shadroch

It turned out as I hoped it would, thanks for running this

And yet sheeple still line up for the chance to meet the great man.

yes

So I spent a couple of hours getting to know this gentleman. We shared a six pack and some stories while we looked through about ten percent of his hoard. The one Joe thing that I saw and liked was what he says is a complete GI Joe HQ, in a very nice original box. He has an aircraft carrier but he overpaid for it and then thought he was buying a bunch of original parts for it, but they were cheap replicas. He had a 1960s Alamo fort but the soldiers were cheap knockoffs. When he first started , he was taken advantage of by a couple of people so he switched strategy and bought large lots off ebay and at flea markets. He also as able to get wholesale prices on stuff by buying in bulk. In his backyard, he has an airfield with dozens of foot long WW2 fighters- squadrons of P-51s, P-38s, and the like. He said they retailed for about $100 each five years ago, and he showed me a tray that must have had one hundred Corgi Sherman tanks. One thing we had a little disagreement on was he thinks you can display a vehicle in a display and then say its new as long as he has the original box. A quick question if somebody can help. I know nothing about Halo and can't find these on ebay so any information would be much appreciated. They are small scale, and I don't think 3 3/4 inch figures would fit, but they resemble warthogs and have a crew operated weapon on the back. Made by Jada Toys in 2012.

Are any of the small ones worth anything loose? I thought they had to be on the original card to have much value? For example, I'll see a tank or boat from 1982 and look at eBay. Inevitably it's missing a small piece of two and.sells for $5-10 dollars. I was in a shop in Tombstone a few months ago and they had a sealed Star Brigade box for $200. I looked on eBay and it was 1/10th the price. Maybe I will go into the spare parts trade.

About six weeks ago, I was contacted by a retired Army Officer who lives about forty miles from here. He said that about ten years ago, he got the toy soldier collecting buzz and would buy whatever old toy soldiers he could find at flea markets, garage sales ect. He had a half-assed plan of renting a storefront and filling it with homemade dioramas, but never got around to it. He mostly bought WW2 era soldiers as they were the most common, but also the American Civil War and Cowboys and Indians. He estimated he had 13,000 loose toy soldiers and maybe 200 sealed packages or boxed sets. He seemed pretty sincere, but said he was old fashioned and only had a flip phone so no pictures. He also says he has about 300 tanks, ranging from three inches to a couple that are well over two feet long, as well as armored fighting vehicles from the WW2 era thru Vietnam. He's hard to pin down, wants to sell some, but maybe will sell all. He might be willing to do a part cash, part consignment deal. What he is afraid of is someone will cherry pick his best stuff leaving him with a lot of junk. He also doesn't seem to know the market. He was telling me he had a pretty rare Marx play-set but then mentioned the figures were blue and yellow instead of green and grey. That usually means they are recasts, mostly done in the 80s and 90s and worth a fraction of the original, but he says he knows nothing about that. He said he had a bunch of 3 inch GI joes, but all loose and a few 12 inch that were still in the boxes but I think they are moderns, not the 1960s originals. Last night he called and told me he had someone coming to look at them this weekend but he wanted to give me first dibs. I'm headed there this afternoon. If nothing else, it will be fun digging through them.

I'm looking for someone to paint some 54-60 MM toy soldiers and some 1/35 scale models. Some are plastic, some are tin. It could be steady PT income for the right person or can barter comics, books, models ect for your time. PM me if interested.

Open the bag leaving the tape where it is. Slide a backing board into the bag in front of the comic. Grab the top of the comic by the two boards and remove. Repeat when inserting the book back in the bag and slide out the front board. For whatever reason, tape doesnt seem to hate cardboard as much as it hates comicbooks and won't attack it with the same passion

Very nice. I've been looking for someone to paint some 54mm figures. PM me if interested.

Comic Link was pretty revolutionary when they launched. It's a shame they didn't keep up with technology as the years went by.

At that point in the hobby, almost everyone over-ordered because what you couldn't sell this month for cover would sell next month for a premium. The only books I can think of that fit what you are describing would be Thor 337, Secret Wars 1 and 8, and ASM 252-254. The black suited Spidey was a much bigger success than anyone anticipated and stores had already placed ordered for 253 and 254 before 252 came out. As far as Wolverine 1 goes, I think a lot of shops realized this would be a long term seller so they ordered many more copies than they thought they could sell in a month. There was nothing like Previews for retailers to look thru and decide how it would sell. We got a two or three page order sheet that often didn't even list writers or artists on many books.

I pretty much agree with your hypothesis, and will only take issue with part of your first point. At that point of the market, few shops ordered perfectly. Most comic shops that opened in the early 80s were poorly run, and badly managed.

I've seen dates ranging from 1985 to 1987. If you are talking about when the total direct market exceeded newsstand sales, it's probably the earlier date but when Marvel or DC did it might be later. During the Indie/B&W craze, that segment was almost exclusively direct.

Joe Lisner was over a few times, back when he was in high school. Tom DeFalco's wife did some work for me and he dropped by a small bbq I was having. Marcus Boas dropped off a piece I bought of his, but I wasn't home.

Isn't that an accepted way of removing pre-Newton rings? I can understand a newbie being upset with what does look a bit funky. Tell the guy about this thread and let him read what experienced collectors hav to say. It sux but its really easier just to refund and move on.

I'm watching but don't know enough about GA books to be able to say who is the best.

You can find slabs way cheaper than $17 if you take your time and are okay with being told no. I've gotten dozens for $10 or less.

Well worth repeating.

I would hope these shows aren't well attended. We are in the middle of a pandemic.

The difference is obvious to anyone looking at the inside cover. I have no idea why anyone from CGC would say they can't tell the difference. It was noted almost from the time the book was released. If CGC allowed second prints to be slabbed as first prints, that is inexcusable.

Why restore a book if it is going to be graded as if the work wasn't done? The Purple label already tells you all the work that they caught, now you want them to reverse engineer the book?

Only one series has a Thanos tie-in, and the first appearance of the fabled Thanos Copter. Quality over quantity.

I always looked at Peter Parker as telling the stories that didn't make the cut for the big book. Peter David was working on a program to get comic retailers cash registers when he was given the Peter Parker writing assignment. It was the red haired stepchild of the family.

The very first issue has him fighting The Tarantula, who debuted in the other book.

I've never thought of it as the second Spider-man title, and the reason why Peter Parker was so heavily bought was because it was the second Spider-Man title. I'd have to check MCS but I think the Human Torch rotation lasted about two years. Somebody was pushing Johnny Storm back then as they were reprinting his Strange Tales stories as well. It must have confused newbies as he had a red uniform in the Fantastic Four, a blue one in the FF stories being reprinted in MGCs, an adult HT in Marvel Team-Up, and a teenage one in The Human Torch. Edit- I looked it up and the Human Torch was in 10 of the first 35 issues, so while it became a Spider-Man book three years into it's existence, it wasn't one at the start. It was more like Marvels version of World's Finest evolved into Brave and the Bold.