Jesse-Lee

Oh man, it goes so deep. Back when I was doing ad buys it was the wild west - and it was only a small part of my job at the time. I was self-taught on SEO, and in my spare time I was buying domain names, building small content sites on them, moving them to the top of organic search rankings and selling them for thousands. Now it's a full time job for people - and it's usually a team of people or a firm doing targeted ad buys and full-fledged SEO campaigns even for smaller companies and mom-and-pop shops. Ad re-targeting, geo-fenced delivery, it's crazy.

If it's dollar-for-dollar (like both have a $20 item and both choose 4.1% for example), then in a perfect world the ads would show equally. But it wouldn't surprise me if there are things in the algorithm that tip the scale in favor of a higher-volume seller for sure. In online ads, it's a bid process - so if you had $100 and I had $100, and we picked the same keywords to advertise for - say "comics" for example - I could bid 10 cents per click in a keyword where you might bid 8 cents a click, in which case my ads would show more/higher. That's all a major simplification, but I'm sure eBay's algorithm is pretty sophisticated. That said, I've seen my own promoted listings show up when viewing items, so at least I know they're out there,

Yeah, that's the "cover their a$$" language - once I decide to promote, I just take it as fact that I'll be paying. But again, for me, it's worth the extra to move stuff quicker. eBay has been as dead as a doornail this month, but I had 4 promoted items sell today alone. And I don't have a store or a big presence, I usually have somewhere around 50-60 listings at a time.

I just stick to the recommended rate, which is typically the 4.1%. Once you start chasing the top, that's when the money piles up. I used to buy social media ads and Google AdWords ads as part of my job (not for comics but for companies) back when the online ad stuff was taking off - like more than 15 years ago, crazy! And I also used to do a lot of organic SEO. So I'm pretty comfortable with the "boosted" and promoted listings - I can see the value in it to a point.

Yeah, I guess. My philosophy is I can wait to try to sell it for $30, or pay a $1 to sell it sooner and get $29. Even on the rarer books, the promotion seems to get more looks. I try to maintain a minimum margin of 2x my money on what I sell, and most of the time, I shoot for at least 3x. On a lot of my books, I have plenty of room where I'm making 4x or more, so if an extra $1 in fees moves the books, it's worth it to me.

I recently bought a TMNT 2 3rd print on the forum here, but it was unfortunately damaged in transit. The seller was amazing about the whole situation. But I've wanted a higher-grade copy of this book for a while, so I bought a replacement on eBay that came today. And this TMNT 7 2nd print also came today courtesy of another board member. Love these!

Love it! Agreed, that splash just oozes Gotham and Batman. And Silver... I love this Batman - on the prowl, the big cape, the James Bond swagger. So good.

I had 4 sales today, and out of those the one with the most "views" said it had 6 views. So either I'm so lucky that basically the first people who see my listings decide to buy, or something is wonky.

I think they are. Depends on what you're selling and how much you're willing to pay to promote. I sell a lot of lower-end stuff, between $25-150. The cost is fairly minimal and I've found it increases views and offers. I just consider it in my pricing before I list, knowing that I promote everything I list.

Just don't flood the market until I get mine sold please.

Black Cat 12 is doing well too - first cover of Iron Cat.

Yes, 11 is - first app of Iron Cat. Like $35+ and hopefully climbing - they've been relatively wiped off of eBay. 10 is doing ok too - there are a lot of signed copies on eBay, so be aware of that. It used to be a $5-10 book, but it seems to be creeping toward $20. It's just a cool Campbell cover.

I had an issue and was able to get them on the phone using this page: https://www.ebay.com/help/call_us?type=ContactUs&topicId=4000 I can't quite remember, but I think I had to do an online chat first and then they escalated it to a phone call on their end...

That is a nice 4.0! Out of any defect, I think I'd take moderate sun-shadow/dust-shadow the most. CGC knocks it harshly unfortunately, but as long as it isn't too terribly noticeable, it doesn't ruin the look of a book for me as much as a lot of creasing/missing pieces/etc.

Adventure in the 50-cent box:

Not sure if this is too outside the spirit of this thread, but I saw an ad for a primarily table-top and card gaming store that said they had a small comic section. Checked it out a couple of hours ago, and they had a couple of shelves with "new-ish" releases and a few long boxes, plus a 50-cent box. Nothing was priced, so I asked the guy and he said "everything is just whatever the cover says." Just one 50-center:

I just lucked into these two a couple of hours ago, sitting at cover price on a shelf in a small gaming store that has a few comics:

The whole Englehart/Rogers "Strange Apparitions" run from 469-479 (but these two shown below in particular are my favorite) is among my favorite runs of all time in any title, and I'm sure that holds true for other fans as well - and it introduced Silver St. Cloud - yowza!. 'Tec also had the Killer Croc stuff (which, yes, it crossed over with the Batman title, so kind of a toss-up), and the Black Mirror run at the end of the first volume. I also actually like Year Two even if it isn't canon (or is it again now?). Heart of Hush was also decent. But yes, the Batman title had the Ra's stuff (but Son of the Demon was better in my opinion and was outside the title), Death in the Family, Year One, Hush, the Morrison run, etc. But the big crossovers in the 90s incorporated both books plus others. The Englehart/Rogers run still gets the nod from me personally.

I believe it - this one is on my "if I had any discipline I could own that book" list - meaning, if I stopped buying anything else for a while and sold some good stuff, I could likely get a copy I'd be happy with. Alas, I have no discipline and no 129. Congrats on a great book!

That's a gorgeous 5.5. I like the custom label with it too.

Looks like Agents of Worlde isn't available at TFAW now - at least, it won't let me add it. However, Scout Comics' website still has the ashcan available to buy, as well as metal printer's plates which are kind of cool: https://www.scoutcomics.com/collections/chaos-agent

I finally realized what his art style reminded me of - I really liked Hard Boiled by Frank Miller when I was in college. Here's an example of a page from that. There may be better examples, but this is the least graphic...

Same with me! I first read it in like 1988 when the TPB came out, so I must have been only 10-11. But it's a story that just sticks with you. I loved that Titans era so much that now I'm putting together a run of that title (but I already have like 3 copies of NTT 26, sorry...). I'm now at the point where I need to pick up #1 and #2 and then a bunch of run-fillers.

Yeah, I agree with you on most of this too. I guess the Batman title did give us some of the more iconic covers in general though, moving out of the Silver Age. 227, 232, 234, 244, 251 - all Neal, plus some of his other covers like 221, 222, etc. Not to mention books like 171, 181, 189 - where you're re-introducing the Riddler and Scarecrow and debuting Ivy. And we've got the Jason Todd era which felt very Batman-title heavy from the standpoint of driving his story, then Year Three and the Tim Drake era. Then the Morrison run late in the first volume with Damian. And I do think @Beastfeast is right about the inking. But I'd personally take the "Strange Apparitions" run in 'Tec over any of that, story-wise.

Love it - sorry to threadjack, but Judas Contract is still one of my favorite story lines, and it's nice to see someone else with the Terra hate...