JiveTurkeyMoFo

Well, I never expected to win as many pieces from the Art portion as I did....34 in total I think. Many bidders were absent entirely for all my garbage bids to hold up. Now to pay for that invoice....

This show confirmed my growing suspicions about large shows in general: too few smaller dealers + too few "new collections" + too much buying competition + hassle and expense of travel = a sub par experience at best. I was able to get a few nice books early on Friday from several smaller dealers before anyone else picked them clean, but I know that was the exception rather than the rule. C2E2 was supposed to be this treasure trove of smaller dealers and fresh books, but it certainly wasn't the case this year. Instead, we got to see feeding frenzies on inventory from established dealers like Dave Kapelka and Leroy Harper. I'll still do Heroes and MegaCon since they are within a days drive of me, but I think I'll pass on Chicago, Baltimore and the like for the foreseeable future. On the bright side, I enjoyed running into old friends and thought McCormick Place was a world class venue. That, and the few deals I did score, made it palatable in the end.

Snow tomorrow afternoon for set-up. Can't tell you the last time I drove in Snow....maybe 20 years. Should be an adventure.

What a weird auction so far...normally, when I throw my garbage bids in on a C-Link auction, I tend to win only the 2nd and 3rd tier books. Not this time. Snagged a handful of beautiful early Marvels for, what I feel, are very acceptable prices. Maybe everyone was distracted by all the crazy bidding on the more common books. My favorite of the bunch is this one, the scarcest of the early Iron Man TOS' in 9.0 or better. Don't believe I've ever owned a copy this nice before.

Actually, I think your first response was the correct one..it was a mislabel by CGC. I checked a similar copy that was rejected, and it does not have the 2nd Print designation in the indicia, but CGC still labeled it as a 2nd print on the invoice. I think it was a mistake on my part when I filled out the paperwork because a number of 2nd printings of various books went in on the same invoice. Apparently, no one at CGC caught the mistake either. Good Grief. Hell will resume it's thaw momentarily.

Duh...see below.

The Official “I’m not spending my money or my time on Star Wars Episode IX” protest thread No Fair! If the rest of us had to lay out our hard earned dough and give up three hours of our lives to watch this steaming pile of bantha pooh-doo, then so should you! BTW, I watched Rogue One on blu-ray yesterday....such a better movie, and one that I enjoyed even more in comparison. The entire final Act is just so damn good. My 8-year old, since she didn't know any of the characters from her Lego books or sets, got bored with it half-way through, and she said it was a little scary, so she stopped watching. I wasn't too worried about her level of Star Wars interest, since she was absolutely captivated by Attack of the Clones. Let's face it, those prequels were made for kids (at least the first two), and George Lucas really did manage to cater to at least his target demographic with Jar Jar, bumbling C3P0, and random poop humor of the first two.

I guess some in the media also had some issues with this um..."great" movie. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ8ir66M5XU

I really didn't deconstruct this, but here lies another massive problem with the whole scenario: Snoke still wanted to know where Skywalker was, and was perfectly willing to torture Rey to get at that info, yet he was responsible for creating the mind-bridge between Rey and Ben? This seemed like the most useless force power of all, except Snoke also had the ability to manipulate Rey's thoughts, but no way to actually glean any useful info on where that planet was that Luke is on? I don't know...it just seemed the Force is convenient to the story when it needs to be, and utterly useless when it doesn't.

Personally, I agree. I thought my buddy was being a little hyperbolic with his statement. But he did say he'd never, ever see it again, and I have to say, I believe his conviction.

Okay, but none of this addresses the very basic premise that Luke gave up on trying to rescue/save Ren or on confronting Snoke. He gave up on training a new generation of Jedi because he came to believe their way was ineffective...Okay, I'll buy that, but he also gave up fighting evil entirely. He let his sister risk her life to run the Resistance, abandoned his friends (Lando, Han, Chewy, etc.) and he retreated to the back-end of the galaxy to get away from it all. That's not a hero. And if the moral of the story is that you give up when the odds seem long, or that you shouldn't even bother because you can't really destroy evil, well...WTF kind of lesson is that? "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Which is exactly what Luke does: nothing. What's worse in all this is that Luke's actions directly influenced the transformation of Ben Solo into Kylo Ren, yet he took no responsibility for it at all, or rather, just shrugged his shoulders and said "oh well, that stinks...time to skid-daddle to a backwater planet and let my mess consume the galaxy." Again, WTF kind of lesson is that? I'm sorry, since we can only extrapolate from the material we are presented with, I'm not inclined to give TLJ Luke a pass based off of his hypothetical personal struggles of the last 30 years. He should've known better, he should've have done more, and he didn't. Mark Hamill has every right to be critical of the treatment of Luke, because no one knows that character better than him, not Lucas, not the fanbase, and certainly not Rian Johnson.

So, the young, ever hopeful farm boy, the one who believed that the most vile and feared man in the Universe was not beyond redemption, (you know, the same one responsible for slaughtering younglings in the Jedi temple and for untold countless other deaths: Vader, in case you can't figure it out), decides the way to combat the "growing darkness" in his own nephew was to assassinate him in his sleep before that evil could manifest? The young Jedi who was willing to be killed by the Emperor instead of slaying his father out of hatred, out of anger, was willing to coldly murder his only remaining male relative, his own flesh and blood, because of what he could become, and then instead of fighting for his nephew's soul even after the incident at the temple, retreats to this forgotten planet to die in sullen disgrace? (BTW, has anyone figured out why Luke left a map with R2 to this planet, if he didn't want to be found?) He never thought to confront Snoke himself to try and save Ben Solo? He just...gave up and left? The Luke Skywalker I grew up with would've rather died trying to save his nephew....the only thing this one knew how to do spectacularly was Quit. Let's re-imagine the start of ROTJ with the same mindset.... Luke: "Jabba has Han in his stronghold as a wall decoration? We have to infiltrate that place to try and get him back? Meh...that sounds difficult...I won't bother. I'm going to go pout about the fact my dad's a bad dude who wasn't there for me growing up. Sniff" This might've been an acceptable Luke for the coddled, give-up-before-you-try, don't threaten my "safe space" Millennial generation, but not for me brother. It's really no different then how Michael Bay transformed the life-loving, self-sacrifical Optimus Prime of my youth into a mindless executioner of other sentient beings in the films. No, I take that back...it's worse. At least the Optimus Prime of the Transformer's movies knows who his enemies are and confronts them in order to serve a greater good. He doesn't retreat from the fight and gives a big finger to the galaxy in the process. So go ahead and excuse away this movie and what it did to one of the most beloved heroes of the 20th century...I don't think you are going to find many buyers for what you are trying to peddle on this Board.

I don't know. If a pizza place I've used faithfully for years gives me a pizza with a turd on it, I'm still going to complain. The real question is, will you continue to use that pizza place even after the turd episode? You certainly wouldn't if that was your first time...because it would also be the last. (Fool me once, shame on you...) But, if they just really screwed up the one time, and the other hundred times were great, you may be inclined to look past it (Brand loyalty). That is, until, you realize the turd wasn't a mistake, and they really don't care whether you come back or not because they have a line a miles long out their door (Disney).

I can't speak for anyone else on here, but in my small circle of friends, the reviews came in as "mixed" (myself) to extreme visceral hate by at least two 40+ year old Star Wars nerds that I know. I can't find a single person I know in my personal social circles, either through Facebook or the conversations I've had the last few days so said they flat out liked it. I thought I was being too critical of the film, and then I came to find that my buddies were far more in the Hate camp than I would've believed possible. One even told me it was the worst movie he ever saw, and not just the worst Star Wars movie, but the worst movie, period. After I heard his litany of reasons and arguments why he felt the way he did, I came to realize I had been a lot more forgiving of the movie than I first thought. I don't believe this movie is going to have the legs of TFA, because a certain percentage just won't go back to see it, but I guess we'll find out.

Well, let's be honest...if you went to see it on the first day, you're probably a hardcore fan. If you took the time to destroy the movie on R/T, you're probably a hardcore fan. I'm sure the scores will tip the average upwards as the more casual fans from the first and subsequent weekends weigh-in. I'm about at 1.5 star on the movie, but frankly, besides my own review here, I'm not really inclined to post my opinion elsewhere. Frankly, I don't care enough about the direction of the franchise to bother. However, I wouldn't be so dismissive about the opinions of hardcore fans. They are the ones that kept the franchise alive through three decades of non-cannon literature, awful prequels, and endless merchandising of the same, rehashed material. As a toy collector, I know where the money is in Star Wars collectibles, and it's heavily skewed in the 35 and older demographic. Lose those folks at your own peril Disney.

I feel both a "thanks" and an "I'm sorry" is appropriate here.

Hey Jim....I haven't been on here much at all either....so very sorry about the comics, I hadn't heard about this...is there a thread or list available detailing what was taken so we can keep an eye out? I share many of your same sentiments...this movie was so....confusing...for me. Let me try to formulate some thoughts, with spoilers ahead: So, that's it. I'm still optimistic that they'll get another main Star Wars movie right. Maybe they should employ the writing team from the Clone Wars and Rebels, who actually craft excellent story lines and keep everything well grounded in Star Wars lore, to write a proper Star Wars movie. One can only hope.

Won one crummy book in the whole auction for $400. Prices were very aggressive on the stuff I was bidding on. Oh well....

Show is this weekend, please come out and support it if you are in Central or North Florida...it really is a worthwhile little show.

Hey Gang, Didn't see anyone post about it, so just wanted to remind everyone that in three weeks, my buddy Tom Raupp's Daytona Beach Comic Con (DBCC) will be back at its regular spot in the beautiful Embry-Riddle sports Arena. If you haven't ever gone, it truly is the best one day show in Florida, with dozens of quality vendors of comics, toys, art, and misc fandom items. I've always had good luck finding quality items for sale there, and Tom works very hard to put on a family-friendly, old school convention. There are also food trucks and plenty of free parking, with at the gate admission only $8 (kids are free, and advanced tickets are even cheaper...$5 through the above link). There are also always several out of state dealers there as well (Earl Shaw, Chris Foss, and Dave from Dave's Comics in Atlanta), so it's not the usual slate of Florida vendors. Please come out and support this show...you'll be glad you did.

No reports on the show?

was shutout last night...been a while since that's happened in a C-link auction. Won three nice FFs so far tonight at pretty reasonable prices.

Weekend Warriors need love 2.

Lange's wasn't at WW either. I did real well with them last year, both in the wall books and bin stuff. I think the writing is on the wall for this show if all those small to mid-size dealers start migrating to C2E2 instead. I might have to focus my attention to Baltimore instead next year, as well as C2E2 in the Spring. And let's not mention the lack of onsite grading by either certification company. That's a total dis-service to all collectors/dealers.

I can't speak for everyone, but what was really missing for me, and a number of other folks I spoke with, was the "little guy" dealers of the past, who would bring new-to-market type collections and books, often with generous pricing. Chicago was famous for not just having one or two of these dealers, but several per show. The feasting was abundant. Not so anymore. Was the variety of material still better than 90% of the conventions out there? Yes, absolutely....but it wasn't quite what Chicago WW has been in the past.