0:00

Um , this is another episode of the Express Lane

0:02

podcast with .

0:03

Kevin Stan . What's going on ? We got Chris

0:05

with us today and now to a cool

0:07

transition out of the

0:09

how much I guess

0:11

you could call it creative

0:14

outlet . Are you getting from now it's as

0:16

you , we get up to your one year anniversary

0:19

of pressing comic

0:21

books and Doing a little like

0:24

not restoration , but some , yeah

0:26

, getting , I guess , I guess , kind

0:28

of restoration . But you're not , as we're

0:30

talking on the phone before this , you're not painting

0:32

over , or touching up anything like that .

0:34

Yes , that that term restoration is like a

0:36

big like , that's like they

0:38

, like you know , on on on

0:40

computers when you get the , the

0:43

Blue screen of death . So

0:45

in like the in the comic community

0:47

, you get the purple label of death or

0:50

the plaid for short , which is when you're like

0:52

it's like you're restoring a comic

0:54

, you're you're like adding things back to the comic

0:56

that have disappeared . So yes

0:58

the word , then , if restoration is not the

1:00

it's just honestly like just cleaning

1:02

and pressing you just clean it's . It's almost more like

1:05

you're cleaning rather than like you're

1:07

, I guess the You're

1:09

you're bringing . You're bringing the comic

1:11

back to its original state , but

1:14

you're not adding things to the comic that were

1:16

not there before . So once a comic

1:18

has lost something like , for instance , restoration

1:20

could also be like , let's say , the little like corner

1:23

of the front cover got like torn off and then

1:25

somebody takes like you know

1:27

archival tape and like you

1:29

know paper Fibers and things

1:31

and they sort of construct their own little corner to

1:33

put back on it . You get the purple label

1:35

on that and sometimes I think people

1:38

try to be slick with some of the things that they do , but

1:40

a lot of these grading companies they like they know

1:42

so how much you've been doing

1:44

this for a year .

1:45

Does this settling some of that

1:47

creative urge , or is it just a different

1:49

Process in the in

1:52

the mind to you want to get this

1:54

done ?

1:55

Yeah , this is a . This is kind of something

1:57

that I don't think I've ever experienced

1:59

in life previously . This

2:02

to me , I would almost , I Would

2:05

almost equate this in some ways to even

2:07

though I know very little about cars , but

2:09

in some ways it's almost like working on cars , like

2:12

it's almost like somebody is

2:14

bringing you this , you

2:16

know 57 , you

2:19

know Mustang or something like that

2:21

, and then you're you're

2:24

trying to go through and and Make

2:26

the car run . You know , but

2:29

I but again , that's , I guess , a

2:31

very extreme case . I would say that most

2:33

of the time , with with pressing

2:36

and cleaning comics , the

2:38

some of some of them don't need a lot of work . Some of them do

2:41

need a lot of work . It just all depends . Essentially

2:44

, what you're trying to do is In

2:47

the old way of buying comics . Like

2:49

, we'll say , pre 2000 , if

2:52

somebody was buying a comic , they would basically

2:54

like there would be a debate over the condition of

2:56

the comic , right . So if somebody

2:58

looked at the comic and they were like , okay , this , we'll

3:03

say like this , this particular , like Batman

3:05

comic or whatever , it's like you , this

3:08

, this has been here , this is like a little

3:10

bit messed up , this is a little dirty , this is this and

3:13

they would like sort of point out all the defects of the comic

3:15

. And then the

3:17

person that was buying it would

3:19

, after pointing out all those things , would say , oh

3:21

well , I think it's only worth this . And the guy at the shop

3:23

or the guy at the convention Like , well , no , I think it's worth this

3:26

. And then there'd be like this debate about how

3:28

much they should actually pay for the comic , based on the

3:30

condition . And then a

3:32

company came along in

3:34

the early 2000s , cgc

3:36

, which is a certified grading company , and

3:38

they were like , well , let's just kind of do

3:41

away with the middleman . If people

3:43

are buying these comics , as collectibles will

3:45

assume , and they're not going to read the comic , we'll

3:48

provide the service . Then , where we're going to grade

3:50

the comic , we're gonna have professional graders that will

3:53

take out the guessing game and they will

3:55

assign a grade to the comic . And

3:57

then , once the comic has the grade assigned

3:59

to it , well , not only is

4:01

it , not only is it establishing

4:04

the value of that comic based on the grade

4:06

, but also it is giving a validity

4:09

to the grade . Like it's not just like some

4:11

Jamoke in some shop

4:14

in Spokane , washington

4:16

, or something who who Graded

4:19

this book . This is somebody who does this professionally

4:21

for this company based on their opinion . Like they might not

4:23

like that comic book and it's transferring

4:26

over to well , it's got this defect , or that right

4:28

, or they more in their , in their eyes

4:30

, like oh , this Crease

4:32

on this comic is only this long , so

4:34

it's only gonna degrade the comic by this

4:36

much versus you

4:39

know it's it versus I . Well , I

4:41

think that creases more substantial . I think that's

4:44

more taking away from the aesthetics

4:46

of the comic .

4:47

So they're like leveling it out , like creating like

4:49

laws and rules for

4:51

what , and like a like a standard , yeah

4:53

, standard , so yeah so

4:55

it .

4:56

So they have a grading system

4:58

that's based off of like , I guess originally

5:00

like if people were grading coins right

5:03

, when you hear the term like mint or near mint

5:05

, they're referring to like a mint , that would straight

5:07

up create coins .

5:10

So I didn't know , like I've you know , oh , especially

5:13

with trading cards and Pokemon cards , like , oh , I have

5:15

a mint , you too , or something like that . I

5:17

didn't know that it came from Coins

5:20

as like , because I know that you mint

5:23

a coin , but we're talking about it in other

5:25

things , right ?

5:26

interesting and so , like there are , there

5:29

are all of these . Again

5:31

, they sound slightly arbitrary , but you

5:33

have these like oh , you have like good

5:36

or very good , or fine , very

5:38

fine , fair , like there's all these

5:40

various different Descriptors that

5:42

they use , and then , once you get into the

5:44

higher end of things , it's like you know , we

5:46

sort of have this , like you know , near

5:49

mint , or near mint , near mint

5:51

minus near mint , near mint plus

5:53

near mint , mint , that's like there's so many different

5:56

types of like terms for

5:58

how many like the accumulation

6:00

of the like defects . So

6:02

what CGC started doing was , instead

6:04

of having all these like terms even though these

6:07

numbers are associated with the terms , they

6:09

started going with a grading scale that was like numbers

6:11

and all the numbers go from like

6:13

you know , like if you have

6:15

your 1.0 , you

6:18

can have things lower than that , but let's just say , if we start

6:20

at 1.0 , so you have 1.0 , 1.5

6:22

, 2.0 , 2.5 , all the way up through

6:24

the numbers . Everything is like a point or a point five

6:27

until you get to nine . Once

6:29

you get to nine it's 9.0

6:31

, 9.2 , 9.4 , 9.6

6:33

, 9.8 . So once you get into the

6:36

nines you're sort of fine-tuning

6:38

the . You know the condition

6:40

of the book . Basically .

6:42

So is there no 10.0? .

6:44

There is a 10.0 , which is referred

6:46

to as gem mint . Okay , it's

6:48

like a fancy name . However , comic books in

6:50

a traditional sense , like anything with a staple

6:52

, really cannot achieve a 10.0

6:55

because there's some type of

6:57

you know staple tear or some

6:59

type of binary tear from the printing process

7:02

. There are comics that exist

7:04

that are 9.9 . They're like ultra

7:06

, ultra , ultra , ultra rare .

7:08

So if a comic book like there's

7:10

there some brand new comic

7:13

book hero cuts Debuted

7:15

tomorrow and the first issue

7:17

comes out and somebody that

7:19

works in the factory say is like

7:21

off the printing press , like all

7:24

of these are getting ready to be packaged and shipped

7:26

to the different things , takes one as hot as you

7:28

can get it off the thing , throws

7:30

it in a plastic bag and throws

7:32

that in another plastic bag and has it in

7:34

between two pieces of wood

7:36

so that it can't crank or anything , that

7:39

only would get a 9.9 .

7:42

Yes , if it has staples say

7:44

it seems like it's by default . Yeah

7:47

, you can't make one correct .

7:48

The only books that have really achieved

7:50

the like the 10 rating

7:52

are square bound books . So square bound books

7:55

are held together with like glue and like

7:57

a spine rather than staples , because

7:59

it's I guess it's in the printing process and

8:02

the production process . It's almost impossible

8:04

to not not Inflict

8:06

some type of damage when you're putting staples into

8:08

a book .

8:09

So if you got it and they're making a lot

8:11

of simple right , if they're not assembled , just

8:13

the pages all together , then they could be ten

8:15

.

8:17

So I think if that , if the book is

8:19

supposed to have a staple in it , though , then they will doc

8:21

you that the staples not Manufactured

8:24

without a staple , but but

8:27

yeah , so basically that's , that's essentially what

8:29

you're . What you're doing is you're you're trying

8:31

to take an existing comic

8:33

and Through

8:36

dry cleaning which is like you're

8:39

not using any types of Chemicals

8:42

, additives , any sort of things like that like all

8:44

you're really doing to dry clean is basically

8:47

taking a I Mean

8:49

different people use different things . The thing that I use

8:51

like a common thing , it's called absorbing . It's

8:53

like a little like a little sponge

8:55

sort of thing , and it's like a little

8:57

rubber sponge that you just sort of like Move

9:00

across the cover of the comic and it'll

9:02

pull up any sort of like soiling and dirt like that

9:04

, and that's what you kind of do for the front

9:06

of the book . If there are any

9:08

spots that are , you

9:11

know , white as opposed to various colors

9:13

, you'll use like eraser

9:15

tops like the like you would have like in

9:17

school , where you just pop the like the Plastic

9:20

eraser onto the pencil or like the rubber

9:22

eraser . However , those

9:24

have to be white . If they're the pink ones , they'll

9:26

like leave residue and stuff like that . So any

9:28

of the white areas you just clean with that little eraser

9:30

and that pulls up the dirt . Anything

9:32

that's Soiled . On any of the other colors

9:35

you use that absorbing sponge .

9:37

Indeed , that sponge like it if

9:40

you were to just sit it there overnight

9:42

. Leave it on the comic . Is it going to Degrade

9:46

anything in there , or is it just no ? No

9:48

really .

9:49

It's just . I mean I Guess

9:51

I can't definitively answer that because I haven't tried it

9:53

, but like , yeah , it's , I don't . It

9:55

might be treated with something or it might be

9:57

some specific type of material that

9:59

like you know fingerprints or

10:01

dust or dirt or something . Maybe it's like it

10:03

acts as like a Magnet

10:06

for those sort of things , because you don't use a whole

10:08

ton of pressure . If you start to , if you use a lot

10:10

of pressure , you'll look at that , the little section

10:12

of that sponge , and it'll like it'll have a little ink

10:14

on it , like you don't want to pull ink off of it

10:16

. There's also an absorbent

10:19

like putty . It's like and this I think

10:21

they started making this stuff in like the late 1800s

10:23

or early 1900s to like clean books , like it's

10:25

what it's specifically for . However

10:27

, the putty like kind of sucks , like I . I

10:30

think Now that I've been doing this

10:32

for a year , I'm gonna start doing like Older

10:36

books and I think with some of the older ones , like

10:38

like Silver Age stuff , like from the 60s , I

10:40

think I'm probably gonna have to use that putty

10:42

more than the sponge because I think it might

10:44

be too abrasive for some of the like the fragility

10:47

of the paper . But

10:50

I think that it's like play it

10:52

like imagine play dough that's like half dried out , so

10:54

like as you start using it . It's like there's

10:56

little particles and pieces that like come off as

10:58

you're trying to use it . But with that you just

11:00

kind of make little like logs of it and then you

11:02

just roll that along the book and

11:04

then you like pull dirt up that way . So

11:07

essentially , like what you're doing

11:10

, as after you've cleaned that book , is

11:12

that you you go into like the Humidity

11:15

stage . That's like what you do right before you

11:17

press the book . So let's say there's a book that

11:19

I feel like is like a high-grade candidate

11:22

. The first thing I'll do is you

11:24

go with just like a like a cotton round , like a little

11:26

like makeup thing , and

11:29

you just sort of like do like a quick like once

11:31

over on the cover of the book , make

11:33

and definitely making sure that you keep your fingertips

11:35

like on the corners because you don't want to like

11:37

in In the rubbing , you don't want to like

11:39

catch that and then like put an extra

11:41

like band or crease into the cover or anything

11:43

. So you're just using that cotton round

11:45

to start and then after that then you go through

11:48

Typically like the

11:50

way that I end up doing is I'll put like a magazine

11:52

backing board into a magazine size

11:54

bag and then I'll put that on most

11:57

of the comic so that I can rest my hand on

11:59

it because I don't want to further damage anything

12:01

. Usually at this stage I'm also putting

12:04

gloves on to like avoid like sweat

12:06

fingerprints and like things like that . So I'm

12:08

basically leaning on that bag and board

12:10

and then I'm exposing maybe

12:12

like I don't know an inch worth of the book

12:14

and then I'll just work with that one particular

12:17

inch and then like slide the board over and then do the

12:19

next inch . So you're sort of doing it in like strips

12:21

. And then you have like a little Cutting

12:23

board that you sort of like work on Her

12:26

cutting mat , I guess is the better way to phrase

12:28

it . Cutting board . I guess he would use in the kitchen . But

12:30

like the cutting mat it has like a grid

12:32

on it so you can like keep track of like what you've done

12:34

and what you haven't . So then I'll go in

12:36

with the sponge and just sort of take all that and then any of the

12:38

white sections and I'll go in with the eraser and you just

12:40

sort of do that usually , I

12:43

mean , unless the cover doesn't have a lot of color

12:45

, the back ends up taking a lot

12:48

more time than the front because a Lot

12:50

of the ads they're just like it's like white . And then

12:52

you have like , oh , this Lego set and shit like

12:54

that , and so you end up spending more

12:56

time half the time on the back cover than on the front

12:59

cover because you will still get Dinged

13:01

for like if there's , if they're shit

13:03

fucked up on the back cover , like they don't care that that's

13:05

not the exciting part of the Comic . They're grading like the

13:07

whole thing , right even down to like

13:09

page quality , like they have a whole range of like

13:12

white pages , off white pages

13:14

, off white to white cream to off white

13:16

, it's like . So that doesn't

13:18

really like affect the value so

13:20

much , it's almost more like it's just bet it's

13:22

best to have like white pages . That just always like looks

13:24

the best on the label . But but

13:27

I've seen things that are like white pages and off white

13:29

pages where the value of the book is like pretty much the

13:31

same , but

13:33

anyway . So once all that is done , then

13:36

you put the book into a humidity

13:38

tank because you want to

13:40

humidify the

13:42

paper fibers , you want to add moisture to the

13:44

paper fibers . Because if you go to press the

13:46

book and you induce all this heat into the book

13:48

, one of two things

13:50

, one of two negative things , is gonna happen . Either

13:52

if you do have a successful press , the

13:55

book will revert later , like two weeks

13:57

later , it'll just sort of all those creases that have been in

13:59

there for like 40 years . They'll just come back

14:01

after a week or two because there was not enough

14:03

moisture in the book . Or

14:06

if the ink isn't malleable enough , when

14:08

you do the press you could

14:10

you could have what are called like

14:12

color breaks . Like if anything breaks color , you're seeing

14:14

the white of the paper Through the ink

14:16

. So those are things

14:19

where , like , let's say , you're in a comic

14:21

shop and you're looking for potential Books

14:23

to grade , so you're like rifling through your short boxes

14:25

and stuff and you find like a book where you're like I've

14:28

always wanted this or I know this is a popular book

14:30

, like people will want to , you know Probably

14:32

scoop this book up . So then you pull it

14:34

out of the short box and if you see a bunch of like creases

14:36

in the in the Book , but

14:38

it has like the white of the paper coming through

14:41

, then there's nothing you can do about that . It can't

14:43

be fixed , it can't be there's , there's

14:45

nothing to save that . Like , once ink is

14:47

gone , it's gone , unless somebody does color

14:49

touch and they start to fill in those little like

14:51

missing spots . But then then you start to step

14:54

into that restoration territory that you don't want to

14:56

get into . So basically , if you're looking

14:58

for candidates to do this , it's like the

15:00

, the , any sort of color break you . You don't want

15:02

so so .

15:04

I know you're Not to . Have

15:06

you ever been hit with the purple label of

15:08

doom ? No , no , no , they

15:10

haven't like mistakenly been like oh , I think

15:12

he touched up this spot . We're gonna Purple

15:16

label him , so .

15:16

I Think

15:19

it only really shows up a lot

15:21

in like older books , like high value , like

15:23

, let's say , you had , like I

15:26

don't know , something like an amazing fantasy 15

15:28

, right , that's like the first appearance of spider-man , like

15:30

that classic cover where he's like swinging and he's

15:32

got like the dude under his arm right . So

15:34

People will have

15:36

those that they like scoop from like their grandfather

15:39

like 30 years ago when he passed away or whatever

15:41

, and they'll see like , oh , there's like a little bit of damage

15:43

here and here . Oh , this will look nicer if I just like

15:45

fill it in and this is again like predating

15:48

Any like grading companies

15:50

and stuff like that . So people would

15:52

fill those in and then , like years later , they get like

15:54

circulated through the comic community because

15:56

a collection will always outgrow

15:58

its owner , you know . So a lot of these

16:00

collections that people purchase it's because somebody passed

16:02

away or you know , or

16:05

something happened or or somebody's like really

16:07

they need , they need money , so they sell their collection

16:09

. You know they have to make mortgage payments or whatever

16:11

. So that amazing

16:13

fantasy 15 gets passed down and passed down and

16:15

passed down and then all of a sudden somebody who's gonna submit

16:18

it to a grading company buys

16:20

it for thousands of dollars . And Then

16:22

, you know , maybe they clean it , they press it

16:24

and they send it down and then , through the technology

16:26

that they have at CGC , they're able

16:28

or even just their eye , depending on how blatant

16:31

it is , they're able to find that

16:33

there was color touch and then it'll get the grade

16:35

for the condition of the book . But instead of having the sort

16:37

of like the universal grade , which is the

16:39

blue label , it'll have the purple label .

16:41

So purple label books , like , do not sell

16:44

to the same level that a blue

16:46

label does so if you , if you have a 9.8

16:48

Blue label and a 9.8 purple

16:50

label , yeah , how much are you losing

16:52

on the purple label ?

16:54

It's it . It really depends on the book

16:56

, but I would say like it just throwing

16:59

out a number like anywhere from like 20%

17:01

to like 50 or 60% of

17:04

the value . So if you have a book that's like a 10 , like an

17:06

old school silver age , like really sought

17:08

, after book , the more expensive the

17:10

blue label book would be .

17:11

The purple label gets dinged that much more

17:13

. Yeah , I think so , yeah .

17:15

But again , like I said , I've never sold any purple label

17:17

stuff , so I don't really know , because I try to

17:19

avoid it . Like any old books that I have , the first

17:21

thing I do is I'll get , I have like a

17:23

UV light flashlight and

17:25

so , if you like , shine the UV light flashlight

17:27

on to the comic , you'll any

17:30

of the places that like somebody drew on with

17:32

like paint or ink or anything like that , they'll show

17:34

up right away . So if

17:36

there's anything that I might potentially grade that's older

17:39

, like that , I'll .

17:40

I'll go over it with that UV flashlight first

17:42

because , again , I don't want to spend all this like time

17:44

, money , effort and everything

17:46

just to have it be returned as you stored

17:48

, you found you have

17:50

comics that have all

17:52

of that in it , like , have you bought some like , and you hit

17:54

it with the UV light and you're like , oh man , that has

17:57

.

17:57

Crossing my fingers . I have yet to have purchased

18:00

anything that have that has any

18:02

restoration .

18:03

Oh , what if he's a black light and it's the first

18:05

Storm shows

18:07

up ? I know exactly where you go with this .

18:11

You're talking about semen I understand

18:13

I get where you're going with that stand .

18:16

He's great in comics , he's not grading

18:18

sports .

18:19

Illustrated swimsuit additions Never

18:21

know man I just saw speaking of

18:23

storm . I saw a Jeep . It was

18:25

all X-maned out with storm

18:27

all over it . Oh , nice that in the

18:29

Jurassic Park Jeep down in Westchester .

18:31

If people uh , you know , people do interesting

18:33

things with their money . I'm sure that probably cost a lot

18:36

to get all that done . Um

18:38

, but yeah , so that's so far no

18:40

restoration on anything that I've purchased . But

18:42

I also think a lot of like sellers

18:44

and dealers . They're like , I

18:47

would say in my experience Doing

18:49

this in the last year , I think I

18:51

have dealt with more Ethical

18:53

dealers than unethical dealers . I

18:56

would say there's two that come to mind who price

18:58

gouge raw books . Raw meaning

19:00

just like the comic by itself before it's

19:02

Encapsulated in the slab once

19:05

it's graded . So slab books are

19:07

like where you have them in the plastic and

19:09

like in the hard plastic .

19:11

Case is like tamper proof , or can you get that

19:13

out of there if you want to ?

19:14

Kevin , you ask such good questions , you

19:17

can , and in fact there's

19:19

a whole big part of

19:22

the comic community that

19:24

basically is cracking

19:26

these to do a better job , cleaning

19:28

and pressing and then getting a higher grade

19:30

To the , to the effect that

19:32

there is a term which is called comic book cpr

19:35

. You crack press resubmit . In

19:38

fact I have a . I have a cpr

19:40

candidate that that I'm going to do a

19:42

video on soon . It is A

19:46

Neil Adams green arrow , green

19:48

lantern comic from the early 70s

19:50

when they did the , the

19:53

heroin story , like the drug addiction

19:55

story . That like it's like the significant

19:58

thing where , like the I

20:00

think it is green arrows like sidekick

20:02

they like find out he's like doing heroin . So it's like this

20:04

first time that there's like a real like drug

20:06

issue in comics . And

20:09

I found I found a 5.5

20:11

for like 50 bucks on

20:14

short box , which is like an app where you can buy

20:16

like slabs now they do raw books too but

20:18

it's a 5.5 . Actually I think it was at 65

20:21

and I sent the guy an offer for 50 and he accepted

20:23

it and so , like when I was zooming in

20:25

on these photos , like this book was never no

20:29

one did anything to it , they basically just found it in

20:31

like somebody's collection . They were like , oh , this book is significant

20:34

, I'm going to like send it out to get graded . So

20:36

they basically just plucked it out of the box and got it graded

20:38

. So I spent 50 on that book

20:40

. So I think through , like cleaning

20:42

it and pressing it I mean I don't know

20:44

if I can get it up into the nines , but I could probably

20:47

get it into the eighths and so that

20:49

book at an 8.0 or an 8.5

20:51

will be a couple hundred bucks , whereas At

20:54

the 5.5 it was like 50 dollars . So

20:56

that's where the investing quote-unquote comes

20:59

in , where you know , if you build your

21:01

skills and you feel like you can do them well enough , you

21:03

can actually like go out to comic shops

21:05

and it's like , oh , that issue right there , that's that

21:08

they're selling for X amount of

21:10

dollars , like that's at a 7.5 . But I'm

21:12

seeing like that defect , that defect , that's

21:14

pressable , that's pressable . They didn't even clean

21:16

the back of the book . So it's like maybe

21:18

I'll spend the money on that and then I'll

21:21

crack it out of the case and then I'll work on

21:23

the book and I'll resubmit it and then

21:25

, once I resubmit it , maybe it comes back as a 9.2

21:27

. So that's what they refer to as

21:29

like a grade bump .

21:30

So you get yeah , but I guess If

21:33

you take it out of that could you put it back

21:35

into the same case you took it out of so

21:37

I'm sure that there are scammers who probably

21:40

, like Might have a system

21:42

for doing something like that .

21:43

But like , if you're cracking that slab like it

21:45

is obvious that it was cracked it like splits , the

21:47

plastic inside of it gets all like crazy .

21:49

Rippled . So , yeah , it's like a tamper proof

21:52

. Yes , yes , you know case

21:54

.

21:54

I do , yes , and I did put in a new case .

21:57

Uh well , but you don't case them . The

22:00

casing comes from the cdc

22:02

. Yes , oh okay .

22:04

I have . I have one with me , so I'll take it out

22:06

and I'll show it to you guys . So this , this may

22:08

answer some of your questions .

22:10

Perfect , you're just saying some slabs

22:12

and a couple raw books , as we're

22:14

taking a pee break , right .

22:15

Yeah , just I figured I would Uh bring

22:18

a couple visual aids that could help

22:20

answer some , some questions and

22:22

such .

22:23

Yeah , yeah , let's bust them out and we'll

22:26

. Then at least

22:28

the two of us can know what you're talking about

22:30

and if people that are listening want to see

22:32

it , you could check us out on youtube , yeah exactly

22:34

If there's any uh viewers on youtube , it's

22:36

like they might .

22:37

they might sort of see what's happening here and you

22:39

know , feel free if you want to um

22:41

, I don't know inspect

22:44

or hold things up , but yeah

22:46

, so I it's , as I'm

22:48

looking at it , like I've

22:51

only seen these through instagram , so I

22:53

couldn't , couldn't tell

22:55

on if there's a latch , if there's

22:57

something to when

23:00

you could like Open

23:02

this up to if you wanted , like

23:04

as you're . you're saying that these are collectibles

23:07

now , so you're not buying

23:09

this to read it , you're buying this to have it

23:11

correct and there's basically like

23:13

, if

23:15

you were to , if you were to like

23:17

crack one of these to try to work on the

23:19

book that's inside it , like essentially it would be

23:21

like there's no , there's no lip or flap

23:24

, where it's like , oh , you just open up this thing to

23:26

get it like you would have to go into

23:28

the , the top right here , right where that

23:30

there's like a , a slight gap

23:33

between the top here . You would just go

23:35

in with a flat head screwdriver and just literally

23:37

like crack the case until it broke . And

23:39

then even inside that , um

23:42

, there's what's called the inner well , like you can sort

23:44

of see that right along the edge here , and

23:46

so the inner well right there , that's what's actually holding

23:48

the comic and that is that that is also sealed

23:50

. So when you crack the

23:53

top of this , you're actually taking out the inner

23:55

well which has the comic in it , and

23:57

then , basically , that

24:00

small edge between the inner well and

24:02

the top of the comic , you have to go in with

24:04

like an exacto knife and Cut

24:06

along there without slipping and cutting

24:08

the comic . Oh , wow , so it's . It's

24:11

like a little bit of an endeavor to do

24:13

that , um .

24:15

So , but again , people do it , you know it's and

24:17

I guess , now that we can see it this along

24:20

the top edge , where it's the cgc

24:22

universal grade , correct ?

24:24

That's in blue .

24:25

It would be purple for any

24:27

restoration type of work it would be purple if there was

24:29

any restoration , it would be green if

24:31

it is like what they call a qualified grade

24:34

. So let's say if , um , okay

24:36

, for example , in the mid to late

24:38

70s marvel did this

24:40

thing , um , they introduced

24:42

these marvel value stamps which

24:45

are like little like one inch by one

24:47

inch squares that look like you know , postal

24:50

stamps , but they have characters on

24:52

them like whether it's like spider-man or kang

24:54

or or incredible hulk or whoever , and

24:57

so they put them in there to be like hey

24:59

, collect , clip them and collect them and put them in

25:01

this like binder and shit . So there's a lot of like

25:03

super valuable books that are missing value

25:06

stamps out there . So if a book from like I

25:08

don't know the exact years , but it's like I

25:11

don't know , like mid 70s to late 70s

25:13

, there's like like maybe three years or four years , um

25:16

, where they just they would have certain

25:18

issues that have the value stamp . So if

25:20

you're selling a comic from that era

25:22

, if it's raw , you want to

25:24

include in the description like marvel value

25:27

stamp intact or no

25:29

marvel value stamp . So , for instance , a extremely

25:31

one of the One of the grails

25:34

of all grails is incredible hulk 181

25:36

. That's like the first appearance of wolverine that

25:38

has a uh , I think it's sheena

25:40

the Jungle queen or some some

25:43

shit like that , like that's . That is the

25:45

uh , the value stamp that's in that

25:47

particular book . So there's a lot of

25:49

incredible hulk 181s out there that

25:51

are graded . That might , you know , come back in

25:53

a high grade . But the label will be green

25:55

because part of the book is missing . So

25:58

you'll also get a green label for

26:00

, uh , the first appearance of hob goblin

26:02

and amazing spider-man . That comic

26:05

came with like Tattoos , like

26:07

there's a little insert with like staples , so

26:09

they were by this like company called like lakeside

26:12

or something , and it was like these tattoos , like temporary

26:14

tattoos you just pop on your arm when you're a kid . So

26:16

if somebody ripped that out to put the tattoos on

26:18

, if you have that book , you

26:21

could get it graded . But if it's missing the tattoos

26:23

, it gets the green qualified label .

26:25

Are there ? Is that the only three years , or another

26:27

type of label ?

26:28

there are , um , there's a couple

26:31

more . There's a if it's the gold or

26:33

yellow label , that's the signature series . That's

26:35

, when you like , if there's an artist that

26:37

goes to cgc , they

26:39

will do a like a signature

26:42

, like a like a signing event . So

26:44

, like there's one , there's one for

26:46

ron friends and one for jim lee

26:48

coming up in october , amongst other

26:50

Artists too . But basically what they

26:52

do is they invite the artist for like the weekend

26:55

. Everybody submits all their books for

26:57

the artist to sign and a cgc

26:59

witness will literally like watch the artist

27:01

sign the book and then when they grade

27:04

it and slab it , it gets the signature series

27:06

label , which is like yellow . Okay

27:08

so that again like

27:10

if you , if you have it like certified

27:12

from the company that that particular

27:15

artist signed it , again You're removing any

27:17

debate of like is that really Todd McFarland

27:20

signature ? No , like it's . It

27:22

doesn't look like it . I have this book and his signature

27:24

looks this way on it . You forge that . Whatever

27:26

it like , avoids all that . So it's like

27:29

now some people get books signed just for themselves

27:31

and they don't want to resell them . So yeah , you go

27:33

to a convention , you get the artist to sign it . It's like

27:35

no big deal . But I think that with

27:38

those signatures .

27:39

Yeah , if you had , like you went to a convention

27:41

and you got a guy to sign your book for you

27:43

and then you went to get it graded , it

27:46

would be what ? How would that come back ?

27:48

So I again I haven't done it , but

27:51

I think that if you got like somebody

27:54

to sign the book at the

27:56

convention and then after a

27:58

year or two You're like I kind of want to get this graded , I

28:00

believe , because there's like writing on it it

28:03

may get a green label , it could

28:05

also get a blue label , I

28:07

think , but it's like the grade is lower . I'm

28:09

not really sure because I haven't . I haven't done and I haven't

28:12

done that much research . The only thing things I've

28:14

ever gotten signed has been through the

28:16

signature events that they that they have

28:18

in at CGC . And

28:21

then there are there are

28:23

also like pedigree labels , like pedigrees

28:25

are basically like there are these like elite

28:28

, legendary Collections , right , and

28:30

I don't remember the names of any of them , but there's , like

28:32

there's a handful of them . I think one of them is like out in

28:34

Colorado , like just prolific

28:36

collectors , like , like , like a famous

28:39

person in the collector community

28:41

who like collected books from 1950

28:45

, whatever to whenever , and they had this like

28:47

extensive , like 30 , 40 , 50 thousand

28:49

dollar , like unit collection

28:52

right , like thousands of thousands

28:54

of books , and then they're

28:56

all in such high grade because this particular

28:58

person was a collector . Sometimes they have

29:00

a stamp on them , like from that particular oh

29:02

, this is one of that person's books , sometimes

29:05

those pedigree books they'll get . Like it's it's almost

29:07

like a I Don't

29:10

know how I describe it like a pewter , like

29:12

it's almost like metallic , looking like like a

29:14

grayish , metal-ish kind of color label

29:16

. Now , I think there's like maybe one

29:18

or two others than that , but like the main ones

29:20

that you see are the blue ones

29:22

and the yellow ones , like the signature

29:24

series and the certified grade , like those are

29:27

the most common . But again , going

29:29

back to the green label , with like that Hulk 181

29:31

, I Mean people

29:33

will still spend like thousand , like crazy

29:35

thousands of dollars , even for the book that doesn't have

29:37

the stamp in it . So it

29:39

, yeah , I mean ideally you want the

29:42

blue label .

29:43

That's kind of what you're after . Have you looked up like

29:45

all those stamps of like people

29:47

would cut out of the book ? What's a complete

29:49

collection of those worth ?

29:50

There's actually , it's funny , one of the places

29:52

that that I order , like my Paperbacks

29:55

and like omnis from and stuff like that . They

29:58

have a . There's a book out there that's like I

30:00

forget the exact title , but it's something about

30:02

like like the titles

30:04

called like Marvel value stamps , the

30:07

you know the

30:09

frustrating Something

30:11

, something of like Marvel of the 70s

30:13

or whatever , and it's basic . It basically is

30:15

like a book all about them , and it tells

30:17

you like how many there are and which ones

30:19

they are and what books they were found in , and stuff

30:21

.

30:22

But off the top of my head , I don't know okay , yeah

30:24

, so would you even want a

30:26

book signed , like where would the perfect spot

30:28

for somebody that To sign at

30:30

? I mean , you almost kind of want them to sign a separate

30:33

piece of paper and just put it in with the comic

30:35

.

30:36

It really depends . There are some people that that

30:38

are very anti-signature . They just like they don't

30:40

want , like yeah , it's cool that the artist

30:42

is like touching the comic

30:44

book that they had made it right . There's some people

30:46

who are just like I don't want my book signed and I think

30:48

it ruins it , but it

30:51

all depends , like if , if you're , if

30:53

you're getting this book signed .

30:56

It's like where do you do it ? It's like there's not a lot

30:58

of areas . So so , as you

31:00

say , so we have . You have a Fantastic

31:03

for number 247 . That's a 9.6

31:06

right here . Mm-hmm , if you

31:08

had this same book , same grade

31:10

, but just from a signature series , which

31:13

one would sell ?

31:13

more ? Oh , that's

31:15

a great question . I recently just

31:18

sold One

31:20

of the signature series books that I , that

31:22

I had with the Todd McFarlane signing

31:24

and that I mean that

31:26

sat on that's sad

31:29

on my eBay for like six months . I

31:31

think a lot of times when people do the signings I

31:34

think they're doing it for their own personal collection , because

31:36

again you want to feel like that Connection

31:38

to the artist , but I , but I but

31:40

again the people purchase them just as much , but

31:43

I I don't know . I think it's kind of like a mixed

31:45

bag . I would say like From

31:50

what I've noticed in the first year of doing this , because

31:52

again there's a lot of like people in the community who've been doing

31:54

this for a super long time , so they

31:57

have like a better Attenuation

31:59

for some of this information . I've

32:01

been keeping track of what days

32:04

I've sold slabs on

32:06

eBay , what days I've sold raw

32:08

books on eBay , just as sort of like , almost like . Let

32:10

me look at the whole year and see like what

32:13

, if there's any sort of like rhyme or reason

32:15

as to like when are popular times to buy

32:17

, and it's all fucking random . Like

32:19

there's like in in

32:21

I guess it was like March , I

32:24

think I sold like 11

32:26

or 12 , like Raw books

32:28

, like almost like one a day , like every

32:30

other day for the month and like again

32:32

. Some Collectors and some you

32:35

know dealers would hear that and be like huh , I do that

32:37

in a day , but like , of course , but this isn't like my

32:39

full-time job . This is like a side hustle but

32:42

like To do like

32:44

a 11 or 12 raw books in

32:46

one month and then the next month I just like

32:48

sold like a book and

32:51

it's just like I don't know why . I don't know why everybody

32:54

decided in that one month to buy a whole ton of

32:56

shit . I don't know if it's like an eBay algorithm

32:58

. You

33:01

guys obviously both have seen the pumpkin

33:03

bomb comics Instagram . I Haven't

33:06

sold anything through Instagram , like you've

33:09

seen that . I've like listed stuff right and

33:11

I like I'm always letting people know like this is

33:13

what I , this is what came back . This is a grade that

33:15

it got super pumped about this . Like

33:17

x , y and z . Every single

33:19

sale that I've made in this entire year has all

33:21

been eBay .

33:22

Yeah , so the Instagram is just showing people like

33:24

oh , this is cool . Yes , are you cool

33:26

? Are ?

33:27

people buying things on eBay that you're not putting

33:29

on Instagram . That you're like yeah , I'm not really making

33:32

a post about this so that I

33:34

didn't grade and they'll have whatever .

33:36

So the raw books I don't put on Instagram at

33:38

all , I just put those on eBay . But even like

33:40

the slabs , it's like I've sold one through short

33:42

box . Everything else is through eBay

33:45

, which , to a certain degree , is a little frustrating

33:47

. Because eBay , all the prices that I have

33:49

on eBay are higher . Because the fees

33:52

are higher , right , because they take like 14%

33:54

or whatever of the sale , whereas on

33:56

Instagram nobody's taken anything

33:59

other than Uncle Sam , you know . So

34:01

it's like I feel like saying

34:03

to like the people that you know Follow

34:05

me on Instagram , like just buy the books through

34:08

Instagram for me , like you're gonna

34:10

be paying less money and I'm gonna be making

34:12

more on the sale , like we both

34:14

win , like don't go through eBay , but

34:16

that's , that's how every single sale has been

34:18

. But at the same token , it's like how many

34:21

eyes are on the Instagram account versus how many eyes

34:23

are on eBay , you know , are

34:25

they on eBay for auction or eBay

34:27

at a price ? like I do a buy

34:29

it now rather than an auction , just because

34:31

, like , there are all sorts

34:33

of different selling platforms Like what not

34:35

is another one where you can do like auctions and things

34:38

like that as well . And I guess if I get more

34:40

followers and more People

34:42

that like are aware of what I'm doing

34:44

, I might at some point do auctions . But

34:46

I don't know , I just right now I'm

34:48

a little gun shy about auctions because I don't know

34:50

if enough people know about it . So

34:53

if you're auctioning something in a room

34:55

full of like five people and they're just like

34:57

sweet , I just sold this like four

34:59

hundred dollar . Slab for like 70 bucks

35:01

.

35:01

I think you can set a minimum , like you have to meet

35:03

this .

35:04

Yes , on eBay you can you'd still want the

35:06

maximum number of people .

35:08

You know it's about eyes on it , for

35:10

sure , and there is also a draw of just

35:13

like , like I know some of the like bigger sellers

35:15

out there , the bigger sellers will like start

35:17

all their auctions at a dollar like , because it's

35:19

just like the psychology of just

35:21

like in your head Just being like whoa , only

35:23

a dollar for this , like $750

35:26

, like slab , like , oh my god , like . I

35:29

definitely want to like be part of that auction . What

35:31

if it only goes up to a hundred bucks ? What

35:33

if it only does this ? But it never does

35:35

? Like some of these , some of the real like I

35:38

like the term that they use are keys , like key

35:40

issues . So like a secret Wars

35:42

number eight , like the first you know black

35:44

spidey costume , or like

35:46

the Hulk .

35:47

I don't have that comic , I don't

35:50

have that specific book , but I have that whole run

35:52

of secret Wars and like a paper , yeah

35:54

, dude , that is .

35:57

That is just . That's like my wheelhouse being like a child

35:59

of the 80s . That's secret word . Stuff is like so good

36:01

, but like those

36:04

books , like you'll always , you'll

36:06

always get full value for those books . Like I

36:08

think one of the mistakes that I made early

36:10

on when I first started doing this , because the

36:13

first comic that I cleaned when I was trying

36:15

to build the skill was September

36:17

15th of last year and

36:19

then my first

36:21

press , I think , was like the first week of October

36:24

and so Like

36:26

in the first year that I've been doing

36:28

this once , I first like was

36:31

seeing results of like whoa , this

36:33

comic looks so much better now . Like all that

36:35

, all the dirt and fingerprints are off of it and

36:37

also all those little like creases

36:39

and stuff . I was able to press all of those out , so

36:41

it like looks really like it looks really nice

36:43

. I just went like I Feel

36:46

like I went like slab crazy where I was just like

36:48

like I just wanted like this book is so cool

36:50

, I want to . I want to slab it . This book is so cool , I want

36:53

to slab it . And then I realized that like it's

36:56

, it isn't really not

36:59

every book should be slabbed , even if it has

37:01

like like oh , this random , you

37:03

know Super villain team up

37:06

from the 70s , it's like the cover is so awesome

37:08

and it's like such a like visually

37:10

stimulating , like piece of art , you know , like

37:12

being in the slab . But not everybody thinks

37:14

about comics that way . A lot of people think of it as like

37:16

the value , how , like thinking of it

37:18

almost like stocks and stuff like that , like how is

37:20

the value of this going to increase ? As you

37:23

know , as I keep doing this and as I keep collecting

37:25

and stuff , so like some of these , like the ones

37:27

that I brought today , these are all from like , like

37:29

ones that I want to keep for myself , but

37:32

like I don't know if this book would really like sell , like

37:34

I just love that John Byrne cover . And

37:36

I think it came back in a high enough grade where I'm just

37:38

like , sweet , awesome , that was a book that , like

37:40

, I bought for ten dollars and then I

37:43

worked on it and I got it up to that

37:45

9.6 . It's like I'm proud that I

37:47

got it to the grade that I got it to and it

37:49

will be nice to have in my collection . But

37:51

if you know , let's say , decades

37:54

and decades in the future , if you

37:56

know Kristen or a family member or

37:58

somebody when I'm not around is ever selling

38:01

these books like this isn't gonna , that's not

38:03

gonna get anything . But I still wanted

38:05

to get that book slab because it's like it's awesome .

38:08

Maybe not , but you never know . Like , the more

38:10

you do it , I feel , the more you're gonna run

38:12

into somebody else . That's like yourself

38:14

, that's like do you have that one daredevil

38:16

cover that has like

38:19

the ? I know you did it through Instagram

38:21

, where it's he's just like the barrel of the gun

38:23

pointed straight at you .

38:25

Yeah , that's an awesome cover is cool

38:27

as shit . Yeah , that's an .

38:28

I don't have no idea if that comic's worth any money , but

38:30

you might run into somebody that's like . I'm looking

38:32

for this book .

38:34

You're . You bring up a good point because , again

38:36

, I'm still getting to know the comic

38:39

community over the last year . But one of the things

38:41

that I do hear a lot within the community is

38:43

like collect what you like , like get the things

38:45

that you like and the things that you

38:47

know . Because Maybe , yeah

38:49

, maybe there are those like particular grails

38:51

that , like everybody wants , but then

38:53

there are other people that just are like no , I need to

38:56

complete like a run , like maybe somebody wants like

38:58

the first 250

39:00

issues of Fantastic Four , like that's

39:02

their run and they're missing 247 . So

39:04

it's like then they would , they would scoop a book

39:06

like that . But

39:08

I did also bring like a raw book or

39:11

two , just because I wanted to Kind of

39:13

show you guys the difference between like what

39:15

would be like a gradeable Candidate

39:17

and these . These are ones you are going

39:19

to work on so well . One

39:21

you'll see . You'll see why I'm not going to

39:23

and then one You'll see why I might in the future . So

39:26

I wanted to bring in two that had

39:28

Predominantly black covers

39:31

, because the ink , like the black ink , like any

39:33

defects , will show on that more than anything else . So

39:36

the biggest thing that I'm looking through , as I'm like rifling

39:38

through short boxes is . The first thing I'm going to do is Look

39:40

at the top corners . So if you look at this

39:42

particular Hulk comic

39:44

, that top corner there and that top corner

39:46

there is really clean . So that would be one where

39:49

, like , once I see those corners and the top like looking

39:51

pretty clean , like that , without any defects

39:53

to it , I'll pull that one out to look at the rest of the

39:55

book . Whereas , like if I pulled out

39:57

this book , if you look down the

39:59

spine there , all those white lines there , those

40:02

are all would have referred to as spine ticks and

40:04

they are all spine ticks that break color . So

40:06

you see the white coming through , whereas when

40:08

you look at the spine of this one , it's like

40:10

totally there's nothing wrong with it . So

40:13

this would be like a candidate to

40:15

potentially clean and press because you're going to get a

40:17

high grade here . But this comic definitely

40:20

would not . And especially if you look in the bottom

40:22

corner there , all of those like little creases

40:24

there , those all break color too . So those

40:27

, all those white lines against the black ink

40:29

, every single one of those would deduct

40:31

from the grade . So if the grader is looking

40:33

that at this book , like if they're starting

40:35

in their head with a perfect 9.8 score

40:38

Every time they see one of

40:40

these and depending on how long it is like

40:42

. If this Particular one right here

40:44

was like really big like across there

40:46

, it would it would , you know , detract

40:48

from the grade even more . So a book

40:51

like this I would . This is from

40:53

my own collection from when I was like 10 , right

40:55

, so you can see that like clearly a 10 year old

40:57

Read this book , right , whereas

40:59

this is one that I bought in a comic shop . So this was

41:01

clearly one that a collector had that they didn't really touch

41:04

. So I wanted to bring like two

41:06

extreme examples like that

41:08

. So at least you guys , as I'm

41:10

talking about this , I know for the in the podcast

41:12

format it's not exactly a always

41:14

visual , apart from the YouTube video .

41:16

I can get stand to take some pictures of these .

41:18

Yeah , I mean that that's fair . But

41:21

yeah , so I just figured like , just so you could sort of see , like

41:23

this is some of the stuff that you're looking for , like what

41:26

, like , what could be done about this ? Like

41:28

nothing , like you can't really chain

41:30

you , can you ? That's a defect

41:33

that's not pressable or , you

41:35

know , reversible in any sort of way , whereas

41:37

this one is like this is a book that , again

41:39

, looking at this , it's like this book could

41:42

come back after like just getting a little bit of a clean

41:44

and a press . That book could probably come back as

41:46

like a 9.4 or 9.6 , whereas

41:48

this would probably come back as like a 6.0

41:50

, maybe even lower , because

41:53

of how much is wrong with it . There's even like a little tear

41:55

right there . So all manner of like

41:57

finger bends , creases , things

41:59

that break , color pieces missing

42:02

, like there's so many different , like

42:04

CGC just Last

42:06

fall released a Book

42:09

that like goes over all of the possible defects

42:11

and how they affect the grade , which

42:14

, up until that time , people were just sort of like

42:16

.

42:17

You know , we're at the mercy of the greater you

42:19

know they have their like their

42:21

system is now the key , probably , which is kind

42:23

of good to keep it to themselves , so people can't find

42:25

ways to get around it .

42:27

Right , there's benefits and like

42:29

. Part of me feels like and this is just speculation

42:32

, but part of me feels like the reason

42:34

that they released , the

42:37

reason they like they worked on this book and they released

42:39

this book and sort of like pulled back the curtain

42:41

a little bit To how they grade is because I think

42:43

they realized the Like

42:46

they benefit from CPR

42:49

in a book , like they benefit from

42:51

somebody spending $25

42:53

to get this graded and Then

42:56

somebody else buying it and being like , hey , you know what

42:58

, I think I can do a better job with that , so I'm

43:00

gonna crack it out and I'm gonna submit it again . So

43:03

they just made another $25 off of

43:05

the same comic . So I think they realized

43:07

the popularity of the CPR process

43:10

where they were like , alright , a lot of people are doing

43:12

this , let's kind of , let's

43:14

kind of peel back the curtain a little bit , show

43:16

them how we're grading , what types of

43:18

defects are Detracting from the

43:20

grade and by how much . Quantify

43:22

all that , have all of those metrics there so

43:25

that , like , we can encourage people

43:27

to continue to crack and press

43:29

because again , every time somebody cracks a book and

43:31

presses it and Resubmits it , they're

43:34

making money again , which is also

43:36

why I brought in this alpha flight because this is

43:38

one of the few ones that that

43:40

I purchased , like early on before I started

43:43

doing it myself . I Seem

43:45

like nothing wrong with this book . I don't

43:47

understand why it got a 9.2

43:49

, when these books like this

43:51

9.4 and 9.6 and even

43:53

after the After the episode

43:55

, like I can even point them out like but

43:58

there are , like there are spine ticks

44:00

along this one . There is like there's

44:02

like damage to the paper fibers in this particular

44:05

, like Iron man issue 2 , there's

44:07

literally nothing wrong with this book . I think a 9.2

44:09

is a fucking harsh grade for that

44:12

book . So I'm absolutely going

44:14

to crack and press that and resubmit it and

44:16

I would not be shocked if that comes back

44:18

, at least bumped up to a 9.4

44:20

or a 9.6 . Now again , I would only

44:22

do that for myself . I'm not going to sell this book because

44:24

, like I love alpha flight alpha flight number one

44:26

in a newsstand , which is

44:28

that barcode there as opposed to the

44:31

Spider-Man face , which

44:33

is a whole other thing . Like Newstand

44:35

editions . That's what . That's what every comic book

44:38

looked like for a long time , until Collecting

44:40

became like a thing and people were like , oh , everybody's

44:43

buying comics and stuff . Let's open these comic

44:45

shops where people can just buy comics instead

44:47

of buying it at the grocery store or the drug store

44:50

or wherever , or or

44:52

a literal newsstand . So this

44:54

is what's known as a direct copy , which means when

44:57

it has the little Spider-Man head or little artwork

44:59

in here , that's going directly to a comic book shop

45:01

. So chances are , when it goes directly

45:03

to a comic book shop , the person buying it is going

45:05

to take better care of it because they're a

45:07

collector . So newsstand

45:09

copies tend to not

45:11

be in higher grades , because if

45:13

a kid is buying that on a newsstand or at a

45:16

drug store or something , that's

45:18

a much more disposable . Grabbing

45:20

a form and throwing in the bag with other

45:22

shit exactly his dad's taking it on the train

45:24

to like bring it home when

45:26

after work and stuff like that . So

45:29

typically there are books

45:31

. There are more books in higher

45:33

grade that have the direct market

45:35

Spidey head down

45:37

in the bottom as opposed to the newsstand

45:40

barcode down there . So

45:42

there's

45:45

a CGC census that allows you to

45:47

see how many of

45:49

each copy is graded . So like , for

45:51

instance , this fantastic for 247

45:53

. I can go on the website and

45:55

log in with my credentials and see like

45:57

okay , how many copies are there in existence that

45:59

are 9.6 , say ? There's like 340 of them

46:02

or something . And then how many

46:04

alpha flight number 1's in a 9.2

46:06

in a newsstand are there . It'll have that information

46:08

too . But this is

46:10

but again going back to I just went

46:13

off on a tangent with the newsstand edition

46:15

, just sort of talk about that . But again , to

46:17

have this book in a newsstand in a high grade , I

46:19

think would be pretty cool . I don't think

46:21

this book is a 9.2 .

46:23

Generally new stands worth more or

46:25

less than the direct to

46:27

consumer .

46:28

Yes and not to like I don't

46:30

. I don't want to get tacky and talk

46:32

about specific numbers , but just for the illustration

46:34

of your question , a web of spider-man

46:36

number one that I just Finally sold

46:39

, I had . I got two of them . Actually there were

46:41

brave new worlds we were mentioning them a

46:43

minute ago , so

46:47

um , so yeah . So they were both newsstand

46:49

. And then I saw these and I got them actually

46:51

at their black Friday sale , so they were $25

46:54

each for the raw , raw copies , but

46:56

because of the 20% off they reached $20 , so

46:59

I spent $40 on the pair

47:02

and Then I got them each graded

47:04

, so 25 each , so that's 50 bucks , and

47:06

then the original 40 , so that's 90 that I spent

47:08

total on the two books In

47:11

a newsstand . They both came back 9.8

47:13

, so I was able to like . Now again , that's

47:15

not just , you know , patting myself on the back

47:17

for getting the nine point . These books were already

47:19

like pretty good Like .

47:20

I didn't have to , in good condition .

47:22

Yes , they just needed a real light dry cleaning and

47:24

a good press and that was it . I didn't really have to like work

47:27

the spine with like a tack iron and like and

47:29

and do extra stuff or multiple

47:31

presses , because some of the older books that , like

47:33

I said earlier , the the creases that have been in there

47:35

since like 1981 , they're

47:38

gonna , they're gonna want to stay in there , like the fibers

47:40

can be stubborn . You have to press them multiple times . But these

47:42

books were really easy . So I

47:45

sent the first one out in one batch and it came

47:47

back in 9.8 . I was really pumped because I was like awesome

47:49

, this is like my first 9.8 that I ever got and it's

47:51

a web of spider-man newsstand . I was like that's awesome

47:54

. And I was like , well , I'm gonna send out

47:56

the other one in this next batch , crossing

47:58

my fingers , maybe it gets a 9.8 also . And it

48:00

came back in 9.8 . I was like holy shit

48:02

, man , so I get to keep one of them and

48:04

I'm gonna sell the other one . That 9.8

48:06

in a newsstand Was like a $550

48:10

slab .

48:11

Thank you .

48:11

So I basically spent $90

48:13

To get them both

48:16

graded and to buy both of them . I

48:18

spent $90 , got to keep one

48:20

of them and then sell the other one , for I Ended

48:23

up selling it . I did like somebody was interested in it on

48:25

eBay and like we did like

48:27

a . But you know they send offers and stuff like

48:29

that . So it got negotiated down from

48:31

that five , from

48:33

like 550 to like I think

48:35

475 , like I was comfortable doing it at 475

48:38

. But either way , you subtract the eBay

48:40

fees and stuff like that , I think everything

48:42

when you factor in like shipping , ebay fees

48:45

and stuff like that , it was a little over $400

48:47

for that book . So I ended up spending

48:49

90 , making like a

48:51

, you know , roughly like a $310

48:53

profit off of the transaction

48:56

with the one book and then it's almost like I got

48:58

the one that I myself for free

49:00

yeah so to me that

49:02

is the ideal scenario

49:05

. That's that to me is the ideal book

49:07

, where it's like you shell out the 20 bucks to

49:09

buy the raw book , you shell out the 25

49:11

to get it graded . If you're able to Grate

49:14

it by eye well enough in the comic

49:16

shop , like you're almost like you're pre-screening

49:18

it yourself . If you're able to do that Well

49:20

enough to be able to spot some 9 , 8 so

49:23

that you pass over stuff that looks like this . And again

49:25

, this is like fucking obvious , right , like

49:27

there's so many white lines there . I

49:29

wanted to bring in like kind of extreme examples here

49:31

, but looking at something where it's like , yeah , I don't

49:33

really see any visible defects , and even

49:36

if I do , they can be pressed out . So

49:38

I think in that regard , like that's that's

49:41

the ideal thing . You want to get the raw book at

49:43

a good value and then you want to get it pressed

49:45

, or you want to press it and then get it Slabbed

49:48

up and and get it graded and

49:50

then hopefully that comes back high enough you can turn enough

49:52

of a profit , so that , like what

49:54

you're doing , the collecting is kind of like paying for

49:56

itself , because I have a feeling there are a lot of people

49:58

out there that like by

50:00

comics , like crazy , and they have , like you

50:02

know , like addictions to it , similar to people have

50:05

like gambling addictions and stuff where it's like , oh

50:07

my god , here's this deal , I have to get it , I have to

50:09

get this book , or oh , I have to get this for my collection

50:11

and the next thing you know , they're spending

50:13

like thousands of dollars a month on

50:15

comics , when they have like Families

50:18

and mortgages and things like that . For me

50:20

, I would much rather like Collect

50:23

what I want to collect but also work on

50:25

books at the same time so that I can sell them

50:27

and Kind of have things like level

50:29

out , like even if , even if , pressing

50:32

and cleaning and and selling comics

50:34

, if that Enables

50:36

me to buy any of the collected editions

50:38

and any like any comics that I want for my

50:41

own collection , without me the

50:44

expenditure of like my own bank

50:46

account , I think that that's like that's

50:49

okay . Now , if I keep doing this

50:51

and I keep getting better books and older books

50:53

and more expensive books , like who knows

50:55

, there could be a pathway

50:57

where , like , eventually , I'm like buying collections

50:59

from people where it's like , okay , you have a collection

51:01

, it's worth , pardon

51:04

me , it's worth like thirty thousand dollars

51:06

or something it's like . Well , most people

51:08

when they're buying collections They'll

51:10

give like 50 to 60 percent of the fair

51:13

market value , because everything that you sell

51:15

from the collection You're gonna have to pay 25 percent

51:17

in taxes on . So basically

51:19

, if you say to somebody okay , your collection is worth

51:21

30,000 , I'll give you 15,000

51:24

for it , and then out of that collection

51:26

you can sell what's

51:29

in there you know for that 30,000

51:32

, then you make the 15 back

51:34

, then you pay on the taxes

51:36

and any fees and stuff like that . So for

51:39

every collection you buy , maybe you make a

51:41

profit of like six to seven thousand dollars

51:43

. And then if you're buying a couple collections a year

51:45

, I think that's how , like a lot of these Dealers

51:48

, even if they're just doing it on the side , they can

51:50

make a little bit of like extra money throughout

51:52

the year doing it , instead of just like Shelling

51:55

out all their money to buy comics all the time and

51:57

then it's like , all right , well , all this money is going out

51:59

to buy comics and no money is coming in . So

52:02

I think you just have to sort of skate the line

52:04

a little bit and balance that .

52:06

Well , you're like selling weed to buy

52:08

yourself weed .

52:10

Yes .

52:10

Yeah .

52:11

Yeah , it's like that Well , you can't get high

52:13

on your own supply .

52:14

Exactly True but

52:16

you can . I mean , I guess you can . Well , I don't

52:18

know you're gonna read all of your own comics

52:21

. Yes , you don't want to read them I

52:23

think you can have like the , you know

52:25

the , the , the dopamine that comes

52:27

with like making purchases and stuff , maybe

52:29

. Maybe some of that dopamine comes through like oh

52:31

sweet , like I just sent out that book and

52:34

you know it came back as a 9.6

52:36

and like , yeah , maybe like in a 9.8

52:38

. It's like , well , shit , it would be like three hundred dollars more

52:40

in a 9.8 , but like a 9.6 might

52:42

be still like a two hundred dollar book . Sometimes

52:44

there is a big jump like that , like that web

52:47

of spider-man number one newsstand

52:49

that I was talking about earlier . In

52:51

a direct it's it's

52:54

a three hundred dollar slab , so it's like two hundred

52:56

dollars more for the newsstand

52:58

, just because it's so much more rare to

53:00

find that in a 9.8 . In fact

53:02

, when I was selling mine at 550 , there

53:05

were only two other ones on eBay

53:07

that were newsstand 9.8 . One was selling for five

53:09

and one a dude was selling for like 699

53:12

and it was just kind of like dude , nobody's

53:14

gonna get that book at 700 bucks . Like you

53:17

have to Like again

53:19

, there's there's like ethics with this too , where

53:21

you have it's like you want to make as much as you can

53:23

to to fund the hobby

53:25

, but at the same time you , I Don't

53:28

know . There's something I read one time about like no matter

53:30

what your business is , do not sacrifice

53:32

your reputation For a short time , short

53:34

term financial gain . And I think this

53:37

that when dealing with this sort of thing it's

53:39

this , it's the same idea like

53:41

Don't go in there Just like

53:43

, oh , I can like jack up the price on this one particular

53:46

thing and like make a ton of money off of it , because

53:48

, like I don't know , the community is kind

53:50

of it's big but it's small , and I think

53:52

like people Keep everybody

53:54

kind of honest when it comes to sellers and stuff like

53:57

that .

53:57

So well reputation like I

53:59

mean something yeah and it's just like

54:01

yeah , there's always gonna be people that are doing it for money

54:04

. But when you first started explaining , it sounds

54:06

like you're doing it because you found something , like maybe

54:08

with your OCD or whatever . Like Like

54:10

you seem to really enjoy

54:13

the process , so you found something that's fun

54:15

, that you can also fund your hobby

54:17

with .

54:18

Yeah , I mean , like you guys you guys

54:20

have known me long enough that , like what I'm talking about

54:22

, something that I'm passionate about , I get hype .

54:24

You know . So like you like sitting there going line

54:26

by line and you're just like getting super involved

54:28

and , yeah , nerding out about it , yeah , and it's

54:30

like I'm Again .

54:32

It like like I started off saying that

54:34

like it's not anything that I've ever really experienced

54:36

in my life , because I've always Anything

54:39

that I've ever done , like when I was a kid and I was like drawing

54:41

and painting and stuff like that , or like , as you

54:44

know , a teenager and into adulthood , as a musician

54:46

, like playing music and creating music and writing

54:48

music , or even like Fucking around with

54:50

my friends , like in the when we were in high school

54:52

and just like make and making videos , like

54:54

making movies and stuff like that , like everything

54:57

was always creating from scratch , creating from scratch , creating

54:59

from scratch . This is a whole different thing

55:01

where it's like Okay , this thing

55:03

was this like beautiful gem and

55:05

over the years , things have like aged

55:08

it , things have been like unkind to it and

55:10

Some of those things through like

55:12

again , basic science of like moisture

55:15

and heat and things like that Can

55:17

bring it back to its beauty

55:19

without altering it , adding

55:21

to it , doing anything to change

55:23

the book . You're just bringing it , you're

55:27

making it so that it presents as beautifully

55:30

as it can , without Actually

55:32

like adding anything new to the book . You're just

55:34

Again it's like it's .

55:36

You're pressing out defects if there's like a perfect

55:38

hobby for you . Yeah , it's kind of nice . Would

55:41

a Book like this that

55:43

you have ? That you said would

55:45

not grade very well because there's so many Spine

55:48

ticks and the it's missing the black ink

55:50

and there's nothing you can do to get some

55:52

of these things back right to it . You're

55:55

going to the comic bookstore and you come across

55:57

something like this , something that

55:59

you want , but it only is in a State

56:02

of this . Would you still grab it or are you now ? I would

56:05

pass on it , yeah , okay .

56:06

Yeah , like it's , I would definitely

56:08

pass on it unless , like it , it's

56:11

all . It all depends on the book too . Like if

56:13

you , if you think

56:15

about like a fantastic for number

56:17

one or something from like 1961

56:20

, you could find if , if you had a fantastic

56:22

for number one that was in this condition , it

56:24

would still be like crazy thousands

56:27

of dollars . And then if you got it

56:29

slabbed , it would be crazy thousands of dollars

56:31

, even more than that , just because it's so historically

56:34

significant . It's so rare

56:36

there's , so it's . It's

56:40

so difficult to find books of the Silver

56:42

Age that are in good shape because Everybody's

56:45

parents were throwing them away when they went off to

56:47

Vietnam . So people went to the Vietnam War and it's like , oh , he's

56:50

a man now , he doesn't eat comics . So they crumbled

56:52

up there like amazing spider-man number one or you

56:54

know the first appearance of dr Octopus . They

56:59

just like crumbled up and throw it away and then

57:01

and then so . So the scarcity

57:04

builds value , whereas , like some of those like Because I know you're

57:06

a comic book dude too , I'm

57:09

sure you remember in the 90s with those like X-Men

57:12

number ones , like when Jim Lee first took over , as like the X-Men artist , Okay

57:16

though there's like that's like the most printed comic

57:18

book ever , or maybe spawn number one is now I

57:22

can't remember but like some of these books , it's like there are literally

57:24

like Insane amounts of copies , so like they're

57:27

not that valuable because it's like if

57:29

you see it in one comic book shop , you'll

57:32

see it another .

57:32

That's like I can't remember I was talking about I can't

57:34

remember I was talking on podcast about this or

57:36

it's just with some friends of I have

57:39

a Pokemon card

57:41

. I have two of them , actually of mute to , but

57:44

it was the card . They three of hundreds . No , actually

57:46

, I actually only own three Pokemon

57:49

cards and they're the three that are like these are gonna be worth

57:51

money and Two

57:54

of them are mute to . But they're the mute to that they

57:56

gave out during the when

57:58

the first Pokemon movie came out and , like

58:00

99 or whenever it was , you got

58:02

, you got the movie and they Gave you a free Pokemon

58:05

card and it was this mute to card and

58:07

I was like , oh my god , I'm saving these

58:09

because they're gonna be worth money someday . You

58:11

know , exclusive mute to card . I Was

58:14

an idiot . I didn't think that they were giving this out

58:16

to the millions of other children seeing

58:19

Pokemon at the same time .

58:21

Dude , if you have , I would not be surprised

58:24

because , again , this is not my wheelhouse , but I

58:26

know , having , like you know , seen interviews

58:28

and and different videos from

58:31

like Comic shop

58:33

owners and stuff talking about like the versatility

58:35

of like you can't just be a comic shop . You

58:37

have to deal with like magic cards , pokemon card , like

58:40

all the , all the nerd columns have to be filled

58:42

. I Can almost guarantee

58:44

you that if you still have Pokemon cards that are

58:46

in relatively good shape , there's probably

58:48

a handful in there that are like worth some coin . I

58:51

just don't know .

58:51

I just don't , like I said , I only have three

58:53

and there are two mute to's and there's one team rocket

58:56

. Not a ghastly

58:58

the wheezing , that's it that Aren't

59:02

. I looked them up it was like the mute to's are

59:04

worth like nine dollars each , which , in

59:06

the grand scheme of things , is way

59:08

above average for the amount of you know money

59:10

worth for a Pokemon card .

59:12

But they're not worth money , hmm , yeah

59:15

it seems like there's two tiers of people

59:17

that collect . There's like the people

59:19

that are doing it for the grades and doing it for all

59:21

that stuff . But you're also gonna find somebody that's like

59:23

I don't . I have nostalgia about

59:25

that comic and you have it . I

59:27

don't care what shape it is like , I want that

59:29

comic a hundred percent .

59:31

And there's also like , from

59:33

from what I understand and I haven't like experienced

59:35

this too much , at least in this first

59:37

year of doing this , but from what I understand

59:39

there's like there are people who are very like

59:41

Anti-slab , like people who

59:43

are just like I want to read the comic and you

59:45

guys that slab them your lame . And then

59:48

there's people who are like die-hard slab people , who

59:50

are like raw books . It's like it's crazy

59:52

and there's and and again , I sort of agree with this

59:54

second part you should not be charging

59:56

raw book or

59:58

, I'm sorry , slab prices for raw books , like

1:00:00

the whole point of . There is a difference there is a difference

1:00:03

, right and like going through the process

1:00:05

of like cleaning it , pressing it , getting it

1:00:07

graded , having it like again professionally

1:00:09

graded , so that's like you

1:00:11

have someone that is a grading professional , like giving

1:00:13

you the definitive grade of the book . Yeah

1:00:15

, it's like that should

1:00:17

be more valuable than just the raw

1:00:19

book and I think sometimes , like certain

1:00:21

Outlets , the raw book prices

1:00:24

are sort of out of control , like some of them . It's like like

1:00:26

the one Hip

1:00:29

comic is one of the like places where I'll like look

1:00:31

at for like Like the raw

1:00:34

auctions , like trying to see like

1:00:36

books , like okay , this is starting at 99 cents , let

1:00:38

me keep an eye on this and see where it gets to . it's like , oh

1:00:41

, this first appearance Like I just picked up a

1:00:43

first appearance of the white vision

1:00:45

, like when vision has like the white suit instead

1:00:47

of the the , the traditional

1:00:49

, like green and yellow yeah so

1:00:52

that book usually

1:00:54

closes at auction for like 40 or 50 bucks

1:00:56

like all the time , all the time , all the time and

1:00:58

again , like over the year here my

1:01:00

eye has gotten a lot better at , like

1:01:03

, you know , prescreening and kind of like

1:01:05

grading and stuff like that . So I'll zoom

1:01:07

in on the photos and check everything out , front cover

1:01:09

, back , covered , everything , and I'll look for various stuff

1:01:11

and this one particular like

1:01:13

Dealer that's on hip comic , I'd

1:01:15

say I get , I participate in a lot of his auctions

1:01:17

because his , because he tends to undergrade

1:01:20

like he'll , he'll say that it's like this condition

1:01:22

and then I get the book and I'm like , oh , that book is like perfect

1:01:24

. I think he's sort of like is

1:01:26

a conservative greater . So

1:01:28

I yeah , I just happened to

1:01:32

watch this auction for this book

1:01:34

and the auction ended . I

1:01:36

won the auction at like $20-some , whereas

1:01:38

it's normally that raw book is like $40 or $50

1:01:41

. So it's a good outlet to just kind

1:01:43

of hey , if the book this is my limit , this

1:01:45

is what I'm going to spend on it and if it gets to that

1:01:47

$40 or $50 , that's a little bit too much

1:01:50

. I'll hold off . I can maybe get it later

1:01:52

, but the fact that it's stuck around like $20

1:01:54

, I was like , all right , I'm going to see if I can win this auction

1:01:56

and I got it for like $22

1:01:58

or something like that . But

1:02:01

the hip comic , like , since they have like my info

1:02:03

and everything you know , they're sending me like emails

1:02:05

and like , oh , here's this , this particular thing , that's my

1:02:07

interest , you , based off your previous searches X , y and

1:02:09

Z and I'll get , I'll get

1:02:11

things that are like I

1:02:14

think it's Marvel Premiere 28 , the first appearance

1:02:16

of Moon Knight , and it's like there's

1:02:18

a 9.0 in a slab for like

1:02:20

300 bucks and then right underneath

1:02:22

it is a raw book estimated 7.0

1:02:25

to 8.0 . That's like somebody selling for 300

1:02:27

bucks like the exact same amount , and it's like dude

1:02:30

, that's like I don't know

1:02:32

. That's crazy to me . Even if the estimate was 9.0

1:02:34

, the same as the slab grade , like , even if you're estimating

1:02:37

that that's what it's about , it still shouldn't

1:02:39

, it shouldn't be the equal price .

1:02:41

You haven't done it yet . Somebody's got to do the work to

1:02:43

get it there and then send it out .

1:02:45

Exactly so I think , sometimes you

1:02:47

just kind of have to be careful . And

1:02:49

, again , despite all the information that I've

1:02:51

shared with you guys on this today , this is still

1:02:54

just the first year of me doing this . Like , there's still

1:02:56

a ton that

1:02:58

I'm probably going to learn over this next year and

1:03:00

hopefully the year after , and everything like that . So

1:03:02

, again , I one

1:03:05

of the things , though , that I did notice is that , like you

1:03:07

, you do kind of get a , you

1:03:11

get an idea of certain books

1:03:13

that you're looking at , often about an approximate

1:03:15

grade and an approximate value

1:03:18

, and then you start to get more attenuated

1:03:21

to people who are charging too much , and

1:03:23

then you just avoid them . And that's , again

1:03:25

, another one of those reasons why , like , if you're going to be

1:03:27

doing this , if you're going to be selling these , you

1:03:29

definitely want to try to set your prices at an

1:03:31

appropriate level . Or

1:03:34

, if you know there's going to be negotiation right

1:03:36

, like if you know somebody's going to send you an offer on

1:03:38

eBay , or you know they're going to send you an offer on

1:03:40

short box or something price

1:03:43

it in a way where , like , you're comfortable doing that

1:03:45

negotiating . So , like that

1:03:47

web of Spider-Man that I was talking about before

1:03:49

, I was comfortable selling

1:03:51

that around 450 to 475

1:03:53

, but I listed it at around 500

1:03:56

knowing that , like if somebody really wanted that

1:03:58

book , if you're smart , you're going

1:04:00

to ask the seller if they can drop the

1:04:02

price a little bit . You know

1:04:04

like .

1:04:05

I don't know if I was . It doesn't like a Haggle .

1:04:07

Yeah , right , and it's and I think so much

1:04:09

of this , like this community

1:04:11

is like that where it's like , hey , you have this listed

1:04:13

for this price , like are you comfortable

1:04:16

at this price ? And then if they go , yeah , sure we could do it

1:04:18

for that , or if they go , no , I'm holding off for that

1:04:20

. Like one of my signature series books . Like

1:04:22

somebody like reach out to me with like a huge

1:04:24

low ball number , like I think it was one of the

1:04:26

one of the Spider-Man's I had listed for like 300

1:04:28

bucks . He was like , yeah , he's like would you be cool at like 150

1:04:31

? And I was like no , like

1:04:33

I'm going to wait because he's like , yeah , he's like well

1:04:35

, I've seen it before for this and this . And I was like , well

1:04:37

, okay , that's cool , but like I'm going to hold

1:04:39

off , I'm going to wait to get the full price that

1:04:41

I'm asking for . It was awesome . I

1:04:44

can't wait to next

1:04:46

time we have you and talk to you

1:04:48

in another year In another year and see , like I

1:04:50

mean I'll talk to you before that , but when it's

1:04:52

officially , you know on the airwaves

1:04:55

, the next time to you know what's

1:04:57

going on with comic books and how

1:05:00

great you're doing .

1:05:01

Yeah , I hope the next time we talk you're like yeah , I just

1:05:03

grabbed my first $30,000 collection

1:05:05

.

1:05:06

I don't think it will be that much , but I think it would

1:05:08

be . It would be cool to start buying

1:05:10

collections Like to the point that , like

1:05:12

, if anyone listening knows anyone

1:05:14

that is like you know , has a

1:05:17

grandfather or an uncle or a dad

1:05:19

or somebody who is looking to like sell

1:05:21

some comics , they absolutely could reach

1:05:23

out to me on the pumpkin bomb comics

1:05:26

Instagram , because I don't have a Perfect

1:05:28

plug .

1:05:28

Yeah , yeah , exactly yeah . If you're out

1:05:30

there and someone you're related to has

1:05:33

a ton of comics in the basement and you're like let's

1:05:35

get the fuck rid of these .

1:05:36

Yeah , I don't know what these are worth . Chris is

1:05:38

your guy .

1:05:40

Hit him up with pumpkin bomb . Comics .

1:05:42

Yeah , Pumpkin bomb comics on Instagram . Yeah , Pumpkin

1:05:44

bomb comics after the . You know the weapon of choice

1:05:46

of the green goblin and hobgoblin .

1:05:49

I want to . You don't have to explain that to me .

1:05:50

Oh , all right , Sorry , you can look at him

1:05:52

. Yeah , that's where that comes from .

1:05:54

Who is this guy ? Planet boy , what

1:05:56

?

1:05:56

is it ? I

1:05:58

can't see what you're talking about

1:06:00

the guy with the P on his chest ?

1:06:02

Yeah , all right , so I'll give . I'll

1:06:04

give you a hint . Stan Alpha Flight is a Canadian

1:06:06

superhero team , so

1:06:08

what do you think of when you think of Canada ?

1:06:12

French people and maple leaves .

1:06:13

Okay , cool . And

1:06:15

in terms of the maple leaves , or the maple

1:06:17

leafs as some might say in the sporting

1:06:19

world , what sport do the Toronto

1:06:22

Maple Leafs play ? Hockey , yeah . And what

1:06:24

do you play hockey with ? Oh , puck boy

1:06:26

, his name is puck .

1:06:27

All right .

1:06:29

Did you know that ? No , I didn't know who that guy was

1:06:31

.

1:06:31

Yeah , that's why he's . You know he's

1:06:33

like that big , but yeah .

1:06:35

That's a Canadian sock dude Fucking

1:06:40

worst fucking colour .

1:06:41

That's amazing . Let's get out of here before

1:06:43

we really start railing on Canada .

1:06:45

All right , this was another episode of the Expressly podcast

1:06:48

with .

1:06:48

Kevin Stan . Thanks for coming out , Chris

1:06:50

.

1:06:50

This is awesome . Thank you again . Thanks for having

1:06:52

me Every time . It's so good .

1:06:54

Yep , see you

1:06:56

.