...or am I?

After a flurry of purchases and DailyStar apparently bowing out of collecting Captain Marvel Adventures I have shocked myself by moving into second place. I honestly thought I would do no better than fourth by the end of the year and yet here it is end of May and I sit in the number two spot. Only problem is I'm over 30000 registry points behind starman221. Actually that's not the only problem. I know the argument is that until CGC starts handing out cash prizes as awards a little graphic next to your name is fairly meaningless but gosh darn it if I'm number one I'd like to be recognized as such. If you're going to hand out awards even just bragging rights awards do it right. I cannot say whether or not starman221 actually has more legit registry points than I do but I can just about guarantee that this collector does not have 41510 CMA registry points and probably not even close to that amount based on the number of issues in his or her collection available on auctions. That alone isn't proof that starman221 doesn't still physically have them but some auctions also show sold items and I've seen some from starman221's collection that were listed as sold AFTER they were added to his or her registry. I asked starman221 to update his or her registry but received no reply and noticed that he or she hasn't made a registry change since late last year.

So am I just a big whiner? Probably but I do believe that CGC owes it to collectors to make the awards somewhat legit. I've always felt that the awards were slanted towards brute force collecting rather than any elegance of set or presentation. Images and descriptions have no value in year end awards except for the Best Presentation awards which are far more competitive. I understand that sifting through all the sets and making a subjective choice would be an excessively daunting task. Even if you limited yourself to major sets you'd still probably anger people who felt their presentation was superior.

Here is my suggestion for a fix. Ask collectors to actively submit their sets asking them to vouch for the authenticity of the collection. I don't believe starman221 is somehow trying to steal the award (and he or she may legitimately still be beating me in points) but if a collector has simply moved away from collecting and sold their collection without removing the items from their registry they could end up sitting at the top like the Rock of Gibraltar, immovable until collectors pick away at their collection by adding the comics to their own registry and the fact of the matter is that a vast majority of CGC comics do not get registered. It is highly unlikely that I will ever get close to 40000 CMA registry points so the best I can do may be maintaining my number two spot.