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Lee K

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Journal Entries posted by Lee K

  1. Lee K
    it sounds like the sky is falling...
    While my position on the $5 per invoice fee hasn't changed; that is I am still upset about it and I still think it is a poor business decision as it weighs unfairly on the small collector that cannot afford to submit 30 books on an invoice; I am surprised by the passion that it has stirred in others.
    In review, I submitted ten invoices this year - two coupon submissions, one signature series, on silver age, and six modern. I have no idea if the $5 charge will apply to coupon submissions or not and I'm not going to pop over an look in the middle of my journal, so I am going to assume, right or wrong, that it does/will apply to my next coupon submission - and I will have another. For when my membership expires next September, I will renew again. So let's consider the effect of the $50 I would have had to spend extra had my 2011 submission been submitted under the 2012 guidelines:
    I would have had one less submission of modern books.
    That's it. I would have spent that same money at CGC, not more, not much less - because I have a hard budget for comics, and a portion of that budget is for CGC - a specific hard budget, not a flexable one. And 2011 represents the year I sent in the most submissions - I think I did five or six in 2010, and only four in 2009...I just don't submit that much stuff myself.
    As for the increase in actual grading and encapsulation costs: I guess I would have to had sent in two fewer books in those nine remaining submissions to cover that additional cost. All told - I would have ended up with seven fewer CGC graded books in my collection.
    But - with an increase in all the grading costs - that 10% discount is worth more, right? See, there is a silver lining.
    Would I like CGC to reconsider the idea of the $5 fee? Sure. Am I going to go away if they don't? No.
    Are they going to get more money from me than they would anyway? No.
    But are they going to do less work for the same money? Yeah, they are.
    Happy Hunting
    Oh, and Merry Christmas!
    Lee
  2. Lee K
    Submissions waiting to be graded over another weekend...
    So I had two modern submissions and one economy submission at CGC this past month plus...
    Yesterday was day 41 for the first modern submission and I received my books back.
    Today is day 29 for the other modern submission and it is still 'verified'
    Today is day 19 for the economy submission - and it is 'verified' as well.
    Those are business days, not calendar days and they don't include national holidays...
    oh well.
    Lee
  3. Lee K

    I have an idea

    By Lee K,

    Maybe...
    Just maybe it would be more appropriate for persons with no registered sets and who don't appear to have any participation in the registry to comment on the chat boards in Comics General and leave those of us who enjoy journaling with out the vituperative nastiness that accompanies any opinion on the chat boards alone.
    Happy Hunting
    Lee
  4. Lee K
    Because I was asked to follow up on my journal of 1/18...
    OK - so I wrote a long dissertation on this subject earlier; and then I bumped the back button on my mouse and lost it all, so I guess I'll be brief.
    Comics stacked one on top of another and left to be stored for years or even months undisturbed left us with some really nice comics preserved from the 40s, 50s, and 60s - beautiful, flat copies with great color gloss and flat spines. Even non-pedigree collections staored this way probably provided us with a great number of the 7s & 8s in our collections.
    Unfortunately, stacks of comics also provided us with dust/light/and oxidation shadows. When a book is only partially covered by the book above it and there is an exposed strip - that strip can form a shadow - a dust shadow, which is a stain on the book, is caused by exposure to dust, and typically found on books stored in attics. Sun shadows, which are a damage to the inks used to print the cover due to a limited lightfastness in the ink, are caused by partial exposure to sunight or other strong light and are common in books stored on windowsills and other very bright locations. Oxidation shadows, (as I understand them - I've never seen one) are caused simply by exposure to air, are a degradation of the paper caused by the increase in deterioration caused by oxygen.
    It is dust shadows that haunt me the most, and I suspect are most common in higher graded books because the other conditions would be excellent for the mid to long term storage of high grade books: a cool, dry, dark place (you know - where you get dust). My issue is that they are a stain - just the same as if you dripped your Capt. Crunch on the book while reading it, but CGC doesn't grade it as a stain (OSPG says visible staining on books graded 6.0 or lower, unless I am misremembering). Certainly a cover stain shouldn't be evident in a book graded above 7.0 or so. Now, I'm not railing against CGC; I respect what they have done for the hobby. And as long as they are consistent: i.e. they always ignore dust shadows in books graded 9.4 and below, or whatever their criteria is, then that is fine with me.
    But on books where the dust shadow isn't evident from a scan of the front of the book (how most are sold on auction sites), then I think the label deserves a note. Truthfully, I would like to see the same notation on books that have date stamps on the back cover - or frankly anywhere on the book. If there is room to note: '66' written in pen on cover, on my label - then there is room for: 4" x 1/4" dust shadow on reverse, or: date stamp on reverse.
    Well - enough for today.
    Happy hunting
    and congrats to pgbeckstrom on his first submission back from CGC
    Lee
    Oh - here's my notation - on the old label.
    Lee

  5. Lee K

    How we collect

    By Lee K,

    OK - we all collect what we love, but how do you select from your myriad of purchasing options?
    As much as it hurts me to do so, I assume we all have grade ranges and paper quality requirements for our collections, so I don't want to revisit those discussions. Instead I am interested in those things that are important to each of us that aren't really about the grade: Pedigrees, Dust Shadows, Spine Ticks, Rounded Corners, Date Stamps; Handwriting in ink/wax pencil/pencil; Cover Centering; Cover Gloss; Color Depth on the cover.
    Are they important to you? Ok - some of these items should be covered in grading, but CGC doesn't appear to grade particularly hard, if at all, against date stamps or dust shadows.
    Pedigrees: As a collector of mid to high grade silver age DC books I have some pedigreed books in my collection: Rocky Mountain; White Mountain; Pacific Coast (hard not to); Big Apple; Boston; and because I have a copy of Whiz Comics a Crowley - before I am done with my go-go check set I hope to add a Green River, a Sucha News and maybe one of whatever else gets added to the CGC pedigree list for SA DC. But - what I don't do is pay extra for the pedigree status, or at least not substantially more than I would have without the pedigree status. What about you? Is a book's pedigree status as important as the grade? the page quality? is it even a consideration?
    Dust shadows/sun fading: Ugh, I despise dust shadows, and while I don't have a copy of the OSPG handy while I am writing this - it seems to me that dust shadows are permitted on grades of 8.0 or less in the OSPG grading system. This is one of those instances where I agree with OSPG and I question CGC. I recently purchased at auction a CGC 9.2 copy of Our Army at War #178 with Off-White pages. This is a favorite cover of mine from the run and the scan provided by the auction house is of good quality and doesn't disclose any dust shadow. The book arrives, I open it, and lo & behold there is a dust shadow running the width of the book at the bottom edge. I am seriously disappointed. Where do you stand on the issue? Are dust shadows or sun lines a deal killer for you or just a negotiation point?
    Spine ticks: I have an unreasonable dislike for spine ticks; so much so that I would rather have a comic with a lower technical grade (one or two steps) that didn't have any spine ticks over a book with visible color break at the spine. How about you? What's your deal killer?
    Dates: OK, so I don't like date stamps - I know, I know, there are many people who love dates: stamped, pencilled, inked, even wax pencil. I would just as soon replace every book I own that has a date stamped/pencilled/inked on the front cover with another book of even grade as soon as the opportunity presents itself - except Strange Adventures 195 where the number 66 is written on the cover in pen - that's my White Mountain book and I got a killer deal on it. Stamps are the worst for me - particularly if they obscure any of the artwork or are distracting within the masthead. Like 'em/hate 'em? Share your feelings.
    Cover Centering: I think everyone prefers a well; centered book, but is it a primary concern for you? Me, well if there is a well centered option, I'll take it; but it certainly isn't a deal killer and I have many poorly centered books that I love.
    Cover Gloss: Not a big deal for me with a slabbed book, just because I can't tell. But in a raw book it is something I look at, and I look at it rather closely. I like a nice shiny book with strong colors -
    Finally - cover color strike: This is less difficult to tell in a slabbed book than gloss - you can tell if the color is deep and rich even through the plastic. I really prefer strong, clean colors and a clean color strike. I also want my white covers to be white. There's nothing like a dingy white cover to turn me off on a book I am viewing. Where do you stand?
    Hey - Thanks for reading...
    Next week: what's important within a set listing to you?
    and in closing - the image clip of the week: Rocky Mountain.

  6. Lee K
    or: how I dropped 30 ranks in 30 days...
    I don't know - last month I was ranked 391 and trying to determine how many years it would take me to get in to the 200's - now I'm ranked 421 and wondering how many months it will take to get back in the 300's. Did we get a bunch of new registry members? if so, that's really cool - more people to share with. Or did everyone all of a sudden have a lot more money to spend on our hobby than me? which is kinda cool, but I wish I had some cash too...
    Oh well, buying season is ahead and I anticipate good things for 2011: reaching the 20% mark for my go-go check, and acquiring one of the 'big 3' of the go-go check set in HG: Lois Lane 70, Batman 181, or Detective 359...
    Happy hunting
    Lee
  7. Lee K
    cause my EMCC submission no. 1 came in.
    and like every Christmas Day there were surprises, disappointments, and excitement all around.
    Let me preface this entry with the following: all of these books are from my personal collection, all books I bought off the rack at my LCS. Books from 1984 through 1988 are from my time in the Air Force and were purchased at the LCS in Riverside Ca; books that are older than that are from when I was in high school, and books from 89 through 91 are from when I owned my own LCS. These books travelled from Seattle to Mississippi to Southern California, back to Seattle and through 4 apartments before settling in the house I own now. They have many, many miles on them.
    Until about 2000 - grade wasn't something I thought about when buying a new book from my LCS. The book was new, all the other books were new - they were therefor the same: 'new'. I understand now that 'new' isn't any more a condition than 'nice' is.
    My submission can be considered as two different batches - the first of which were all books that I thought could grade out at 9.8 or better - and before you comment, I have submitted only about 100 books during my membership and one of them was a 9.9 - so it does happen and you don't have to be a big dealer for it to happen to you (although it didn't this time). The second part of the submission is all Justice League of America books that I anticipated would grade out about 9.2.
    To avoid being redundant all of the books have WHITE pages.
    For my freaky Batman friend I had three variant cover books slabbed so that I might give them to him as gifts for his birthday: Birds of Prey 1 (9.8); Red Robin 1 (9.8); and Batman 700 (9.6).
    For me (& my wife) I got:
    Zatanna: Everyday Magic (9.8)
    Wonder Woman 181 from 2002 (9.6) for my wife
    New Mutants 70 (9.6) - I thought this was the best looking book in the submission. *shrug*
    New Mutants 81 (9.8)
    New Mutants 82 (9.4) (?!?)
    New Mutants 98 (9.8)
    JLA 1 - (9.6)
    JLA 2 - (9.8)
    JLA 3 - (9.6)
    JLA 4 - (9.8)
    Justice League 3 - Superman logo variant (9.4)
    And finally mu Justice League of Americas - the books with thousands of miles on them...
    Justice League of America 200 - (9.0) - I don;t know about this; it's a beautiful 72 page square bound book and it looks like the best bet for a 9.6 in the bunch. That's why I don't work for CGC
    justice League of America 212 - (9.6)
    Justice League of America 213 - (9.6)
    Justice League of America 217 - (9.4)
    Justice League of America 249 - (8.0) what? was I eating pizza?
    Justice League of America 253 - (9.6)
    Justice League of America 254 - (9.2)
    Justice League of America 256 - (9.4)
    Justice League of America 259 - (8.0) pizza again - this happened a lot in the 80's
    I am happy with my returns - and surprised, books that I anticipated would grade at the bottom of the range I was looking at graded at the top; and vise versa.
    On a happy side note - my EMCC submission no. 2 was graded and I peeked.
    All WHITE pages - all Cho Signature series:
    Shanna #1 - 9.8
    Shanna #2 - 9.8
    Shanna #3 - 9.8
    Shanna #4 - 9.8
    Shanna #5 - 9.6
    Shanna #6 - 9.8
    Shanna #7 - 9.8
    I had thought that they would all be 9.8's but there isn't any way for me to control how Frank handles the books while signing - so I guess one at 9.6 isn't the end of my world.
    Happy Hunting.
    Lee
  8. Lee K

    Why the registry?

    By Lee K,

    2,123 registry users with point totals ranging from 2,265,493 points to 3 points, and I don't even begin to know how many registry sets...
    Given that I would have to multiply my current collection by 100 to find myself in second place in total registry points, and with my limited collecting focus it is unlikely that I will ever be in 1st place in any of my registered sets; why the registry?
    I possess a competitive nature and I want to be 1st - and I am a completionist (is that a word?) so I want them all, so what does the registry mean to me?
    Well, more than anything, it's a chance to share with and connect with other collectors - whether it's Tnerb on the east coast or Peter in Portugal or anyone else that has sent me a private message - that I would never have met any other way. Even though our collections fail to have even a single book in common - we all collect, we all buy books encased in plastic tombs, and we are all compelled to share those collections with 2,122 other people (unless our sets our obscured - which I fail to understand, but to each their own). Our similarities outweigh our differences, our love of something as ephemeral as a picture-story book printed on cheap paper for the entertainment of young people (at least originally), is a commonality that makes us all part of the same sub-set of humanity.
    Second, I like to showcase what I have in my collection, to show off, to share what I love with others who don't dismiss it because it is a comic book. And this is why I love sets with images. How am I ever going to appreciate what others find enjoyable from the cover of Strange Adventures 79 (cool cover by the way) or Mr. District Attorney 65 (I made that up - I've never seen Mr. DA #65) if no-one ever shares? I could surf the chat boards (umm, no) or I could spend hours on the web researching on various sites (their comics are often too degraded to enjoy the images) - but both of those options are missing something: the recommendation of someone else who collects.
    Tnerb says: read these books - they are a good read. Surfer99 say: check out these Marvel Masterpiece collections - a great way to see these X-men appearances. Silver says: look at these various covers from the SA - how great are they?
    Collections and collectors that are about more then the accumulation of points, more than a #1 or #2 or #17 ranking within a set. They are about a love of something and the sharing of that love.
    The community is about collectors helping other collectors with their collections. I really, really enjoy our community. And although some day I hope to have a custom go-go check set for my collection, so I can have everything where it belongs - it isn't about that.
     
    In closing I have attached a cropped image from the cover of Mr. District Attorney #65 with art by Moldoff, which I looked up while I was writing this...
    Happy hunting and happy sharing.
    Lee

  9. Lee K
    Go! - Go! - Go!
    The Go-go check period, representing a slice in time from early 1966 through the middle of 1967 is more than a ploy to make DC's books stand out on the spinner rack from all the competition.
    On the surface, it isn't much different than the Marvel picture frame period or even the 1976 Bicentennial issues; it does cover a specific period of time, and it created a cover design format that was used across multiple books in every genre by the publisher and it did make those books look like part of a group on the stand - comic companies still use this technique today to tie-in all the books in a crossover event (just in case you need all 250 issued of the Fall of the Mutants).
    But a deeper look into the books shows the remains of an intense advertising campaign - 1/3 page adds sprinkled throughout the books read: For the best in (Humor, Adventure, Thrills...) Go! Go! Go! - earlier interior adds read: When chosing your comics, Go check, then go doublecheck! The Direct Currents (letter page) masthead was changed to incorporate the checks; bad beat poetry was written in an effort to promote Swing with Scooter and The Adventures of Bob Hope all surrounded by the checks as well...
    But for a period of 18 months (about) every DC title had black and white checks across the top and around the top corners, linking the CCA emblem and the DC Comics logo, so when viewed by a prospective purchaser on the spinner rack, they stood out.
    Spanning 526 issues in 51 titles, the go-go check collection is about 25% larger than the Marvel picutre frame collection - it covers all genres: Humor (Adventures of Bob Hope, Sugar & Spike), Adventure (Strange Adventures), Superhero (Action, Wonder Woman), Team Books (Justice League of America), Team-ups (Brave & the Bold), Romance (Falling in Love, Young Romance), Western/Frontier (Tomahawk), and guys without powers (Sea Devils)...it includes 1st issues (Plastic Man, Inferior 5, Swing with Scooter), key issues (Batman 181, Lois Lane 70), and 80 page giant issues (18 of them).
    It includes great cover art (Batman 189, Brave & the Bold 72, Detective 365, Our Army At War 173, Strange Adventures 197, Tales of the Unexpected 99), terrible cover art (Justice League of America 53, Showcase 62 & 67, Wonder Woman 165, World's Finest 161) and gorilla cover art (Hawkman 16, Star Spangled War Stories 126, Strange Adventures 201, Wonder Woman 170) [DC sure loves their gorillas].
    The go-go check collection has fewer issues that Amazing Spiderman (complete) or Detective (complete)...but is still very large. Will I ever complete it? probably not - at least not in high grade. High grade issues of Bob Hope, Jerry Lewis, Swing with Scooter, and the half-dozen romance titles are hard to come by. Most of the romance books were in the Savannah pedigree - but for the most part, I was badly outbid on them. I do suspect that I should be able to complete maybe 80% of the collection, if I keep at it.
    I'm happy with the go-go check collection as a goal - and it should keep me busy for many years to come. I hope you are as happy with your goals.
    Happy Hunting & nice knowing you;
    Lee K
  10. Lee K

    Milestones lost...

    By Lee K,

    The go-go check collection moves backward...
    So I've been working on the go-go check collection for some years now, and when I first put the list together I listed the superhero books and then I researched for the other titles I needed to make the collection complete; sometimes I missed an issue of one end of a run or the other but by the end of the first year I was fairly certain that I had all the titles accounted for. Except...well a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that I was missing a romance book.
    Now, I've never been a big romance or humor book collector - although I appreciate the variety of DC funny animal books from the 50's and I like many of them - so I couldn't figure out what I was missing and eventually I concluded that I was just misremembering.
    Until last week - thanks to the Savannah collection which has a nice grouping of romance books - I finally discovered that which I had overlooked: Heart Throbs issues 100 through 108. 9 issues that I added to my collection list and once again moved my back under 20% complete. For an entire year I waited to hit 93 books - and now I have to wait another couple weeks of even a month to hit 95.
    Oh well - it is the thrill of the hunt that excites me, so why not something as elusive as high grade SA romance books?
    Happy Hunting
    Lee K
  11. Lee K

    How we collect, Pt. 2

    By Lee K,

    Staples anyone?
    It was brought to my attention that I neglected to address staples in my mile-long dissertation last week. And after having it tossed in my face, I have to admit that I don't really look at staples - not as part of a mental checklist, and it doesn't seem to be a deal killer for me.
    So, I went to my LCS - and pulled through their bin of 60's Charltons thinking about how I look at staples. I look for discoloration; I look for dimples, stress lines and staple related tears; I look to see if the book has been repaired at the centerfold and the staple folded back over the repair to 'hide' it; but staple placement didn't really stand out to me - at least not until I got home and looked through my CGC books. And well - I 'knew' from looking at the book when I bought it, that it had terrible staple placement - and looking at it again I was reminded that the staple placement was less than desireable; but in retrospect - I would have still purchased the book.
    Later this week - more discussion on dust shadows, sun shadows, and oxidation shadows following the requests of some of my readers.
    In closing - a pretty photo of a pretty fabulous 50's Batman, with terrible staple placement. For those of you who currently read Secret Six: the debut of Deadshot.
    Thanks for reading and commenting.
    Lee

  12. Lee K

    Graded

    By Lee K,

    So one of my two Emerald City CC submissions is now "graded" status...
    All I have to do is keep from looking at it for 10 days or so until it shows up at my door.
    ...
    I can do it...
    Maybe
    Lee K
  13. Lee K
    Yay! My modern submission is graded...
    All 9.8 - all white pages...
    So I've been trying to send in a small submission as regularly as I can - I know, I know - not the cheapest on shipping, but I can set aside a small amount of money easier than doing a big submission. I save the big ones for Emerald City CC.
    Also, I've been sending off the odd modern books - usually Justice League books, but I took time to go through my collection and pull out the covers by my two favotire cover artists: Alex Ross & Brian Bolland...Later I may even ask for a Brian Bolland DC cover set: Animal Man, Flash, Wonder Woman, and Gotham Knights are the big sets where he did work - but also an issue of Jonah Hex, the Zatanna one-shot: Everyday Magic, and the variant covers for the current (but sadly ending) Zatanna regular series (issues 1-6).
    That having been said - I didn't send any Bolland's this time - but I did send a Ross, and I did accidently send the Frank Miller covered All-Star Batman & Robin #5 (variant).
    Yeah, accidently - I had originally selected 7 books to send, but when I examined them in the art studio (best light in the house) I decided that a spine stress on the All-Star B&R and a bad corner an another book would prevent them from grading at 9.6 or better and I deleted them from my order and set them aside - or at least I thought I did; somehow I set the All-Star aside in the same pile as the books I intended to (and did) ship. So I got a call from CGC: there's a discrepancy in your order form and we won't do anything with your books until you call us...I cleared this up fast enough on the phone and the book was added to my invoice - I guess it was meant to be.
    Oh, yeah - the books:
    JSA #1 - just becuase
    JSA #73 - Alex Ross cover - because I love portraits, I paint portraits, and I think Alex's portraits rock...
    JLA - #7 - working on this set - just because I like it.
    Justice League of America (2006) - 3 - working on this set too (for some reason I don't own the variant cover to issue 3)
    Justice League of America (2006) - 4 - variant
    All-Star Batman & Robin - 5 - variant - because I am engaged by Frank Miller's compositions (sometimes - this one works for me, other's don't)
    Next up? The black covers: Justice League of America #0; JLA #8; Gotham Knights #18 (best Aquaman cover ever); JSA #74 (more Alex Ross)...I haven't even shipped these out yet - but I will soon...
    Till then - Happy Hunting:
    Lee K
  14. Lee K

    Twin Cities

    By Lee K,

    Just generally overgraded?
    So I got my second book from the Twin Cities pedigree in the mail yesterday - Flash 162 - I already have a Metamorpho 9. When I bid on this book I could see that there was a strong stress line and color break at the upper staple - but further review of the scan indicated that this was the only substantial flaw with the front cover of the book, so I figured 9.2 was an ok grade.
    Once I had the book in hand, or rather the slab in hand, I was really disappointed with the presentation of the book; the upper staple color break is bigger than in looks in the scan and much to my dismay the back cover of the book is dingy. I mean really grey/dirty - almost as if it suffered some smoke damage that none of the books were supposed to have suffered.
    Honestly, I think the book is a rather weak 9.0 - particularly since I have 7.5s & 8.0s that present better.
    Has anyone else purchased a Twin Cities book that they were less than thrilled with once they got it in hand?
    Thanks for reading my rant.
    Lee K
  15. Lee K
    Does anyone know...
    What the actual modern turn around time is right now? I've been Verified for weeks now with no change in status. I think today is business day 20 - but I don't always know which cons are 'major'.
    Let me know...
    Thanks
    L
  16. Lee K
    a look at the registry...
    OK - so not the journal I promised to write about the go-go check collection, but that journal is turning out to be more work than I anticipated. It's coming, it's coming.
    Instead I thought I might write a bit about the registry - I am fascinated by the registry. And today, because of my love of Matt Baker, Jack Kamen, Rulah, Zago, & Zegra - I thought I would start with the letter Z.
    In the letter Z there are 11 competitive titles, sort of; three of them have no sets: Zen, Intergalactic Ninja; Ziggy Pig Silly Seal(?); and Zoo Funnies (1945) - although I suspect Zoo Funnies will have at least one set soon, since it was just added. We can also ignore the sets for Zegra (1 set, obscured); & Zero Hour (1 set, 0 points).
    This leaves Zago, Jungle Prince; Zip Comics; Zombies!: Feast; Zoot Comics; Zorro (Dell); and Zorro (Gold Key) - 3 of the 4 Zorro sets are by the same registry member - so there isn't a lot to talk about there either; although the member appears to have a couple of really nice sets with 90% of the Gold Keys and 68% of the Dell - I can't really tell though, since there are no pictures.
    Zago, Jungle Prince is only a 4 book set and issue 4 has a Matt Baker cover - so I had high hopes that this might produce an attractive set to look at, but of the three registered sets there are no pictures.
    Zip Comics, this should be an exciting set to view - there's 4 sets, but the top two are obscurred, and the bottom one has zero points. The only really good set belongs to Poker Kid - it isn't obscurred, and all three books have images. I think if it were me deciding, obscurred sets would be automatically eliminated from all consideration, including point totals, in competitive sets.
    Zoot Comics - this should be a great competitive set, you have Rulah, Jungle Goddess in issues 8-20 (?) - Matt Baker and Jack Kamen art, bondage covers, headlights - nearly everything the GA good girl collector would want (me included) - instead 3 of the sets, including the top set, are obscurred and absolutely zero sets have any pics. Sadness...
    All this leaves is Zombies!: Feast - not a set that interests me, I don't read or follow Zombie books or other zombie goodness - it just doesn't have any appeal...but - here there's actual competitiveness, 3 set with points - the top two separated by 5 points. Set two is 100% complete with 10 pics - now this is interesting. Here are images of books I'm not familiar with! Here are the unobscurred sets.
    If it were me - armydoc's set for Zombies!:Feast - would be the number 1 set in all of the Z's.
    Next time - let's looks at the letter Q...or R, or whatever looks cool.
    In the interim, Happy Hunting.
    L
  17. Lee K

    The Waiting Game

    By Lee K,

    or "RECEIVED, day 6..."
    Let's be honest, I couldn't live further from Sarasota, FL, and still live in the continental US. And my budget isn't what I would like it to be for buying books and slabbing books - but I do have some moderns from my reading enjoyment of the various Justice League titles I would like to have slabbed. It's just, well, the status titles: Received, Verified, Scheduled for Grading - I know that these terms are defined, but what do they mean to me, from a practical standpoint. Does received mean my books showed up; or my books showed up and if the box was totally crushed in a tornado accident with the USPS truck, then CGC would have called me or emailed me and said so. Verified I understand; but there seems to be two steps - verified with no information loaded, and verified with information loaded...is that a multiple step process? should it be verified and uploaded? I don't know...but sometimes, sometimes I feel that the little bit of information is more tempting, more teasing, and more frustrating than no information. Of course, after reflecting on it, I know that no information for 20 or 30 work days would drive me completely bonkers. So, some is better than none...now I need to wait for my seven books: 2xJLA; 2xJustice League of America (current series); 1xJustice League; 1xAll Star Batman; and 1xNew Mutants...
    Wish me calmness while I wait - I'm going to need it.
    Because their motto was: Living on Borrowed Time, I give you: Challengers of the Unknown 54
    Happy Hunting
    Lee K

  18. Lee K

    Birthday Surprise

    By Lee K,

    So I was kinda hoping I would have grades...
    But, I don't.
    On the other hand I went to my LCS and my buddy there had purchased for me a raw copy of Strange Adventures #99 - maybe VG+/F-. A complete and readable copy for my collection.
    I am a happy man.
    Lee
  19. Lee K

    Verified

    By Lee K,

    sort of...
    So...I sent in two issues of JSA, two issues of Justice League of America, one issue of JLA, and one issue of All Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder.
    I have verified two issues of Justice Society of America, three issues of Justice League of America, and an issue of Batman & Robin.
    Will quality control catch this and correct it before everything is graded and shipped? or should I contact CGC?
    Anyone else have this issue before?
    Lee
     
    And the response from CGC is:
    Verification is just a step so that we may put placeholders in the system so that we can print barcodes for each book. It is in no way final and the graders will fix it when they get to your comics.
    So that is good to know - and if it happens to you, know you know too.
    (and knowing is half the battle)
    Lee
  20. Lee K
    Now at scheduled for grading status...
    Not that either package is really exciting. Submission 1 has some modern variant covers from my collection for my buddy's birthday, a modern wonder woman for my wife, some New Muties from when I closed my own LCS that I thought might grade 9.8/WHITE for some collector I know...and a bunch of Justice Leage of Americas, Justice Leagues, and JLAs that I bought off the rack in the 80's & 90's that I thought would grade out 9.2 and better, oh - and Zatanna: Everyday Magic. 'cause it has that sweet Bolland cover. Submission no. 1 was just shipped - so I am excited to see what the post man brings me - and a little worried about the Justice League of Americas...
    Submission no. 2 was Shanna, She Devil 1 through 7 from 2003 with all Cho signatures...'cause I love me some Cho art and I figured what the h***, I got a few extra bucks.
    so...
    still waiting.
    and wondering...
    Lee
  21. Lee K

    Milestones...

    By Lee K,

    The go-go check collection moves forward
    So Emerald City ComicCon provided me with a lot of 'big fat nothing' for the go-go check collection; although I did have fun on Sunday and I dropped some books at the CGC booth for grading - but I only saw three go-go check slabs, all for Justice League of America books that I already have (albeit higher grade - all 9.6) and absolutely no raw go-go checks that I would bother to have slabbed - mostly reader grade stuff, call it 2.5 to 4.5. I did, on the other hand, pick up raw copies of Strange Adventures 110 (grey tone cover) and 125 (flying gorillas - I need to research how many flying gorillas I can find in SA DC books, this is getting uncanny) in fine to very fine condition at a good price - certainly a nice add to the whole Strange Adventures collection. I have to be careful how I abbreviate that: Siver Ave Strange Adventures somes out SA SA....
    But, hey this isn't about that - this is about a nice milestone: the go-go check collection will be 20% complete when I list my most recent acquisition: Strange Adventures 197 in 9.6 from the Savannah pedigree.
    I still haven't acquired any of the big three books from the set, but I do have some of the smaller keys, and I have strayed only rarely from the grade requirements: (1) at 7.5, (1) at 8.0, and now (3) at 9.6. Date-stamps are present more than I would like but I am relaxing about that some...(not much).
    I have representatives from most of the major SA pedigrees in the collection (no Green River which is sad); and I feel that the collection is progressing well overall.
    Anyway - I just wanted to share my recent success.
    No image this posting - I smoked my hard drive...
    Happy Hunting to all.
    Lee K
  22. Lee K

    Falling in love again...

    By Lee K,

    for the first time - sort of
    When I was young, I read comic books: Justice League, Avengers, Green Lantern, ASM, GI Combat, Weird War Tales. Since money was tight and my income/allowance was erratic at best I rarely was able to purchase runs of consecutive issues and I found myself more interested in books written in episodes with limited or no knowledge needed of what went before needed to understand the story. Weird War became a real favorite.
    When I wasn't reading comics, I read books - typically cheap paperbacks of science fiction from the 60s that were available cheap at the used book store or from my friends' family bookshelves.
    Lately I have found myself attacted to that again - simple 'what if?' science fiction stories; Buck Rogers, John Carter, aliens and spaceships...
    What I didn't know when I was a wee little lad, was that there was a huge volume of science fiction available in my favorite medium - 50s and 60s sci-fi comics were something that flew under my radar as a child (I started buying in the early 70s). Later, when I became aware that they existed, my tastes had changed and I was reading sword & sorcery - plenty of which was available by reading Conan: comics, books, whatever, and then reading all the Conan clones.
    Now that my tastes have matured again I am finding myself attracted once again to stories of space, of aliens, of the strange and the unknown.
    Slowly I have started buying 50s & 60s science fiction books, DC only (no pre-hero Marvels), with looser grade ranges than I do my go-go checks: say 7.0 and up - although I still want the books to present nice. Mostly I am looking at Strange Adventures and Tales of the Unexpected (Capt Comet & Space Ranger), as well as earlier war books: Star Spangled War Stories is easily my favorite of them (love Dinosaur Stories) - and I have to say I am happy - I'm enjoying the raw ones and digging the images of the slabbed ones.
    Just thought I'd share, because I think there is something special in these stories.
    I leave you with a clip from the front of Strange Adventures 118...The Turtle Men of Space!
    Happy Hunting
    Lee

  23. Lee K

    Grades are in.

    By Lee K,

    Modern grades anyway...
    and they're not shipped yet, so the bet is still on whether the moderns (from 7/5/2011) will ship before my SA coupon books (from 8/15/2011).
    All the books came back 9.8/White - so that's nice (expected, but nice nonetheless) since I selected a mixed bag of JLAs JSAs Justice League of Americas (new #1 at my LCS today!) and a Brian Bolland Batman:Gotham for my brand new Brian Bolland collection (hey - either you dig his art or you detest it - I dig it for its differentness).
    I figure my SA coupon books should grade sometime in the next 7 days or so but I really expect a 7, a 8, and a 9.2 - nothing to write home about. But I'm not the best shopper of raw SA books...
    Later - and happy hunting
    Lee K
  24. Lee K

    Going visiting...

    By Lee K,

    with an old friend.
    So I'm running off to the coast for the weekend with my wife, but I'm thinking on the way back I'll swing by Mike Grell's house and see what he's up to since he was named Editor over at Ardden Comics.
    As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think I have anything for him to autograph, he's signed it all: Batman Family, Green Arrow, Green Lantern, Iron Man, Warlord, I even found an old Warlord action figure (he-man style) still on it's card and asked him to sign the card for me. I think I have to negotiate with him for a sketch - I think I really need a Green Arrow/Black Canary original sketch for the man who finished shaping Green Arrow after Neil was done with him.
    I think it will be a good Sunday afternoon stop.
    I hope my beach doesn't look like this: from Our Army At War #173 - a bad day at the beach.
    L

  25. Lee K

    Hey you - write a journal

    By Lee K,

    Join the family of regular journal writers.
    It's easy and as a family of readers, we're non-judgmental. Write what you know (comics) or write what you love (more comics), it doesn't matter.
    An easy first journal could be as simple as sharing your collecting goals for 2011 - is there a target book for this year or a collecting milestone you hope to reach?
    In 2011 I hope to add one of the following 3 books to my go-go check collection: Batman 181, Detective 359, or Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane 70 - I am hoping for a 9.2 or maybe a 9.4 (I can't afford better) with off-white pages or better. I would also like to add a Strange Adventures #9 in 8.0 or even 8.5 or better (there's one in Heritage's big auction this month) but it is a lower priority and may have to wait till late in the year or even next year...
    In the interim, I hope to entice more people to journal regularly.
    This weeks book - Our Army At War #168, the first appearance of The Unknown Soldier; maybe not the most well known character to collectors of superhero books but he was able to headline his own title for over 100 issues in the 70's.
    Happy hunting
    Lee