The Less Blob

There is a lot of fake Pokemon out there so certification is key. For shi@@ts and giggles my son buys fake booster boxes from china and other than a few misprints they look legit. The give away is that the card stock is actually better quality than real Pokemon cards. They use playing card stock and real Pokemon are thinner.

F it, my wife will just have to deal with it, I'll take this gem

That is a beautiful piece. Not that the others aren't.

"For anyone who's lived in a city with a big real estate boom (especially one where there's a big foreign investment component, and real estate flippers in turn, which I liken to the "spec bid"), there are a lot of similarities. Great while it's going up (for homeowners especially who bought beforehand), but lots of new buyers get priced out or have to stretch in a rising price market, and then if/when correction comes, it's that much more painful. That's why governments try to curb these overly exuberant markets as the belief is that net-net, long-term, the market is healthier with slower rises and slower declines (than the hard run-up and crash)." Shhhh. I just need the madness that is the Brooklyn RE market to last another 10-15 years until I am semi-retired and my youngest is off to college. I know there will be ups and downs, but if I am where I am now adjusted for inflation in 10-15 I will be fine. By then I might have managed to get my collections manageable enough to move to a bungalow in an over 55 community....(just kidding)

Punisher War Journal 7 is 29 now.

I dunno about pre-code crime. Yes, the guide was dumb high on those, but I think they sell for a lot more now than when I was buying them in the mid-90s. Were other books better investment vehicles? Yes, with a few classic cover exceptions. As for 50s romance, outside of artists/classic covers, when were these sought after? In the 80s? 70s? At this point there is a market for them if they have a 10 cent cover price and are presentable.

There aren't that many variants that have hit $500+. I agree, it's hard to keep track of all of this stuff, but the numbers are pretty darn small, etc. But for $2K can't you get a pretty nice piece of one-of-a-kind OA. For $1250 you can get this... https://www.ebay.com/itm/AMAZING-COMICS-1-CGC-6-5FINE-1944-SCHOMBURG-TIMELY-YOUNG-ALLIES-COVER/152248176288?hash=item2372b2cea0:g:1cIAAOSwt5hYcCR8:rk:28:pf:0 $1900 gets you this .... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Marvel-Mystery-68-Timely-CGC-8-0-Crippen-copy/253960475706?hash=item3b2139543a:g:YEsAAOSwZPdbsmhO Yes, I don't get $2K for a new variant cover

I don't think it was this one, but the version he was giving away sells for like $40 or something. I need to dig that up!!

I think that happened in a bigly way at issue 100 already. So the bllnd bag 127s are later reprints with different covers? Any potential there?

OK, so based on what we saw at the end there is no reason to think rick is actually dead. He seemed to be doing pretty well actually. But obviously they can't bring him back for a long time. And he must not be able to get out of wherever he is if he is not back yet with Judith at age 9 or whatever. Unless the helicopter scene is just his comatose death dream. Not sure why every bone in his body would not be broken at this point.

low, 3.5 or worse, mid 4.0 - 7.0, high 7.5 up I say this because I have seen really nice looking books in 4.5 slabs, and 7.5s where I wondered why it wasn't a 9.0-9.2, but, of course, have seen many a slab where I couldn't believe CGC gave it a 5.0 or whatever.

One key is be aware of trends. Make some bets. They don't always work out. If you expect to buy a $100 book for $50, good luck. Some shops rely on OPG a lot. This often produces back issue pricing that is too high, BUT, sometimes the reverse is true as OPG is only updated once a year. I bought copies of ASM 129 and Iron Man 55 before they exploded (but while warming) for around OPG (maybe a little less) and would up selling them for 2-3X as much pretty soon thereafter. I would never pay OPG for most VG+ type bronze books, but for these, it made sense. Conversely, I "unloaded" copies of Detective 880 on these boards for, I believe, $35 and later $75 each ($75 might be too high) on these boards, figuring a cool cover could only go so far...others correctly bet that it could go plenty further and those copies are now $200+++ copies. You have to take some risks.I won't even mention me selling NYX 3 at $10 and $50 (or Sage 1 at $30), thinking that we were at a peak on each, but when there was plenty left. Sometimes delaying gratification (a quick flip) pays off big time. You are right, most shops are not going to blow it pricing a genuine key. BUT, there is always stuff on the rise and it isn't like they scour their back issues every day. I have gotten Web of Spider-Man 118 and 119 out of dollar boxes recently, for example. There are a lot of $10-$15 mistakes out there. As for hitting the motherload, flea markets, yard sales, etc. seem to be where it is at. I am not saying you can't do well at shows, you can find $10-$50 mistakes in $1-$5 boxes, but probably not an obvious "key." And as Lighthouse said, "relationships"... I just so happened to be in a local shop a few years ago when the owner bought a stack of books. I ooohd and ahhhd over the low grade X-Men (around a 1.5 - 1.8) 1 in there. I have a good relationship with him and he said "I know I can put that on the wall for $400 and sell it in 2 days, $500 in 2 weeks, but I'll let you have it for $300" That's a nice way to get a fairly priced key. I brought it home, showed my wife what a great deal I got, and she insisted I sell it right away, how could I sock $300 into a comic when we have so many repairs need for the house, etc.!! Well, selling it right then for $500 (here) was probably a $1500+ mistake!

Apocalypse and doomsday were stupidly killed off in the movies. Arguably both can be revived and rebooted. Just do an age of apocalypse movie...(and don't kill off de-power all the non-mutants, which was dumb)

$5 is an overstatement. There have been a couple of low sales, but just looking at completed auctions it is more like $10+ + s/h.

15-20 years ago hos 92 was ahead of ih 181 in super high grades. Mostly due to scarcity in that kind of shape, ih obviously had more demand. Maybe with pressing it is less impossible in 9.8?

Don't disagree. I have several copies. Have no idea when I got them, but I doubt I paid more than $5 and probably less.

It gets nice $ in high grades below 9.8 too.

Not if you find resto after it comes back from cgc 2 months later.

I love the airplane gremlins cover.

But it is ok for me to not like white supremacists?

So describing underground comics of the 70s as "left wing" would get me a warning?

Timely covers are incredibly rayray. DC didn't seem to go there that hard. Captain Marvel/Fawcett was less extreme than Timely.

I got a warning because I posted in another thread that I thought that, unfortunately, there was probably a big market for white supremacist comics right now. I guess saying "unfortunately" meant I was taking a position on them?

jeez louise, I NEVER see any of this stuff for sale, even at jacked up prices...closest was a mid-40s batman missing a wrap I got for $5 at a flea market, but that was in Louisiana!

Nice shape for unbagged flea market finds