Wednesday Open Forum Quarantine Edition

Wednesday

Wednesday, the best day of the week, new comic book day.

We open things up to hear from you. A free for all.

The 288th edition (and the 7th quarantine edition) of the open forum!



 

New comics are ramping up with even more new releases this week. Let us know what you are picking up.

Did you know we have the forum up and running, you can check it out at the official CHU Forum site, go over and sign up.

As always we also want to hear about your weekly pickups.
So, What were your pick ups?

143 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Forum Quarantine Edition”

  1. DC divorce from Diamond has risk of becoming ugly. Diamond has the infrastructure for efficiency but new distributors might struggle. Stores that face higher costs might abandon some comics. In a recession, stores tend to order less. Is market big enough to support several distributors?

    1. I think the new distributors were already equipped to handle it though with the amount of orders they were likely already fulfilling.

    2. I think the competition may be good in the long run for distribution. Maybe DC eventually beats out Diamond in terms of accurate order fulfillment and quality of goods delivered (read: damages).

      Maybe Diamond proves to be what they have always claimed to be: the best (if the only for year) comic distributor around.

      We’ll see.

  2. Picked up a set of Horn Venom 25 variants, a sideshow premium format Harley Quinn statue, and a Jerome Baker Mothership.

    2. I repurchased the Horn Salt Lake Comic Con Death of Wolverine variant again recently after selling it years ago. I decided it’s too cool a rarity from my hometown not to have.

      1. My friends run a booth there every year Drunkwooky pressing T-shirts’. Your probably related to my husband if you’re a Mormon lol.

        1. Not a Mormon. Born in England and I’m a perfect example of an Anglican: Drink beer and never attend church. It’s a great Horn variant, though. It has the M.C. Escher homage going for it, the now debunked and illegal Salt Lake Comic Con logo on it, plus it’s super low print. Love it.

          1. I left SLC in 2007. Last time I was there was 8 years ago visiting my family. It’s on my to-do list to go to the con.

            1. The con is just “ok”. I wouldn’t kill myself to get there. I don’t even know if they have any booths selling comics any more. If they do it’s in the single digits. Beyond that it’s a clar cash orgy for C-list celebrities and the preening organizers who are just pretentious cash hogs. They came and gave a talk at my law school while I was a student there during their trademark dispute and their sheer brazen disregard for the facts, the law, and just decency in general was really off-putting. I knew the outcome of that case as soon as I heard them speak about it. They had no idea what they were doing.

    3. Sold out now at iron lion. Was going to grab a few more, but your PP49 theory and that it has a Virgin variant (that was sold out) made me hesitate as far as its potential ceiling goes. Went with some Star Wars spec from mike high sale instead….we’ll see how that turns out…

  3. Had a great week already picking up books!

    Pick ups include the following:
    Star Wars: Bounty Hunters #1 (Dave Johnson variant 1:50 in NM for $115)
    Star Wars: Kanan Last Padawan #6 (2 copies@$6 each)
    Dragon’s Lair #2, #3 (Arcana for $3 each)
    Spider-Man/Deadpool #47 ($3)
    Lois Lane #8 (Cover A for $1)

    New comics:
    Something is Killing the Children #7
    LOSH #6 (Cover A X 2)
    Die! Die! Die! #10

    Noticed one thing about the new distributors for DC Comics that was nice, was able to buy DC new releases today as opposed to Wednesday with all the other books.

    Good hunting everyone!

    1. It’s stupid. I don’t live close enough to my LCS to go twice a week and if I’m not on top of things, DC key issues could be gone before I come on Wednesday.

      Tony, would it be possible to move your weekly picks to Monday evenings?? I usually wait until you’ve posted Tuesday evening to send my last minute list to my shop.

          1. Anything is possible to be honest. Most of the time i do them Tuesday nights because of baseball. But there is no baseball going on right now so i could do it.

            1. Sigh, I sure do miss baseball.

              If pro ball comes back and plays in empty stadiums, doesn’t that give the Florida teams an advantage??

              1. I have been watching Korean Baseball on espn. I coach a select travel team. We lost two kids who moved out of state and my assistant coach just told me his son doesn’t want to play baseball anymore. It’s been a sad time for me.

                1. Just mighty duck that team and discover that the district boundaries have been wrong the whole time and get your rival teams best player and then find a kid with a mean fastball throwing in an alley and convince him to join. Maybe have a kid learn the knuckleball. Too easy. You can send me the assistant coach mini replica trophy when you win state.

              2. I’m so missing NBA.. and of course it was a bummer that March Madness didn’t happen.. looking forward to them with empty arena’s or not. The no crowd could impact the game. Hopefully they (those in charge of the sounds) just re-use pre-recorded crowd chants so it doesn’t affect their playing ability.

                3. I have up on TB sports a few years ago when I had kids…so no sports hasn’t really impacted me much, my teams suck anyway every year…

                  But yeah I am missing my kids having sports though…hopefully soccer comes back in the fall for them…only one they really seemed to both like.

                4. I can live without them but I really do enjoy watching basketball.

                  My daughter played middle school girls basketball this past year and I realize i’m one of those parents on the sideline, yelling at the refs when they make bad calls.. I hope they can play next year cause she really wants to play again.

      2. A last minute list is anything not on my regular pull. It’s mainly for things I may have overlooked and to confirm that I’m getting a book I’ve asked for at foc that isn’t one of my usuals. It helps prevent things being missed and then having to Shop around.

    2. I went through my entire Star Wars collection, purging just about everything but the most essential Star Wars comics. I am keeping Marvel vol. 1 (1977) issues, Dark Empire and other early Dark Horse titles, some cool new age of Marvel variants.

      I have been consistently surprised at what people are paying for otherwise unremarkable issues that have gone unnoticed for years. People want to pay $60 for Star Wars Tales 7? Go nuts, I had 6 copies. Kanan series selling up in the $100 range? crazy, nobody wanted it upon release. I sold 4 full sets.

        1. I’ve made like $400 on Star Wars dark horse comics this year…probably spent $30.

  4. I was able to get Batman 92A, the 1:25 variant for $14, and Legion of Super-Heroes 6A. I felt like it was a win of a day!

  5. I’m just picking up Joker’s 80th birthday bonanza Sienciwikz variant. No big spending after last week’s Amazing Fantasy 15 purchase.

          1. Yes.. that’s where I got your number… And this was right above the number, sadly you never showed up, I waited and waited..

              2. Kick his ass, Seabass!!!…Love me some Can Neely. 50 goals in 50 games. The OG NHL Power Forward.

                1. You probably have enough key silver and Bronze Age books…

                  Make it happin’, Cap’n!

              1. I regret nothing.

                Sold pretty much my whole collection, rolled it up into this, got comixology unlimited, and still bought an issue of Joker 80th Spectacular from my LCS. Even took my AF15 in to the shop to show the owner yesterday. I figured everybody should share in the experience.

                That’s the LCS with the AF15 window panel out front (Dr. Volts).

                1. “I regret nothing.”

                  That’s the best way to live life. All these possessions are just that, stuff. They’re fun but no one should ever have regrets on selling, letting go of things, etc. The day will come for everyone where you cannot take all this crap with you, only memories. Make more memories I say.

  6. Batman 92 all covers, green blank Joker anniv., LOSH 6B, Dark Crystal FOC, and Batman Secret Files 3.

  7. Hey guys I scan Ebay for my comics on my kindle fire sometimes and last night it said this version is no longer supported.You hit update app and Ebay app is gone.Did Amazon kick Ebay off its devices? Cant find any info.

  8. It seems strange that the popular collecting app leaves certain new release issues without price estimates. Other times there are spiking pre-sale prices. Ditto, for when the flame emoji is utilized.
    I feel like this practice tends to manipulate selling prices in the secondary market.

    Maybe, it’s just me.

    I’m gonna try to list some finds, but work calls, and I’m getting old.

    Peace.

    1. Not only is that apps pricing manipulative, the entire concept of that app is misleading, manipulative and self serving for the apps admin.

  9. The Rick and Morty 1:10 incentive variant is popping a little. Doubt many shops went heavy. Several sales at $14.99. Only one active auction and bids at $21.00.

    Might be worth a search if your local shop orders enough Rick and Morty to qualify.

  10. My lcs has been doing curbside service for a while. My county won’t be entering Phase 1 until this Friday. For the first time this week, my lcs sent me an automated email that tells me what will be in my box today. Yay technology!
    Sitting in my box:

    Goon 10
    Psychodrama Illustrated 1 (new Love & Rockets spinoff)
    Aggretsuko 3 (for my wife who has been bugging me every week, asking when the next issue comes out)

    Note: As my 50th birthday rolls around, I’ve decided to buy myself a copy of a comic book that came out in my birth month and year. I found out you can use the advanced search at mycomicshop to provide a list of comics that came out a particular month and year. A couple of very expensive keys came out my birth-month, but I’m more interested in one of the less expensive, less well-known books. I’ll let you know which it is when I pick it up. I also told myself I would get my first tattoo this year, but that is looking less likely with the events going on.

    I’m glad I live in a state where I can mail-order rum.

    2. I use Mycomicshop for research all the time. Love that if you look up a book Detective 27, you can see everything else that came out at the same time. It’s awesome. Please let us know what you end up getting

      2. I tried posting a response but it may have been dumped into your spam since I had a couple of links.

        1. I guess I’ll respond without the links. The book I am thinking about getting is Nightmare 1 magazine from Skywald publishing. Most of the copies available right now are much more expensive than have recently sold and it appears to be a book that comes up for sale fairly regularly. While looking at other books from Skywald, I came across Psycho magazine from ’71 with an undervalued cover.

          1. It’s there now. Links go into an approval queue so people don’t spam stuff. You wouldn’t believe the amount of spam the comments get for fake glasses, viagra, and other stuff.

            1. Yeah, your filtering is really killing my bottom line. Who doesn’t want cheap off brand Viagra??

            1. Poyo. Damn my high school Spanish and autocorrect which tried to call you Pogo.

    4. I have a comic from the week I was born. I have given comics from the week someone is born as gifts before. My son has a few comics from the week he was born stashed away now too. I got so lucky, Obi Wan #1 came out the day before my son, named after Obi Wan, was born.

    5. I love the idea of getting some books from your birth month and year. I am considering doing a wall montage in my comic space. They wouldn’t have to be 9.8’s, but just some reader copies to display. I found 22 Marvel & DC related books on mycomicshop that I would consider. I might even already have one of them. Thanks for sharing!

  12. Pleasant surprise, my lcs was letting 6 people into the store at a time. Picked up:

    A Distant Soil 6 for $4 Khaaannn!!!
    The Simpsons 50 for cover (I’ve been looking for this for a while. I collect first published works and this is Gail Simone’s first. She is always around doing signings near me.)

  13. So Frankie’s Comics had a sale on the last ronin by Momoko today. I refreshed at time of sale, and they never listed any cgc options whatever. Only a few raw copies which I didn’t want. So did they sell them before the listing, or are they inflating them on eBay? Either way a disgusting practice if you ask me.

    I sent Peach a message to let her know what they are doing. Hopefully she will straighten them out, or stop drawing for them all together.

    1. Are they offering them? Any variant I’ve gotten from Frankie’s and had graded on my own has always come back a 9.8

      1. They said they were in their email. But I soon as it popped up, everything was sold out except a few raw copies. I literally refreshed at the time they went on sale.

        I can appreciate that they get tired of people buying and relisting, but this is getting ridiculous. 7ate9 comics never listed theirs at all. Mutant Beaver started at $75 for a raw virgin.

        So either the sold to buddies before or sailing on eBay now under a different name. Who really knows.

        I guess they can do what they want, but don’t say you are going to have this available and never list it.

        1. Good Evening!
          The TMNT Ronin cvoer sold out very quickly. Our group took 99% of the CGC options and 100% of the sets. I lifted the password at 5:59 and some seconds. At that time we had close to 300 copies left of the virgin color. Those sold out in 2 minutes. We had close to 400 people on the website at 5:59 PM.

          This cover as with 99% of the covers we do is shared. I did not have 1000/250 copies. Simply put demand outstripped supply.

          Also note the minimum number of copies you have to order for Ronin on the first cover is 450. We increased that to 1000! My guess is our cover will have the most number of copies out of all the store variants.

          I know people are upset. And I am sorry.
          Kevin

          1. I’ve always found Frankie’s and Kevin to be very much a reputable comic shop. Never had an issue. Sometimes books are just too hot and too limited.

            I’m sure this peach wave will settle in time and you’ll be able to get s copy for your PC at a reasonable price.

        2. Mutant beaver is also in Canada so there will be a price discrepancy. I don’t know the conversation rate but that would be some of it. I am not defending or have any insider info. I got mine from Golden Apple.

        3. I refreshed from 2 minutes prior to the appropriate time and everything except raw trade was gone. Same thing happened with Vampirella 11

    2. You can get upset all you want. It wont help you. You’re buying into the scheme.
      Last Ronin #1 has a FOC date of July 27……..more than a month from now.
      Stores offering their own variant ,this far in advance, are lying about print numbers. If they sell out, they can just order more.
      Remember, hype BEFORE FOC is NEVER good for speculation.

  17. I was refreshing starting at 5:58, when it popped up everything was sold out, minus a couple virgin variants. The greed is strong with this one.

    1. All I can say is join their insiders group on Facebook. Books presold one per member on Frankie’s a half hour before the public sale. All the stores do this. Offer codes and special access to books before the public offering is made. You can email them directly and let them know how you feel. Again, I got mine at Golden Apple.

  18. So today my wife told me she wants a copy of Hell Arisen #3. 1st Print. My guess is she got the FOMO bug lol as she didn’t care before till now.

    So does anyone have a 9.8 candidate that they would like to sell?

    3. I missed out on that one to and have been thinking about getting it over with and buying one…If you need a 9.8 you may just want to buy one un-graded and send it in. You could probably find a 9.8 candidate for around $40.

      1. Yeah I think I’m just going to do that. Buy it raw. The best offer I got for a CGC 9.8 was 115. That’s a little high for me right now.

        1. I got you friend. Your wife is smart. This book has a low print run, a third tops of Batman 89. Nobody ordered this book lol Hell Arisen was DoA until word got out. but by then it was too late. Speculator’s dream really. Holler at me i got one you can buy.

  19. I’m pretty sure the Frankie’s fiasco isn’t going to happen again, at least not with Peach. She let me know that she contacted Frankie’s about all of this. The response is to long to post here. Hopefully it won’t happen again.

  20. I think what Frankie’s and probably other retailers may not realize is that when the deal with individual artist, they are responsible for any harm that might be caused to their public image as a result of the retailers action.

    In other words, if the action of a retailer is found to cause damage to the reputation or appearance of an artist, then said artist can sue for damages.

    1. Why would anyone, in their right mind, blame a freelance artist for the business model of a comic book store? That is just ridiculous. And Monopoly is right. Stores with any exclusive are required to meet a minimum ordering requirement in order to produce the variant. That shop can then order as many copies of their exclusive as they want, pre foc. It will be interesting to see where the market lands on Peach in 1-5-10 years.

      1. Being that my post was deleted. I’ll write again without the M word.
        JClu and Mike C should be utterly embarrassed.

        In no way did I claim an artist could be held accountable. Understanding tort law is not strong with these two.

        Peach Momoko could be the offended party. If a retailers actions are determined to harm her name or likeness. 51% is all that is needed to prove this in civil court.

        I feel bad for both of you.

        2. “Peach Momoko could be the offended party. If a retailers actions are determined to harm her name or likeness. 51% is all that is needed to prove this in civil court.”

          As this is a very sue happy country, this would be very hard to prove. I think most artists are paid for the commissions for covers and then they move on to the next project. They don’t care how many are sold, printed, trashed, etc. They already got paid for the work they were paid to produce.

          I don’t think anyone would lay blame to the cover artist if retailers are saying they have X amount of a product but instead had Y amount to keep selling cause the product is hot.

          This falls back on the seller/retailer reputation, not the cover artist. I don’t think anyone with any amount of sense would lay blame on the artist.

  22. Also to refute this point that retailers can order more, blah blah, foc blah blah. That would be a good argument if retailers did not claim a certain amount of copies.

    In this case Frankie’s Comics has claimed 1000 virgins and 250 sketch virgins. People who purchased them based, not entirely, but to some degree on the alleged print run.

    Ordering more and not updating every buyer on the increased print run, would cause Frankie’s to be in legal jeopardy, for a fraudulent listing.

    Also completely marking sold out on a listing, and then later making more available can only be possible for two reasons. Either the retailer held back variants to sell at greater prices, or the retailer purchased more and failed to notify every buyer of increased print run.

    Either scenario looks horrible for a retailers integrity. So in summation, the claim by monopoly and jclu, could be possible. However it could not be done with serious ethical issues by the retailer.

    1. “Ordering more and not updating every buyer on the increased print run, would cause Frankie’s to be in legal jeopardy, for a fraudulent listing.”

      I’m pretty sure this happened with some Harley Quinn Turner variants once..

      “Either scenario looks horrible for a retailers integrity. So in summation, the claim by monopoly and jclu, could be possible. However it could not be done with serious ethical issues by the retailer.”

      Money is the root of all evil. Where money is involved, there’s likely corruption.

      Sadly, I’m sure there are a lot of stores out there that make these exclusives and claim they’re limited, then either holding back or slowly leaking more into the wild. Sadly, no one will ever know the true print run, we can only assume and take it from the horses mouth of what they claim the print run is.

      Ethically wrong, yes. Morally wrong, yes. Does it still occur, my magic 8 ball says.. “all signs point to yes”.

      Also, I cleaned up a lot of comments that were getting personal and name calling. Come on people! It’s too early in the day to wake up to a bunch of nasty personal comments. Anyone want to call someone else a name with a personal attack gets the boot and probably close the comments.

    2. Where did they say they had more copies? The 1000 copies were spread between multiple stores and is one of the reasons the book sold out so fast. Rick, and with all due respect, I am not sure what your point to this is, are you saying that they sold out and it’s unfair or is it the didn’t sold out and are holding back copies to sell later at an inflated price. I did see Mutant Beaver has them at $75 and that is a crazy 3x what everyone else is selling them for, all I can think is maybe they bought them at $25 and are reselling them. I see they have a lot of other store exclusives that are not their own that they resell for more than the original store. Again, I don’t have a dog in the fight. Got mine from Golden Apple who had them for a while after others sold out.

      1. “Got mine from Golden Apple who had them for a while after others sold out.”

        Yeah, I totally forgot about it until you reminded me. I made my purchase from Golden Apple 15 minutes after they went on sale. Now, I would have gotten the sketch + virgin combo but they only had the virgin available by the time I was checking out.

  23. Hi,
    I own Frankie’s Comics. I had a chance to read most of the posts from last night. I am very offended at some of the implications of the above comments. Let me try to address them as best I can.

    1. We are not holding back copies to sell at a later time. I have one ebay account under Frankie’s Comics. Nothing to hide.

    2. I don’t know what the print run is as I am not at the printing press. We are only selling what we advertised.

    3. Having participated in a libel lawsuit I can tell you with 100% certainty said case would never make it out of the preliminary hearing with a Judge. All parts of my verbal contract with the artist have been fulfilled. Also the artist is not based in the USA. What jurisdiction would hear the case? I certainly would not anwser a lawsuit based in a foreign country. Would the artist file the suit in international court?

    4. We have a public Facebook group that anyone can join by answering a few simple questions. We gave our members a head start on the offering. They took all the rare sets.

    5. This project was shared with Golden Apple Comics, Sad Lemon Comics, and 7 ate 9 Comics. Mutant Beaver Comics was not part of this offering

    6. Demand for this offering outstripped supply. Its really that simple.

    7. I talked with Peach and explained number 6. And she was fine with it.

    Pleas let me know if you have questions.
    Kevin

    1. Thanks for chiming in Kevin.

      “1. We are not holding back copies to sell at a later time. I have one ebay account under Frankie’s Comics. Nothing to hide.

      2. I don’t know what the print run is as I am not at the printing press. We are only selling what we advertised.”

      Hopefully my previous comments about retailers who advertise X number of copies but have Y numbers is speaking hypothetically. I hope you or no other morally ethical retailers who are up front and honest on the number of copies took that out of context or thought I was blaming any retailer directly.

    2. You’ve always done me right Kevin, shipping is superb and packed properly and all books received are flawless. Let me take the time to say THANK YOU! Now let’s get a 4th print Batman #89 with a Peach Punchline so you can instantly sell out.

      1. I’d second this. Both the compliments to Kevin (never done me wrong) and the 4th print Momoko! Has she sketched a Batman cover yet?

  24. Waiting for my Sabrina Something Wicked Momoko comic to ship from Slab City Comics.Has anyone dealt with them before.My 1st order with them.

  25. If they sell out ridiculously fast maybe, just maybe the print run should be upped a bit so those who really want them can get them. I can see stores being hesitant to over order, no one wants copies sitting around but when dealing with hot artists/properties its kind of a no brainier that demand will be very high.

    1. If you did that then the ethical thing to do would be to offer them at a lesser price and refund the difference or offer to cancel the order of all those who bought at the higher price.

      Good luck with that. Make a plan and stick with it. Have integrity.

  26. Glad to see Frankie’s Comics is an expert in Libel having participated in one case. The case can be heard in NC or Japan. Normally it is where the offense took place. Thinking you want or can’t get sued for causing harm to an artist namesake is folly on your part.

  27. I don’t think anyone here is questioning that there was high demand. Nor is anyone surprised the offering was sold out. My beef is not about that. You sent an email blast claiming 1000/250 virgins and cgc options. I was refreshing the moment they went on sell, actually minutes prior. The only offerings made public to people were virgin copies. Everything else that was claimed to be available was not, from the start.

    Now it’s clear why that is. You sold everything else to 30 minutes prior, evidently without any limitations. This is your choice. Frankly, no pun intended, I want ever buy from a business that doesn’t hold up their obligations.

    Had I at least seen that some offerings, other than virgins, were made available I would be ok with it. As far as your FB group, if this issue had not blown up, people would still be in the dark about it.

    Best of luck

    1. This happens all the time with concert and baseball tickets and presales. Best seats advertised gone before opened to the public. Regulars who sign up get preferential treatment. I don’t have a problem. Momko will cook off like every other artist anyway. She’s flooding the market now, so speculators beware.

      1. Yup.. I learned long ago, if I missed out, oh well. Bigger problems in the world to stew over. There will always be other or more chance later on.

          1. It’s all the same to me in my opinion. Miss the pre-sale or actual sale.. it’s just missing out in general.

            I’ve missed out on a lot, I just move on to the next..

              1. Look, you’re clearly upset about missing out on this comic but you know, that’s just life. It’s just a comic. There will be plenty more to grab or miss out on. There’s really no reason to rock the boat in my opinion. It’s just “stuff”.. more important things to sweat over in life.

              2. I agree, but you did miss out in that you didn’t get in on the presale. Lesson learned.

                Now go get the trade dress that goes on sale tomorrow at 2pm.

      3. Your scenario is in no way similar to what happened. But let me ask you a simple question, from a business/consumer prospective.

        If Frankie’s Comics chooses to cater to a select few of his buddies and supposed fans, why would any new customer or non-insider existing customer, ever consider buying from them again?

          1. Gonna kill spec…now the people who got in on the presale will complain. But at least you’ll all have your Momokos.

  28. My last words on the matter. Kevin, if you truly cared you would own you mistake, instead of trying to defend it. You got caught pandering to a select group of people, through an obscure Facebook fan club, some of which were other retailers.

    It’s clear you placed no limits on the number of purchases, because someone at MBC probably bought from you and immediately was selling multiple copies for $75 USD.

    I’m sure many had no idea about your obscure FB group. All of this is your choice as a business owner. It also, in my opinion, is a prime example of what is wrong with the comic industry and retailers.

    It’s clear you failed to meet the standards that you yourself noted in your email blast. I don’t think this was intentional. I believe a lack of limits and your offering before the offering was enough for the greedy to triumph.

    Also if everyone can join your obscure FB group, then what is the point of having it? Seems to me if everyone can join, then just selling to the public would be sufficient. But I think we all know your group was never meant for everyone.

Comments are closed.