Dev Workflow Grid X-Men mutant archive desk

A desk that still uses a paper ledger

Dev Workflow Grid grew out of comic stalls and late-night plate comparisons, not out of a product launch. The subject is Marvel NFT comics in the X-Men mutant archive line, and the work is still reading marks by hand.

Origin

Arun Mekasuriyan spent years buying unsold mutant issues from Bangkok night markets, then comparing those printed guts with the first numbered archive plates collectors began circulating. The mismatches — restamped covers, repeated interiors, missing gutter marks — became the house method. Nalinee joined after cataloguing a private Krakoa-era packet that had three gold stamps and only one honest census line. Kit came from gallery invigilation and now runs viewings so a collector can sit with a copy without a seller hovering.

We kept the name Dev Workflow Grid because that was the correspondence header on the first rarity letters. The letters themselves talk about mutants, plates, and condition, not about software.

How we work

One brief at a time per hunter. We do not stack competing requests on the same archive number. Rarity class is written before price talk. If we cannot defend a class, we say the edition is unclassed and we will not file an acquisition at a premium.

Thailand is where viewings happen and where the working day is counted. English is the language of the letters. Collectors elsewhere send scans; when a copy must be seen, we say so rather than bless a thumbnail.

Open books piled on a table in warm light

The desk

Portrait of a man in a dark shirt looking toward the camera

Arun Mekasuriyan

Archive lead. Acquisition correspondence, holder letters, and the final yes or no on whether a candidate matches the brief.

Portrait of a woman in a blazer

Nalinee Prasert

Rarity notes. Reads numbering, interior plates, and the difference between an archive-locked edition and a reprint-style drop.

Portrait of a man wearing glasses

Kittisak Boonmee

Viewing logistics in Thailand. Tables, light, and the quiet in which a collector can refuse a copy without an audience.

What we owe collectors

Plain language in the letter. No invented scarcity. If a mutant archive edition is common in its class, the readout says common. If we like a collector personally, that still does not raise a class. We keep seller names out of field notes. We will walk away from a brief that asks us to inflate a rarity mark.

Credentials in this field are mostly other collectors who will still take our calls. That is the list we actually use.