justafan

Bought some ASM newsstands and Canadian price variants from Chris. He packed them uber safe for shipping to the states. Took me all of 10 minutes to safely unpack them but very much appreciated. Class act all the way. Worked with me patiently, sent me scans, provided details and worked out a great price for them. They arrived on time and in great shape. All in all I couldn't be happier with my purchase and will gladly purchase from him again. Thank you, Chis! Dan

Yikes! for a structural 9.9 I hate the wrap. I'd rather have a 9.8 White with a perfect wrap and centering. The only reason it's probably not a 10 is because of the wrap. I'll take the additional defect of a single non-color break spine tick/bump in a 9.8 over that wrap any day and easily for far less than $74k.

TAT's are a shoot during con season. ONLY way to guarantee the fastest TAT is submitting to CGC for onsite grading on the Thursday or Friday of the con. I've seen where late onsite submission grading has to be taken back to Sarasota and then shipped back out to you if the onsite grading max is reached. And yes the TAT's for normal submissions start once it's actually received and checked into their system which is the only way they are able to track it. Until then it could still be sitting in the shipping box and may as well still be enroute by the carrier. Did you pay for pressing or restoration checks? If so, the status is a bit confusing depending on who the book is with: CCS vs CGC and will take longer.

Hello! Please leave a feedback comment for any purchases or sales with me. Thanks! Dan

Well I I guess after the dust settles with the Fox merger and the Disney+ streaming launch and if it at least becomes sustainably profitable and at most out-gains Netflix in subscribers, then maybe Disney can set eyes on buying out Sony Studios to once and for all obtain the film rights to Spider-Man. Unfortunately by that time they will have already been full swing with X-Men and FF reboots and would have to reboot Spider-Man with a new actor and new Universe of movies for him to fit into. I'd much rather they come to an agreement sooner so that he could continue to exist in MCU but I'd be happy with an acquisition at a later date. FTR: I did anticipate superheroes being a huge and imminent possibility after movies like T2, Jurassic Park but especially the Matrix. The Matrix movie's special effects were really what revealed what could be possible. I'm sure other Marvel execs had inklings of it. Too bad it was probably too late for Marvel by then and they needed cash now but couldn't just call up JG Wentworth.

I always felt like the ending of Spider-Man Homecoming where PP, thinking it was a test, rejects Tony Stark's invitation to join the Avengers and to "go it on his own" was a metaphor and reference to Sony going forward without Disney/MCU. In much the same way as PP/SM needed some guidance and grooming from Tony to realize his potential and be the hero he can be, I felt Disney did that for Sony. I actually would have been fine with that back then. Now that he's been in both IW and EG MCU movies it's sort of cemented him there. I know they could find easy ways to write SM and MCU universes out of each other and never have to make a solid reference back to each other, but having that history and emotion tied to it would just seem hollow and lose a lot of character validation. I'd almost rather they just reboot him now and spare us the cringe-worthy efforts they'll slap together to try and make it work going forward in 1 or possibly 2 failed endeavors. I do think Sony has the potential to do a 3rd and 4th SM movie and can do so without the rest of the MCU. Will it be as cool as seeing him tangle with the FF or a possible Punisher/DD cameo, or even reuinting with the new Avengers? Probably not, but if carefully crafted they could develop a 2-movie saga + tie-in Sinister Six movie or even a Venom/Carnage movie. However, managing 2-3 movies with that many characters is something that Disney made an art of. There are many ways to screw it up but only 1 or 2 ways to do it right and without the creative control of the masterminds at Disney MCU, I'm afraid we'll just end up with another DOA plot ala SM3/Garfield ASM2. And now with the universe seemingly constricted without all the MCU references, any future movies have to be really grand to compensate. 2-bit villains are not going to cut it when Spidey has already fought the likes of Thanos. And in that vein, I know that many would love to see a Sinister Six movie but I'm actually against that. On Spidey's best day, he couldn't beat all 6 at once alone. Each plotline has some excuse for them fighting him one at a time or a discord among them causes their alliance to fall apart. While seeing all those villains would be cool I just don't think Sony could pull it off successfully. I think they need to decide if they want to stage it for a 2-movie max franchise, or try to piece a 4-6 movie franchise that arcs over some of the best spidey plots/villains/moments. I also think they have to carefully choose their villains. I love Kraven the Hunter and Kraven's last hunt arc but his character wouldn't translate too well to film and would be a snoozefest. I also like the Scorpion and Rhino but those guys are pretty one-dimensional and don't have enough depth to be the main plot villain. Venom/Carnage would have be an excellent choice but they've already painted themselves into a corner with the Eddie Brock back story and no reference to SM. However, if they're willing to they could bring Venom to NYC or SM to SF and have them meet and fight due to Venom being blamed for murders that are actually done by Carnage. Then having them discover and fight Carnage. GG has been overdone so many times it just tired. Hobgoblin might be cool but tough to do w/o GG backstory and he might come off as too much of a GG ripoff without the backstory Lizard could be done better. Maybe Tombstone and Tarantula but they could be dull. Doc Ock & Sand man are cool but would kinda be a step down from the threats he's faced. The Jackal, maybe...in cahoots with Smythe and the spider-slayers... But if they pulled together a Sinister Six with: Paste Pot Pete, Gibbon, Big Wheel, Kangaroo, Hammerhead, Grizzly, I'd be all in. Actually that's mostly the Spider-Man Revenge squad minus the Spot.

Ah this means another ASM title numbering reboot and 100 ridiculous variants that don't have anything to do with the story. Nah Sony will just screw it up all over again and try to reboot the franchise in 2 years. If the next movie has more than 2 villains/antagonists that are not the sinister six, then I'll probably just wait for it on plex.

dang, you may be right as this theft claims they used bolt cutters to break the lock and there were no cameras in that section of the storage facility. I guess this kind of theft really does happen more often. Now I wonder how long it would take before thieves broke in and steal the 5 boxes of drek I have. They'd probably break in, see the drek and feel so badly for me they'd replace the lock and leave a sorry note.

To the OP: is this you and is this the happy conclusion to this case: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2019/08/12/burglary-suspects-foiled-by-meddling-comic-book-store-owner If so, congrats on the great outcome and getting your comics back. I just heard about it on the radio and thought it sounded awfully familiar. I'm also glad those crooks were of the low IQ variety and tried to sell locally. The article somewhat makes me feel sad, from a human being perspective, on the crooks as people but I do hope they are able to pay for their crimes, pay restitution to all their other victims and return all the other items they stole from others. I always wondered how some people can sell things on ebay for ridiculously low prices. It's called a fencing operation.

So what's next after you've completely depleted/rebooted the characters in film and TV? Best I can think of is some hot crazy new fully submersible social video game in VR like WoW meets mine craft meets fortnite meets SIMS/Lego superheroes where you can BE the characters, team up and fight villains in a choose your own adventure "what-ifs" or based on classic SA/BA/CA/MA stories and cross over events. Imagine a VR game with additional sensor attachments where you can look down at your appendages and see yourself as spider-man (shooting webs, swinging through NY first person view), wolverine (going snikt and cutting down mercs), punisher (wielding gun and shooting down drug dealers) and team up story mode, multiplayer melee, etc. Imagine a what-if creative mode where you can choose NOT to get rid of the alien symbiot and allow it to bond to you. OR save Gwen's life and kill GG. Or Hulk Smash through just about anything. Can someone create this already? Now I can see that reviving and propping up comics for another decade or 2 if it is awesome enough and captures enough of the youth.

7 years is what I anticipate as the key nexus where the number of people buying common non-key back issues and those bidding on keys will begin to decline and be outnumbered by those who already own them and are gradually trying to exit the market. With fewer 20 somethings and 30 somethings coming in to sustain the current pricing and others trying to exit or recoup value from their collections, we'll see a gradual decline in prices. mega keys like AF15, AC1, TEC27 have lots of insulation but they may plateau or decline a bit before going steady. AF15, like the Mickey Mantle card, is both a status trophy comic for wealthy casual fans and a Spidey super fan must have in almost any condition. It's cover is iconic. But I see lots of pain and hurt from some of the other lesser B and C level keys and characters that have shot up from virtual common back issue bins. I also see pain in the niche collecting market. I guess I just see demand diminishing rather than sustaining beyond that point. I do see other 40-somethings like myself with an exit horizon where pairing down the bulk of our collection and keeping a few manageable keys becomes the endgame strategy. That's the other reason some of the major keys might sustain price as they are kept or upgraded within current collections while the more common stuff is sold off. I dunno. I do feel like I have less and less time to enjoy reading and the pursuit of building my collection as there are just too many other demands that are drawing my attention and so that may ultimately be my reason for exiting earlier than others. For those stalwarts, I hope it'll be a glorious buying opportunity but I suspect it won't be a fire sale but more of nabbing a deal here and there.

yep, the sky is falling...slowly...but it's falling. rewatched Endgame this weekend with the kids and realized 2 things. 1. I am not looking forward to any of the newer movies coming out. 2. all 10 of my nieces and nephews, my kids included, love the movies but none are into comics. Don't count on their generation. my 2 kids used to enjoy me reading SA ASM to them. we got to issue #19 and they are bored of the stories and stopped asking for me to read them. the generation that came just before them isn't going to save the medium either as you've already heard from one example on here. no sir, all we have left are ourselves and anyone currently 25 and older, and however long the speculators hang out for. I suspect they are not long for the market. Unless the Xmen and FF movies are really good and they come up with a similarly great conflict and villain, the speculators will begin moving on. is now a good time to sell? The owner of the Fedreal Hill Collection seems to think so. I don't know their story so maybe the timing is just coincidental. so what's the canary in the coal mine? LCS start closing? except we r talking about back issues so perhaps when attendance at cons start dwindling? except that comic buyers no longer make up the majority of con attendees. Perhaps declining dealer attendance at shows? I suspect it will be more along the lines of falling auction prices for mini keys, 9.8 filler back issues, and a flood of modern back issues as speculators and collectors try to exit. auction price manipulation and thus GPA manipulation can still occur but only for so long. Maybe the long covetted and stalwart AF15 blue chip prices will be the first to reflect a shift. where do most back issue sales occur? online? at cons? from private dealer sales? I give it 7 years. maybe in 2025 we will see a crash in prices.

for me it would have to be the OA to AF15 cover and spider-man origin pages. I'll modestly leave the other AF15 story pages for the library of Congress to keep.

Now that's hilarious!

how much of a small fortune would you drop on that bad boy?

that's what I eventually did. didnt do too bad either. sold both duplicates on ebay for a 20% profit after fees a few months later. still irks me that I missed out on some sweet books though.

I use excel but I still managed to end up with duplicates of 2 SA ASM 9.8 W of which less than 10 copies existed on the census. what had happened was I accidentally closed my spreadsheet without saving and then went to recover it by accessing the auto saved copies of my spreadsheet. excel doesnt always sort the most recent autosaved copy at the top of the list of autosaved copies. I loaded and overwrote it with an auto saved copy that was nearly a year older. during a clink auction I checked my list and placed aggressive bids for them and won. I didn't find out until I received them and went to file them into my collection. Imagine my surprise and how pissed I was at having wasted that much money that could have gone towards other issues I didn't win. I spent the rest of the week bringing the list up to date. now I always double check my collection before bidding.

Well that's certainly not going to speed up my already over due submissions...

you all know what the outcome of all this time and effort will be? another abandoned member handle on the probation list. the probation list only works as a penalty box. once you take away that option it becomes the HoS and the accused loses all incentive to maintain it. the members name and reputation on this boad are likely not worth the extra $120 he'd have lost so it gets abandoned and they'll come back in some other form.

at what point does ebay just refuse to refund the fvf and force the transaction due to too many cancellations?

This. A's and Bs are the best candidates. Cs usually indicate bleed through which means hatchet job to remove. Plus, OP, did you pay for the restoration removal prescreen? it is an actual service they do provide and could have helped to determine the extent, certainty or lack thereof removing all CT, and degree of grade drop or estimates final grade. they would also notify you of their analysis, recommendation and await your reply before proceeding. However, even if you didn't pay for the prescreen it appears that the restoration remover was a less experienced or less trained in the protocol for handling this. I doubt Matt would have let that past him 2x without at least giving you a call. I think you need to give Matt a call and ask him what really happened here because it looks like CGC's restoration detection expert is better than CCS. Well at least it presents one case that counters the perceived conflict of interest between CGC and CCS.

now I know how to get rid of all my high grade 90s, 00s and 10s drek.

make sure to inform him to notify pawn shops as I've seen an increase in pawn sellers on ebay selling comics. the next area would be Facebook and instagarm comic book sales.

As I thought more about it, I WOULD definitely use this service IF as part of the service they also contact the seller and request additional images of specific areas for them to review. that would be a HUGE time saver for me and well worth the $10 per listing for me. @Brittany M. is that part of the service? it's hard to use this service on listings with stock photos.

1. Variants 2. renumbering/reboots