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Bob and John

First off I wanted to say I've been listening for a long time. And I'm a huge fan. It's honestly my second favorite cast, slightly behind the Amazing Spider-Cast. I normally do the majority of my postings over there, but now I feel the need to post here about my comic purchases and get feedback from you guys.

I, like you 2, do a lot of shopping on online comic stores. MyComicShop is by far my favorite, but Atomic Avenue has just saved me a lot of money.

I just recently purchased the 2nd run of All Star Comics, issues 58-74, along with Adventure Comics 461 & 462 (Death of Batman). The condition of the books were labeled VF. With the exception of 58, which I paid $15 for, (being the first appearance of Power Girl) 59-74 were $4 a piece along with the 2 Adventure Comics.

MCS had 58 at the time for $38 and the rest of the All Star Comics in the same condition for anywhere between $15-$20 a piece. Adventure Comics 461 was 21 and 462 was out at the time.

I feel like I got these books for a steal. The condition of the books were very well graded from the seller (Muskateer) and he was very fast on shipping. I am especially happy that because this series is kinda hot at the moment that I was able to get them at such a good price.

What do you guys think?

Did you check the prices on those issues of All Star Comics over at MyComicShop.com? I picked up that same run not too long ago as well as the run on Adventure Comics with the JSA. I think I got most of them from MyComicsShop.com but I'd have to check my notes. I'm not the least bit surprised that you got them for well under the Mile High price.

It sounds like you got a great deal. I still haven't had time to read the copies I got of those issues yet but I'm looking forward to doing so.

Thanks for letting us know about you experience on Atomic Avenue. I haven't bought anything over there yet so I find this sort of information very helpful.

Looks like I was mistaken. I picked up the run of Adventure Comics but it looks like I didn't get the run of All Star Comics. I got the trades of that stuff not too long ago which is what I must have been thinking of...

johnmayo wrote:Did you check the prices on those issues of All Star Comics over at MyComicShop.com?

Yeah, thats what the initials MCS stand for. I should have explained a little better

The issue with comparing Atomic Avenue to MCS or Mile High is that you're comparing a marketplace with a direct retailer.

MyComicShop and Mile High are selling you inventory they already own. They are not a middleman, they stand by their own grades and have the collective inventory to optimize pricing.

Atomic Avenue is like a poor man's eBay; they simply provide a market place where individual sellers can list their collections for sale.

One of the MAJOR problems with Atomic Avenue is the way ComicBase defaults to VF/NM when you add books to your collection. Many people don't bother with tweaking their grades when putting in their books (since they just care about issue tracking versus grade tracking).

In five instances, I have found higher end books on Atomic Avenue listed for well below Overstreet. Upon requests of scans from the sellers to verify grade, I have:

*** Two sellers never responded
*** Three sellers sent me scans

Of the three who responded, I would say the AVERAGE grade based on scans was G+/VG...yet in each case the books were listed as VF/NM. Out of about 12 books between the three sellers, only ONE was actually passable as a VF and that happened to be priced $2 more expensive than the book lists for at MyComicShop.

The blessing and curse of marketplaces is that they're less consistent. I'm 100% certain Atomic Avenue offers a much better chance of getting something at an outright steal but you have to be REALLY diligent about confirming the condition of each individual book.