RockMyAmadeus

This thread had 4,444 posts, with 4 new ones when I clicked it. Numerology.

So the guy isn't scummy because he doesn't dink around with expensive books, only cheap ones? What if he was selling an Action #1 but used a reprint as a stock photo? And solarcadet1 definitely deserves his lumps. If only HOS members could get banned so he wouldn't have to quote me and talk at me every time I make a post he's interested in. +1 I do NOT understand why someone on the HOS is tolerated around here. When we as a community put someone in the HoS, it's like we kicked them off the island in Survivor. Yet the producers have decided to just let them hang around. It's odd. Solarcadet could just FIX THE PROBLEM, and get off the HOS. But he doesn't. He thumbs his nose at this entire community, and nothing happens. Meanwhile...well...best not go down that road. RMA, I tried and did apologize and made right with the seller. The mods own the island not the islanders... I truly do not believe that you fully understand why your actions regarding a few things were more offensive than a monetary issue. When people try to question your behavior you thumb your nose in a way that basically says "FU" to people and that despite that I know that you are dealing through PM with people making transactions with international books. So until that is ever rectified, there are some of us that will never want to deal with you, myself included. It's a forum not the dark side buzzetta... I'm not doing any harm and if I was the mods would intervene. I don't sell international books for profit, I hunt them for fun for whoever wants one. You told people your dad had cancer, only to admit you lied and then apologized and not long after started making fun of concentration camps. You're a tool with zero conscience. Do your home work first...I directly copied that quote from Chespirito.... Mods were not offended so who in the forum pays you to police me? No one Hump the button all you want. Now let's all hold a moment of silence for my dear old gramps Let's explain this again: This: ...is the problem. You will not understand that it's not about whether the mods were offended or not. You refuse to humble yourself and acknowledge that others were, and apologize. You have complete contempt for everyone. You lack empathy, you lack sympathy, and you care about no one but Solarcadet1. The fact that you are so aggressively dismissive and contemptuous of anyone here tells me that this is common in your life in general, and for that, I feel for those who deal with you in real life. You may temper it in real life...but it certainly exists. And you hide behind the authority here, as if none of your actions means anything, so long as the mods don't get involved. You have contempt for everyone else, and, ultimately, for yourself.

So the guy isn't scummy because he doesn't dink around with expensive books, only cheap ones? What if he was selling an Action #1 but used a reprint as a stock photo? And solarcadet1 definitely deserves his lumps. If only HOS members could get banned so he wouldn't have to quote me and talk at me every time I make a post he's interested in. +1 I do NOT understand why someone on the HOS is tolerated around here. When we as a community put someone in the HoS, it's like we kicked them off the island in Survivor. Yet the producers have decided to just let them hang around. It's odd. Solarcadet could just FIX THE PROBLEM, and get off the HOS. But he doesn't. He thumbs his nose at this entire community, and nothing happens. Meanwhile...well...best not go down that road. You have been allowed your particular brand of crazy for what, a decade now?

So the guy isn't scummy because he doesn't dink around with expensive books, only cheap ones? What if he was selling an Action #1 but used a reprint as a stock photo? And solarcadet1 definitely deserves his lumps. If only HOS members could get banned so he wouldn't have to quote me and talk at me every time I make a post he's interested in. +1 I do NOT understand why someone on the HOS is tolerated around here. When we as a community put someone in the HoS, it's like we kicked them off the island in Survivor. Yet the producers have decided to just let them hang around. It's odd. Solarcadet could just FIX THE PROBLEM, and get off the HOS. But he doesn't. He thumbs his nose at this entire community, and nothing happens. Meanwhile...well...best not go down that road.

PS. HOS votes need to be PUBLIC, not part of a "poll", in which anyone can vote, and with shill accounts. One board member = one PUBLIC vote. If it's good enough for Congress, it's good enough for here.

So the guy isn't scummy because he doesn't dink around with expensive books, only cheap ones? What if he was selling an Action #1 but used a reprint as a stock photo? And solarcadet1 definitely deserves his lumps. If only HOS members could get banned so he wouldn't have to quote me and talk at me every time I make a post he's interested in. +1 I do NOT understand why someone on the HOS is tolerated around here.

*sniff....sniffffff*

Excellent! Now that I see them, I KNOW I have them somewhere. Ok, I'll have to compile a list of bagged second (and third?) printings.

Now I wonder if there are 2nd prints of the others....

Found it! You know, I have one of these in a box somewhere, and clearly forgot all about it. You were right, Jimmers! Some of these books are so obscure and scarce...

Pics?

those giant size anniversary issues from that era i think don't hold up so well, i wonder if a 9.6 or 9.8 is a tough one there The real problem with those DC "Anniversary" books (B&B #200, Tec #526, etc.) is that the "Anniversary" is printed in a metallic ink, and they attract fingerprints like magnets.

I don't know of any books that were reprints in the Marvel 2- or 3-packs except GI Joe and Thundercats. The Secret Wars books are all first prints.

B&B #200 $51? Why are people so crazy? I've got 10 copies of that book, somewhere.

What constitutes this being "no-contest"? While I'm not informed about the G.I. Joe reprints, the first issue of The 'Nam quickly went to a second printing due to demand in 1986. (I first started collecting right around this time, and the reprint was on sale around the same time as issue 3 or 4.) Wouldn't Star Wars reprints be a result of demand? Or, are we somehow separating second prints from reprints (which come out second)? I go with RMA.I believe the Joes and Star Wars were reprints,no? Joes are almost all labeled "second", "third" printing (except for #3-5), so they're easy to classify, even if they didn't come out until 1985-1986...2-4 years after they were first printed. The Joes are a quite unique situation. Someone at Hasbro was either pestering Marvel to reprint the books, or someone at Marvel was far-sighted (probably Larry Hama.) By 1985, early Joes were the hottest thing on the market, just before the explosion part of the B&W Explosion, and #2 first prints were $50 books at one pont (in 1985 dollars, making a raw copy worth about $125 in 2014 dollars!) FIrst, they reprinted #3-4 in 1983 (who knows why they didn't reprint #2 first, and #1 was, of course, because of the Baxter paper.) Then, a few other issues were reprinted in 1984 (#7, #10, #17-19), and the rest mostly in 1985 and 1986 (see 65 cent cover price, not in place before April, 1985 cover dates.) It was totally haphazard and random. I'm going to have to sit Larry Hama down some day and have him explain what was going on at the time. Why would you think Larry Hama had something to do with the situation with the reprints? Certainly as the writer he would have little input. Even if he also editing the books (I have no clue whether he was, just speculating from your comment) that may not be his decision to make. Decisions regarding print runs, reprints, etc., probably come somewhere else along the line, from marketing or sales departments. Larry Hama was much more than a writer at Marvel. Several of the editors and writers at Marvel, especially in the 70's and 80's, "floated" between production and other depts. (like Peter David, who was in circulation, and would have been intimately familiar with sales numbers), and were quite familiar (especially with the then-relatively new royalty system) with how well their own projects were doing. Since GI Joe was a toy tie-in, it simply made sense to make sure the book, in multiple different issues, was available in K-Mart, Walmart, and wherever the toys were sold for customers to purchase along with them. Why do you say "as a writer, he would have little input"? He certainly didn't make the final decision on print runs; that would be circulation, but they didn't work in vacuums. And Larry was a smart guy, and was involved with the project with Hasbro from the beginning. It makes perfect sense for Larry to have suggested to sales to have bagged reprints of the books (since Marvel had been doing bagged comics through Whitman for a decade or so at this point) on the shelves along with the toys. In 1983, the Marvel Books division took over the bagged distribution of licensed and in-house property tie-ins, which is when we see the first reprints of Joe, along with others, like Return of the Jedi (1983), Secret Wars (1984), the Star comics like Thundercats (1985) and Muppet Babies (1985.) Marvel Books would have either warehoused the copies they needed until they were ready to bag them, or reprinted whatever they wanted to include if they didn't have originals on hand. I'm not saying he did, but it's not far fetched at all. Someone certainly made the decision to include Joe in the project, albeit in a most random way.

In fact....this may go some length to explain the Bizarro pricing of these books during that era. If you look at ads from the era, pricing was all over the place, with #2 being the most expensive, but #3-5 being cheaper than #6 and #8, and #12 being more expensive than #9-11, etc. It was quite bizarre. But... If you consider that #3-5 were reprinted earlier, but lacked markings noting that (esp #3-4), it's entirely possible that the reprints filled in the demand that books that weren't reprinted until 1986....like #6, #8, etc....couldn't fill with their original print runs. That really sounds plausible.

When I found the above detailed SW #4, I thought "surely, there HAVE to be more." Looking through every other box...zip. Nada.

GACK! SS price variants!!! My head is about to explode with the awesomeness of it all!!!! Speaking of which...I found my very first 35 center in the wild, ever, in 25 years of collecting. It was a Star Wars #4...I was thumbing through a dealer's Bronze box, and nearly passed it by. Something caught my eye, and I went back...sure enough, that squat 35 cent price was staring me right in the face. I had to do a couple of takes to let it sink in, simply because it's just not something you see stuck in with worthless copies of the run. Price? $1. Grade: potential 8.0. I've owned 2-3 35 centers over the years....a Marvel Preview #12, X-Men #107, and maybe one other...the Marvel Preview I may have bought in the wild, but it's long gone, so I don't remember. In any event, first time I found one at a con. And it was in a box that people had already pawed through for several hours!

What constitutes this being "no-contest"? While I'm not informed about the G.I. Joe reprints, the first issue of The 'Nam quickly went to a second printing due to demand in 1986. (I first started collecting right around this time, and the reprint was on sale around the same time as issue 3 or 4.) Wouldn't Star Wars reprints be a result of demand? Or, are we somehow separating second prints from reprints (which come out second)? I go with RMA.I believe the Joes and Star Wars were reprints,no? Joes are almost all labeled "second", "third" printing (except for #3-5), so they're easy to classify, even if they didn't come out until 1985-1986...2-4 years after they were first printed. The Joes are a quite unique situation. Someone at Hasbro was either pestering Marvel to reprint the books, or someone at Marvel was far-sighted (probably Larry Hama.) By 1985, early Joes were the hottest thing on the market, just before the explosion part of the B&W Explosion, and #2 first prints were $50 books at one pont (in 1985 dollars, making a raw copy worth about $125 in 2014 dollars!) FIrst, they reprinted #3-4 in 1983 (who knows why they didn't reprint #2 first, and #1 was, of course, because of the Baxter paper.) Then, a few other issues were reprinted in 1984 (#7, #10, #17-19), and the rest mostly in 1985 and 1986 (see 65 cent cover price, not in place before April, 1985 cover dates.) It was totally haphazard and random. I'm going to have to sit Larry Hama down some day and have him explain what was going on at the time.

What constitutes this being "no-contest"? While I'm not informed about the G.I. Joe reprints, the first issue of The 'Nam quickly went to a second printing due to demand in 1986. (I first started collecting right around this time, and the reprint was on sale around the same time as issue 3 or 4.) Wouldn't Star Wars reprints be a result of demand? Or, are we somehow separating second prints from reprints (which come out second)? Yes, there was nothing called "second printing" for Star Wars. They are just labeled "reprint", and there were more than two of them.

What constitutes this being "no-contest"? While I'm not informed about the G.I. Joe reprints, the first issue of The 'Nam quickly went to a second printing due to demand in 1986. (I first started collecting right around this time, and the reprint was on sale around the same time as issue 3 or 4.) You're right! I forgot all about Nam #1. Thanks! That does raise an interesting question, though... How fast does a later printing have to show up to differentiate it from a reprint (such as the Joes, printed 2-4 years after the fact) vs. a "second" (or third, or fourth) printing? Ghost Rider #1 was an instant sellout, and the reprint was ordered and printed very quickly, but how quickly...I do not recall.

Now, the hysteria SURROUNDING the Death of Superman...now THAT was the real entertainment. That was way, way better than the actual story itself It was the very last vestiges of the old conventional wisdom...that comic books were worthless, kid's entertainment, best suited for the trash can...swept out with the early morning breeze, and the new era,..where comic books were all instant collector's items, and everyone had to save them in perfect condition, and you would be able to send your kids to college one day with them...was officially inaugurated.

I can see it now, though... A generation later, and people will be trying to track down the "ultra rare" Direct versions of books like Alpha Flight #81 and Doctor Strange #28...concluding, erroneously, that they had to have existed at some point...without realizing that they never did. At some point, I should put together a list of books that were only printed in UPC format. Speaking of which...did any of you ever buy comics from a newsstand source that actually scanned the code? I never saw anyone scan the code, ever. Even today, I never see anyone scan the code, though it would certainly make sense to do so.

I'm assuming that Quasar Special is officially a reprint, do you know if that's accurate? I know it's listed as being issued on the same month as # 32. I don't believe it's a reprint. It came out at the same time. I was reading Galactic Storm as it came out - all 19 parts - and my copy of Part 3 is the Quasar Special #1. I'm sure it came out the same day as Quasar #32, else it would have completely upset my reading order and I would have been forced to have stern words with my LCS. For what it's worth, despite the fact that my copy is a #1 on the cover, the indicia lists it as Quasar #32, not Quasar Special #1. Also for what it's worth, my copy has a picture in the UPC box instead of a bar code. I also was buying from an LCS when this came out. I suspect, therefore, that like the Doctor Strange & Ghost Rider #1, there may actually be three versions of this comic - Quasar #32, Quasar Special #1 direct edition, and Quasar Special #1 newsstand edition. edit: I looked on ebay, and sure enough, there are both newsstand and direct versions of Quasar Special #1. Correct. Marvel would not want a "different version" of this book not available to the Direct market, so they printed DM copies of the specials to go along with the newsstand versions.

I'm assuming that Quasar Special is officially a reprint, do you know if that's accurate? I know it's listed as being issued on the same month as # 32. Not a reprint, no.