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alexgross.com

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Everything posted by alexgross.com

  1. with two days to go, the same book is already at 26k on heritage. so the lesson is sell your books there, i guess. also, the only sale on gpa of this book in grade in 2020 was for 13k, which was a record high. so if we're assuming 2021 was an outlier due to pandemic, this book is still doing quite well, as are most keys.
  2. https://reason.com/2023/06/16/the-flash-makes-the-case-against-the-multiverse/ interesting review in reason magazine. i don't fully agree with him, but it's worth reading. he's not a fan of multiverse stories in general. a quote from the piece: "Like No Way Home, The Flash is more of a self-regarding nostalgia trip than an actual movie, the cinematic equivalent of flipping through an old yearbook and murmuring, Hey, remember when…? But No Way Home, as cynical as it was, also offered some actual value along with its winks and nods and nostalgic remembrances, setting up a warm send-off for more than two decades of Spider-Men, all of whom brought something memorable to the character."
  3. saw it yesterday with my 8 year old. first of all, the way to enjoy superhero movies that you otherwise might not is to go with your kid. it's always way more fun because i know he is enjoying it. but to your point about the NOSTALGIA factor, i'd say that is the core appeal of this film, or was intended to be. it very much reminded me of spiderman no way home, except not nearly as well done. perhaps this storyline in comics precedes that film, but it doesnt matter. feels like once again DCU is playing catch-up to the MCU. yes, seeing keaton again as batman was super cool. some of the other CGI or AI created other appearances nearer to the end of the film are fun but also very forgettable. i think without the nostalgia factor this film would have been pretty mediocre. with the addition of keaton, i'd say it was good but very far from great. ezra miller is charismatic but also borderline annoying to watch. especially when he overacts as a teenager. when this comes on hbo max, i will have no need to rewatch it. whereas when spiderman no way home came onto disney plus, we couldn't wait to rewatch it again. so, in comparing nostalgia trips, i'd say that one wins hands down. and i don't personally agree with @jsilverjanet that this is as good as GOTG3. not by a long shot. GOTG3 had better writing and acting, and far better visual effects.
  4. they've shown the preview for this at both GOTG3 and spiderverse, and it could not look more formulaic and lame. i predict dismal numbers when released.
  5. several boardies here last year were predicting prices would return to 2020 pricing once the pandemic bubble burst. i was skeptical that they would fall that much, but this book is at least one example of that being accurate. this is right where pricing was in 2020 for this grade according to gpa. basically double what it was worth in 2018, but far, far from the highs achieved in the crazy times of 2021 and early 2022.
  6. i thought exactly the same thing in this scene! a gorgeous mix of watercolor effects, dripping paint, evolving color palette, style of characters, and all in service of the emotions in the scene. how they were able to integrate different styles of animation throughout the film so well was truly amazing to see. the first film has already been oft imitated stylistically by other animated films like 'puss in boots 2' and 'mario bros movie' and i expect this one to be even more influential visually.
  7. i have set up at a few shows and bought at many. credit card acceptance is certainly a must. stripe and square both have easy systems and i know square can send you a chip reader. probably stripe does as well.
  8. lol! i put that guy on ignore years ago and my experience here is so much better. saw the movie today with my son and we loved it. no audio problems. perhaps the most creative animation ever in the modern era. a bit overlong, but really a great ride. we cannot wait for the conclusion. i expect it to break records.
  9. can't see the top half well but wow is that a gorgeous copy, and looks far better condition than the assigned grade. well done sir!
  10. i agree with you! i found him very compelling in general. more than Jonathan Majors who played Kang in the Loki series (and later in quantumania). I don't envy Marvel in trying to come up with the next great villain post-Thanos.
  11. 9.9 and 10.0 prices are even sillier than 9.8 ones! and i agree that it's ludicrous that a teeny tiny often indistinguishable difference should be worth 5x more. but i dont think it will ever change. too many people will want the status of 'best grade' for their books.
  12. strongly agree. best marvel film since endgame for me, not counting 'no way home' since its not exactly marvel. my 8 year old also loved the movie. great writing, acting, visuals, etc. rockets backstory was really moving and well done. but ultimately it was the writing that made this special. and the chemistry this group of actors has had together for almost a decade too. also saw a preview for 'the marvels' movie and i predict that will be a godawful flop and incredibly unfunny to boot.
  13. love to hear how we can reduce the BUYERS PREMIUM at heritage. many of us have negotiated better sellers rates for better books, but i never heard of anyone negotiating down the BP. do i have to spend 50k per month or something?
  14. one problem with higher interest rates is that if i sell the home i bought in 2020 when rates were super low, the next mortgage i get will cost me massively more per month for the same price house. so i am disincentivized to sell, and prospective buyers are disincentivized to buy. that's a major reason why housing markets across the country are way down, especially on the west coast. i also have a HELOC whose payment has tripled since 2020. ultimately this also means i, and perhaps others, are way less apt to spend discretionary income. i used to buy a book per month in one or another auction, but those days are over for me now.
  15. this one ends on heritage soon. i think it's a poor example of a 5.5 book with all the chipping on it. and unless your name also happens to be sam peterson, it is less appealing with the writing so boldly on the cover.
  16. if i was not broke right now i would be asking for better pics. might not hurt to add some here. good luck with this-- amazing book!
  17. hate to interrupt the bickering, but yes, it's totally lame that they do not provide back cover scans. for the last year or two they have at least started adding rear scans of key books. but it does not seem that hard to do it for all books. i still prefer their site in every other way to comicconnect, for one thing, their scans are much more consistent in terms of quality. their site is much faster and easier to navigate. and if i have books i am considering, i do request back scans from them. it's an annoying extra step, but not super hard. for me CL and HA have been the ones that almost always get my money. at least, back when i was still buying...
  18. amen to the idea of researching actual sales results including the images. also, GPA has broken out faded books into their own category, at least some of the time, so as not to totally contaminate auction averages. sometimes they need to be notified that a sale was a faded copy. but i've been impressed with their doing this in a timely way.
  19. thats simply glare from the light. note the big bright spot on the mylar just left of it. incredible books!
  20. i take your point on the silliness of the planet comics not getting the grade it seems to deserve. still, grading comics on some basic level makes sense because some people want to collect an old comic that appears to be perfect in every way. the collectible item itself is being evaluated for condition. rusty staples are an issue because they can affect the book, soiling its pages with brown rust stains. it is usually the corners of a 9.9 comic that differentiate it from a 9.6 or 9.4 grade. with a graded video game, we seem to have established the fact that, with modern games, it is a little plastic box (with rounded corners in the case of switch games) that is being evaluated. not the label artwork (hidden under the plastic sleeve) nor the game cartridge itself. i get that with games, the item itself is the total package. and with a 20 year old game, i get the impulse to collect the highest grade possible. but with a modern game like the one i referenced, cgc and their competition titrating the distribution of a couple of 10s just seems a blatant ploy to milk the market. of course this is also done with modern comics too.
  21. it's a real shame that any attempt at establishing legit competition for CGC in the realm of comic grading has thus far mostly failed. i read these threads every year as CGC continues to raise prices on everything and i see the vast number of unhappy customers. and yet, we have nowhere else to go. it's nice to have a monopoly if you're the company. i don't play the grading game myself but i understand that for many sellers/dealers this is a major part of how to generate income. i would be absolutely infuriated at the continued gouging and slow turnaround times that has been taking place ever since the new overlords took over.