SteppinRazor

I was thinking you could publish zines. I'm sure most of the self publishing is done that way by necessity, not choice. So if you found a few zine creators who wanted to sign up, you could build a stable.

Underground stuff is mostly self published as a zine, I think

Yeah, I would expect no better than 50% for a dealer to buy a book and still make money on it. if they pay 75% of FMV, it'll be very hard to realize a 25% margin unless he/she already has a request for it from some buyer.

My inks suck, but here's a Silver Surfer sketch

1- people do take advantage of ignorance. We have a thread on here about an app that got some negative responses for educating noobs. That leads to others expecting getting lowballed. 2- the internet provides a lot of very accesible information, but people don't realize/want to discern the pertinent and full information about what it is exactly. 3- with the skimming of information, it forms a skewed view of value and it's tough and disappointing for people to see expected windfalls evaporate. 4- everybody inherently values their <insert just about anything> than others' <anything>. Notice dude thought he was being ripped off, but didn't buy Wolverine #1 at $40 when by his reasoning he'd make a fortune on it.

You can sell in the marketplace. There are forums for Modern/Copper and for Bronze/Silver/Golden. There's no first timers guide per se, but there is a guidelines post for requirements https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/78739-usage-guidelines-read-before-posting/ .I learned by copying. Here's an old thread of mine for reference: https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/topic/416591-closed-uncanny-x-men-266-raw-copy-sold/ Start yourself a kudos thread as well so people can vouch for you after a successful sale.

This is why I'd much prefer to sell on the boards, but alas, what I've got has little appeal here. I don't have much out of your range either, as most of my pricier stuff got stolen, but I don't have any desire to buy anything on ebay and I'm just starting to set up my account on ebay. Sucks that both buyers and sellers have to beware, and they only way to get started is if someone 'takes a chance' buying or selling from/to you

Definitely worth grading. On the CGC home page, go to Submit Comics > Services & Fees for prices. Guessing you'd go with Standard. You can submit by becoming a member, or by going to a con at which CGC is going to be, or through an authorized comic store.

OTOH, every seller sold their first item with 0 feedback.

Sorry to hear about your loss. Seeing people here dealing with Harvey, I can relate a little to the immense stress this catastrophe is causing you and your family. Best of luck finding a long term living situation, and take care of your mental health. Here Airbnb made many places available for flood victims, are they possibly doing the same there?

Despite the fact that grading is a numerical scale designed to quantify condition, there is subjectivity to grading that renders the concept of test cases moot. Personally third party grading has become evident to me as a delusional market stabilization metric. Costs of submitting can change based on how you submit (tiers, prescreening, etc.), so it's difficult to have a set number to hit. Coppers and Moderns tend to need 9.8s, which tend to be sufficiently questionable as to behoove one using the presecreen feature. Regarding the press, I'll share with you my own experience with my UXM #266. Posted in the PGM forum, consensus for mine was 9.2, with a press generally thought to bring at least a 9.4. There was a roughly $50 difference maybe between raw and a 9.4 graded copy, ebay sold listings as reference. So mailing it to joeypost (call it $10), paying for the press (say $25), paying for it to be shipped back ($10), then shipping it to CGC ($10+insurance), paying for it to be graded ($27), and then shipped back to me ($10+insurance). No thanks. Sold it raw. If you pay for a press and don't get a 9.8, I think it should be at least $100 book at 9.6. Otherwise you're gonna eat it. That said, if you can hit a 9.8 without a press, it doesn't need to be a $100 book at 9.8 to make money, as you are saving yourself roughly $45. I sent two pre screen boxes, 25 books each in order to get a handle on overall quality of what I have. I sent my most perfect, some I thought could be 9.8s, and a few I figured were definitely not 9.8, and ought to get kicked back. The result of sending in 50 books is I have no idea. I pre screened at 9.6. I got back books as rejects that had never been opened, let alone read. Bought, bagged, put away, razor corners, no tics, nothing. I sent one book that I removed, wearing gloves, from the polybag before sending, checking it for the bag-spine dent that is common. I sent multiples of the same books, in the same condition, that lived one right next to the other since I bought them, that came back with different grades. I got back 9.6s that are in better condition than books I got back at 9.8. I can find flaws in 9.8s and can't find flaws in 9.6s. My guess is they record the index # to avoid it, but I would bet otherwise, sending back the rejects would get me a few more slabbed books, without doing anything to improve the grade, simply by catching a different grader or a grader in a better mood. If you're going to grade a lot of books, definitely pre-screen, and assume a roughly 70% success rate if you think you're pretty good at grading.

Therein lies the problem. This demographic isn't growing. Quality will drive sales, but it is the least important to the suits (Disney). The business model doesn't create an environment where quality workers want to produce there. Those that were smart enough to try and slow down the phase out of the old for new (a concept I think is wise), if they existed, weren't listened to. Seems like those above directed a change for new characters to draw in new readers, and weren't interested in waiting for a logical transition.

good stuff

Too much of this going on

I had to get on instagram and now facebook for my business as an artist/maker. It's pretty hard for me because I'm generation x, the last generation that was more like, 'wtf do you want to know about me, creep?'. That and I hate all the Big Brother data aggregation and spying. I feel like a stalker every time I like a photo or post of someone.

Very nice, especially your inks

Direct editions, bought off an LCS shelf.

Taking these to ebay in a little while. Raw lots coming up next.

Don't link this thread when you offer it up in the marketplace IMO Kind of an interesting time lapse of disappointment though.

I think kickstarter is definitely great as an avenue to skip over that Avatar press type situation. I'm on board with the model, using people to accomplish goals and skipping the corporate part. Like Uber. The artist should absolutely have the skills, which is up to the (self)publisher. They have to determine what they like. I know for me, collecting in the 90s, and with all humility, some of the artwork getting printed (esp. by DC) actually made me angry that it was so hard to break into the business but didn't seem to matter how good you were once you got there. I think it's important for anyone trying to get a book published to, 1)do it themselves through kickstarter or self funding, at least the first one, and 2)not expect a contract employee to defer payment so you can make your dream happen, not theirs. If you want them to defer payment, then they need a portion of ownership IMO.

When even Top Cow and other established creators need to go to kickstarter to fund a project, it seems like there's just not much by way of options to get a comic made. And if the person trying to make a comic book wants to keep the art and the rights, it's awfully tough to expect another to front all their time and cost now to pay their bills months later. One either has to run the kickstarter first, or instead of asking someone else to pony up, pony up oneself to pay for the ownership of the project by hiring the artist.

Yeah, the base is a rotor from my car, and bike chain.

Those are great oakman! For a big change up, here's a recent sculpture

Nice work B2D327. Keep the spidey thing going for one more - this one was for a friend's 10 year old niece

You'd need a contract if you are hiring someone for your book, so you can spell all that out. I'm no expert, I've never been hired to draw a comic, but I think typically the art and repro rights would belong to you I wouldn't pay someone to draw a sample sequential page(s) of your comic, I would look at existing portfolios, and narrow down from there. Then if you want them to do character designs, pay them a fee for that and state that you own the rights to the drawings.