I'll just refer to this as 'technical difficulties'.  Photobucket, internet... blah, blah, blah.

The moment when I felt that I actually 'won' in this new world of comic speculation and (a term I hadn't been made aware of until a comic YouTuber apparently coined it for me), FOMO (The Fear of Missing Out), was exhilarating. I knew I had taken a chance and it was a gamble too at a cost of $150.  For me, that's a lot of money, but after I saw the big reveal on WandaVision, I felt that I needed to act soon and from what I had seen, my window would be closing fast!  Like I stated before, we took a brief intermission from that episode as I had to look for that Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16. When I finally found a semi attractive offer, the BIN price seemed a little too steep for me but after seeing what was all included, I figured if worse case scenario came to be, I might be able to get my money back and so I bit.

For $150, I would get the following:

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #6 (Sinister Six!)

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #10

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #13

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #15 (3 copies of this Frank Miller gem!)

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #17 (Frank Miller Cover!)

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #18

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #19

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #20

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21

Amazing Spider-Man Annual #22 (I like this issue a lot for various reasons!)

...

When I received this bundle, I was very pleased as the Annual #16 was pretty much flawless in my eyes with the exception of a slight miswrap!

I truly felt that I had won... however, I didn't realize how addicting that feeling could be!

How does 'Subdivisions' play a part here?

It's all connected...

As I stated above, the copy of Amazing Spider-Man Annual 16 looked fantastic and I felt that with a press, it certainly would have an excellent shot at a 9.8 from CGC. Of course I was going to send it in but I decided to wait just a little bit until I got a few other books together to send in as well.  This moment was very exciting for me as it threw me right into the speculation market but, like I said, it was exhilarating to find a 'hot' book at a fair price only to see its potential graded value. If I were to send in that ASM Annual 16 and it came back a 9.8, I could flip it to cover the purchase of that entire ASM Annual lot, purchase a lower grade copy to hang on to, (as I do like the book), as well as make a few hundred dollars in profit! Of course none of that was guaranteed but the idea of it was very intoxicating. 

What else could I look into? What other big reveals might there be in this fantastic Marvel series?!

I was hooked like I had never been before.  The following episodes of WandaVision had me scouring YouTube for speculation videos on the series but all the while, each week, I was growing more and more fond of Elizabeth Olsen as an actress, her portrayal of Wanda Maximoff and of the character of The Scarlet Witch all together! This moment in episode 6 absolutely sealed the deal purely on nostalgia!

And so, it was right around here that I started thinking about the possibilities and MCU ramifications of this series and started to actively hunt for certain issues pertaining to The Vision and The Scarlet Witch! I also had a good feeling that if I was doing this, surely others would be doing the same and so I thought that there was one book that I needed to get for myself first, before I started looking for any others, as it might be pretty pricey at this point and could potentially get more expensive! I kind of knew what I wanted but I wasn't sure if I would be able to find it. The CGC boards had nothing... eBay didn't have anything either. Negative on Mercari.  But then there, on my last ditch search... there on ETSY it was. The only problem was that it was part of a bundle and I only wanted the one book.  I reached out to the seller and he was so kind to sell me the individual book at a very fair price. This wasn't a story of 'winning' (cue Charlie Sheen) in the sense that I got such a great deal that I could flip this book... no, this was a story of getting a solid CGC Signature Series book at a fair price that I was certain I would be hanging onto for a while.

...

When I was a child, my parents would buy these Marvel calendars for me and I absolutely loved them.  As a matter of fact, I still have them.  Going through the various days and months, each day seemed to have something 'cool' attributed to them but on my birthday (November 22) , I was always subjected to the same (unfortunate) fate. 

(Please, I assure you.. this is not what you think.)

My birthday didn't coincide with anything 'cool' like Spider-Man's first appearance or the Fantastic Four's first battle with Doctor Doom.

Nope.

It was always the same... Roy Thomas.

When I was 6 and 7 years old, I didn't want this old guy on my birthday, I wanted Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and Captain America!

I got Roy Thomas.

The

But now, at the age of 51, I'm so proud to share that birthday with him and that was exactly what I wanted... a CGC Signature Series copy of Avengers #57 (the first SA appearance of The Vision) signed by Roy Thomas!

And thanks to ETSY (of all places) that's what I found.

What I liked about this book was the fact that the signature didn't detract at all from the awesome John Buscema artwork, but was definitely present.

From Wiki...

"Roy William Thomas Jr.^[1] (born November 22, 1940)^[2] is an American comic book writer and editor, who was Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E. Howard's character and helped launch a sword and sorcery trend in comics. Thomas is also known for his championing of Golden Age comic-book heroes – particularly the 1940s superhero team the Justice Society of America – and for lengthy writing stints on Marvel's X-Men and The Avengers, and DC Comics' All-Star Squadron, among other titles.

Among the comics characters he co-created are Wolverine, Vision, Doc Samson, Carol Danvers, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, Ultron, Yellowjacket, Defenders, Man-Thing, Red Sonja, Adam Warlock, Morbius, Ghost Rider, Squadron Supreme, Invaders, Black Knight (Dane Whitman), Nighthawk, Havok, Banshee, Sunfire, Thundra, Arkon, Killraven, Wendell Vaughn, Red Wolf, Red Guardian, Daimon Hellstrom, Brother Voodoo and Valkyrie.

Thomas was inducted into the Will Eisner Comic Book Hall of Fame in 2011."

That’s quite a story, thank you for sharing. Those calendars are neat also!

On 10/18/2021 at 8:51 AM, Brandon Shepherd said:

That’s quite a story, thank you for sharing. Those calendars are neat also!

Thanks Brandon!

The past couple of weeks have been a little off... thankfully, my friend Rob averted a personal tragedy and I'm truly thankful for that!

Hopefully we'll meet up within the next few weeks.  Much to discuss and much to ponder! 

I received some good news though as my credit card was finally charged from CGC.  I know that may sound strange because who likes to see charges on their credit card?  Well in this case, that signifies that my 3 books (that I sent into them in MARCH!) finally moved from CCS back to CCG.

So they're now in the Grading / Encapsulation / Imaging stage.

Finally. 

So when I chose Fast track?

I get it though and I'll elaborate on that later.

So back to the story...

During this moment of WandaVision is when it fully hit me what was going on in the comic speculative market but I had no idea what was to come next.  Again, despite being a "seasoned" comic collector, I did'nt pay any attention to this WandaVision hype, nor did I pay attention to any speculative rumors. And so... this next episode caught me totally off guard (as well as many others, it appears, too...)

EPISODE 7

Something happened here that I didn't anticipate before. 

What could that be?

Well, for me, the speculative market had just taken a gigantic jump forwards!

I call it Witchcraft!

"It was Agatha all along!"

I had no idea that Kathryn Hahn is 48... but then of course, she's Agatha Harkness!

Just found this article looking back on her role...

https://www.eonline.com/amp/news/1250369/kathryn-hahns-been-here-all-along-a-conversation-with-wandavisions-secret-weapon

Now where was I... ?

Right. 

Somewhere between feeling bad for what Rob was going through and relating that to my own father... life is strange.  Just when you think you have it all figured out, you're going to be thrown a curve ball.

I was able to get together (finally) with my friend, Rob this past weekend and it was (as always) a great time. Good conversation supported by good beer! I'll only touch upon the discussions we had but this one probably had the most profound effect on me and of course I'll describe it in a super secret code that not even the CGC mods will be able to figure it out.

So here is how Rob was able to help me (once again) through my latest societal meltdown. (Yes, that's dramatic but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't really true.) Anyways... so we're talking about DC and Marvel and within this discussion of both the pros and cons of each company, I pose a question to Rob regarding the state of affairs at DC.  Now please keep in mind that I was truly a "DC guy"... I was true DC. I subscribed to that and endorsed every project. But then one day, I'll call this individual "Kevin Feige", well he showed me a different way.  He showed me that there was a thing called continuity that really solidified and illuminated what I had been subconsciously thinking was flawed with the DC cinematic universe.  And so I thought.. what if this was all some elaborate ruse that was being either set up or utilized in order to make DC fail and therefore force a sale of the company to their prime competitor? I'm paraphrasing here but what Rob asked me was this simple question... "If they wanted to do that, if that was their goal... why would they go through such charades? Wouldn't it be easier to simply force their plan?"

That was an excellent point.

Sometimes the easiest explanation for why things are the way they are, is simply, the easiest explanation.

** As long as we're not talking about the series "Department of Truth"! **

Ok. 

Back to comics and WandaVision.

Actually, back to Kathryn Hahn and Agatha Harkness!

The moment that it was revealed on WandaVision that Agnes was Agatha Harkness, I had to pause the show (as well as apologize to my wife for having to do this) and scramble through some comic boxes to see if I still had my nice copy of Fantastic Four #94, the 1st appearance of Agatha Harkness. Within a few minutes, I realized that I did not still own that book.  As a matter of fact, I remembered that I sold it here on these boards, although it had been 2 years ago.  Apparently, 2020 kind of blew right by me in terms of my memory of CGC sales.

It was in May of 2018 when I sold a lot of 10 FF comics (all in very nice condition) for $150.00.

That FF #94 was definitely in a VF- (7.5) range.

I knew what was minutes away from happening once I verified that I did not have a copy of this book.

By now, most collectors were 'in tune' with the windows that opened during these high profile 'reveals' through the weekly episodes and sure enough, I checked Mercari first. I was instantly depressed. Mere hours before this WandaVision episode aired, these were the prices being asked on Mercari for a copy of FF #94...

And just hours after it aired on Disney+...

This.

This is what's now known in the comic collecting industry as "The Agatha Effect".

I would probably never own this book again..

Or so I thought!

Agnes was a Witch.

Her name - Agatha.

But Which Witch?!

I had to explain to Rob why this video would appear... apparently (history) not from Ireland.

Ok, fine...

I do have some Irish roots so I'll keep it here.

I meant to write a lot more last night but got caught up in other news.

But in this intermission, I caught up on Disney + Day and was thrilled to see this.

I absolutely love this graphic...

Now 'Which Witch' was this Agatha Harkness aka Agnes in the WandaVision series? 

Was she the absolute antagonist of the series or, as speculation was mounting, would she be the one to tutor and help Wanda harness her power (as in the comics)... afterall, it was starting to feel that she was the one behind all of the chaos. Whatever it would be, the endless speculation videos and commentary had me absolutely hooked and the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) had me in its grasps in relation to that Fantastic Four #94. Why couldn't I have held onto that one (seemingly) insignificant book. I would keep looking for a copy but I just couldn't bring myself to justify spending upwards of $200 for a decent copy at this time.

This series had me wrapped up like no other MCU device ever had.

I had developed a crush on Elizabeth Olsen and now with the the big Kathryn Hahn reveal.. I was all in! I was scouring the internet for clues and hints as to where this was all heading... I was watching countless YouTube videos of content creators posting their speculations on where this series would end up. I developed some favorites that I still keep listening to today. It was almost an addiction of trying to jump ahead of the speculative market. Episode 8 of Wandavision led to the grand finale in episode 9 and right when I thought things couldn't get anymore 'off the rail'... it did.

Right in between episode 8 and 9, another favorite boardie of mine, @Bio-Rupp(Michael) had a sales thread and within that thread, he had this copy of West Coast Avengers #45 in NM condition for $25. I saw it, I thought about it, I almost claimed it... but it seemed to be priced too high for my wallet.

And then, the ending to  WandaVision episode 8 dropped.

I watched it that afternoon and then ultimately, frantically went back to his sales thread... it was taken.  I missed out and it was finally at this point that I was convinced that Kevin Feige was a John Byrne fan and I'm sure you can all imagine what that did to my thought process and mentality!

To say that this created even more FOMO would be an understatement...

WandaVision absolutely energized my passion for where this hobby could go and would go.

This was a new world.

A new phenomena...

... a strange new world.

From this point on, I would be obligated to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

Ok.  Of course that was what it was... but it summarizes my state of mind here.

I would immerse myself into CGC world, I would put together a small group of books to submit to them... I would get back to where I was 10 years ago!

I would time travel!

I would be enveloped in this world between these two Witches and I would enjoy every second of it!

Comics / WandaVision would be the vehicle to 'Waking the Witch'.

This is actually comical... pardon the expression! 

These books that I submitted under Fast Track back in March just won't move! I'll have a big post about that soon enough! It's very frustrating to say the least.

So, putting that story on hold, I can continue on with the stories of going to local comic stores and digging through their back issues looking for spec books as well as books that have already 'popped'. It was fun and it was exhilarating. To me, it was reliving those 80's days all over again. Perhaps this would be the moment where I would strike it rich... perhaps not.

Comics.

Following the end of the spectacular WandaVision series, I hit all of my LCS's and on my last 'hit', I felt like I had hit the jackpot... I had won.

No, I didn't find that WestCoast Avengers 45, but I found everything else around it. 

These would be books to definitely 'salt' away!

I was quickly learning the value of speculation and patience.  There would certainly be books that I would want to hang onto but there would also be books that I would rather trade in rather than hang on to as well!

HUZZAH!

The books have been graded and I can't wait to respond to this!

Today I went to my LCS and decided to reclaim one of my underwater books.  Why this book? Well, it kept shooting me each and every time I would go there. They've had this book ever since my underwater breakdown... and so after many years, I thought I needed it back for conclusion.

And now it has been made so.

Back in my collection. The ending of one and the beginning of another. 

And so, we'll end here for tonight...

Ok. 

Well, this is going to be the start of a strange post.

THE LOST SUBMISSIONS FROM MARCH OF 2021!

So the three books that I submitted in March of this year have finally come back.

Now just to recap...

I had submitted a copy of West Coast Avengers #45, Amazing Spider-Man Annual #16 and Amazing Spider-Man #300 into to CGC back in March of this past year (2021).  I decided to get all 3 issues pressed as I was convinced that CCS would be able to do a better job than myself in regards to pressing especially  along those troublesome spine areas.

And back to where I was prior to this decision...

I had just purchased a nice lot of books including that ASM Annual 16... I was in it for about $100.

The West Coast Avengers #45?  I was late to that boat and I ended up spending around $75.

The copy of ASM #300 I picked up raw at my LCS for $200... I figured it was around a 6.5 - 7.5 with OW/W pages. My comic dealer agreed and sold it as such.

I submitted those three books designated with pressing needed and I figured that the books might reveal a figure of $4000 once actualized.

Well, it didn't happen that way.

I see that I'm way off here in terms of any road that I was following to tell these stories and I do apologize for the disjointed mess that I've submitted.  Where do I start?

First, I'll start here as I didn't expect to have any downtime in the middle of the week but such is the case. I'd love to start with this past weekend and the Christmas get together that I had with Rob at a local brewery but I can't quite yet. It was an awesome afternoon but I need to go back a few months now to try and clean up this mess.

I started this journal as a document detailing the end of the world (or so we were being led to believe)... well, perhaps that was put on delay as the events of this past year, more align to that idea than 2020 did... of course, all in my opinion.  I'm not sure what happened here but for me, the last days and weeks of 2021 proved to be more challenging than anything I actually experienced in 2020! This thing called Covid19 is ... something.

It seems that everyone I know, including myself, whether they took the shot or not, came down with this.  It's almost surreal. Both my family and friends and yes, as I just wrote, myself as well.  For me, it was just before Thanksgiving and definitely from work. My wife then caught it around the same time that everyone I knew was catching this thing.  And so here I'll make my personal observation... I've dealt with worse, I've experienced worse... but the combination of weird, unfamiliar symptoms was certainly something different.

Again, my own unscientific opinion.

So...

Do I go back to Christmas, Thanksgiving... my birthday?

Well, lets start with Christmas and work our way back. 

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year to you all in CGC World!

This one was a bit different for us...

It was exactly around Thanksgiving that I was knocked out of commission for a couple of weeks due to this virus but prior to that, I had a nice birthday.  There was no John Byrne piece this year... rather, there was an item that I had kept my eyes on in Mercari that I decided to get.  When I first saw this, I did my research and came to the conclusion that it was authentic but waited for the price to drop to where I was comfortable. Well, that figure arrived and so I pulled the trigger on this item for my birthday...

A Rosey Grier signed sweatshirt from Mitchell & Ness.

As you know, Rosey Grier was an integral part of the football Rams' Fearsome Foursome defense of the 60's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosey_Grier

I had to work on my birthday this year but my wife made sure to acknowledge the day as I had this in my lunchbox... yes, it meant a lot to me! 

And so, the weekend of my birthday, right before Thanksgiving, there was an antique show at our local fairgrounds.  My wife and I spent almost 2 hours there as she found a few things and I found a few things as well... mostly comic related. There was one thing that I saw, however, that drew me right in and I definitely felt that I needed to own. 

It was an original oil painting portrait and this little write up did just enough to captivate my imagination.

I didn't want to spend $125 but my wife could  'see' what had just happened. I had been bewitched by this image!  On our way home she mentioned this painting again and how I would never see such a thing again.  Well, she was right. She was the one that actually convinced me to drive back and see if I could get it at a discounted price.  That I did and I was able to walk away with it for $100.

So what has the reaction been since I've owned this piece?

Well, my friend Rob said something like, "Couldn't you have purchased a more creepy painting?!"

And then my daughter burst out with this as soon as she saw the painting... "Oh, she's trapped in there!"

I'm not sure if this is the beginning of a new trend for me (finding and buying haunted paintings), but this was one that I definitely had to get.  So yes, this was the second birthday purchase of mine this past year...

Thanksgiving came and it was nice to have my daughter home from college for a few days but I was certainly feeling off.  That was certainly a different experience as I wrote earlier. It put a damper on the entire month from late November to Christmas as we mostly rested and recovered.  We never really did catch that Christmas spirit this year. It was just different out there. From the stores to the selection of items (or lack thereof)... and as for my work as well. I have been in this field (transportation) for over 18 years and I can't remember a season such as this one.

It was weird.

So right before Christmas, my mother in law came down with the virus and that was bad.  My wife, myself and my  daughter went to spend Christmas Eve with my parents which was very nice but we ended up postponing thr rest of Christmas with my in laws for obvious reasons. We had a small get together the week after and this year, there was no Christmas cocktail, just a  nice bottle that was shared... it was a reserved holiday.

Now I can get back to the discussion of those CGC submitted comics and ultimately my Christmas meeting with Rob. 

It's the start of a new year and hopefully this one goes better than the last two!l

And so finally...

My Christmas meeting with Rob.

For some reason, this would be one of the most relaxed Christmas seasons that I've had in a long time. I have a feeling that the lack of stress had a lot to do with my mindset this year. You see, this year I was adopting the attitude of 'C'est La Vie' (more than ever) following the horrors of this Covid19 (aka 'The End of the World').

Well, the theme that I had thought of for this years get together changed mid way through as I found this item that I knew Rob needed. Yes, he was a big time MODOK fan and yes I had just the right gift lined up but yes, another item that he would love popped up and yes, he needed to own this!

Did I mention that Rob is a big time Mike Mignola fan just as much as I am a big time Creature from the Black Lagoon fan?

Well, yes it's true and here is where this awesome story starts...

Christmas, 2021.

A meeting between two old friends in a northern town.

Oh my...

What my work schedule has done to this journal is sad.  And in the interim, the world has gone crazy... what I thought was the end of world has jumped timelines and here we are. 

Once again...

But now that I have some up-time to devote to this entry, I can finally finish this past Christmas meeting with Rob and ironically, it'll be on the footsteps of this evenings impromptu meetup.  Good beer, good company and good conversation are all the essential ingredients and it never disappoints!  But before I depart on this written journey I have to insert one more Tears for Fears video.  We're in bad times here folks... not much makes sense. 

We're living under the shadow of a Bad Man!

This past Christmas was actually a little earlier than previous ones and it occurred on a perfect Sunday afternoon.  This brewery in Upstate New York was having a brunch and cocktails event and so on this mid winter afternoon, against the depression of the cold and bleak winter veil, Rob and I met up for yet another festive get together to celebrate Christmas!  It was (as usual) full of debauchery and mishap. As I have done in the past, I came up with a theme for this years gift but half way through accumulating gifts, I stumbled upon something else that I felt he needed and it seemed to perfectly bookend these past two years years that I've affectionately called the End of the World.  It didn't seem that it was that long ago, but the last 'normal' memory I have of our meetups centered around a particular brewery and the discussion of these Batman Black and White mini statues and especially the one by Mike Mignola.  As I've stated, Rob is a big Mike Mignola fan (how can anyone NOT be?!) and he was looking for the mini statue before the world started to come apart.

So one afternoon as I was perusing Mercari (my weakness), I came across this Mike Mignola Batman statue that I felt Rob needed... without a doubt!

So finding that kind of altered my intial gift theme for him which centered around MODOK but I was able to find a way to shoe horn what I had already bought into this new theme.  Afterall, MODOK and Mike Mignola both begin with M...

So, I had to reset this year's Christmas project but I felt that it was working rather well... until it was time to spell.  (Yes, once again!)

And so here we are on the day of our big get together and I thought it would be perfect to formulate this year's gift guessing game under the guise of a game of Hangman.

Yes, Rob would have to guess his gift or suffer the fate of being hung.  There would be no blown up car this year, we were getting personal now!

All he had to do to avoid this disastrous ending was to guess the puzzle... that puzzle being "MIKE MIGNOLA BATMAN"

And therefore, an absolutely fool proof plan!

Except I can't spell...

Just as I screwed up the spelling of Cesar Romero, I screwed up "MIKE".  How, you ask?  Well, like this...

Rob- "Is there a 'K'?"

Me- "Nope. Definately no 'K'."

I'm done. 

...

There is not a 'K' in 'MIKE MIGNOLA BATMAN'... nope.

How does this Hangman game work exactly???

Well, you guess a letter that's in the phrase and I tell you that it's not there, even though it may be!

So as this was taking place, I was thoroughly enjoying the most fantastic brunch item ever... a delicious Bagel Board with a Screwdriver made from local Vodka. This was the first time I had Capers and absolutely loved them but that smoked Salmon was amazing!

Needless to say, Rob didn't guess the gift because I deep sixed it from the start.

However, to be fair, once I realized my stupid mistake, I admitted he won and he got the gift... clues that I left behind to aid him in this journey ranged from candy M&M's to Michael Myers. Again, heavily playing off of the "MM" Mike Mignloa name.  Ultimately he got this...

So that was certainly amusing yet embarrassing, once again!

I sPel Gud, ProMis!

Now in return, my friend Rob got me some awesome gifts and if there was a theme it had to have been 'duality'.

He got me two bottles of amazing Irish Whiskey as well as these doubled up gifts.

Two classic monster decorative items, two classic monster figures and two packs of awesome playing cards from https://kingswildproject.com/ ...

So needless to say, he won this year even if I don't do that... it's kind of this underlying joke. 

Despite any personal or worldly issues we may encounter, it's always been this time of the year that happens to reset everything.  It's been weird like that. Following this get together, I resumed my search for good books at all sorts of odd locations, even those with ultra-friendly pups!

And so, to end this evening's post...

I'm still in search of good books and good deals!

Rob and I had a great evening over good beer and good conversation tonight, but most importantly, (if you're reading this) I have to thank you for your friendship!

Who knows what these years will bring but if we hang onto the 80's, maybe... just maybe, we'll be ok.