The Less Blob

So, despite the Invincible cartoon creating a lot of buzz (a lot of my geriatric high school friends on facebook are loving it...doctors, lawyers, etc.), I'm not seeing that pass to your run filler back issues like for Walking Dead. I guess Walking Dead was a cultural phenom, Invincible is popular, but like The Boys, we're not seeing filler issues of the Boys doing anything either and the same group of affluent friends was watching that too. (Oh, and every african american woman I know (and i know a lot via facebook) was watching Watchmen.... did they ever try to push that version as a graphic novel or something?). So, we're talking cover price or less. I see some ebay sellers hoping for the best an listing these filler issues for $15 right next to $3 listings for the same books.

Stiltman is a terrifying villian. One of the best. You don't know what you're talking about. Right up there with Leap-Frog. https://www.cbr.com/daredevil-marvel-comics-pathetic-villains-ranked/ (I am actually going to disagree with Gladiator. On the Netflix show they actually made him into a pretty rough character. DD would beat him, but it wasn't easy. And they gave him a sympathetic side.)

Guys, let's be nice to enthusiastic youngsters. Remember Silvers? He's all grown up now.

I see them giving me a negative and zero stars even if I refund them. if I cancel the transaction and refund are they able to? i think they still can,

I think those days must have been on the weekends as a kid in school isn't going to have enough time after school to make that kind of loot. And yeah, those are totally feasible numbers on the weekends if you have a bunch of steady clients. It dries up during the winter though when there isn't the need for a lot of lawn maintenance. My cousin was doing the same mowing lawns for rich people out in NJ and that was 25 years ago. $300 a day, easy. He wanted me to come out and help him, but i didn't have a car so it was not feasible.

We are a 15 minute walk from Brooklyn College. That's probably where my lazy kids will go. Text books are a huge scam, mostly because they update them so much it makes the used market impossible. They could sell online versions, rent access, etc. for a fraction of the cost. I teach a class at a law school for an LLM program that doubles as a masters degree for non-lawyers. I get a free softcover version of the textbook, which got updated 2 years ago (it is a rapidly changing area of the law and even what i have is now outdated a little). The hardcover is $250! The e-book is $187. Still brutal. But at least my textbook is used in like 6 other classes in the program, so it isn't just for my class, but i know a lot of students are trying to get by without spending the money as they're probaby stretched on the tuition ($1400 a credit).

that's the problem. I asked them whether they want a refund on their shipping costs and they never responded to that. They just said I was "unacceptable" and shouldn't be selling on ebay and what an awesome seller they are. i guess they just want me to kill myself or something.

Becky is another one. Ken and Chad seem to be some of the male names thrown around, but they don't seem to have as much stigma. (Sexism) They just yell "boomer" at guys over 40 (I am not a boomer, but my generation gets lost in all the news articles). My wife (not named Karen) understands she sometimes turns Karen when needed. Her response is "but i get shyt done".. It is true, she frigging breaks the customer service folks, she has amazing powers. If she was a comic collector she would probably get a partial refund on 90% of her purchases. I can't even follow up to get the promised $5 partial refund on a book sold to me with a chunk out of a page when the seller volunteered to give me $, I didn't ask for it.

I know, it is mean, particularly because they haven't come up with a good male version of the name, so it is also sexist. I didn't actually send the message. Telling someone what they sound like doesn't help resolve the situation ... something I have learned from 17 years of marriage. The payer is a 56 year old woman, but I have no idea who I am actually communicating with, It could be her angry son. Anyway, I'm almost 50, so when kids see me they probably think I'm a male Karen or a Ken or a Terry, whatever word they're using, particularly as I am a master of checking prices at the supermarket and every trip I find 3 or 4 errors at the register! (But I am cool about it.) But this sort of screaming about minutia ... and in this case a delay in the package getting shipped, but not actually received ... does seem to be the provence of the 45 and older crowd. Younger people, despite being used to Amazon Prime next day delivery and other instant gratification, seem to be more chill about this stuff. Perhaps because they're constantly oversleeping and are late for work and never hand in their assignments in school on time and are constantly asking for extensions?

I guess your folks make too much to get you free tuition at CUNY? It's a great program in New York, but with New York Cost of Living and salaries the $120K income limit is not a lot of money. It's fine upstate where wages are lower and a house costs $100K. Anyway, John Jay is about $8K a year for in staters as are all the SUNY and CUNY schools, where I expect my kids to go, assuming they don't go to trade school/apprentice. $8K we can figure out. I am not signing up for the debt madness of $60K a year private school tuition. How do you work toward your law degree as an undergrad? Is this a joint program with CUNY law?

My lazy arse 15 year old can't get out of bed when it snows a foot to ring doorbells and shovel snow. Life is too easy for him. He has applied for one job this summer, at a beach club where he can hang out with friends. There are more openings at a beach club a mile away, but he doesn't know people there, and he says he won't take a job if offered (they're owned by the same company and all the hiring is from one place). WTF? He needs a girlfriend to hang out with live and drain his money and then he'll need a job, all this virtual hanging out and chatting doesn't cost him anything!

most 22 year olds are still spending 5 hours a day screaming at Call of Duty, so you're ahead of the game. At 22 I was in law school and building a decent collection... mainly because my student loans gave me about $2000 a year extra for "personal expenses"... probably not the wisest way to spend the money, but I didn't do much partying or bar hopping in law school and lived at home, so I was saving a lot of money.

I am beginning to wonder where a 22 year old got all this investment money. Were you a herbalife salesperson in high school?

they may benefit from spaceX, but it is a pretty indirect way of investing in the company. and if spacex decides to use a different supplier? and the materials supplier is never going to have the crazy P/E valuations a tech company would have if public. if spaceX is considered a tech company. who knows?

My favorite LCS closed in early 2018, but it was not due to the business not being strong. He was able to employ two guys full time, in addition to the owner being there 3-4 days a week, and another part time guy, and this was with NYC minimum wage of, then, $14 I think, maybe $15. I forget the details, but I think the landlord tried to jack up his rent $3,000 or something like that, so the business was no longer feasible, as the rent was already $5000. That $3000 (which was probably the cash he put in his pocket and did not pay taxes on) a month was what likely it made it viable for him to come in 3-4 days a week to run the place (he had other stuff going on). The store, to this date, has sat empty since they left, no tenant was interested in paying $8K for 300 square feet of store or whatever it was.

The comic companies seem to be claiming they are selling more new issues than in years. Back issue collecting is wayyyy up. This is an odd time to be asking if comics are dead or dying. Maybe next year if the new blood is bored with comics. I was in a shop the other day and a guy came in asking for Brsrker 1. The shop was actually sold out. I guess they did not go the 1000 copies route to get variants, although they have 2 locations, so they might have been able to.

is it just going to be him selling his stuff? I am loathe to go into manhattan for a show and get turned away at the door because they are at 1/3 capacity or whatever the city allows? Are dealers going to schlep into the city for this? I went to a free one he did like 10 years ago. I used to go to his shows all the time.

you're 22. that is quite a collection. did you bank $10K of bar mitzvah money 9 years ago and invest it in comics?

"Sadly I noticed marvel keys after the movie comes out drops like flies.." Villians who are not returning. Not the heroes who are coming back again and again. For the most part, selling the heroes after the initial spike in any of these movies was a bad move. Heck, 1st app of Winter Soldier is now 2-3X what it was when the actual Winter soldier movie came out. I sold my TOS 39, 40, and 41, as well as 4 copies of Iron Man 1, when the movie came out. I sold my FF 5 and like 10 copies of FF 48-50 and Surfer 1 when those movies came out. ST 110 when they announced his movie. FF 52. All terrible decisions.

not a 9.8 with that big spine tick. could it even be a 9.6?

Arguably 211 is Bronze, so if he is just worried about his copper run...

Those are some sweet books. The Wonder comics is a bit of a niche book, but that is a killer Timely cover and what can be better than Superman sticking it to some Nazis? Don't worry about what he says, do what you like. $1900 wouldn't get you much in the way of books he thinks are worthwhile anyway. Do I think these are great investments? I have no idea. There is stuff that was $1900 3 months ago that is $3000 now. Are these older books likely to get sucked into some hype cycle? Maybe not. Have they appreciated in the last 10 years like Marvel keys? No. But that Marvel mystery is a really classic cover and is in nice shape. It could become a GA "it" book if it is not already. I think it has a better chance of being a $3800 book than either of those two marvel keys doubling any time soon. Would I have that Marvel mystery over an ASM 300 in 9.6, which is roughly the same price? You betchah. I've owned 3 ASM 300s and have seen guys with 30 of them at their booth.

So nice you said it thrice!

I might have given you a $500 early easter present last week. That's fine, you're good people. Of course, it might be down $500 by the time it comes back from cgc.

I usually do too but I was looking for quick low hanging fruit to pay bills. The last 2 or 3 years I have finally been in a decent spot financially. I also didn't believe these books could have this sort of upside. I was wrong. I also tended to sell books I had made a nice profit on. The boxes of mid grade run filler DC and second tier marvels I had paid 25-40% of guide for thinking I had gotten a deal had not really appreciated. I am shocked that the second appearance of stiltman has not exploded. So I sold the winners and kept the mediocre performers and assumed movie hype would just create temporary blimps rather than new permanent base levels. I had it all backwards. My saving grace was I bought a ton of 70s-2000s books for nothing as well.