Opinions: Comic Buyer's Guide

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Greetings, my fellow comic book enthusists, I have never read even one issue of Comic Buyer's Guide, and that is why I need the input of those that have. I'm considering purchasing a year subscription, but I want your honest input first. Is it worth subscribing to? Would I be better off subscribing to Wizard? CBG vs Wizard who wins? This could get ugly!

[blowout]

depends what comics you are collecting.

wizard is good for current and modern books, and has some great articles. doesn't cover bronze/silver/gold books at all though and only touches on cgc graded books.

CBC is the one to get if you want market reports/current cgc multiples and coverage of older books.

[Illiterati-migration]

Ugh. Wizard makes me physically ill. (I'm allergic to the paper.) (No, just kidding, it really does just make me sick.) (Like throwing-up-so-hard-it-comes-out-my-nose sick.)

 

I love their monthly "Here's a cool book that everyone should run out and buy because this one guy in spandex kicks this other guy's chin clean off! Whoa! Ultraviolence is cool!" articles.

 

Or how about "Hey, we have no conflict of interest with CGC aside from ALL of our merchandise and several full-page ads every month... so here's our price guide for CGC graded books!"

 

Yeah, Wizard's good. (Someone please supply a barfing smiley face here?)

[tb]

CBG is great - been subscribing to it on & off for the past 15 years and it is super value. I buy it for the dealer ads; there are still a lot of dealers who don't use the internet (I've found several "impossible" GA issues over the past year that would have sold for much more on eBay). They have been following eBay closely with auction updates every week; most interesting part IMO. I've never seen Wizard, but you can't go wrong with CBG. AAA+++

 

 

 

[blowout]

come on, we all know that you so called 'wizard haters' read it every month

[Darthdiesel]

I will gladly send you some of my old copies of CBG. I even use them as filler in packaging because I don't like the format and find them troublesome to store and hold onto..out like yesterday's news. Good articles tho but too much with the ads and want lists and Heritage catalog spreads...you are inundated with people selling their stuff.

 

Wizard is mouch more enjoyable read. Some folks may find their price guide is tripe, and I find many problems with inaccurate listings as well and even wrote in to make suggestions on titles and variants and they don't really listen. I just think Wizard is written for a younger non fogey audience. those who are wowed by color, pretty pics, glam will go for Wizard...they also have informative articles about what's going on in comics/movies/dvds/games and their letters pages are funny. Answered pretty much by Mclaughlin like Quesada on the punisher maxi series letters pages - sort of reading some of the posts on here.

 

CBG's letter pages have a variety of similar topics covered here as well but lately has become more of a "I wonder what CGC is up to now..." and "CGC has driven the prices up and the collectors insane blah blah"

 

The CBG sub is priced pretty well and gets better if you buy more than a yer's worth with all the perks of having them post ads for you. This adds to the already streaming flow of but that is what pays for the paper.

 

Wizard is definitely a great buy via subscription as well - don't buy it for retail at the comic store...you would be losing big time. If you have to buy it at the local store, I suggest asking for last month's copy for $1.00.

 

For a nice view on the hobby, get both!

[Illiterati-migration]

come on, we all know that you so called 'wizard haters' read it every month

 

I read it only because I read EVERYTHING. I also listen to Rush Limbaugh and that insufficiently_thoughtful_person Mike Savage (or whatever his first name is) on the radio... I think I just like to antagonize myself. What a demented thing to do....

 

Wait, when I say I read "EVERYTHING", I mean like cereal boxes, The Onion, newspapers, Bug's police record, Greggy's online diary (www.cuteboysIknow.com)... you know, stuff like that.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

While reading Wizard and thinking about how badly I would screw speculating investors out of their money I suddenly had an urge to... Much better

[Illiterati-migration]

While reading Wizard ...

 

ROFL Perfect! Many thanks.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Thank you for your valued input Carl, I found it very informative. I'll take you up on that offer for your old CBG issues. That would be the perfect way to find out if it's for me. I'll email you my address here in the next day or two. Oh, and I can send you money for shipping via PayPal.

[Bugaboo-migration]

I read "EVERYTHING", I mean like cereal boxes, The Onion, newspapers, Bug's police record, Greggy's online diary

Hey.....my record is supposed to be sealed. You must be a Narc or something with special access.

 

That whole report about the 3 corn cobs stuck up my butt was a big misunderstanding.....I just....uh......tripped in the kitchen while I was making dinner.

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

Do you read the articles in CBG? Are they interesting? Is CBG loaded with information? Or is it mainly ads? Never seen Wizard! Where have you been living? A cave? ! I purchased a few of the first issues of Wizard, and I enjoyed them at the time. Living where I do Comic conventions are no less than an hours drive away, and most of them are about a 3-4 hour drive away. One of the interesting things about Wizard to me, was seeing the faces of many comic book creators and reading their words. What kind of articles does CBG have on Gold/Silver/Bronze Age books?

[Illiterati-migration]

That whole report about the 3 corn cobs stuck up my butt was a big misunderstanding.....I just....uh......tripped in the kitchen while I was making dinner.

 

That's so weird that you were making dinner... I had dinner once...

[The_Man_Of_Steel]

I had dinner once...

 

And then I had it twice...

[Illiterati-migration]

I had dinner once...

 

And then I had it twice...

 

But thrice was too much

so I hid the rest in your treasured oak hutch.

[tb]

> Do you read the articles in CBG? Are they interesting?

 

Until recently, I paid for the ads, but I've enjoyed the market reports over the last couple of years - would continue subscribing just for those. They seem to put an amazing amount of work into tracking eBay; actually log every single CGC sale and publish stats, top 10 lists over top auctions etc. They also just had a long article about that 10.0 1968 Thor. I've also enjoyed a series of articles by Chuck R. (Mile High).

 

> Is CBG loaded with information? Or is it mainly ads?

 

Check out ddiesel's wrapping paper copies and see how you like them. You'll either hate it or end up subscribing forever like me.

[Zonker]

Hey MoS---

 

One benefit of subscribing to CBG is they give subscribers access to an on-line version. I do not subscribe, but take advantage of their weekly on-line teasers. One introduced me to this very forum, thanks to the Mr. Silver Age column on What Book Started the Bronze Age? (that very long thread in the Bronze Age section of this board).

 

They also had lots of coverage of the Gaiman/McFarland lawsuit.

 

Update: Sorry original post had links to my Hotmail Inbox, which of course works for no one but me. ___action=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ecollect%2ecom%2flogin%2fnewuser%2easp'>Here is the link to the CBG email weekly blast-- you can sign up here, but I do not believe they have an archive of past ones (sorry).

Hope that helps!

Z.

[dam60]

A subsciption for one year to CBG cost $30 and they gave me a free DKS#1 and a free classified ad every issue. It's a great investment if you are interested in the letters (my favorite part), comic reviews and news. I too despise Wizard and think that CBG is a much better buy. Wizard is great for the "Marvel zombies" but CBG covers all types of comics and all the nes in our industry.

 

You might want to buy one copy off the newstand (it's $3.50 retail) and see what you think.