The Less Blob

Doesn't everyone here get 6 calls a day in Chinese? I really want to give them my social security number, but I can't understand what they're saying.

You may see some low 9.6ses if you can see some spine ticks through the slab. Hopeless for a 9.8 press and slab.

Frankly, the only real loss is if you don't ship to Canada as that is like losing a California worth of collectors. I only had sporadic sales elsewhere anyway. I have just opted to avoid the hassle and folks getting upset about the now huge shipping charges. Canada was fine when a flat rate for like $7. I ship to Canadians and brits here, of course.

Were they auctions you would not have necessary been able to buy the arm 300 for $735. Indeed, you would have had to bid higher and you have no idea if the winning bidder had another $50 or $100 in bids in them. But yes, that does not explain the difference between $700s and $1200s. They probably didn't have another $500 in them.

Rogers mysterious time machine is a good little shop (alas about 10% the size it used to be after it had to move) in a good area for wandering around in terms of shops, bars, and restaurants. He does not serve pints, but last time I was there he was doing shots with his customers. His focus is on back issues.

There are like 2 a month in northern New Jersey

Did anyone see this: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/addiction-in-society/201512/jessica-jones-alcoholism

Kind of dumb if you ask me. Admittedly, having Matt Murdock be able to take out the top Ninjas en masse is far worse though. This guy was trained for like 2 years at this when he was a kid and has been a student hanging out for years, occasionally beating up a heavy bag. Danny Rand at least spent 15 straight years in 20 hour a day kung fu school getting the beat out of him. It's a lot more believable that he might be among the best of the best. Not to mention, this becomes a big theme of the second season, Danny being an undeserving outsider, etc. Maybe they can complain that the 40+ year old comic was a white washing, but it seems silly to demand an asianification now. And in the world of comics around the same time Iron Fist came out, MOKF came out, so you arguably had an Asian be "the best there is" at this stuff co-existing. But bringing Shang Chi into the Netflix shows would be a bit much. (They'd also probably have to remove his mother being white from the background story). Anyway, they want him to be a movie star, not a netflix star. With that said, the Defenders could have been stitched up nicely if Shang Chi appeared in it, as a martial arts government agent hunting down the Hand.

Shop closest to me closed, eliminated my twice a week dollar box run to them during lunch. Oh well, I guess more time to go to the gym

These things did not help in the 90s, but it really crashed under the weight of 7 digitesque print runs for a host of books. 5, 10, 15 copies of a book per actual collector. The same thing that happened with sports cards. So, nowadays, rather than a glut (and millions of dollars tied up on inventory that would never sell... See, e.g., turok 1... That bankrupted dealers) the hobby is subjected to an endless stream of manufactured rarities. Possibly a glut in itself even if individually we are talking about 5k print run books. But I think variant overstock is easier to absorb than excess palettes of an individual book. On the other hand, so much new material is quickly worth 1/2 or less of its wholesale price. In 1991, relegating overstock to a 50 cent box almost covered the cost of the book. A dollar box today does not.

Has he pressed out all the imperfections and now has a 9.9 face?

Real men punch each other in the face. Junk punching is last resort stuff.

Can ebay please implement their changes already. This is frigging punitive as ebay and PayPal have "buyer is always right" return policies. Or is ebay planning to do the same? (This, of course, is sonething that could be fixed legislatively. If CA, Texas, and Florida just say they can't do this then they probably can't afford to do it.

I find myself losing $ to the west coast and maybe breaking even locally. Shipping is killing this hobby.

Do you really think there were only 10,000 collectors? My brother was 10 then and ALL of his male friends collected comics. All of them were buying silver age books too (not just new stuff), from the local shops (admittedl, I lived in Manhattan, so there were a couple) and even at local shows. Sure, the # of folks buying GA keys was likely well below 10,000, but heck, in 1977 I had gone to my first show and already had a growing SA and GA collection. You could do a lot with $20 back then.

Does he live close enough that maybe your total cost is $15 and not $20? I know for me it is muuuuch more expensive to ship to the west coast than locally and I may factor that in when reviewing offers on books where I am giving free shipping or it is fixed. Is this an expensive book?

You will not go to hell for this. Maybe for some other stuff.

RMA, are there other, unannounced, second prints out there? Did it really go all the way from Superman 1 to SW 1/Micronauts 1/Shogun Warriors 1 (am I wrong about the last 2? I feel like I've seen "reprint" on them?)

That is crazy. I see so many copies of Nam 1 sitting in cheap-o boxes now. Once upon a time there was so much room for this sort of arbitrage. Too bad at 14 I had gotten out of comics, I think 8th grade was the last time I had an interest. I had so little interest I didn't even try to get free comics from our classmate DS, whose older brother worked at Marvel and could get all the freebies he wanted. Didn't pick it up again until I was 21.

Is 20% standard? No. Certainly not for slabs or real keys. But If a dealer or anyone grabs $300-500 worth of books as marked it is no shocker that they'd try to knock another $60-100 off the total, no? For $40....not so much.

I love you too.

I think he was referring to me. Anyway, my "hypothetical" 9.8 was hardly meant to be disrespectful, but it doesn't sound like you (I'm talking to tbe OP not rma) have the track record to assume a box of 9.8s, particularly after a few weeks in transit media. I sure as heck don't either. If RMA or joeypost or one of the other guys here who does this stuff in volume feels that way that's a little different. But I live in a world where these are potential 9.8s until cgc decides. They are the deciders! Anyway, I hope they figure out what happened to your books.

I have never had a media mail package inspected and rejected either coming or going. I used it for cheap stuff and cross my fingers. But still, the package can be in the system weeks longer via media. More opportunity for damage. Also, if improperly sent media mail and damaged, would insurance even pay up?

Thsee are hypothetical 9.8s, so a hypothetical $2k. Regardless, sending then media is nuts, sorry.

If you have a regular economy submission it will take months to get the books back. What difference does it make if they are sitting in the PO box versus in cgc's offices? What is this panic and hysteria?