RockMyAmadeus

Oh no! Please don't hurt that poor, innocent comic!

There is nothing wrong with buying a PGX book, so long as you treat it like a raw book: you crack the book open and inspect it yourself when you receive it. And you document the hell out of that process. If a seller balks, the answer is "hey...that's the risk YOU TOOK when you decided to sell PGX graded books. That "slab" is nothing more than a holder, and I have the right to inspect the item to make sure it is what the PGX label claims it is." If the seller whines about the book no longer being in the slab, that's the answer you give to eBay and/or Paypal: "I'm sorry, but how am I supposed to inspect my purchase if I can't take it out of the holder to examine it?"

Awww, man. I miss Vacation: Sea already.

PS...went to your Indy Con this year....had a very nice time. Your artist alley was well stocked. Great con.

Just send a PM to the great and powerful Arch...he can fix it.

Get your correct account back, newb!

I REALLLLLLLY wanted the Batman #426 cover art that sold last week at Heritage. I mean, like I could taste it. I'm finally at a point where I can afford more spendy things, but...it sold for $33k and change. The next bid alone would have put it at $35,000, and that's if I was high bidder. I can't spend that kind of money. I have it, but it would have put me in trouble. So, now that piece goes to someone else, probably forever, and I'll never have the chance again. It's like the closer to my dreams I get, the further they keep going towards the horizon. Want a copy of Tec #27 with a cover? Good luck, if you don't have $250,000 or more to spend.

Ooo, me too!

Like I said....we can certainly test it out with a real listing and a real sale.

A 2.0 non-key, non-DC, non-Timely Exciting for $125....? Relatively speaking, sure, I understand your point, but....Just a few degrees up from "beat to hell" for the price of a VERY nice dinner, or maybe 1/2 to 1/3 a car payment...? Those are the $10 GA cheapies from 10-15 years ago.

He's probably just woke up. It's tomorrow morning over there on the other side of the world.

....which makes me doubt the idea that the "run collector" is dead. Not everything from the GA is Action #1-50, or Batman #1-49, or Tec #27-75, or "the keys or classic covers (which are now keys.)" Schomburg did a TON of work in the 40s and into the 50s. Not all of them are Startling #49, or Suspense #3, but all of them have gone up in the last 2-3 years. Ok, so no, that's not a specific "run"...but again, not every Schomburg cover is a "key", nor is it a "classic cover"....and yet...still eagerly sought after by all sorts of people, including younger generations who didn't have access to any of this stuff when it was cheap.

Here's why I never ask anyone to bring anything for me "special order": unless it's something that I know is perfectly suited for me, and the price is something that I will pay, I feel it's an obligation on my part. Even though I, as the buyer, have the perfect option of turning down the item(s) because of price, condition, or both, I would still feel like a shmuck for "making" a dealer go to extra effort, only to have me turn it down...and added to that, there's certain to be resentment by some dealers as well, which could mean you wouldn't be able to exercise such an option with them in the future for something you really DID want. So, I just don't do it. I'd rather not be obligated, even if there's no real "obligation." Whatever's there is there, and if you ask the dealer and he/she says "oh, I didn't bring those, but I have a ton of them back in storage!" then that opens the door for negotiation after the con...without the implied obligation. I know some dealers do this specifically because buyers will then feel like they're obligated to purchase, and take advantage of that. And, of course, this is the exact same psychology that makes "no obligation quotes" and the like so successful in the rest of the business world: once you're in the door, you're 75% to your sale.

Is Greg's report on this jonesville character a separate one, or a response to Callaway's...?

Drek.

It's an official eBay program, and works just like any other transaction within eBay. It's weird, and I don't think I've used it more than once, because I wouldn't just send an unsolicited offer to someone, but it does work, and it is official. But I can't help you with whether or not it gets reported to GPA. I would imagine, if it shows up as a completed listing, then the answer is yes. But the buyer's e-mail raises red flags. There are, as you know, all sorts of people who like to game the system for their advantage, and having a "low sale" for something reflected on GPA is something that some people don't want, especially if they want to flip it. That sounds like this might be the case here...? The other possible explanation...and this happens...is that he was concerned that if you relisted it with a BIN, someone else might come along before he could see it, or you could respond, and "scoop" him. I've had that situation with buyers before, where perhaps the listing had ended, and they ask if I can relist at the price we both agreed to....I always tell them no, to go ahead and just submit that as a Best Offer, because listing at the negotiated lower price might bring someone else out of the woodwork to buy it instantly, and then you have a real hassle on your hands. Either scenario sounds plausible, really. Could be he just was afraid of getting scooped.

Yup. That's the market we're in right now. Everything except very low grade common 70s and later material is up for prices that are higher than they were even a year ago. Want a Joker Batman cover before #100? Forget it. You're paying for it. How about high grade anything even remotely key? Like Starlin Warlocks, or X-Men #102+, or Spidey #298-328? Yup. $$$ The only thing to do is wait it out, and hope the situation improves. We haven't seen a market like this in a very long time; we've never seen a market like this with the kind of money involved.

I'm surprised he's pretending he's not Daryl.

We could probably test it.

There have been a couple more...TMNT #1 and #2, Cry For Dawn #1, and maybe a handful of others. The Good Morty, however, I'm still unconvinced. The spastics on the CBCS board, in their inability to discuss things rationally, kept jumping up and down and shouting that this was "definitely" a counterfeit ("two staples vs. one staple!!"), with absolutely zero evidence, and ignoring basic reason, like the fact that there would have been no incentive for the supposed "counterfeiters" to do so prior to the booklet "becoming valuable." In the entire history of counterfeited comics, nobody has ever conclusively counterfeited a book with no value. The usual suspects...CFD #1, TMNT #1 and #2, Gobbledygook, Cerebus #1...were all done precisely because the originals HAD value. Counterfeiting a valueless item....as "The Good Morty" was when the supposed "counterfeiting" was to have been done...is a colossal waste of time and expense, on the off-chance that such an item might become valuable. "Perhaps it was a test case, to see if they could do it well!" - again...someone can "test case" a book with value, IF their intent is genuine counterfeiting. Why pick a random insert in a random cartoon DVD that had no value? And, this supposed "counterfeiting" is so well done, no one is able to tell for sure after the fact...? I don't have any concrete answers, but as far as I can tell, nobody else does, either. My opinion, then and now, is that these booklets were simply reprinted, perhaps under a foreign license, because they ran out of "originals", but still wanted to include them in the DVD package. Reprints happen in publishing all the time, and often without bothering to note it's a reprint...because in publishing, no one cares about "collectible" concerns. Why note it on a throwaway parody booklet as a bonus in a DVD package..?

I prefer Dr. Strange, Sourcream Supreme myself.

Whoever comes up with a 9.8 of this is going to have a couple thousand dollar book in their possession.

And, in natural eBay fashion, the message is tailored to be as inoffensive as possible. "This seller is not accepting bids or offers from you at this time. This could be for various reasons, such as daily limits to purchases." They never come right out and say "this seller thinks you're a tool, and doesn't want you within 500 internet yards of their items."