RockMyAmadeus

I do wonder, after having spent tens of thousands of dollars there from 1999-2010, how things are now. Anything you'd care to share?

No. Savvy slab buyers buy restored labels on the cheap, crack them out, then sell the now-raw books to HOS. "Sold raw....to them." That is my theory. I cannot prove it. But after being the victim of several of their "undisclosed resto" books...and watching them get tons of otherwise realllllly nice keys on a regular basis, while other stores in the area did not...I believe I have put two and two together. The worst part is that Paul (the owner of HOS) was only willing to refund me the price I paid for my Avengers #1...despite the fact that it was now in a CGC slab with a Stan Lee sig on it. In other words, he got $100+ in signing and grading fees for free. Haven't been back since, and that was 2010. Spent maybe $10,000 on back issues, mostly $1 books, in 2007 alone. My business wasn't important to him, so...no mas. There are plenty of other dealers who will sell me unrestored books for a reasonable price.

That's not greed. That's just plain old fear. Fear of getting caught holding the bag, in whatever form that bag takes.

There's always one of 'em in a crowd. The guy that has to explain the joke....

I agree, sort of. But what would a collapse look like? The vast majority of CGC SS ALREADY don't sell for profit, and the actual market is still quite niche, with people just buying a few of whatever they like. I don't think that there's tons of dealers sitting on tons of overpriced CGC SS that are just waiting to cash in someday. A lot of people TRY doing CGC SS for profit and get jammed up with some slabs, but they don't invest with their savings or to the point of ridiculousness (like in the 90s). I guess the Stan market could collapse, but that would be well after his death I assume, but then people would still be ..."But there won't be anymore, I don't want to let go that cheaply". I'm just not sure what would cause the market to say "Stan Lee CGC SS on Silver Surfer 4 AND Greg Capullo CGC SS on New 52 Batman AND Berni Wrightson on CGC SS on Swamp Thing ALL WILL DROP PRECIPITOUSLY IN THE SAME TWO WEEKS". People will always like signed stuff, and yes, things go up and down with the fame and popularity of artists and creators, but its always about riding the wave til you catch the next one or until you collected something you really want to keep. That's the key with the age of today, comics stop (or slow down) trading very often with people who want to keep them, and because of the internet they usually find their way to a keeper, even if its not at a super high price, its not pennies on the dollar. And then supply becomes lower again (yes I get that demand becomes lower too). *Also it shouldn't be ignored that a lot of buyers, sellers, flippers, part-time dealers have other jobs that actually pay the bills, which means they're rarely overextended to the point where they HAVE to liquidate for pennies on the dollar, or that they would have to stop buying/collecting entirely if they had some losses. They do it for fun and profit, and make up a pretty significant amount of the comic world now I think, especially here on the boards. That also makes it harder and less likely to have to NEED to flood the market for any given issue or type of issues. All true. AND... The vast, vast, vast...like 75% or more...majority of those doing SS are doing it AT COST. That is, they are either schlepping the books to cons with their own witnesses, or grabbing CGC witnesses, and doing it themselves, or they're paying someone a nominal cost to do it for them. They're not paying "market prices" for them, for the most part. Consider: as of this week, there are 587,494 SS books in existence. That number isn't exact, but it's well, well within the margin of error. Right now, on eBay, there are 10.587 listings under the search term "CGC SS" and 2,229 under the search term "CGC signature." That's HALF a percent (.5%) to a little less than 2% of all the CGC signature series books that exist. Heritage has 16...yes, just 16...available for sale, and as far as I can see, the other similar sites are the same. Those are phenomenal numbers. That means 98% OR BETTER of the signature series books are in the hands of people who aren't selling them at this time. How many of those are in dealer inventory, just waiting to be sold? I dunno...maybe another 2-3%? I set up at the Oceanside comic show in 2016, and had an entire wall, and plenty of boxes, made almost solely of CGC SS books. I was the only "dealer" in the room who had more than 10 SS slabs. No, SS is a very collector-centric niche, Facebook "dealers" aside.

Your eBay name doesn't even need to match your Paypal name. I've bought things for friends, and had them shipped to them, under their name, many times. The thing that counts is that confirmed address.

You are correct here. Comics are such a niche market, and people look for such specific things, that the "listings pushed down" don't really matter too much. Selling electronic widgets? That's a different story.

What is greed...? No, it's not what the idjit OIiver Stone put in the mouth of Gordon Gecko. Greed isn't the desire for more and more...that's gluttony. Greed is simple: it's an extension, and expression, of jealousy. The idea that someone else has or gets something that YOU think THEY don't deserve (and which, of course, you DO.) THAT is greed. "What? Cindy got a new bike, and I only got a box of Legos?? That's not fair!" That's greed.

If I had grown up with Stan Lee's 1960s Marvel universe, and had the means to do so, I would absolutely have gone after a complete Stan SS set. Absolutely. I've gone after a complete Totleben/Bissette Swamp Thing run, MM run, Sam Kieth's work, Jim Lee's work, Liefeld's work (yeah, I know), Sergio's Groo...all the books that were important to me when I was at my formative period as a collector. So, yeah, if I was 20 years older, I would totally have gone after a complete Stan Lee SS Marvel run. Can you imagine?

There are collectors at the ends of these chains. These books aren't just being done by flippers constantly flipping to each other. My SS collection is the crown jewel of it all (in my collection.) I don't think you're going to see a "OMG, Stan's dead!" rush to market. There was no such rush with Bernie, nor with Len, nor with Herb, nor with most of the other guys who have left us. YES, they're not Stan, but Stan IS Stan, and a lot of people do Stan to COLLECT Stan. An ambitious SS guy could do Stan's entire catalog of Marvel, from FF #1 to whenever he stopped actively creating comics. An even MORE ambitious fan could do everything...that's something in the neighborhood of 2,000-3,000 different books...that Stan wrote. That would be a sight to see. And if that happened, it wouldn't even scratch the surface of what actually exists. Frankly, I'm immensely disappointed that I never did a lot of the guys I could have done before they left us, AND...I'm sad that there weren't more done. People blitch about SS and creators "having" to sign hundreds of books, but the reality is, there's only a finite amount of time and resources, and once they're gone...that's it. There will be no more Joe Kubert signed books, ever. The set of Frank Frazetta SS books is complete (at about 125, by the way.) So, I say, get them done, and get them done now. There may not be an opportunity in the future.

OMG...these just made my day!!! Jim It's too bad you didn't use your super runner speed to catch all the books before they fell.

Indeed.

Sorry to hear about that. I, too, got caught with a married copy that wasn't disclosed (though it hadn't been through CGC.) An Avengers #1 5.5...married 5th wrap. Not Ross...or maybe it was, through intermediaries...but I was heartbroken, because I'd gotten it signed by Stan. Avoid House of Secrets in Burbank, CA. That's where I bought it. It is my belief and opinion, based on my personal experience, that because the owner doesn't care a whit about restoration, that it is a dumping ground for restored books bought at low prices, cracked out, and sold raw...for much higher prices...to them. Hulk #181, Avengers #1, JLA #2 with a missing page...there were more, too. A shame.

Nice! MM #4's cover has always made me very uncomfortable. Who doesn't love being impaled by spikes...?

When Gladstone took over publishing the Disney titles in 1986, it was a fairly big deal, and the first issues of those runs (WDC&S #511, Donald Duck #246, etc) were a big deal, climbing to $15 or so in the OPG...at a time when cover prices were still 75 cents. They're fun, cute stories.

My first show ever as a witness. Good times. Miss you, with gravy.

Would it be embarrassing to admit that the idea of another Byrne SS opp gets me so excited, I'm slightly aroused....? Yes...? Ok, never mind then.

That's because people were talking about it on the CGC board. Now look what you've done.

That raises a really interesting question. Since the company that manufactured these in 1909 did NOT "finish production" on the uncut sheet (can you imagine?), then the card was trimmed in the first place OUTSIDE of manufacture. If Mastro trimmed it again...what's the difference...? Setting aside the "he did this to make the card appear nicer" argument, which is a given...but if the card was trimmed post-production to remove it from its sheet...what's the technical difference of what Mastro did? And why wasn't the card regarded as "trimmed" from the first procedure?

The magic of Star Trek has always, always been the characters. People don't love ST...they love Kirk, and Spock, and Bones, and Uhura, and "Oh myyyy" and Picard and Data, and 7 of 9...etc etc etc. WD, on the other hand, has a nasty habit of killing everyone off. And Andrea's never coming back.

If you get an unconfirmed address as a seller, gently but firmly tell the buyer you can only ship to confirmed addresses, and that confirming an address through Paypal is easy. Haven't had an unconfirmed address in a long time. Don't ever ship to them. Ever.

One of the most annoying things I've ever encountered was a woman showing me her stash of VG/F Captain Americas in the 180s and 190s, along with other likewise 30 and 35 cent comics...convinced they were worth money. You try to genuinely help these people, by giving them an honest dose of reality, and they think you're trying to scam them. So, I tell them to look them up on eBay instead.

Superman #75 was never offered on any home shopping show. It sold out far too quickly, and was a monstrous, monstrous hit: DC's best selling individual issue in their 80+ year history. Adventures of Superman #500, however, was.

In the Canadian version, the most expensive property is a sheep farm in Halifax. This should have WAY more than just two likes. It's the joke of the year.

What a shame. I saw her a few years ago at Horror Con in Burbank. Wish I'd stopped to say hi. "You've got me....? Who...who's got YOU??" See you on the other side, Margot.