In the Dark

A journal by Tnerb

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About this journal

Oblivious to anything new

Entries in this journal

My Holy Grail

It is finally part of my Collection When I first decided to collect CGC graded comic books (April 2009, maybe March) there was one issuue I knew I just needed to have. Unquestionably that comic book was New Mutants #15. There are certain things in life that if one thing didn?t happen, then many consecutive consequences of life wouldn?t happen. For instance: you never would have read any of my journals if I never picked up a CGC book which wouldn?t have happened if I never went to Wizard World
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Guilt by Association

Price Guides (part 4 of 3) Every year I buy the newest price guide by CBG, I still need to pick up the 2011 guide. I could pay the monthly fee to join GPAnalysis but am yet unwilling to pay such an annual fee (12months X $10.00 = $120.00/or two 9.8 graded comic books) that is until I can afford it. At the moment I will continue to use the annual guide, e-bay, and other internet auction sites and use my guilt by association philosophy. What is guilt by association? Admit it you were thinking
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Price Guides (3 of 3)

The Ultimate Question??? I stood at a newsstand rack (and are they even called that anymore) in Venter City Philadelphia biding my time until my LCS opened at ten. On Rittenhouse Square, the Barnes and Noble was open, warm, and had a coffee shop. As I waited (with coffee in hand) I looked over magazines and comic books. I picked up three; ?Wizard? was one of them. As I made my way through articles, interviews, and ads I reached the price guide. I saw one book at one price and I put the magazin
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Price Guides (2 of 3)

Is one better than another? I try to investigate on how much a book is worth before I buy it. I have the Comic Buyer?s Guide that comes out every year. This is update once and I?m wary how reliable it is. I stopped collecting the monthly publication since they put a lot of features I like online instead of in print; they still have the price guide in the back which is a bit more current. I also use Heritage Auctions (HA.com), they seem to have a good data base and I can see what things sold fo
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Price Guides

Which one do you use? I never understood how one price guide could have one book listed at one price and another guide could have the same book in the same condition at a different price. When I was collecting comic books in my teens ?Overstreet?s? was the guide to use. I was overjoyed when they began to publish a magazine every month. Wizard came into the industry like a magazine created by executives who cared nothing about comic books and only wanted a large bottom line. It seems they hav
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Just a Curiosity

How Much? How much do you spend on new books? How much do you spend to get your book graded? Graded with a signature? How much do you spend on books already graded? How much do you spend in a week? A month? A year? Is it on one book? Or hundreds? I have tried to keep the best possible records of what I have but I have lost count on what I?ve spent. If I calculated properly I spent at least $1000 in the month of December on CGC graded books. I spent about the same amount the previous two months
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Finally, more Stan Lee books for me

Has it really been over 2 1/2 months? As much as we all do, we wait. We look over our comic books and send in a few that we want someone to say this is what the grade is in the hope of achieving the best grade. Normally this is done through the Post Office. We package them up and wait for the notification that they arrived at CGC. In my case I sent two invoices of two comic books each in. They were separated by tier of service, and they were to be signed by Stan Lee. They were in early so I h
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166 and counting

My last journal of the year. The one thing I loved to do was count my comic books. When I filled a box I felt like I accomplished something. Of course I wanted to have more comic books than anyone I knew?.which was actually easy. About four years ago I had to condense my collection. In other words get rid of a lot of stuff. The problem is what goes and what stays. Too much went and not much stayed. This allowed me to start over though. To see what I wanted to collect. Do I go back to coins or
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A Christmas Wish List

All I want for Christmas is...... Dear Santa, It?s been awhile since I wrote you a letter, in fact this is my first one so I am hoping you might think that you never got me anything for Christmas as an oversight and not because I was Bar Mitzvah?d at 13. I did meet you once when I was a child at a Macy?s and I was able to pick a present for myself of the shelf. It was a prison cart based off of the movie ?Planet of the Apes?. I loved that toy for a full two weeks before losing pieces of it a
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Man without Fear #513

Jumping off the band wagon New writers and new artists come and go. Characters change with the talent of these people. Sometimes they fail, like Daredevil #321, I am sorry the metal costume was lame. Of course sometimes they succeed like issues #158 to 291. I think I am sort of biased there. They even relaunched Daredevil with a #1 by Kevin Smith, they ripped him apart and sent him to jail and even returned to the original numbering. Every issue starred Matt Murdock, the man without fear. They
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Life After Mutants

With the New Mutants that are available dwindling to numbers I don't need, what's Next? Daredevil #168 is one of my pivotal issues. It was the first comic book I collected the issues surrounding it before getting the issue itself. All the Miller Daredevil issues from #158 to #191 were purchased from the same location, ComiCards. Dane the owner pointed out those books for me to collect once I asked him what good books were around. I bought issue after issue starting with the cheapest (in this c
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My Stan Lee Signature Series Pt 2

Wow, a week really goes fast. My first two books signed by Stan Lee were signed and graded so quickly I was ASTONISHED (how many Marvel adjectives can I get into this journal.) I hoped, prayed, and expected my second two books to be expedited just as quickly. It was AMAZING how wrong I was. I waited and waited. I checked over and over, it was almost like CGC was keeping it a SECRET. Finally on a Tuesday morning my books went from verified to ?scheduled? for grading. I cheered out loud and felt
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30 in 30 Pt.2

My Shortest Journal yet...or...I did it! I did it! It?s been 30 days and 30 journals, technically 31 since I posted a journal on the 31st of December. I did this to see if I could write a journal everyday and I hoped I was diverse enough in my subject matter. I tried my best to have original titles and did not split one into two by giving it a part one and part two. I did pick up a few that I might have started previously but I think I succeeded in my goal. I posted every day, some journals I
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Checking my Views

The windows are drawn and the blinds are shut. As more and more of my journals reached 100 views I felt accomplished, like I was actually participating on this site. My 30 in 30 experiment allowed for my journals to slip off the recent three a lot quicker than they would have if I kept with the formula I was keeping with. This kept my view count low. I guess this experiment to see if I could do it will now allow me to see if people will go back and read what I have previously written. Sure s
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New Mutants 2009

Now all they have to do is get a set for Vol.2 I am on my way with Volume #1 and only recently noticed that Volume 3 was added, or otherwise known as New Mutants 2009 (sounds like a catchy journal title). I had a few and it has been a few months since I last checked for this particular set on the registry. Thank you Gemma. Only 3 people have these sets (I?ll make #4) and already someone has the #1 spot solidified. Looks like I?ll be settling for 2nd place again. There are a few lingering aro
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Breaking 600

I am getting higher up in the food chain. I decided to add the ASM #129 signed by Stan Lee into my registry. This shot me into the 500 range (599) and since I didn't sell any of the books I wanted to on E-bay they will be staying in my registry for a little while longer. I have four more books on the way, two of which I can add to my sets, the other two don?t have a set yet (C?mon X-infernus). There are a few more I plan on getting in the next couple weeks and since it seems I am getting ou
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Making Friends

7 down 13 to go I do love this hobby. I always have. The thing was though all those years ago I truly had no one to share it with. My best friend collected but I believe he collected because I did. Years later he collected again but decided eventually against it. I still enjoy it and only stopped collecting for an amount of years because lack of money. The registry is a way to see what other people collect. I have noticed twenty people have me on their friends list. I don?t know the terminol
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Working on the Holidays

Not just Thanksgiving but Christmas too. The one thing about serving food on the holidays is that people feel sorry for you. I am hoping this emotional breakdown will release them of their money and add some to the tip when they eat, yes we are open On Thanksgiving day. There are a few New Mutants in a 9.8 that I want to purchase?not to mention a few Civil War issues. Of course if I were to try to get the Civil War issues then I go outside my parameters. I should continue to keep going after a
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My 100th Journal

...or Finally Hitting a 100 Pt. 3 Here it is. My 100th Journal, and you are either sick of me writing or you?re wondering what I will write next. As with My 25th Journal (3-27-10), My 50th Journal (7-20-10), and my 75th, uh 76th Journal (10-30-10) I listed my journals not only the ones I liked to write but the ones I hoped others would read as well. Recently I talked about my First Submission (11-2-10) and now I am getting ready for my first pre-screen (for real this time). I talked about ac
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The Price of Gas Pt 2

The cost keeps going up, so why not take SEPTA. One year ago I was visiting another comic book shop to purchase my new releases every week, then they were pushed back to a few days late, and finally coming in a week late, and eventually only promised to arrive. Any retail comic book shop will not last without new books (this one proved my point). Since I wanted new books every week I had to find a new comic book shop to frequent. I had the choice of the Garden of Earthly Delights (yes that
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Heritage Auctions

How Much is that Comic Book in the Window? This has been a site I frequent a little too much. I love the selection and the surprises I find here. I do not find many new Mutants in a 9.8, if any copies of New Mutants at all. I do find some X-men and Daredevil comic books though. Sometimes I get so excited I bid without thinking where my money is coming from and sometimes I miss the ?off-white? pages because I am blinded by the 9.8. I recently won an X-men 201 this way. I am still waiting for it
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The Addiction of it All

I can stop at any time, can't I? The Addiction of it All Every time I get a little bit of money I decide I can afford another comic book I want. Every time I spend less in gas for my car I mentally calculate what I can spend on encapsulated books. I do the same in everything else I save money on and instead of putting the money away I am winning another auction. I finally saved a couple hundred dollars and then I decide to make an offer on some E-bay items. So far they haven?t accepted, bu
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Asking to Buy

What is the etiquette? It was common to trade baseball cards when I was growing up, normally a one for one trade. We didn?t care how much they were, we only cared who are favorite players were. Besides, the gum was the best. In 1980 the Philadelphia Phillies won the World Series, the next year I wanted all the Philadelphia Phillies cards, unfortunately so did everyone else. Of course baseball cards were sold by packs and you would have no idea what you got until you opened them. I put away
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Adding up Points

It is like sports....the person with the most points wins. I am going to lose my place in the registry. I have been climbing in the rakes but I am about to lose my standing. I have slowly been making the climb towards the 500 tier, I have been steady in the 600 tier ever since I broke 700. It?s not that difficult. All you need is either the right book, or a lot of them. I have not yet updated my ASM #129 because not only do I wish to call CGC about it, I am waiting for some of my graded book
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Discuss on the Chat Boards Pt.3

Sometimes I can.... sometimes I can't.... As much as I don?t get CGC?s complete grading policies I also do not get how to add my journals to Discuss on the Chat Boards. In part one I mentioned about not being able to, by part two CGC made it so I was able too. My problem was even though I checked off all the appropriate boxes I could not get my journals to be applied to the chat boards. I communicated with CGC and they tried to figure out the problem. It was never fully resolved, but they did
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