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HEROES CON!!!!!

Its finally that time again! Since hitting Heroes Con last year for the first time, I resigned myself to never missing this awesome show again! Easily the best show on the east coast every year! And now its finally time for Heroes Con again this weekend! Ive got lots of stuff to do at this show! Many books that I will get signatures on, many people to aid in their searches for that next awesome graded treasure, and many friends to see and spend time with! And of course, all of the awesome

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Another November 86-er!!

Little by little. As many of you know, I am slowly putting together a set of all 29 of the Marvel 25th Anniversary Border Covers. I am shooting for all 9.8 WP on them. Although a few will be nearly impossible to accomplish with that goal. I have a copy of Classic XMen #3 that surfer99 got signed for me In process at CGC right now, but while I am waiting on that to get done, I had a chance to win one for really cheap online, so I went for it...... and got it! I figure if the signed one does

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The Waiting Game.....

The nature of grading. As graded comic collectors, we all know how it's a patient man's way of collecting. You can fork out the money to buy already graded books like I did for the first five years of my collecting cgc books, or you can submit books yourself, which is mostly what I do now. But the length of time to get them back after submission can be agonizingly slow. We understand that that's the case ahead of time, but it doesn't make it any less frustrating. But that's what happens when

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Four For Baltimore!

Onsite is always awesome! No, I'm not trying to be a poet with my title. Not on purpose, anyway. But what I AM trying to do is post a journal that describes what books I'm going to get done onsite at the next convention I'm attending. Baltimore Comic Con wasn't an onsite convention until last year, but they couldn't have picked a better show to add to their repertoire of super-fast-TAT conventions. Baltimore always has a massive guest list of comic creators, which always makes for a lot of

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Baltimore on the Horizon!!

Here it comes! It's been a while since I've posted a journal. This is due partially to being so busy for the last few months, and partially due to having more jobs placed upon me. But now it's time to start back up with posts again. I have done far more shows this year than I thought I might be able to. When the year was starting, I was looking at doing ECCC, but once I realized what it was going to cost me to the show, I decided that this would restrict me from being able to do all the othe

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It's A Rare One, All Right!!!

You want low print run? You got it!! I sent some books to Tnerb last year to pass along to Kaholo1256 to get signatures on them at NYCC 2014. I just now got them back, and among them is an extraordinarily rare book that I got double signed! The book is Solar: Man of the Atom #1, but this copy is the Bob Layton Ultra Rare Virgin Variant Cover. They printed plenty of these with the logo title and everything else in the cover, but when it came to this virgin variant of the cover, they only pri

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Megacon was great!

Got it all done! The guys who run the CGC booths at the various shows around the country really are fantadtic! Mike, Molly ,Bree and all the others are fast, efficient, knowledgeable and very helpful and friendly. The fact that Megacon was an onsite convention makes it twice as hard on them, but they take it in stride, work hard and make it as enjoyable an experience as is possible under the circumstances. I was literally able to get all my onsite books done at the show this year, at the l

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Daredevil

A non-spoiler review of the Netflix series I have always been a big Daredevil fan. When the movie came out 12 years ago, I had high hopes. But those hopes were dashed in what I felt was a watered down, misrepresented form of the cast of characters and stories that I loved from the series. But now Marvel has seen fit to revisit the character on the newer format of Netflix, which allows them to be more free and in-depth with what they want to do, and be able to release the whole 13 episode ori

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Get Savage!

My favorite result from Megacon! I did quite a bit at Megacon this year. I think I was able to do so much because I pretty much completely ignored the celebrities area and only focused on comics and sketches and dealer boxes. I got some comics and magazines done onsite, I got some signatures and sketches done in my big brother's sketchbook, and I dug through dealer boxes, finding a few great books I've been looking for. Among the onsite books I had done, one in particular wound up being th

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I'm AGOG! Another Great One Gone

The "death" of a creation is followed by the death of its creator. As a child, I loved the comic books that I read. I loved the art in them. But I wasn't really aware of the names or faces of the creators who wrote/drew them. It wasn't until I grew up more that I began to familiarize myself with the names associated with the books and characters that I loved. It wasn't until then that I began to truly appreciate them for their skills and talents. One of the names that first entered into my

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Megacon! A "Crack"ing Good Time!

Long "line" at the show. Or.... I've cracked books before but I've never done crack... and now this happens.Megacon brought many awesome sights and sounds for me this year. In at least one case however, it was a little too much.I had some books graded on-site with CGC at the show and had a rare Marvel Graphic Novel signed by Stan Lee during a quick, unannounced signing session on Friday afternoon.I managed to get a bunch of signatures and sketches in my big brothers sketchbook he sent me for t

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More OA!!

It just keeps on flowin'!! So, along with all my other OA pieces I've been picking up lately is this 11x17 beauty! I'm a New Mutants fan first, before any other series, so I've always loved the particular characters from that run books. Among my all time favorite mutants is Magik (Illyana Rasputin). So when I can get my hands on some OA featuring her, in any era rendition whatsoever, I'm all over it! This is one I just had to have and it was DIRT CHEAP! The artist is Carl Frietas.

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Back on the Harveys!

Still working on them. I've been slowly in the process of acquiring Silver Age Harveys for years now, but I don't pick them up unless they are at least 9.6 and preferrably OW/W pages or better. It's been quite some time since I last picked any up, so when Pedigree comics had their recent Harvey auction I just had to try for some. The one I was most interested in picking up was this awesome copy of Casper's Ghostland #2 CGC 9.6 OW/W!! Casper's Ghostland is a series I definitely want to to

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Original Art Binge!

Picking them up more often lately! While I am an avid graded comic collector, I have been acquiring a lot more original art lately for some reason. I have always loved original art for its OAK-ness, but lately I have really been trying to acquire more of it than I usually do. I havent won a lot of them, but I have certainly tried. The picture below is one that I just won on an auction tonight. Im not an enormous FF fan, but I have always had a hankering for Galactus, and when I saw this pi

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Rogue!

Newest Original Art Piece! I just got my hands on my newest Original Art piece! It's a very cool looking number of Rogue, done by Birds of Prey artist, Alex Lei! I am a Marvel Mutant fan above all else, especially New Mutants characters. This may not be one of Cannonball or Sunspot or anything like that, but it's hard not to like this cool artwork! Rogue is walking by, with a worn out wall in the background with a star, an "X-Men-like" symbol and the word "Untouchable" airbrushed on it, wh

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Hammer Time!

Wonders by Walt! The last invoice I did from Baltimore CC is finally back in my hands and I was astonished at the grades! Virtually every book got the best I could have hoped for or higher! Two of the books I had done on this invoice were two versions of IDW's Ragnarok #1. Both the regular cover AND the Subscription variant cover! I had them both double signed by Laura Martin and Walt Simonson, and couldn't be happier about how they turned out! What's even better was the timing. I was ab

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The Force Is Strong With This One!

Try not! Do, or do not. There is no try. I am a sucker for painted covers, whether they be done by Frank Frazetta, Tom Palmer, Ernie Chan, Bill Sienkiewicz or whoever. I am especially a sucker for a painted Star Wars cover. Which is why Star Wars #81 has always been one of my favorite covers of the entire original series. I have tried for years to acquire a 9.8 graded copy, but always lost out on the bidding wars that ensued, even when a Ron Frenz signed copy showed up. So I had resigned m

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EAGLE EYES!

I have the best big brother in the world!! Ok, kids. STORYTIME!! YAAAAAYYYYY!!!! Once upon a time, there was a young man who bought all 8 issues of the comic book mini-series "Fallen Angels". The young man got them all graded by CGC and all but two came back in 9.8! The young man was happy about the ones that got 9.8, but really wanted to find 9.8 copies of the other two books to have a complete set in 9.8 or better. A year later, the young man's big brother found copies of the two books

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My PSL Top Ten for 2014!!

When everything has to go.... these DON'T!! 20 months ago a few of us here on the registry did top ten lists of the books that we would not part with come hell or high water, even in the case of an emergency sell-off or purging of our slabbed collections. I also jumped on this idea and did what I referred to as a PSL, or Purge Survival List of my top ten books at the time. Well it's been almost two years and with 2015 looming on the near horizon, I have decided to revisit my list and make a

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QUUUAAACCCKKKK!!!!!!!

No better feeling!!! I have been an avid comic collector for nearly 30 years. In that time, I have had many fantastic collecting moments. You know, those moments when you find a copy of a book you've been dying to locate. This occurs as you dig through box after box in store after store or show after show. It's that super-excited, tingly feeling that overcomes you as soon as your eye hits the exact book you've been pursuing! Once I started collecting CGC graded books, this experience became

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How Good Are You?

Be Honest! How good of a grader are you? When it comes to being accurate in my grading abilities as they stand right now, it completely depends on what I'm being asked to grade. To put it all in perspective, let's separate out the varied types of books by AGE and TYPE, and apply a grade to how accurately we feel that we honestly hold up, using the same grading scale as the one given to our lovely treasures. The higher the grade, in this exercise, the better you are at getting the grade of th

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Another MGN Success!!!

Key? No. OAK? YES!! One of my lofty, but at least feasible long-term goals in my graded comic book collecting endeavors is to eventually have all 75 original Marvel Graphic Novels in CGC 9.8 WP. This is a very difficult goal to achieve and I have a LOOOOONG way to go before I ever hope to reach it. But little by little, one at a time, I'm very slowly getting there. For a while, I held the number one ranked MGN set, but when a bunch of them showed up in 9.8 earlier this year on Ebay, somebo

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My First Error!!

no....really....my first error. The first one I've ever purchased anyway!! As many of you already know, I already have a graded set of Dazzler, including a SS 9.8 double signed copy of #1. But when I saw this super rare printer error copy of the book in graded 9.8, I just couldn't help myself! I...must...purchase. I.....must......PURCHASE!!!!! Haha! It just cried out to me, "you will buy me NOW!!!!" I'm sure if I could've seen my eyes from outside of myself, I would have seen swir

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The 80's are back!!

Jump on them while you can! Copper Age key issues and 1st appearances are really getting hot now. I'm seeing them sell for higher and higher prices as the movies get announced one after the other, mostly with characters and storylines that have their origins inside of the Copper Age. I was able to get my hands on a number of these books over the last six years for decent prices compared to what they routinely sell for now. Some are more sought after than others of course, but all of them are

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Happy Thanksgiving To All!!

Don't eat too much turkey!! I sincerely hope everyone here on the registry has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family. I know I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with, which includes all of you guys!! Just to give everyone something else to look at while you're all on break, here are a couple of books that I just got back! Original Sin #1 - SS 9.6 WP Julian Totino Tedesco Original Sin #1 Diamond Retailer Summit Edition - SS 9.6 WP Julian Totino Tedesco I

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