And waiting I am, so here's a loooong entry if you care to read while YOU wait

So about a week and a half ago I packed up and sent out what I considered to be my 3 most valuable comics for my first time grading submission. It seems I have something of a wait on my hands now, so here are some things I have done and some other things that have gone through my head during this whole first time experience. It seems as if so far I've done everything correct (hopefully).

After I received my packet, I sat down and went through my collection database to try and decide what would be my best options to use for my coupon grading. I don't have any pedigree or vintage books, and if I do they're worth hardly anything. I started reading/collecting comics as a child (around 7 or 8 years old maybe), and I'm now almost 30 (still read/collect). I have 3 Uncanny X-Men books from the 80s featuring a Dark Phoenix story, but they're not in the best condition, so I decided to hold those off until later. I still actually read my comics and enjoy them quite a bit, so I didn't want to send in a book that I thought I may want to crack open again in the future. Now, my collection is probably only 1,600 books large; the majority being Marvel's Mutants. What can I say? I buy to read what I like. :-) ?Anyways, the older I got, and the more income that started coming in, the more I was able to afford to start picking up those variant edition books whose cover art I seemed to always enjoy more than the regular editions (which rarely if at all ever go by cover price). And when I DO buy variants, I always purchase a regular along with it. So it seemed a no-brainer that I'm really never going to have a need to crack open the variant again since I have the regular editions, that I'll just submit a variant. I have a small cache of variant covers, so I looked up as best I could what seemed to be deemed the most valuable out of all of the ones that I have. And I came up with: Amazing Spider-Man #583 1st Variant Edition Obama cover (LUCKED out being able to pick up one of these before they disappeared and skyrocketed), Uncanny X-Men #492 Messiah CompleX chapter 2 Silvestri cover art variant, and then Hulk #7 Michael Turner cover art variant. I have both the red and green Hulk variants from Michael Turner, but decided I liked the Green Hulk variant better, so I sent that one in first. I figure through out my tenure as a member, I'll eventually go through and submit all of my variants, but these were the first 3 I picked out.

I don't know why I didn't opt to use the online submission form; I guess in some way I felt obligated to use the paper forms included in my introductory packet since they had taken the time to print off and send me some. So I sat down at the living room coffee table and started filling out as correctly (and legibly) as I could my submission form. Once that was finished, it was onto actually packing said books!

I packed the books as best I could from the suggestions page on the website. Each one was bagged and boarded. Although two of which were in resealable bags, and I know the company says that they cannot open or grade polybagged items, and must be given written permission to do so. I wasn't sure how that applied to regular self-adhesive resealable comic bags, so just to be on the safe side, I included a small note explaining that if they need written permission to open them, I do give it. And then of course I signed the note, and printed my name below the signature. After I had the books in their bags, I cut apart a small cardboard box, sandwiched the books between two pieces of cardboard, and taped them together with some packing tape. I'll admit, probably not the safest material to use, but scotch tape just wasn't getting the job done holding the cardboard together. Then I cut and taped two more pieces of cardboard on each of the sides the same way. Went to the post office, purchased a mailing box, and some bubble wrap. Bundled the books together with my coupon, and submission forms, and then stuffed the box silly with bubble wrap. Nothing inside of that box was going to move in transit. I paid my shipping fees, and watched nervously as 3 of my beloved collection got sent off in the mail.

I was nervous if I failed to fill out the paper work correctly?I was nervous if I miscalculated the return shipping fee?.Did I remember to include the coupon?....Did I pack them in such a way that the company wasn't going to be able to unpack them without damage?....Would the box get damaged in transit?....

Well, part of my paranoia was finally settled when my order finally showed up on the website a few days later with a "Received" status. Okay, one down. Now, did I do everything else correctly? Can they open them up okay?

Not long after that - I almost want to say perhaps later that same day my order went from "Received" to "Verified"?Each book I submitted was correct, and even though I failed to notate in one way or another on my submission form, CGC has each book listed online as a Variant Edition. I must say seeing that put a my mind at ease. It's not that I ever doubted CGC's professionalism, and I kind of figured having the name that they have, they've seen many a similar paperwork error as my own.

It's been about five days since my order status went to Verified, and it's still currently listed as in that status. I figure there's quite the line ahead of me, even if I did use a coupon for the Express service.

But now the things going through my head are thoughts about what kind of grade I think I may receive. It's a weird feeling being nervous about a grade again. I haven't had that situation since I graduated college 7 years ago.

I've been flipping through some other posts, and it seems more often than not people are getting lower grades than expected. And seeing so many, I've kind of lowered my expectations for my own grades, but still have a hope in the back of my mind for relatively high grades. I'd like to think I take really good care of my books. If it's a book that I do not plan on reading (such as my variants) they go straight to being bagged and boarded. And of course with most Variant purchases, they're usually already bagged and boarded upon purchase?But I usually transfer the books into my own bags when I get home. It makes me feel better having them in a bag that doesn't have a price tag label or it's adhesive residue on it. And of course all of my other books go straight to the bags and boards once they've been read. And due to a tragic mishap with my very first comic ever as a child involving a thunder storm (it's still painful to think about), I very rarely handle the books while reading them. I generally place them on a pillow on my lap and set the books there; or on a desk, etc. It's a big neurotic, I admit, but seeing the destruction of a beloved piece of fiction was just traumatic!

Now that I've been able to surf around the various sites for the past couple of weeks, I've deciphered some things, and I'm thinking about typing up another semi-book of a post to perhaps give some insight to other newcomers to help them decipher some of things I had trouble with. I'll of course have to search through the boards again before doing so, but thought it could be fun to do whilst still waiting on my first submission grades.

/ponders how much longer his order will remain in "Verified" status and if his home-made cardboard shield did a disservice to