Honorary Member of.....

... the Fantastic Four !

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Michael

The above Super Hero Card is from a 'Limited Edition' of ONE from the 1996 print run of Fleer Ultra FotoCards! Non-Sports Cards were 'hot' during the mid 1990's !   They would print anything! LOL !

The Above Picture is Showing Michael Selling Just Comic Books at the  San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in 1973!  Non-Sports Cards Were Far and Few Between in Those Days!!

MARVELMANIA INTERNATIONAL !

Couldn't resist posting the membership card to the MarvelMania International club pictured at the top right, as I have been re-discovering even more treasures while sorting and moving hundreds of boxes after having our home office flooring demo'ed and replaced with vinyl tile.  (I wore out the carpet with all the photographing / listing / invoicing / packing / & shipping going on here!)

The MarvelMania Club had started in 1969 and early members received kit #1 which had its' membership items in full color.

When I joined in 1970, kit #2 was mailed to me. For a whopping $1 bill I received:

1. Club Merchandise Catalog #2
2. Official Membership Certificate (Yellow)
3. Official Membership Card (Yellow) see above pic
4. Sample Issue Of  Their Marvelmania Magazine
5. Six Mini-Posters With Art By Jack Kirby
6. Various Merchandise Flyers

 

Note: Marvelmania Magazine only lasted for six issues. This was the second club based on Marvel Comics, however it was a business outside the direct control of the Marvel Comics publishing group, but like the earlier M.M.M.S. it didn't last long it didn't last long....

The membership kit included flyers to purchase additional items.  As I was just graduating high school and entering college, my discretationary income was minimal. The few items I did buy from the club were resold at the SDCC during the following years.

For those interested in seeing Marvel comic books, we have several thousands of that publishers' comics listed in our eBay Featured Store and eBay Pro Store! 

Thanks for viewing this comic book blog post.... and feel free to comment!

Plus don't forget to VOTE in our poll below... just click on the 'easy button' being held by yours truly !

Michael

 

The above MarvelMania International Club Card is from my own personal collection when I joined back in 1970! True, it is a little worn, but I was really proud to be a card carrying member back in the early 1970's !!!

The Above Picture is Showing Michael Selling Marvel Comic Books at the  San Diego Comic-Con (SDCC) in 1973!  OK, there were also other Publishers comics I was selling, but as you can see all the front ones in each box were Marvels (LOL) !!

... on a 'SYBO' listing by an eBay comic book seller, you might want to find out what the cost of sending out a comic book to a third party grader would be,  before submitting too lowball an offer and immediately getting declined by the automated option eBay has initiated for sellers. 

For example, it costs a comic book dealer approximately a minimum of $29.00 each to submit pre 1976 comics for grading, no matter what grade they come back as. That is for comics that are valued less than $250.00. If the comic is valued between $250.01 and $1,000.00 the charge by CGC is $49.00 each for the grading process.

Yes a dealer gets a discount on submitting more than one book to CGC, but after shipping the books to CGC and paying for shipping and insurance back, it is very close to the $29.00 cost that CGC normally charges for anyone to have their comic book graded.

Post-1975 comics are charged $15.00 less a discount. The discount hopefully covers the shipping/insurance cost to CGC and the shipping/insurance charges back from CGC when sent in a 'lot' of comics.

Thus, logically a dealer has at least $29.00 cost in a pre 1976 comic book, and at least $15.00 cost for a 1976 or later comic book after grading by CGC.

On top of that would be the cost of buying the comic, and if listed and sold on eBay, there would be listing and selling fees on top of that.  Plus if the customer is paying by PayPal, there would be PayPal fees on the sale.

Thus, to offer less than $15.00 or $29.00 for a CGC graded comic could get you an automatic decline.... if the eBay seller has that automatic option turned on for each comic listed.  We set our option to individually approve, decline or counter-offer each Best Offer submitted to us, so there is no automatic decline reply, we look at each offer.

Yes, there are eBay sellers who will start their auction bids at less than $15.00 or $29.00 with No Reserve, but they risk losing money right off if the opening bid never goes higher than their opening bid price.... thus I have seen several that try to make up that difference in their shipping & handling costs. 

For shipping to USA addresses, the Flat Rate Priority Box rate is $8.10 plus $0.55 for delivery confirmation.    Add on service costs for that shipping amount and a little more for supplies that the USPS does not supply for free, the total should be around $8.95 for shipping to USA addresses for the comic book in a secured Flat Rate Priority Box, which is what we charge.  

We enjoy selling slabbed third-party graded comics.... and individually look at each offer submitted, instead of turning on the automatic decline option that eBay has now given to sellers.  We would entertain your best offer on the items that we have listed for SYBO at any time, but if we decline it because it doesn't cover our basic costs then now you know why !!!

For those interested in CGC slabbed comics we usually have over a hundred listed in our eBay Featured Store and  thousands of unslabbed comics in our eBay Pro Store.

That's Right...

APE starts next weekend!  

APE, which is Alternative Press Expo runs April 21st thru the 22nd in San Francisco! 

By the way.... On the same postcard is a reminder for the SDCC.

Plus don't forget to VOTE in our poll below... just click on the 'easy button' being held by yours truly !

Michael

Michael selling Comics at the 1973 SDCC, working his way through college!

Stan Lee Presents...

The Condor 

which was just released earlier this month from Stan's POW! Entertainment and Film Roman! 

The Condor is an animated film about skateboarder turned superhero Tony Valdez..

The Plot Outline is as follows: "After the mysterious death of his parents, an attack by zombies leaves Valdez severly injured. It is only with the help of new technology that Valdez is able to recover, and more. With new powers at his disposal, Valdez will fight off this new zombie threat, and discover more about the murderer of his parents and it's minion Taipan."

Credited Cast includes the voice of Wilmer Valderrama, of That '70's TV show fame.

The movie does have a role for Stan, as a Candy Store Owner.  For those of you that love to spot Stan in the Marvel Comics Movies, well this is it!

We have not seen this yet... if you have, you are welcome to post your thoughts on it below. 

Just wanted to make you Stan Lee fans out there aware of this new release. We are big fans of Stan's from the Marvel Comics that he wrote, and the recent TV show 'Who Wants To Be a Super-hero?'.

Thanks for viewing this comic book blog post.... and feel free to comment!

Plus don't forget to VOTE in our poll below... just click on the 'easy button' being held by yours truly !

Michael

  Stan Personalizing My Copy of FF #1