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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 15

...once again no 9.9 HI Guys! I have been away for a while Mego World Greatest Superheroes are my new passion so CGC books have lost the top priority in my collection...but despite of this I keep on submitting books... I have just received 60 graded comics (mostly early copper age) I had shipped to CGC in February 2016. 39 working days to get the awaited "graded" status is a VERY LONG TIME in my opinion. Honestly, after 38 submissions, I need to say that this long waiting really demo

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 14 and MY 1000TH graded book!

Let's celebrate my 1000th graded book and 202.000 registry points! AND ...once again no 9.9 HI Guys!I finally did it! after almost 10 years of CGC collecting...I reached the remarkable goal of owning more than 1000 graded books (1017 in competitive sets but they are 1041 if we consider my customs sets too).More than 202.000 registry points is not a bad result too!In February I submitted 60 more comics (mostly late bronze/early copper age) to CGC.Most of these were selected during 2014 and 85%

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AVENGERS THE MYTH - EXHIBITION MILAN (ITALY) 28/3/2015 - 31/5/2015

AVENGERS THE MYTH - EXHIBITION MILAN (ITALY) 28/3/2015 - 31/5/2015 Hello Avengers fans! With great pleasure I would like to announce that in occasion of the release of the new movie "Avengers age of Ultron", a fantastic exhibition devoted to the Avengers is being held from the 28th of march to the 31st of May 2015 at the prestigious Museum of Cartoons of Milan - ITALY And ... with great pride I wish to announce that many prestigious vintage pieces on display (MEGO and Marx Toys, 60/70s pos

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MARVELMANIA POSTERS at MOTORSHOW!

What if Marvel invaded motorsport?! It has passed a while since my last post... Last week I loaned my precious Marvelmania posters for a show called MOTORSHOW being held in Bologna (Italy) from the 6th to the 14th of December... www.motorshow.it This is one of the greatest MOTOR shows in Europe with hundreds of racing cars on exhibit (Rally, F1, FCART, NASCAR etc etc...) and racing for the joy of the public(!!), simulators and various entertainment events for the automotives-addicted.

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 13 : 60 (!) books just graded!

...once again no 9.9 HI Guys! In February I submitted 60 more comics (mostly late bronze/early copper age) to CGC. Most of these were selected during 2013 and 85% of them came back in 9.4(the minimum grade I usually accept for post 1980 books) or better... 17x 9.8, 23x 9.6, 11x 9.4, 4x 9.2, 4x 9.0, 1x 8.5 Not many key books this time but i filled many holes in my sets. The gem is surely a NM+ DD179 I paid $20 that came back in CGC 9.6. Unfortunately after 34 submissions to CGC for

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MY FIRST NOGRADE (NG)... and the strange story of the mysterious UOMO RAGNO (Spider-Man) #59

The Mistery and the Hoax MY FIRST NOGRADE (NG)... and the strange story of the mysterious UOMO RAGNO (Spider-Man) #59 While I am still waiting for CGC to award me with my first 9.9 (almost 1000 books submitted and no 9.9 to date ), I would like to entertain you with the strange story of the misterious UOMO RAGNO (Second Series) #59 italian edition. Spider-man and all other Marvel Heroes were published in Italy from April 1970 (almost 8 years after AF15!) by a publisher named EDITORIALE CO

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ETERNALS (1976-1978 Kirby) SET COMPLETED !!!!

...in 9.4 and higher! Hello my friends...yes.... I did it! After a long long search I have finally completed my Eternals Set in high grade!!! The Eternals (1976) is one of my favourite Bronze age runs! Incredibly intriguing plot plus Jack Kirby art = A REAL MASTERPIECE! It was not an easy task to complete this high grade run. I submitted most of the books to CGC by myself: some of them were purchased from Superworld Comics, some others were found inside a closet in my parents&#39

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 12 : 60 (!) books just graded!

...and How I acquired my 900th CGC comic!!! Hello Collectors Society friends! Several weeks ago I submitted another large lot of books I had purchased raw off ebay or from www dealers in 2013. I find very challenging to hunt and select books to submit for my registry...it's much more interesting than purchasing them already graded! The majority of the submitted books comes from the late bronze / early copper age. I find this era particularly though because books were not immediately bag&

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FAMILY PICTURE: GRANDFATHER - FATHER & SON ...uhm isn't it a cryptical title?

AF15 + AS1 + AS700 ...high-grade CGC books on the same table Hello fellow collectors! Last week I received from CGC one of my latest submissions : AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 700, Ditko Variant! It received a decent 9.6...but when I looked at that vintage cover I thought that it would have been nice to reunite the grandfather and father of this comic book...and take a family picture! All three books belong to my collection and their particularity is that I did not purchase them already slabbed b

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VALENCIA - SPAIN - GREATEST MARVEL UNIVERSE INTERACTIVE EXHIBIT EVER !!!

MARVEL SUPERHEROES - THE SCIENCE OF THE SUPERHEROES ...loaded with pics!!!Hello fellow collectors!Last week, while visiting the beautiful city of Valencia, Spain, I took my wife and my two children to the fantastic City of Arts and Science and to my surprise I found a pseudo-scientific exhibit of over 1000 square meters inspired to Marvel Superheroes .The exhibit is temporary and will last only until 15 September 2013.I decided to document it because the level and quality of the show is so high

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DO WE COLLECT SERIAL NUMBERS or GRADED COMIC BOOKS?

About the bad habit of not uploading cover scans in the registry... This simple thought has been buzzing in my head for a while: Do we collect serial numbers or comics? I would like to involve all the friends of the collector's society on this issue ... I usually browse other collectors' registry sets but, most of the times, I just find lists of serial numbers without covers scans nor descriptions. Isn't this sad? For this reason, in the past two months I have decided to write descri

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AVENGERS/INVADERS 1 JOHN ROMITA SPIDER-MAN SKETCH SET : 5 different!

AVENGERS/INVADERS 1 JOHN ROMITA SPIDER-MAN SKETCH SET HI! I am so proud to show you a FULL AVENGERS/INVADERS 1 - JOHN ROMITA SPIDER-MAN SKETCH SET made by all 5(!?) different types of Spidey poses that Romita Sr. drew for this particular issue! DF Certificate number 2/100 - Signed by Romita Sr.! DF Certificate number 5/100 - Signed by Romita Sr. and Alex Ross! DF Certificate number 7/100 - Signed by Romita Sr. and Alex Ross! DF Certificate number 27/100 - Signed by Romita Sr. and Al

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 11 : 90 (!) books just graded!

CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 11 : 90 (!) books just graded! Hello Collectors Society friends! Several weeks ago I submitted a big lot of books I had purchased raw off ebay or from www dealers in 2012. I find so challenging to hunt and select books to submit for my registry...it's much more interesting than purchasing them already graded! The majority of the submitted books comes from the late bronze / early copper age. I find this period particular challenging because books wer

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SILVER & BRONZE AGE MARVEL COMICS IN ITALY

Did you know that..... HELLO overseas friends! Few american collectors are aware of how many international editions of Marvel Comics exist...and even less are aware that Italy has been and still is one of the largest comic books markets in the world... Did you know that comics like Tex and Mickey Mouse still sell 750.000(!!) copies per issue in the Italian version nowadays?! And now ...some MARVEL-IN-ITALY-INFO for dummies! 0) The first Marvel comic book was published in Italy only in

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CGC Turnaround times....Finally improving?

CGC Turnaround times....Finally improving? HI! I have 90 books sitting in CGC vault... the first 30 books arrived at CGC on 11/13/2012, the other 60 on the 01/24/2013. I chose modern tier for all of them. I am really excited to see them added to my sets since I sent many high grade AF(Byrne),DD (miller),FF (Byrne), -Men (200-300) and Thor(Simonson)books! The first order went into Scheduled for Grading after 76 Working days (I did not count saturdays and sundays) and into graded status

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94 working days later...CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 10

MODERN Books and the rare X-MEN vs Micronauts! Hello to everybody! CGC received my books on the 24th of August 2012 but were graded on the 4th of January 2013: approx 94 working days later....let's compare their grades with my forecasts! Most of them were purchased off Ebay recently as NM/M...The X-Men and Micronauts miniseries, instead, remained buried in my collection in mint condition for 2 decades...and CGC agreed with me: these four books are real treasures in CGC 9.8 9.8 9.6 9.8. O

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103 working days later...CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 9

103 working days later...CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 9: MARVEL TEAM UP & ETERNALSHello to everybody!CGC received my books on the 29th of May 2012 but were graded today: 103 working days later if I am not wrong (VALUE tier)....let's compare their grades with my forecasts!Most of them were purchased thorugh internet, mainly on ebay as NM/M and from Metro... The Eternals books, instead, were found inside a VERY old ETM/American Entertainment unopened package I had forgotten in my pa

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 8 : 30 books just graded!

CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 8 : 30 books just graded! Hello to everybody! IT TOOK A LIFE .... CGC received my books on the 5th of June 2012 CGC but graded them early this week....let's compare their grades with my forecasts! All of them were purchased thorugh internet, mainly on ebay as NM/M... This is what I got! 5x9.8 8x9.6 6x9.4 3x9.2 4x9.0 2x8.5 1x8.0 1x7.5 I am quite disappointed this time. Considering I bought them as NM/M (mostly uncirculated)and that I thought of hav

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SPIDER-MAN 1, DAREDEVIL 1, THOR 1 italian versions just came back from CGC

Are you curious to see some rare vintage italian Marvel variants? PLUS.... get some free vintage Marvel italian books if you join the competition....Hello fellow collectors...Probably few of you are aware that Italy is probably the 3rd/4th largest comic books market in the world...Still today i.e. Mickey Mouse (Topolino) sells 700.000 copies per week(!).99% of the comics sold in the country are italian editions and are very different from their american counterparts.For what concerns Marvel co

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SPIDER-MAN THE MYTH - EXHIBITION MILAN (ITALY) 19/5/2012 - 29/7/2012

SPIDER-MAN THE MYTH - EXHIBITION MILAN (ITALY) 19/5/2012 - 29/7/2012 Hello fellow collectors and Spider-Man friends, With great pleasure I would like to report that in occasion of the 50th anniversary of Spider-Man, a fantastic exhibition is being held from the 19th of May to the 29th of July 2012 at the prestigious Museum of Cartoons of Milan - ITALY (sponsored by the city council, the Mexican and U.S. consulate !). And ... with great pride I wish to announce that many prestigious pieces

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 7 : 58 books just graded!

CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 7 : 58 books just graded! Hello to everybody! CGC just finished grading 58 books....let's compare their grades with my forecasts! MANY MONTHS AGO I submitted 58 MODERN books to CGC...As soon as I receive them I will add them to my numerous registry sets. Most of these come from my personal collection. They were all purchased as NM books before the CGC era...Anyway you can easily guess how hard it is to build a high grade comic book collection with t

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A SOLUTION TO IMPROVE CGC TURNAROUND TIMES...

Why not suspending the submissions of post year 2000 books at least until the company can guarantee more reasonable turnaroud times? I wonder if CGC is trying to find a solution to improve the turnaround times.... Nowdays the VALUE and ECONOMY TIER turnaround is 100 working days (!!!!), the MODERN TIER is 45 days (!!!) instead of the forecasted 20 days... I have 103 books sitting at CGC facility.... Date No. of Comic Status 03/30/2012 28 Verified 03/30/2012 30 Verified 06/05/201

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MISSION ACCOMPLISHED .... I have just completed the X-Men #94-#143 SET !!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED .... I have just completed the X-Men #94-#143 SET !! YEAH! I did it!! It took years and years to complete this CGC graded X-Men #94-#143 SET... One of my favourite runs EVER, E V E R !...and now I am so proud to own them all in high grade: 94/105 in 9.2-9.4 , 106/142 in 9.6! http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=32404 In 2005 I was smart enough to buy GSX1 in CGC 9.4 + X-MEN 94 in 9.2 at a decent price...then in 200

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 6 : 112 books just graded!

CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 6 : 112 books just graded! Hello to everybody! CGC just finished grading my 112 books....let's compare their grades with my forecasts! MANY MONTHS AGO I submitted 112 MODERN books to CGC...they were received between 8/8 to 8/12 2011...and it took 2 MONTHS to switch from verified to graded status...As soon as I receive them I will add them to my numerous registry sets. Hey CGC...hire more graders please! Most of these come from my personal collecti

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CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 5

CGC vs XXXPHOENIX grading contest PART 5 Hello to all! CGC just graded 30 of my books....let's compare their grades with my forecasts! MANY MONTHS AGO I submitted 30 modern books to CGC...they were received on June the 23rd 2011...and it took 2 MONTHS to switch from verified to graded status... Hey CGC...hire more graders please! This is what I got! 4x9.2 3x9.4 13x9.6 10x9.8 I am VERY happy both for the CGC grades and my grading skills!!! TITLE ISSUE FORECAST CGC Avengers

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