Poekaymon

I wouldn't say it's as bad as the VCR, but yes. If things haven't run their course, then they are most probably in the final laps. My first "career" was in retail computer parts and repair. Started out as a tech at a small computer store, then manager, then I bought the place. That was early 1990s to around 2006. Sort of a golden age in home computing. Somewhere in the 2000s I saw the writing on the wall. For one thing, with the release of Windows XP in the early 2000s, Windows was just too damn good and easy to use. A lot of the stuff we charged to fix with Windows 95/98, Windows XP did automatically. Average users could even install it themselves. People started wanting to put in video cards and stuff themselves and things became literally plug-and-play. I also felt Macs would be picking up and they were too proprietary for us to deal with. The rise of online shopping, including not just parts but whole-PC sellers like Dell, online videos for support for free, more reliable stuff, online reviews of the bad stuff... It all told me that the hey day of the small retail computer store had passed. To illustrate the point, at the time I owned my store, my town had: 4 or 5 well-established, non-chain computer stores like mine, a couple of Radio Shacks, a Fry's Electronics, an Egghead Software, and a Best Buy. Today, that same town has... a Best Buy. I guess what I'm trying to say is, I certainly feel the pain of the LCS (as with small book sellers and many other brick and mortar shops). C'est la vie. I often joke with my wife that I'm going to open another computer store and she just rolls her eyes because we both know that it would have to be wholly subsidized by my day job. I sometimes follow up the joke with "Nevermind, those days are past... Maybe a comic book store."

I can't even with this thread. I might have to use the ignore function for the first time not because someone was bothering me but simply for my own sanity. Anyway, John Carter sucked. It happens--they can't all be winners. Still like Disney though.

Oh yeah. We meet again. Semi-mysterious box. At least 50 or so copper/modern raws (primarily 80s-90s X titles, She Hulk, Thor, Surfer... maybe some modern variants and at least a Momoko or Frison or two). Varying keyishness and condition. Maybe a TPB or hardcover. Bit heavy so I think I may have to stick with US shipping for now.

Damn you for bumping this and reminding me that this cover exists. "Monkey Wolverine can't hurt me. Monkey Wolverine can't hurt me..."

I'll pass. Didn't care that much for the first one and I already have a strong dislike for the tendency to break things into multiple movies now. Hobbit into three movies is probably the worst offender yet. But in this case Dune Parts 1 and 2 probably could have combined for a good 3 hour movie but they had to go this route. (Also still quite like the David Lynch one.)

I watched it though I had no real intention or desire to. I thought it was pretty good, and amusing, though not "great"--but I'm a pretty tough audience. Hard to imagine anyone actually finding it offensive, but I guess there are some odd ducks out there getting worked up about female M&Ms, Bud Light, Jane Foster, etc., too, so I guess anything is possible.

8912% gain! We back, baby. 🚀🚀🚀🚀🚀

I've sold a lot of stuff on here, usually when I know the price and it's under $5k or so. I have also sold hundreds of books between $100 and $5k on eBay--I always do 10 day auctions starting at a dollar. For anything over $5k I have used the big auction houses, mostly Heritage. I just don't want to deal with any headaches at all when it starts to be get up there, and am willing to take less for the convenience. These three strategies have served me well.

I personally dislike the millions of different covers, and have written about that before, but I can't get past the bad writing/agenda in this article here. From the ad hominems "it should be obvious to anyone with more than two brain cells" to the sudden shift in blame on character swaps and sexual orientation. I admit I don't follow much beyond Copper--can someone tell me what beloved characters have gone gay? Did Superman finally get together with Jimmy Olsen? As for toying with characters, as far as I know, Miles Morales is one of the most popular things to come out of comics in a while. I don't fault comics for trying some different things before just closing up shop--who is to say it wouldn't be even worse without these things that the article complains about. Anyway, the declining popularity of new comics, along with the lament of the local comic store, is not shocking. In fact, wasn't it inevitable? Most print media has suffered the same. Newspapers, magazines, local book sellers... all victim to fundamental shifts in the availability of entertainment. Unlike when I was a kid, nowadays I rarely read anything in print aside for some nostalgia-based omnibuses. I no longer subscribe to any magazines, never read a print newspaper, and hardly ever shop at brick and mortar stores. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Charitable interpretations considering other copies have sold recently in the 200s and one is up on ebay right now for $325 BIN and no one wants it. (And it's been up for a month.)

It's my favourite alternative suit of a comics character.

I have bought a handful of NYCC and La Mole foils in the last couple years. But I collect for fun and because I like the covers. Or I want to be reminded of the convention. Or because it's of a high value book that I don't want to buy. In no case do I expect them to go up or even retain value--and usually they don't. So if you're asking if you should speculate on convention covers, then the answer is no. But I really wish people would stop speculating across the board.

I stopped collecting before X-Force came out, but I think Wolverine's X-Force costume is pretty badass.

Oh, it's happened before, and it will absolutely happen again. It's a mathematical certainty. When you are dealing in large numbers, and have human actors, that much is certain. To judge how bad it is we'd need to know total submissions versus how many times things get lost. Sure, it would be ideal, but it's simply not realistic to say 'just never lose things.' So then the question is how was it handled. Well, he got a bureaucratic response to start with as is typical for most large-scale businesses. Just like submissions/versus losses, we don't know the percentage of fraudulent claims/actual CGC mistakes either. And while ideally they'd just trust everyone off the bat, that's not a realistic ask either. Without knowing all those details, and not having seen the video, all we can really go by here is the result. Whether or not you agree with any the above, or whether you still think CGC is awful even if they do reimburse him, I can only say that he has already gotten further than I got with the "other guys" who in a similar situation cost me money on a reasonably expensive book. They put me in an absolute bureaucratic wringer and never did give me a dime, or even the time of day--just sent me to endless Indian call centers over the course of a couple months until I gave up. So I guess given the competition, that's what one might reasonably expect out of CGC as well, but it seems like they actually talked to him and are now doing something about it. When you have expectations as low as I do, that's a decent result.

What absolute rubbish. That story sounds like it's pushing a narrative, but if it's a true story, then all it shows is that LCS owner failed. A kid is interested in Infinity Gauntlet and wants to read more? You give him the Infinity Gauntlet 1-6 TPB. Easiest thing in the world. It's like $15 and totally accessible. It also showcases the things that you can do in comics that you still can't do in CGI. For example, when all the cosmic gods are flinging planets at Thanos. That is one of the most badass things I've ever seen, and the movies didn't even come close to that. So start him on the TPB and if he wants more, then step up to the larger Omnibus. You don't need to complicate things about differences or themes etc. What nonsense. Just let the kid give it a shot. I read the TPB as a kid when it was new and it was one of my favorite limited series of all times--and still is.

Just wait for #5.

Just to add a little perspective, this is definitely not true for the big ticket copper keys I got in 2019, most of which are still up 2-3x.

I missed this in August, but this is thread of the year.

To clarify a couple of things: You're right that he's on private property, but it is private property that is open to the public. (This is very different than private property such as your house.) And you're right that there's no expectation of privacy on the sidewalk, but there's also no expectation of privacy at an event like this either (or a cosplay convention, a shopping mall, or a super market for that matter). So there's no prohibition against him taking pictures in this context, though as it is ultimately private property he may be asked to leave. Though it's true that out of decorum it's good practice to simply ask people permission, even if you don't need to.

I thought this was a super goofy thread, with a silly premise, but it seems to have struck a cord with people, so obviously I was wrong. I will say I don't get it though. Why does it have to be a line between nostalgia and "living in the present"--with a bright line one "versus" the other? I collect mostly things from my childhood, but it's my present too. My Dark Knight Returns statue was just produced last year, and I look at it every day here in the present. My memories of that are now both reading DKR for the first time in the 80s, plus putting it up in a new display case last year. If I prefer Peter Parker over Miles Morales, does that mean I'm living in the past? For me it's more of a combination of nostalgia and the present than one "vs" the other. Although I mostly collect older stuff, I do like some recent stuff--music, characters, movies, etc.--and it all just gels together. Collect the stuff / listen to the music / watch the movies that you like--I wouldn't worry at all about whether it's past or present.

A return to 2019 prices, followed by a very gradual rise, or even just a flatline, would be fine with me. My dream is that is that one day the comic market is stable enough that this thread dies. Sadly, we have so far to go to 2019 prices that it probably will fuel sky-is-falling posts in this thread for a long time to come.

More of a statue/omnibus room at this point, but finally got around to putting up the display cases. Comics all in a file cabinet on the other wall.

Have looked at thousands of these and it doesn't look right to me. Can't really explain why. The paper looks different from every other H181 I've seen. At this point, I don't think I'd get an H181 raw from anyone without a rock solid rep.