RockMyAmadeus

Well, then, I should head up there and point them out. Alberta smells funny, though.

Look at Todd's signature on the book itself...you know, the scroll. Compare the letters, especially the last "E". Then compare to other books signed at the same time. I don't think you're getting an "unverified" over at Voldie's for this one. Could be wrong, but I doubt it.

I don't know. He's got a french canadian accent, he's short (5'8" or so?), and black hair which is slightly greying with age. I'd say he's 45-50 or so. I've seen him over the years, but he was overpriced a decade ago, so I didn't waste too much time there. With the market the way it is, I figured it was time for another look. Oops.

Oh, and the other books that I pulled out where a Groo #1 Pacific ($25), a couple of Zatanna prestige one-shots (which weren't "priced properly"), and a few other misc. books. I don't know if he would have given me a "deal"; we didn't get that far. For the DD #161 to be a deal, he would have had to sell it to me for about $15...and with a $75 "price tag", I doubt that was happening. It's not a deal if the "discount" brings you back to FMV for a properly graded copy. Like I said, the DD #161 has potential, as does the Groo #1 for 9.8, which is why I pulled them. I thought the Groo #1 was worth it, even at his inflated price (see what they're selling for on eBay.)

I doubt it. His business acumen is nil. You don't blitch at a customer for pulling out books they then decide they don't want, especially while they still have other books they're considering buying. That is childish and petulant behavior. Combine that with his overgrading (if you get a chance, he has a DD #161 that he marked as "NM+" that might hit 9.6 with a press...might...for $75. As it stands, it's a nice 9.0-9.2) and his overpricing, and you've got a real winner on your hands. I thought the days of dealers whining and complaining about customers pulling things to look at that they don't buy was left back in the early 90's. Like so much of that ugly period, we've returned to entitled retailers again...? Yay. And we're not talking about long boxes, here...it was 6 or 7 books. In any event, I think his business name is "major comics" or somesuch.

Take it down a notch or seven, sparky. No need to contribute to the massive overuse, misuse, and abuse of the words "troll" and "bully" to refer to anyone who posts anything that disagrees with our cherished notions, especially to refer to a post that only has two emoticons. COAs are functionally worthless, regardless of who they're from. The sig looks just fine. Occam's razor applies here: if the book has little to no value, it's not going to be worth someone's time to attempt to forge it. And if someone thinks "oh, it's probably a practice forgery!", I've got some other conspiracy theories you might be interested in.

He's just looking for someone to pay his bills...

By the way...lest you think I'm being overly critical, I thought specifically of you while looking through those long boxes, echoing your words about 95 cent Marvels in my head.

No, not them. Ah well, it will come to me. They set up at a lot of US shows.

I had to post the above post three times, because the previous two times it was "hidden", as I mentioned Voldemort by name, and had to figure out that it was Voldemort's name that was causing my posts to be "hidden." Silly me, mentioning a company by its name in a discussion. We're not children, CGC message board. It would be nice not to be treated as such.

You're muddying the discussion. The point of contention has nothing to do with key books that are key because of factors unrelated to cover price. A Tales of the Teen Titans #44 isn't a "key of a key" if it's a canadian price version. It's just a canadian price version of a book that is a key. The book is a key whether it's a Direct version, a newsstand version, or a canadian version (aside: I don't call them "variants", because they aren't variants. They weren't produced as "alternates" for the same market. It's also why newsstands aren't "variants", despite what Voldemort may think.) Trying to say "this particular book is a key within the canadian price version subset" is making the point quite a bit too fine, as I alluded to before.

I know his name, but it's slipped my mind. Something to do with military or something? I almost laughed out loud at his behavior. "If you don't want these, why did you pull them out?" Uh...because I wanted to LOOK at them...?

By the way...while I was at C2E2, I had the unfortunate displeasure of attempting to deal with a french canadian dealer, whose name escapes me at the moment, who had about 7 long boxes of canadian versions. I looked through a few of them, picked out a few, but he was asking absurd prices (as he does on everything he sells) for all of them...starting at $10 each. And, of course, he combines overpricing with overgrading, for a double whammy of a rip off. Granted, it's a fun subset, but let's be realistic, here: F/VF copies of the vast majority of these books aren't worth $10 (and, of course, he gets the advantage of being paid in the currently much more valuable US$1, even though his inventory doesn't get re-priced when he crosses the border.) A Justice League International #12 isn't worth $15US. Sorry. That wasn't so bad...but after I was done looking, and had pulled out perhaps 6-7 of these books, I decided I didn't want them, but while still thinking about other books I had pulled..and the guy, after talking with some other dealer about religious nonsense, starts to blitch and lecture about pulling out stuff, then not buying it. I was taken aback that a dealer would talk to a potential customer like that...especially while I was still deciding on the other books. He actually said "why are you wasting my time? I thought you wanted these. Now I have to put these back!!" Boo. Effing. Hoo. If you can't manage your inventory, you don't belong selling it. Customers have the right to pull whatever they want to look at, and if they ultimately decide they don't want to buy it, not be lectured about it. That's how retail sales works. I put the stack I was contemplating down, and started to walk away....and he was still blitching: "you shouldn't be pulling things you're not going to buy..." I walked back to him and said "I'm sorry, but is there something wrong with you? You don't talk to customers that way. If you don't want to put things back, you ought not be working in retail." Can you imagine Macy*s blitching at customers for not putting the clothes they decided not to buy back on the racks...? I was amazed that a dealer would talk to anyone that way, but apparently, this guy has a poor reputation going back many years. What a . It's a shame, too, because I probably would have happily paid $3/book for a good chunk of them. But, no no, must get every penny.

Within this subset, there are keys to buy. You're making an extreme definition of "key" which I believe is far too exclusionary. For example, a "key" within the 30 cent variant set is Kid Colt 208. That book is by far the hardest to find and a key to any set - therefore, when you are putting that set together, it is a "key". Is it a "key" like Amazing Fantasy 15? Of course not. Except that there's nothing in this set that would compare in any reasonable way to KC #208. Your admiration of 95 cent Marvels notwithstanding, there's nothing that's "key" simply because it's a hard(er) to find example of the canadian versions. And even KC #208 will forever have to be qualified with "...within the 30 cent variant set."

Oh your that guy. Kk th4nkz for inf0z. So this is a thread about CPVs, do you have any to show off? Glibly dismissing people's posts because you don't have a valid counterargument is a good way to land you on the persona non grata list around here. If you can make a rational, logical response, do so. Everyone is enriched by thoughtful, well-reasoned discussion. Otherwise, this is the message board of the premier comic book grading company, not the Hannah Montana fanclub. You can always tell...it's the ones who can't spell "you're."

It's funny...I was part of the GSP since its beta inception back about 10 years ago. I kept reading, here and elsewhere, that many international buyers won't deal with the GSP. I used to sell quite a bit to international customers. Starting about 2013 or so, I noticed I no longer had them. Last year, I decided, after reading numerous posts by international buyers, to opt out of the GSP. International customers came back. So, I dunno what is best, really. I did have the GSP lose a package in Kentucky, which was annoying.

For the record, not every Hughes book is now worth fat stacks of cash. Went to Sac Con, and some guy was trying to sell Maze Agency #1 for $5. It's a quarter book, people. Not even having Adam Hughes art is going to change that. Get back to me when his FAR SUPERIOR JLI run is selling for more than cover price. Especially #34.

You're going to sell it for your kids?

Nobody knows the print run of these books but Marvel and the printers. What you can see are only sales numbers, and limited sales numbers at that.

CGC hasn't moved on this, and probably won't until they establish the obvious other grades first. It would be stupid to have a "9.6+" or "9.6*" grade without the very obvious "9.7" in place first. As MisterX noted, the Certified Acceptance Corporation, or "CAC", looks at slabbed coins, and determines if they are accurately graded or even undergraded, and how nice they look for their grade. This can be, and is, a valuable service to those who can't see the book for themselves in person before buying, and are afraid of picking up "dud grade" books. There are, as extensively noted elsewhere on this forum, many examples of "dud grades." Obviously, they can't account for the inside of the book, but that's not the point. The point is strictly based on eye appeal. Does the book look typical for its assigned grade, or does it look better? That's the reason for the service. There are people who will happily pay a premium for a book that has a superb color strike, for example, despite its technical grade. There are a ton bunch of orange-y Hulk #181s out there...but to have a copy with a deep red strike? That's difficult to show even under the best photographic conditions. It does no one any credit to dismiss the idea, especially with scorn and contempt, in light of the frequent "boy did CGC get THIS wrong" comments that are posted here and elsewhere. EDIT: This is not an endorsement of CVA, by any means. I do not know how well they do what they claim to do. This is simply an endorsement of the idea.

My job as a buyer is to get what I want for the lowest possible price I can. My job as a seller is to sell what I have for the highest possible price I can. It is not my responsibility to make sure others get a "reasonable profit" (whatever that means), and it is no one else's responsibility to make sure I get the same. Competition is the key to success. If someone can't make a business of it, they're doing it wrong, and need...not just deserve, need...to go out of business, to make way for those who can do it correctly.

My favorite story was about the cars that got towed away, and the one guy who was smart enough not to park in a no-parking zone. Oh, and how to pronounce Pho.

There has never been a time when there was no one buying Valiants, since they began. It was just a matter of not being in the right place. Had I been there, I would have happily, gladly, joyfully bought all of those books for cover price, as many as they had. If they had 1,000 copies of X-O #1 in the late 90's, I would have gladly paid $2,000 for them all. VEI doesn't have the same magic.

Sure, so long as everyone knows that there's no way to add hard numbers to it. I just saw someone on eBay advertise the C2E2 Rick & Morty variant as "500 print run." It wasn't a print run of 500. But that doesn't stop people from making numbers up out of thin air.