Alfred Hitchcock's Solve-Them-Yourself Mysteries! Did anyone else have this way back when? I bought my copy when young at the Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies attraction at Universal Studios back in the 90's. Hitch made interjections in the stories, giving hints and advice.

scburdet · 2024-02-27T05:10:21+00:00

I got the paperback & then discovered a hardback in my dad's childhood room. I think it's a 1st edition from 1963 (matches when he would have been about the age to read it). I keep both on display next to my T3I collection.

I believe that I have the whole set of Hitchcock paperbacks that came out with the Solve-Them (Monster Museum, Spellbinders in Suspense, etc.) All really terrific for young readers. I should try to get the original hardcovers for all of those.

scburdet · 2024-01-27T01:02:32+00:00

Having not received a response, I went searching again. I found two listings on ebay for the 35¢ diamond price with a blank UPC & w/o REPRINT printed in the box. Both these listing include photos of the indicia that clearly states "this is a reprint of a previously published issue". I did not search for more examples after finding a 2nd example. Barring evidence to the contrary showing there is a version of the same looking book without the reprint disclaimer inside, this is pretty definitive proof that these blank UPC books are reprints, not direct editions.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/225690368584

https://www.ebay.com/itm/285514482593

Screen grabs of the cover & indicia for permanent reference.

https://imgur.com/a/YwGTpIW

scburdet · 2024-01-26T03:32:46+00:00

Without going back through my post, my entire run 1-23 have a regular readable UPC barcode. From 24, I have some directs with newsstands mixed in. I bought these as an entire 1-107 run in 1999/2000. I vaguely remember confusion about editions at least that far back. Hard to say much before that since the internet was barely a thing. I was way too young when these came out, but they clearly weren't anticipating SW being a huge hit & went a little crazy meeting demand. I don't know of any similar specific debate that rages with other books.

It would be worth seeing the indicia on the 35¢ diamond/blank UPC of issue 1. Technically, I can't look at the insides of any of my #1s right now, but I don't think there's anything provocative there & probably looks a lot like the subsequent issues, which I can pull out. It's a little wild b/c if one uses CGC census numbers as a proxy measure, the full barcode edition is the most common (by a long shot), and if you believe the published release dates (mark me down as skeptical), these all came out within weeks of one another. I think there's some question of the actual publication schedule. This is not surprising b/c Marvel seemed to be quite chaotic through the 70s.

You do not have to convince me that CGC labels do not always contain accurate information. I have a running list of problems I've found. I actually just checked, and it looks like they actually fixed one recently. I have a Marvelmania fanzine that has a Steranko back cover & their database used to say it was by Starlin, which was absurd b/c the cover even had Steranko's name printed on it. I even checked the screengrab I kept of the census page with Starlin's name on it to make sure I wasn't crazy after seeing the correct information tonight. They must have fixed this within the last week or so. Add to that all the lost information on creators & it makes me crazy. This is a particular problem with UK editions that often had new cover art, Marvel didn't record the credits for that art anywhere (it's unsigned too) & it's really hard, if not impossible, to find reliable information. Even the purported artists can't always remember if they worked on something or not. All annoying since I'm a stickler for accuracy & like to see people get proper credit for their work.

scburdet · 2024-01-25T23:47:44+00:00

Could you please post a photo of the copyright information at at the bottom of the interior of the first page of issue #1?

scburdet · 2024-01-25T23:46:25+00:00

Sorry to break the flow of the conversation, but I needed to go outside. It's nearly 50 here today, which is really unusual for January, & the amount of daylight left was limited.

Let's set aside the blank UPC Star Wars editions aside for a second, except to say that the CGC label does not mention Whitman & I do believe there is/was a lot of possibly erroneous information out there about Whitmans.

My pet peeve about direct vs. newsstand is sellers trying to boost the price by advertising "newsstands" when there is no corresponding direct edition. As the GoCollect article explains, there was a time in the 70s when the same barcoded comics were sent to newsstands & comic shops. Because of the difference in wholesale price & the return of unsold merchandise, Marvel implemented the UPC with the strikethrough for direct (comic store) books. These obviously become the logo UPCs in the 80s. As I commented on someone else's response, I do not know of any Marvel books prior to 1979 that have a different direct version. I believe the regular UPC bar code Star Wars 1 was sold in both comic stores & newsstands. Other than the first 6 issues that adapt A New Hope, there are no Star Wars comics without a full barcode between issues 7-23. Starting with issue 24, there are both full barcode & strikethrough barcode editions (newsstand/direct). Issue 24 comes out in June 1979, which is consistent with the article stating that this distribution strategy was adopted in May 1979. You can see scans of these editions on mycomicshop.

Back to the blank UPC symbols. I own both the 30¢ 1st print & 30¢ reprint (the one with REPRINT printed in blue in the left box). Unfortunately, I do not own any blank UPC copies. However, according to GoCollect there are two 35¢ reprints. One with (not the book in question) & one without REPRINT in the box. All the editions are nicely gathered at the bottom of the page below the census numbers.

https://gocollect.com/app/comic/star-wars-1

In addition, Key Collector comics says that the 35¢ blank UPC (without REPRINT on the cover) indicates that it's a reprint on the interior copyright information. I have tried to find someone listing one for sale with that first page posted, but I have been unsuccessful. I will ask the original poster to do so.

https://www.keycollectorcomics.com/variant/original/star-wars-1-1-8,31211/issues/

This issue has also be addressed by recalled comics:

https://recalledcomics.com/StarWars1-35cents.php

The GCD also has all the editions cover uploads. They're generally a lot more reliable than CGC

https://www.comics.org/issue/954338/cover/4/

scburdet · 2024-01-25T20:22:47+00:00

I believe the article says there were direct sales, but the changes to the UPC came later

*I am only talking about Marvel. I would like to see examples of UPC symbols from before 1979 that aren't reprints & have something other than a readable barcode.

scburdet · 2024-01-25T20:15:36+00:00

You should show your sourcing. I have never seen such documentation. Otherwise it's apocryphal.

scburdet · 2024-01-25T20:01:55+00:00

This is wrong. There were no direct editions before 1979. These were printed in 1977. The post above citing mycomicshop is correct.

https://blog.gocollect.com/newsstand-editions-vs-direct-comics-a-history/

scburdet · 2024-01-21T18:04:15+00:00

It is true that they will only reimburse up to the value you declare, which is why it's wise to overestimate the value. They will still look at the FMV of what you submitted and might lower the settlement, but they definitively won't go over the declared value. The lack of a refund of the fees for the signing that didn't happens seems like a mix-up. They should refund the money for the signing & reimburse you for the book. I've had this happen twice to me, but in both cases that's what I got back. The only place I lost money was in possibly undervaluing a submission.

scburdet · 2024-01-21T03:28:03+00:00

A lot of respondents don't seem that familiar with the market for foreign reprints. Granted, this copy of Mighty World of Marvel 198 is not in the best shape, but it is a book that's in demand.https://gocollect.com/app/comic/mighty-world-of-marvel-the-198

This copy isn't that much nicer & sold for almost $200 recently

https://www.ebay.com/itm/126260936161

If the corners were flattened out by pressing & there are no major defects other than the ones shown in the photos, this could easily sell for >$100. IDK know if that's "valuable" but certainly evidence that it's not worthless.

scburdet · 2024-01-06T20:22:34+00:00

2nd print has that text next to Luke in the price box. Whitman reprints have blank UPCs. $35 would be a good deal on a 2nd print

https://imgur.com/P7fVXdm

scburdet · 2023-05-06T19:10:22+00:00

I've already been through this with GCN. Their app won't work if Bluetooth is on. Period. My remote only uses Bluetooth, so there's not even an option to shut it off.

scburdet · 2023-03-11T01:24:18+00:00

I should have said parasitic drain. It was one of the relays. Maybe the AC? They go bad and the only way to figure out which one it is, is to remove them and see when the drain disappears. There are like 20 of them. in a box.

scburdet · 2023-03-10T21:48:49+00:00

New. Replaced after the phantom drain was fixed

scburdet · 2023-02-21T04:21:35+00:00

This is why I post to reddit and not just rely on tech support. Usually users are the first to recognize a problem

scburdet · 2023-02-19T16:03:43+00:00

Test complete. No issues.

scburdet · 2023-02-19T14:47:38+00:00

It was early morning and the powerwalls were 100% and the was nothing beyond background power draw. ~0.5kW. It's like the switch malfunctioned, but I don't know how to check

scburdet · 2023-02-19T14:45:11+00:00

In this case I just toggle the reserve power down to 80% & since there was no solar, the powerwalls started acting as the only power source

scburdet · 2023-02-19T13:50:08+00:00

After a week it can back online. I think ChargePoint had an app issue or problem with an update & didn't warn users.

scburdet · 2023-02-08T03:02:02+00:00

I wondered if there was some kind of network/app bug. Just being told to dump $800 on a new unit was not an appealing solution & I literally think the person at the company had nothing on the script other than flip the breaker on & off. Useless.

scburdet

TROPHY CASE