In the Dark

A journal by Tnerb

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About this journal

Oblivious to anything new

Entries in this journal

Pressing the Virgin Snow

or the Banes and Pitfalls of Pressing I have looked into pressing for the past year and have gotten many viewpoints. I poked and prided asking fans, dealers, and those that do it themselves both as amateurs and professionals. My favorite collection is the New Mutants. I looked, seeked, and hunted for the best issues. A majority of my Universal 9.8's were through WorldWide Comics while the majority of my signatures were through Rich Henn. To both I'm thankful for. Matt Nelson was partnered w
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USPS Sucks

Or Why is it so Difficult to get a Package from Point A to Point B? I am really tired of the USPS. I tend to watch very closely when my package is going to arrive. Today I get an e-mail that the item is available for pickup. Why would I get such an item? I wanted it delivered. I decided to call the post office and find out. At first the agent was confused but then realized that it was because the item came in after the mail carrier already left. That to me is a stupid answer, the mail alway
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NYComics Master Signing

Or you would think I would leave well enough alone... The air shimmered with electricity, my hand wavered, paused; then continued on. The blade slid through the plastic as I wondered if I did the right thing. My X-Men 141and 142 were bagged and boarded next to Lee K's X-Men issue 140. I was finishing the preparations for a Masters signing courtesy of NYComics. My last and final submission was one if my favorite comic books to have ever read: New Mutants Special Edition #1. I never cracked a
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Getting Closer

Or How Did I Get Ahead if Lee K? After reading "Graded and Waiting" by mre1129 I figured I would check out my status. I already know my ASM #129 has been graded and is stuck somewhere in USPS limbo. This bothers me more than the wait that CGC has imposed on us. It left Sarasota, Fl on the ninth and had not yet landed anywhere? This was graded using the express service. The other book I was looking for is my ASM #128. I bought a very nice copy for only $20 from Comics to Astonish and decided
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ASM #129: It's Graded Already

Or I Love the Express Lane It was Friday that I was getting my signature from Gerry Conway. My nerves weren't shot so much as excited that here I was at the Emerald City Comic Con rather than back at work. My ASM #129 was cracked by a CGC employee and both RonnyLama and I walked over with a witness and another participant that just became indoctrinated to the addiction of the CGC signature series. I had my ASM #129, and he had his Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #1, I am guessing betw
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Two Days Later

or why couldn't they always be this quick It was a long night at work, so long in fact I fell asleep on the way to seeing my father, soundly enough that someone had to wake me up at the end of the line. I continued on my journey trying to rest my eyes knowing the second lag of my journey had a much further away ending. I was looking forward to going to the Comic Book shop, after all "Age of Ultron" was released. On my return trip I was only able to read one comic book, a back issue entitles
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Pressing for ECCC

Or Between a Rock and a Hard place I once talked to Matt Nelson at length about Comic books and although we discussed pressing I didn't realize what it truly was. Hot press, cold press, temperature settings, and timing were things I was totally unaware of. At the end of my conversation with Matt I might not have understood the process but I knew I trusted Matt enough now, not only to use his service but recommend him to others. Pressing comic books can add up, both in dollars and extreme joy
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Three days at ECCC

Or Now to add it up Pool and Comic books but mostly Comic books. Thursday night I got to play pool with RonnyLama. At first a couple practice games and then I got to watch his team play. After league I played a few games. Two of those games were against an opposing team member and against the RonnyLama himself. I won against the opposing member but lost against Ro... never mind who wants to hear about pool anyway. Lets talk about what some of you may be asking, was I crazy enough to crack m
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ECCC: I'm packed

Or I Don't Want to Go I'm sitting in a dark room looking back on the past two days. I feel calm, relaxed, and maybe even sad. Vacations are exactly that, vacations; a time away from your everyday. And I have so much to write about and not just what happened at the Emerald City Comic Con but around it. I could write about the coworker who piped in as I mentioned to another coworker I was going to Emerald City. The comment if "oh, are you going to see Dorothy?" Was unwanted and unwarranted, it t
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A Day with Ronnylama

Or trying to post this as I'm falling asleep. I'm laying here under a strange sky. After a day of travel, and hardly any sleep, I am closing in on being up for twenty four hours. I hear the rain drop and am comforted by the fact that in the morning I will be searching for that diamond in the rough. So what is the highlight the day before the vaunted ECCC? It was playing pool against RonnyLama. I have written about my pool exploits and in the beginning I wasn't very good, in fact there were t
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Getting Ready to Leave

or ECCC or Bust, please don't let it be bust I can't sleep. It's not even the morning of the day before the convention, my flight is still a distance of time away. I read my books for the week, of which i picked up four. I'm writing my Roundabout Review and hope to have it posted during my layover. I have my phone and back up charger. I have my Comic books, clothes, and pool stick close to the door and I can't help but wonder what am I forgetting. Most likely I will remember when I am going th
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ECCC

Or Travelling to the Con I don't understand why I'm being asked if I'm nervous? Do my co-workers think my plane will go down? Do they wonder if I'll miss my crossover flight or do they know my trepidation about my Amazing Spider-Man #129. There is nothing forcing me to get it graded and Gerry Conway's appearance was the very reason I ever brought up the ECCC. There are others I would love to meet but not necessarily get books graded. After writing about the event a couple times Ronnylama co
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One Week to ECCC

Or Am I Really Counting the Days? I verified my flight making sure everything is up to snuff. I double checked how much money I have, and well, it's not enough. I wrote up an invoice for my ASM #129 using the quickest service possible. I cracked the slabs I needed to, and I verified that my books are still in the graded status. Although I did check two other invoices, one is also in the grading room while another is in the encapsulation process. That's right only four more months to go, OK I j
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A Wave of Indecision

Or How many times am I going to get the same book graded? As the Emerald City Comic Con is fast approaching I'm tediously crossing off what books to bring. I'm thinking I would like to buy a high grade Amazing Spider-Man 128 to be book marked by my 127 and 129. Yes, I am afraid of my ASM #129 falling back to a 9.4 but other than my New Mutants collection, which I have been purchasing doubles for signatures I realize my collection can't expand if I keep getting books graded and re-graded. My
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Two Weeks to ECCC

or 14 Days to ECCC I can't wait and yet I have too. I have been working extra hours not so much to spend at the show but to make up for what I am going to lose not working that weekend and more than any other convention I am looking forward to it. Next week I plan on having all my comic books ready to go. I am still debating on what to bring. Should I get all four issues of Marvels signed, will I let CGC crack my AM #129, How many issues of Sandman should I get signed? There is such a multitud
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Graded...but Seriously WTF?

oh, and I'm a four. As with anyone reading this, I get excited when I see graded for my invoice. This is the first invoice that my books do not show the grades and will have to wait until they ship before I find out what they are. I really hope they ship before or after the ECCC, because my luck would be that they arrive when I am gone. I still clicked on the link to see what they did write, after all in case anyone hasn't noticed; I like to write about things. These five books were handed
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The Nasty Side of Collecting

Or Clean it up Buttetcup Supply and Demand, cost exceeding worth, or craving the necessary drug without reciprocal means, whatever you want to call it. This hobby that we are in can be as cheap as finding blow out boxes at conventions. Normally the contents of these boxes are a dollar a piece but if you pull enough from their confined space to take up with you a two for a dollar sale might magically appear. Older books, key issues, number ones pre-90 (of which I hate to admit) and graded comic
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The Originality of it All

Or a Comic Book, piece by piece I purchased a few New Mutants to get signatures for. I would hate to get one and the sole book comes back a 9.6 instead of a 9.8. I chanced this with my #54 but refuse to try with my #47. There is a "Masters" signing coming up that I hope to send my Special Edition to get Chris Claremont, Terry Austin, and Jim Shooter to sign it. I only wish Art Adams was also part of it. This means fewer books for ECCC, unless I get more shifts...or sell some more stuff on eBay
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My 400th Journal

Or That is a lot of Writing When I first started writing on the registry my first journal was aptly named. At 25, 50, 76, 100 and a few other milestones I marked them as such. And yes that is 76 not 75. Eventually I just lost track, I was aware of these entries that could be divisible by 25, but it was a few journals before or a few journals after that I realized it. During these milestone journals I would look back at what I wrote before and mention them hoping someone would read them. A few
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Less than 80 Days

Or Day 79, Day 70, or Whatever I know there is still a long way to go but once I saw Lee K start talking about his books being graded I knew I was close. The books I am referencing are books I gave to CGC themselves for the signature series. I attained these signatures at the NYCC. Two of my invoices have already been returned. One of them I was so excited about I had to express the item and CGC was true to their timing schedule. I have been patient for these, I still am but it also gives me a
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The Original Superior Spider-Man?

Or How to kill a Spider... Who was he, and was he the muse in why Peter Parker had to die? In 1987 when I was still a closet collector and Michelle owned my heart, some of my money had to go to her for gifts, dates, and Friday night roller skating. Spider-man would sometimes be skipped here and there. So here it is twenty-five years later and I have finally completed the six part story with Vermin, Spider-Man, and the original Superior Spider-Man: Sergei Kravinoff or other wise known has Krave
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A Month without CGC

Or Saving for the ECCC For the longest time I have tried to keep my purchases to a minimum. Every month for the past year I bought at least one CGC graded comic book. I also had numerous books signed and graded. Three of my favorite acquisitions last year were Marvel Graphic Novel #4, 9.8 Signature Series by Chris Claremont, X-Men #109 9.8 Signature Series by Chris Claremont, and DareDevil #3 in a 9.0. All cherished parts of my collection. I purchased my first CGC book of 2012 on January 25
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I'm not Scared

Or There's Nothing to "Fear" In 72', the Silver Age of comics or what it would one day eventually be known as had ended. The Bronze Age started two years prior and the old guard has joined with the new. The horror comics of the fifties and sixties have long since ended but the seventies brought about a conglomerate of stories, characters, and reprints. As time passes, memories fade and/or distort. As much emphasis I place on my New Mutants #15 as the beginning of my collection, it wasn't my
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White vs. Off-White Pt2

The 9.8 craving As a collector I have always strived for the best possible (for the money), case in point, my Daredevil #1. At a 3.5, it was the best I could afford, but it's the 9.8 fallacy I strive for. 9.9 keys are financially stretching and Gem 10's are either non-existent or astronomically priced (recent modern books withstanding*). My whole collection of New Mutants are graded a 9.8 with white pages barring a few exceptions. My #1is a 9.9 and for any new registry members, to show you w
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Comic Book Day

Or Coffee without Dad It's ten degrees out in Philadelphia. That is Fahrenheit not Celsius. It was twelve degrees out when my Father called me...twice. He still has trouble using the cell phone so I had to call my Step-mothers phone to get the conversation started. I think he was holding it upside down. Bottom line...Stay Home. I told him I would. There was another circumstance that also hindered our weekly coffee ritual so I will have coffee by myself and see him next week. Unfortunately
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