Gonzimodo

Okay, I just watched the video again, and you do kind of go into the survivability of newsstand copies, but it still seems just a little out of place to me. I guess I was misinterpreting what you were going for there and got hung up on your use of "percentages." I'm not sure how I would change that, though. Maybe just get rid of "percentages" and stay with the idea of "more newsstand copies" surviving. I'm starting to babble now...

You could also fly to an authorized submitter's location in Florida to cut down on your books' travel time and distance to CGC. I'm sure there are plenty who could assist you or even work with you to meet at CGC so they could do the official drop-off. (I was being dense and thinking you could just go directly to CGC to submit in person, too, but the point is that taking the books yourself, at least most of the way there, definitely seems like an option once shipping costs reach a certain point.) My expensive books are small potatoes compared to many of yours, but when I sent some out for pressing, I was paranoid the whole time they were gone. (I shipped them via Registered Mail, by the way.) If I were sending in books worth thousands of dollars to CGC, I would probably schedule a vacation and carry them personally as far as I was able, anyway.

I'm too lazy to go back and read the entire thread again, so apologies if I'm beating a dead horse or provoking more arguments. I think the section from about 3:00 to 3:30 may be a little confusing to new people coming in, or it may not even really belong in this video at all. This is where it talks about "immediately popular" books being sought out on the newsstands after they sold out in comic stores. The term "surviving newsstand percentages" kind of comes out of left field. You did mention that nonreturnable direct editions would have remained in comic stores and that unsold newsstand editions were supposed to be returned and destroyed, and also the idea that direct market distribution eventually overtook newsstand distribution, but there's really no mention of "surviving percentages" of the two. Maybe there should be a more explicit statement linking those ideas to indicate that in general, more direct editions than newsstand editions are believed to have survived over the years for most comics, at least in high grade. Of course, that is still debatable based on all the back and forth I've seen, so maybe you just didn't want to include such a statement. I just think that it would make for a better transition into the discussion about immediately popular books, or you could just leave out that section altogether if you don't want to get into the fight over rarity of newsstand editions vs. direct editions, as that really doesn't seem to be the point of the video, anyway. Overall, I think it's really good, though.

When is someone finally going to publish the official rosters of each warring faction here and our individual cootie levels?

That was me back in the mid-80s when I first started collecting. As a newbie collector with only newsstand comics, I had no idea what was going on when I found a comic with that Spider-Man head instead of a UPC box. I just assumed they were all 2nd printings, because I was getting them from those department store three-packs. Some (usually GI Joes) were second prints, but most were just regular direct editions. It took me awhile to figure that out.

I never had Baron Karza, but my older brother's friend gave his horse (Andromeda) to me when he was getting rid of some stuff back in the mid-80s. It's complete in the box, including the plastic tray and instructions, which is almost unheard of coming from a non-collector in the late 70s. This has been sitting on my bookshelf for years. Other than the set from SDCC a few years ago, this is the only Micronauts toy I own, so I should either sell it or buy a Baron Karza to go with it. I think I prefer the latter choice...

Hey, I quite liked New Voyages when it came out. I had just started reading comics at the time, so it was my introduction to the world and characters. (I had a yellow time traveler figure I had as a kid, but that doesn't count.) Haven't read them since they came out, though, so it's not a hill I'm willing to die on...

Whoever submitted their actual Canadian price variant is going to be pretty angry when it comes back to them...

I was considering putting Squadron Supreme on my list, but I couldn't decide which issue. I was leaning toward #12, which absolutely shocked me as a teen.

This would definitely make my top ten (maybe top five) $5 favorites. Excellent choice!

It's an AM headset radio.

I'm cheating a bit, because these are probably now more than $5 in NM, but good mid-grade copies will probably be $5. (Images courtesy of mycomicshop.com.) These first two immediately came to mind. Good, weird, self-contained issue written by Frank Miller. It really left an impression on me when it first came out and I read it. I haven't re-read it in years, so I don't know if it holds up, but I have warm, fuzzy memories of it. The final issue of the Under Siege storyline, but the aftermath of the action is the real gem here. Captain America's grief and loss is so heartbreaking. It's almost impossible to narrow all my options down to a third choice, but I wanted to get some Ennis love here, and Hitman is one of my favorite series. This is the fancy, high-brow, Eisner Award winning issue, so I'll just put it here.

Rai #0 would probably go on a list of my all-time top ten favorite comics from any publisher, although I haven't read it in a few years now, so maybe that would change. I haven't seen one for under $5 in years, though.

Very nice! The cardboard panels look very good, and the cannon is one of the few I've seen over the years that doesn't need Viagra. Great purchases!

I don't understand why people slab even high-grade non-"key" stuff, but that seems to be CGC's bread and butter. I always just assumed that most of the low-grade stuff must have sentimental value to the person for one reason or another. I was considering slabbing my GI Joe #7 since I consider it the first comic that started my collection, even though it's... considerably low-grade at this point. Then I came to my senses and just stuck it in a Mylar to display in my toy room with all my GI Joe stuff. And yes, Mylar is really overkill for this beaten dog of a book, but it's MY beaten dog of a book, darn it!

HE WAS IN THE POOL!!!

I've bought the GI Joe crossovers, but I don't think I've bought a straight-up Transformers comic since the first Dreamwave series over twenty years ago. That said, I'm pretty excited about this one, due to Daniel Warren Johnson and Kirkman.

That Hitman / Resurrection Man team-up...

You may also like Sleeper by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips. Same basic concept, but set in the Wildstorm superhero universe. I remember it being fantastic, even though I had very little knowledge of Wildstorm going in. (Still don't. )

Costa's Cobra stuff is probably the best Joe material IDW put out. I highly recommend it. Hama's IDW run was... inconsistent. It had some really good moments, but overall, I'd say it was more below-average than good. There was a lot of treading water, rehashing old storylines, and way too much blue ninja junk, which is still going on. I've kept up on it mostly out of loyalty to the brand/nostalgia and FOMO when the good storylines come around. I can suffer through the bad to get to the good for $3.99 an issue, but it's one of the few books for which I'll say that. I'm just a sucker, I guess.

Cool, so they're basically following the IDW model. Hopefully Skybound can crack the code and give us a good "non-Hama" take on the franchise. Although Hama's continuity did feature Transformers a couple times, it was minor enough not to be a deal breaker to me. It also occurred during all the Ninja Force wackiness, so I can write it off as some kind of fever dream. And let us never again mention the giant eye in the desert below the Pit and all that silliness... Over the course of 300 issues, there were some really amazing high points and some very regrettable low points. It happens.

I'm happy to see GI Joe come back to comics and hopeful that it will have a good creative team, but I'm very disappointed that it's a shared universe with Transformers.

I remember it being pretty nice. This had to have been about 20 years ago.

Well played!