CKinTO

What did your original window bag look like? Like I mentioned above, a big part of trying to maximize the chances of getting it done as requested in your window bag (and not taken out of the bag) is to make sure the window is more than big enough with lots of "wiggle room" for the creator to do their thing.

Nice book (especially since it's newsstand!) For what it's worth, I do think your original window was a bit too small, even for Jock's signature which is fairly compact. I find you need to give quite a bit of a "wiggle room" in the taped window, as creators are worried when signing quickly that they'll get certain pen strokes on the tape and miss the comic. Even if you have a specific spot you want, I think it's better to make the window bigger, but then write on the tape (like you did) where you want it. Eg. "Pls sign in the white space to the right of his chin please!" So I could see Jock taking the book out of the bag because of this. Then once out of the bag, it's a bit more uncertain he'll sign where you wanted it. I feel you that it can be disappointing when you go to the trouble to try and be prescriptive on sig placement and it doesn't come back that way, so just offering up thoughts on how to "maximize potential" for it to be signed the way you ask!

"This is the way"

Same, I picked up an A cover to read, and the 1:25 for $15 because I liked that cover the best, and it was still "reasonably priced". I agree with you all, I thought it was not bad / pretty good, but nothing amazing. I may keep it up in single issues for a few more, but unless it pulls me in quickly, I also will likely move to trade-waiting (despite knowing that if enough ppl feel that way re: single-issues and trade-wait, can lead to books getting cancelled down the road, especially for Indies).

I've enjoyed this series, also having caught up recently by buying the last 3 trades. I got a #1 Jae Lee raw a long time ago near the beginning, but never cared enough to battle the masses on the singles given the spec hype on the series. Now that I've caught up on the series, I will definitely agree it's quite good. Like the best spec, it started because it's a good and entertaining story. At this point I follow very few series in single-issue, but will continue to follow this one on trade!

Here's my contribution - don't have a ton of silver age books, but Havok was one of my favorite characters growing up as a kid, and this was a pretty affordable NM- WP copy I picked up a few years back.

@Kevin Boyd Is there no longer an iPhone app this year for FXC? Can't find it on the app store, and when I open last year's version, it's still the old info from last year (date's say Labor Day Weekend). EDIT: Nevermind, looked on the website and saw that it's the Fan Guru app now...

Some nice pieces of advice here. I split time between Toronto and NY (Manhattan), definitely some good recs here. A couple additional thoughts: - Comic shops: if just for the magnitude, check out Midtown Comics. It's one of the largest in the US, and NY has a few locations. If you do end up staying close to Grand Central, there's one very close by (their "Grand Central" location). Not a huge back-issue selection, but their Wed new comics wall is the largest I've seen before - Food. So much to try here, really ranging on your budget. Given you'll have an 11yr old in tow, a couple cheap eats that I'd recommend that's easy / quick, but that locals love: 1) The Halal Guys (basically shwarma food cart - their "chicken & rice" platter is well known and ppl still line up around the block during after-hours late night). They're at 53rd and 6th (near the huge Hilton hotel). If you are going to check this out, do a quick google search for "The Halal Guys", as they're so popular, there are lots of imitators nearby (and even at off-hours, take up the same corners. 2) Pio Pio (this is Portuguese chicken, basically rotisserie style chicken, with an addictive "green sauce"). 3) Sushi - if you like real "omakase" style sushi (you sit at the sushi bar, and you just get nigiri-sushi (piece of fish on small amount of rice pieces)), NY some of the best you can get in North America. Can get up there in price, and don't know what the sushi scene is like in the UK, but something to try if you're interested. If this is of interest, let me know and I can follow-up with some recs;

I know you and Linsner go way back. Any change to his stance on no longer allowing witnessed CGC? IIRC, he’s not against witnessed sigs (will do Voldy), but is still peeved about CGC grading some of the counterfeit Cry for Dawn 1’s?

Love this thread! As an 80s/90s child, I've geared my SS book collecting primarily to books I remember growing up with (Linsner's Dawn, Jim Lee's X-Men v2, McFarlane's Spider-Man), or modern ones as I've gotten back into reading comics in a big way the past few years. None are worth more than a couple hundred, and are pretty much all for the PC! Linsner's Dawn #1 - this is the one of the first "variants" I really remember wanting, the "White Trash" edition of the "new" Dawn #1 Another iconic book from my childhood was X-Men #25, when Magneto pulled the adamantium out of Wolverine. I was 9 when this book came out, and I remember my draw dropping when I read this for the first time. Was able to get this SS done on my copy from childhood by Kubert / Nicieza last year, and was thrilled it came out a 9.6! Go 9-yr old CK! McFarlane's Spider-Man #1, boy this was a big deal right during my peak childhood collecting days! My only McFarlane SS! One of my favorite on-going Image series today (enjoyed anime growing up), is Monstress (both Liu and Takeda won Eisners in 2018 for this book, Liu being first female ever to win Best Writer in an On-going). Got my #1 double-signed, as well as the first 2 trades. I thought Marjorie's messages were really sweet on the trades as well, they were both super nice Big Tom King fan, and I remember when this book came out, I had read very little of Swamp Thing. I bought this 1st print to get signed, and then bought a 2nd print as a reader. Really enjoyed this story, and my 2nd print is now left out on my coffee table. A few people have read it while over (perfect short-story), and when they finish, and I see the look on their faces, I usually pipe in with a, "this is why I still read comics!" Has led to some good conversations.

Yes, didn’t see this before my reply, but this is what I was thinking as well.

So I’m going to take a slightly different view as others. I think you were being reasonable, but I also see where he was coming from. He wants to buy more books to save on shipping. Given the books are cheap ($30 each), the shipping (i would assume for 3 slabs, it’s like $20-25), the shipping here is a big % of overall cost here. From my read, the breakdown came when: - He didn’t understand that the next sale would be the same books as what just sold, and that’s why you said for pics, he could look at the sold auctions. He also mistakenly took the auto-message from Ebay to be “from you”, and thus thought you were basically telling him to screw off - BTW, are all of the new books coming up in next auction slabs? Or raw? I suspect raw (given you don’t list grades when listing out the books), so getting pics of the actual duplicate books in next sale would be a legit request, to see grade - If you don’t want to do that, totally your call. Reasonable position to take - He offered to pay for the books now (exc shipping), and so if there was going to be back and forth on books, the only thing I suppose you could have done would be offered to revise the invoice to exclude shipping, so he could pay now and then wait for the next auction (or at least continue the discussion on what books would be in next auction). You don’t have to do this of course, and this would be going above and beyond, but that’s probably the only thing you could’ve done differently should you have wanted. I don’t think this was a case of him trolling you, but more some misunderstandings, some overreactions, and some immaturity / anger from him when he (mistakenly) thought you initiated a non-buyer ping on him

As primarily a buyer, I do usually add a note with my offers trying to explain why it's fair (usually based on past Ebay sales or GPA). My view is that I'm hoping the seller at least sees where I'm coming from, and it's not just a blind offer for offer's sake with no rhyme or reason. I can see how for some sellers, that doesn't matter, but I feel like for some, it would.

Yes as Kevin mentioned, Todd does private signings once or twice a year. I believe Celestial Comics is the store that handles it, and a bunch of facilitators are involved. At cons, he just does unwitnessed signings, I think only one item per person. I'm sure there'll be a huge line-up for his public signings - Kevin, I'm guessing that's all he'll have right (the public signings), no ticketed event for a guaranteed (unwitnessed) sig?

That's a sweet book, and I agree, I would be very happy with this green label, owning a piece of history!