Wolverine (1988) reaches a midpoint milestone.

There I was. It was Tuesday, January 19, 2016, and I was engaged in an interminable wait for the mailman. 1 PM. 2 PM. 3 PM. 4PM. 4:40 PM...f this, I'm not sitting at the office all night. And then right as I was about to put my coat on, I heard the office door chime and my books had finally arrived. Having figured out a pretty accurate way to follow the census, I already knew to expect two SS 9.8s (40, 59) and an SS 9.4 (89 non-deluxe) from AwesomeCon. And its the 9.4 that has led us to this brief reflection on my 1988 set as it is the book that finally made it 100% populated.

Now I saw "populated" because my set is definitely not "Complete". Anyone who has spent a little time viewing my Wolverine for President set will know what an ardent Wolverine collector I am, and that naturally led me to set an ultimate goal of a full SS/Mint set. Doing a quick scan of my set, I count 62 books that don't currently meet that criteria. However, we must also subtract the 9, possibly 10, books that I know are coming back in SS 9.8 but aren't in hand yet. Then we must also consider that I have 11 more issues out for signature or still in the grading process. So in reality, I'm more like 40 issues away from my goal (and an Erik Larsen/Steve Skroce signing spree would resolve about half of that). Its certainly getting close.

The only thing that sucks is that my list is starting to get exclusively into what I call the "boogeyman issues". 21. 31. 32. 35. The 41 and 42 2nd prints. Doombringer foil. 2001 Annual. And others. Those books that, no matter how freakin' hard you look, you just can't seem to find a potential raw 9.8 that you think is worth ponying up the cash to have signed. Or you think you did find one, and then it bombs the grading. And at the same time, if you've got a Universal 9.8 copy, you just can't bring yourself to crack it and risk a downgrade. What's a man to do? Crash the back issue boxes at C2E2 for starters! It may be frustrating at times, but the chase is a lot of fun!

For this week though, I'll enjoy the moment when my set hit 100%, and dwell on how far its come since my first impression of CGC ("bah, who wants a comic book in a trophy case?") to my first impression of the Signature Series ("so some guy wrote his name on it, whatever...") and all the hits and misses in between (such as -- "10.0? Nah, I'll save the extra $30 buy the 9.9". "$2700 is a great price for the Nabisco variant!". "$400 for a 9.8 102.5?!? Hgblurshgkfhjk!! Buy it Now!!!!!!").

And on one last note, I'm proud to say I still own the first ever 9.8 addition to this collection - a copy of the 145 Dynamic Forces edition - which is also the first ever 9.8 I achieved from my first ever submission to CGC way back in 2001. Though a Universal that was later supplanted by an SS book, and despite its potential to fetch me a sizable amount of cash were I to sell it, it's not going anywhere.

So here's to you, "only a 9.4" legit non-deluxe Wolverine 89. You did good.

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