justafan

1. a Good FF4 movie 2. a SS movie 3. A Galactus movie 4. continuation of the X-men/X-force franchise 5. A secret wars movie or a reboot of infinity war in 5 years with FF4, X-men, SS, Eternals, and all the other heavy hitters.

I recall coming across an AUS copy a few years ago while I was grading my ASM run and I had these two copies in nearly identical high grade but one had AUS in the price box and I realized at the time it meant it was an Australian Newsstand copy but fearing that it somehow had a different form of English or language in the story and possibly less desirable among us collectors I decided to sell that one.

Ok I've kind of got a new one here. I referenced it a while back but this is kind of bizarre and not sure how it's going to work out for the seller so this is a cautionary tale for both a buyer and a rapid growth seller as both ended up as victims of a dispute between ebay and paypal with paypal pretty much holding all the cards on this one. TLDR version: Seller unable to ship comics due to their paypal account being restricted and $40k in sales funds being withheld by paypal despite meeting all previous requirements. One of the requirements was for the seller to begin shipping comics to receive funds once delivery was confirmed. They claim to have done this for $4k in comics but never received funds from paypal Seller has already incurred thousands in forced refunds from their own bank account (not from the withheld funds) before they shut down the bank account. Paypal claims seller's account is restricted due to too rapid growth/sales/transaction amounts for a relatively new account (less than 100 transactions). Paypal won't release ANY funds unless the seller ships ALL comics and ALL buyers confirm delivery. Seller has instructed buyers to request refunds directly from paypal which is siding with buyer, rather than ebay since ebay has no control over the funds Paypal is holding. I submitted and received a refund from Paypal for the full amount. eBay is the seller's only advocate in this fight with Paypal and as such has instructed the seller not to sell ANY of the comics outside of an ebay transaction until the matter is resolved. Buyer is made whole but doesn't get desired comic. Seller is stuck between a rock and a hard place with losses and inventory they can't sell. ebay has little leverage here and faces potential losses in FVF depending on whether an agreement is made. Paypal is still holding funds earning interest until all refunds are given. Is it still possible that the seller could be lying about this whole thing? maybe, but it's pretty crazy if they are and to what end. In any case, I received my full refund this week. I checked on the seller's account in ebay and it had a ton of negs from buyers who had to get refunds. that account is pretty much toast. I feel bad for them. Seems like they got royally screwed and they still can't sell their comics until this gets resolved. The way I see it is buyers will continue to get refunds until those funds held by paypal are depleted (minus the 4k in sales where they shipped the comics already). Has anyone else as a seller ever encountered this?

Often wondered how BIG that DMM really is and if anyone can just request a hard copy. Probably just send it in PDF form nowadays. This whole debate is moot. That guideline document references the DMM as an official interpretation of the spirit of the intent of the DMM Media Mail requirements and IS what the PO clerks are instructed to use and go by when referencing whether an item IS or ISN'T qualified for Media Mail. For all I know, they don't actually have access to an actual copy of the DMM on hand or are too lazy to look it up since those guidelines are "official" USPS Standard Operating Procedures and what they are likely trained to follow. RMA, you're point and argument is valid in that those interpretation guidelines may not be in the DMM. However, good luck trying to argue that point with a USPS gov employee. I liken these guidelines to kind of like how an official company's policies on returns may state under what conditions a return may be authorized but for those grey areas, the customer support has a set of guidelines that they follow that reference back to an official policy. They may not be set in stone but they are what the employees will follow and supervisors will default to when push comes to shove. Depending on the mood or disposition of the employee (or USPS clerk) you may be able to convince them otherwise or to cut you a break. However, the ONLY way a definitive stance, one way or the other, will actually ever make it into the USPS DMM would be if someone brought a legal suit against the USPS challenging them on the qualification of comics as acceptable for Media Mail forcing them to add it in. The risk here is if the courts do rule against you (as apparently they may have with "Old Magazines" customer support ruling PS-091-Age of documents is irrelevant) is that it will get written into the DMM once and for all removing all doubt about Media Mail comic book qualifications. So why argue and why worry about a 1% (in my experience) inspection rate? People who use it will continue to use it and those who don't won't. The 2 recommendations I have is that as a seller you at least give the buyer an option to pay more for First Class or Priority if you're going to offer MM. And if you accept MM, as a buyer you must accept the risk. However, since this involves ebay and buyers have more leverage, as a seller if you want to use MM that maybe you try to pack the comic in a way that will be both cumbersome for an employee to inspect (i.e. require removing multiple points of access before getting to the books) or make it look like an actual book and also making it easy for the books to be reinserted to the packaging if removed. Not sure what kind of combination of packaging would work to solve those 2 mutually exclusive ideas (comic T-mailers?) but probably easier to just offer/pay for First class or priority shipping. Maybe that idea someone had on here of using a cookbook as both the protector and obfuscatory implement would work. oh and 1 more thing. I have recently found it very easy to remove comic T-mailers from USPS priority mail Legal cardboard envelopes and reseal without leaving much of a sign of tampering. If you simply tug at the right or left edge flaps they come off easier than the main top flap. So much so that it leaves minimal damage and a reapplication of glue could reseal it without sign of tampering. I would recommend that if you use legal sized cardboard USPS mailers please apply packing tape or some kind of tamper seal to the right and left sides covering the flaps ensuring that someone wouldn't try to steal the contents or try to return a package as unopened.

thanks pjray55. yes, through ebay so they probably already got billed. I agree, as a seller if I screw up on postage I would much rather they come after me than bother the buyer.

well shipping was free and the description doesn't list the type of shipping used. I don't mind paying the $2 difference but there's nothing telling me what to do so I'm not sure if the seller already got billed somehow. I guess I could just go to the PO and ask but with no enforcement or deadline, I'm likely to forget about it as I'm too lazy to drive all the way out to my po which cost more in gas and time than what I owe. if I receive a notice with a bill to pay and instructions to pay online I'll pay it online. just want to know from others on here if this is how they handle all their media mail inspections or if they ever withhold it until paid. if not then there's really nothing to discourage from misusing it and it just become a gamble with favorable odds.

so do I or the seller need to do anything? It looks like more of a warning. I've received about a hundred MM packages from ebay sellers over the last 8 years and heard numerous stories about others experiences and all the debate about old vs new USPS DMM rules but this is the first time I received a package that got inspected. it also came with a photocopied DMM sheet that lists comics as not qualified for media mail. so here it is folks. definitive proof. the thing is they did a pretty good job of carefully opening and repackaging the comics. only 1 corner of one of the comics now has a light non color break bend due to the comic corner sliding out from between the cardboard sandwich. has anyone else received something like this? did you or the seller have to pay the difference? I'm surprised they didn't just send me a notice and hold the package at my post office asking for the difference before releasing.

I like this thread. though, actually some books with great content are considered mini keys and do have the potential of blowing up a bit if the story is good enough for use as the basis of a movie such as with X-men 141 DOFP. Kravens last hunt was really good, too. i reread that storyline many times and my copies show it.

They do charge for shipping but it's free for orders over some amount like $50 or so. They do discount the variants more than midtown or DCBS so I tend to order most of the normal covers and variants from them and then by the time I add on the ComicXposure or their store variants I will usually have a $100 order. The 1 thing I learned from the last round of pre-orders is that if you bundle in-stock orders with pre-orders, they will hold all items until ALL of the pre-orders arrive (including specific release date pre-orders) and ship them together. If you want your in-stock items to arrive right away, order them separately. If you want your pre-orders to arrive as they come in, separate the usual pre-orders from the pre-orders with farther out release dates. And for those variant bundles that span multiple subsequent issues, don't count on those arriving until the last issue arrives which means you could be waiting up to 3 months to receive issues like ASM 797, 798, 799, 800, and 801 all together.

Because in addition to all of the peon individual customers that continually gravitate towards their "cool" exclusives, they have solid relationships with other online retailers where most of their orders get fulfilled. Places like Unknown Comics, amorphous ink, comic mint, mutant beaver,possibly midtown and some others. Those guys order large quantities of ComicXposure's variants on a regular basis and resell them pretty much at the same price or with a slight markup. I believe ComicXposure would prefer to operate as a silent partner distributor and let those other stores handle the day to day order fulfillment and processing from end customers. Those other online store fronts tend to have waaaay better customer service and by customer service I mean they actually have someone that responds to emails and phone calls and resolves issues in a timely and satisfactory manner. I inquired about them with the folks from Unknown Comics who seem to be their primary reseller. They kinda just shrugged and said that Ed can be hard to get hold of but he's always been pretty good at getting back to you. That may be their unique experience and relationship due to them being ComicXposure's primary buyer and outlet but I told them it didn't sound reflective of all the individual buyers out there who complain about no one ever responding or their orders arriving with mistakes and having to do repeat charge-backs. My recommendations is to avoid buying directly from ComicXposure and just use Unknown Comics or one of the other resellers. You'll at least get a response. I highly recommend Unknown Comics out of Texas, 7ate9 out of the UK even for US customers and Patrick from Mutant Beaver in Canada has always been great to deal with. The comics may not be priced as low as directly from ComicXposure but at least you will receive your order or a solution in a timely manner.

the answer to your question is yes and I did actually have a financial advisor recommend that I allocate no more than 10% to art and collectibles along with precious metals. I actually believe that comics are a fun short term investment (3-5 yrs) or up to 10 years for blue chip keys. I don't think they are good long term monetary investments (though they could still be good long term reading investments if you love re-reading them). as with many potentially volitIle investments you need a time horizon and exit strategy. just like some stocks. what good is the value if you cash it in too late. a healthy portfolio that has you churning/selling netting gains and reinvesting/laddering a portion back into comics could work well as an investment. the problem for a lot of us is that we are also collectors. if I were to take my own advice I should sell my collection in the next 6 months to 2 years as it has already appreciated in value over 50% or more. but I still enjoy my collection and want to keep it for another 20 years until I am ready to pass it on down to my kids, retire, or convert it to a more liquid asset. by then, however, it may be too late and many others my age may be trying to do the same thing when the current demand has died way down. or maybe the value stays the same in the long run but having the money tied up prevented me from being able to invest in other areas with the money that would have made more wealth. so comics as an investment should be measured not only by the potential value realized when you sell but also the opportunity cost of the investment in other areas.

I could see myself doing something like that. and yes I would absolutely bring some new to market stock I've been hoarding over the years. too busy to even find out what half of it is worth but might be worth something to someone. and yes it would be eye opening to see life from the other side of the booth. I always try to approach dealers the way I would want/expect to be approached by customers in a polite and patient manner and not lowball but man I bet I would probably get annoyed by me as a customer some times. "oh you want me to climb up and get another wall book you may or may not like?" I already do have so much respect for all the dealers who grind it out at each con every weekend and provide such friendly customer service. I couldn't believe it when Harley told me he had just gotten back from Australia! I am concerned about the potential growing gridlock in available stock. natural market forces usually help loosen availability once demand and prices reach a certain point but collectors are irrational human beings. what happens when demand is high but collectors won't sell at any reasonable price for fear of never being able to replace/recover their comic but the few who want and can afford the books are just not willing to pay the inflated prices? like the asm 667 dell otto. I'm sure there's at least a 100 copies locked away in collections and those who own them know that they can get nearly whatever they want for it so why don't we see them being offered for sale? because they fear they may never be able to replace it let alone for what they sold it for. the same could be happening to certain issues of titles in grade. maybe that is just the one exception but it could become the rule unless pressure is released from the supply side. I did hear this comment from 2 dealers during negotiations on 2 different SA/GA books: (paraphrasing) "that's one of my favorite covers/books from my collection. I can't/won't come down from that price as I'm not really trying to sell it but that's the (inflated) price I'd be grudgingly let it go for."

same here. I left with about half the cash I brought in not to mention any CC purchases I could have made in excess of my cash alotment. not that I couldn't have spent it. easily. but just didn't feel like paying that much for something I wasn't going to be totally satisfied with. I felt a lot was over priced but I can appreciate why that is. now if there was the right book in the right grade with the right eye appeal, whoa watch out. but it seems those kinds of books sold early on Thursday or friday. Not sure how collectors like us can compete with VinnyZ or any other dealer's that can get early access and buy up the good stuff before the show even begins. lol, maybe we need to form a collectors union co-op with some of the attendees to go in on a small dealer booth/table. $900 split 18 ways is $50/person. $5 cheaper than the weekend rate. (I'd even do $100/person split 9 ways) we can get dealer badges, arrive early on Thursday, raid the incoming dealers and maybe even setup some of our own comics we want to sell (though that might get raided in return). what do you think? whose down?

this x 1000 just finished driving the 5.5 hrs back home. I got the same comment from every dealer I went to whether I was asking if they had a particular silver age comic in a particular grade (even mid-low grade) or was trying to negotiate down to GPA prices. whether they had any for sale or not they explained that collections are scarce. they have to pay more to pry it from collectors or other dealers and what they sell they have to find a way to afford replace for the next show I guess collectors are to blame. Many of us are locking up our books in our collections and if we do sell we already know what they are worth so we ask for more or put them up at auction. every dealer I spoke with said they had a great show. 1 guy said he wouldn't budge on pricing on Sunday as he had already made his quota. others had big sales on Friday, and Thursday from the sounds of it. Bedrock sold a book for nearly 100k Friday morning, assuming at least a 10% margin or commission his trip was paid for. Gator had someone beat me to his booth at some great midgrade SA keys and by Sunday his wall looked like Swiss cheese so he had to do well. I bought 5 slabs 4 of which I got a fair (12 Mo GPA price for after some negotiations.) and a bunch of raw fillers. I found that the usual dollar or $2 boxes started at $5-10 boxes and we're 25%-50% by sunday. they were also heavily picked over by sunday. few dealers were selling back issues under $2 unless they were unsorted and unbagged moderns. Friday was busier than Saturday for some dealers. the reason it may have seemed empty is that most attendees were getting artist commissions and sigs. However, I found that I had more competition for box digging than at any other show before. I aggressively hit the booths early Friday and had at least 2 people lurking by me at every booth with some walking away dejected after they saw how much I had already picked it over. the show was huge. I didn't make it to all dealers but I did hit the big ones. spent all day Friday on the right side. my other reason for going was to drop off books at cgc. yeah I noticed it too how cgcs booth was packed compared to cbcs. I think a lot of folks are taking a wait and see approach to Beckett's influence. I did buy a nice SA cbcs graded spideys for a decent price. Maybe it's been harder to sell those as well. saw some decent OA this show pulled Legends comics all the way from Fresno, CA so it is still a serious comics show. they did well and I'm sure my $500 purchase helped. it also brought in Unknown comics from Texas and Conquest comics. I really liked that they were both there. Im not sure how I feel about finding out how much of their "SOLD OUT" variant inventory they still had for sale. I'm happy they were there and I got to buy some variants I missed out on during their website releases and got to choose ones in the best condition. however, it irks me that one's in limited print I had to feverishly refresh the page and enter my cc info for in the middle of my work day just to buy 1 copy which sold out in less than 2 min online are suddenly abundantly available in held back stock. lesson learned. I guess i should be happy they still had availability in great quality. I'll just wait to catch them at a show next time. anyway that's my report.

here's my latest kerfuffle. it's a new one to me. seller accepted my best offer price on 2 pre-order incentive variants. release date was a month out. I paid them over 30 days ago. release date came and went with no shipping update or messages from the seller. a week after release I contact them via ebay message inquiring about the status. I receive a response stating they have received the comics but their funds are being held by PayPal and PayPal will not release any funds until all purchases have been confirmed delivered by the buyers. seller says they are not willing to risk shipping out $20k worth of comics without being paid. they recommended I get a refund through PayPal directly because going through ebay expect's the sellers to be able to refund the buyer but the seller can't because PayPal is restricting access to the funds. I called PayPal and they confirmed the sellers account has been restricted and that they will only release the funds after the seller ships. I couldn't convince the seller to ship so I'm now trying to get a refund through a PayPal claim. anyone else ever run into this as a seller or buyer?

this is why I raised all my BIN prices, switched all my listing shipping to calculated cost from free shipping, and set the minimum best offer to auto decline below my minimum.

I agree with bomber-bob on this though I do feel that they should at least have been able to determine if the staples were "manufacture" related vs after the fact with consumer staples and I would like that noted on the label just to eliminate confusion with a future sale whether it matters to the buyer or not. It sounds like they are at least willing to concede that they are original manufacture (stitching) staples so depending on the cost and your OCD, you could request they relabel it as such. In my opinion, the top double staple doesn't look that bad and is hardly noticeable. The bottom one is fugly and asthetics aside, I'd be more concerned about the long term structural integrity of the cover at the bottom staple. Since it's entombed in a case it's probably not in as much danger of a detached cover at the bottom staple as if it were raw and frequently used as a reader copy. But I do worry what SCS might result in if shipped frequently or swings in humidiyt/temperature to the paper brittleness. The first bottom staple appears to be doing it's job holding the cover in place and the 2nd one is to some extent. I'd maybe want to seek CGC or CCS's advice on the long term effects of that mangled jagged 2nd bottom staple to the integrity of the cover. It looks like over time it has worsened a staple tear to a potential detachment. Perhaps, ask them if professionally removing that 2nd bottom staple would be more or less beneficial to the long term preservation of the comic without impacting the grade.

NICE! I'll be looking forward to stopping by. @Dale Roberts and yours, too. Hotel booked, I be there Friday and Sunday. Happy travels y'all!

Yes and here's my solution which helps if you have long boxes. Removing and reinserting is one of the main ways the comic and or the comics in front/behind of the one you're inserting mysteriously acquire additional spine bends or blunted corners. Rule #1: always maintain at least a 3-finger (index, middle, & ring or about 1.5-2") width gap in your longboxes. Loose enough to easily insert new comics but full enough that the comics won't sag when at rest. Rule #2: always use a flat spacer or cardboard at the very front and back of the long box to prevent the uneven wall of the long boxes from adding new spine bends to the very first or last comics. Rule #3: The shoehorn approach. If you failed to obey rule #1 then take a an empty polybag (mylar will have too much friction) with a backboard in side and use it basically as a comic-shoehorn. When inserting the comic into a packed longbox, first insert the polybagged board into the slot you wish to insert the comic. Then slide the bagged boarded comic into the space in front of the polybagged board comic-shoehorn. Rule #4: always buy more boxes when you reach 50% capacity of your last long box you cheapskate.

This is my main discouragement for all cash transactions. I usually bring enough for 1 or 2 large purchases where discount in CC fees is enough to merit using cash but I've heard dealers at a few cons talk about guys literally walking around with sacks full of cash in excess of $50k upwards to possibly $100k or more and spending it. Now that must be a great show for the dealers that make those sales but I'd be hyper-paranoid about anyone who got too close to me. One dealer had one of these guys basically pay full ask for the books they bought. No haggling, just asked and paid. I wonder if money laundering has made its way into comics or OA?

I guess the price of shipping out all those Heritage catalogs went up. (trade tariffs?) I'll be adjusting my bidding accordingly. Of course exceptions will probably be made for those must-have books. It would be nice if they were to adjust the commission they charge sellers by an equal percentage decrease.

yep ReedPop. dang $75 for 3 day pass. https://www.showclix.com/event/keystone-comic-con-18/listing?_ga=2.32577590.943001461.1528211560-874977724.1528211558

is this promoted/hosted by Reed? is this anticipated as being more comic book oriented compared to WWPA? wondering if the show will have enough to pull in a bunch of dealers or if it will be a victim of being so close to Baltimore''s date. or vice versa?

akways wondered the same thing. they are like attention barnacles feeding off the gawk's and stares from other attendees. there has to be cosplay only shows but you probably have to bring your A-game to those. I feel comic cons allow the cosplay hobbyist and newby to test out their costumes in a less competitive and more forgiving environment. maybe we should start attending the cosplay-only shows and walk around with a bunch of comics in boxes and then plop down in the middle of an aisle or photo op area and try to negotiate sales with each other while blocking traffic and ruining photos of cosplayers. see how they like it.

it's near the front cover spine about 2/3 of the way up the spine just below spideys eye line of sight almost as if he's looking at them. and about 1/2" from the spine edge. the scuffs almost look like the webbing but it varies on some copies from a single 1/8" scuff to 2-3 scuffs or streaks. some have it worse but most have at least that tiny 1/8" scuff. if yours doesn't have it or the large bindery tears at the spine corners common on these extra sized issues consider yourself fortunate and sub that baby with confidence!