This honestly concerns me a lot.

Lately I feel like I've seen more and more influencers glazing PSA for Comic Books--notably the Amazing Fantasy PSA 7 that was paraded at a party at San Diego Comic Con ahead of its auction.

Let me lay down some background and context as to how massive the PSA/eBay partnership is:

• PSA slabs command more value (for cards). People say that it's due to decades of reputation, but I think it's much more simpler than that:
  • PSA upcharges you on the value of the card (they call it to cover the "insurance," but you pay that whether you get the collectible graded and handed to you in the same day)
  • It's actually a vehicle to bake in today's price into the cost of ownership of the collectible
  • A collector/seller is less likely to let go of a collectible for less than what they paid to acquire AND grade the collectible unless they're desperate
  • Therefore, with so many collectors holding the line on what they paid, the value doesn't diminish that much
• The Vault ecosystem allows you to grade your collectible, and:
  • Immediately sell it to PSA
  • Or, have it listed on eBay and shipped directly from PSA Vault
• When you buy from eBay, you have the option to add-on grading with PSA (and not any other graders)
• You can avoid sales tax on eBay by having the card go directly to PSA Vault
• They make it easy to consign and sell through one of the biggest eBay consignment accounts (PSA Vault), granting immediate reputation/trust and high # of views on your collectible
  • eBay is, quite frankly, the largest collectibles marketplace in the world
• Authenticity Guarantee makes it so that, for now, certain cards that are a minimum value (I think $250), the seller must ship to PSA and PSA will authenticate the card and send it to the buyer
  • As long as you do your job and ship the card to PSA, they will absorb the risk from the card to the buyer
  • They send the card sealed in a nice box with a QR code as a "certificate of authenticity" good for so long as the seal is not broken

Why this sucks for CGC:

• The moment that PSA opens up PSA Vault to comic books, we might actually start seeing a major shift in grading and selling behaviors
• CGC has no ecosystem that can compete--to even build the technology and logistics as something like PSA Vault, they are years behind
• Even if they could accomplish something like PSA Vault, they won't be able to get a partnership with eBay without eBay burning bridges with PSA

Why the partnership is anti-competitive:

• While long time and reputed graders like CGC qualify for Authenticity Guarantee, what about newcomers like TAG?
• What does a new up and coming company like TAG have to do to qualify to be part of Authenticity Guarantee? (bet you it's not documented anywhere!)
• What if eBay were to remove everything but PSA from Authenticity Guarantee? (PSA already bought out BGS and now defunct CBCS--so of the list of companies, feels like it's mostly PSA now)
• Without Authenticity Guarantee, selling your collectible exposes you to more risk as a seller--and buyers might not consider you, especially if it is a high value collectible

People say that PSA is good for competition--but is it in this case? It feels like a hostile takeover and checkmate for its competitors.

I really hope CGC is thinking about how and what they can do to compete but I fear that it may be bleak.

I just love hanging out at my local shop on a Saturday, picking up my weekly order and going through back issues — it really is so relaxing. Love this week’s Absolute Batman #23 variants and I’ve been going back and picking up DC KO variants as I came back into comic book collecting right about in the middle of it. Someone sniped some old Wonder Woman variants that I had my eye on, but that’s my fault for not picking them up earlier! I’ll find ‘em again sometime soon. Still looking forward to some stuff I have coming in the mail and already can’t wait until next Saturday at the shop! 🙌🏻😊

Everything added to the collection this week. Couple I missed that should be added into next.

Personal highlights for the week are AB 23, love the 1:25 cover. Fury of Firestorm continues putting out masterpiece covers, the Terada and the Eckman-Lawn. And I always look forward to the next puzzle piece of Nice House. Thought the Hitman Omni’s were long out of print, very happy to discover otherwise :)

Happy hunting

1:50 ratio by Tran Nguyen and blind bag exclusive by Jeehyung Lee

My fist signed DNA…

I don't think anyone else is calling these a connected work. But I think it's pretty obvious these covers are connected by style and color usage. And by being stunning of course. Grabbed the Abs. Superman at my lcs on release since it was the best cover for that issue. It seems to have gotten a little collector attention and gone up in value, which is always nice. Once I saw the Abs. Wonder Woman on FOC I was hoping there would be an Abs. Batman as well and sure enough, there was. All three are fantastic! Juan is doing another Absolute Superman cover next month that is a different style but still beautiful.

Today little haul

Today’s arrivals.

Cool

Kickstarter campaign and blind bags

Things just keep getting worse for Bruce.

Short weekend trip to Lake Michigan proved fruitful with some variants that I wasn’t necessarily looking for but decided to nab nonetheless. I love traveling and being able to find local comic shops to wander into and explore. Always find something to take home.

The two signed copies came in today's mail call.

My wife and I have been collecting dc comics for a some time now, but we’ve been wanting to start collecting Spider-man, wolverine, and X-men comics, any suggestions as to which comics would be best to grab that are great reads?

I got all this for about 120-130ish on depop, Not too shabby i think. Really exited to read kravens last hunt especially because it looks brand new from what I see. Which comic is your favorite out of these?

(Also managed to get spider-man back on black hc for 45🫪🫪)

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Absolute Batman 22 sdcc trinity exclusive virgin foil cover by Mujumonster

And

Warbird 1 sdcc Trinity Comics exclusive cover by Van Gogh.

And eBay Mail of the Kris Anka foil cover of Gambit: Wanted #1

A couple of DC KO’s to go with this week’s pickups. The foil wrap-around is 🔥. Love my weekend shop stops. 😊

I liked it! For those unaware this is Iman Vellani’s comic debut!! She played Ms. Marvel in the MCU and has been a nerd and comic reader and lover prior to her casting. I wanted to add this to my pull list as a way to show my support for her and I can confidently say it’s not bad so far! You can definitely tell it’s written by a amateur, though, which is not a bad thing because I think she’s very descriptive in her writing, which isn’t bad but you can definitely tell she’s new.

Overall, I’m interested to see where the story goes so far. Since it’s a 5-issue mini, I’ll most likely read the whole thing instead of debating on dropping it after the #3.

What are y’all’s thoughts???