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Entries in this journal

Pedigree Comics

For Collectors of Golden and Silver Age Comics I was looking for some information on comic Pedigrees and came across a very interesting website, http://www.comicpedigrees.com/. Besides featuring information on dozens of pedigrees it also keeps a database of images of pedigree comics, mostly CGC graded. In many ways it acts as sort of a companion to CGC's own website. One nice thing was that I was able to find scans of five comics that I actually own. The scans were superior to my own images so
David Swan1

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Fun with Auctions

Funny Seller Taglines Sellers generally try and play up the product they're trying to sell. You'd want to mention if it's a pedigree comic or if it's the highest CGC grade. But sometimes things can get a little silly. One of my favorites is the tagline I've often seen attached to World's Finest #26. In it the acrobatic Robin the Boy Wonder awkwardly rides a unicycle while Batman and Superman hold up their arms to catch him lest he fall. It's a very simple, innocent image very reminiscent of th
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Pondering Supply and Demand

. I begin to wonder what makes a comic collectable and I want to fall back on Western Comics as just an example. By and large when they are available for sale online they don't sell. It seems like I can take all the time in the world waiting to buy a high graded comic with no fear of losing it. Having said that I would note that if you look at a super hot collectable like Amazing Spiderman at least half don't sell when auctioned on Amazon. But why would a golden age comic with some pretty high
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Going for Perfection

Modern vs Golden Age I've noticed the battle going on for first place among two New Mutants collectors and it's interesting how collecting can differ depending on what you collect. For a modern era collector perfection could be all 9.8+ comics. Even that won't suffice with signature series comics commanding an even higher premium. For me it's a whole different world. As a golden age collector, signature series comics are almost out of the question given the fact that most of the creators are l
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Assessing Year 2011 (from a CGC standpoint)

Silly Mandatory Teaser *tease tease tease* Although I've enjoyed comics since the 70's, last year was the first year I really got into collecting professionally graded and sealed comics. The reason I initially got into CGC collecting was because I wanted to get some of the cool Golden Age Superman comics because I enjoyed their covers. Instead I ended up collecting Captain Marvel Adventures (because I love Cap and found them much more affordable), All American Men of War (because I wanted a wa
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What was I thinking?

Whose idea was it to make teasers mandatory??? I basically spent my allotment for the month and then some but I saw a very reasonably prices All American Men of War on Comic Link (very rare). I decided to make a low offer just to get the negotiations going. Then on second thought I dropped my offer another $20. Less than half guide price. And *boom* the seller agrees. This is the second time in a few weeks this has happened. Previously I got a super deal on a copy of World's Finest #21. I CAN
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The Most Famous Comic You May Have Never Heard Of

A Feather in AAMoW's Cap How many comics transcend the comic book industry? I mean REALLY transcend to the point where they become monumental. Action Comics #1 is famous outside comic circles but it's famous for its place in comic history and I guess its colossal value. What I'm talking about is something beyond comics. Let me introduce "All American Men of War" issue 89, perhaps the most famous comic most comic collectors have never heard of. If you saw it in a comic shop would you give it a
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CGC Related Goals for 2012

Listing my Goals Here are my early CGC goals for 2012 1. I think I can make it into second place for All American Men of War this coming year. First place is completely out of the question but I see a handful of reasonably priced issues available and I'm already in fourth. 2. Write up an essay on All American Men of War similar to what I did for Western Comics and Captain Marvel Adventures. I'm about half way done with my essay at this point. 3. Move up to the fourth spot in Captain Marv
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Fun with Auctions

There Must be a Million Stories Out There Saw an interesting auction yesterday on EBAY. There was a 9.0 CGC graded copy of All American Men of War available that I had some interest in. Sometimes you can get a real nice bargain on an EBAY auction and I was going to bid up to $100.00 (It's guide priced at $190). I thought things were looking decent for me and I even went a few bucks over $100 in the last few seconds when all of a sudden to my shock the auction completed with a winning bid of $7
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Shocking Development (at least for me)

Followup to Yesterday's Journal Entry It was just yesterday that I offered up my comic "Holy Grail" that included an early issue of Superman and one of World's Finest. These two comics were something I would have liked to acquire someday in the future perhaps the distant future perhaps never. Generally I only look at comics graded at least VF (8.0) but I lean towards 8.5, 9.0 and up even in the case of Golden Age comics. So I was perusing Comic Link yesterday and on a whim expanded my search t
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My Holy Grail(s)

My Two All Time Favorite Covers Someone the other day asked about our personal comic "Holy Grail". The obvious choice would be a high grade Action Comics #1 or Detective Comics #27 and if I could have any comic on sheer value I'd choose one of them. But putting aside price I would love to own a comic with a Jack Burnley cover. For those who don't know Jack Burnley he was a DC artist who died about 5 years ago. He only worked for DC Comics for about a decade but his covers are my all time favor
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Improving EBAY User Experience

Getting More From Saved Searches As someone who is a big fan of EBAY I will confess that for a person who is targeting their searches towards comics it is not nearly as user friendly as other sites like Comic Connect, Comic Link or Heritage but it is possible to fake it and make your life much easier. Let's say you have a list of Silver Age Superman comics you want and you don't want anything graded less than 8.0 (VF). You could do a search like this, "Superman VF #168" in order to get Super
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Why I Collect the Comics I Collect

Why are we forced to include a teaser? The three collections I am solely focused on right now include Western Comics, All-American Men of War and Captain Marvel Adventures. In fact it?s been tough to resist buying outside of those three series. So obviously I?m a big fan of western and war comics, right? Actually, no. I?ve always been a fan of the superhero comics and ignored the western and war comics like Jonah Hex and Sgt. Rock while I was growing up. So why in the world would I collect ser
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All American Outrageous Prices

In Which I Overpay for a Comic I finally added a THIRD comic to my All-American Men of War collection. This is one hard collection to get. Let me clarify that statement. It?s actually not difficult to find CGC graded All-American Men of War comics but it?s damn near impossible to find ones reasonably priced. In fact while writing this entry I discovered that I screwed up my pricing and overpaid for issue 107. Dang. I?m usually much more careful. There are 13 CGC graded issues of All-American M
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Blessing in Disguise

Outbid again I was delighted last week to see five issues of All American Western and All Star Western available on EBAY for auction all CGC graded. They were decently high grade ranging from 7.0 to 8.5 and I intended on getting as many as I could if not all of them. Like the sneaky I am I waited waited waited until the last few moments and pounced on the two All American Western comics managing to get the high bid. In the end it was not meant to be. Whoever my competition was he/she managed
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Lucky Number 13

Added a new issue to my Captain Marvel Adventure collection I?ve added another top grade issue of Captain Marvel Adventures to my collection. That makes 13 issues that are either tied or stand alone as the highest known grade. My opinion has always been that if you?re going to present your collection make it worth while to the viewer. If someone has an amazing collection worth thousands or hundreds of thousands but it has no Set Description, Images or Issue Descriptions I wonder what the point
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Epiphany

On Sales of Marvel vs DC I?m an unashamed DC cheerleader and maybe in a future journal I?ll explain why but suffice it to say in the battle between DC and Marvel I?ve taken a side. Even though I haven?t bought a new comic in decades I do follow the sales war and I?ve noticed that Marvel wins 100% of the time. Even in months where DC manages to lock up almost all the top 10 spots and the rare occasions where DC DOES get all top ten Marvel still manages to exceed in market share. As far back as
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Comic Collecting

Best Practices that work for me Over the years I?ve learned a few tricks of the trade or I suppose best practices that have worked for me and I thought I would share them. These are the practices I try to remember while I?m engaging in comic collecting. 1. Patience ? If you think that you have only one chance to get a coveted item the chances are you?re wrong and another opportunity is right around the corner. The internet has more comic deals than you could ever spend your money on. There?s
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Reponse to Ipersky

In Which I Continue to Make Friends and Influence People ?For whatever reason, its what they decided to collect and they don't care what you have to say about it. It's their money and they are going to spend it as they see fit.? As a supplier it?s certainly in your best interest to see things continue as they are and I don?t begrudge you. CGC has given dealers the alchemists stone to turn lead into gold and who could resist. My journals were in no way intended to tell people how to spend the
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In response to clouded9

In which David Swan Once Again Reaches for the Pot of Boiling Water I?m not trying to attack anyone or their choice in collectables. I?m a life long comic fan. Comic fans are my people. I dream of someday going to the San Diego Comic Con but I?ve been around long enough to see when a collectable market is way out of kilter and something is not right here. Perhaps my favorite comic growing up was Judge Dredd but I didn?t express my love for the series by collecting sealed issues and storing
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Why is CGC so Slow in Grading?

?in which David Swan becomes the least liked person on the CGC registry There has been a lot of talk about the slowness of CGC to grade comics so the question is who?s to blame. CGC, partially, but mostly it?s the comic book fans. I?m a child of the 70?s and 80?s but if there?s one thing I learned after years of collecting it?s that the comics of my youth will never be worth anything. Unlike the comics of the golden and silver ages these were perceived as collectibles and thus preserved in sle
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My Theory Blows Up

How Does CGC Calculate Registry Points??? I?d formulated a theory on how CGC calculates registry points. My theory was that CGC?s registry points for a Universal graded comic were approximately the price guide average value. Hence a comic valued at around $300 would have around 300 registry points. My theory was based on nothing more than observing the registry points for ?Captain Marvel Adventure? comics versus their prices on comicpriceguide.com. Now that I?ve bought a couple of CGC graded i
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Buying non CGC graded comics - continued

More of the same as yesterday To follow up on my posting yesterday I?ve had similar experiences with inflated prices with golden and silver age ?All Star Wastern? comics. It is dang near impossible to find high grade issues and I found myself haggling over a non CGC graded 6.5 copy of issue 108. It finally occurred to me that if the seller wanted to quibble over an already overpriced medium grade issue of a series few people care about then he could bloody well keep it. I need to remind myself
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Buying non CGC graded comics

When is it prudent to buy non CGC graded comics? Like probably everyone here my preferred comic would be a CGC graded comics but as my interest has turned to a few golden and silver age series, ?All Star Western? and ?All American Men of War?, the price disparity has pushed me hard away from CGC graded comics. On EBAY right now I see issue 103 of ?All American Men of War? CGC graded 9.0 for $169.00, comicpriceguide.com lists it for $85.68, issue 102 CGC graded 8.5 is likewise selling for $1
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My Captain Marvel Collection

See Many of the Highest Grade Issues If someone would have told me that one day I would own the highest known grade copy of a Captain Marvel Adventures issue I wouldn?t have believed it. I would have expected it to be both prohibitively expensive and nearly impossible to find. Possibly I might stumble upon one maybe two but surely the owner would covet them like gold. Currently I own 12 of the highest grade issues including 4 which stand alone as the highest grade (i.e. not tied with any other
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