More goals for 2011

I know this hobby can get expensive. I added up what I spent in the last six months of last year and have decided not to spend as much this year. Normally from January 1st up until the convention in June I save my money. Now it seems I won?t be able to go for the full three days this year, so what am I still saving for?

My goal for this year was written in another journal. I mentioned simple things I wanted to do. It is two months into the year and I picked up one CGC box, that was filled right away and I only need three more Daredevil comic books to complete the run. So with those things on their way to completion I thought I would add a couple more. As far as my collection goes I believe it is known I want a full set of New Mutants graded in a 9.8 . I am cutting down the lead Bagofleas has but the collection I want are the books I originally collected. I am currently ranked in the teens somewhere.

With the 9.8?s dwindling this should allow me to start spending my money in other ways, such as sending in some books to get graded. I want to send in ten, but which ones. Do I send in the next 10 of my New Mutants starting from issue #11, or count backwards from 100? Then a genius of an idea came to me to send them all in?.and after adding that up said no. So my other thought was to send in 10 books that not only I didn?t have graded but that also had no more than a copy or two graded including annual #4 and issue #81. Both should get around 9.4.

But the New Mutants isn?t the only series I want graded. I am not collecting this other series in a 9.8 because having the very best of them is not necessary. I started collecting Sandman with issue #32 and worked backwards as well as forwards. When I made my way to purchasing the first 8 issues I knew these would run me a lot of money. They were shown on the wall of the comic book shop rather than the back issue boxes, as most of the really wanted books tended to be. Next to getting my Daredevil Miller issues, the Longshot Limited series, this was the most I spent on back issues, at the time.

All in all this would be 175 books graded, which will run into a couple thousand. I could stop getting other books altogether, but would have to save up money for a bit, or I could do them 10 by 10, five from each until they are done, but can I be patient enough to this, and does CGC grade faster on larger lots? After all of them are encapsulated, posted on the registry and I put them away where will I have the room to get more books?