alexgross.com

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. 

okay i am not a video game collector, i am a comic collector. but my son who is 8 is obsessed with them. and as a former atari 2600 and intellivision owner back in the 70s and 80s, i totally appreciate the collectibility and nostalgia angle in collecting graded older games, just like comics. 

but when we saw this in the current heritage auction catalogue, i was a bit gobsmacked. it's graded by another company, but it received a 10, which heritage describes as a "very rare" grade for a game from this era (5 years ago). 

please tell me why i am not a smart person for thinking this is ridiculous, since the game is in a plastic case. are we not grading the game based on a 5 cent plastic case? the paper artwork inside the case on my son's identical game is just as perfect as this one. it's the case itself that gets dings or scratches on it once opened, or apparently even unopened. 

this game is already at 1k. ?!? clearly the grading companies are betting that there are collectors who love the idea of collecting absolutely perfect 10 graded games, much like with comics. but at least with comics, we are talking about the book itself, not a cheap little plastic case. seems like a purely manufactured market for something otherwise completely not collectible in any special way. 

On 4/16/2023 at 5:06 AM, MR. Pontoon said:

I think many of the dealers present didn't get the memo that post-pandemic prices have been dropping.

maybe 8-9 months ago there was a book i wanted on a dealers website. it was overpriced and i offered an over-market price but lower than ask. dealer politely told me he was into it for more than that and so passed. fast forward to 2 months ago, i check the site, and the book is now 32% cheaper than before. so i bought it. 

it must be very tough to be a dealer in times like these. when markets are up, (2021) if you price right, you can make a killing. but most folks need cash flow too, so unless they can live now on what they made a year and a half ago, they must lower prices sometimes past what they paid for books. i'm not a dealer but i have had to do that too this year on several books to raise cash to fund a purchase. some dealers slowly come down to reality, some faster than others. with all of the online selling competition these days, that process seems like it ought to be quicker. but re-pricing hundreds or thousands of books is a time consuming process. it's understandable if the sticker price is out of date. hopefully the good guys are open to market realities and willing to talk pricing at shows. 

On 4/12/2023 at 1:30 PM, sfcityduck said:

Is there a shortage of AF 15s?  I'd wait for better page quality.

i do also prefer better page quality than C/OW fyi

On 4/12/2023 at 12:24 PM, Badlands said:

I "might" have an opportunity to pick up a copy, cream to off white pages for $33,000. This would be an in person pick up.

Long term investment says yes, but just in case I need to free up funds in the near future, worth it?

if it presents well that sounds like a good price to me considering a 3.5 sold for 36k in january. if its faded or ugly then pass. on the other hand, if there is more bad economic news and we enter a real recession, or if china invades taiwan and it causes a worldwide recession, then prices may fall further.

but i would only buy now if you are willing to hold for 2-4 years. things could be slow for quite awhile. no one knows the future but several smart economists seem to think that it will be years before things might look rosy again. 

On 4/11/2023 at 5:11 PM, CGC Mike said:

I am told The Avatar sizing issue has been resolved on Mobile.  Invision has requested some clarification regarding the message notifications.  @KCOComics  And  @alexgross.com   Are you able to access your inbox and filter by unread messages, considering that some of these messages are dated over a month ago? If not, are you encountering any error messages or issues?”

 

yes it thinks that all my read messages are new, unread messages. they all seem to be there, where i left them. but i have already read them over the years. 

avatars at least appear normal now on ipad. thanks mike-

On 4/9/2023 at 5:44 PM, CGC Mike said:

I'll report this problem, along with the others in this thread.

On 4/8/2023 at 1:44 PM, KCOComics said:

Yeah, it says 17 unread emails on my Android. Including one about an X-Men 1 in 5.0... every time I sign in to the forums, I get giddy with excitement.... Only to have my excitement dashed away when I realize it's a glitch. 

every time i log in it says i have 73 unread messages. and yes all the icons are smushed on ipad. @CGC Mike

On 4/8/2023 at 7:34 PM, Sweet Lou 14 said:

I don't know, but I once owned an ASM #14 with this marking (top center, in the webbing).

all three B's are written differently, especially the one on this lovely asm14. i doubt that it is related to either of those other books as far as an original collection goes. granted, i'm no handwriting expert. 

On 4/7/2023 at 7:13 PM, awakeintheashes said:

Saw it this evening. It was good and entertaining. It didn’t try to be more than it should be. It found a groove and stuck with it. I’m sure I’ll be watching it again.

Most importantly my son LOVED it. It was worth it just to hear him pointing out the characters and the power ups throughout the movie. Transported me back to when I was his age watching the cartoons. 

yes its all about the kids. my 8 yr old and his 2 friends all enjoyed it as well. i found it derivative and boring, and basically a 90 min commercial for all the mario games. but its not for me or my generation. 

just did a huge deal with robert and could not be happier. book was packed in 5 boxes! bulletproof. robert doesn't have many kudos here but seems to have done plenty of deals. definitely a great seller! 

my first slab was a cgc 6.5 asm14 from comiclink. it had a very rusty staple that was not disclosed in the auction and i was too rookie to read the notes. i always disliked the book because of the rust. years later i upgraded and sold it for about what i had paid. immediately after, the book doubled in price, probably thanks to me.

On 4/3/2023 at 6:17 PM, blazingbob said:

I'm sorry that I am not a "Big dealer" to you.  I was at C2E2

how wazzit?

@jbud73 great report, thanks for that! as you mentioned hearing, terry's show was almost 2 months prior to wonder con and it absolutely obviates the need for this show. so many good dealers were at that show. i spent 1k to come in for that one and it was basically worth it. thats the show to plan a trip around, on the west coast.

as you also mentioned, so many dealers at cons now, including some of my favorite guys, still have 2021 pricing. of course sales will be slow if you're pretending that prices are still at all time highs. i saw it at terrys show and i've seen it at many others over the years. during down markets, those dealers who are willing to adjust pricing dynamically with the market are the ones that will do some business, even when things are slow. 

On 3/23/2023 at 3:54 PM, Robot Man said:

Thanks! I swear that wasn’t there when I looked there. Somebody must have just noticed. 

have a nice time and please post some pics of the show. always enjoyed attending this one in years past. but as the cal comic con just happened 2 months ago, its too soon for some of us to travel back there. 

i'm also curious if the more tenuous economic outlook now compared to two months ago will negatively affect buying considering that most dealers will probably still have older prices on their books. 

On 3/16/2023 at 8:39 AM, DC# said:

The Heritage 5.0 is at $48k already (closes on Monday).    If it closes there it would basically be flat to prior 4 sales going back to Oct 2022:   Oct $47.2, Oct $50.4k, Dec $48k, Dec $50.3k.   I am calling that pretty stable given where we have been.    Even going back to August prices were $55k and $57k.    

 

i would not be surprised if af15 values start to move upwards again as we enter a true recession any time now. if it's an enormous crash we experience, then perhaps not. but i can't see it declining any more than it has since it's 2021 peaks. it's just too desirable. and there are plenty of well funded collectors who know to buy when everyone else is selling. especially on the better presenting copies. 

i just finished the show. wow.

when i started, i thought, 'do i really need yet another zombie show?'

but pedro pascal is so compelling, the writing is so strong, and the storylines are not predictable, with the exception of episode 7. i got more and more into it as it went along. very happy that someone made a show as good as this one. i look forward to another season.

On 3/14/2023 at 6:05 PM, Batmanis#1 said:

How long do you think before AF15 picks up again?

when the recession is over, obviously. 

On 3/12/2023 at 1:13 PM, Dark Knight said:

Not really.  White pages are fairly common for this book. Same with JIM 83, FF 5, and others.  Shouldn't be getting much of a premium at all.  Now AF 15 in white pages is rare and in my opinion should get a nice bump in value.

i agree that its not super hard to find WP on hulk1 though i would not use the word common. i disagree that WP copies are not worth much premium over any other page quality copy, all other things (presentation) being equal. many collectors only want wp copies and will pay a good deal more for them, esp on key books, regardless of difficulty in obtaining one. 

On 12/25/2022 at 6:25 AM, Bosco685 said:

 

just saw this today with my kid. after seeing just how much it copies from into the spider-verse visually, i get the coded language referenced above. 

but i dont think mixing the look of 3d animation with the jerky, comic-book type stuff that spider-verse did so well works very well here. but expect more of it from sony and maybe from other companies too. 

JOKER 2: FOLIE A DEUX is a cool name. (madness for two) my alternative suggestion for a title is JOKER 2: SAISIE D"ARGENT (CASH GRAB) 

On 3/6/2023 at 10:45 PM, LDarkseid1 said:

That CC photo makes the colors on their copy look sooo much brighter. Unless the colors are just that immaculate. I mean looks fresh off the newsstand. I’d probably pay more for it to with those colors.

its clearly an enhanced scan. the over saturated label is a dead giveaway. no book has colors like that because they are so saturated in this scan that they would not even be printable. similar to what @Gotham Kidsaid.

was wondering if anyone attended this show and would love more pics. it doesnt help i guess that this thread is in the wrong spot. i know it was supposed to be about OA but since there appears to be no thread in the comic events section, this is it.