In the Dark

A journal by Tnerb

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About this journal

Oblivious to anything new

Entries in this journal

Selling on Ebay

I sold one, now can I sell more? Selling on E-bay This is not easy for me to do. Most of these comic books I bought from Dane when he owned a small comic book shop called ComiCards. Part of me does not wish to part with these and another part of me wants to put it towards a larger purchase. And what better way to honor the memory of Dane by having something I will cherish for the rest of my life. Writing that now makes me feel better for what I am about to do. I am writing this as I am curre
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One Year Ago

Has it really been that long since My First Journal? Every journal I have written to date has been written or thought out before I entered it on the registry. I like to write and the first copy is never the best copy, it is raw, awkward, and emotional. Sometimes this is good. In all my journals I have tried to put a bit of my life in there. I get some comments, no where near I was hoping for but it seems people are reading what I write, and for that I thank you. In the beginning of the month
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How does CGC grade?

I honestly don't know. There are books out there that will show the flaws and defects page by page grade by grade. The one that I have is by Overstreet. The full title is ?The Official Overstreet Comic Book Grading Guide Third Edition?. I use this to help me with questionable nuances as I grade my own books. I am not an expert. I am an amateur who loves doing this, who absolutely has fun with my hobby and of course wants the best condition possible. Once in a while I get a book that I have pur
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ASM #129 9.2WP VS ASM #129 9.4OWP SS

Does my title make sense? I was sixteen and living at home when my comic book collecting expanded into the world of Matt Murdock. Although my first introduction to this blind super hero was with issue #221 (I was unimpressed), I consider the beginning of my collection with what I dub the Miller years starting with issue #158 and ending with #191. I never would have picked these up if not for the comic books shop owner's (Dane) advisement. Since I recently moved into my father's at this age I w
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Paper VS Computer

How do you keep track? Paper VS Computer I could talk about the digital age of comics here versus the four color paper variants we are so happy to collect but I am not. This is about keeping a documented log of your collection. Every once in a while I purge through my things and the last major purge I survived through I had to get rid of an elephantine amount of books. I realize that I should have taken my time and started to sell things on e-bay with what I had. Live and learn. I won?t sa
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My Stan Lee Signature Series

....and now my collection shall be complete.... For one month I decided not to have anything to do with CGC (other than the journals), whether it was sending in to get books graded or to purchase them through auction. I planned on doing this for the month of October. I failed. As anyone knows who is a member of the registry, CGC sent out a mass e-mail stating that Stan Lee was doing a private signing for the Signature Series. I already decided to now purchase or spend any money on anything oth
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My Goals for 2011

Looking forward to more CGC books next year. 2011 is almost upon us. I now have four full boxes of CGC graded books, not all are 9.8?s. My storage space has dwindled and I am thinking about a mass exodus of other collectibles that I could sell (of course I am going to just use the money for more comic books.) I am ready to send in another 30-50 books, some to sell and some to collect. I hope to sell enough just to pay for the cost I spent to get it done in the first place, If I make a profit e
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My First Snipe

I want it, it's mine, you can't have it, so there. I don?t like sniping, mainly because it doesn?t do anything you can?t do yourself. There are a few sites that can do this for you, some charge and some don?t. I believe winning an auction comes down to how much you want to pay. If you have the time and the money, there is a good chance you are going to win. If someone wants to place a ?snipe? bid at a lesser amount compared to your bid the person who was trying to swindle the item from you is
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What about the Writer?

You're a Tracer. It was sitting there among the other comic books, piled in next to the magazines. Only a few feet from the front door it called to me. The cover of The New Mutants #15 was something I never experienced before. It was the artwork of the cover that drew me in, as did that same week the covers of the Avengers, Uncanny X-men, Iron Man and Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars. These were the beginning of my obsession. Collecting these books over again in the best condition possible is
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Signature Confirmation vs Delivery Confirmation

Sign here...and here...and once more here. I hate the USPS. OK! Hate is bad, it will lead to the dark side. I strongly dislike the USPS. The first package they lost had a copy of New Mutants #3 in a 9.8. It was sent to me under the delivery confirmation service. It was never delivered, not to me anyway. It was my first bad e-bay experience. My second (and hopefully last) non-delivered delivery was for two more books, both a 9.8 from my favorite series, this time from the signature series. Once
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My Son's 18th Birthday

What do you get for a boy that already owns your heart? What do you get for your son when he turns 18? My father handed over cash although I have no idea what I bought (probably comic books). The fact he gave me money (a good amount at that time) had me overjoyed. I plan on doing the same (unless he wants me to buy him comic books). Throughout the years I have bought him action figures, movies (both VHS and DVD), Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh items (there are so many of them, and even coins to name onl
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The Fear of an Obscure Set

Didn't Halloween pass already? I have no problem with people seeing what I am collecting in my sets. It is the reason why I log my comic books on this site. I am proud of what I have. My favorite set I am collecting within at the moment is The New Mutants. Bagofleas currently has the Best in Series and frankly I want him to know I am chasing after his first place spot, although I will be just as happy being in second place right behind him. I recently followed a copy of New Mutants #98 in a
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My First 9.9? Pt 2

I can't wait till I can write about my second 9.9....or did I already? I was happy winning my New Mutants #1 in a 9.9 (ecstatic even). However, I have to tell you I lied (unintentionally). It wasn?t my first 9.9. My first one of that grade was a copy of New Mutants #5 by PGX. There are a few out there by this 3rd party grading but the price of this one at the time was only $45. As everyone knows who has been reading my journals I am trying to complete this series in 9.8 white pages or better.
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Buy to Sell? Pt 5

Closer to a reality Now that I have sent in ten books for my own personal enjoyment I have to figure out what I should send in for my own personal gain. I have about 30 books that I would hope would get a 9.8. Do I send these in to CGC and hope for the best or do I send them in to a company to look over first and get them pressed if needed. I can also wait and add another 20 for a pre-screen. My greatest hope and fear doing it this way (the pre-screen) would be that they all attain a 9.8 I w
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A Set of New Mutants? Part 4

They might not be a 9.8 but they were and are mine I didn?t look over my first ten books I sent in to get graded for a few reasons. The first was money. I had it at that exact moment and I knew that if I didn?t send it in right away I knew that I wouldn't at all. The second reason was at the time I was working extra hours and for some reason my extra time was spend doing chores. The third reason was, I didn?t want to be wrong. I do have a program that I started to log what I thought they wer
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My First Submission

....and most likely not my last I've been writing journals for almost a year now. I?ve been logging my comic books only slightly longer and I?ve only submitted my books in person at the cons, until now. I grabbed ten comic books from my youth and sent them to CGC for grading with the curiosity of how I kept books then and how I keep my books now. This is how it worked. On 2-Sep-10 I printed a label with the shipping date of the 3rd through Pitney Bowes. On the 3rd I carefully boxed up my boo
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30 in 30

Is it Possible? I've been concentrating my efforts on writing my journal entries and have been neglecting my blog dubbed Shot Glass thoughts. I used a site exclusively for blogging anything other than comics. This allowed me to write numerous articles on events of my life other than comic books, however comic books happen to be such a pivotal part of my life and I write journal after journal sometimes having them written a few weeks before I post them. I have mentioned before (A Shot of Comics
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My 75th Journal....Um....My 76th Journal

Just a small recap My 75th Journal?.um?.76th Journal I had a few journals written out already and I like to go in the order I wrote them. With the loss of my greatest influential guide I was compelled to write A Fond Farewell to Dane (10-23-10). Without him none of you would be suffering through my journals. So with that said?let me continue with my regularly scheduled program. Has it been 75 (76) already? It feels like I only just posted My 50th Journal (7-20-10) and it has been almost a
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One Month Hiatus

My longest journal yet & Stan Lee I pay my bills. I buy comics. Repeat. I work six days a week. Four of those six days I serve tables at $2.83 an hour plus tips. On any given day I have no idea how well (or bad) I will do. There have been days that I barely left with eighteen dollars in my pocket. Thankfully there are days that I make more than 5X that amount. Every Monday I budget an amount to deposit, it always is the same amount every week. As I ?down? grade my comics so too do I budg
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A Fond Farewell to Dane

A Moment of Silence. I tend to do things in order. If I write a bunch of journals I like to post them in order. My next journal was supposed to be One Month Hiatus. I wrote in there about holding off collecting CGC comic books. Then CGC had to go ahead and have a signing by Stan Lee. When you read that one next you will find out more. What I have to write this time is more important to me. I was 12 when I officially started to collect comic books. My first comic book shop was called Comic In
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Answering Surfer99's Question

Is half an Answer still an answer? After reading Surfer 99?s journal that he posted 21-Sept.-10 I looked over my CGC books and wondered which ones did I absolutely have to keep, and why? I came up with five. And although I did not answer with such depth answer as he did, answer I did. The first book I will start with is the one I usually end any of my lists with and that is my 4.5 (yes 4.5) copy of New Mutants #15. I wouldn?t be collecting comic books without this book. Although it is not my
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My First 9.9?

Will I finally get my First 9.9? I never used Comicconnect.com before and didn?t know what to expect. Bagofleas mentioned it in passing but it never stuck until he mentioned to me that they had a copy of New Mutants #1 in a 9.9 white pages. I signed up and placed a single low bid to make sure I signed up correctly. I did. My main problem was the auction was due to end seven minutes after I was to be at work. I discussed my options with my boss and he allowed me to bring my net-book into work
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Sports and Comic books

Milk and cookies or water and oil? I was cataloging my comic books while listening to both my football and baseball teams back and forth on the radio. My football team was losing and my baseball team was winning. I opted to continue listening to my baseball team?s commentators since I prefer to watch football. I put away my three filled CGC boxes which means I?ll have to put together my fourth and last box. Once I get my books back from CGC and the way I have been buying, this last box will mo
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Iron Man Rules

Well, only up until the Skrulls invaded. OK! He doesn?t, but there was a time in my life I followed Iron Man. I picked up issue #181 soon after I picked up New Mutants #15. I pretty much went back to the 7-11 and picked up anything with the Marvel emblem on it. I was able to back track to a single issue which was #175 on the 7-11 racks and I followed on to a little pass issue #200. After that I slowly pushed away Iron Man. I picked up a few issues here and there, but they didn?t seem to hold m
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Outside my Means

If I don't budget am I allowed to buy it? When I didn?t budget I bought it. The night the local toy store opened at midnight for the all new Star Wars: The Phantom Menace toys I spent $550.00. I have stopped collecting Star Wars unless it is what I would consider high end, and then I have to budget for it. I especially budget for the auctions I have been participating in, most recently was the auction for the New Mutants #98 Signature Series in a 9.9. That was immediately taken out of my hands
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