RockMyAmadeus

That's funny. It's the exact same book. Here's the buyer's listing: https://www.ebay.com/itm/MARVEL-Limited-WOLVERINE-1982-1-2-3-4-Up-Mid-5-5-8-5-7-0-7-0-/292701332483?hash=item44265be403%3Ag%3AKrEAAOSwkHJbgVx~&nma=true&si=GseEzKa0y59iFEUrdbdG00hKrJw%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

That's ballsy.

My first car was a 1976 Mercury Bobcat....aka "Ford Pinto with a different name." I loved that dumpy little car.

One of the "several suspensions" that the "Tim Bildhauser" person cited as a reason for my ban was because I made a post in one of the stickied threads asking if they would please not lock threads without a moderation comment at the very least, because locking threads on a particular poster's post gives the impression of agreeing with that position, no matter who it was...or, if that wasn't acceptable, to just delete the thread entirely. It was just a polite request. That request was met with a suspension for "questioning the decisions of moderation." Apparently, another user who sparred with me was so upset about my ban, he posted some critical comments regarding censorship...which resulted in a one month suspension for him. After I was banned, I had to check out the board through a VPN...because they don't notify you that you've been banned, you just get a page that says "connection error"...and discovered that one of their moderators had "liked" the post banning me, thus giving up even the pretense of impartiality. These are signs of deep cultural rot, and indicative of far, far more serious problems with the culture of the company. These are behaviors you'd expect on a private blog...not a company which has to have an immense amount of trust, dealing with valuable and delicate collectibles. They must be thoroughly above reproach, in every regard, if they were to hope to compete with the established leader. It's axiomatic: if you can't be trusted with the little things, you can't be trusted with the big things. I supported CBCS, I encouraged CBCS, I wanted them to succeed, because competition makes everyone better. And they were in a position to legitimately do so. But they were simply unprepared and unequipped. And that's a genuine, real shame.

Isn't it pi times the inverse of the cosine of the imaginary square of -13 divided by 0?

Nerd minutiae is the best minutiae.

Found the ad! Of course, that's not the right cover...that's actually the cover to Witchblade #18. But that's the ad!

Other books you'll have an impossible time finding 9.8s: X-O #1/2 regular OR gold Prime 1/2 (forget it) Those books were printed on that plastic coated cover stock, which is completely and totally unforgiving.

I never ordered any straight from Wizard...maybe one....but I did buy several in those brown cardboard mailer they sent out. That was fun!

Because of the way they were produced, bagged and shipped in a hard cardboard mailer, they were ALL pretty high grade. I would think you'd have to hit 9.9 You ran into a lot of problems because they were so thin. For example...the first 1/2 offer, Maxx, is a tough book to find in 9.8, because the paper was such junky stock. Not impossible, but tough. But the SECOND 1/2....Gen 13....was a complete and utter disaster. If you find a copy without a badly frayed spine, you're lucky. There are, of the regular 1/2s, a grand total of 8 9.8s on the census. I submitted all of them. Not because I'm some great 9.8 finding ninja...on the contrary, I've never found a Gen 13 1/2 anywhere out in the wild that even remotely comes close to a 9.8. It's because I bought several dozen of Wizard's leftover copies, that had sat in boxes untouched for 13 years. Each and every one of those copies came from that "uncirculated stash", and I seriously, SERIOUSLY doubt there will ever be any more 9.8s that come from the wild. I have more, but again....I've got maybe 60-70 copies, so I got to pick the best of the best. Of the two 9.8 universals, I subbed them both in 2011...since then...not a single new copy added to the census. Same with the 6 SS copies, 5 of which I subbed in late 2016, and the other with a Jim Lee sig in 2015-ish. Here's what the spines usually look like:

Ugh. I don't remember the subscription, but I don't doubt you. I know that that particular book was also only available if you applied for, AND WERE ACCEPTED, for a Wizard Visa card. Those books were like $50 on eBay in the summer of 1999! Thankfully, I never paid that much for mine, and when Wizard dumped all their 1/2s on eBay in 2007, I bought about 100 of them, for about 75 cents each.

Without a doubt. To what extent? Impossible to know. The census only tells us one thing for sure: the maximum possible amount of copies that have experienced grading events. If there's a book with 75 copies on the census, that number could be 75 different copies, or it could be 65 different copies, with 10 resubs, or it could even be 20 copies, each submitted 3+ times. We don't know, and, never could know, aside from some specific examples (like pedigrees.) We just know that, if the census says 75 copies, there aren't 80 slabs of that book floating around out there. It's a maximum potential number, but that's all.

Petey The Spider-Pig #3

So you can feel then, look at them, thumb through them, read them. I've never understood the appeal of having slabs, which take up lots of space, hanging around of books you intend to keep. I'm with Catman completely. If you want or need to sell...slab 'em. If you don't...free those babies!

Is this where I point out that Stu Cathell was the very first person banned from the CBCS forum...? And has been banned here for a good 15 years, until he makes up a new name to slip past moderation...?

And look at Stu Cathell's behavior: the raging of a sociopath, who has to Dox people and invent ridiculous an lewd names (like "CunningStunts"), all because someone stands up to him and disagrees with him. Banned hundreds of times, he comes back over and over and over again, just to take shots.

There may still be some misunderstanding. "Suspension" at the CBCS board means the same thing as a "strike" used to here: a set period of time during which a person is not allowed to post, but after which, such restrictions are removed. For clarity's sake. The administration and moderation of the CBCS board is such that they've taken an aggressive stance towards banning those who criticize them...justly or not...which has resulted in many people being banned, some of which were vociferously protested by the denizens of the CBCS forum, which, likewise, resulted in further draconian action. I was not the first person banned at the CBCS board, and I certainly won't be the last. One of the worst problems of the board was the toxic culture that was tolerated (and even encouraged) by their moderation, whereby anyone who voiced an opinion that disagreed with the loud "clique" would be pounced upon en masse. I warned moderation not to tolerate this behavior, because the alligator doesn't care who he eats...and sure enough, when CBCS failed to do something in the manner that group wanted...they turned on CBCS just as fiercely...for example, when user "Darth Lego" was banned. And when Darth Lego was banned, his avatar was replaced by moderation with the one of Allison Hannigan, holding Thor's hammer (and I believe wearing a shirt with a CBCS logo on it), which stated "One time...at banned camp"...essentially official mockery of the now-banned person. That's grossly unprofessional, incredibly petty, and completely beneath what is supposedly trying to be a respected grading company. I warned them about this, the optics of such a move, and that, too, was ignored. You cannot moderate based on your personal opinions about ANYONE, or you fail. You cannot help but fail. Of course, by making myself a critic, it was only a matter of time before I had to go, too.

Logan510, to my knowledge, has not been banned from the CBCS forum, but he HAS been suspended.

So, those granny panties could have been a little less...er...granny....but look at that face, those eyes, that hair. Was there ANYONE more perfect for this role...?

CGC = The Godfather CBCS = Gigli PGX = Leave Britney Alone!!

Glad it's you and not me.

One of your favorite stories...which I love...was that on Memorial Day, 1993, you had a stack of Magnus #0s, and you couldn't keep them around...and by Labor Day, you couldn't give them away. Summer of 1992 was just a bit early for the madness.

Your memory doth deceive you. The "rare" Rai books weren't broken out until the end of 1992, beginning of 1993. Go check out a Wizard #12, 13, or 14....came out June, July, August...and tell me what the prices are. Summer of 1992 Unity was coming out, and Valiant was just starting to show the signs of hysteria that would engulf it in the fall.

Not in '92 they didn't. Come on, now, 1992 was Valiant's breakout year. pre-Unity was still being published the first half of 1992. Things didn't get coo-coo bananas until Spring and Summer of 1993...and it was all over but the crying by Labor Day. Once that Turok #1 came out...BLAMMO! (Apr of 1993)