sckao

Actually, checking my records, I was wrong. I sold 5 of them this past month or so at $200 apiece in 9.8. (I discounted them because there are already some priced at $200 on myslabs.com.) So is there a market for these? Yes. (It's possible there was also a discount in price due to the company who slabbed it although I think that price discrepancy will disappear with time.) (I guess I should slab 10 of them next time. )

I'm wondering if people are thinking about the TMNT Adventures SERIES (1989) and not the 3-issue mini-series that came out in 1988 which is probably rarer and actually has an Eastman/Laird cover. Character endurance/popularity like Spawn is one thing where they become part of popular culture despite an overwhelming comic population/census availability. For others, it's actually the rarity that causes the price fluctuation... which @valiantman probably can track better than anyone here. For instance, Moon Knight #8 (1981) is an example I just ran across.

The 9.8 prices of what we used to consider "throw them in as freebies with an order because we certainly can't sell them" books is pretty mindboggling right now. Even for a comic like X-Men #1 Special cover. X-Men 1 and Spawn 1 were printed in the millions. Spider-Man #1 Gold edition too... All have broken the $100 barrier in 9.8

Never realized the Scarlet Witch was colored green on the cover.. probably to contrast with Magneto? She's the regular red/pink in the interiors. The Toad's arms should also be orange.

People are paying $200 in 9.8 (Direct Edition) for this shipped for what it's worth. I've sold 2 at that price in the last month. (Don't ask which company slabbed it.)

The order of events is important. I saw the Action listing yesterday, but did not see the original thread that was pulled. If the Action listing was in response to the Original Thread that was pulled, I can see how the Moderators would construe that as an escalation or a passive-aggressive challenge. If it were the first and only posting without a previous thread lock/pull, then I agree it was unwarranted.

Nudity, profanity, etc. in threads, even quoted, have always been reasons for threads being pulled. We experienced that in our Grading Contests and I was afraid we were going to have one of our Grading Rounds pulled because of that reason... Which would have impacted a fair number of people. (Thanks, Sharon, for being a volunteer Mod. It's a thankless task and I didn't realize it had so much more responsibility these days.)

I think they are having a specific issue with Google actually. Bing.com seems fine. site:cgccomics.com Grading Contest are the parameters I used.

True. These boards are perhaps their most public/best outward facing branding mechanism. There's probably a huge backend system we're not seeing right now linking their massive growth in their Florida offices with what we think are their online web presence. Every new employee, new workstation, new scanner, bar coder, etc. that they add to their systems to handle the ever growing demand, plus the constantly growing data black hole these boards must represent in terms of data storage, increases the strain on their system. Every time someone uploads an image, that image is now being hosted by CloudFront which indicates that they're using Amazon's AWS service to host the ever increasing number of attachment all of these boards must generate. (And the CGC Boards are just one of many being run by the parent company.) While they are offloading the actual data storage and caching, the links to those items are still being maintained by the board's database software which must also be integrated with their registry databases, their blog databases, their internal grading databases, pressing databases, accounting databases, etc. Each time, multiplied by each Collectible industry (Comics, coins, stamps, cards, video games, etc.) So it's not all that surprising that generating an entirely new parallel structure for their new videogame category, for instance, might break some of their already calibrated systems that were already near some sort of maximum in terms of load or result in a misconfiguration. We just don't see that yet publicly.

I got that error too... and this seems to be the most common issue: server misconfiguration or local DNS issues. (localhost). Possibly exacerbated by load issues I guess or memory issues if the time of day and the site going down is a pattern. We've had issues with growing/runaway database tables as well that frequently took down sites. Adding new grading categories like cards, etc. must be adding new strain on their Board software/system.

I think most non-solid shelves have this issue. I use the 200lb test cardboard pads that I buy to line the bottom of the shelves. (They are 18x14 that I cut down to 9x14 to protect slabs when I mail them.) Composite boards would be tougher probably as well.

When you submit a comic, you can designate what pedigree it is on the submission form. They then verify it I guess against their Pedigree Database of known issues or visual database. The photocopy would also help I guess. but they may not use it as they say.

Considering you are probably not the first person the seller has offered the books to... Are you really surprised the keys and minor keys are gone? The others who passed on the entire collection probably just made a separate deal for those keys. Sounds like the simplest answer. The kicker would be if RECENT minor keys made keys due to the MCU are gone. Then that would be recently picked over evidence.

Ordered 2 copies. Congrats.

And what are we really talking about here anyway? Are we really complaining about an 87-year old man who was a WRITER sketching something on a comic when asked? Totally not Stan's fault but the requester who had some sort of brain meltdown. (I think that slab was signed in 2008 and Stan Lee was born in 1922.) That's like asking an artist with no writing credentials at all to write a love sonnet on the cover of one of his comics... or a delicate haiku (This might be the beginning of a terrible idea here... )

I think it should also be pointed out that artists by their nature probably sign naturally where they THINK/Feel the signature will look good in relation to the artwork. (If they don't, they may be doing it on purpose for some reason... or having a bad day.) Everything is part of the design. A writer may not think that way.

Well, we're also collectors. He still signed it though. Let's put it this way... I have my beaten up childhood comics that no one would want. They weren't even mine but handed down to me by my big brother... but I also have high grade pedigree slabbed copies of them. Case in point: Superboy 133. (Weird, I know.) My favorite copy: Beaten up and weathered Superboy #133 Green River Pedigree Copy 9.2 Boston Pedigree Copies (3) 9.4, 9.4, 9.2 Savannah Copy 9.6

Why should the Artist or Writer care that it's a Key book or that it's in great condition? You're mixing the content with the commodity. If I were a creator and someone came up to me with a beater of a book that they had since childhood, I'd love to sign it. Same if it were a pristine copy. The condition has nothing to do with it. Some creators don't like the fact that money is being made off their signatures or that some people lie to their faces when they ask for their signature or cover sketch and then turn around to sell it immediately on eBay. Those comics probably aren't read or from private collections. They're commodities and collectibles. These same creators are now being paid for their signatures in an official setting so something has been done to even the playing field for them (or remove the stigma of them asking their own fans for money for their autograph).

I used to live above Boston near the NH border. Great memories there visiting The Million Year Picnic, Superhero Universe, Newbury Comics, etc... If you check my profile and check my homepage, it becomes instantly apparent what sckao means. (It's not a secret.)

I think it's similar to RedSox.

Sorry for not knowing anything about the card market or even where to look this up… but I noticed that this card was different than normal. Is this a variant or just a manufacturing error? (Or just weird?) It’s card 35 from the Spider-Man Archives. (I just had an opened box lying around and there were some cards still in it from years ago.)

It's kind of obvious isn't it? Having just opened up an eBay store myself, this is obviously a way to get free eyeballs from outraged or amused lookers such as yourselves. Once there, you'll probably look at their other offerings for other outrageous listings. In any case, you'll have achieved their goal... you've looked at their listing, and then looked at their other listings. A certain percentage may then convert into actual sales on the normally priced stuff.

Turns out I put your copy up for auction on January 10, 2010 at a VCC Fundraiser. So your copy WAS MINE! (My memory is shot.) I guess the board got together to do a Fundraiser to put Danny Dupcak out of business... (I don't even recall this actually. We did so many VCC auctions, charity auctions, and fundraiser events back then, it's become a blur.) So I didn't make any money off of this and it was donated toward the fundraiser. That thread even says I got the Epic Illustrated #16 and the Conan #1 8.0 signed together. (And I threw in a Marvel Comics Presents #84 CGC 9.8 and 5 raw copies of MCP #72! .) It sold for $200. That's a pretty good deal in today's market given the freebies...