RockMyAmadeus

What are they seasoned with...? All Spice? Maybe Mrs. Dash? I prefer a bit of garlic pepper, myself.

Tells you the value of the list, dunnit...?

I walked up to Stanley Lau at SDCC and asked if he had worked on Vampi. He looked at me with a puzzled look and said "uh, no." Then I realized the above. Color me ever-so-slightly embarrassed.

Awesome. Let's debate clone degradation of yogurt cultures and the possible ramifications to humanity. Let's just hope that mutant yogurt creature doesn't come face to fa.....errr bread with Roy's sandwich that ate Buffalo a few years ago. Buffalo showed some remarkable resilience in rebuilding. You can't even tell it was devoured by a turkey sandwich in 2013.

I use USPS Registered Mail because 1. It's insured for the full amount I declare; 2. despite the claims above, it's under lock and key the entire way; 3. the postal inspectors take Registered Mail very seriously, and stamp it out when there's a problem. I've never had an issue with Registered mail, and I've sent and received hundreds of them over the years. If your individual PO is hassling you, talk to the Postmaster.

These are all assumptions that experience has proven to be untrue, with percentages that are entirely pulled from thin air. Circumstances change all the time; the value of items go up and down all the time. What was a "lowball" offer 6 months ago may be quite a fair offer today, and vice versa. You don't know what motivates an individual buyer, any more than you know what motivates an individual seller. Cutting off the opportunity to save a tiny fraction of time here and there is worth reconsidering for many. That said, however, if you can see who made an offer that was auto-rejected, then there's the opportunity, depending on how motivated one is as a seller, to reach a potential interested party. It's far more of a hassle at that point, and could get the careless into hot water with eBay, but at least the opportunity is available. It's a perspective that many sellers don't consider. Even if it won't work for them, personally, it's nice to be aware of it.

There is a way to get FedEx and UPS to deliver to PO Boxes. At least, that's how the main branch of the USPS in Burbank, CA (91505) manages. The way to do it is to have the physical address of the branch that contains your PO Box and address it like this: Fred Savage 2140 N Hollywood Way Unit 12121 Burbank, CA 91505 ...with "Unit 12121" being your PO Box number. Then, FedEx and UPS delivers to the PO, and the PO delivers to your box. It's a nice little service. I don't know if that's the case around the country. but it's worth looking into. OR...you can get a box at a "mail store" that also has a physical address.

Not that I believe "flotowncomics", but this is an unfortunate side-effect of the "this sold for more than I wanted to pay...it must have been shill bid!" accusations which have popped up with distressing regularity on social media, including here. People are accusing "shill bidding!!!" even when there's not a stitch of evidence to suggest it, and calling things "shill bid" just because someone else bid them up (which is not shill bidding in and of itself) to a price they didn't like. Worse, many of them think that's what shill bidding is: being bid up to a price they don't like. Sorry this happened to you. Thanks for the heads up.

But the argument doesn't work, because both sides aren't equal parties. The seller is trying to sell. Their job is to persuade someone to buy what they have to sell. The buyer has the luxury of choosing any number of sellers or items to have an interest in. The seller does not have the luxury of designating a buyer. In other words: the buyer who is interested in the item knows the seller is out there, with the item to sell. The seller, however, has no idea that there's an interested buyer, even if that interest is only a little. You don't know what you don't know, and the opportunity to try to negotiate does have value, even if indirectly. Whether the buyer would respond to a $165 counter or not is, in this case, irrelevant: the value is in knowing that there's someone out there with interest who MIGHT be persuadable. I've sold books after literally years of the buying peck peck pecking at it, seeing what I would sell for. I knew they were out there, and I would occasionally reach out to them and let them know a book was relisted...and, eventually, it resulted in a sale. With auto-reject...I never know they exist. And...unless I'm mistaken, as eBay keeps tweaking their system...offers that come in are (or used to be) reflected in a listing. That signaled to other potential buyers that there was other interest in the item, even if the one making the offer made a silly lowball. But auto-rejects never show up on the page, so no other bidders would know someone else was interested. This may no longer be the case; if not, it's no longer relevant.

You're quite welcome.

If it was a seal, there probably wasn't anything dry about it....I know how you get with sea creatures...

I've said this before, but there is an argument to be made for NOT setting a "bottom price" threshold on Buy It Now items. First, it's easy to do when you're listing a couple items; not so easy when listing a couple hundred. Ok, FWP for sure...but the other reason is this: if you reject lowball offers, you'll never know that that person was interested in your item in the first place...and you never know when you just might be able to negotiate that buyer up to where you need to be. If your low price threshold on a $200 item is $125, and someone makes a $120 offer...you might have considered that price, but you'll ever know such an offer was ever made. At the very least, you'll know there's someone who is interested. Something to consider. "But what about the waste of time super lowballers?" Like the guys who offer $10 on a $500 item? Or $50 on a $250 item? (Assuming $500 and $250 are within reasonable FMV) I block them. Life's too short to waste too much time on people who want to play games. Back to the blocking!

If you're serious about self-pressing, buy a Seal 160 or 210 dry mount press. You should at least have the right equipment.

There are some unbelievable pieces. I mean, KJ page #1 for fark's sake.

Aside from Detective, Rogers' very short run on Doc Strange (#48-53) is, without a doubt, the best work he ever did. Every page is, as the Detective run, a feast for the eyes. That aside, there are a few pieces I'm bidding on...we'll see how it turns out.

You forgot "Cover, later printing cover, variant cover, later printing with new material, etc..."

By the way...an interesting twist on this topic is this: had Batman #251 been the Joker's first appearance...had the Joker never appeared before then, but still became the most popular Batman villain despite that, still enjoyed the popularity that he does today, still appeared as the main villain in the original Batman movie, still had the Heath Ledger performance, etc...then yes, Batman #251 would no question rival Hulk #181 in popularity, demand and value. in this "first appearance" obsessed market. Granted, that's what Finger, Robinson, and Kane had created in 1940, but...the character the Joker had become wasn't the character they created. Without the ensuing years, the boners, the TV show...it's certainly quite possible that the character that O'Neil and Adams essentially re-created in #251 would be one of the most sought after comics of the era. It's an interesting theory.

Same back atcha, Champ.

It stands out because it's the first, last, and only time that Neal Adams drew...in the Bronze Age...Batman's arch nemesis. Since "appearances" became a "thing" in the late 80's ("Punisher App! Wolverine App! Joker App!"), that book has stood out as the combination of the most popular Bronze artist, on the second most popular character in history, fighting his arch nemesis, arguably the most popular villain in the history of comics. Two Face is great, but what holds Two Face back is that he wasn't in the 60's TV show, he didn't even appear in the 60's (except as a throwaway "tryout" in WF #173), and he was basically a 2nd tier villain for Bats, after Joker, Penguin, and Riddler, until the mid 90's. So, #234 barely made a blip for over 20 years, because it featured the return of a forgotten, and forgettable at that point, character. But there's anecdotal evidence to suggest that Batman #251 was exceptionally well received at the time of publication, and, in fact, is what led to the Joker getting his own series a year and a half later (something that was virtually unheard of in comics...a villain getting a series?!) It's worth pointing out that, aside from reprints, the Joker didn't appear in Batman for over 5 years...from #201 (May 68) to #251 (Sept 73)...and didn't appear on the cover for almost 7 years (Batman #186, Nov 66.) I think it's a fair assessment to suggest that, after the uber campiness of the tv show, comics buyers were ready for a return of the Joker to much more sinister roots, which O'Neil and Adams provided.

There are tens of thousands of Stan Lee SS slabs out there...maybe well over 100,000 at this point. But there are millions of people who know who Stan is, and wouldn't mind owning something he signed after he dies. While the sig train has continued apace, there are tens of millions of copies of books that Stan directly worked on in existence, and BILLIONS more that he had an indirect influence on. Stan hasn't signed a drop in the bucket of what is out there, and he wouldn't touch that number even if he signed every weekend for the next 5 years. Yes, there are a lot of sellers who "throw money down the drain" by selling books for "less then cost." But there are also lots of people who get discounted sigs, and a lot of those sell them. When Stan dies, the sigs series books will almost certainly dry up, other than the wild overpricers like "mr-myxyztlplk" and the like.

Well, theoretically, the wax paper should keep them from sticking, but a good spritz of Pam would work, too. You might have some slight staining, though...

I agree with Jerkfro. When using wax paper to press books, make sure you pre-heat the oven to 350°. Otherwise, your books will cook unevenly.

It's not confusing at all. Thank you for clarifying what you meant.

Glad you agree.