Starting this year I have decided to devote my entire monthly comic budget to Captain Marvel Adventures at the expense of my other sets. Since January I've added four new issues and continue to slowly work my way towards the top position held by Starman221, the 2009 Golden Age Set of the Year winner. I am trying to set a pace to take over on registry points in another 8.5 years although I'm actually moving up faster than that. This year I finally passed the half way mark in registry points in my quest to take the top spot.

Two years ago at this point I had purchased 11 CGC comics and bought 27 total throughout the year. Last year I had purchased 7 CGC comics by this date and ended the year at 13. This year I have bought just 4 and will likely buy just 1 or 2 for the remainder of the year. The reduction in volume is offset by an increase in quality and I've added some comics that previously I might have blanched at because of price. Having a budget has really helped me keep my expenses in line but I confess that it's a challenge to go 3 and 4 months between purchases. My ultimate goal remains to have the top golden age set. It may take a decade or so but so be it. The fun is in the journey.

I now have 28% of the set with every single comic having an image and description. My collection has 24 highest grades with 12 being alone at the top. Compare that to the top collection which has only 9 highest grade issues and just 1 that sits alone at the top spot. Almost all the rest of my collection are second highest grade. My lowest grade is a 7.5 and I have seven 9.4's and my first 9.6 this year. The top collection has 23 issues graded BELOW 7.5, only three 9.4's and nothing above 9.4. Starman221 has an impressive 37 pedigree issues which beats my 25 although my percentage of pedigrees is much higher. Despite being well behind the top Captain Marvel Adventure set in volume and registry points I have a much higher average grade, a higher registry point average per issue and far more top grades.

There are a few more areas my set lags behind. Starman221 has issues 1 through 26 while I have nothing earlier than issue 30. Starman221 is tied for the highest grade of issue 1 which although only a 5.0 is still the best CGC grade in existence. He also has a 7.5 grade of the hard to get issue 150. These are the alpha and omega of the sert and I confess that I wish I owned them. However if I were collector with unlimited funds and I wanted to create the greatest Captain Marvel Adventure set ever I'd be looking at my set not the top registry point set because I doubt there is another CMA set in the world with this many highest grade issues.

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