Turnando

On 4/29/2024 at 3:00 PM, Ken Aldred said:

Whether it’s the Translate software being used, or not, even in the friendlier threads started by the OP, about artists or favourite comics, and so on, there tends to be quite an aggressive tone which can sound slightly abrasive to a native English speaker, more used to a neutral construction.

It's a Swiss thing. I think the OP is a good dude and cannot help being Swiss. 

I live surrounded by Swiss (and especially German) expats in Central America.  They are ALL like that. Without exception.  I have met 50 of them personally and I swear to god there are no exceptions.

It took me 15 years to become friends with a German in my neighborhood. Here is how he introduced himself to me: "I hate it when Americans say 'awesome'".... I had just said 'awesome' to him.

On 4/24/2024 at 2:06 PM, littledoom said:

My issue is when I have a $100 book on the wall for $50 and then the buyer asks for a discount on top of that after it's already half off lol.

When they do that say, "Oh wow that's a $100 book.  I must have been tired when i priced that one..." 

Then pull out a pen and mark it up to $100 and say, "Thanks for pointing that one out!"

Thank you for the post @BA773.

I have always enjoyed your posts.

I didn't know you were Swiss.  You are a good ambassador for your country!

I have run into a fair number of Swiss expats in Latin America and I'm pretty sure I ended up angry each time.  Only last month I had sworn to myself I'd never talk to another Swiss expat after one of them ruined my seat at the bar. I was perfectly happy, sitting with a stray dog at the bar, and they came into the bar, fresh off the plane, and wanted to talk to an American about their admiration of Putin.

Your love of comics has helped me see the error of my ways. I will give the next Swiss-in-the-jungle a fair chance. I'll tell them I know a Swiss dude who likes Batman and maybe that will help steer them towards a friendly conversation instead of a bar fight.

I am having the same problem ComicCare current size ComicCovers.

I have some backing boards that were working fine in my old UltraPro current size bags until I ran out and started trying to use these ComicCare bags. They are a tiny bit narrower than my old bags.

The ComicCare bags are too snug. I have to trim off a millimeter of the width of a board to get the board into the bag. The bags and boards have an actual width of 7".  I can jam a board in there untrimmed but it is so tight that it warps a bit and stretches the bag and it is too tight to jam a book in there with the board.

I don't know what brand my boards are.  Maybe I should not have expected any "current size" bag to fit any "current size" board. 

That Weird Science is nice.  That has to be worth way more than a coverless copy.

imo, the technical grade doesn't really apply to these books.  They are too cool for that. They have become something else.

All of those are cool, including the Thor.

I like folk art made with love and that is what those covers are.

You only have a few months but if I were you I'd use this as the motivation to downsize by selling as many books as you can.  Sell only the books that you don't love. I bet that is most of them. You said you don't really want to move them yourself so maybe think again about how much you love them.

I have been downsizing my massive toy collection this year and it has been liberating. To an extreme degree.  Freedom is in view.

My goal is to fit my treasures into a single small closet. I can't wait to get there.

If a buyer asked me to ship to an address different than the one they have set in eBay I'd cancel their order and block them.  

On 11/3/2023 at 6:45 PM, ganni said:

What type of book rest do you use when reading the heavy ones?

I have decided to stop buying huge omnis because they are so uncomfortable to read.

I'm selling my new huge Aliens omnibuses and I bought the small OOP Dark Horse omnis as a replacement... just because they are so much easier to read.

Just curious if anyone else blocks buyers for making lowball offers.

I do it and find it to be satisfying.  Especially for offers made on listings that are "buy it now" without "or best offer" and are priced at or below recent sales.

I have an AirBnb/Vrbo House and the only guests I've had trouble with are the ones who haggled for a better deal... even though my house is set at a low price for what it is.  I used to engage with those folks just to get a rental.  No more.  That type of behavior is a red flag. Every one of my bad guests was a haggler.  100% of the bad guests. That is where I learned my lesson... never deal with anyone who asks for a better deal when you are already offering a good deal. Do not counter offer, cut them off.

I want to give a shout out to eBayers who are patient when a problem occurs. Especially buyers.

It makes things so much easier to fix.

I'm selling a lot on eBay lately (collectible toys) and I screwed up 4 times in the past few weeks.

I'm honest but they don't know that, so for them to politely report a problem and give me a chance to fix it... instead of jumping on me from the beginning... is such a nice thing.

The 3/18 date marking is cool.  I'm sure there is someone out there who was born on March 18, 1968 who would love to have this one.

I like date stamps, store stamps, 3 hole punches, unverified sigs on the splash page ... the kinds of defects that aren't really defects when they are considered in context.

Fixed price is so much simpler than anything else.  I prefer buying and selling that way just to keep life easier.

Looking forward to it.  I'll buy a book.

Thanks for doing this. Mental illness and homelessness are very tightly coupled. I think of them as essentially the same thing.

My cousin died in a tent in L.A. this year.  A hardcore homeless alcoholic, but really it was bipolar disorder. 

On 10/11/2023 at 3:14 PM, whisp said:

I built this dice tower for my D&D Legend of Drizzt board game.

Wow, that looks great!

It looks like you have one of the miniatures primed and attached to a pill bottle handle, ready to paint. 

Are you going to paint the minis? Post some photos if you do.  I'm going to try to paint mine.  I'm going to use the Legend of Drizzt Visual Dictionary as a guide.  I just bought it.  It is getting cheap, like $17.

I played the game a few times by myself last week and lost both times

On 10/11/2023 at 11:24 PM, VintageComics said:

So, tell me: what's going on with comics? 

 

So sad.  That looks like a Power Point slide that I created for a presentation I didn't want to give.  Where is the art, Marvel? Hopefully that is just a test screen to make sure it's plugged in.

I don't read a lot of manga but where I do (Akira, Naausica, Ghost in the Machine...) I was drawn in by some appealing art.  The writing translates poorly, imo, but I do like the art.

On 10/9/2023 at 9:11 PM, Cat said:

It is tempting to just use a plastic bag with "FrAgIlE" marked on it in Sharpie,  That'd be an upgrade to what I got. 

I think your seller was in line in front of me at the Post Office today.

Dude was mailing something in one of those ridiculous white plastic mailing bags. 

Post Office guy asks, "Anything hazardous, fragile, or perishable in the package?".... and the guy answers, "Yes.  Fragile.  Cheapest method please."

On 10/9/2023 at 3:44 PM, Cat said:

They couldn't even give me the courtesy of using a bloody box. It was sent in a bag, marked 'FRAGILE' on the other side, and covered in layers of bubble tape.

That is reckless.  I would be sending it back for a refund. I'd go for a refund for my return shipping charges... and I'd ship it back in a plastic bag.

And definitely leave negative feedback. The only comment you need for that is "Shipped MOC figure in a plastic bag. Ruined"

luerh70

eBay Manga seller. 6.5K items sold.

I'm selling and a few minutes after I listed some manga he messaged me to ask if I'll be selling any other manga.

Mildly annoying, why not just click "see seller's other items"... probably fishing for some off eBay deals before I list my next lot... but who knows... I gave him a short list of the Manga I'd listed and he came back with an offer of $15 for $54 in listings... some "Buy it Now" that are listed to not have "or best offer".

At that point I blocked them.

They are fishing eBay to get stock for their massive eBay store and they are doing it by lowballing other sellers. 

My prices were below average, good deals, I'm pricing to sell quick.  I checked and their giant store is full of premium prices. 

Nothing criminal, maybe not even immoral.  But annoying and parasitic.

On 9/15/2023 at 3:21 PM, whisp said:

Finally I also got the Legend of Drizzt board game.

Cool!  You made me want that Drizzt game.  I ordered it... arrives tomorrow.  

On 8/25/2023 at 10:20 AM, comicwiz said:

I know some of the contributors, and I realize they put time/effort into this, but it is pointless.

I suspect that some of them are interested in the vintage SW accessories just as accessories.  Not necessarily caring about matching them to the variant fig they go with but just wanting to recognize the accessory variants.

Back in the day I collected loose vintage SW figs and I ended up liking collecting genuine accessories more than the figs themselves. So many fakes out there, it was fun to get good at recognizing genuine accessories. 

I used to buy crappy condition figs that had rare accessories, just for the accessory.  Some of the bigger sellers on rebelscum used to clear out their stashes of common accessories and I'd buy those too.

I have a whole of them and they are my favorite part of my vintage SW collection.

I'd list it on NYC CraigsList and offer free delivery. That might get some interest. Then get the heck out of there.

A large piece of furniture in a dense urban area is a tough sell, IMO.  Tempt them with free delivery.

My kid went to school in Jersey and I used to fly into Newark and take the train.  Jesus. When I'm in your area I can feel the density with my eyes closed.  It is oppressive.

In the urban parts of NJ I can't even find an AirBnB where I can park a car off the street.  Because every square foot around there is full. The house is on a tiny patch with no garage.  It is oppressive and weird.  Hopefully you are moving away from the sardine can. 

Ryan Browne is a genius of a comic creator. He publishes using the regular route via a major comic publisher but he also does Kickstarters for special projects... incredible stuff.

https://imagecomics.com/creators/ryan-browne

I like Kickstarter a lot. 

Ignore the mountains of junk and find the treasure buried beneath.  There is plenty there.

On 6/17/2023 at 9:43 AM, C. Spaulding said:

The Plastic Man is rough but for $3 I can’t complain.

Wow.  Cool cover. The cartoon guy on the right is horrible but Plastic Man and the skeletor dude make up for it.

I'd fold that bottom right corner over if it were mine for $3.  That cartoon guy is like a turd in a punch bowl.