Leo's Pop Culture Palace

My buddy Leo "The Listmaker" has a great new blog, Pop Culture Palace.

You see, Leo is one of those people obsessed with making Top 10, Top 20, Top-whatever type lists and he's channeled his obsession into a fun blog chock-full of videos, music and more. Definitely worth a bookmark...

Fantastic Four 12 13 14 15 VF 8.0 Glossy High Grade Run

This auction will be fun to watch.

I don't think the 12 or 14 grade as high as 8.0, but they are still great copies of tough books. The 13, however, is the pick of the litter... that is a real nice copy of an extremely tough book in high grade.

That said, these books would command so much more if they were slabbed. I'm not implying these books are restored in any way, but how could anyone drop major coin on raw books after all we know about trimming scandals?

Merry Christmas To Me

Thanks to Ted at Superworld for a good deal on a nice book. One more Action Comics war cover off the want list.

One of my favorite early Action covers. From April 1941 with Wayne Boring cover art...

The Collectibles Trainwreck

I'm coming to the frightening realization that the collectibles market is a sad, sad joke.

I've been trying to sell a number of items on eBay and it has been an eye-opening nightmare.

I've listed Diamond Select Medium Fantastic Four statues numerous times and I can't get rid of them at HALF of what I paid. The "retail" on these is $85 and I'm lucky to get a bite at $30. Between the numerous relisting fees and the Paypal fees, I'm lucky to net $10 on something for which I paid $62. It seems as though the only statues that appreciate in value are the old Bowens. Everything else is disposable and worthless the second you click the "pay" button.

A Babe Ruth Salvino figurine cost me $25 ten years ago, and it went unsold after numerous listings at $9.95.

Midgrade comics have less value than toilet paper... midgrade Bronze books gather dust at less than 50 cents a book. I'd get more value by throwing them in the wood burning stove and heating my home.

A Michael Collins (Apollo 11) signed NASA Litho was selling for $400 years ago, but he has since started doing private signing with a memorabilia dealer ($300 a signature) and I can't get a bid over $50 because mine is personalized. No joke... 4 years ago I could have sold this for $400 in a minute, now I can't break $50. I'd rather let it rot in my closet than give it away for less than $200.

I have binders of authentic quality entertainment autographs that I paid $20 - $50 each that I can't get a bid at $9.99. So many forgeries have flooded eBay that you have to dump the real stuff at pennies on the dollar. It's truly a nightmare that makes me want to pack it all up and ship it off to an auction house.

Good God... I'm depressing myself.

Wonderful 70s Cheese

One of my guilty pleasures is Machine Man. I loved this series as a kid and still have a soft spot for it. Kirby and Ditko art... what's not to love?

So, Machine Man is a series that I'm looking to collect in 9.6/9.8 condition. Here's the first book off the checklist:

I also picked up a copy of Machine Man 12 CGC 9.6 for $10! Gotta love getting books for less than the slabbing fee!

Grail Obtained

Once in a while, you have to throw caution to the wind and go after a once-in-a-lifetime type item when it becomes available. So, when my buddy Kevin decided to sell his copy of Superman 11 signed by Joe Shuster, I knew I had to make a play for it.

Happily, we were able to come to terms. I scrambled to sell a bunch of stuff that didn't mean much to me... so, in effect, it was a great "trade." I am happy to say that this is now in my collection and will be for a long time.