Jesse-Lee

I think I remember American Entertainment being the better catalog, because they'd have stuff like Betty Page, Milo Manara and Cherry books in the catalog with pictures. 14-year-old me loved that...

Found this at my parents' house last time I was home, and thought it could be cool/interesting to share. Anyone remember ordering from these? Nothing crazy in here, but as soon as I saw it it took me back:

Ah, got it, thanks - I thought there was some mention of borrowing money against the art tax free using the art as collateral or something like that.

Wasn't that the premise behind the art warehouse or whatever in Tenet?

Ah, I see - I was a little confused by what he meant. Yeah, I could see that - as a Batman collector, I definitely have a lot more of the Batman title and there seem to be more keys in that run, especially in Bronze/Copper. But yeah, agree on the interior art too, good point.

TMNT 1 is a $50,000 magazine...

That's a great book - I was going back and forth on grabbing that one too but I already have it in roughly that same condition, maybe just a bit lower.

@ 15% off, thanks!

Yeah, but both are Batman and the 'Tecs were first.

That was just a cameo cover...

I think it was 2019.

I don't disagree with this overall - I have plenty of books I've bought just because I like the art. It's just interesting that early-ish work from an icon like McFarlane on a mainstream character like Batman has such a disparity in price. Detective 576 came out in 1987 and is part of the "Year Two" storyline: Batman 423 came out in 1988 and has a forgettable story: I will admit that I like the 423 art better. But it seems strange that Bats 423 is a $150-200 book, while 'Tec 576, which came out first and is part of a minor key run, can be had for $20 or less - I've personally gotten it at shops and shows for $15 or less. 'Tec 577 and 578 were also both done by McFarlane and also both came out before Batman 423. You can get the whole Year Two set (575-578) for less than $100.

I do think it's a little different because a lot of collectors value a character's first cover appearance - and especially so for a character like Venom. I'd say 423 is more along the lines of Detective 880 (although the story in 880 is far better), in the sense that it's the cover that drives the cost. Hulk 340 is also similar to this.

Thank you! Awesome shop, I'll definitely be back (hopefully this Saturday for the sale)!

As a seller, I almost always send an offer when the option is available to me, and I'd love it if people told me why they decided to decline! Actually I'd love it more if they'd just accept...

Kowabunga is awesome, I can't believe I'd never been there! If you're ever in the area, it's not a far drive out to Oconomowoc (the city where Kowabunga is), and that shop is definitely a destination. Tons of comics, store exclusives, and they had a ton of other collectibles as well, like Pops, toys, etc. Everything is really well organized and they're super helpful there. As for the incident at one of the other shops I went to, it was strange - sorry, here comes a long story. I was the only one in the store, and I was having a nice chat with the owner while I was digging in the bins. I had pulled a couple of books, including an X-men 244 newsstand - 1st Jubilee - marked $16 (but the owner said he gives 25% off any books over $11, so it would be a $12 book); and a Teen Titans 20 - 1st Crush - marked at cover price - $4. So as I'm digging, the owner says, "let me do a quick lookup on the ones you have there, just to make sure they haven't gone up crazy recently." Now for me, that's the cutoff for me ever going back to a store. But obviously in the moment I said "sure, here you go," and handed him the books. His store, his rules. He looks up the Teen Titans, and yells over to me, "Well, I'm sure you know this is the first appearance of Crush and it's a $20 book." First of all, of course I knew it's the first Crush, that's why I pulled it. Second, I didn't think it was a $20 book (and it isn't - I looked it up myself after and it usually sells for between $9-13). I said, "oh yeah? I guess I'll pass on that then." To which he goes off on a rant. He says "I've been starting to look stuff up the past couple of months because everyone comes in here trying to 'screw' me (except he used a non-CGC-board-friendly word in place of 'screw')." He goes on to say, "I'm an honest person, and it seems like everyone else wants to be dishonest. How would you feel if you were selling something, and someone bought it for $4 and you found out it was worth $20? You'd be p-o'ed." I told him, "I'm not trying to F you, I just went through and found stuff I wanted based on what your price was." He said that's being dishonest and looking to screw him over if I know that something is worth more than the list price. I disagree on that point - I'm not his employee; it's not up to me to pull books that he can then reprice. I mean, it's his prerogative to do that - it's his shop - but that's the last time I'd set foot in there. The other point is - if he had a book marked $40 and I bought it, and then found out that it actually usually sells for $20, can I get the difference back? The answer to that is no. So at this point he's turning red and I'm feeling my calm start to slip, so I say, "I guess I'll just take these two then." I had the X-men 244 and a $4 Wolverine run filler (which incidentally should have been a $1 or $2 bin book, but whatever.). He rang me up for $16, I told him to have a nice day, and I left, never to return. So he lost a repeat customer over what amounted to a $10 book he could have sold for $4. And he sold me a $30-40 book for $12, which is weird because he looked that one up too. As a counter-point, I was at another shop that had some unsorted bins and found a couple of decent books. When I went to checkout, the owner said, "nice finds! This one's worth at least $15 - we like to throw some goodies in there to keep people interested." I guarantee I'll take my money back there for both smaller and larger purchases in the future.

Found these two in the same box today at a shop - they had a lot of boxes of unsorted stuff, and these were right next to each other. Marked $10 each. Really nice copies, I was thrilled to find them.

Oh yeah, this is 100% a keeper for me, no doubt. Edited to add - Especially because I can't wait to actually see it in hand; this is one of those books/covers you can just stare at and get lost in.

Not to be a broken record, but in my opinion it's even more baffling considering the 2nd and 3rd prints of 423 are available for much cheaper, and they look exactly the same. And it's not a "key" aside from the fact it's a cool cover.

Thanks, I really appreciate it! I agree, this is one of the cooler covers I've seen in a long time - and I actually have been collecting the Batman run and totally missed this... Thanks again!

That's an amazing cover, thanks for the tip! So here's a dumb question - I've never pre-ordered on TFAW. Is there no "checkout" process? My payment and shipping info is added and it appears this is in my preorders, but I didn't have to do a formal check out. Is that normal for them? Thanks!