Main Menu
Menu

Show posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.

Show posts Menu

Messages - user2000

#1
General / Re: Crazy eBay pricing? Or the new normal?
20 September, 2023, 07:13:52 AM
Good points one and all.

I've came across a couple of boxes full of 80s/90s/00s magazines so I'm going through them first. I've been testing the waters with a few £9.99 listings with free postage and a few with best offers.

Sold a few but of course it all depends on what folks are looking for but I'll probably just start bulk listing these in bundles if I don't see any rare gems.

£2.70 is the cheapest to send a single mag or a comic these days so obviously this needs to be factored in if offering free postage - that's large letter tracked for piece of mind, although I suppose I could save myself a miserable 30p if I chance it with a normal second class delivery.

eBay take their percentage off the postage as well (IIRC due to loads of 1p listings and £40 postage costs) so you are getting less than the actual postage costs, plus there will come a day when I run out of A3 Amazon cardboard envelopes!

I'm too much of a crapper to start at 99p - always the chance you might just get 99p!

#2
General / Re: Crazy eBay pricing? Or the new normal?
18 September, 2023, 06:56:50 AM
All very sage advice guys, much appreciated, especially the eBay tips which I had in my mind anyway but it's good to have clarified, especially the bulkness of certain age progs.

I do indeed still have Zenith in the wrap but I've noticed that the cellophane is torn a little on the bottom edge, so while it is intact on the rest of the book and the book has never been opened, it's not completely sealing it.

I suppose it's time to open the storage boxes and see where I'm at.

I'll report back here when I'm ready to list some stuff.
#3
General / Re: Crazy eBay pricing? Or the new normal?
17 September, 2023, 10:35:33 AM
Thanks, I was thinking about listing here, or at least posting the link to eBay stuff when the time comes, so good to know there might be some takers.

Maybe it's just the type of person I am (and probably why I get plenty of work being self employed, but will never be rich), but I don't want to appear purely greedy, per se.  But valuing such items is pretty subjective.

Of course, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for something at any given time, but it does make me balk a little bit when I see the price of the "phone books", but then again, I'm not gonna bite my nose off etc.  I'm in no rush to sell, so maybe if I price at the higher end of what has been selling it may take a little longer, however I know these books mostly look fantastic and unread.

Passed on the Rogue ones intially, but I have a full set of Stronts, Anderson, Nemesis, Ace Trucking, the first Robo Hunter and the first dozen Dredds as well as a few choice others I mentioned in the OP, so they would seem easy pickings for a shelf or two back.

Haven't seen that yellow cover compete Zenith hardback that was limited to 1000 copies in a very long time so I figure that could be the jewel in the crown.
#4
General / Crazy eBay pricing? Or the new normal?
17 September, 2023, 08:30:56 AM
So, the time has come when I need to start offloading my rather sizeable comics collection (and magazines, and any other "treasure" I have accumulated during my life of semi-hoarding).

I have (finally, my wife would say) come to the conclusion that, er, we just don't have the space for all this - my diminishing dream of having my own library type room in a house has gone with the different dream of my 3 kids coming along over the years.

Plus my oldest is going to uni next year and we want to be able to help him out as much as possible.  We have other expenses coming up and looking at some of the *sold* prices on eBay it seems now is as good a time as any.

Also I am looking for a bit of space (and the money) to feed my other whim for an AtGames 4k Pinball machine when they are released later this year to go along with the retro arcade machines...

Of course I'm under no illusion; the bulk of the stuff I have is next to worthless, but some of it seems to command a pretty penny for what it is and although I'm not wanting to join in the silly pricing game TOO much, I certainly don't want to be just giving the good stuff away.

I assume much of the pricing for fairly innocuous "normal" things, outwith the first few progs with the free gifts, like TPB's are just because they are out of print now?

I have to say, much due to my semi-hoarding nature I just bought a lot of stuff on a whim and it just sat there on the bookshelf, or still in the packaging, never read or maybe lightly skimmed through once.  I thought my kids would follow me and get into Tooth, but although they've read some stuff, it's all been digital on their tablets, and it's much easier to be a digital hoarder especially with the Humble Bundle deals etc.  They also like Marvel stuff a lot more than I ever did, and again, it's pretty easy to subscribe to the Marvel app and get enough comics for a lifetime on the tablet.

Obviously the sold items list is where to look as there are some crazy buy it now prices - Strontium Dog for instance - it seems these can go for £30+ each even though some speculative sellers are currently listing at double that or more.

Same with the Case Files - some pretty high prices in those sold listings.

I've been buying and selling on eBay for over 20 years now and I am still swithering about what prices to put on my hoard, whether to sell individually or in bundles?  Buy it now or try to attract some fever with an auction?

I do have some genuinely good stuff that to be honest I would probably keep til the bitter end - the aforementioned early progs with free gifts (I'm sure these are in VG+, maybe even FN condition going by the way I've seen "phil-comics" grade stuff), a few of the rarer hardbacks that seem to command a premium (the Ltd Ed Zenith collection, still in the cellophane, some IDW books, The ABC and Ro-Busters HB's, as well as the TPB Ace Trucking vol.1 in near mint - although a lot of what I'd consider the other run of the mill TPB's are first printing's and most of that stuff would have to be considered near mint as well).

And that's before I even think about the mass of other stuff, complete run of Action and Battle as well as 1980s Eagle with annuals and specials, and complete run's of some of the short lived 1980s comics, Speed, Wow!, School Fun, Spike, Champ, a fair chunk of Buster, Whoopee!, Whizzer and Chips etc etc, most with the early free gifts and mostly not worth all that much, except for the space they are taking up!

I'm not here soliciting for offers btw, most of this stuff is still carefully boxed up from when we moved home 6 years ago and I lost my box room storage from my previous place.  A lot of it is now in my mother's spare room and understandably she is on my case a bit about it now.  It's just so daunting the prospect of sorting it all out.

Sometimes I feel like I should offload it all to Phil's Comics, but I remember reading somewhere that his cut is about 40% to cover the fees and commission, although he does seem to attract a following that will pay a LOT over other sellers.  I'd only be listing when I get some kind of deal, which for me seems to be the 70% off the fees every couple of weeks.  That will limit me to 100 items a time at that offer so it would be slow and steady if I don't want eBay to siphon off a chunk of it.

One man's treasure etc...

Any thoughts?
#5
I can honestly say that if I knew this was going to be the case I wouldn't have bothered subbing and would have bought the webshop copy to get the Sweeny story (and the nice cover).

I know there are other things to be getting upset about in this Krazy world (see what I did there), but I cannot get the image of my son's fallen face out of my mind.

Instead of what I imagine would have been an elated feeling from both of us had we got our sub copy through and it had turned out to be this webshop "exclusive" - though subbing in itself seems pretty exclusive if you ask me.
#6
It does seem that I just delurk to come on here and moan, but hey-ho...

Anyway, subbed immediately to Monster Fun when it was announced that it would be an ongoing thing last year - for me natch, but my middle son is a BIG old IPC/Fleetway fan, having devoured all my old comics and annuals in rapid fashion.

Big Tom Paterson fans as well, who wouldn't be, so surprised to see in the Issue 1 (or Easter Special as it appears to be) there was no sign of his work.

So getting the Thrill Mail this week I can say we are slightly put out to see there is a "webshop exclusive edition" with a lovely Tom Paterson cover and a Sweeny Toddler story!

https://shop.treasuryofbritishcomics.com/catalogue/MFU0013

Surely as subscribers we should have received this issue instead of the standard newsstand copy?

I've subbed to a lot of comics and mags in my time and subscribers always used to get special covers etc.

It's the same price as well so I don't feel I'd be asking for anything out of the ordinary.

Hopefully this is just an oversight and in the future loyal subscribers who've taken a chance paying upfront months ago aren't overlooked for these "exclusives".

Leaves a little sour taste in the mouth, esp seeing my sons face drop when his fave story is only available if we pay again for another copy!

Rant over, maybe I'll delurk to post something happy next time :D



"This limited Webshop edition of Monster Fun Issue 1 has an exclusive cover and a never before seen Sweeny Toddler comic strip written and drawn by Tom Paterson."



#7
Quote from: JudgeCrumble on 17 March, 2022, 09:14:40 PM
Quote from: user2000 on 09 March, 2022, 07:59:21 AM
Excellent stuff.

Just quickly downloaded a couple and the CBZ's are now as expected (as an example, The Vigilant - previous size 29.8 MB, an unreadable fuzzy mess, new file 127 MB and nice and clear).

There are a number of titles missing their CBZ's though, maybe they will upload them later but just thought I'd mention it in case they need another push.

2000AD Regened 1+2
Charleys War books 1-3
Battle of Britain Special 2020
Battle of Britain - War Picture Library (both)
Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh
Action 2020 Special
Monster

I've just checked and there are all there now.

I did some stats on image resolution etc and it looks like the current batch have fairly consistent page sizes (the b&w ones are larger than colour, to show off the detail?) and fairly consistent filesizes per image (so consistent compression/quality level)

Brilliant, all fixed up then, got there in the end!
#8
Excellent stuff.

Just quickly downloaded a couple and the CBZ's are now as expected (as an example, The Vigilant - previous size 29.8 MB, an unreadable fuzzy mess, new file 127 MB and nice and clear).

There are a number of titles missing their CBZ's though, maybe they will upload them later but just thought I'd mention it in case they need another push.

2000AD Regened 1+2
Charleys War books 1-3
Battle of Britain Special 2020
Battle of Britain - War Picture Library (both)
Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh
Action 2020 Special
Monster
#9
Quote from: JudgeCrumble on 04 March, 2022, 06:06:21 PM
My latest reply from HB says the CBZ's were taken diwn as poor quality and impies (to me at least) they won't be replacing them and have just given up instead.....

Wow, that is disappointing.

PDF's load too slowly on my sons tablet for some reason and I'm not going to be buying a new tablet for this purpose.

Surely it's not beyond someone on Tharg's side to fix this?
#10
Sorry to say, it's pretty much ALL of the CBR files, just as happened with the last bundle (which were then replaced and they are fine now).

If I get the time later I'll open every one up, but on a cursory look at a dozen or so, I found only one that was properly readable and that was THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR vol 3.  It's obvious looking at vol 1 and vol 2 that there is something wrong, even though the actual file size of vol 1 and vol 2 are twice the size of vol 3.  Even then the vol 3 is not quite crisp looking, but certainly better than the other two (I have the original TPB's of these and the reproduction is excellent on the printed page).

The problem is in the legibility of the speech balloons.  Even looking at something new like Roy of the Rovers and it is "unreadable".

Seems that the images that make up the individual pages are far far too compressed, even the artwork suffers.

It reminds me of watching something on Freeview in standard definition.
#11
Hmm, might have to put in for a refund if this isn't going to be fixed - the CBR files are mostly unreadable.

I did notice that Devlin Waugh Red Tide went from 50 MB or so to 239 MB - making it exactly like I was expecting it - nice and crisp on all our tablets from iPad 12.9 to Samsung Tab 7 FE.
#12
Quote from: JudgeCrumble on 20 February, 2022, 08:38:51 PM
I raised a support ticket and they are "looking into it"

I've noticed some, but not all, cbz file sizes have increased since I downloaded.

I just noticed the file size increase too.

But, alas, clicking on the file just downloads the old, smaller size, fuzzy file.

The only only I can see any difference on is "Hondo  City Law" which says it should be 90.8 MB but still downloads as 55.6 MB.  Maybe there's more but the first half dozen or so are exactly the same as before.
#13
Books & Comics / Re: Bargains and deals
19 February, 2022, 07:35:13 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 February, 2022, 09:17:31 PM
NEW REBELLION HUMBLE BUNDLE!!!

And even though I have an astonish proportion of this physically this one will be  worth it for digital copies AND the bits I dion't have yet. As ever with Humble Bundles its an absolute steal.

https://2000ad.com/news/get-comics-support-charity-rebellion-humble-bundle-team-up-for-masters-of-british-comics/

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48329.0

I posted over there, the (initial) quality is really bad on the CBZ, low res, jagged images and speech balloons make for difficult reading.

Happened with the 2020 bundle as well at first although it was sorted out pretty quickly.  Hopefully someone with access to fix this can be alerted?
#14
(I say last years bundle, but of course it was in 2020, how time flies etc.)
#15
Not sure if this is the right place (again) for this but anyway..

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/rebellions-masters-british-comics-featuring-judge-dredd-2000-ad-treasury-british-comics-books

First of all, what an AWESOME bundle for a mind blowing price.  My kids like to read all their stuff on the tablet so even though I have the vast majority of this stuff in print I am sure I can coax them into reading more great stuff this way.

But unfortunately a problem that I highlighted on last years bundle has reared its head here again.

https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=46829.0

The CBZ files are just too compressed and makes reading them quite unpleasant with jagged edges galore, especially on the speech balloons.  A couple of PDF's seem fine although I did only check a couple.

Hopefully this can be rectified as easily as it was last time.

Cheers all, lurk mode back on.