Djangology

The 28k population was from how Wikipedia defined "Brentford": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brentford I have no idea how far Brentford's reach extends in any given direction before it is overtaken by other clubs, i.e. their "territory".

Appreciate the info! Brentford proper is listed as having a smaller population (just under 28k as of 2011), but I assume there must be some additional pool of stable, long-term fans in the immediate vicinity? I would imagine the median household income in Brentford is higher than Wrexham as well? The whole Moneyball thing Brentford's done has been a great story itself. Being a solid mid-table club is very impressive given their resources. Is the delta between the Bristol and Wrexham costs perhaps a death-by-a-thousand-cuts combination of Brexit, COVID, inflation, supply chain, etc.? Not sure how much construction has been impacted across the pond. Can't imagine those two would risk reputation damage by trying to engage in shenanigans. Those losses in the Championship are eye-watering. I know there's a pot of gold for making it to the Prem - still, what a gamble!

What's the realistic level in the pyramid that the Wrexham market can sustainably support? It's fun to look at a club like Brentford that was in League Two 20 years ago and playing in a 12,000 seat ground from a century earlier to see how far they've come. As a non-Brit, it's easy enough to understand how a club like Leeds could return to the Premier League and remain indefinitely; however, I don't have a good sense of just how big the economic gap is between Brentford and Wrexham.

Pretty much the last thing DC should do is 1) launch another Batman-related book 2) that caters to people old enough to remember the Bicentennial.

CGC can be both the top grader in the industry at the same as they're the grader of the Promise Collection books. Same thing happens with PSA. They receive many of the same criticisms from sports cards folks that people here have for CGC. I don't know that high-quality scans of any of the PSA 10 Mantles are out there for the public, but none of them are in recent slabs. Many people believe the grading standards have risen over time and one of those PSA 10s is in the early PSA slab, to boot. Part of PSA's appeal is that it's the easiest place to get a 10 from the main companies. Other big grading companies like BGS and SGC have a delineated range for their 10s while PSA does not. PSA has a wider range of what constitutes a 10 as a result. Between the different time periods at which these cards were graded, the different humans who graded them, and the different companies who graded them, I don't think the nominal grades on the holders confirm anything in terms of which one is best. The Mantles that have been in holders for 10+ years could've been damaged since they were slabbed as well.

My understanding is that all of the high grade Mantles out there are supposed to be from the find referenced in the article. That Mr. Mint character identified this one as the "finest" of the bunch in a letter to the buyer after he had sold it in that 1991 transaction. PSA's grades have the same sort of uncertainty as CGC's grades, particularly when it comes to vintage. As an aside, there are/were detailed scans of the card on Heritage's site and I think SGC overgraded it. Modern cards do not receive that much leeway. It's in amazing condition and I have no reason to doubt it's the best one, but it has a number of flaws.

My library of trades is clear that the 00s are the era I like best (thus far). Makes sense when I think about it. Although Vertigo didn't have anything that hit the heights of Sandman, I'd say that was their best time overall. There were also plenty of great indie books from stalwarts as well as newcomers. There was a renaissance at Image. A number of my favorite comic writers - Brubaker, Ellis, Morrison, Vaughan, et al. - were focused on comics and prolific, to boot. I really enjoyed the first few years of a couple of the Ultimate titles. There were some real highlights from standard superhero writers like Busiek, Cooke, and JMS to name a few.

I think the main obstacle is that book had a huge print run: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/house-of-slaughter-1-gets-almost-half-a-million-orders/

Do you genuinely not comprehend the concept of people prioritizing art over writing in comics?

If anything, CGC should be headed in the opposite direction to maximize transparency: Eliminate the custom labels in order to standardize the front and use the back of the label to dump the "grader's notes"-type info. Use acronyms for the common stuff to save space, then elaborate with additional text when necessary. I don't see any consumer benefit from pertinent information being restricted to an online-only source gated by a paid account. Databases are compromised all the time. At best, this change just manufactures additional hoops for a consumer to jump through to feel confident about the grade of a CGC book.

Look at it from a buyer's perspective: What independently-verifiable evidence is there that those three 1) attended the event in question and 2) signed the ticket 3) at that time? If I buy a ticket from Game 6 of the 1936 World Series and have it signed by Anthony Davis and Taylor Swift, it doesn't prove that they were both at the Polo Grounds that day.

I don't buy many variants because my general philosophy is to limit purchases of them to two categories: 1. A must-own cover. ASM 55 is a perfect example - I bought a virgin second print because that's the iteration I liked best. I had/have no clue which version will be the long-term winner in the market. 2. A limited or ratio of a (potential) key. Ideally, this is one with a small, finite print run announced up-front.

Immortal Hulk just concluded a couple months ago. After the first issue, the main covers were loaded with “substance” for the rest of the series.

I'd say it's more that I incorporated speculation as part of my comics-related activities. While I had/have zero interest in the Young Avengers, it wouldn't have been any trouble to pick up a copy of the first issue back in 2005. I was literally at a comic store the day it was released, but was only buying stuff that I wanted to read (with the occasional cover buy) back then. Nowadays? I couldn't care less about Deadpool and recently picked up Black, White & Blood 4 because it's minimal risk with significant plausible upside. Given how much time I allocate to comics, the least I can do is try to utilize information I've learned where appropriate.

Speaking of that Frison cover, the color splash and foil variants are both limited to 300 and go for ~$700 in 9.8 - those seem like relative bargains.

The original Avengers 1 is a perfect example of a ho-hum key to me. The whole concept of a superhero team had already existed for years, this doesn't have any character first appearances, and I don't think the cover is anything special. There are a number of "key" categories that almost always fail to interest me, including: - 1st team appearance of a group of existing characters - 1st silver/bronze/etc. age appearance - 1st battle/meeting between existing characters

Out of curiosity, what are the arguments for why Atari's console games should be the most desirable independent of your personal connection to them? After Atari crashed the U.S. game market in the early 80s, they never really came back in any meaningful way. In contrast, Nintendo significantly expanded the market in the mid-80s and has been relevant to every subsequent generation. On top of that, the popular 2600 games were mostly wildly inferior arcade ports. It's not like Platinum Age comics or 19th century baseball cards are the most desirable in those respective hobbies, so just being earlier in the market isn't inherently enough.