alexgross.com

my mailman forged my signature on the slip for a registered package several years ago and left it in my non-locking mailbox at the time. it was a 3k value package. i was on vacation and it was stolen. 

therefore my claim to usps was denied as they said they had my signature on the registered receipt. i was ultimately able to appeal directly to the postmaster inspector general who was able to process my claim and finally get me reimbursed, more than half a year later. i never saw that postman again either. 

since your case sounds much simpler, you should have a better time than i did. but if not, contact the postmaster inspector general. 

On 1/2/2023 at 8:43 PM, KCOComics said:

 

FF1 and X1 would be interesting books to speculate on.  X1 has come down so much it feels like a good time to buy and I could see that book getting hot again. 

That said,  in my opinion, Spidey is the safest bet. 

imho the ff1 speculation train left the station long ago. as @piper said, along with hulk1 and af15, it's already super pricey. everyone knows a movie is in the works. stick with the keys that you can get better than a 3.0 for your money. asm1, xmen1, jim83, tos39. avengers1 is a maybe. also asm2, 3 and 14 always do really well, as do all ditko key villain 1st appearance books. 

if you're holding for 5-10 yrs then get the best marvel early SA key you can get. i dont know if its jim83 in 5.0, tos39 in 5.0 or xmen1 in 5.0 but anything like that should do you well over that time frame. i'm less enthusiastic if its a book you can only get in 2.0 since those books are often hideous. but even those low grade keys do fine over time. 

On 1/1/2023 at 7:19 AM, Artboy99 said:

I personally think the scan was manipulated slightly. and the image was brightened up or lightened up using a graphics program. The "white" background does not look real to me, it is digitally enhanced I.E. it does not look like the background of the white scanner cover and is digital white fill as there should be the slightest of shadow behind the book if it is truly scanned while in a slab and not manipulated. Also the background the book is scanned against can make a significant difference in the scan result. Here is the same book scanned twice, once with just the white scanner cover background and once with a black card stock background. 

this auction house uses a light room to shoot their books, not a scanner. all their books are white background like this. it's heritage. not a secret. 

On 12/31/2022 at 7:36 AM, october said:

Probably just scanner settings. You can't trust colors/brightness over the internet. 

i tend to agree that one cannot trust scans, but in this case, i do not believe this is a result of the scan. i'm well versed in photoshop, and when scans are bad, they enhance contrast, often to hide issues. aka as blowing out the scan. these images have tons of mid range detail, which never happens in bad scans in my experience. one could do this digitally if one wished. but i don't think that's the case on this book. as joey said, it looks weird, like a bunch of whitening work was likely done to the book. also i removed the image of the top of the case as it's not cgc. when scans are bad, the labels often give clues. but this label looked perfectly fine. 

see attached pics of a nice looking hulk 1. it's graded by someone not our cgc overlords with a regular label, and currently in an ongoing auction. i've seen a lot of hulk 1s, owned two copies myself, and i've never seen either a front or rear cover this bright. it appears to me to have been lightened through some process. i know this is a thing that some people do. 

i just wish to know from those who are experts on such things here @joeypost if they think this book has been lightened, and if so, if having cgc grade it might result in a conserved or restored label. i don't plan to bid on it as it will be pricey, but it has really piqued my curiosity. 

On 12/23/2022 at 9:05 AM, DC# said:

I would be shocked if that actually sold for $78k.    It says sale pending but that does not mean that the seller didn’t accept an offer for a different amount.     That would be a new record for a 4.0 and double the sale price over the last 5 months.    If someone is willing to pay that much of a premium for white pages I need to list my FF#1 and Hulk #1 today.   
 

the sale price shown on CL is the accepted offer price, not a list price. but there have been a large number of big $ sales on the exchange the last 2 days, some for fishy prices, which does indeed make me question the legitimacy of all these 'sales results.' 

the scarcity of af15 with white pages compared to ff1 or hulk1 is a different world. very tough to find, unlike those other two. 

off the CL exchange in the last day or two. a very healthy sale of 78k for a 4.0, largely because it has white pages. yet more proof that with big books, white pages are by far the most desirable and valuable, all other things being equal in presentation. especially for af15, where it's very uncommon to see a white page copy. 

On 12/20/2022 at 7:37 PM, Silver_Couch_Surfer said:

I had to file a claim with CIS recently. Was super easy and straightforward. Got a check in the mail for the full value within 2 weeks. 

this is great news. many of us with policies have often wondered how the claims process works with them. sorry for your loss but glad to hear you were made whole, so to speak. 

On 12/20/2022 at 8:45 PM, lizards2 said:

I don't insure, because they likely will never pay on claims.

who is "they?" i've received numerous checks from dhl and fedex on my claims of damaged packages. usps was tougher but i have also been paid. 

this is all reimbursement on items that i was either paid for and have receipts for, or that i paid for, and have receipts for. 

On 12/17/2022 at 4:17 PM, Cat said:

I may be an anomaly but I haven't actually heard anyone comparing Dr Fate, as he appeared in this film, to Dr Strange yet. 

yes you have. at least two of us have already mentioned it. plus it just came out yesterday on hbo. 

On 12/17/2022 at 8:49 AM, Zonker said:

I also watched it last night on HBO Max.  After all the negativity around this one, I found it wasn't as bad as I feared.  But I certainly see why the mainstream critics thought it was so derivative of better, earlier films from Marvel.  It no doubt would have played better in the mid-2010s.  Consider all the elements that audiences by 2022 have seen on the big screen before:

- the Atom Smasher visual effect versus the Scott Lang Giant Man iteration from Captain America Civil War.
- Amanda Waller is the DCEU answer to Samuel Jackson's Nick Fury
- Atom Smasher as newbie super-hero versus Tom Holland's early Spider-Man
- the undersea Task Force X metahuman prison system seems lifted directly from Civil War
- Doctor Fate's precognition reminds one even more of Doctor Strange + the time stone from Infinity War 
- and while I don't have a problem with the casting of Hawkman, this casting does invite comparisons to Anthony Mackie's Falcon.

Buried in this screenplay is some potentially interesting business around the idea of "yeah, he may be a bad guy, but he's our bad guy."  With a better writing team, I could see that "conversation" promised between the two characters in the mid-credits scene as being one worth watching.  On the one hand, I'm sorry that's a moot point now, but on the other hand I'm not sure the Rock & company would have been able to resist the urge to turn it into just another non-stop slug-fest.

well said. i was shocked at how nearly identical the scenes of dr fate multiplying himself were to dr strange doing that years ago, i believe in his first film. i found the dynamic of the streetwise kid teaching the naive powerful hero how to say one liners straight out of terminator 2. in fact, i found this whole movie derivative, overlong, and boring as heck. if i have to watch another superhero movie where roided up guys shoot lightning bolts out of their fingers/arms/bodies, i will be done with the whole genre. it's just boring now. infinity war was the pinnacle guys. stop copying that and come up with something more interesting for g*ds sake! 

there's a massive sameness problem happening in comic book movies these days. both dc and marvel are guilty. the last thor was about equally lame, though at least not ripping off dc endlessly.

i hope someone can make something interesting again, at about 90 minutes too. i am really burned out on them. 

and hawkmans helmet looks st*pid, lets be real. 

i thought cavill was perfect as supes, but i think the more important issue is the character in general. it might be unpopular to state here, but i seriously doubt superman's ability to do well in the movie market today or going forward. in 1939, the idea of an all-powerful superman who, with his superpowers, could defeat anyone threatening america in the face of the real world aggression of nazi germany was just right for young boys to grab ahold of.

do you really think that no matter what enormously popular, cool, handsome star plays him next, he will be as popular as wolverine, deadpool, batman, spiderman, star wars, joker, harley quinn, super mario brothers, grand theft auto, every other video game that kids love now, every other twitch streamer that the kids love to follow, every youtube star? come on now. there's far too much competition OF A HIGHER INTEREST LEVEL than the very basic premise of superman. (i'm not saying twitch streamers are interesting but kids freaking love it)

all modern superheroes owe superman a debt. but it's time to retire him, at least for awhile.

pinching corners is a fairly common bummer that happens with many cgc books. this was a 9.2 but not with those corners.

On 12/11/2022 at 10:27 AM, Jasonmorris1000000 said:

I’m not sure if people here consider TTA #13 a Marvel Silver Age key, but was wondering where it ranks on the rarity scale

i don't consider it a key, but it's a super cool book. i've seen a few with white pages. i'd probably put it in the middle tier, tough to find with white pages but not rare. 

On 12/7/2022 at 3:34 PM, alexgross.com said:

perhaps this ought to be its own thread, but i have been thinking about what books are the toughest SA key marvels to find with white pages. i thought i'd make an incomplete short list here and invite others to share their opinions. i'm not doing DC because i don't collect them, and honestly, it seems that almost all of them are pretty tough to super rare with white pages. 

based on my auction watching over the years, i'd say the toughest (early) SA marvels to find with white pages are:

Toughest: AF15, Avengers1, TTA27

Medium tough: TOS39, ASM3

not so tough: Hulk1, FF1, JIM83, ASM1, 2, 4,  Xmen1, FF5, DD1, Avengers4

i did not include the later SA keys like SS1, Iron Man1, etc. most of those are easier to find with white pages although SS1 is not so easy, esp in high grade. 

if i had to pick the absolute toughest one it would be TTA27 as i've never seen one with white pages. although i consider it a secondary key, as TTA35 is a more exciting book for me. AF15 of the major keys is also super tough. 

please chime in, unless you're the type to say WP don't matter. i don't really need to hear your opinion in this particular thread.  

update- according to @DST who rarely posts here anymore, and is a white page expert, Avengers 4 should be on the medium tough or tough list. as for me personally, avengers 1 is a book i almost never see with white pages. i sold a 6.5 white page copy last year, and since then, i have not seen a single copy with white pages or i might have placed a bid on it. i think i saw one shared here on the boards but not for sale. 

On 12/9/2022 at 3:53 PM, piper said:

wow! well done piper! lovely copy! and white pages to boot! #pagequalitymatters 

On 12/8/2022 at 11:59 AM, Get Marwood & I said:

Can you be any more specific Mike? Days, weeks, months? 

years? epochs?

wow. still couldnt be slower. yesterday too. 

for now disneyplus is now working. it asks me to confirm my birthdate and gender but no matter what i put i get a spinning beach ball and error message, on all devices. a brilliant move the day before they jack the prices. i'm thinking maybe i dont need it after all. on hold with a person in another country who knows little and keeps thanking me for my quickly eroding patience. 

perhaps this ought to be its own thread, but i have been thinking about what books are the toughest SA key marvels to find with white pages. i thought i'd make an incomplete short list here and invite others to share their opinions. i'm not doing DC because i don't collect them, and honestly, it seems that almost all of them are pretty tough to super rare with white pages. 

based on my auction watching over the years, i'd say the toughest (early) SA marvels to find with white pages are:

Toughest: AF15, Avengers1, TTA27

Medium tough: TOS39, ASM3

not so tough: Hulk1, FF1, JIM83, ASM1, 2, 4,  Xmen1, FF5, DD1, Avengers4

i did not include the later SA keys like SS1, Iron Man1, etc. most of those are easier to find with white pages although SS1 is not so easy, esp in high grade. 

if i had to pick the absolute toughest one it would be TTA27 as i've never seen one with white pages. although i consider it a secondary key, as TTA35 is a more exciting book for me. AF15 of the major keys is also super tough. 

please chime in, unless you're the type to say WP don't matter. i don't really need to hear your opinion in this particular thread.  

On 12/4/2022 at 4:16 PM, Microchip said:

So few are coming onto the market, I'm not entirely surprised by the result.   Plus old label, a resub could at least see a PQ upgrade.

perhaps, but judging from how creamy the cover whites are, i'd be a bit more skeptical. regardless, it's a phenomenally high price even if the book was owwp. last year at the height of the madness, there were two sales at 31k and 28k.