ExNihilo

Yeah, it's the "home" commissions I'm most interested in. At this point I'd really like to get a Bagley "Spider-Man/Venom/Carnage" piece and then an Artgerm piece (if he even does commissions). But it's good to know some of these artists are so easily accessible via social media.

i dunno how you do it man. How do you find the contact details and see which artists are accepting commissions? Or how do you even find out if artists are accepting commission/sketches at cons and put your name down on a list?

Literally the only reason why I clicked the thread was because I thought "oh , CGC lost someone's books". Title really should have read "Books shown delivered but still not in system. Is this normal?"

Why don't you just block him then? Why do you ask someone else to do the work for you? EDIT: btw, highlight over a user name and you'll see an "Ignore User" function. You're welcome.

Full 180 in my expectations after I saw the trailer. The dark and gritty vibe works so perfectly with what little moments of Joaquin we see. I don't watch many DC movies in theaters these days, but I'll likely watch this one if the following trailers look just as good.

I only watched the Ultimate Edition (never saw the theatrical cut) and I still thought the movie was trash. Largely because the heroes we grew up reading just weren't properly and faithfully translated to screen. The saving grace for that movie was Wonder Woman.

Out of the loop...why is this character/book gaining steam?

Oh, i'm completely sympathetic to your plight here. I've been in similar situations where my submissions have been out of my hands for 8+ months, and yeah, you start to worry. After all, these are your prized possessions and who here, but those in this forum would better understand how that must feel. I think most of us have probably endured similar time frames that felt needlessly long, but you came in hot with the click bait title/accusation. How do you know the package wasn't mis-delivered to a different corporate PO Box? Did you start a conversation with the USPS titled "USPS lost my package?" /s My thing is, CGC has been in business for how long? 20+ years? They've dealt with numerous con seasons. One would expect they would have determined a more efficient method of handling books.

@TwoPiece I might need you to pick some lotto numbers for me in the near future depending on how this thread plays out.

Not exactly. I just felt that if we're going to be discussing the explanation behind shifting book values, we should compare the books for what they are. Punisher's 1st appearance and Silver Surfer's 1st appearance. The "1st appearance of Galactus" notation carries far less weight on FF48 and thus speculating that the value of the book is capped because he's a villain isn't truly comparing the actual reason behind the valuation of the book. That being said, ASM129 seems to be the book with the steadier value. It's a popular character with several movies and a TV show. There's no expected bump in market value from any upcoming projects and any chaos in the marketplace from speculators should have long passed by this point. On the other side of the coin, Disney has just completed its acquisition of Fox assets and one can expect further bumps in the value of FF48 once a Silver Surfer appearance is announced. I've heard that Feige has explored a solo Surfer film which I imagine would increase the books value more. The problem is that the book has already seen a massive jump in the last 2 years as people have already baked in the value of the Disney acquisition. How much more growth could there possibly be? And once the movie does release and the speculators sell-off, how much lower will that drive the market price with a sudden influx to supply? TL;DR - ASM129 is the safe bet. FF48 is likely more prone to swings in valuation. So it boils down to how much risk you're willing to bear. Frankly, I would rather have the FF48. It's a classic book and cover from the Silver Age written and penned by 2 of the all time greats. But I'm not looking at it from an investment perspective, i'm looking at it from a collection standpoint.

Galactus' appearance is far less relevant than Silver Surfer's. If anything, while the Surfer's popularity has waxed and waned like the metaphorical waves that he surfs upon, Punisher has remained a consistent presence in the comics and in pop culture.

Some people have their own hi-res printer/scanners (I think there was a thread here once discussing scanner qualities). I don't display my books, but I have scanned one or two. I just turn up all the quality settings on the scanner here at work and use that. If I'm printing, then yeah, I'd probably go to FedEx/Kinkos and print it out a nicer sheet of paper or something.

Seriously. It's the same story as Disney's Pocahontas. The test of it's actual popularity will be when we see box office numbers for the sequel. I think the 3D and IMAX experiences really inflated those numbers.

I received my first shipment from them and so far so good. All the books I received appear to be as good or better quality than what I would have been able to pick up off the shelf myself. And I saved roughly 40%. If every month is like this, I really don't have much to complain about except my choice of bag/boards (might go up a level to Mylites or to Mylite2's)

Best part is you can just show it off in a cheap IKEA frame. And when it fades, you just print another high res copy.

According to the links CGC says: I think I'll stay with vertical lol. I'm late to this, but +1 to storing on the spine. Basically, when stored vertically, i'm afraid that gravity will pull the interior pages away from the spine over time. When stored horizontally, the book sits comfortably on the spine preventing such damage. But then again, my slabs are all tucked away in cardboard boxes so i'm not looking at them every day (or even every month). I have considered UV framing or some such to display some books, but at this time it's not worth the additional financial cost.

Inexperienced newb bought a variant cover as the price was still fluctuating. Midtown kept releasing quantities in drips so it would "sell out" only to have fresh stock a day or two later. Rinse and repeat. Initial batch was on sale for like $80. Then the second batch that they "found" was on sale for like $150 (which is what the aftermarket price was). Then third batch was $120, then $100. I felt cheated that they kept "finding" new stock and undercutting the after market price. Honestly, if you have books in stock, the moral thing to do would be to sell them at your initial MSRP instead of holding on to copies to sell at an after market rate. Since then, I've sworn off Midtown because the behavior seems shady. (EDIT: and now the book is effectively selling at the initial $80 price. basically I learned I suck at speculating so now I'm back to buying books to read or books i actually care to collect...like the established books in the market...the FF48's and Tec880s of the world)

Come to think of it, I got burned by the Torpedo Comics/Midtown Comics Jim Lee Convention Exclusive. Probably why I ignored all the 'Tec 1000 variants.

I HEar WOODY HARRELSON miGHt pLay JoKeR!!

But that's exactly the same with the Action 1000 issues (being artist/store exclusives). I think the difference is that Batman is a bigger character and that the community seems to connect more with some of these variants (Artgerm Golden Age, Alex Ross). Frankly, considering Batman 50 was released not too long ago and had a number of exclusives as well, I'm surprised people aren't burnt out by Batman covers.

I bought the standard cover (whichever one that is). I can't be bothered by all these variants. What happens when a Carnage-esque first appearance happens and there are 20 variant covers of the same first appearance?

ugh...if not for the IRS, i'd be all over those Surfer's. GLWTS.

The grading system seems very top heavy if most films score a B or higher. Saying something is graded on a generous curve doesn't change the optics to the general public. I shouldn't have to know that a B is really an F. It just seems disingenuous of Cinemascore.

Don't let this fool you. Rotten Tomatoes has always been trash. It has always used an absurd metric to apply a score for it's movies. For example, a movie that scored 61% from 100 critics would get a 100% RT score. But a movie that scored 100% from 99 critics and a 59% from one critic would score 99%. It makes no sense. Metacritic has always been my preferred rating system since it actually takes the averages. The fact that Iron Man 2, Age of Ultron, and The Dark World scored so high should tell you everything you need to know about Cinescore's. No actual fan of the movies would tell you "oh yeah, all those movies are on par with Civil War, Winter Soldier, and Infinity War." They are FAR too lenient giving out grades.

Got my book back. Invincible Iron Man #55 was subbed as a CBCS 7.5. CGC recommended a press and the book came back a CGC 8.0.