surfer99

It only took a little over 6 months... Better late than...no, I take that back, if I knew it was going to take this long I would have paid the extra 10 bucks per book for expedited shipping. I submitted these books at the Amazing AZ Con in early January. Dude from CGC told me at the time that I should have my books back by the end of March at the latest. Craziness. You should have seen how destroyed the box was when it finally arrived too. I almost posted a picture of that. Fortunately, CGC did a good job with the bubble wrap and there was no damage. Anyway, when I was at the AZ show and saw CGC was there taking submissions, I wanted to send in a few books. I didnt have any set aside to submit at the time, but I ran home, searched through my collection, and found a few to submit. My thought was these would all grade at 9.0 or above...yeah, not so much. Xmen 80 CGC 8.5 (I was close on this one) Xmen 121 CGC 7.0 (wow, the only thing I can think of is there was water damage or something I didnt see...I would buy the grader notes, but I wont be giving CGC any more of my money for this one) Doctor Strange 182 CGC 9.0 (hey, I got one right) I will definitely be keeping the Doctor Strange 182, and probably the Xmen 80, but the X-men 121 is trade bait for my LCS. Id like to think that Ive learned a lot since submitting these and hopefully future books will come back graded closer to my expectations. One can only hope. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Talk about a great story... OK, so it's not all out Avengers vs. X-men battles like we're seeing in the latest mini-series, but there are still some great old school battles! Love this story, and hope to collect all issues in high grade at some point. Avengers 47- Magneto returns from his banishment to another planet by the Stranger Avengers 48- first appearance of the new Black Knight who seeks the Avengers aid in stopping Magneto Avengers 49- Magneto tricks the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver into leaving the Avengers and joining his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants X-men 43- Magneto defeats and captures the X-men X-men 44- Angel escapes and seeks the aid of the Avengers in battling Magneto X-men 45- Cyclops vs. Quicksilver! Avengers 53- Avengers vs. X-men! Magneto defeated? I did manage to pick up Avengers #49 in CGC 9.2 recently. This is a hard issue to find in high grade due to the black cover and when I look at it, there are hardly any noticeable defects- a gorgeous issue that I'm happy to add to my collection, without paying 3X as much for a 9.4 copy! I'm also waiting for CGC to return a few more books from this storyline to me so I'll let you know how those turn out when/if I ever receive them. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I'm sure Tnerb appreciates... Just picked up a reading copy of New Mutants Annual 2 at my LCS. Didn't realize this was the first appearance of Psylocke! It was a pretty good story. I like Mojo and Spiral...made me miss Longshot- what ever happened to him anyway? SPOILER: I never knew Psylocke was blind, or that Mojo gave her android eyes so she could see. Too weird. Anyway, I've always liked Psylocke and it was cool to check out her first appearance. Now go grab your copy! *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I was looking through an old Dazzler comic... ...it had a Hulk cover and was in the 50 cent bin at my LCS so I figured why not. One of the articles in the Bullpen Bulletins of this issue caught my eye and I found it interesting reading so I thought I would pass it along... Start Many collectors have inquired about the two different types of covers theyve seen on Marvel Comics. One type has the price, date, issue number, and some strange numbers and symbols in little boxes...as seen in the upper left hand side of the Dazzler book below. Another has the price, date, and issue number in a diamond shape. The reason for the two different covers is that our comics are circulated two different ways. Some reach the public via the Curtis Circulation Company and a network of Independent Distributor Wholesalers who service newstands, drugstores, 7-11s, and other magazine outlets across the country. These comics whose covers have the little boxes. They carry the Curtis seal and, presumably, the strange numbers mean something to wholesaler type people. A substantial number of our comics are NOT distributed by Curtis, however. These comics go directly to comics specialty shops and other locations not serviced by ID Wholesalers. Since these comics arent handled by Curtis, they dont need the funny little numbers and cant carry the Curtis seal...hence the artful diamond design, which so beautifully sets off the remaining info. Clever, huh? Thats the scoop. Apparently some collectors were worried that the one type might be less valuable as collectibles that the other type, or that the little boxes covers were reprints, or vice versa. Well, how much our comics are worth as collectors items really us up to YOU guys. Only in the marketplace can the value of a collectible be determined. We CAN tell you that the comics with both types of covers are printed at the same time, on the same presses, that neither type is a reprint of the other, and that except for the cover markings, the comics are identical in every way. All clear? End Admittedly Ive noticed the two different price logos, but had no idea what their significance was until now. According to Wikipedia, the Curtis Circulation Company was the official distributor of Marvel Comics from 1969 to 1986. I dont see this changing the way I collect, but I enjoyed learning about this little piece of Marvel Comics history and hope you did as well. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Better to take your time and do it right... We all want our books graded faster, but not at the cost of making errors. Case in point, ran across this one on eBay... XMEN 119 CGC NM+ 9.6 CGC ERROR LABEL NO SIGNATURE, BUT WITH SS LABEL We all make mistakes, but those like this are a little silly. I am surprised this one got by with all the quality checks CGC has in place. It was graded 12 14 2011 right when they really started to get backed up. So please, take your time and continue delivering a quality product. By the way, where are my books? *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Got my signatures... Got a late start today, but dont feel like I missed much. The line for George Perez was only about ten people. I went and talked to the guys from CGC first and they told me to just give them a call when I was like third in line. They were really helpful as always and I wont lie, it was a little nerve wracking popping my two books out of their cases to get signed. Im thinking theyll be downgraded a tad after the signatures but Im good with it...I would rather have the signatures. George is a REALLY cool dude. He is always smiling, always signing...sometimes stacks of books, taking pics with fans, and for a small fee doing sketches. As he was signing my Xmen 112 he pointed out this was the first time Wolverine had ever been drawn with hair on his arms...I did not realize that! Then as he is signing my Xmen 128 I asked if he could draw a small Phoenix logo, which he was happy to do. Like I said, really cool guy. After this, the CGC person walked with me to Bob Laytons booth so he could sign my Xmen 112 as well since he did the cover with George. I mentioned to him what George had said about Wolverine and he didnt know that either...he said, wow, one more piece of comics history I didnt know I was a part of! He seemed like a pretty nice guy too. I found a couple more reading copies from Avengers and my son picked up a couple TPBs but I wasnt able to find any other high grade Xmen appearances so I just submitted what I brought with me. On that note, these are the books I had graded...also used FASTtrack this time to avoid that 100 day wait... Xmen 114SS formerly CGC 9.4 Xmen 128SS formerly CGC 9.6 Amazing Adventures 11 best guess 9.0 Avengers 48 best guess 9.2 Fantastic Four 28 best guess 7.0 Xmen 95 best guess 9.0 Xmen 126 best guess 9.6 Xmen 133 best guess 9.8 Will let you know how they come out when I hopefully get them back in the next month or so. Til next time... To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I must be getting old... Today was preview night so the doors didnt even open til 4pm. I spent four hours cruising the Con before heading home but my back is already feeling it! I still have 3 more days to go then one day rest before driving back to Disneyland for the second time this year. I am, and will be sore, but Im also blessed for the opportunity. Its funny, as I was looking through boxes of high grade comics I would see a lady in white cover and think, hmmm..i wonder if mirclemet has that issue? Then I would see a bunch of checkerboard issues and think, I wonder if LeeK has those? Its nice to have fellow collectors to share this hobby with. I managed to pick up up a few Avengers reading copies today...56, 57, and 58, but not much else. I was tempted to buy a Good copy of TOS 57, first Hawkeye, for $50 but I passed. I was going to bring a couple Xmen books for George Perez to sign but I didnt think he would be signing today. My bad, he was there signing, but he said he would be there signing every day so no biggie, I will catch him tomorrow. Hope to find another high grade Xmen appearance too so I can submit with the other six I want to bring in...going fast track this time around with everything. Cant deal with the 100 day turnaround for this bunch. Stopped by and talked with my good friend Frank from Aspen. It was nice to catch up with him a little bit as we havent talked since WonderCon. Met some really nice LCS owners there as well so I will have to stop by their stores at some point in the next few months to say hi and check out their inventory. Looking forward to tomorrow...browsing more comic boxes and getting those signatures! Til next time... To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Every comic book fan should see this movie! My wife told me about this movie that was made by Morgan Spurlock, the same guy who made the movie Super Size Me, that told the story of the San Diego Comic Con from the fans point of view. I was down because it was comic book related and she was really excited to see it. Turns out there was only one showing in one theater on one night in all of Arizona. We just got back, and had a great time! The event was hosted by nerdrepository.com and sponsors included Ash Ave. Comics and the Phoenix Comic Con. Very cool they were able to bring this film here if even only for one night. The attendees and hosts were very nice and gave it that comic convention feel. Ash Ave. Comics did a giveaway in front of the screen before the movie started. They would give a trivia question related to one of the guests attending this years Phoenix Con and if you shouted out the right answer you won a free tshirt and comic book. The first few questions were all DC related and I had no clue. The last one was a Marvel question...who was the artist who launched the New Avengers? Took me a minute, but then I shouted David Finch! Free tshirt and comic...nice. OK, back to the movie. For a complete review and a look at the trailer check out CBR at www.comicbookresources.com. The film did a great job of capturing the essence of Comic Con. I really felt like I was back there again...last time was in 2009, this film was done in 2010. Im telling you, we were laughing so hard at some points...Kevin Smith was hysterical and the owner of Mile High comics could be a comic in his own right. The message of the film was clear...we all have a little nerd in us and Comic Con is the place you can let it out without fear of judgement or ridicule. Another message it delivered that is kind of sad is that Comic Con isnt really about the comics so much any more as it is about pop culture and the entertainment industry as a whole. I dont know if thats necessarily a bad thing though when you consider the exposure and respect our great hobby is getting within mainstream society as a result of the mixture between comics and Hollywood. What I do know is that Im excited now more than ever to attend the Phoenix Con this week. Sure, its not San Diego, but its still going to be a great time! Hope to see you there! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Let's see what the fuss is about... I was looking up the books I'd submitted years ago using the new Verify CGC Certification tool so that I could add the graded on date to my comic descriptions. When I got to my Xmen 112 I thought why not drop the five bucks to learn why it got a 9.4. Not something I plan on doing on a regular basis but I wanted to try it once just to see what the deal was. Here is what I learned from the 5-27-2009 notes... Top Front Cover Bend Sure enough, when you the view the book from above you can see a very small bend on the top edge. I did not notice that before. Spine Lite Stress Lines Breaks Color Check, there are seven very very small lite stress lines. Happy this did not drop the grade below a 9.4. Bottom Whole Book Small Dent I don't know what it is meant by bottom whole book, but I do notice now there is a small dent on the back cover at the bottom edge that doesn't break color so that may be it. My conclusion is that the grader notes are nice because they really helped me see the defects I hadn't noticed before. Does it change the grade? No. It does however educate me on things to look for when submitting books in the future so I have a little better idea of what those grades might be. I won't pay for this service often, but if I'm ever dumbfounded on why I received a particular grade I will bite the bullet to view the notes. As for my Xmen 112, I'm hoping to have George Perez sign it at the Phoenix Con this month. We'll have to see if it comes back with the same grade...fingers crossed! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

No spoilers, don't worry Today my wife and I celebrated our 21 year wedding anniversary. We chose to take the day off work and go see The Avengers...twice! The first time by ourselves, the second time with the kids. I have to say this was the best action movie I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot of great movies. It's like when you watched Indiana Jones or Star Wars for the first time, remember how cool that was? Like that! Thank you Joss Whedon, fantastic job! Marvel did it right- make great movies with these great characters, then bring all the (mostly) same actors back together again in one movie, united against a common enemy- yes! It was seriously like they took the best elements from all the best Avengers comics and brought them to life on the big screen for one ultimate slugfest! OK, enough with all the exlamation points, we get it, it was a great movie. Seriously! I'm thinking we'll go back tomorrow and watch it again, but this time in 3D. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as we did. P.S. stick around at the end after the credits, there are TWO stingers! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Latest addition... OK, so I took the advice of my fellow collectors and decided not to bid on the raw copy of Tales of Suspense 49 that I wanted since the buyer would not guarantee the book was unrestored. I feel good about not pursuing that one, especially since I ended up being the winning bidder of another book that I really wanted...Fantastic Four 28! This seller seemed much more confident about their book being unrestored, and regardless of what the grade itself ends up being this book is just gorgeous! As long as it comes back with a blue label I am a happy man. I'll submit this one fast track at the Phoenix Con next month along with some others I'll submit as economy...even though I still have not received the 3 economy books I submitted at the Amazing AZ Con on 1.7.12. I forgot to mention the other 3 books I submitted at WonderCon when I wrote about that experience last month, so here they are... Avengers 47 probably a 9.2 Avengers 53 hoping for a 9.4 Sub Mariner 52 probably a 9.4 I'll be sure to follow-up with the grades received on those when I receive them over the summer. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Auction ends in 2 days... So there's this book I'm looking at on eBay that'll likely go for a couple hundred which is about what I would be willing to pay. The book is ungraded but looks very clean and I would love to add it to my collection. The problem again is that it's ungraded. I asked the seller if there was any restoration done as I would want to send to CCG and would only be happy with a Universal blue label. He said there was none he was aware of, BUT he did not guarantee this. This is an older book and I would really rather not pay for an already graded copy. I don't mind taking a chance that I'll get a lower grade with a raw copy, like if the seller said it was an 8.0 and it came back a 6.0, but I'm hesitant to jump in when it may come back with the dreaded purple label. What do you guys think? *** (completely unrelated photo) To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

It's been a BUSY week! There is a lot to tell in one journal to describe the events of this past week so I'll have to condense it for you as best I can... Wednesday At 3:00am the family and I drove from AZ and arrived in Anaheim, CA at 9:00am. We parked at the hotel, took a shuttle to iHOP and grabbed breakfast. After breakfast we walked across the street, spent all day and night at Disneyland, then headed back to the hotel. Feet and legs were already feeling it, but we covered a lot of ground and it was a blast. Thursday Woke up at 8:00am, grabbed free breakfast at the hotel and took the shuttle back to Disneyland. Spent all day and night there, but we saw everything we wanted to see and rode everything we wanted to ride more than once. By the end if the day my legs felt like they were literally going to buckle and I was gonna do a faceplant at any second...seriously. Friday Forgot to pick up our badges for WonderCon yesterday because we were too busy having a great time at Disneyland. WonderCon doesn't open til 12:00pm so we slept in a bit and walked down the street to the convention center at 10:00am...then waited in line an hour and a half for our badges. I am happy to report though that it was SO worth it! WonderCon absolutely rocked and my legs held up the whole day! I'm not kidding, I had as much fun as when I go to the SDCC, and I picked up a few nice looking books that I submitted to CGC while I was there. I do wish there were more panels and previews because the wife really enjoys those, but still when factoring in the Disneyland experience, none of us were missing the SDCC. I'm thinking if it goes back to Northern CA next year we'll make the trip and see the sights in San Francisco, although I'd really rather it stay in Anaheim. Saturday The kids spent the night at a friend's house Friday night so the wife and I decided to hit Disneyland again just her and me on Saturday morning. It was really cloudy and a little windy...should I grab the umbrella from the trunk before we catch the shuttle? Nah! We'll be fine! When we got there, there were NO lines so we got to spend the first hour or so riding our favorite attractions again and again...then the rain came. Buckets and buckets of rain. The last time I was that cold and wet I was playing in the snow up in Flagstaff. So, so cold! We made it back to the car, grabbed the umbrella then walked to the Con where our kids met up with us. We spent another couple hours there dripping wet and freezing, walked back to the car, grabbed some lunch then drove home to AZ with the heater cranked! Sunday Slept in...man it feels good to be back in my own bed...for one night at least. Hopped on a plane to San Antonio, TX in the afternoon for a 3 day training class I had to take for work. Monday-Tuesday Training in San Antonio. Good food by the way, especially the barbeque. Ate at a place called The County Line. No joke, I could have drank the BBQ sauce straight up it was so good. I would have taken a few bottles home, but I only took a carryon and you can't take more than 3 oz on the plane. Also visited the Alamo today which was pretty cool. Didn't know David Crockett (the tour guides insist he did not go by Davey) fought there. Wednesday Training wraps up early and my flight home doesn't leave til the evening so I've got some time to kill. What should I do? Hey, I wonder if there are any comic shops here? Sure enough, a quick search on the Internet and I found Heroes and Fantasties, see pic below, so that's where I'm headed. Who knows, might find another book or two! Looking forward to being home after this crazy trip and really wishing I didn't have to go to work on Thursday. Oh well, what's a couple more days right? All I know is this weekend it's all about the zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz's. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

All X-men appearances... My goal is to collect first print high grade CGC copies of all X-men (and X-villain) appearances outside of their own title pre-1980, preferably starting with those appearances made before the new X-men team began. What can I say, I love seeing the X-men show up as guest stars in other Marvel titles, and I would love to have the best such collection ever assembled! The plan for the books I'd still like to add is to try and find the highest grade copies I can afford raw, submit them to CGC myself, wait for an eternity to get them back, and be happy with the ensuing grades received...unless they come back with anything other than a blue label- those will not be added to the collection. There are some books I only want if they're NM+ so for those I'll want to find graded copies, but the rest I will pick up raw unless I find a really smokin deal on something. Paying for all graded copies is just too cost prohibitive and I'll have to accept that not every book I have can be a 9.6. But I'm good with that, these books will still look fantastic in my collection regardless, and I can always do what I see a lot of other collectors doing and that's upgrade when I can. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Let's see if my books are scheduled for grading... Thought I would call CGC to check status on the 3 economy books I submitted at the Amazing AZ Con on 1/7 since it will be 40 business days tomorrow. I was told it will likely be another 3 weeks before they're graded. In CGC speak, that means another month and a half, but I'm OK with that. It is what it is. They are a month or more behind and we all know that going in. I just hope I'm still preaching patience in May when they're still not graded, . To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Worst idea ever... If you have seen the Facebook comments you already know how mad everyone is at the SDCC event organizers- personally I blame the VP of Events, Robin Donlan. Why are we so upset? Because we registered our member IDs long ago, followed the directions given in the SDCC e-mail notice to purchase badges- click this link on 3/3 at 8am and do not share the link with anyone- then we went to click the oh so secret link that the San Diego Tourism and hotel sites posted on their public web sites and Facebook pages, only to spend 15 minutes trying to access a link that didn't work! Turns out the only way you could purchase tickets was to copy/paste the link into a web browser, or go on the SDCC web site directly. By the time we did that the tickets all sold out VERY quickly. In reading the Facebook comments, there were a lot of folks who were able to get tickets for some days and some members of their family, but not others. After waiting in line for an hour starting at position 30,080 I am sorry to say all tickets were SOLD OUT! I'm happy for the 10 percent who didn't rely on the e-mail link, went to the SDCC website directly and were able to get tickets for themselves and everyone in their family on the same days. I'm sure they will have a blast. Hopefully next year the organizers come up with a better way to sell the SDCC tickets. I never had issues buying tickets online in the past with the most recent being in 2010. Fortunately, I'm still headed to WonderCon in a couple weeks so I am looking forward to that. It's not the SDCC, but I'm thankful. Hope to see ya there! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Looking to stick with a familiar theme, but branch out into the... Silver Age! The early X-men guest star appearances from this time period (by special arrangement with X-men magazine) had some fantastic covers and the colors really pop off the page. I started my X-men collection in the Bronze Age with Hulk 181 (and later added Giant Size X-men 1) in CGC 8.0. Love these books, and the new team, but what really started to intrigue me were the X-men appearances that occurred when there was no X-men title. The focus of my collection for the past several years has been on obtaining 9.6 copies of these issues. For whatever reason that is the magic number I had to have, not 9.4, not 9.8, but 9.6- don't ask me why I just really like the 9.6. I suppose it could be because they're better than NM, but not as expensive as NM/MT. Anyway, I love these issues and will continue to collect them, along with high grade copies of the new team in X-men 94-143. So now this brings us to the Silver Age. I have been so fixated on getting only 9.6 copies that I never really considered collecting the earlier X-men appearances because I could never afford 9.6 copies of those. Then I realized, if 8.0 copies were good enough for my Hulk 181 and Giant Size X-men 1, then darn it, I can accept less than a 9.6 for my Silver Age X-men appearances as well! Will some of the lower grades still be expensive? Sure, but not so much so that they're unattainable. They are hard to find without overpaying though so wish me luck and as always I will let you know when/if I'm able to add any to my collection. P.S. I found a cool site another fan put together that gives a breakdown of all the X-men appearances, although I would use the term appearances lightly on some of these... Silver Age X-men appearances: http://www.justafanboy.com/SilverAgeXmen/ Bronze Age X-men appearances: http://www.justafanboy.com/BronzeAgeXmen/ Nice to know there are others out there who share my passion for these issues! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Among other X-men storylines... I spent some time (OK a lot of time) this weekend researching X-men storylines from the 70's (my forte), looking through the footnotes in each issue, and updating my comic descriptions to link the various issues associated with a particular storyline. Why? Because I like to follow the story along to see how it plays out, and now I can. If anyone else would like to check out some of these great stories, I've put them in order and listed them under their respective plotlines. Enjoy! Beast- flying solo 1972 Amazing Adventures #11-12 1972 Marvel Team-Up #4 1973 Amazing Adventures #13-16 1973 Incredible Hulk #161 1974 Captain America #174-175 1975 Avengers #137 (joins a new team) Magneto- world domination 1969 X-men #61-63 1970 Fantastic Four #102-104 1971 Amazing Adventures #9-10 1973 Avengers #110 1973 Daredevil #99 1973 Avengers #111 1974 Defenders #15-16 Magneto- revenge against the X-men 1977 X-men #104 1977 Super Villain Team-Up #14 1977 Champions #16 1978 Marvel Team-Up #69 (Beast sub-plot) 1978 X-men #111-113 Juggernaut- escape from limbo 1968 X-men 33 1969 Dr. Strange #182 1973 Amazing Adventures #16 1974 Incredible Hulk #172 Secret Empire- operation hostile takeover 1972 Amazing Adventures #13 (Brotherhood of Evil Mutants captured) 1972 Incredible Hulk #150 (Havok and Polaris captured) 1973 Avengers #111 (Angel captured) 1973 Incredible Hulk #161 (Beast captured) 1974 Incredible Hulk #172 1974 Captain America #172-175 Secret Mission- unknown? 1974 Marvel Team-Up #23 1974 Defenders #15 In these issues, references are made to a "secret mission" the X-men have been tasked with, but this occurred after the Secret Empire was defeated in Captain America #175. The question then becomes WHAT was this secret mission?!? This next part kind of blew my mind a little...these two issues, Marvel Team-Up #23 and Defenders #15 were both written by none other than Len Wien- the man who only a few months later would bring us Hulk #181 and Giant-Size X-men #1! It's apparent from comments made in GSX #1 that the Professor knew of Wolverine and had been keeping tabs on him, so my guess is this secret mission was to enlist him in the X-men. Unfortunately before the X-men could reach out to him, they received a new mutant alert from Cerebro that resulted in their defeat and capture by Krokoa. As a result, Professor X was left to gather a whole new team on his own that included Wolverine. Pretty cool to think Len was laying the groundwork for the new team in these issues and we didn't even know it! Yeah, I know I spend too much time thinking about this stuff, but it's fun! Something else that came out of my research- I found another Bronze Age X-men appearance I didn't know existed! I was reading the footnotes in Power Man and Iron Fist #57 and saw a reference to Defenders #63 (1978). I did a quick search on eBay and sure enough, there's Havok and Polaris on the cover! How cool is that? Of course I bought a reading copy right away, so now I'll be on the lookout for a 9.6 copy to add to the collection. Thanks for reading! Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Latest addition...3 years, worth the wait! I let this one get away from me a couple times, once on eBay a few months ago, and three years before that at the SDCC. Check out this comment I made in my Success at SDCC!!! journal from 2009- It killed me, but I had to pass on a FF #104 CGC 9.6...it was in my hand, but the seller wouldnt take less than $600 and thats not gonna happen. So glad I held out, because I finally picked it up, and for less than half that price! This is proof that good things do come to those who wait! There are a number of reasons I love this book... 1) Published the year I was born so theres some sentimental attachment there- I was a baby when this book Im holding in my hands was made, and it looks better than if it had just come off the rack! 2) Features an appearance by President Nixon, before he committed suicide in Cap #175 3) Oldest X-men (or X-villain) cover appearance after the flagship title entered reprint mode 4) Continues the story from X-men #63 I will elaborate on that last point. The first thing I thought of when I saw this cover for the first time was, Why is Magneto wearing this weird outfit? So I did a little research. It started with Magnetos defeat in Avengers #53 which led to X-men #62-63 where it was revealed that Magneto had fallen down an ocean gorge and into an underground series of caverns leading to the Savage Land. The new suit Magneto created for himself served two purposes- to allow movement to his damaged limbs (presumably suffered in the fall), and to syphon off the majority of his magnetic powers which he used to mutate the Savage Land natives (reminds me of the device Magneto used in the X-men movie to mutate Senator Robert Kelly). When the Sub-Mariner found Magneto unconscience on the outskirts of the Savage Land in Fantastic Four #102 he was still wearing this outfit. I think its pretty cool that Stan Lee and John Romita continued with the same outfit and storyline for Magneto in Fantastic Four #102-104 that Roy Thomas and Neal Adams began a year earlier in X-men #62-63. Im sure it helped that Stan was the editor too- way to keep up with continuity Stan, we do notice and appreciate it! Note: While in the Savage Land, Magneto also took the liberty of creating an energy-draining costume for Angel which he used against the X-men in Avengers #111, but thats a story from another journal (What happened to the X-men Part 2). Til next time... ***

Yes I know January is almost over I was just looking through some of my previous journals and ran across one called Year in Review or No Comics in 2011. My goal was to give my wallet a rest and not spend any money on CGC books in 2011. Lets see how that worked out for me. The comics I added to my collection this year include 2 22 11 Amazing Spiderman 92 CGC 9.6 4 15 11 Marvel Team up 69 CGC 9.6 7 23 11 Hulk 161 CGC 9.6 8 4 11 Marvel Team up 23 CGC 9.6 9 22 11 Xmen 128 CGC 9.6 10 8 11 Sub Mariner 34 CGC 9.0 10 14 11 Xmen 108 CGC 9.6 10 18 11 Xmen 113 CGC 9.6 10 24 11 Daredevil 111 CGC 9.6 10 27 11 Xmen 124 CGC 9.6 10 27 11 Xmen 125 CGC 9.6 10 27 11 Xmen 134 CGC 9.6 10 27 11 Xmen 136 CGC 9.6 10 27 11 Xmen 138 CGC 9.6 Looks like I went a little crazy in October. OK in my defense though I got a fantastic deal on all of these books and I did sell several books in my collection to help offset some of the cost. Id like to say I wont buy any CGC books this year but its a little late for that and Im really hoping to make it to the SDCC again. What I can say is that I will buy smart this year and make every purchase a worthwhile one. On a completely unrelated topic there were layoffs announced today in the company where Ive worked for over 15 years and my organization was directly impacted. Ive had a lot of folks praying for me and honestly Ive been ready for whatever God has planned for my life however scary that may be. As it turns out though God still wants me here for now and Im thankful for that even I say goodbye to some great coworkers who were not as fortunate. Regardless of what would have happened though God is still good and I know he cares about me. I say this to let everyone know that no matter what you may be going through in life you don't have to go through it alone. Til next time. Cause there's always a next time.

CGC accepting submissions... As mentioned in my last journal, I was at the AZ Con this weekend and was pleasantly surprised to find that CGC was onsite, and accepting submissions. I checked the Con web site but didn't see any mention of CGC so I didn't expect they would be there. The guys I met at the CGC booth, Mike and Joe, both seemed really nice. I spent most of the time talking with Mike since Joe was pretty busy doing other stuff. I mentioned to Mike how some people on the registry have been expressing their displeasure with the current wait times and the $5 per submission fee. As far as the fee, he said it was a necessary part of doing business. It was successful when implemented for the NGC and since CGC mostly follows suit with what works in the NGC they implemented it for CGC as well. As far as the wait times, he said they are now shipping books that were submitted in August. He said they had considered updating the website to indicate the current wait time for Economy is longer than the published 40 business days (this is what I think they should do), but decided against it since they hope to get caught up. He said he does feel bad for the individual collector who maybe only sent in a few books and are stuck in line behind a dealer who sent in a few boxes. To be honest, this isn't a huge deal for me. I get that they're busy and I'm sure they're doing what they can to get the books graded and shipped out as quickly as possible. I don't see any reason they would intentionally drag their feet, and I would rather they take their time and do a good job. Which brings me to my next point...once I saw CGC was accepting submissions, I drove home, spent an hour going through my collection to find the best looking books , and ended up with a handful I thought may be worth submitting. I brought them to Mike and Joe gave me their thoughts, and I ended up submitting these 3 books... Doctor Strange #182 X-men #80 X-men #121 My hope is that they all come back graded higher than 9.0, the X-men #121 could be even higher which would be fantastic, but we'll see. Mike says I should see the books by the end of February, or possibly early March. I'm not going to stress. I'll get them when I get them and hope for the best! Til next time... ***

Not the SDCC of course, but still fun... Heard about this Con on the radio last week and decided I would take the family to check it out http://amazingarizonacomiccon.com/. We'd gone last year for the first time and it was fun so why not. Then I find out one of my closest friends was going to be in town with his family representing his company at the Con so it was awesome to get to see them while we there too. Like last year, the main attraction was The Walking Dead since the creators are local here. Not my thing, but it was um...interesting to see and hear the zombies vs. monster hunters contest. As with most Cons there were plenty of people in costume...my favorites were this big guy in a cool Thor costume, and this REALLY big guy in a Predator costume (seriously...I'm 6'5" and he made me look short, and he was built like a wrestler). Oh yeah, and I have to admit I also liked the women of Mortal Combat (see pic). I had a good time browsing through comic boxes and managed to pick up a couple nice reading copies of some old Avengers books at 50% off. There were a few vendors that sold graded books, but nothing that caught my eye. I did see this one seller who was asking $15,000 for a 9.8 copy of Hulk #181. I know it's a high grade copy of the first Wolverine, but man, $15,000? My wife also found a Pop! Marvel Captain America Vinyl Bobblehead I wanted. It looks great next to the Thor Pop! Marvel Bobblehead I got from my son for Christmas. Have you seen those things? I hate to use the word "cute", but I don't know how else to describe them. They have big eyes and no mouths. I was also hoping to find a few more Marvel Tokidoki blind boxes (they make great laptop bag accessories), but no luck there. Oh yeah, CGC was onsite too! I'll write about that in my next journal. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Latest additions... or first journal of 11/11/11... I mentioned in a journal a couple weeks ago that I had unexpectedly "won" (i.e. had the privilege of purchasing) several X-men books I was bidding on in the ComicLink auction. Those books arrived earlier this week and I've added them to my collection no problem. All are graded 9.6 and look great. For what it's worth they gave me a nice bump in the standings as well- moving up from 552 to 500. The books I picked up were... X-men #124 X-men #125 X-men #134 X-men #136 X-men #138 I also snagged a couple X-men books on eBay just before the ComicLink auction ended... X-men #108 X-men #113 Did I mention I wasn't buying any graded comics this year? Don't judge. What's that? No, I do NOT have a problem. I can stop any time I want, I um, just choose not to. So I went to add these last two to the registry and I received the dreaded "These books are registered to someone else" message. Issue #113 posted the next day so I assume the seller responded right away to the request to reassign the book to me...I am still waiting 3 days later for issue #108 to be added to my set. Can I just say, if you're going to sell your books, please, delete...them...from...your...registry! OK, climbing off soapbox now. Anyway, all things considered I'm happy to have added these to my collection and I look forward to someday completing the set. Check out AJRodriquez's collection if you want to see how amazing this set looks when complete in high grade (drool). That's how it's done my friend. P.S. Hey, how about those Value Tier turn around times? Sorry...couldn't resist. Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Latest additions... I've been wanting to add some X-men comics to my #94-#143 set so I did a little research to see what they've been selling for the past few months. This gave me a good idea of what I was willing to pay for the books (i.e. just over the lowest selling price). I'm not getting in a bidding war because there are plenty of these books out there and I'm comfortable with placing a minimum bid of what I think they're worth. Someone was selling a nice collection of these on eBay last month so I bid on a handful of them...and was outbid on all of them. No biggie, I knew the ComicLink auction coming up, I'll bid on those. The ComicLink auction was ending yesterday so I decided to bid on 12 of the issues I wanted for my collection thinking I may end up winning 1 or 2 which would be great. Well, apparently the bidders were sleeping on that auction because I ended up winning 5 books! I have mixed feelings about this...I'm happy to have these books and the price was great, but it's still a lot of money (for me) to spend at once. Can you imagine if I had won all 12 auctions?!? OK, lesson learned, be careful what you bid on, you just might win it. I've said it before, but now I mean it, no more bids for me this year (fingers crossed)! I'll add these to my collection with pics and descriptions when they come in (also looking forward to that bump up in the standings). Til next time... *** To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

We need a journal so I'm posting one... OK so apparently Tnerb has been indisposed as of late as I have not seen a journal from him, or anyone else for that matter, in a few days. The way I see it, it's better to listen to my ramblings than to nothing at all. As you may know, I recently sold by Wolverine #1-#10 CGC collection and my ASM #129. Honestly, I just wasn't attached to them any more so I figure someone else can enjoy them for awhile. I made a good chunk of change in the process and picked up a few nice CGC books, but I also surprised myself and spent a good amount putting together a reader copy (4.0-8.0) run of Bronze Age Avengers, issues #112-#180 to be exact. I already have reader copies of Avengers #88-#111 and had only intended to add issues #167-#176 (and Thor Annual #6) for the Korvac Saga, but figured why not collect all the issues in between. (You completests out there know what I mean.) Turns out these are some GREAT stories! This is a good reminder of why I started collecting comics in the first place. I can't wait to spend the next couple months looking through every old newspaper scented issue. I also picked up an X-men series from 1999-2000 written and drawn by John Byrne called "X-men: The Hidden Years" (#1-#22). It sells really well on eBay and its John Byrne so I figure it?s gotta be good. This series chronicles what happened between X-MEN #66 and GIANT-SIZE X-MEN #1. Wait, isn't that the time period that has become the focus of my CGC collection? Yes, yes it is. OK kids, time for bed, daddy's got some reading to do! Til next time... ***