RockMyAmadeus

The funny thing is, books like "Chew" and "Saga" still command hefty back issue prices, while books like "Manifest Destiny", "Thief of Thieves", and "Skullkickers" crashed and burned. ...and, what ended up happening, at least in some cases, is that the speculators deserted, and, where there were creators who might have had more success, didn't, because speculators sucked up copies, and while yes, you had a great first issue sales number, subsequent issues dropped like a rock, and series were cancelled. Can we know for sure? No, there are always factors involved for which we cannot account, but it certainly cannot help establish a reader base when stores order 5-10 copies of a new book, and none of those copies sell to readers. Instead of organically building a fanbase, like Walking Dead, available copies were sucked out of the market by folks hoping to make a couple of dollars...and readers didn't get a chance to try the series out. With FOC being only 3 weeks out now, stores should have instituted a strict one copy per person policy on everything that wasn't pre-ordered.

Sure, if you want to go that route. Hulk #181 was sold new almost 44 years ago, so that ad is most certainly expired. Yes, but in this case, it is. If you're going to play "Gotcha!" with people here, and try to catch them in a contradiction, as you did with Lazyboy, you owe it to everyone participating to actually have a contradiction first. To belabor the point, not all stories are also ads, and hardly any ads are also part of the story. In the case of Hulk #180, however, there is an exception: the last panel is both part of the story and essentially an ad for the next issue...we call that a "cliffhanger" or "teaser." And when it is both, it no longer contradicts the "ads aren't appearances" position. Not very controversial.

No ONE knows more than RMA . . . .ever! Says the guy who habitually overgrades everything he sells, and then is offended when people call him out on it. This isn't necessary, or desired.

Thank you You're welcome. I hope you find whatever it is you're searching for.

I wonder if you've ever welcomed a new member with open arms in your entire 50k book of posts you've written on this site? ??? *waits for snarky comeback with quotations* Your personal problem with me, and your personal comments thereof, have no business here. Your experience and perceptions are just that: your experience and perceptions. If you would like to discuss other people and what you imagine to be their flaws, there are literally thousands of other websites on which to do it. I would recommend Twitter or Facebook.

Two Action #1 pages walk into a bar....

I just heard, there's a case that needs investigating!

Teaser and cliffhanger introductions are common in the medium but calling them "essentially an ad" while being firmly entrenched in the "ads and previews don't count" camp doesn't make a lot of sense to me. And yet, it makes perfect sense, because the distinction is quite clear. Being essentially an ad...which it is...is not the same thing as BEING an ad...which it is not. Ad. Essentially an ad (but not an ad.)

via Imgflip Meme Generator

It's a very sexy jib. If you didn't want people looking at it, you shouldn't be displaying it so provocatively.

The cut of your jib. I like it.

You've only had them for 18 years...? Well, never mind then, that's practically new.

You've had them for 35 years, now...a little longer isn't going to hurt. That's the verrrry long view "pump and dump" strategy.

Now THAT is a proper pump, but you've got to sell if you ever hope to dump.

Not sure which "new members" I'm supposed to be "at it" with, but...this is the same sort of commentary I was referring to.

Now...as for moderns heating up... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Young-Avengers-1-CGC-9-8-1st-Kate-Bishop-Hulkling-Wiccan-Patriot-Iron-Lad-/183334420894?hash=item2aaf95419e%3Ag%3AqjwAAOSwBdRbUS4e&nma=true&si=GseEzKa0y59iFEUrdbdG00hKrJw%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557 After being hot a couple of years ago, but subsequently cooling off, this book has once again shown upward movement in the past couple of months. You're welcome.

As to the state of the boards, especially in modern...there are a group of new(er) posters who are confrontational and who don't like being corrected. There's nothing wrong with confrontation...provided it's for a legitimate reason, and it's valid. Someone who makes a habit of negligently or purposely posting misinformation? Confrontation is the right choice. But there are a lot of people who get confrontational when they are the ones who are wrong, and worse, do so by impugning others' motives, without evidence. For example...the accusations of "pumping and dumping" against people for merely discussing a particular book or topic, without any evidence whatsoever of the necessary "dumping" that is required to make that accusation. As another example: people with a vested interest in a particular book or books, and don't want to see anything naysaying their "investment", so they muddy the waters, making insulting personal comments, in an attempt to diminish the impact of what they perceive as "the negative opinions" of others. That's divisive, and makes the boards a less pleasant place to be.

It has never been listed in Overstreet as more valuable.

Actually, only you and RMA are wrong on that point. Both OSG nos. 8 and 10 list IH #181 as the first appearance of Wolverine.  You can't be wrong about a point you were not making.

Snarky comments when confronted with facts? Of course I don't, I only collect minty copies of the covers I like. I'm not your librarian. If that was as snarky as your comments ever got, I'd be thrilled. As others have pointed out, you are incorrect, and you presume without seeking clarification. Here is the relevant quote from you: Here is the response from Lazyboy: Pointing out that PhillipB2k17's comment about 181 being "falsely labelled as his 1st appearance for years" is inaccurate. My comment had to do with the error in your statement, quoted here, that "OSG (sic) #8 lists 181 higher than 180, and every subsequent guide does also." That is incorrect, as demonstrated by the OPG #11. Shall the board now be treated to snarky comments from you when confronted with facts...?

So....no bursting yet...?

If eBay user "comics_transplant" is on the board, and willing to discuss eBay, I would appreciate a PM.

I wonder how many buyers of comics in 1967-1968 were even AWARE that a book like Amazing Fantasy #15 even existed, much less was selling for $5-$10 a copy from dealers by then... These little clues lead me to believe that comics fandom, far from being large and organized, was still very much in its infancy at this time, and collectors were still few and far between. It's the lack of access to information you and others had that really convinces me that things were still small and formative. I just leafed through a DD #5...published in the fall of 1964...and there's not a word about collecting comics, or back issues, or anything of the sort. Collecting stamps? You bet, a whole page. Coins? Sure. Studying electronics, or writing songs, or neat gadgets to amaze your friends, or even full page ads for the latest comics? You bet. But not a word, even in the letters pages, about collecting. How was anyone in Des Moines, IA, even supposed to know that there were people who collected these things...?

Interesting. Weeding out the multiple anecdotes from the 70s, when comics specialty stores were on the rise, it appears that the only way to speculate on brand new comics in the 60s was to have access to multiple newsstands, and buy all the copies they had, which wouldn't have been typical throughout most of the country. I know, for example, that Burbank, CA only had a single newsstand in the 30s and 40s, downtown, that serviced the area, because the population was so small, more weren't necessary. I'd still like to know how, if at all, vendors dealt with their comics selling out to a handful of individuals, and if they had ANY customers who complained that they missed something...or, being mostly kids, just sucked it up and dealt with it. I imagine that those who got tired of missing issues simply went the subscription route, which, as I understand it, was still rather substantial in the 60s. Which leads me to some other questions about the entire process, like "how were buyers meant to have speculated on comics starting in 1964-1965, if the vast majority of them didn't have access to many copies?"...unless the definition of "speculation" includes any number of copies purchased above "1". I also wonder....though this seems highly unlikely...did anyone have MULTIPLE subscriptions to the same title, so they were receiving 2, 3, or more copies of the each issue as it came out...? Now, back issue speculation, no problem. There were, as we've discussed here before, budding conventions across the country in these years, as well as the prototypical local comic stores, and, of course, the used book store, so buying multiples, even over time, would have been more possible that way. I still don't understand the mechanism of how vendors ordered their comics,,,if anyone can answer that, it would be appreciated. Did they just "get what they got", or was there some sort of rudimentary selection process that existed? If they just "got what they got", who decided for them? The local ID distributor? Regional? National? I SUSPECT that the majority of the easily available copies in the early 70s of books like FF #48 and Iron Man #1 was from either the affidavit fraud system that was, as I understand it, fairly rampant at the time, OR distributors who never bothered to deal with returns, because land (and thus warehousing) was relatively cheap, and ended up with hundreds of undistributed and/or "returned" copies....or even some mixture of both these "systems." It's hard to reconcile high grade copies having come trickling in, ones and twos, with these "finds." But, that's neither here nor there with the topic at hand. If you get a chance, ninanina, thank Doug for me, and thank YOU for being the messenger.

Someday, I will make it to this show. Someday. And when that day comes, the earth itself will tremble with fear. (Insert fat jokes here.)