FSF

That's just sad.

You need to learn how to churn Chase credit cards, especially the Southwest cards. I haven't paid for a flight, except by accident, for the better part of the last decade and I fly on personal travel about 8-12 times a year. I'm flying in for this show just for the day, using points graciously given to me pretty close to free by Chase.

I still don't get this sentiment on your part. The Canadian dollar is a completely different currency than the U.S. dollar. Your perspective is exactly the same as a Japanese collector coming here and stating that they have to pay more than 100 times what U.S. collectors pay. Apples and oranges. There was a time when the CAD was only worth around $0.60 US. You're getting a "discount" compared to that I guess.

I'm not sure if I would refer to any comic book acquisitions as a "portfolio", but this is probably what I would buy: 8.0 X-Men 1 9.6 X-Mex 94 9.6 X-Men GSX 1 8.0 ASM 1 9.0 ASM 14 9.6 ASM 129 9.4 Hulk 181 9.0 Daredevil 1 9.0 Avengers 4 9.6 FF #48 9.0 Detective 359 I'm not even sure what all that would cost but I'm guessing $100K would get it done. AF15 would be first on the list but I'm not sure I would be happy with what even $100K would get you for just the one book.

On a Sunday, it can't be more than an hour round trip, if even that. Great call on the Getty Museum. The grounds alone are worth visiting. It's pretty awesome, though very heavy on religious art. I don't know if you are a fan of Van Gogh but his 'Irises' is located there and it is INSANE. I could stare at it all day.

On the bright side, whoever buys this will get $100 in eBay bucks.

Thanks for the heads up. Will very likely be making travel plans once I get more details.

Personally, I don't think a thin mylar is much protection for the case and I would like to be able to store the cases laying flat, ideally in as compact as possible box like format. I don't much care for the graded box route. I think choices in situations like this are a good thing.

Fellas, I'm not sensing much in the way of a spirit of cooperation here.

If Boomers don't cash out, they'll eventually crash out. Of course, that's even more true for a Gen Xer like myself. However, I look at the money I spend on a hobby as complete sunk cost and am at peace with the notion that whatever I put into it, I will lose all of it. Obviously it would be great if the following generations would pick up and carry the torch, and just merely provide my investment back without any returns, apart from inflation perhaps. But I don't expect that to happen and consider the money spent on comics like I do spending money on travel, sporting events, nice restaurants, etc. An enjoyable experience that provides immediate satisfaction and some good memories, but not a viable store of value, let alone an investment.

CGC slabs have been around the better part of 20 years now. Why are there no real holders for the slabs, either from CGC or in the after market? I'm pretty sure I'm familiar with everything that is out there, which isn't much. I would like to propose that CGC or a supply firm come up with either or both of the following: 1) A slab box much like PCGS and NGC coins and PSA cards have with specific slots for the slabs. I would imagine a box holding about 10-20 such slabs and it needs to be made sturdy. I figure this hard plastic box would probably retail for $30-40, maybe a bit more. 2) A plastic casket that is just barely bigger than the slab and can close and open easily. It would be sort of a much better version of a top-loader type concoction for CGC slabs. I would probably seal in mylites2 legal size and stick in these.

Take per PM. Thanks

But then the Comics General forum would be even more dead.

Von, I totally agree with you that the numbers do seem to line up more toward a 3+ decade scenario. But there are several factors that make that situation a best case scenario and why it could happen sooner. One, you're only looking at the tail end of the support. People who got bitten by the bug in the 1950s to early 80s will all pass on before you and your group, so the group that supports it will be shrinking in noticeable numbers along the way. That will snowball to some extent onto itself because people will see the decline and decide not to spend any more money on what they see as a declining asset and ultimately a lost cause. Also, I foresee in the next 10-15 years a SIGNIFICANT economic shock that could be a significant start to the death knell, and not just for comics but coins and cards and various other collectibles. I do believe there might be a place for iconic items like a 1933 $20 gold coin, 1804 $1, 1913 V-Nickel, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, AF15, Action 1, Detective 27 but much of the rest of the hobby will be virtually worthless, including the Hulk 181, ASM 129, etc. which there's just way too much of. It's been happening for years with most issues of SA and BA with the abandonment of run collectors. Does anyone serious believe there's going to be significant numbers of collectors picking up runs again of various titles??? Even in stamps, which is pretty much dead as dead can get, the top items are still in strong demand. Coins are not quite as dead but most of them pretty much are with only very rare or very eye appealing pieces remaining in demand. Cards have heavily migrated to rookies only collecting and comics have become more and more of a first appearance market for the pre modern stuff.

I think it's obvious that Boomers are selling, some while they're still alive and others when their heirs disburse the assets. Either way, I don't think that is really all that big of an issue. The question really comes down to whether current, and more importantly, future generations will continue to pick up the slack. This is very debatable. Personally, I'm a firm believer that collectors who collect generally migrate to what they did in their youth in an effort to buy back their childhoods. Because of that philosophy, I do believe that comics have a shelf life that will eventually kill it and kill it for good. I don't see that happening for at lease a decade or more but I do firmly believe that day is coming. When I consider the low print runs for the past couple of decades, and the fact that most of that was even bought by adults, I don't see an influx of "I collected when I was a kid and am finding the hobby again" crowd, which I consider to be the most indispensable element of the collectors market.

I'll take this.

I meant the color for $40 and now the B&W.

I'll take this.

Haven't been buying for all that long since I started up so I don't have any real regrets in the past 10 years. When I was a kid in the mid 80s I did buy a first edition #1 TMNT in what I remember as basically Mint condition or pretty darn close (I was pretty picky even back then) for like $30 or less. I don't even remember what happened to it. I think I sold it off with a couple of filled short boxes to a LCS for $500 total. The box had a lot of SA Spidey's, GI Joes, some X-Men, and Wolverine limited set. The offer was actually pretty reasonable as I recall (spent probably $700-800 for all of it) and another dealer that I spent a fair amount with had only offered like $300 for them and he was pretty annoyed that I didn't take it. As for my biggest score so far, I consider it an ASM #129 I bought from a fellow board member that I'm very pleased with. Except for my HUGE gripe against CGC for their inability to address/solve this incessant newton ring issue. Seriously, I could see this as the number one reason I leave the hobby, if and when I do.

I probably got a little more impatient after dealing with it for a couple of minutes and the spine did bend causing a stress mark but it was a FN book and since it already had a few stress marks already, it really wasn't a biggie. But the point still stands. In fairness to sellers, I honestly have no idea how better to package it. Obviously they could do without all the extra tape but then that risks the books possibly sliding around in shipment and maybe dinging corners. It would be financially unreasonably to expect them to send $50 type shipments out in double boxes they have to buy so I really don't know what the answer is.

Folks, I am a delicate butterfly so please do not belittle me. The struggle is real.

But that's just the thing, I'm not sure it is all that safe. When you're securing the packing tape at least a dozen times against a cardboard backing, trying to free it from the board and taking off the tape from the comic bag is not an easy task and I could easily see spine stress marks occurring while trying to separate the tape from the comic bag.

I did not go to medical school and thus, I am not a surgeon. I feel like there is potentially more risk in disassembling some of these overly taped up raw book shipments than there is with the USPS damaging them, although they are pretty good at damaging shipments themselves. However, it seems like the kind of damage USPS would most often not be mitigated by the overly secure packaging job. I truly appreciate the care that a seller goes through in keeping the item secure, but it has its limits IMO.

I worship at the altar of Neal Adams.

Oh, I get that. But shouldn't a comment like that be taken as universal and apply to all sellers?