The Less Blob

a month or two ago I pulled those issues to the side thinking the show might impact them and now I don't know where the heck I put them!!! I have like 5+ of each. those are definitely among the "if they are a buck or less I buy them" books I have hoarded over the years (ok, pretty much any avengers 200 and under fits that bill)

It is crazy how few post. 2000 newsies I have.

Yup, small sample size, but it does not appear the ratchet & clank niche market cares about 9.8s given that this book generally sells for $25-30+ raw: https://www.ebay.com/itm/RATCHET-CLANK-1-CGC-9-8-PRICED-TO-MOVE/164631589743?hash=item2654ceb36f:g:nuoAAOSwZGRf93qO Heck, only modest interest in a 9.9: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ratchet-amp-Clank-1-Comic-The-only-one-graded-9-9-by-the-CGC-/193738411894?hash=item2d1bb58f76%3Ag%3AX-MAAOSwTwtfpBCk&nma=true&si=BZbpsjZvXBDBh7scMVfgI%2BAabNw%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

I have a canadian price variant mark jewelers double cover of x-men 266 with the special candian tatooz (it is a husky pulling an igloo while eating a bowl of poutine, very rare) intact and I only paid 20 cents for it . so there!

yeah, but subbie has always been on the periphery whereas aquaman hangs out with the big boys. and if mamoa had not played him the movie probably would have done diddly.

Iron Man 1 used to be quite affordable. In the mid-90s I would pick up mid grade decent copies for under $50 (like FF 48). So, if Submariner becomes a big deal you could see that trajectory, but even if Keanu plays him I am just not seeing it. Iron Man was a B+ tier character for a long time, but Subby had bounced around from C+ to D+ tier, I'm not sure he was ever B tier, maybe for a minute in the 90s when Byrne or Jae Lee was doing the art, but even then...

This is the part I do not like. It should not cost 2-3x or whatever as much to grade a book just because it is valuable. If more insurance for loss/damage is needed, then I think the amounts being charged far exceed that cost. Afterall, we get shipping insurance for far less from USSP, etc. And, honestly, I may be sending in some books that are $600-1000 if they come back 9.8s, but frankly, if i am clueless and/or miss something and they're 8.5s then they're worth way less than $200. why should I get pressured into making an estimate?

Maybe, It also seems to be pretty HTF. The issue also had a 1:15 variant that is more common and a lot cheaper. The other "I am captain america" 1:20 variants for other books that came out that month are under $25. Anyway, weird. I wonder if maybe this one got shorted. Folks have gotten it slabbed. They just don't seem to be selling them. Always fun to find a little treasure in a box of randoms.

They should make it even more complicated by mixing in a bunch of 2-4 page back up stories in each of them, creating hundreds, if not thousands, of permutations! (OK, that might make it cost more to print, but how much more? Between endless reboots and different covers and trying to look up stuff on my terrible phone with its terriby cracked screen I am going blinder and blinder

Ok, new as in "just located" ... These are super pristine, but I am not sure this particular niche market cares about cgc 9.8 vs. Raw.

Hmm well maybe Peter is right and I should just list mine at $170 and see what happens.

I'm not sure that's how prices work though. Usually a book that sells for $X in a raw 6.0 (which is what that looks like, maybe, with all those spine ticks) sells for 4, 5X that much as a slabbed 9.4 or 9.6. On the other hand, that sale could just be a freak blip. The other copy sold for $159 and looks pretty sharp. The copy currently for sale at $175 is hard to judge from the pics. This book is all about the cover too and getting a 9.6 slab seems to mean a sales price 2.5-3X as much as a raw nice copy: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=ross+black+adam+1+variant&_sacat=0&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1

This beat up copy of this X-Men 14 variant sold for around $150. Is this hot for this book? I see no listings other than another raw in that $ range and two sales. I have a not beat up copy (though I don't think it could be a 9.8), wondering whether it should be slabbed, but I can't tell what the market for a slab is on the book: https://www.ebay.com/itm/X-Men-14-Greg-Horn-I-Am-Captain-America-variant-/284048767188?hash=item4222a038d4%3Ag%3AmzMAAOSwgexfiztp&nma=true&si=BZbpsjZvXBDBh7scMVfgI%2BAabNw%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

There is some sort of wacky mental gymnastics that go into pricing this stuff. These aren't keys. Part of it is so few 9.8s of these books, but it isn't like there are a ton of 9.6ses... but why would there be at those prices? Take a book like Spiderman 361. A copper key (modern?). 9.6ses are around $300 and 9.8s are $900+. Tons of each grade, so not a scarcity issue. Reasonable, semi predictable, 3:1 price ratio. CGC does not tell you the likely grade if a book does not pass a pre-screen cut-off, does it? I wouldn't mind getting a grade back for $5 even if it is not verifiable to a purchaser.

not really. you should watch the last 3 avengers movies. as all of those movies are on disney+, the only venue you can watch wandavision and something you're paying for anyway, this is really not such a stretch. i didn't watch avengers 1 until about a month ago. not needed for this story, but you should see how wanda and vision arrive on the scene.

subtract 10 minutes of credits for each episode and we are down to 2 hours

Actually, the movies and SHIELD are not all that relevant to the stuff we are fussing about. You don't need to know SWORD gets formed toward the end of SHIELD to understand some entity exists right now. If you watched the Avengers movies you have your core background, and it would be good to have seen some recent X-Men movies to not say "huh?" at the end of the last episode. Sure, seeing Thor, Ant Man, and Captain Marvel would helped know our 3 characters outside the hex a little, but not much. My 9 year old enjoys it and he is not all hung up on the minutia, has seen the Marvel movies, but doesn't have them memorized, never watched SHIELD.

No, it doesn't, but my guess is a 9.6 probably sells for $35-50 eventually at a BIN.

Wow, I know the 9.6 is a fluke and low, but ouch! https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronin-4-CGC-9-6-NM-WHITE-PAGES/164654008674?hash=item265624c962:g:ujwAAOSwJy1gBt46 ($8.50!!!) https://www.ebay.com/itm/Ronin-4-CGC-9-8-NM-MT-WHITE-PAGES/164645781719?hash=item2655a740d7:g:XSMAAOSwScBgASIP ($676!) Same seller, so i guess the great price on the 9.8 evened out the lousy one on the 9.6

20% less doesn't seem that insulting

there has never been a third print of this particular issue. it is totally unprecedented.

I agree, I wouldn't mind more old broken down logan, but it does not seem like he was doing much with himself before the events of Logan other than bringing Professor X Scooy snacks now and then. Doing the Old Man Logan mini as a comic would be a hoot. By the time that is feasible Jackman may legitimately be old enough for the part.

I dunno, but every time I go to this page I wind up reading Robert E. Howard's bio and it is so frigging sad, and then years later folks trash his work. He did all of this in his 20s, scrambling to survive selling stories for $15-100 a pop. He created some fantastic characters and worlds. He did not have the luxury of honing a masterpiece like Tolkien did from the comfort of his professorial office. And then he killed himself as his career was going places. And then that little world lost Lovecraft the next year (ok, we'll ignore some of the stuff Lovecraft wrote about race, etc... although he moderated toward the end)... when the Hobbit is published. This is funny, 85+ years later she returns!:

Seems like something that happens when you stack a bunch of comics off to ship them, maybe not 100% dry, arguably not production, but shipping damage. I am pretty sure cgc and everyone else deduct for that. But here you can see the ink transfer outline on the back is from the "R" in star wars, so from another copy of the same book underneath it, not 100% dry. i suspect cgc doesn't kill it for that. but the mess on the front is a bit less obvious how it lines up with the dark ink in the spalding ad.... anyone have any exemplars with ink transfer?

Dumb question. I bought something directly off the MCS website that had a parallel listing on ebay. I want to look at the pic, which i did not save before I bought. When I try to look at their completed items (I assume they just cancelled the listing), it only shows sold items. Why can't I find this item on ebay, which was ended early because I bought it on the MCS website?