Rune

Uh, but some of their books are so rare I'd fight a hungry tiger to get them (ok, maaaybe not, but you get the point). Well, think if someone did put Conan the Barbarian #1 CGC 10.0 WP (single highest graded) with perfect cover centering in a waterproof bag and threw it in a lake filled with starving piranhas - would I go for it? Well, not if it was surrounded by great white sharks, at least But should a sticker stop me from buying amazing books? I guess now you know why these stickers are still there!

It's a culture thing. There is nothing like just sitting there peeling off CLink stickers. You know you have to go real slow (like on a first date ), never be impatient and force it , let it take the time it needs Over the years I've come to consider myself a Master Peeler (pun intended ) And they come in different flavors - some leave no residue , some deliver in spades I guess it all goes back to Forrest Gump "A CLink sticker is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get"

Thank you I guess it all goes back to "ask not what your fellow Conan CGC collectors can do for you, ask what you can do for your fellow Conan CGC collectors" (alright, alright, sigh, I just did for myself to see what's out there, but eventually thought it could be a fun thing to share )

And another #9, seems like there's enough for everyone these days! Get it here: Conan #9 9.8 WP Graded August 22nd 2014.

The incredible beak from a colossal squid! (yes, yes, it's the mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni) (Go to 2:17:00) (I hope Man, I could REALLY use those points! - And the fame ) As I told my sons, "Before sailing the Seven Seas as a mighty pirate, I clearly remember that beak when I was diving for pearls near the southern tip of New Zealand. Luckily I was saved by my two best friends, two hungry adult sperm whales, but I never will forget that beak! When I got back on the ship, I made the painting below to remember the day"

No, never seen that concert before, but I went to see (and hear!) this concert in 2006, it was great:

But it's a perfect song when bidding - if your skin does not turn a whiter shade of pale, you're not bidding high enough!

Just to clarify ;-) You can use normal USPS for $30-40 per package (and get (un-)lucky with Customs), but I rarely use USPS anymore. From my usual pushers, FedEx is much more expensive - at least $45 to $60 (art is often $100, actually $150 for my latest Carl Barks lithography since it is oversized), and then there is an import fee of about $75. So it all add up Think I'll go put on some Procol Harum (thumbs u (ok, this song has had quite a lot of exposure, still I never get tired of listening to it)

Guess Procol Harum could qualify too , although I'm no expert in prog rock. I do like many of these bands, great talent no matter the genre is always worth listening to, and it is great to be inspired by other enthusiasts. I grew up with a lot of computers and have always loved sci-fi movies (Bladerunner ), so that did influence my taste in music. Mind In A Box is from Austria, the music video is fan made using scenes from the 2004 movie Immortel (ad vitam). Most of these bands sell quite few albums, so if they ever make music videos the quality may only be slightly better than Trans X in 1982 I am Danish and still live in Denmark. Without me paying $100+ for each FedEx delivery, I'm sure they would be bankrupt by now

Great music, don't think I've heard it since the last time I visited my quite old and retired parents May I suggest something a little more up-to-date? (hint: Do not play this on anything less than very good speakers or headphones ) Shaper and Mechanist by Headscan There are great lyrics! "Immortal upload your self soul in binary and live eternally convergence neural connection sensory feedback mechanism infinity event horizon continuity beyond recognition seductive naked plastic skin" Uhm, maybe this one is even better

Another matter, beyond preserving books, is preservation of (original) comic book art. Some of us like to get the art framed, and getting this professionally done using anti-UV museum glass (or even conservation glass with 99% anti-UV) can be expensive. Ok, I have not tried this myself, I love to support my local frame shop, sigh, but going through Gerber's products, there may be ways to provide great UV protection for your art - without paying a premium for anti-UV glass. So how much can we cut expenses trying to get the art framed similar to using extremely expensive conservation glass? 1. Gerber 4-mil Mylar D archives can be bought here - assuming the art is 10" x 15", 1117R (= 11 1/2" x 17 1/2") should be fine - cost is $16 per 10 pieces (plus shipping): http://www.egerber.com/category.asp?CategoryID=450&SubcategoryID=559 Remember that Mylar D is something special: "Our specially Impregnated Mylar D stops 99% of the UV light. Mylar D is accepted as photo safe to direct contact and is used internationally by archives and museums. Yes, it costs 8 times more than standard Mylar, but it blocks UV hundreds of times more than other plastics." Source: http://www.egerber.com/aboutpreservation2.asp This way getting UV protection similar to conservation glass may be done for a fraction of conservation glass prices, simply by inserting art in 4 mil thick Mylar D® snugs. Then I guess you can purchase whatever frame you want and just insert the art (thumbs u Again, I have not tested the above, it's just an idea - but this way you may be able to frame a piece of original art and get 99% UV protection for less than $20 (if you can find a matching prebuild and inexpensive frame). Or Mylar (D) archives may just be a good way to store art... (note that this post is not intended as some kind of Gerber commercial - there may of course be other Mylar producers offering similar solutions, I just did not take the time to investigate if other kinds of Mylar provide 99% UV protection).

Seems like #9 books keep rolling in, this one graded in 2012: Get it here: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Conan-9-CGC-9-8-Sept-71-Barry-Windsor-Smith-WHITE-Pages-NO-RESERVE-/290871727056?ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:US:1123

And two new books, issues 8 and 9, both graded June 2014: http://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/conan-the-barbarian-8-marvel-1971-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/121434-14173.s http://comics.ha.com/itm/bronze-age-1970-1979-/conan-the-barbarian-9-marvel-1971-cgc-nm-mt-98-off-white-to-white-pages/a/121434-14174.s

And another #24 has been added, graded July 2014: Get it here: http://www.wwcomics.com/comicdetail.asp?Product_ID=Conan_24_95909

Another #1 has arrived, graded July 17th 2014: Get it here: Conan the Barbarian #1 9.8 WP

Hmmm, it's already at 83k, will it make 100k? Could be the most expensive Conan the Barbarian cover ever, we'll see tomorrow...

And today's new addition: Graded January 22nd 2014, thus Census did not just change (well, actually it did, but I do not think that this book is the explanation). Get it here: Conan the Barbarian #8 9.8 OW-W

Yesterday I added this #9 pedigree: Get it here and good luck (it ends July 27th, so there's still 5 days left): Conan the Barbarian #9 8 WP Pedigree In June, last one sold on CConnect for nearly 2k (also pedigree, Suscha News), although nobody seems to understand why, #9 is one of the most common 9.8 books regarding #1 to #24 and Annual #1. Previously such books have often sold for $300-500.

Yes, 1 or 2, although this member actually has 5 books: http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=23163 (This is of course not to point fingers, it just shows that some books do not get a lot of points.)

I fully agree - some time ago I wrote a (funny?) journal entry about the pros and cons of collecting CGC books, also reflecting some of your thoughts on the matter: The Pros and Cons of Collecting CGC books (Something went wrong, when I originally posted that entry, so readers can not respond to it directly on my CS public homepage. Hopefully it still does get read from time to time, it did take quite some time to gather the info.)

Thank you, I guess collecting these books may work better than a Weight Watchers' diet plan The Registry does fuel the ludomania, especially when winning rare books and advancing in the hierarchies. The CCG (Certified Collectibles Group) seems quite aware of this fact: "Consumers should be aware that the market in collectibles is at times volatile and involves a due measure of risk. Only those who are aware of, and inclined to bear, the financial risk involved with buying and selling collectibles should participate in this market. " Source: http://www.collectors-society.com/Legal.aspx From time to time it may indeed be a good thing to question yourself, "am I buying this book because I really like it, or just to get more points for my Registry set?" (yes, I admit it, I have bought pure points too ) PS. Again using the median value is often the best method to describe certain groups (data sets). Imagine for example Bill Gates sitting on a park bench together with 10 homeless people. Then you can ask, "What is the average yearly income for each person in this group?", and you conclude that they are all billionaires. But the median value would show you that at least 50% of the group had an income of $0 (or a very low income) - which may be considered a more accurate description in this and many other cases (adding the quartiles, which is the normal way to give results, the results would be 0 (0 - 0) $, now you would know that at least 75% of the group had an income of $0). Here is an example from one of my published papers showing how you can easily compare two groups using medians, quartiles and ranges: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3502261/figure/F1/

It may seem more advanced than it really is. Just think of the registry set as one big round cake, then you cut it in half (=finding the median), then into 4 similar pieces (=finding the quartiles and IQR) - and finish by checking the ranges (so you actually do not even need a calculator to do these statistics, ok maybe for the 5% and 95% ranges). I did the above statistics in the spirit of the upcoming awards - and next year we can observe if the median and quartiles have changed. This will indicate if the Registry is gaining or losing points, maybe interesting to follow for speculants? - Although that was not my intention, I was just curious. I did find it interesting that the median was "only" 1500 points with 25 and 75 percentiles being 8600 and 250 respectively, I would have thought that these values were much higher (it means that the great majority of CGC book collectors with registered sets on this site have less than 8600 points). One perspective could be if these results are somehow similar to the distribution of wealth in our part of the world? (ok, I won't go there, sorry ;-)

I'll be the first to admit it, I hope I can get some sort of nerd award for this (But I did have fun doing it) Did not really think that my humble collection would reach top 6%, maybe I should start to consider spending money on clothes and food To be in the top 1% today, you need at least 430,782 registry points (and you do not even need a mountain of books to reach the top 1%, just a single Action Comics #1 8.5 or Amazing Fantasy #15 9.4 will suffice (thumbs u )

Just a quick look at Total Registry Points and the associated median and quartile values. Results from today July 17th 2014. Total Registry Points (4089 members) Range 5%, 86205 points. Q1, 8602 points. Q2 (median), 1501 points. Q3, 252 points. Range 95%, 32 points. IQR = 8350 points. (Note I go from the highest scores to the lowest scores, because this is how the Registry Points are shown on this site.) Rewrote the following text from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quartile . 1. The first quartile (designated Q1) is called the 25th percentile (splits off the highest 25% of data from the lowest 75%). 2. The second quartile (designated Q2) also called the median or the 50th percentile (cuts data set in half). 3. Third quartile (designated Q3) also called the 75th percentile (splits off the lowest 25% of data from the highest 75%). 4. Interquartile range (designated IQR) is the difference between the upper and lower quartiles. (IQR = Q1 - Q3). Further I've added 5% and 95% ranges. The 5% range shows the minimum score you need to be among the top 5% of all collections. The 95% range shows the minimum score that 95% of all collections achieved - or you could turn it around, it shows the maximum score for the 5% of all collections with the fewest registry points. So this is quite straightforward: 50% of the members have less than 1501 points, 50% of the members have more points (so is 1500 points the most normal score? Maybe... I did not calculate average values, too much data and my evening is too short). 50% of the members, ranging from Q3 to Q1, have from 252 to 8602 points. So can we say at least to some degree that it is normal to have from 250 to 8600 total Registry points? Maybe... Only 5% have more than 86000 points - if you are in that category, maybe you are special. Is it good or bad? - You decide! :-) And less than 5% have from 1 to 32 points, should you do more to reach Q3? Again that is of course a personal decision. I will save these numbers, let's see how it changes in a year or two... Best, Rune (yes I'm on vacation, no I do not have anything better to do! ;-) PS. The total range is from 1 to 3,458,712 total Registry points, thus I am not sure that the data set is normally distrubuted, so using non-parametric statistics as above might be warranted (because in this case the average value might not represent common trends). See more journals by Rune

I read somewhere that bigamy isn't widely accepted in our parts of the world, so you can have her Last one sold for about $2300 on CConnect, but this vacation time of the year may be perfect for a bargain pickup (yes, there are nerds like me scanning the web EVERY day, but I think we are few and no treatment has helped me so far )