the blob

I have been physically unwell for a while, which sort of saps all my desire to collect. It doesn't help that it is physically difficult to get up the stairs where my collection is and pick up boxes right now. Sucks getting old and breaking.

On 12/7/2023 at 10:21 AM, comicartfan said:

Some of the reason for the low price is the December -Christmas drop. I just got my grades on an Iron Man 55 & ASM 129 that both came back 9.0. Looking at GPA just now, the last sold prices for these two are way down.....I won't be moving them until after the New Year. 

I get it, but 112 is kind of a nothing book in that run

On 12/7/2023 at 10:40 AM, VintageComics said:

I genuinely feel terrible for that person, but while it sounds cruel that person gambled and lost. Nobody else is responsible for that person's decisions except for them, and that's coming from someone who was almost out in the streets in 1991. 

I lost my job a few weeks after I got married and the Canadian economy took a downturn at the same time. I ended up selling door to door 7 days a week, on weeknights, in the dead of Canadian winter to pay the bills and stay off the streets until I could find a job as a mechanic again, and when I got the job, it was a job I hated but it paid the bills.

I didn't recover fully until about 2-3 years later, and then started a family and made sure not to make the same mistakes again. We quite literally scraped by, living week to week in the early years and when my first property tax bill arrived it was $1000 and I didn't know how I was going to pay it. True story. 

Life in the West is hard but doable. It's nothing more than a series of decisions and some people make bad ones. Downmarkets expose all the bad decisions, but if we weren't exposing bad decision making everyone would keep making them. That's a major problem today. Nobody wants anything bad exposed and so everything just keeps getting worse because society has been trained to avoid consequences rather than meet them head on and learn from them. 

 

Or treat it as a long term asset and lovingly fondle it for 20 years hoping it bounces back. It worked for many of the BA books that fizzled in the mid/late 90s, even some of the other stuff (case in point I paid $2 for a Spotlight 5 in about 1998 and everyone here knows the stories about ASM 129s at the dawn of ebay). With that said, if you're 50 and got burned jumping into comics it is no double different that watching some books crash at 25 in 1997, but I suspect most of these guys jumping in weren't 50.

On 12/6/2023 at 5:43 PM, Buzzetta said:

Never crack.  Crack bad. 

 

Crack is wack.

On 12/7/2023 at 8:13 AM, Happy Noodle Boy said:

I crack them all out. I want to see all of my book, not just the covers. Honest to God, if I ever win the lottery and pick up Whiz #2, I'll crack that one out too.

Well, that's why this thread exists.

Never crack anything out. Future problems solved.

On 10/16/2023 at 12:42 PM, jaybuck43 said:

I've been going since 2006.  I missed last year.  This is the worst year I've seen yet.  VERY few dealers.  The show is now broken up into multiple places.  Downstairs is autographing and artist alley and main hall.  Upstairs is the main floor, split into two sections.  and then the 4th floor is panels and the second main stage (Empire Stage).  The show floor was 3/4s displays (Bandai, Dragon Ball, Topps, etc.).  You didn't really get to dealers until you got to level 3600.  There were more "stuff seller" than comic sellers.  No Dale, No Motor City Comics, lots of the major sellers weren't there.  Most people were walking around with blind boxes than comics or art purchases.  The con was probably super successful for reed pop, but its become a pop culture party and not a comic show.  

They need to have a section and cut comic dealers a break. Between the cost of tables, hotels, and parking in manhattan it must be a brute. I believe my last one was 2017 or 2018 and I've always been able to buy a ton of good stuff and find deals. But that was a while ago. As I had a weekend pass for the family usually I would have a shopping day on friday for myself, it would be wandering around with the kids on saturday (mainly not comics) and a mix of wandering around on sunday with the kids letting me do some comics the last few hours.

On 10/14/2023 at 9:38 PM, BitterOldMan said:

It’s much worst than the comics.🤢

Hey, at least he is being industrious while inconveniencing hundreds of people

On 10/13/2023 at 12:52 AM, juniorMC said:

Sneezing in hands and wiping it on pants. I do it all the time, What's wrong with that

you're not really getting rid of it on your pants before you spread it on the handrail

On 10/3/2023 at 10:09 PM, southern cross said:

I'm retired and I help out at my lcs on Tuesdays getting new books for Wednesday. So Tuesdays all about comic books for me. Pulling books for subscriptions and selling comic books in between that, bagging boarding and pricing someone else's comic book stock.

I'm way behind in my reading and that is something I'll have to arrange.

Downside or upside to helping out at a lcs is I'm always buying books.

Just look what came into the store in the last four days.

OK, the one on the bottom would get me excited for sure

On 10/4/2023 at 9:32 PM, Pontoon said:

I don't think I have it in me to write such a considerate note, which I guess explains why you're a gentleman, Jon and I'm a D i c k. Pontoon, that is.

We native New Yorkers are very kind and considerate. 

On 10/6/2023 at 12:22 AM, wombat said:

What is wrong with you?

Seriously, I can't get a hold of my health insurance company on weekends but we expect the comic folks to be responding on saturday?

On 10/3/2023 at 8:47 PM, ExNihilo said:

No budgeting.  I have a stack of comics to read that I'm behind on.  I have fullbacks that have been inserted into mylar and I re-bag whenever I feel like doing it.  At present, I have 4 full boxes of mylar waiting to be used.  Some days I have time and then I just end up playing video games.  Or I'll go for a run, come back, shower, and plop into bed.  I could certainly use some organization and better time management, but I just don't have the discipline.  I've determined the best place to start is to get to bed earlier.  I go to bed late and just wind up lethargic the following day.  If I had a better nights sleep, maybe i'd feel more energized to be productive at home.

One problem is that my wife is an academic with 4 or 5 different jobs who is getting some sort of degree or certification in AI (beyond her STEM doctorate) who  also works out (outside the home) about 15 hours a week who also wants to attend school events for the kids so she works insane hours and functions on 4 hours of sleep half the time so if I want to get to bed at 12 she is pissed. Half the time I am feeding her dinner at 10:30. Tonight she teaches until 10! So my attempts to have a regimented schedule will no doubt be in conflict with her insane one. And I understand this is getting into a "general" conversation, but I do see people here with jobs, active family lives, devoting a lot of time to this hobby/side biz, and have varied other interests, so I figured someone has it together.

On 10/3/2023 at 7:18 PM, Dr. Balls said:

I have to cram hobby time in whenever I get a chance - some nights if it's slow at work, I get to leave early and I'll have an hour to watch Dueling Dealers on Wednesdays, but I may not be able to sit down and with my comics until Sunday or Monday. I've been trying to start a sales thread for two months now, but I only do that when I have two consecutive days that I don't have to be at work. The only time budget I have is for our business - everything else that comes after that just gets what it gets, hobbies or otherwise.

If you can put together a time budget, I say good for you - that means that your life is consistent enough to allow you to plan a schedule.

I am 51 and have never had a time budget, but there are a lot of things I want to do, but I am stuck with my job that will generally have me leaving at 7 am (when I get back to work next week after my disability is up) and probably ending at 4:30 if I am efficient and don't skrew around at work (I work from home 2 days a week thank the Lord). That is when my supervisor leaves, in theory, so it works out. My commute is 30-45 minutes. I want to start working out regularly, I want to get the comics biz back going again (I waited until the market tanked to do that...), I want to paint a few hours a week, learn another language... lots of stuff. Maybe it is a fantasy, I dunno, but it won't happen until I get control of my schedule. Was just curious if other folks here were regimented like this. I guess this is something I should have learned 30 years ago. Better late than never. I am a natural born procrastinator, so maybe this will help me in the 6 - 12 years I have left before I plan to retire.

On 10/3/2023 at 1:11 PM, Gambold Vintage said:

I'd like to head this one off, but of course you are free to contact Shortboxed for answers. In this situation, it was fairly clear from the get-go that the seller was bogus.  By that I mean they weren't responding to the sale nor were they going to ship the book. You get a good sense of these things after buying and selling for years. 

It wouldn't be proper of me to screenshot their emails, but Shortboxed evidently agreed after trying on their own to contact the seller and verify the sale.  They may have had other reasons they didn't share with me for the suspension decision. Frankly I was surprised about that - I wasn't gunning for the seller, I just needed a fast turnaround on the refund. So like I said - they may have had other reasons.  I think they are fair and if this was a legitimate sale, they would have counseled me to wait. 

I want to vouch for Shortboxed's response on this, which is why I changed the title and content of the original post, and removed all my ill-advised squabbling with fellow forum members. It was a learning experience for me too, and while many of the comments here were mean-spirited or just kinda stupid, I do appreciate the few that took a genuine, mature interest...which is why I have posted more details here at the end. 

Happy Collecting, Gambold Vintage

so long as it was legit scam-dar on your end, but those of us who are hobby sellers and a sale happens friday aren't always in a position to mail it out saturday. we're not amazon. I try to make that clear in my listings.

On 10/3/2023 at 5:17 PM, BlowUpTheMoon said:

Did you retire? 

I work for the guvment now, i just need to say I worked the day

Did anyone ever subscribe to marvel comics in the early 80s? I did for a few titles and it was amazing that they managed to get to me in good shape. 

On 10/3/2023 at 12:45 PM, KingOfRulers said:

I haven't been drawing much lately. Here's my two most recent pieces. One is Robert Dinero from Taxi Driver and the other is my recreation of Secret Hearts #128.

good stuff

Is this a normal thing for people here? Like budgeting 9 hours a day for your "job" and commuting, an hour for family time/checking homework, an hour to make/eat dinner, an hour of exercise, and then 1.5 hours of comic time -- organizing, selling, shopping, BSing here, an hour for art/reading, etc? I know I should have a financial budget, but basically my wife will not play along, but in my old age I feel like if I am going to do things I should be doing with my time, I need to organize that time better and can't just constantly push my life past midnight because, frankly, the lack of sleep is probably killing me. Is a time budget how some of you manage to get a lot of things done while also being comic nerds? You'd think that someone who used to religiously bill in 6 minute increments should be better at this, but I am not.

They have been doing shows there forever if I remember correctly, different event folks. I am pretty sure I went to a show in 84-85 where I younger Carbo intimidated a 13 year old me into him looking at all my books I was carrying under the guise of maybe he'd make an offer on them (really I think he wanted to check to see if I had stolen any from him --- I had not), and quite possibly one in 1977 or so my dad took me and my brother to. It's weird, I was just down there in June at MSG to see the Cure and I didn't even notice it coming down, but I guess in the dark I am not looking up. 

On 10/3/2023 at 1:07 AM, kimik said:

Looking at the number of signings being announced every week, it looks like that is how they are working to keep the grading volumes up. If grading volumes dip further, they will likely let graders go. I am not sure how much they can lower grading fees due to input costs being higher now.

well, fees on pre 1976 books probably have some wiggle room, particularly your pretty standard marvels and DCs from the 60s - 70s. The substantial price bump is borderline arbitrary in my mind. I get the resto check and page counts starts getting really tricky on your GA books, giant sizes, etc.  They can let graders go and all the training they put into them or keep them busy.

On 10/2/2023 at 4:05 PM, Lightning55 said:

The prices for post 1974 comics are actually a good deal at $25 per, less with membership.  Before grading became a "thing", like 30 years ago, people were willing to pay $10-$20 for a snap-together plastic case for their best comics, DIY.  And that was the price then, with 30 years to inflate.  Now, you get someone to verify the page count, 2 people to check for restoration and also grade it, seal the comic into a capsule, then install it into a tamper-evident clear frame with identifying label.  And the comic is insured while it at the grading site.  All for as little as $22.50.  Not too bad.

The other side of this is that they want 4% of Fair Market Value ($150 minimum) for comics worth over $1000.  To do the exact same steps.

I dunno who was paying $10-20 for that snap together stuff. I know some terrible grading company was buying those things in bulk and grading in his basement for like $8-9? (I know this because he was a friend of a friend.... can't remember the name of that one, but he was lambasted here in the early 2000s). Wasn't CGC $15 when they started? I know, inflation, but also economies of scale and learning curve going the other way.

On 9/29/2023 at 2:21 PM, grapeape said:

you da*n right..... 

 

 

 

there were still 8 tracks when that album came out in 1985??

On 9/30/2023 at 8:26 AM, Tec-Tac-Toe said:

Lower CGC fees would be great but, perhaps like you and other posters, I am extremely doubtful that will occur but I hope to be proven wrong.

I don't think it is an ultra profitable business to there probably isn't much fat in their pricing despite what we think, but if volume is down they might need to lower fees to keep it up

On 10/2/2023 at 12:47 PM, PeterPark said:

Red Hulk 2?

There is no way I could afford the price to submit any books as low as $75. My bar is currently around $1,000...even then most sit years before being hand-picked for submission

No, Incredible Hulk 2 from 1960whatever