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Entries in this journal

Brother Power the Geek

A lot of people have heard of Brother Power the Geek if only because once you've heard the name it's darn near impossible to forget but how many people have actually read the original comics. Brother Power was created by Joe Simon in 1968 and survived a whopping two issues. I can't say whether it was cancelled because of low sales but it was definitely running with the wind in its face. According to Carmen Infantino the series was hated by legendary DC editor Mort Weisinger who disliked the 60
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Big Numbers

I plan on writing some journals spotlighting some really interesting comic series that people may be unaware exist. Today I start with Big Numbers. To those who have never heard of Big Numbers this was a self published series by Alan Moore that was poised to be his "magnum opus". What, you've never heard of Alan Moore's greatest comic ever? There's a reason why. Published in 1990 the series teamed up comic's greatest writer with one of comic's greatest artists, Bill Sienkiewicz. I haven't l
David Swan1

David Swan1

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New Additions to My CMA Family

Issues 86 and 87 I am pleased to have added a lovely pair of 9.2's to my growing Captain Marvel Adventures collection. I am very slowly working my way towards the number one spot. In fact issue 87 moved me towards number one at double registry point speed since it had been registered (until today) to the current number one position holder. Not only are my new comics nice high grades but they also are both Crowley pedigree comics. It my take 5 or 10 years but I will get that top spot. As with a
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Hard to Look At

How did I let these slip by??? I have to try and avoid looking at comics on ComicLink without filtering out 'Sale Pending'. A Captain Marvel Adventures #137 graded 9.2 sold for 50 bucks??? A double cover 9.4 of issue 89 sold last June. As if that weren't bad enough two highest grade 9.2's were listed on January 28th of this year and sold at amazing prices and I missed them. I keep fairly close track of the inventory so I assume they sold fast. I can't look anymore. It breaks my heart. To see
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Advice on Transferring a Registry Number

Help My assumption had been that if you are trying to switch a registry number from one member to yourself that CGC will send that user an email and if there is no response within a couple of days the comic will automatically be transferred. I've been waiting about a week for Captain Marvel Adventures #127 to transfer with no response as yet. How long does CGC wait if no response comes back? Does CGC send a message if the member denies that transfer? I could certainly prove that I own the comi
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

A Proud New Addition to my Collection I was thrilled to see a beautiful Crippen "D" copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #127 CGC graded 9.4 up for auction on Ebay and was determined to try and make it mine. As most anyone knows who has bid in an online auction it's a week of waiting culminating in about 5 seconds of frantic activity. As a buyer the hope is always that you might luck onto an item that no other serious buyer is looking at and I was prepared to put up what I considered to be a bid
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Admitting You Have a Problem

Is the first step.... I counted up the number of comics added to my registry last year and it added up to 27 and given that generally the CGC comics I buy are several hundred dollars or more apiece that's a bit of money. I also bought a fair amount of raw comics to the point where my Ebay history was 3 pages long at one point for two months of history. Moneywise I am able to handle the spending although there are perhaps better ways for me to allocate my funds. My concern is my motivation f
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Flipping Comicsi

Maybe I'm the only one who finds this amusing I recently bid on a copy of Captain Marvel Adventures #66 graded 9.2. This is the highest graded CGC copy in existence so it would have fit perfectly in my collection but the price with shipping and consignment fee reached just about guide price so I let it go. Oh well. Now less than a month later I see the exact same comic relisted on Comic Connect for about $150 more than what the person paid and about $110 more than guide price. If this person
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Question About Pedigree Certificates

Are they stored in the CGC case? I'd always assumed that many if not most Pedigree sets actually had physical certificates of authenticity, otherwise how would CGC verify them. I also noticed that a lot of my Pedigree comics in CGC cases appeared to have some kind of paper slipped inside, just barely peeking out and I assumed this might well be the certificate. The other day I received issue number 2 of Western Comics and it came with a certificate of authenticity as a pedigree comic from the
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Grading Question

... If a comic is listed as "9.0 Qualified - MK", what does that mean? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
David Swan1

David Swan1

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CGC Related Goals for 2013

Going into 2013 will be a lot different than going into 2012 as far as my CGC collection is concerned. In 2012 there were a whole pile of comics that I intended on purchasing throughout the year and I pretty much did. This year the list is much smaller so the biggest challenge will be resisting buying what I don't need. My goal is to avoid the accumulation for accumulations sake bug. There are four problems with this collecting method. 1. It's expensive 2. It creates a watered down unfocus
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Assessing Year 2012 (from a CGC standpoint)

I set out certain goals for my CGC sets so I wanted to see how they match up with my results. 1.My goal was to move into second place in All American Men of War. I wrote that first place was "completely out of the question" but I was helped by a few tops sets being dismantled and managed to reach the top spot. This is the first set I've ever reached number one in. It's not a particularly competitive set but it's also not an obscure one so I'm proud to be at the top. We'll see if I can maintain
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Interesting Sale

Looks Very Familiar I was looking on ComicLink today for any new Western Comics for sale and came across a nice 9.0 copy of issue #15 for just $180. The listing was posted on November 30th of this year (a little over 2 weeks ago). If I didn't already own the comic I would definitely pick it up. And when I say I OWN it I don't mean I own AN issue #15 of Western Comics. I mean I OWN this precise issue and have owned it since September of 2011. It is the same Davis Crippen pedigre
David Swan1

David Swan1

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It's Like Magic

If you don't like HarveyFanatic's journals you can just ignore them. Just go to his profile and press ignore *poof* all his past and future journals are gone. I would prefer that HarveyFanatic put a message that relates to the image but I suppose you can argue that since the journals do contain unique images that they technically are not spam. I do have a soft spot for people who have such an eagerness to share their passion. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comm
David Swan1

David Swan1

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HarveyFanatic

Is aptly named... I was getting a bit irritated with the journal vomiting but in HarveyFanatic's defense CGC does call is a "journal" which implies something for ones self. Let me also say that after perusing HarveyFanatic's collection I have to say it's darn impressive. This is the kind of focused obsession that's very enjoyable to witness. Not only has HarveyFanatic put together an amazing collection but he (or she???) has spent considerable time adding cover scans and issue descriptions. Ha
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Pedigree Comics

I was wondering if anyone knows what Pedigree's are recognized by CGC. I have a comic from the Cookeville collection but it doesn't say anything on the CGC case. Also, has anyone heard of the "Golden Locker Collection"? Is this a recently discovered Pedigree set? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Finally Reached Number One

I've finally reached the number one spot on one of my sets, All-American Men of War. I will admit my success is mostly due to a lack of serious competition. Even a nitch set like Western Comics is more competitive. My goal now is to keep the top position. It's amazing the volume of highest and second highest graded issues there are that remain available for sale particularly on Comic Link. Actually that's not the amazing part. What's amazing is how delusional the sellers are. All American Men
David Swan1

David Swan1

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An Entirely Unique Collection

Trying to fill in the final piece My goal with Captain Marvel Adventures is to create a collection of highest grade issues which is a bit of a lofty goal but has been somewhat easier than I would have ever expected. A sub goal has been to collect all the "city stories" related to cities in Ohio (my home state). I wrote a journal awhile back that C.C. Beck wrote a series of popular stories where Cap would visit actual U.S. cities and it turned out Ohio was the most visited state in the U.S. wit
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Is it a misprint

Can CGC grading reduce a comics value? I'm a big fan of ComicsPriceGuide.com as a pretty good guide for comics prices. It's not perfect but it is a big help. I've noticed in the past that lower grade comics have no effect on a comics value but I noticed something today I've never seen before. For issues graded 8.5 and lower of the 1968 The Hawk and the Dove CGC grading actually LOWERS the price. That's actually makes some sense to me and I'd like to see this more often (sorry CGC). It's act
David Swan1

David Swan1

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New Popeye Series from IDW

Better than I had expected I've been a HUGE E.C. Segar/Popeye fan for years and it was with great *ahem* trepidation that I approached the new Popeye comic from IDW particularly since they were trying to closely emulate Segar's writing and artistic style. The art is a pretty good imitation and is actually just about dead on in issue 2 (ignore the weak cover art). Roger Langridge writes very SegarLIKE stories but has not yet shown Segar's ability to be outragious. Segar also had better comedic
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Captain Marvel's City Stories

His Favorite Location Starting in issue #24 of Captain Marvel Adventures C.C. Beck began his successful series of 'City Stories' in which cap would visit actual cities around the U.S. The first story was called 'The Minneapolis Mystery' followed by 'Doom in Detroit', 'Sabotage in Seattle', 'Captain Marvel Makes a Movie Hit' (Los Angeles) and so on. As far as I can tell there are a total of 28 city stories. So which state is the most well represented? Turns out it's my home state of Ohio with C
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Number Two

...or am I? After a flurry of purchases and DailyStar apparently bowing out of collecting Captain Marvel Adventures I have shocked myself by moving into second place. I honestly thought I would do no better than fourth by the end of the year and yet here it is end of May and I sit in the number two spot. Only problem is I'm over 30000 registry points behind starman221. Actually that's not the only problem. I know the argument is that until CGC starts handing out cash prizes as awards a little
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Error While Trying to Add Comic to Set

Here is what I got... The certification number you specified was not found in our cert database. This comic is already in the admin queue. I tried adding Captain Marvel Adventures #60. These two errors seem to be contradictory. I do not yet have this comic in my greedy little hands but my final payment is going in in a few days so I figured I'd add it since I should receive it very soon. Any idea what is going on? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments c
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Who's Truly Number One?

Difficulties of Certification Number Tracking I noticed that a reply to one of my journals gently scolded me for mentioning member clarkkentdds in the same journal discussing fraud. In my defense I did write in my journal, "I do not believe clarkkentdds is a fraud". Let me reiterate that I fully believe clarkkentdds's collection is 100% legit and actually wrote a journal awhile back where I declared it, "possibly [...] the most staggering comic collection I have seen". Sadly it's now obscured
David Swan1

David Swan1

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Has Anyone Ever....

Been Found to be Cheating? There is a set by a collector named clarkkentdds that is SO spectacular that it seems to stretch credibility. This collector is currently ranked 39th on the strength of just ONE set, Superman #1-#423. The set is now obscured but it used to be available and I can tell you that this person has somehow amassed nearly every highest grade early issue of Superman in existence. The thought had crossed my mind that it was a fraud. It is certainly possible to discover online
David Swan1

David Swan1

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