justafan

On 6/29/2023 at 12:30 PM, Get Marwood & I said:

If it helps, my old Amazing Spidey records show the Overpower cards present in both Newsstand and Direct for issue 406, but only for the Direct edition of issue #416:

Issue 406 as a cover corner blurb regarding the cards which is likely why they appear in both:

Issue 416 has no such blurb, leaving it optional.

Some grainy old photos of mine below, one for each issue:

 

Ah that's right. Yeah the inquiry was for ASM 416 which doesn't have the blurb so maybe only for directs for that is.

Thank you for the info.

I received a question about the presence of an overpower card in one of my newsstand listing. When I checked, I found none in any of my newsstands from that period but they are in the direct edition copies.  None of the newsstand copies look like they had them removed. They are present after the 4th wrap of the comic.

Does anyone know if they were only included in direct edition copies?

I hope so, maybe it'll return back to a pure comic book show without all the media and random swag and tickets will be easier to get. However, it's probably already just a self-sustaining engine of pop culture.

On 6/29/2023 at 8:00 AM, ygogolak said:

Too late.

LOL! Blame Texas TAAS HS testing requirements from the 90s brainwashing their English writing rubric format for making a point. I can't write anything now that doesn't subconsciously follow their verbose requirements and I work in a technical field. Being concise has been a lifelong struggle. Should have been a lawyer instead.

On 6/23/2023 at 10:30 AM, Jaydogrules said:

What are your thoughts on the CBCS UF, 9.8 copy result (which was the last one to sell yesterday for 18k)?

-J..

Somebody got a steal. I thought it was very foolish of heritage selling it alongside the cgc 9.8. Historically the cbcs copies will sell for a discount to cgc copies but even if it had been another cgc 9.8 I would still expect it to go for less than the 9.8 that sold before it. I mean, the market for the 9.8 UF4 variant was just represented when the cgc 9.8 copy sold a minute earlier. Now you have that same market minus 1 buyer who was satisfied by the cgc copy so you know that the next copy will sell, at most, for whatever the underbidder was willing to bid. However, the market for cbcs copies is smaller than that of cgc copies so you must also subtract the bidders that only want a uf 4 cgc copy but leave in the ones who are willing to risk buying a cbcs 9.8 copy at a discount and plan to resub to cgc.

Now I didn't get a close look at the book so maybe it also had some defects or presentation that turned some of the underbidders on the cgc 9.8 copy off from bidding as well. 

Long story short, the market for the cbcs 9.8 copy immediately after a cgc copy was going to plummet and did so by nearly $10k less.

By the next heritage signature auction it might be back up to $25k for a cgc copy but I wonder if it would have gone for more if GPA reported cbcs copies. The $18k won't be recorded in GPA, only the $27k sale will. If it was, the new 90-day gpa would put it closer to $23k

On 6/22/2023 at 8:49 PM, Jaydogrules said:

There were a bunch more uf variants in the heritage auction that just closed- 3, 9.8's and a 9.6.  There was one ASM 667 Dell'otto, a 9.6.

9.8 yellow label Signed and sketched by two artists uf 4 went for 33k.

Blue label 9.8 uf 4 (cgc) went for 27.6K.

(That was after the comiclink sale from a gew days ago for another copy of 26.2k.)

Blue label 9.8 uf 4 (cbcs) went for 18k. 

Blue label 9.6 uf 4 went for 7k.

Blue label 9.6, 667 Dell'otto went for 12k.

-J.

I thought that was silly of heritage to put out more than 1 9.8 copy of the UF4 variant in the same session. I suspect they have more copies in the pipeline for the next signature auctions. $27k and $26k are bargains for what those books went for last year.

While the UF4's seemed to dip in price suffering from oversupply

The lone dell'otto 9.6 seemed to remain flat or possibly rise from its $10k position last year.  I suspect a future 9.8 dell'otto will likely sell for around 25-30k but possibly more if its the only one for sale in 6 months or more.  Market correction is in full effect.

Congratulations on completing your goal.  There are so many options to go to next.  My one and only advice to you is this: whatever you do, for your sanity, the love of your life, your family, and all those in it, DO NOT go completionist ASM. Tis a bottomless pit.

I'm done with my run from AF15-present invluding variants up to the end of v4 and 50% of variants in v5 and v6. I probably won't do all variants from v5 and v6 and will probably stop altogether.  I'm probably going to focus on something totally different to collect afterwards.

I would definitely take out your collection, spread it all out, bask in the glory of it, read it again, and then tuck it safely away.

Oh man what a downer this thread is. I'm at heroes con this weekend and it has been a great convention. It's so refreshing to see so many dealers willing to make a deal. I was not going to spend much and planned to just browse and get some sigs or commish's but from day 1 many dealers were already offering discounts on common books. Books that months ago were going for cover price or double were now priced to move at 25% to 50% off and still taking more discounts on bulk or cash offers. I ended up buying several stacks of 20 books from different dealers. Same for stabbed moderns. Picked up some nice slabs at 10-20% off gpa 90 day prices. 

Great,  this is turning into a con report. Well liquidity is the key here and dealers need to move inventory to churn and reinvest. I was also pleased to hear that dealers were willing to work with me on raw and graded key book prices which was unheard of 8 months ago. However. I couldn't take advantage of it as I'm tapped out and my money is all tied up in CDs, bonds and other investments. About half the dealers had 2021 prices but offering 20-30%discouts while another 30% had dropped prices by 20% from the peak, and the rest were still living in 2021.  Some dealers flat out were firm on 2021 prices and were underwater.  I saw buyers walk away from negotiations more often than in the past but I also saw more dealers walk away from buying books off customers unless they were high demand items so everyone is feeling the pain. I also stayed the hell away from new book variants. I'd normally spend $500-1000 on new releases and variants but stuck to filling gaps in my runs and looking for pre-2020 prices.

Let's face it. We are all going to end up taking a loss. Dealers need to just eat it now, write it off as a loss, and look to make it back on reinvestment at corrected prices that they can flip later and customers will have to eat a loss on peak priced books we bought but need to sell to fund upgrades or new books. As I've said in another forum. I'd sell all my keys for $1 if I could upgrade them for $2-$5. 

On 6/14/2023 at 6:18 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Yup. No doubt it led to overload and burnout for many.

Yep. Over the last few months I've seen 2 longtime ASM completists throw in the towel and another about ready to call it quits.  Can you blame them?  When every new ASM issue comes with 10-20 variant covers at $5.99+ each but being sold for $15-$50 for the exclusives and $100 for the 1:100 incentives, how is that even fun especially if the stories are spoon.

Then there's the sky high GA, SA. BA keys that have plummeted 20%-60% in value since the pandemic run up compared to better places for disposable income. Anyone selling right now that bought during the bull years are taking a loss or holding hoping for prices to rise which is tying up some money. I'm hesitant to buy anything as I'm not even sure of the value. Is it a good deal or just looks like a good deal compared to 2020 prices. 

Im also enjoying earning 5%-9.5% parking my money in treasuries, I-Bonds, and high yield savings . It might be a good time to buy comics or it could be a false bottom. And today was a good day to have money in the stock market. Maybe I should take the 20%-50% loss on a SA key and earn that back elsewhere.

Just saw it. It was very formulaic. All plot points, drama, comedic dialogue, primes monologue and introductions are all too familiar and cliche at this point. The only reason I watched it was for the potential hint at a cross-over and

On 6/5/2023 at 4:35 PM, Mirkinator said:

Looks like $35k? Guess it wasnt a record if its hit over 40k three times already… 

Thanks! Oh well. I guess prices are starting to come down a bit or the market for these books above $35k has been satisfied.

On 5/30/2023 at 2:51 PM, Mirkinator said:

How high has this book made it before? $16,000 seems nutz? Suppose I havent check the registry to see how many there are… but thought this was like a $4k book..

Edit: Nm, seems it sold for over $30k previously. Heck.

 

So what did that one end at?

On 6/3/2023 at 12:39 AM, dzbad said:

23-06-02 They are back again with the same sticker Spidy storm and iron man.  For those tracking this is Gen 14a.  It seems like they hit the shelves a little latter than usual.  I was expecting them in May. 

8 Different Titles

 

3 x Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2023 #1 UPC 759606205356 WalMart Variant Cover

 

 

2 x Murderworld: Moon Knight Vol 2023 #1

2 x Planet of the Apes Vol 2023 #1

1 x Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clone Vol 2023 #1

 

3 x Spider-Man: Unforgiven Vol 2023 #1

 

1 x Star Wars: Ewoks Vol 2023 #1

 

1 x Star Wars: Jabas Palace Vol 2023#1

 

3 x Venom Lethal Protector Vol 2023 #1

 

 

Anything good in these packs?

Regardless, Sony would be fools to not put this on the high priority list to make it happen. They will make soooo much money off this property. Especially if done right with the right cast and -script.  I'm surprised that Sony inherited this property with the spider-man deal they made back in the late 90s as Miles hadn't even been created yet.

On 6/2/2023 at 11:27 AM, Bosco685 said:

Beyond the Spider-Verse is coming in 2024

 

Yep, and it wasn't a pleasant one. I am really not a fan of 2 part films, especially cliff hangers. It's one of 2 main reasons why I prefer to watch shows once they are done and full seasons available to binge. However, if done right they are made bearable when the ending of the first part wraps somethings up and leaves the main conflict to be resolved. Empire strikes back did this very well, Back to the future did it ok, the Matrix and even Infinity war left on a real good gut punch where we were all feeling the hopelessness of the situation out of our control and yet were satisfied that we could spend the rest of the year speculating on the resolution.

But Across the spider-verse just didn't do that. It did the same thing as Fast and the Furious X movie. It felt like it cut to commercial but then just went straight to credits with to be continued. It felt like they just decided to cut a 4 hour movie in half at one of the high tension points.

SPOILER ALERT 

They could have cut it right when Miles gets in the send you home machine and the monitor reads the wrong universe, or once miles realizes he's in the middle of the wrong universe. But no they dragged it out just long enough to introduce the young prowler. It just felt clumsy. 

A third of the way through watching across the spider-verse this evening at the theater, I kept thinking, they've got to do a live action miles Morales next. This is too good to stay animated and who would be the actor to play Miles?

I just finished seeing it with the family. My wife really liked it and she's not a big Marvel movie fan. My young kids thought it was ok but didnt like the ending. In my conservative opinion it was pretty good and a good follow up from the 1st one. My only gripes are

1. The animation and action sequences are so fast paced and take a little getting used to and can easily miss some of the easter eggs and details. I found myself straining my eyes at some times to catch everything going on. Gonna have to watch it a few times to catch everything.

2.The primary plot vehicle.  Nothing revealing but just wanted to hide it in case you feel it might ruin it for you.

3. No end-credit scenes other than

4. The ending for reasons you'll understand but may disagree with me when you watch it for yourself.

now for what I liked:

I did like all the comic references, the Easter eggs, the nostalgia.

It was pretty funny, had a lot of emotion, builds up several of the characters so I can totally see some spin-offs.

Some interesting possibilities where this movie could take things.

Miles character and development.

The main villain

The follow-up on some of the characters from the 1st movie.

It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen. Oh and I got a cool movie poster for seeing it on opening night.

On 5/30/2023 at 5:38 AM, Beige said:

I cleared my store of UF #4's as well. 9.4's, 9.6's, 9.8's - all sold.

Thanks Heavens for MM - been a dry spell for movie comics.

Guess its YMMV. My 9 4s, 9.6s and 9.8s are just sitting at GPA 12 month prices unsold so I guess those prices are too high or no one has seen the listings yet. 

On 5/29/2023 at 9:25 PM, THE_BEYONDER said:

I wonder if CCS might refuse to do the work to preserve the structural integrity of the book 

They will strongly recommend against it and may even decline to do so but that was my experience before cgc was bought out. Now they may just recommend against it but do it if you insist.

On 5/23/2023 at 6:26 PM, joeypost said:

My guess would be impact damage from hitting the bottom of the inner well with some force.

This 100%.  It's when the book hits the top or bottom ridge of the inner well.  This type of defect usually occurs between 1/4" and 1/2" of the corner due to the presence of a square void by the corners (perhaps to prevent corner blunting with impacts) but it causes the cover or sometimes inner pages to become indented or bent/curled back.  I'm dealing with such an issue with books shipped from a purchase.  I would expect a shipping insurance claim to resolve the matter but not sure if full value or regrade value difference would be given if it comes back in a lower grade.

On 5/23/2023 at 6:33 PM, ramrodcar said:

Likewise if the buyer would've spent 1min to count the pages within 30 days, this situation wouldn't exist either. Trust but verify folks.

This advice cannot be overstated but goes for both buyers and sellers.  As a seller, I always inspect each book right before I pack it for shipping.  I even do this for moderns.  Even if I know I already went through the book the first time around when I graded it and listed and it has been sitting in short box for years while listed on ebay, I do this for 2 very good reasons. 

1. To make sure it is still in the same condition as advertised and I still agree with the grade I advertised (sometimes you can miss things the first time around).  I've had to inform buyers of issues with the copy they bought and let them decide to proceed with the purchase or refund them their money.

2. To make sure there's nothing valuable hidden inside.  I've found $$, autographed flyers, and even a treasury bond in comics before. 

On 5/23/2023 at 6:41 PM, Lightning55 said:

This is definitely the case with Pirate Ship.  But it doesn't mean you can't insure raw comics to CGC or anywhere else. 

I have a shipment of raw comics coming worth over $3000, being sent and insured by Pirate Ship.  Since there is a "Recent Invoice", my enclosed Paypal invoice, there is proof of value and that meets the exception.

When I send them in to CGC, if not too far in the future, I can use that same Paypal Invoice as proof of value.

If you are sending raw comics in for grading, and you have had them a while,or even decades, you should use the USPS insurance through Priority or Registered Mail.  Or have your own CIS type coverage.  Or both.

This is my understanding as well after re-reading it a few times.  Unfortunately, most of my shipments to CGC are passed the time frame to be considered recently purchased.  I may just end up waiting to drop them off at Hero's Con in June and save the $45 shipping.

On 5/23/2023 at 4:35 PM, O Doyle Rules said:

I now understand the "he said she said" statement better. Thank you. My only response is that I feel CGC's word weighs much heavier on the scale than the seller since they are deemed an impartial 3rd party expert. In civil court the scales just needs to be tipped in my favor. CGC is pretty much my expert witness in a court of law. I think CGC's testimony will win over the seller's word every time in court. I have been nothing but polite to the seller and only used the language that eBay advised me to express to him concerning this situation. 

You're doing the right thing, then.  Just keep working with ebay. 

I like to think most of us on here trust and like to believe that CGC is an impartial 3rd party expert (despite several events in recent years that have taken a hit to CGC's credibility).  I do hope that they hold weight in ebay's court for your sake.  I'm not sure what kind of relationship ebay and CGC have but at one point they did offer a visual verification service with ebay.

However, this will be an interesting precedent set if they rule in your favor for a full refund as it could be a double edged sword. 

On the one hand it could be a means by which buyers can have their book's grades/restoration/completeness checked by CGC and sent back for a full refund due to SNAD outside the normal return window. 

On the other hand, it would mean anyone could buy a book off ebay, tamper with it (remove wraps, centerfolds, inserts, tattooz, staples, digital code stickers for use in more expensive books) send it in to get graded, and have the book come back SNAD and have a case opened for a full refund outside the normal return window. Actually, the more I think of it, this would force sellers to add more photos documenting the presence of these items and making buying and selling less risky.

Good luck and keep us updated.

On 5/23/2023 at 4:26 PM, Funnybooks said:

victim blaming bandwagon

What if in a scenario, the purchaser was someone that does not know anything about comic books and counting pages or detecting restoration? Making a purchase based on a description from what seemed like a reputable dealer/seller only to find out via third party grading weeks or months later that the item was sold was incomplete or restored. The buyer still to blame?

This is probably what unscrupulous ebay, facebook, instagram market place sellers gamble on.  With the long TATs by the time you get the book back, it's past most marketplace return windows leaving little recourse.

On 5/23/2023 at 1:57 PM, theCapraAegagrus said:

This is where "He Said, She Said" comes into play. The seller claimed that this was complete at sale, and CGC marked it incomplete at a different end of business. Without your inspection, how can we conclude that the seller is negligent at all?

@O Doyle Rules This right here.  Nobody but you knows the truth but since you stated you didn't even inspect the book, then based on the information we are given, not even you can know the FULL truth since only 2 external parties (the seller and CGC) can claim that they inspected the book and have come to different conclusions.  He (being the seller) said it was complete. She (being CGC) said it was incomplete.  At this point, you have very little evidence to prove otherwise. 

As for fault, well, CGC isn't likely to have removed the centerfold and isn't going to admit to removing/damaging the centerfold as they are in the business of being a trusted and reliable grading service which is why you sent your book to them.  You could have paid for a pre-screen restoration check and they probably would have spotted the missing centerfold and informed you to decide before sending it off to be graded.

The seller may be at fault here if we take CGC's word for it but you severely lost both the opportunity to challenge the seller's word AND the ebay buyer protection when you sent it off to a 3rd party without documenting it's full condition and exceeded the 30 day return window.  Once it is in the hands of a 3rd party, no matter how reputable, you have contaminated the closed loop of custody between you and the seller (shipping service being excluded unless you suspect tampering with the package before you received it).  You failed to validate or invalidate the seller's claims by not inspecting it.  That is on you.

Now ebay may still side with you if you decide to pursue it fully but whatever you do DO NOT send any threatening messages or use foul language to the seller, DO NOT attempt a cc/paypal charge back or you may lose whatever ebay support you currently have.  At this point your 2 options are either accept the $100 refund and keep the book or pursue a larger partial refund/return for full refund and accept whatever ebay provides with the risk being they may rule in the seller's favor, close the case and you won't get any refund.  That is it.