Von Cichlid

It sure seems that he could get a lot more money if he consigned those books to a 3rd party seller with more rep. Maybe it's worth a risk but I am not sure how much a buyer is protected in the case this is a scam.

Ha! Before I got back into comic collecting seriously a little over a year ago, I had spent the last 10 years collecting metal CD's. One of my goals was to have every black metal album from the 1990's in a first pressing version. I made it pretty far but I have quit since my budget only allows me to collect one thing at a time. There are times when I consider selling my CD's to buy comics, but when I get them out and listen to them on the weekends I realize how much I still love them. Plus, some of what I got truly is rare and would be very hard to replace if sold. There really were a ton of overlooked bands in the early to mid 90's with some great albums that have some very minute print runs. Take a band as well known as Abigor, for example. Their first four albums are great, but none were available on ebay the last time I checked. If the demand were to ever go up, I could foresee the prices of those albums and others like it skyrocketing in the future due to rarity alone.

Most every Friday after I get off work I go to the LCS and spend close to a hundred on the best combination of reasonably priced and desirable back issues they have at that time. I then go to out to eat with the family, have a few drinks, and then go home and listen to some metal while looking at the books I picked up in some nice mylites. The smarter thing would definitely be to save that money and invest it in some books off ebay. However, its the thrill of picking up that nice find in the LCS that keeps me going. There is nothing like walking into the store and then leaving with some cool book you didn't even know you were going to get that morning. While I do have the discipline at times to save and wait for a great deal, If I only bought predetermined purchases and checked off my most wanted list, I would have a more valuable collection, but the joy of discovery and the random nature of my purchases would go away and that would probably cause me to fall into a bit of a jaded rut.

I guess the conclusion I can make is this: In the 60's and 70's, cover stock was lower and paper stock was higher, which is why it is not uncommon to see tanned covers with relatively white supple pages. However, by the mid 80's, cover stock improved but the interior paper quality was lowered, resulting in nice white glossy covers but tanned pages. I thought the fact I never changed the bags and boards on the non-baxter 75 cent / dollar issues might have been the main reason for the tanned interiors. I guess the covers were more resistant though.

The absolute deal breaker for me is tanned cover stock along the spine. When buying SA off ebay it is the number one thing I look for. I am hesitant to buy any book that does not have the inside front cover open among the images. As an aside, I wonder what causes the phenomena of tanned pages but really nice cover stock as opposed to the tanned cover but nice interior. From my own personal experience, I saw the former happen when I pulled my copper age books out of storage after about 20 years. They were kept in a cool dark place inside a closet, but the bags and boards were never changed. As a result, the pages on the 75 cent / dollar issues were yellowed / slightly tanned, but the covers remained excellent.

I remember having to pay around 4 to 5 dollars each for copies of 1-10 around 1989-90. That was a lot of money for a 11 year old. There was even a point when #39 was going for around 10 dollars in that same era. Now though I could easily pull anything but #1 from the dollar box in my LCS in nm condition. This title has suffered the same fate price-wise as many late copper era issues with great stories and art, but really high print runs( like Liefield NM's, McFarlane ASM's, and Jim Lee PWJ's). Back then I remember the art as being a primary reason why a certain title was hot or not. This was before the market was saturated with Image product and imitators though. When PWJ 6 and 7 and the #39 came out, a Jim Lee Wolverine story was still a special thing. With art not being nearly as important now and those high print runs, you get what we have now.

Around the mid to late nineties it seemed that creators were much more concerned with new technologies and new mediums being used as opposed to what actually looks good. You see the same thing happening in education these days. That Fantastic Four 39 cover is gorgeous. Same with ASM 51, and really too many others to list from those eras. All were done with limited color palate and printing capability. Even though, they were able to capture the imaginations of thousands and inspire. To this day many higher grade SA, BA, or even CA covers are striking in their ability to make you just want to buy whatever issue they are on.

All of that, and I'll bet that Human Torch jacket has lots of pouches.

I've never heard of Liam Sharp, but I did a search and it said that he drew the inside of the issue. This cover was attributed to Robin Riggs.

Unlike LOTR though, I would hope they would keep the CGI on the low end and make the movie decidedly not for children. Along with the great soundtrack and set design, one of the main things that made the first Conan so great IMO was how graphic it was. I would prefer something with violence and CGI level similar to the first season of Game of Thrones as opposed to 300, or even Gladiator. Although, Gladiator was a great movie and one as good as it has not been made in the almost 20 years since. I think the market is ripe for another movie like it.

This is quite representative of the nadir of the comic industry in the 90's. It was stuff like this (on your biggest selling title no less) that I attribute to getting me out of the hobby the first time. No one older than six years of age could possibly take this cover any kind of serious. I knew Marvel took a hit when their superstars left for Image, but man, it's like they went to a junior high and commissioned this from one of the students. It's just so amateur. You could tell they were really phoning it in at that point.

The main problem I have with that cover is that it took me like 15 seconds to figure out what was happening.

Dan Green did a good job on the Iron Fist 14 and 15 issues. While not as magnificent as Austin on close inspection, I always held those issues as being in the same ballpark of quality as the Uncanny run from 108-143. The MTU 53 seemed light years away by comparison. I remember snagging a copy of that as a young teen and being dissappointed as it didn't match my expectations of what it would be.

Just picked up this guy today!

I was at Fort Bragg for a few years (1998-2001) and visited a few comic shops around the state at that time. I am curious as to what city that shop was in.

I'm 38 and got back into collecting seriously around a year ago. (Luckily I was able to simply resume buying as I never sold my old collection.) I don't buy any modern books, I only get the silver, bronze, and copper I wanted as a pre-teen / teen. While I am far from doom n' gloom, I am not what you would call enthusiastic either. I am just enjoying being able to revisit old joys and acquiring old wants. Most everything I buy now is stuff that I have known has existed. Millineals, otoh, never experienced the heyday of the 80's greatness like I did. For them, the original keys are not something they are revisiting, but rather something they are experiencing for the first time in their lives. This may explain the enthusiasm they have as opposed to many older folks who still love the books but may have a sense of "been there, done that."

Fortunately, my Mox's and Lotus, time walk plus all of my duel lands were unlimited. All were pretty heavily played too, as they were purchased by me from another player who was selling out after Stronghold came out. That makes me feel a little better. But, I had really nice alpha and beta versions of Time Vault, Time Twister, Ancestral Recall, Gauntlet of Might, Forcefield, Chaos Orb, etc.

Not comics and not quite as drastic as your story but... In 2001 I had just gotten out of the Army and me and my future wife had a baby on the way. I had a whole set of MtG between Alpha, Beta, and Unlimited, plus much of the Arabian Nights and Legends expansions. I had four of each duel land, one of each of the power nine, and probably four of anything that was allowed in Type I tournaments. (When you are single and in the Army, you have a TON of disposable income.) Well, my circle of friends that I played with had long since broken up, and the cards were just sitting in folders. Since I needed the money I had a friend with an account sell the cards on ebay for around $2300. I was very happy with that amount back then I as did never use the cards anymore and many were pretty heavily played. Fast-forward to 2011 and I received a $5000 stipend from my job. I thought I would reacquire some of those cards. Looking on ebay quickly showed that that amount would not be near enough. I'm sure it is much worse now.

What works for me is to realize that I am an addict of buying new comics and that forces me to balance that addiction with making wise as possible use of my dollars. For example, I will never spend more than 30 dollars at a time on filler issues (those in the 2 to 10 dollar range). I realize that spending 15 dollars to get a few fillers will have the same satisfaction effect as spending a 100 dollars to get 30 fillers. If I ever have more than 50 bucks to spend at a single time, I always make sure to get the nicest single book I can find. Sometimes it can be hard to resist the temptation of walking out of the LCS with a 200 dollar stack of 50 decent books versus one 200 dollar nice one, but once my collection got past 6 long boxes I don't have that temptation as much anymore. I will never be in the position that I am buying purely on speculation and not love because there is simply too much out there that I love that I don't have.

Well, it is rare to have that particular comic in that kind of shape. Did it get saved from a burning apartment?

Ha... That is the precise issue where my run ends. Once they took the adamantium away from Wolverine and gave him bone(?!?) claws that started being too much for me. The final straw though was when they went all manga style shortly thereafter.

Sadly I don't have much Lightle stuff other than the Classic X-men, a Daredevil, some MCP, X Factor, and a few Conan's. I definitely should do some research to see what I can find from him. That would be a good, fun, venture that ought to not be too expensive.

My favorite is when they say "never read!"

Cool.

I should have worded my opinion better. I really do like those Mignola covers. My favorite era for him though was his Detective 583, Batgirl 1, Death in the Family era. His work was becoming ever so slightly too minimalist for my tastes about that time, but no doubt about it those covers were still fantastic. Here is some numbers to quantify things on a scale of 10: Adams covers: 10 Lightle covers: 9.8 Mignola covers: 9.5 BTW, those Lightle covers really are as classy as comic art gets. Issues 39, 40, 41 (love the yellow), and 42 are particularly brilliant. Probably some nostalgia here as those were the issues I bought when I first got into comics and they were my first exposure to those stories. Maybe since the Mignola covers are on the issues that are not as good as the classic Byrne era is some subconscious reason for me not liking those as much.