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The line is definitely blurred.

A Premium Membership at $149 has no discount. An Elite Membership at $299 has a 10% discount. (Which means you need to save at least $150 in fees to make it worthwhile in the most basic terms.) So a Dealer Membership now costs $199 and gives you a 15% discount? What am I missing here? (I have an Elite Membership and am registering as a business this year due to the new tax law. It seems to me I should be applying to be a dealer and I would actually save money.)

Just decluttering... Previous Mystery Box recipients will know what I mean. (Some de-duplication of excess inventory going on.) Glad you liked it.

It's a new way of communicating. The merging of the new with the old. The sign of the times. A message board thread where some of the responses are in video format. We used to link to pre-made Animated GIFS and response videos.... but now we have sites where we can put our custom messages on top of the GIF or video. Not with this particular video in mind... but a video showing how to put together a long box would have been much more helpful than a diagram that looked like it was from IKEA many years ago.

A lot of false information being thrown casually around here… The homicide rate is higher per 100,000 people in over half of the OTHER states. Property crime is higher in California than the national average. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/sosmap/homicide_mortality/homicide.htm

That first box doesn't look so good... I would toss it in the trash and just open the other two.

1) I guess a 4.5 and 2.5k would be out then and not just a point for further discussion…

You might also consider some type of Original Art from a favorite series suitably framed. Those tend to be one of a kind. This one was a bit expensive at $62,000 but it’s interesting in that it was an unused ASM 361 cover. https://www.comiclink.com/auctions/item.asp?back=%2FAUCTIONS%2FSEARCH.ASP%3FPreviewCode%3D2021feb%26where%3Dauctions%26title%3Dbagley%26GO%3DGO%26ItemType%3DCA%23Item_1459747&id=1459747&itemType=1

I tried out a couple of Mylites+ Packs many years ago, but I found the 1.4mil thickness to be just too thin. They also seemed to be what everyone terms “crinkly” and make noises when flexed. Experiments were also done on these CGC boards with using two Halfbacks which are theoretically thicker than one Fullback, but the one Fullback is actually more rigid and provides a better “fit” in terms of the 725/700 combo most people seem to prefer.

Not everyone has a grade in mind or a set dollar price in mind. If no grade is given then any grade is probably welcomed because the balance of grade/price is the overriding factor just as it would be in real-life at a convention. A person would not turn down a book that isn’t in their “grade” range if it was an amazingly, great price at a convention necessarily or a hard to find book in any grade. If writing the DM is too much trouble, then don’t answer the WTB post.

I voted no before you modified the poll. I posted a WTB for a Killing Joke 9th printing, a book that is currently going for obscene amounts on EBay when it’s not really the hardest printing to obtain actually if you look at the census. (I actually ended up slabbing copies that were rarer.) I actually got a copy at a great price off a board member which led to more exchanges that mutually benefited both of us. (I’m not concerned about getting a Top Registry notation.) I didn’t care necessarily about the grade… I was just interested in completing the base Killing Joke set.

These suppliers will come up a lot. Good luck. (I've purchased from all three over the years and this past year.) BCW Supplies for Polypropylene bags and boards Collectible Supplies | Shop Display Cases for Collectible Comics, Trading Cards & More - BCW Supplies Gerber for Mylites2, Fullbacks and Mylars (725, 700) E. Gerber Products, LLC. - Home (egerber.com) Hot Flips Hot Flips – Comic Book And Art Supplies

The spot resin (plastics) market basically doubled in price in 2021 and affected plastics pricing and availability across the board. We saw that happen for comic supplies, and it invariably affected the supply chain for the slabs themselves. It has now started to finally come back down as supplies increase. Public Research (theplasticsexchange.com) Plastic Resin Prices 2021 | Resin Shortage & Cost of Plastic Explained (summitpackaging.com) The cost of paper and packaging was also affected. (CGC has changed their packaging material recently to compensate I think.) Producer Price Index by Industry: Corrugated and Solid Fiber Box Manufacturing: Primary Products (PCU322211322211P) | FRED | St. Louis Fed (stlouisfed.org) Coupled with their expansion and increased infrastructure costs, there are additional reasons why another price increase was considered so early probably. Usually, one thing you can do is pull more income from an established, successful division to cover the costs of starting up/running other areas of the company that are not yet profitable.

Another way to look at it is how the medium has evolved. Stories used to be short and there were multiple stories per comic book. Novels used to be serialized in newspapers and then later collected into a single form. Earlier Superman and Batman film appearances were also short and serialized. They eventually lengthened to fill movies. The original Marvel and DC movies were basically standalone efforts marked by being released years apart. Now you have basically a 23-part linked movie plot which basically started with Iron Man 1 and ended with Avengers Endgame. You had Marvel Netflix serialized shows and a DC universe filled with shows that are ostensibly plotted tighter than their movies. You have Disney+ shows which are essentially super long serialized movies (or two-part movies). The slabbed comics themselves now only have value for being a collectible produced in limited quantities existing in various grades. Its creative content is everywhere… on the net in digital comics , in graphic novels, in cartoons, in movies, and yes, still in physical copies you can buy and read. The artwork is incredibly important as it is the basis for the entire “look” of the movie universe. (Bryan Hitch and Ultimates, Iron Man and Adi Granov) So saying it’s all because of the tv and movie industry is not recognizing that these are the times we live in and that people are consuming entertainment in many, many ways. But even the rumor or appearance of a new comic series is enough to cause a spike… since that could mean it is setting up a future movie. (Which then becomes a chicken or the egg situation.) Collecting that key appearance is one of the ways people can show their fandom.

Encasing baseball or sports cards in plastic doesn’t usually prevent collectors from reading/viewing both sides. Neither does encasing coins, stamps, or money. Unfortunately, a comic book or magazine is much more than just its cover.

Here's what's really important: (Because it is a two-parter, the interest should span through 2023 conceivably.) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part One) is scheduled to be released in the United States on October 7, 2022, delayed from an initial April 2022 date due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Part Two is expected to be released in 2023, and a female-focused spin-off film is also in development. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider-Man:_Across_the_Spider-Verse_(Part_One)

Just glad you got it. (You don’t actually have to post it publicly.)

I submitted a form last night didn’t I?

Fill out a form and let Sledder do the work… (Back to watching The Witcher Season 2…)

Congrats!

My countdownCountdown

I’d like to thank @oakman29 for the many trade paperbacks and hardcover book I received. Each was spectacularly wrapped in superhero wrapping paper which made me realize how poorly I actually wrapped my own SS effort. (Even my family members were impressed.) I actually have never read any of these tpbs or graphic novels yet so they are all new to me. Thanks for all the new reading material!

And what does dealer overstock look like after 30 years? (Or the flotsam you pick up with a collection and have left over once you sell off what you need to sell off to make your money back?) I’ve been trying to somewhat organize a bit and this is the latest X-Men #1 box. (Looks like some other single digit books in there as well currently.) The red band covers in the back are the ones with Wolverine, Cyclops, and Ice Man. (This, of course, may not be typical… but it may be typical of dealer overstock.)

The average cost of tuition for a resident University of California undergraduate year is $36,700 with $19.5k of that allotted for room/board/transportation. All of these things you would have to pay anyway if you went to work and lived outside your parent's house anyway. So the tuition/books and supplies/insurance part of it is really only $17.1k a year. If you go to an in-state Community College for the first two years and then transfer to the UC System as a junior, your average cost would then be around $3-4k a year. Out of state students have to pay 2.5X roughly I'd say for tuition.