C2E2 Variant Drama 24 24

[godzilla43]

No worry Black Flag you can sell you're acetone "variants" in the Boston Fan Expo parking lot
after Disney/Marvel will send a cease and desist letter to you. 

I would not be surprised that even then people would not stop buying that junk from a back of trunk.

Edited August 10, 2022 by godzilla43

[Sigur Ros]

On 8/10/2022 at 10:34 AM, Beastfeast said:

Not sure if this has been updated but originally it was mentioned that the "influencers" were skipping the lines and buying the books before people who had been in line were able to?  Has this been confirmed?  

Not sure I'd call them "Influencers", but it is 100% confirmed some of Whatnot's favored sellers did get to the table and walk away with 75 issues or more.  Because of that, even people who weren't there got quantities of them when people in line didnt get one copy. This is all admitted. 

Whether they cut the line comes down to their claim vs the claim of people who saw them. 

[El Toro Rojo]

On 8/10/2022 at 5:04 AM, Filter81 said:

When she made that post the plan was always to archive it after several days.  The main reason behind the post was to apologize to anyone at C2E2 who didn't get a copy.  The idea was to leave the post up long enough to give people enough time to read/react and we also attempted/failed to correct some of the misinformation floating around on social media.

 

But why take it down?

[Old Fashion PB and J]

On 8/10/2022 at 10:44 AM, MrBedrock said:

I am an LCS who stopped submitting for customers over the dealer discount issue. Our submission totals have decreased by at least 2500 books year over year. CGC didn't change their stance on that. So good luck!

 Did they do away with the dealer discount?

[wardevil0]

On 8/10/2022 at 10:34 AM, Beastfeast said:

Not sure if this has been updated but originally it was mentioned that the "influencers" were skipping the lines and buying the books before people who had been in line were able to?  Has this been confirmed?  

I *think* this may have been a part of the deal for "influencers" to promote the variants; they may have been picking up pre-sales, which would be slightly different from just jumping line.

[Dr. Balls]

The record collecting community does the same thing. The ultimate losers are the ones who live far and away from conventions who have to pay the inflated cost. The last Record Store Day did it for me, I had to pay $80 for a $24 record because I don’t live anywhere near a record store (previously unreleased on vinyl). After years of seeing this, I’d had it to the point that it was the last straw in my reasoning to get out of collecting - which I did.

I don’t have any suggestions- but if sellers  think that collectors will just endlessly pay 20x the previously paid price for comic books - they are actively trying to destroy the very hobby they make a living from.

[Beastfeast]

On 8/10/2022 at 10:50 AM, wardevil0 said:

I *think* this may have been a part of the deal for "influencers" to promote the variants; they may have been picking up pre-sales, which would be slightly different from just jumping line.

If they were able to cut the line, that's scummy but Black Flag seemed to enable that.  If they didn't cut and they were pre-sales, that's even worse of Black Flag to not mention that and have people wait around for nothing.  

Seems the people who were able to either pre-buy or cut the line are definitely not saints, but Black Flag and CGC are looking to be the ultimate villains, here.  ESPECIALLY CGC.  Geez.  

[Beastfeast]

On 8/10/2022 at 10:53 AM, Dr. Balls said:

The record collecting community does the same thing. The ultimate losers are the ones who live far and away from conventions who have to pay the inflated cost. The last Record Store Day did it for me, I had to pay $80 for a $24 record because I don’t live anywhere near a record store (previously unreleased on vinyl). After years of seeing this, I’d had it to the point that it was the last straw in my reasoning to get out of collecting - which I did.

I don’t have any suggestions- but if sellers  think that collectors will just endlessly pay 20x the previously paid price for comic books - they are actively trying to destroy the very hobby they make a living from.

I've always lived close to record stores and semi-collected but was always more into comics.  The longest line I ever saw for FCBD was maybe a 10 minute wait? Record Store Day this year, the shop around the corner from my house had a line half a mile long.  This is in a maybe 500 sq ft shop.  A few dudes had camped out overnight.  It blew my mind and I had never seen anything like it at a record shop.  

[Monster's Lair Comics]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:48 AM, Old Fashion PB and J said:

 Did they do away with the dealer discount?

reduced it and now dealers have to pay a yearly $200 fee. 

[MrBedrock]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:48 AM, Old Fashion PB and J said:

 Did they do away with the dealer discount?

They decreased it from 20% to 15% when they implemented the price increases last year. It may not sound like much, but figuring the time my mail order staff spent on the phone acting as surrogate CGC customer service reps we were already at break even at the previous discount. CGC thought then, and still thinks now, that the discount is just a way for folks to get around paying full price. 

[KB81]

CGC said that the artist was either involved or did the acetate art, is that correct? 



 

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/10/2022 at 8:57 AM, Beastfeast said:

I've always lived close to record stores and semi-collected but was always more into comics.  The longest line I ever saw for FCBD was maybe a 10 minute wait? Record Store Day this year, the shop around the corner from my house had a line half a mile long.  This is in a maybe 500 sq ft shop.  A few dudes had camped out overnight.  It blew my mind and I had never seen anything like it at a record shop.  

It’s gone from nuts to crazy the past few years. People with record store connections are listing records on Ebay 12 hours before their release at 3x markup. I got mine at $80, but the day it came out it breached $100 after people bought multiple copies to sell on Ebay.

Mondo posters has the same issues. The collectible market has a problem - the FOMO psychosis seems out-of-control from the standpoint of someone who can willfully step back from the hype. It’s sad and weird and disconcerting.

[Strike W]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:32 PM, Mike's Rack said:

So… hear me out… does this open the door for grading anthropodermic bibliopegy…

Sorry, you want to cover a bible in acetate and send it in to cgc to get a 9.9 with quick turnaround to sell to influencers at a con? 
 

genius

[DrunkWooky]

Good guy, Chip Gettler donating all his ebay auction to Mission 22, a military charity:

https://youtu.be/olhVNXcK5jw

But, Ebay stated that the item violated the Counterfeit Item Policy. "They received a report regarding its authenticity." 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4G7L_Gquv4

[jsilverjanet]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:44 AM, MrBedrock said:

I am an LCS who stopped submitting for customers over the dealer discount issue. Our submission totals have decreased by at least 2500 books year over year. CGC didn't change their stance on that. So good luck!

I am certain you weren't the only one however they have found a way to make up for all that lost revenue

Edited August 10, 2022 by jsilverjanet

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/10/2022 at 6:55 AM, 50 Fiddy said:

Well the "New" CGC seems to want to be like the old PGX.

At this point, If CGC was on the ball, they will create their own “competition” brand to grade books - splitting the customer base between two different companies. CGC remains the strong brand for high-end grading, and a yet-unnamed “value” brand that grades books expediently for the sole purpose of resale. That’s how you protect the CGC brand from discussions like this.

[Dr. Balls]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:04 AM, Strike W said:

Sorry, you want to cover a bible in acetate and send it in to cgc to get a 9.9 with quick turnaround to sell to influencers at a con? 
 

genius

Call me ignorant, but I am sadder today having learned that the comic book hobby has “influencers”.

[WeR138]

Seems like I remember something about trust being hard to acquire, but easy to lose.......

Aw, to heck with that!

We got us some dope acetate variants, yo!

[godzilla43]

Marvels 0 submitted 124 and zero 9.9,
Marvels 1 submitted 464 and one 9.9,
Marvels 2 submitted 251 and zero 9.9,
Marvels 3 submitted 332 and two 9.9,
Marvels 4 submitted 359 and zero 9.9

and of course zero 10.0

[Lirion]

On 8/10/2022 at 9:28 AM, MGH said:

@Lirion. If we are aiming to believe  those grades have been bought with no identification marker.. How many before, and for how long has this practice existed

What value is that for the consumer? 

Why even bother getting a graded comic of there's no way to know if grade was earned or bought? 

 

100% about the grade.. It doesn't have to have a green label.. It could be a 6.0 blue with actual record of defects or higher score green for those who want to imagine what grade might be of the book wasnt altered from original condition.. But that grade needs to be legit and about the book, and not about who asked for the book to be slabbed  and what they paid 

Maybe it's about the grade to some, but I didn't get past the label color to get to the grade based on my example of how I would understand the grading process to be. Seeing such an obvious "flaw" in the addition of the acetate cover and additional staples to me precedes the grade because it should have been flagged right there. You send a book in that has a signature on the cover that was witnessed by CGC and it will be flagged before the grading begins. 

Please note that I do believe that the apparent "pay for grade" is a problem (which is why I added the bit about adding an asterisk next to the grade and note on the label as it being a promotional thing and not an actual grade). With me being a process driven person, the failure at CGC for this book happened before the grading even began at the lack of taking the added cover into consideration. Completely dismissing it is the first point of failure which is why I stand by my opinion that it is not 100% about the grade. While I, like many of the folk here, are going to be questioning every graded book they have and see, they should be questioning label assignment too. I have a Green Label book (Batman Harley Quinn, Alex Ross cover) that is signed by Aaron Sowd. Typical store/con signing...wait in line, say how much I love the art and that I'm a fan, typical 'Thank you. I appreciate hearing that. Have a great rest of your day.' reply and handing my book back to me signed. I decided last year to have it graded to be a wall hanger. Added a sticky note asking that it be graded for the book itself and to count the signature as a "flaw" and give it a blue label (Why? I read stuff on the forums that blue with a lower grade is preferable to a green with a higher grade and being new to all of this I wanted the blue label). It came back as green. I'm bringing this up because while my note was discarded/ignored, the graders saw the "non-cgc witnessed" signature and immediately went green label. Back to the UF4 book...CGC should have, first and foremost saw the cover, realized it wasn't legit from the distributor and flagged it green before any grading occurred. They didn't and thus a failure point before grading even began which is why I am not on board with the 100% grading thing. It's being dismissive of the first and most obvious thing most people see....label color and what it means. I see any label color other than Blue or Yellow and I immediately scrutinize the book and it's grade. I see Blue and I'm not doing much more of anything unless it's trying to determine why a book received that certain grade if it's not really high or really low.

Side note: I have a Spider-Man #1 McFarlane black/silver still in bag that won't ever be graded due to me getting McFarlane's signature at a con many years ago (before COAs and cell phone cameras) and he actually signed it on the bag which he apparently doesn't do anymore. CGC won't grade it in the bag so there's no point (not sending it to the other guy either, same bag reason.) It's in an Ultra Pro magnetic on my wall.