Poekaymon

I don't see anything wrong with any of the three pictures.

My take is that it depends more on the person. In this case, it's correlation without causation. Someone who says they were bullied for liking comics... well, my own suspicion is that they had other traits that made them a target for bullies. Things maybe that went hand in hand with comics or reading, but not the comics themselves (regardless of what the bullies may have said then or later). I was an 80s kid and I grew up in a tough area. Comics were by no means mainstream at the time, as far as I know, and certainly not where I lived. I openly went to a bookstore to buy comics after school, and openly took them to school, and I also was consistently top of the class on tests, but I was never once bullied or even made fun of for my comics or my good grades. But that's probably because I was also a bit of an athlete and a class clown and was generally popular, even with the tough kids. I was even in a D&D club which is about as nerdy as you can get--at least one or two levels from comics in Dante's Nine Circles of Nerd. Meanwhile, I had friends who were bullied and picked on for all sorts of stuff. Bringing autobots to school, wearing thick glasses, just acting awkwardly in general, etc. I just really don't think anyone was actually singling out comic collectors. Nerds are just easy targets in general, and many nerds happen to like stuff like comics.

I almost tagged you when I made the hoarding comment.

Embrace your inner hoarder.

I think it was clear he meant 50% of the gains, not that it doubled and then halved. So in your example it's $150 now--still up overall. And "still up overall" describes the vast majority of books to this day. (Many of which, by more than 50% as well.) For instance, at the end of 2020 the 365 day average for Hulk 181 9.0 was $4600. So call me when it's back below that.

Yeah but there is no telling how many legitimate bids got chased out during that run up because a lot of people (maybe even most of them) bid at literally the last second. So as a seller, I don't think it's fair to assume that no one would have gone over $500 (in this case) because I've had this happen to me several times, legitimately, as a seller. At the same time I wouldn't expect the 2nd place buyer to pay his tip top price because I don't want him to think that I was shilling. That's why when this happens to me I offer it to the 2nd place buyer at a discount from his final bid. I've never had anyone refuse.

I just got these two as well, despite having zero interest in FF and owning zero FF comics. The reviews were just too glowing. We'll see.

Depends on the actual value of the book aside from these shenanigans. But generally, as a buyer, I'd expect a discount off of my last bid. As a seller, I'd be willing to go a little under the bidder's last bid. In this case, $600 seems fine.

I'll pass.

I guess you're right--it's not funny enough to be satire. I only glanced at it, but if it's intended to be legitimate, then it is the product of a deeply deranged mind. Like, what do these even mean. And why would your competitors wish that your superior tactics were sorcery? That seems like it'd be even worse for them. Bizarre random and solitary quote in the middle of the page. Presumably a testimonial but I think it's safe to say no J. actually said that. Especially not in all caps with 10 exclamation points at the end unless J. suffers from approximately the same debilitating ailment as this Dylan Schwartz. Say what? And maybe my favorite: The Iphone guy. Just in case you were wondering which Steve Jobs we were talking about.

Nice. Bunch of interesting stuff. Also big fan of Paris.

I'm still not sure whether or not this is satire.

From what I've seen, GA collectors care about the inside of a book about as much as modern variant 9.8 slab collectors do. (ie, not at all)

Although I quoted you, it was mostly a starting point, and more directed at, other statements I've seen on here the last few years. With your expansion, I don't think we're that far off. As for the thing I originally quoted you for, "I don't see the point of manufactured collectibles," well, I don't collect them, but I do see the point. Moderns are numerous and largely in good condition. As we have said many times on this page, people like to chase stuff that is "rare." For some books that means there just aren't many left. For others that means there are plenty left, but not that many in good condition. But neither of those is true for most moderns. So what can modern collectors do? Limited printings, high ratio variants, etc. So say someone really likes 2022 Killmonger or Miles Morales or whatever. They don't want to get GA books but they still want something that not many people have. There's really no "organic" way to do it that I know of other than manufacturing it. Of course, that has issues, which I myself spelled out on the prior page. I just don't see an alternative. If people want to collect that stuff, then go for it. If not, then don't. My only real issue is with the people who put it down.

Agree completely. Agree completely. This is why I don't collect modern variants or GA books. Most GA collectors aren't being reminded of something they grew up with and that has become "organically" scarce. (Or if they are, they won't be around much longer, sorry to say.) Now, see, this is my issue with GA collectors on this forum who nearly, to a man, deride moderns. Let's think about this. While there are no doubt some historically important GA books, artist firsts, first appearances, certain war books, famous covers, groundbreaking covers, etc. There are plenty that are simply old/rare. And unless GA collectors are outperforming life expectancies by a wide margin, they aren't collecting for nostalgia. So you really can't tell me that random bondage cover 41 is important and significant over random bondage covers 38, 39, and 40, for example. If you want to say that all of the GA covers are important and significant like they are all Rembrandts or something, then you can make the same argument about, say, all of J. Scott Campbell's 1:1000 covers. They both have artistic merit--the difference is just personal bias, as with most art. It's also pretty tough to argue that people are being reminded of great stories in those GA books in the way people might collect, say, Dark Knight Returns and Watchmen. I think most GA collectors readily admit that they don't even read the books. That's another commonality between GAs and modern variants--they are entirely cover driven. I agree as Sam said, familiarity is a big part of it. At least for me--I collect silver and copper because it has nostalgia value for me and I don't care if it all goes to $0. Now unless the GA collectors are even older than I think, they aren't buying them because of nostalgia--they just think those books are cool and valuable, and they are rare. So I don't collect GAs for exactly the same reason I don't collect modern variants--they may be cool, and they may be rare, but they have no meaning to me. So what reason do I have to buy them other than the hope that new buyers, after all the current GA collectors have shuffled off this mortal coil, will continue to share that view? Seems exactly the same as OP's Killmonger #2 1:25--maybe even worse since some 10 year old right now might be really into Killmonger due to movies. To be clear, I have nothing against GA. I just find it a bit hypocritical of GA collectors to laud GA books (often to the exclusion of all else) while at the same time deriding modern variants. You guys are all peas in a pod as far as I'm concerned.

True facts. In 2020 I actually lived in Jersey City. Frequently had stuff held up for days or weeks at that office. Now I'm about a 30 minute drive away, and stuff still gets held up there for days. I'll have something go from Los Angeles to NJ in like 3 days and then take 3-7 days making it that last 30 minutes to me.

Have basically everything I want, but I do like to scan the new stuff week to week, though I rarely buy anything. Also the new omnibuses.

I didn't quit but I did change drastically. In 2019 I had almost nothing but 9.8 slabs. As prices went wild, I became a bit uncomfortable with how much money I had in comics, and I gradually unloaded my collection, mostly in 2021, and switched to 9.4-9.8ish raws. I now have a pretty serviceable raw collection which was entirely funded by the profit from my 9.8 slab arbitrage. I feel pretty good about this because I have all of my nostalgia books and if the market continues to increase, great. But even if the worst happens and they all go to zero, then I didn't lose anything and still have my nostalgia, which is the whole reason I got back into comics anyway.

When I got back into the hobby a few years ago, my interest was instantly piqued by ratio variants books (especially the 1:200, 1:500s, etc) which come out of the gate selling for big numbers. They seemed special and rare and I bought a bunch, upon release, for more money than I'd like to admit. It did not take me too long to sour on that practice. First, ratio variants have generally depreciated, heavily, over time. I just scanned ebay and I didn't find a single one that I bought in 2018 or so that is not both significantly lower and still readily available today. I think this applies to most variants, but especially ratios. (Speaking generally--this particular book could very well be the exception.) Second, and related to #1, you have no idea how many of these ratio variants are out there. There are some big sellers on eBay who just week after week post the same, supposedly rare or "ghost," variants. Literally week after week. I know because a couple of years ago I had some alerts and I would see the same people posting books I was interested in, one at a time, every week or two, without fail. I just searched for a few, and some of the same sellers are still selling them. I'm pretty sure they've been going nonstop since 2018. They seem to have a ton of them--they just don't dump them on the market all at once. What were the actual print numbers? No who has any idea how many these sellers have waiting to be sold--it could be an inexhaustible supply. Third, I see people calling books "ghosts" on here and asking huge sums of money. But just because something is low census doesn't necessarily mean it is a "ghost." It could just be that someone has a stack and is either spacing them out or hasn't bothered yet. It could also just be that no one gives a damn. If there's one copy on the census it does not mean that there is only one copy in existence.

I'll take it.

Can't speak for the hobby, but I won't touch restoreds. At the same approximate value, I will take a qualified or a .5 over a restored every time.

Bout tree fiddy.

About 10 years ago I won some bitcoin in a video game tournament. It was basically worthless and I didn't bother to collect it. Worth over a million dollars now. Them's the breaks.

That's why I said "technically (comparatively)." I realize your name is "Lazyboy," but you need to apply yourself a little bit.

Could be they are tougher now, though I haven’t seen that in my own submissions. It could also just be regression to the mean and bandwagoning. If you flip a coin long enough, at some point you’ll get tails 20 times in a row. It’s not necessarily a conspiracy—it’ll still be very close to 50-50 in the long run. You might just be flipping tails at the moment.