So I decided to jump into the CGC pool with a nice little splash - 29 books in the system for my first round, with more waiting at the board to dive in.

I have collected off and on for a while (from way back before there was ever a grading company for comics) and in the last few years I started buying collections to finance my own collecting (I buy groups and sell them to cover the initial purchase and hopefully make a little in the deal so I can afford my expensive EC Fan-Addiction -- as my screen name might indicate). CGC was always a nifty idea, but never a reality. Then I started getting a few older books that I thought might benefit from an official grade (Iron Man 55, JIM 89, Tales of Terror Annual 3), but even then the trouble of going through the process, not to mention the outlay, was enough of a barrier for me. Those books sat on the side in a box waiting. As I bought more and more collections I would find a couple in each group that just popped -- really beautiful copies that I could see nothing wrong with. The first few went into the box waiting for some day. Then I got a few more, and I decided I should really do this, but still didn't get around to it. And then the small group was big enough and had enough books with decent value (Hulk 330 & 340, Xmen 244, ASM 238) that I went ahead and sent them in. I should get the first few back in about 2 weeks and I'll see if I am missing anything when it comes to grading, and if I can finance more slabbing in the future. (I have a group of nice mid/high grade early Brave and the Bold -- pre-superhero, amongst other books waiting for the results of my experiment) While not as exciting as buying a nice silver age collection from the original owner, I think it should be a fun learning experience to see what grades I get. And I'll be able to kick myself all over again for letting a nice high grade group of early 60's Adventure and Action comics go for way below guide. It was the second collection I bought, and the first with higher quality books (The early books were rough, i.e. GL 1 in fair, coverless JLA 1, etc., but the later -- i.e. early 60's -- were beautiful). I was nervous about sending them in to CGC and I wasn't confident enough in my own grading at the time. I don't even have to wait, just writing about it is enough to get me kicking myself all over again. Live and learn, I keep telling myself. Live and learn . . .