

MLJ Nazis to MLJ Nazis.

You should check out this thread from 2013 on the Cole Schave books. It is 132 pages long, but it is well worth the time needed to read the entire thread. That was a large collection of high-grade silver-age Marvels basically ruined by CCS. The books experienced noticeable cover shrinkage from the pressing process. Silver-age Marvels usually cannot be pressed without experiencing cover shrinkage. If you look at a pressed silver-age Marvel, you will often see the first page sticking out past the cover, even if it's only slightly. Prior to 2013 I didn't see many books being completely ruined by CCS (although it has always common for pressing to result in minor damage fairly often). It seems that CCS wanted to increase their throughput by decreasing their cycle time, so they are probably using much higher humidity and higher temperatures than they did in the old days, which means that many more books are being ruined.

My honest guess would be $1,200. Trimming is a deal-breaker for many collectors.

Doesn't that involve a huge fee? I asked my bank about paying for a book with a wire transfer once, and they they told me that the fee was $90 (regardless of the amount of the transfer). I said thanks but no thanks and paid by e-check instead.

Establishing a new benchmark is one reason for shill bidding, but it isn't the only reason. Shill bidding can be used as a backdoor reserve. The owner creates a fake account for bidding, puts in a bid just below the "reserve," and then collects his inflated income if the book sells, and if the book doesn't sell, the fake account just ghosts the auction site (CLink or any other site), and the seller lists the book again in the next round. The fact that CLink doesn't publish their auction archives is one reason why I question whether they are making any effort to police shill bidding. I have seen sales disappear from the site soon after the end of the auction, sometimes within days or even hours. That's why suspected cases of shill bidding need to be reported to law enforcement. Contrary to popular opinion, the FBI does take shill bidding seriously. It's a serious crime that is a form of fraud. The problem is, they can't do anything if nobody files a complaint. Even if it's difficult to prove with a particular book, they can look for patterns involving the same seller or the same platform. They know what they're doing. They know how to catch the bad guys even when those bad guys hide behind proxy servers, etc.

Flames of hell to flames of a temple.

No, this was back in 2016. The guy got 5 years in federal prison, so he's probably out now. https://www.ecommercebytes.com/2016/02/09/auctioneer-gets-nearly-5-years-shill-bidding/

People have been prosecuted for it. A guy went to prison for shill bidding on baseball cards on eBay. I read about that in a news article; that's how I learned that shill bidding in an online auction is a felony.

Shill bidding in an online auction is a federal crime; it's considered wire fraud. If you believe that has occurred, you can report it to: Federal Bureau of Investigation Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 If you were a bidder on the idea, then you can probably be considered a victim. If not, then you might not have legal standing to file a complaint.

I thought it was a bit nuts at $2,500—not a scarce book by any means. The white pages are nice, but the mis-wrap kind of cancels out the white pages.

I picked up this Jumbo 42 and this Laugh 56. I was maybe going to bid on a couple of the WDC&S, but I could not stay awake. The chances of my ever picking up a book that ends after 10:00 PM are close to zero.

Was that split there at the time of slabbing, or is it related to SCS? That's Promise-Collection-level softness if it was graded that way out of the gate.

Clapton is definitely a racist, definitely a narcissist, and possibly a psychopath. I won't be shedding any tears when he buys the farm.

Most books did well; some went down. Note the cut of the top edge, the red streaks near the initial "C" in "Comics", and the minor staple tear. This appears to be the same copy that sold back in May for $6,951, newly graded (and presumably pressed) but with the same grade and page quality. This time around it sold for $5,115. The $5,115 was still a healthy price for a 9.0; $6,951 was a staggering price. I guess someone mistakenly thought that it could be pressed for an upgrade. The Captain Science #2 sold last night for $2,321. The same copy sold on HA last November for $3,120. Again, it's down, but it's down from what was a ridiculously high price. (Who pays that kind of a price for a book he's going to sell nine months later? I've paid extremely strong prices before but only for books that are meant to be part of my permanent collection.) The $2,321 still seems high to me considering how common the book is, but the price was probably buoyed by that insanely high price from last November.

Dropping a gun to dropping a purse (that may or may not contain a gun).

I don't disagree. However, it's a little different when someone approaches a dealer and places his or her trust in the dealer's appraisal of the collection. We all know that if an elderly woman walked into a comic shop with a NM copy of Tec 27, there are some dealers who would offer to buy it outright for a fair price such as 90% of FMV if they have it (which I think @G.A.tor has done routinely), some who would admit that they cannot afford to buy it outright but who would help her find buyers (like the late Harry Thomas did with the Cookeville collection), and some like Dung Smell who would tell her they were feeling generous and offer her 5 dollars—or maybe 5 cents because the cover price is 10 cents and it's used.

That private looks like he's REALLY getting into whatever he has planned for that enemy combatant's rear end. Private Ike to General Ike.

Aiming below the midsection to aiming at the midsection.

Not all, no—but if you've been in the hobby for a while, I'll bet you've run into some dealers who are just like the ones I described.

No, they'll just trim a book, color touch the spine with magic markers, fail to mention the clipped coupons or the missing centerfold, and then mark the incomplete apparent VG– book as NM and sell it for double guide to parents who have been saving all year to be able to afford one really nice book as a Christmas present for their comic-collecting son or daughter. When the high-grade San Francisco pedigree collection first surfaced, a couple of dealers bought all of the Timelys, including the Captain America Comics #1, for $1 each. They took advantage of the fact that the sellers (who had inherited the collection) didn't know anything about comic books. That is typical.

Sum of digits from the issue number matching price to sum of digits from the issue number matching price and sum of digits from the MM/YY date matching price.