justafan

I'm 1 for 1 for 1 with them. 1 copper age 9.4 with OW/W was recommended for pressing and received both a grade bump and pq bump to 9.6 WP. 1 Sliver age 9.4 WP was recommended for pressing and got a grade decrease and pq decrease to 9.2 OW/WP 1 Silver age book got a walkthrough recommendation for pressing. based on past results and high costs of grading walkthrough, what do you think I should do with that last one?

Is it possible to determine minimum value of a restored book based on the 2 condition states of the restoration: 1. Restoration can be removed: color touch, tear seals, pieces added, glue/tape 2. Restoration cannot be removed: trimming, reglossed (not sure), staples cleaned, cover cleaned using chemicals. and the equivalent value assigned to the condition of the book due to changes made whether they are reversible or irreversible. Could the following equation be used: Value of Restored book = ability to remove restoration(Expected graded value after restoration removal - Cost of removing restoration and grading) + inability to remove restoration(equivalent Universal grade had the restoration been deemed non-restorative) where: Ability to remove restoration (Ar)= 1 if YES or 0 if NO Inability to remove restoration (Ir) = 1 if YES or 0 if NO Expected graded Value after removal (V) Costs associated with restoration removal and grading (C) Equivalent Universal grade Value if restoration was deemed non-restorative (Vn) Restored Value = Ar(V-C) + Ir(Vn) For example: if you have an AF15 Restored with glue and tear seals at a 5.0 that can be removed and if the removal will knock the grade down to an expected grade of 3.0 unless the glue is holding the entire spine together. The minimum Restored value might be = 1(16,000-2000) + 0 = 14,000 for a 5.0 Restored with tear seals and glue. For restored books where the restoration cannot be removed such as an AF15 5.0 trimmed on 1 edge where trimmed surface area is equal to 1 square inch off the front/back covers and interior pages the expected damage is a book that could be considered to have a 1" piece missing from the entire book putting it at a possible 1.8 to 2.0 grade. Since the restoration of trimming can't be undone, this would result in a value of: Restored Value = 0 + 1(11,000) = 11,000 Where the value may increase or decrease from those minimum prices could be how well the comic presents, the quality and degree of the restoration work, or the provenance. And then of course you also have to factor in the possibility that restoration that could be removed would so heavily damage the book that it would be refused by reputable removal service companies which then places the value even lower as it removes the option for any work to be performed. Not sure if this puts restoration in a more rational light because at the end of the day, restoration whether removable or not is simply a purposeful alteration of the comic's initial state which at one point may have looked worse than the comic currently does (unless the restoration is really really bad). Hence all books could theoretically be Universally graded based on the work done to what the original grade was before restoration was applied (or in the case of trimming, to what the end result in loss of material would be). Restoration still has such a huge stigma that those minimum prices above would still be discounted but maybe they shouldn't be.

there are sellers on ebay with multiple copies of the 1:1000 and 1:500 variants for sale. how many issues and price per issue do you think they had to pay for the regular cover to get 5-10 copies of each? we're they increasingly incentivized the more they ordered?

all the ones at flashack comics in VA have them. very hard to see. you have to hold the comic at an angle to the light and allow the glare to shine on the area to see it. it's about a 1/2" semicircle but doesn't break color. I've seen cgc overlook bigger/more noticeable flaws on. 9.8. this is likely production related.

Probably like so many of the other less than significant low print run books. some sustain or go up while most fall hard. only time will tell which for this one. Comic variants are the new sneakers. Artificial demand market dominated by flippers and comic fans get left out or wrung for every last cent. Why do so many collectors like these variants? Because of completists, fans or the artist, fans of the art, the regular cover art is just never as cool looking. Why do they sell out when most collectors never had a clue where to buy/pre-order them or what the original price was until it hits ebay? because of the arbitrage created by the flipping market: Retailers and flippers obtain information or are already privy to the information of which retailers are offering this and wait to pounce. Many negotiate bulk pre orders, the rest either sit with multiple accounts on release day and order as many as they can or use purchase bot software to automatically purchase the desired amount within seconds. this is how some sites sell out in seconds when it takes an average human 1 min to enter cc or paypal info to pay. Once all are sold out, the flippers become the market and price collusion based on ebay sales begins to set the new price which is usually 2-3 times the original purchase price. FOMA for collectors or late to the game speculators does the rest. Retailers see the delta and continue to raise prices and repeat the practice. Remember when low print run retailer variants sold for only $10? Now you're seeing them creep up to $100 and not talking about the ratio variants. This will only get worse until the max market price sustainability has been reached for collectors: when the flippers minimum price exceeds that which anyone is willing to pay. I applaud other retailers actions in limiting this type of hysteria. DimensionX had theirs offered only through their fb site and only available 2 sets per customer to those who first liked their fb page and sent a PM with an email. At the very least that slows the burn rate giving actual collectors and their own store customers time to get a copy. I think their model is the way to go for future low print run sales. retailer partners playing the variant arms race game like Sadlemon, Frankies, 7ate9, comicmint, Beaver whatever comics and their secondary tier like unknown and comicxposure need to put software defeating mechanisms and sale limits in place to allow for collectors to buy. Captcha just doesn't cut it but most of these sites don't even use that. they should limit all sales to 2 per customer where customer is defined by: email address payment info address phone number such that if any of those pieces of information are duplicated on a subsequent order, the order is rejected. Or they can just do the same thing that DimensionX comics did. FYI: the secondary market cost for collecting all but the ridiculous 1:500 and 1:1000 variants for the red goblin issues is over $2000. Throw those ratio variants in and your looking at over $5000. Is anyone on here spending that kind of money just to have in their collection? 10 years from now when most of those variants are worth less than what was paid will you have any regrets about what else you could have done with that money like say buy or upgrade a SA ASM, or a new car, or home appliance, pay down debt, pay for a class, medical expenses, help out a friend? or are they expecting the values to keep going up and stay up forever? rant over.

why we're you trying to contact them after your order was placed? did you need to make a change or just confirming? not that it matters why but you should have gotten a confirmation email receipt. keep in mind pre-orders won't ship until their release date. ok here are some alternatives: unknown comic books. they use virtually the same checkout software as comicxposure often don't charge shipping for orders over a certain amount. they often offer most if not all of comicxposure exclusives and variants at the same price as comicxposure. they have excellent customer service, head off any delays - I received an email yesterday informing of some exclusives supplier delays...hmm...I wonder which supplier and which exclusives those might be from... keep in mind they do sell out of the comicxposure variants quicker as they order a subset amount from comicxposure. basically a reseller partner with better customer service. amorphous ink - same deal. midtown comics they often carry exclusives from others but put a markup. DCBS but the variant options are hit or miss and prices can be redonkulous. or if you just do a Google search for the comicxposure variant you're looking for and exclude "ebay" from the search you will probably hit a bunch of online or Facebook comic seller pages that are selling the specified variant/exclusive at the same cost. some mark it up, some charge tax, some charge higher shipping and some don't but at least the customer service is better. for all else there's always ebay where you can sometimes get lucky. I feel like comicxposure's model probably keeps their resellers happy as they don't have to deal with a million customers and bulk fill orders early. resellers get site traffic out of the deal I suppose?

Wow, that sounds like black friday. One of these day's I'll have to offer up some help to a dealer to get into a con early enough to see that. I can now imagine how "fresh meat" dealers often get picked clean when setting up at a big con for the first time.

Care to provide some stories or experiences?

YES! YEEESSS!!!! $125 for a 6' table and $20 admission with 3 artists/inkers in the prop and original comic art hall: Frank Cho (Liberty Meadows, Shanna the Jungle Girl), Mark Schulz (Xenozoic Tales, Dark Horse covers), Gerhard (Cerebus). YIIIIIEEEEEESSSS!!!!! So yeah I think I'll be going and I do hope the dealers bring a catalog list of their stash so that we are still able to purchase anything that wouldn't fit on the 2x 6' tables that they might have brought with them to SDCC. Went to SDCC last year. I was a fiend last year able to shop for art and comics and still get into Hall H. Hall H was such a big disappointment for me. If you aren't sitting in the first 3 sections you have to watch the panelists from jumbo trons. Moving up between panels is key. Walking Dead panel was hung over (or stoned or both), unenthusiastic, and likely too morose over the death of one of their stuntmen to take any of the fan questions seriously. Game of Thrones was the best panel. Justice League was cool. But the best thing about going was getting to meet and browse the big and medium sized dealers that don't make it to east coast shows. Dealers like Torpedo and some of the other northwest and canadian dealers. I found some decent HTF comics in HG and got to go through some (new to me) stock and saw some amazing art. I blew about $1k in travel and expenses for the week. Going to this show on the pre-con weekend from the east coast I could probably get that down to $350 and spend the rest on comics or art. I hope this show does catch on and they make it at least a 2 day show next year. The only reason for me to go back to SDCC would be to attend preview night and snag some of the rare exclusives.

the insurance business is a legal scheme where there is an inherent conflict of interest I never really understood. You see them being all friendly and talking about being there for you with great customer service when you are signing up. everyone pays in happy to pay the premiums for coverage and hoping to never need it (including the company and shareholders) but should anything ever happen, the customer has piece of mind that they will be covered. then something happens and the insurer either makes it a PITA becoming the antagonist (what happened to being there for you) or they fully pay out the claim and promptly drop you as a customer. that 1 and done is fine if you plan on never collecting comics again or whatever thing you were insuring but being penalized for using the service that they offered just doesn't seem right. I get that they are a business trying to make money but therein lies the conflict of interest. I might as well just pay what I would normally pay in premiums into a CD or stable value fund and withdraw my money when a loss occurs. at least I'll get my premiums back with some interest.

The very valuable lesson learned here is that when you are selecting a place that will handle/store/perform work on any of your valuables you first need to find out if they are insured for loss up to the "market" value or your ascribed value of the valuables and/or will agree to be held responsible for any loss/damage while in their possession -in writing and signed. CIS value does take a little bit of a hit here as I would also expect that the dealer coverage or higher levels of coverage they offered would cover this type of incident. Sounds like a law suit against the framer (unless they presented you with a "not responsible for loss or damages" policy) and possibly criminal charges if theft of some kind was involved. You can try and sue CIS under what you were claiming/expecting it should work but if it is stated in the policy that you purchased, you probably won't win that one.

I'll chime in because I've met the man I now recognize as Max, along with Stan's handler and his handler's son. My experience is unique and may be the exception but it left me with one of those rare impressions that makes me realize it isn't always about the money and that Stan Lee and his staff are really True Believers in his fans. I relayed this story on here before but at last year's awesome con I tried to get a photo op with my son and Stan Lee but they were sold out for the day and it was the last day of the convention but the only day I could bring my 6 year old son with me. I asked if there was any way to get in to meet Stan. I offered to pay double, then triple the photo op and autograph rate and asked them to name a price just so I didn't have to see the look of disappointment on my son's face. The young man told me he'd love to take my money but that they "Stan Lee's staff" are under strict orders from his handler and manager to limit the tickets sold to what they feel he can handle during each session and that they have to do that to protect Stan even from himself as he would keep meeting fans past the point of exhaustion. Instead he said he would have to check with his dad "Stan's handler/bodyguard" to see if they could accommodate me since it was just to let my son meet Stan (of course I wanted to meet Stan, too!) Stan's handler/body guard "a rather tall, large and imposing but friendly Puerto Rican guy" gave the nod to go ahead and I was told to standby until the last person of the autograph line was let in. Long story short, my son and I were let in, I was introduced to Stan's Handler (I'm ashamed for not remembering his name) and my son escorted towards Stan as a special fan and allowed to meet and converse with Stan and get a couple of autographs. Afterwards, and not in front of Stan Lee, I again offered to pay both his handler and his handler's son for the courtesy but both refused on account that it was for a young fan of Stan and that was Stan Lee's way. I thanked them and will never forget their generosity and adherence to Stan's fan values. I met Max while I was meeting Stan Lee. I was holding a CGC 6.5 universal AF 15 in my hand originally intending on getting it into the picture. Max was friendly and making conversation and his eyes got really big when he saw what I had. He asked if he could see it and I handed it to him. He was all giddy like a kid in a candy store. When he saw the grade he blurted out how much it was worth and asked if I was selling it and started throwing out offers. I told him no and he joked around and started to fake like he was going to walk away with it. He admired it some more before handing it back. At the time I thought it was a little unprofessional for someone from Stan's staff to act which was in stark contrast to everyone else's demeanor but figured he was probably just one of the staff's friends. Now seeing as he was Stan's manager, I can see it being both appropriate and somewhat inappropriate behavior but whatever. The point of all this is when I read the daily mail article it referenced Max as both Stan's Manager and bodyguard but the photo of Max in the article is not of the same guy I was introduced to as Stan's handler/bodyguard. Max and Stan's Handler/bodyguard are not the same person. The photo is of they guy who asked about my AF 15. I'm now wondering if Max is no longer with Stan whether Stan's handler/bodyguard is still by his side as he seemed like good people looking out for Stan and his fans not someone who would try to get between Stan and his daughter or even between Stan and Max unless perhaps he found out something about Max. There's no mention of him in either the Bleeding cool or daily mail articles.

Low feedback buyers. Every new ebayer has to start somewhere which is always (0) feedback and some seller will have to take the risk on them. I've had several in my lifetime as a seller and each time I've always felt that twinge of hesitation but so far all have been legit. Most often these are the types of newbie buyers who ignore the best offer and click the buy it now on the newly hyped book (NM 98, MOS 18, NM 87, ASM 300, etc.). To protect myself with ANY ebay buyers I always perform the following: 1. Review their address to confirm it is a residence. If it's a business I'll usually try and look up the business info and contact them. 2. Review their buyer/seller feedback if any are available. Others have outlined on here how this is helpful. 3. Always pack it extremely well (I do this for all buyers, but with low feedback buyers I might add a redundant layer of protection which is more for USPS insurance claims adjuster than for the buyer) 4. Always ship Priority Mail and insure it for the full amount for anything over $50 but under $500. Anything over $500 gets registered mail. 5. Always use signature confirmation and in some cases restricted signature confirmation 6. Always include a note that reminds them/instructs them on saving the packaging for initiating an insurance claim. 7. Always include the additional costs of shipping in the price or the shipping price. Or you can play the numbers game and risk a package if you sell at high volume. That will pretty much provide you with the most protection you can expect and if something seems wrong after the transaction is completed, always be the first one to call ebay and open a case relaying your concerns.

you mean by handling or mishandling of it during the slab prep or by the actual slab sealing process? the flaw is in the middle of the front cover so I can imagine it happening during the handling of it but can't see how that might occur during the slab sealing process.

I am amazed and happy that they seem to have entered the late 20th century with email replies. though, I won't be ordering anything from them until I see an improvement to their boards. I've ordered 3000 full backs from them over the last 5 years and have never seen this defect. something tells me theyve either introduced a new process in their production perhaps at an attempt to cut costs or improve speed of production or one of their machines is hosed.

Yep. sigh. I was thinking the same thing. I agree but apparently they missed this flaw the first time around, too, way back when it was first slabbed or just graded lightly. The flaw is actually visible on the front cover but was easily overlooked as a small light color-breaking crease in the middle of the cover less than 1/2". The front slab dulled over the years and likely masked it from clear view under the convention lighting since I didn't even see it when I gave it a close look after the grader inspected it. Now in it's bright new slab the flaw is visible but you still have to hunt for it with your eyes. so yeah, maybe under a softer/rushed grading period it would have gotten a 9.4 but I think it does deserve to be a 9.2. Now the page quality is debatable as those look pretty white to me but that's how it goes when you roll the slab upgrade dice.

Is this who I hire to do my CT removal? Did their crime have to do with comic restoration? Do they work for CGC? How do you get in touch with this "A-Team" you speak of? Also, here's my own anecdotal advice completely worthless to anyone but me 6 months ago but I bought a really nice looking SA ASM slabbed from Harley who cut me a great deal on it (Thanks Harley! :)) and I still love it. I was ready to go home with it but had to stop by the CGC booth for upgrade advice for my ASM 129 from one of the head graders. While having it pre-screened for a press and resubmit, the guy asked if I wanted the other ASM slab reviewed. I said why not. After review the guy said it would be a great upgrade candidate as well. I really wasn't planning on it but agreed to since I was already there and didn't think it could hurt. Oh it did hurt. Went from a 9.4 White to 9.2 OW/W pages. Thankfully my ASM 129 did upgrade and more than made up for it but I really wished I had kept the downgraded ASM in it's original old label slab :(. It's still a great looking copy and I love it so maybe I'll just crack it out and upgrade my raw copy. Lesson is: Never...um I mean...Always...no, no, no -um....

Well I guess the price of comics with free shipping will be going up soon as well. Take advantage of the temporary arbitrage by buying comics with free shipping before they get relisted/updated. Looks like it's really only significant for international shipping.

This. Though you should probably call them first since in my experience they never responded to my emails in the past. That first photo is NOT how they should look and is most likely a damaged batch. The 2nd photo is normal. Are they like the first photo on both sides? I'd be very concerned about not only indent/impressions left behind but also color rub/scuffing over time when comics shift or are removed and replaced within their mylars. Call them and see what recourse you have for a refund or replacement batch. You may have to foot the bill for shipping, however, unless you live close. I'll be checking for this from now on when I go to pick up my next order from their factory sometime later this year. Hope it works out.

This nearly happened to me due to the lack of battle scenes in the first season (c'mon it's a show about viking invaders and early briton/saxon/angles who do nothing but fight each other!). I saw that as nothing more than an attempt trading budget for drama and character development. However, you're rewarded for your patience later and though it seems like Utred's insolent behavior is nothing more than a yo-yo for pulling him back into the service of the king which allows the plot to fill the episodes, the history (though large liberties are taken) is still captivating and entertaining. The great irony which the show does at times emphasize but also downplays during plot vehicles for alliances is the cyclical nature of the kingdom's rulers and origins. They all came from generally the same northern European regions during different successive eras to conquer and be conquered again and again. The Celts migrated from northern Germany to become the original (documented-disputed) britons, then norsemen from scandinavia, then the Romans, then the Judes/Saxons/Angles from roughly the same northern European lands stretching from northern Germany to Norway.

it does say "all offers will be considered."

I use the egerber cgc boxes and used to stack them 3-4 high. I found that fully loaded the weight tends to impact the top cover of the boxes below them causing the tops to cave in about a half inch. I don't think there's much risk to the comics or cgc cases in the boxes below since it is a static load that is pretty well distributed but man those box tops at the bottom take a beating after frequent access. I now have them all on shelves which makes it easier to access and better organized and less wear to the boxes.

I wonder if you caulk/seal the edges and base with waterproof silicone if it will give you 4-6 or more inches of flood protection. I wonder if they could make some for CGC slabs. I still like my drawer boxes but I could see the potential value in the additional environmental protection and durability of these boxes.

just curious what is the appeal or advantage to this? granted I'm not a high volume seller and rarely keep a balance on my paypal account so whenever I do get paid for something through ebay I usually just do a transfer to my high yield bank account. maintaining a balance on paypal that doesn't pay over 1% interest doesn't appeal to me that much so I wonder what is the benefit of paying them to transfer my money quicker for a 25 cent fee. the only benefit I can see is if you took in a huge payment of $10k+ and would be losing 27 cents+ per day that the money wasn't in your high yield account that earns 1% or more that would justify the 25 cent fee. even then I wonder if those large transfers don't qualify for some type of bank hold. is this supposed to possibly be the paypal equivalent of a wire transfer to a linked account?