bagofleas

Jump on them while you can! Copper Age key issues and 1st appearances are really getting hot now. I'm seeing them sell for higher and higher prices as the movies get announced one after the other, mostly with characters and storylines that have their origins inside of the Copper Age. I was able to get my hands on a number of these books over the last six years for decent prices compared to what they routinely sell for now. Some are more sought after than others of course, but all of them are increasing in value lately at an alarming rate. I understand that some of this is speculation purchasing due to movie announcements, and that after the movie releases, they will settle down and level out in value, but they will still be worth more than they were just last year or so, and even with all of this, there is still a general "hotness" to CA keys in general now. I remember when I was a kid back in the mid 80s and Silver Age books were doing the same thing. My father and I could've gotten a DD #2 for $75 and a DD #3 for just $35, both in NM condition back then! We also had the opportunity to pick up an Iron Man #1 for just $65 in NM condition! Unfortunately, we didn't take the chance to pick any of these gorgeous books up, and now I could kick myself for not convincing my dad to do so. Well now we seem to be in a similar circumstance with CA key books! The only difference for guys my age is that we grew up with these very same books coming out on the shelves and picking them up, with no idea that in the future, they would become the CA equivalent of what the SA was going through back then. Part of this is the books just being more in demand and part of it is the rise of the third-party grading industry as a whole. Some examples of CA books that I picked up for a lot cheaper than they sell for now are: Marvel Graphic Novel #4 CGC 9.8 WP - $200 New Mutants Annual #2 CGC 9.8 WP - $190 New Mutants #98 CGC 9.8 WP - $300 Transformers #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $100 Uncanny X-Men #266 CGC 9.8 WP - $140 Alpha Flight #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $40 X Factor #1 CGC SS 9.8 WP - $45 Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 CGC 9.8 WP - $90 Captain America Annual #8 CGC 9.8 WP - $80 Booster Gold #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $75 Dazzler #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $45 ROM #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $100 Wolverine #10 CGC 9.8 WP - $75 Web of Spiderman #1 CGC 9.8 WP - $75 Avengers #196 raw - $20! (in 2013) Graded at CGC SS 9.8 WP!! Spectacular Spider-man #64 raw - $17! (in 2013) Graded at CGC 9.8 WP!! Transformers #80 raw - 25 cents! (in '92) Graded at CGC 9.8 WP!! Daredevil #168 raw - $5! (in '86) Graded at CGC 9.6 WP!! These are just a few examples of books that sell in 9.8 graded form, from a little to a lot more, than these prices I paid for them just over the last 5 or 6 years. The last two I purchased far longer ago, but still a huge value now! I've been very lucky to acquire such awesome copies for so much cheaper prices! But now I look at the prices that a lot of these CA books are selling for now, and wishing that I had picked up extra 9.8 copies for the sake of selling for a profit. And there are some that I never did get while the price was much lower than now. I'm still kicking myself for hesitating on some books which will take far more money to acquire now than it would have just five or so years ago. This is why you should jump on them while you can. They will only increase in value over time now. These books, while many of us think of as still "recent" are finally starting to come into their own value-wise and from here on can only become more in demand. Heck, guys my age see the 90's as over-valued, high-print-run-saturated, low value books. But just wait until the little kids from that time frame begin to come into their own financially over the next decade. You will probably be shocked at the prices of these "worthless" (by some of our standards) keys from the 1993 to 2000 era begin selling for. Will they be worth it? Maybe so and maybe not. But ultimately, I guess it will depend on when you grew up...... Speaking of 80's books, below is a pic of the Marvel Graphic Novel #18 that I found at Baltimore CC this year for just $10! It's easily 9.8! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Don't eat too much turkey!! I sincerely hope everyone here on the registry has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with friends and family. I know I am thankful for all that I have been blessed with, which includes all of you guys!! Just to give everyone something else to look at while you're all on break, here are a couple of books that I just got back! Original Sin #1 - SS 9.6 WP Julian Totino Tedesco Original Sin #1 Diamond Retailer Summit Edition - SS 9.6 WP Julian Totino Tedesco I took these two copies with me to Tampa Bay CC for Tedesco to sign. I kind of knew they would come back 9.6, but I was REALLY hoping that I was wrong. Turns out I wasn't. But I went ahead and did these becasue he was at the show and I still felt like it was worth getting him on them even with the likelihood of the 9.6 grades. I like how the bronze sharpie came out on the regular copy and the silver sharpie came out on the Diamond Retailer Summit Edition. I almost took more copies from the other issues in this run for him to sign, but I had to limit myself on this particular show. So I just went with the #1 issues. So anyway, have a great weekend everyone! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

The end of the tunnel is in sight! During the course of 2013 I decided that I wanted to try and get graded 9.8s of all the issues involved in the Mutant Massacre storyline. I also decided that whenever the opportunity arose, I would attempt to get them signed. At the beginning of this year I decided to set my ultimate goal to have ALL of them as SS 9.8 copies. One by one I have been accomplishing this. All of mine but one were already graded copies that I cracked for signatures. The one that wasn't was a raw gift that initially graded at 9.6 and when I cracked it for signatures and resubmitted it, it inexplicably bumped up to 9.8!! Earlier this year I was honored to receive a registry award for Best Copper Age Set for my complete set of the books. There were only two more for me to get signed to finish my goal. When Baltimore CC was coming, I decided to go for Alan Davis on my X-Men #213. At the show, I never could get close to him. His line was ridiculous and I was fearful that it wasn't going to happen. That's when I decided to pay CGC the $10 to have them take care of it for me. I wound up being very worried because I didn't fill out all of the info on the submission form and by the time I realized it, they were too backed up to find my book. But Mike assured me that they would take care of it. Well it turns out he was right because it showed up in my order status page online later on. Now it is back in my hands and I couldn't be more excited!! Uncanny X-Men #213 SS 9.8 WP signed by Alan Davis!! I only have one more book to do (X-Men #212) and I will have finally achieved my goal!!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Or should I say, "Strikes Again"!! I have had a number of occasions where I've purchased raw books from Mile High online and wound up with gorgeous copies that wound up as CGC 9.8 books! In some instances I've gotten 9.6 but usually with books still worthy of owning in the grade. Heck, the one 9.4 I got on a book from them was my Special Marvel Edition #15 which is now SS 9.4 OW/W and signed by the great Jim Starlin! So I'm never gonna complain about these guys! They are the reason my graded Dazzler set is complete now, though I still need 9.8s of #24 and #25. They are the reason I have a Machine Man #19 in 9.8 WP, as well as my Micronauts #1 which is now SS 9.8 WP and signed by Michael Golden, and my Marvel Two-In-One #3 which is SS 9.8 and signed by Sal Buscema...... Anyway, you get the idea. All of these were raw, unseen purchases from Mile High! Not bad if I do say so myself. And now they have done it again! I purchased a number of Vigilante issues from them to try for some 9.8 copies. Once I found out that Keith Pollard and Marv Wolfman were going to be at Tampa Bay CC, I just had to get some of the first issues double signed by them. I already had a 9.8 of #1 and #4 that I just didn't feel like cracking, but the #2, #3, #5 and #7 raw copies from Mile High were worth the try. I got both of them to sign #2, 3 and 5, but only Wolfman on #7 since Pollard left the book after #5. But the jet black cover of #7 made it worth it to me if I could get 9.8 on it. Well these four books are back in my hands and here's how they came out! Vigilante #2 - SS 9.8 WP Pollard and Wolfman Vigilante #3 - SS 9.8 WP Pollard and Wolfman Vigilante #5 - SS 9.8 WP Pollard and Wolfman Vigilante #7 - SS 9.8 WP Wolfman Oh yeah!!!!!! Mile High definitely strikes again!!! Below is a pic of #5. The others will be shown in the replies. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Or maybe I should say, "Another SPECTACULAR Pickup Story". Last year, at Baltimore CC 2013, I picked up a raw copy of Avengers #196 (1st appearance of Taskmaster) for $20 and proceeded to have Joe Rubinstein sign it at the show and then submitted it for grading. It came back CGC SS 9.8 WP!! I have a total of only $55 in it total!! (Thanks big bro for letting me jump on that) I didn't think it could get any better than that. Then in January of this year I went to a first-time convention in Pensacola, FL called "Pensacon". It was a little strange since the whole dealer floor was on top of the ice of a hockey rink! Getting around in the building was a nightmare. They had guests all strewn around on the different floors on either side of the building, with just one elevator and stairway on either side. It was crowded and very unpleasant moving around to get to the guests, but the guest list was very good, so it helped make up for it. Just having David Michelinie there made the show worth it! But for some reason, there was only one actual raw comic book dealer there that was even worth spending any time at. So that's where I was for the majority of the time once I was finished with my signings and photo ops. This dealer had a boatload of very nice copies of books, and quite a number of them were even 80s newsstand editions in excellent condition!! We can argue the merits and/or beauty and rarity of newsstand vs direct edition books another time, but suffice it to say I was ecstatic to find so many gorgeous Newsstand copies! Among a number of awesome books I picked up was a copy of Spectacular Spider-Man #64. I love Cloak and Dagger and had been hoping to get a 9.8 copy of their first appearance someday. This copy was gorgeous!! And a newsstand edition too!! I took it out and looked it over closely. I felt it had a real shot at 9.8, so at only $17 I didn't hesitate to pick it up. Fast forward to August. I went to the Tampa Bay CC with my oldest godson, where I got a number of signatures on books, a photo op with John Rhys Davies, and turned in the SSM #64 along with a few others for universal grading. Well the results of this book are in now, and I AM STOKED!!! Spectacular Spider-Man #64 - CGC 9.8 WP!!! Yesyesyes!!! I have a total of just $37 total in this book, which is WAY cheaper than it would have cost me to get it like this now. This marks the second occasion for me to pick up a raw book worth hundreds in 9.8 at a mere fraction of the cost! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Some work out and some don't. When it comes to grading, I am very strict and tend to undergrade books. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised by an unpredicted 9.8 than be sure of the grade and wind up disappointed. I've had plenty of books that I hoped were 9.8 but secretly thought might wind up 9.6, but getting a signature on it made it worth the gamble. In most cases I get the 9.8 but in some cases the books match my secret certainty. I seem to be mostly in my element with Copper Age books and graphic novels. No surprise since this is the era that made up the bulk of my original collecting days with my dad. Bronze Age is a little tougher for me, but for some reason I seem to be pretty close or right on the money with Silver Age books, which is odd considering I never owned very many of them in my collecting lifetime. But don't ever ask me to accurately grade a raw squarebound annual. Sheesh, I just can't seem to be accurate on those for some reason. Anyway, I have a few invoices that finally went shipped/safe over the weekend and among the books on them was a copy of What If? #39. I picked this book up from a dealer at Supercon 2013 in Miami last year. A quick look told me it was 9.8 material, so for $5 I got it. Later on, when I really looked it over more carefully, I wasn't so sure anymore, and the pages appeared to me as Off White/White. So I put this book down as 9.6 with an upside of 9.8. I held onto it for a full year until I saw that Ron Wilson was a guest at Tampa Bay CC 2014. I was already planning on cracking my Masters of the Universe #4 for him to sign, but I don't like having just one book for an individual to sign most of the time, so I took my raw What If? #39 along as well for Ron to sign. I got the MOTU back already since it wasn't pressed, but I had this one pressed to give it a better chance, so it took a little longer. But now it is back and I can see how my grading prowess held up. I had prepared myself to accept 9.6 OW/W. The result? What If? #39 - SS 9.8 WP signed by Ron Wilson Wow! As I said, I would so much rather be surprised by a higher grade than expected instead of disappointed by a lower grade. This one not only surpassed the grade I had prepared myself for, but the page quality also surpassed it! It is now an OAK, being the single highest SS copy! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Custom sets are here! Yes, everybody. In case you were not aware, you can now create your very own custom sets, with personalized categories and set names, along with the ability to input whichever CGC books you feel belong in them however you like!! My brother pointed this out to me last night and I've already taken advantage of it to create two sets that I will get busy researching to find books that fit in them and filling them with the books I already have that fit. This is a very interesting new step in the registry that gives us, the collectors, the ability to organize and present our graded collection however we like, without having to constantly bug Gemma to create it for us and then sit around and wait for months before she is able to get to it. Maybe this will free up some of her time to allow her more chances to help with grading and whatever, thereby getting turnaround times to come down a little. We'll see. But this Custom set feature does one other very cool thing for us. Have you ever had a graded book that you could not input anywhere on the registry because there is not a set that exists for it to be displayed through? Well now you can!! I personally have one or two books that fit into this category. I can finally get them into the registry! The pic below is of one of my books that fit into this category. Now the only thing I'm waiting to see if they do with this, is create a new registry award for Best Custom Set. Wouldn't that be neat? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Both thrilled and perplexed. When I attended the Tampa Bay Comic Con, I chose my books carefully. I started with over 50 possible copies for signatures, but couldn't do so many, so I had to trim it down little by little. Sometimes the decision was made for me with a cancellation or two. Sometimes it was simply me deciding that a book just wasn't as hugely important to do at the time. But I mainly wanted to take advantage of Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard and Michael Zeck, all of who I had never met before. The fact that John Beatty was there definitely made my mind up on three particular books. While I am still waiting on a number of issues to come back, one of my invoices from TBCC is back in my hands! It had 5 books on it, all of which were Universal 9.8s that I cracked for signatures. I did NOT have them pressed. Here are the results: GI Joe #56 - SS 9.6 WP Zeck Masters of the Universe #4 - SS 9.8 WP Ron Wilson Captain America Annual #8 - SS 9.8 WP Beatty and Zeck Super Heroes Secret Wars #1 - SS 9.8 WP Beatty and Zeck Super Heroes Secret Wars #8 - SS 9.8 WP Beatty and Zeck (sign and sketch) All of them retained their grades except for the GI Joe. I'll get to that one in a moment. The Masters of the Universe is one of the Marvel 25th Anniversary Border covers that I'm slowly trying to put a set together of. I'm ecstatic about it retaining, especially since it is now the ONLY SS 9.8 out there! Very cool!!! I'm sure it is obvious why I chose the three for Beatty and Zeck that I did. They are all very iconic 80s books. Having these three all retain their grades was a great relief to me. I was almost certain that the Secret Wars #8 was going to drop, but thankfully it didn't. I had decided well beforehand to have Zeck do an awesome head sketch of Venom on it! It was quite the experience watching him ink it out onto the cover. He does a fantastic Venom!! So cool!!! Now for the GI Joe. This is not any sort of big or key issue. The only reason I took this with me was because it needed a reholder due to a large crack on the back of the casing, so I figured that since Zeck was at the show and I would be standing right in front of him anyway for the other three books, I may as well have him sign it before having it redone. Why not right? Well for some reason it fell in grade. I have closely eyeballed the book and cannot tell what would have caused the grade drop, so I will probably wait until a future time when I can get Hama or someone else added to it and then have it pressed and regraded to try and bump it back up. But I noticed a really odd thing about the label on the book. It has something on the label I've never seen before. A set of numbers set off to the right in the notes section. At first I wasn't sure what to make of it, it was such an unusual thing to see. It just didn't make any sense. Knowing how another company does their cert numbers, I wondered if this was some sort of way for CGC to keep track of the items on the invoice throughout the grading process, and somehow they wound up accidentally being put on the label somehow. But after a little while I realized that there were the same number of digits in it as a certification number, although for some reason it has a hyphen in the middle of the number. It then occurred to me to check my registry for the old cert number that was on the label when the book was Universal. BINGO!! That's what it is! It's the old, Universal label's cert number! But that's really strange. I've never seen them do this before, and it can't be something new they're doing because if it was, they would have done it on the other books in the invoice as well. Apparently this is just some sort of very weird mistake. The picture below will show you what the label looks like now. Very odd. It's almost enough to make me leave the thing as it is, due to the (accidental?) uniqueness of the labeling. But I still plan on giving the book a chance to bump back up in grade when the opportunity is there for additional sigs. Anyway, I'll post the pics of the other books in the replies for everyone to visually peruse through. I eagerly await the next invoice to show up at my door!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

NYCC -Ground Zero!! No, this journal is not about a certain class action lawsuit being taken by CGC corporation against another third party grading company, which by the way, I am in complete disagreement with and very disappointed about, but won't go into details on it here for fear of deletion (do it CGC, I dare you!). But, I still love all you hard working CGC guys and gals at the convention booth and behind the scenes with grading and encapsulating, shipping, receiving, quality control....yada yada yada. No, this journal is about something else, which had set its roots about 18 months ago, when there started to be a serious uptick in the number of people getting their books signed by creators for the purposes of grading and (usually) flipping for profit. I understand that this has gone on for as long as CGC has been in business, but as of 18 months ago, the amount of this that was taking place began skyrocketing and hasn't stopped since. It has become more and more difficult to get things done at a show due to massive book volume from dealers looking for quick turnarounds for profit. Baltimore this year was a good example of this. CGC onsite-graded so many books on just the first day, that by the time the show was over, they had done SDCC type numbers! They ran out of materials for crying out loud! There have been a few creators in the past who have been averse to signing books when they know it's for CGC (Barry Windsor Smith for example), but NYCC this year is becoming ground zero now for what would appear to be the start of a new era in signing for graded books. Image comics has released a statement about what will be permitted when getting your books signed by the creators at their normal times at their tables. They will only allow for non-grading books! If you want your book signed for grading, then you MUST go directly through the grading company! And even if you have non-grading books, they will only allow up to 5 books per person! Some of the big names affected by this are Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld. I understand that this is at least partly due to the long lines that are generated by an enormous show like NYCC, in order to make it so everyone has a chance to get sigs, but I believe this is also to divert those who would, for example, bring 30 copies of New Mutants 98, hoping for a big payday. But this could also be the beginning of a very slippery slope. Almost 15 years into third-party grading, there is no question that it has transformed our hobby, but I think we are seeing the start of a negative effect from it. If this continues and grows from here, I think we will eventually start seeing two things: 1) SS books will start rising in cost, due to the added expense of having to go through the grading companies. 2) Fewer books overall will be done, again due to the added expense of having to go through the grading companies. Ironically enough, while CGC likes having people go through them to get sigs, because it helps with volume flow at a show and makes people deal directly with them, I think this is ultimately a bad thing for them. At first, it will help them, but if all or most creators eventually start doing this, it will mean even more of a swamping at the CGC booth, since everyone will have to go through them to get these sigs. High-volume dealers and flippers have become a wedge, and Image comics has struck the first blow on the wedge between the collectors who want to collect their books a certain way and the creators, who are beginning to tire of feeling like they are being taken advantage of, for someone else's profit. It's beginning to look like the days of walking up to a creator and quickly getting a signature for your graded book are numbered. The horizon looks blurry, like a desert with no end in sight, and the sun seemingly getting hotter and hotter. Beware of mirages that would fool you into thinking things will go back to normal. Things may never be normal again........ To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Don't forget about Marvel Graphic Novels, like : #4 - 1st app. Of The New mutants #5 - Xmen God Loves, Man Kills (key Xmen Story) #22 - Amazing Spider-Man Hooky #24 - Daredevil Love and War by Frank Miller Or Rampaging Hulk #1 Or even #13 - first published Bill Sienkiewicz artwork. Deadly Hands of KUNG Fu #1

A lot going on right now! Well, its been almost a month since my last journal. Has anyone missed me?..... Probably not. But while Ive been away, Ive been super busy with work and other things, and just havent had enough going on to warrant doing any journals lately..... Until now, that is. Since Baltimore, Ive been in hold mode on my books and submissions, with nothing new to report. But now, things are starting to pick back up and I have a few things to talk about, so here goes! First off, I had a couple of reholders that I submitted to CGC at Baltimore CC. One was my Photo Op with Billy Dee Williams, which for some inexplicable reason, they originally encased in a plain, solid sheet of Barax, instead of the Binder ready version that all of subsequent Signed Photo Ops were done in. So they redid that and its perfect now! So Ive added to my binder filled with the others. Yay! Another reholder was for my CGC 9.9 WP Wizard 1/2 Spiderman Wizard Special Edition mail away exclusive (geez, thats a mouthful). The reason for my reholdering of this book is because when I bought it, it came to me with some kind of hard gluey gunk all on the casing. On top of that, it had the old, red label on it from the old days of CGC, and while some may like the old labels, I am not one of those people. The label was ok as far as color matching the cover, but it was very wrinkled up and warped looking. So the combination of these two things is why I reholdered it. But I had to make sure it wouldnt affect the grade, so I asked at the show if this was doable without having to regrade the book, and after looking it over, they told me they couldnt see any obvious reason why they would feel the need to do a regrade, so it would just be reholdered with a new case and label. Well, I got it back now as well, and I couldnt be happier with it! It looks so much better in its clean, new case and awesome new 9.9 label!! One of the other things that happened right before I left for Baltimore was that I received my coupon for four free Standard submissions for the first of the two major Registry awards I won! So I decided to take advantage of being at Baltimore to go ahead and submit them there at the show to save on shipping charges to CGC. The books I decided on were: Daredevil #8 Daredevil #9 Daredevil #10 Strange Tales #155 The three Daredevils are OCC books that my father and I bought way back in 1987. I think we spent a total of $22 for all three of them. I had them all in the 6.0 to 7.0 range, and didnt bother to check page quality. The Strange Tales book was one I purchased about seven years ago from Mile High Comics. I had it at 9.2 OW/W. I just got them back this week and here are the results: Daredevil #8 - 7.0 OW Daredevil #9 - 6.5 OW Daredevil #10 - 6.5 OW/W Strange Tales #155 - 9.0 OW/W So I was right in the same range on the Daredevils but was one grade too hogh on the ST, though I did calculate the page quality exactly right on it. The DD books are very sentimental to me, so they will not be going anywhere, but I may consider selling the ST soon. The last topic for this journal is the upcoming NYCC. I have never attended this show and probably never will. Its just too expensive and too much crowd to deal with me. Baltimore and Megacon is about as big as I want to deal with and they are big enough. But I AM sending my big brother some books to give to Kaholo since they will both be there and Kaholo has offered to handle them for me. Thank you Tnerb for relaying the books and thank you Kaholo for getting the sigs for me! You guys are awesome!! Anyway, here are the books I am having done at NYCC: Iron man #212 - Danny Fingeroth and Joe Rubinstein FF #296 - Joe Rubinstein, Klaus Janson, Al Milgrom, Jerry Ordway ASM #282 - Bob Layton G I Joe #53 - Joe Rubinstein Solar #1 Ultra Rare Layton Virgin Variant - Bob Layton and Frank Barbiere Elektra Vol 3 #1 RIE Sienk Variant - Bill Sienkiewicz New Mutants Annual 1 CGC 9.8 - Bill Sienkiewicz, Bob McLeod, Chris Claremont New Mutants #100 2nd Print CGC 9.8 - Rob Liefeld New Mutants #87 CGC SS 9.8 - adding Liefeld and McFarlane Marvel Preview #4 - Bob McLeod, Gerry Conway Four of these are for my Marvel 25th Anniversary Border Covers set. The Marvel Preview is a raw copy I got on Ebay. Its at least 9.0, but I am hoping a press will get it to at least 9.2. Having it double signed will be even better! So there you go everybody. Thats where I am right now. Everybody caught up? GREAT!!!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Not as many books this year, but more fun than last year!! I fell asleep around 6:30pm on Wednesday evening. When I awoke, it was 10:30pm and I decided that time was a wastin' and I needed to get on my way to Baltimore. I live in Tallahassee so driving to Baltimore takes 14 hours! The trip up was uneventful. No bad weather, no bad accidents, and I shave my head, so there was no bad hair either. Haha I got to Baltimore, got everything into the hotel room and waited for my big brother to show up, which he did around an hour later. One of the things we had already planned on for this trip was attending the Orioles baseball game that evening at 7:00, so when the gates opened at 5:00, we went in and ate dinner at a restaurant right there in the stadium and then went on to enjoy a very exciting game. The orioles went up 6-0 in the first inning and then let the Reds slowly come back and tie it up in the seventh, followed by an exciting last inning and a half where the O's scored 2 runs and fended off any last second comeback. Orioles won 9-7! The next morning, we were up at 8am, since the show didn't open until 1pm. This is the very first time Baltimore was doing three days instead of two, so I was optimistic about being able to get what I wanted done onsite and still having time to really browse the dealers with my brother, especially since I wasn't doing near the number of books as I did the year before. But the first day or so was strictly for getting signatures done through CGC. As far as what I got done onsite.... well, here's the list: Infinity Gauntlet #1 (Perez,Starlin and Rubinstein) Howard the Duck #12 (Leialoha) Howard the Duck #13 (Leialoha and Palmer) Marvel Fanfare #3 (McLeod and Milgrom) New Mutants #55 (L. Simonson) New Mutants #64 (L. Simonson) New Mutants #84 (L. Simonson and Milgrom) New Mutants #96 (L. Simonson and Rubinstein ) New Mutants #97 (L. Simonson and Rubinstein ) New Mutants Annual #1 (Bob McLeod and Palmer) New Mutants Annual #4 (McLeod and L. Simonson) My brother went to stand in line for Jim Starlin who didn't wind up showing until two hours later. He had a book for both me and himself for Jim to sign. While he waited there, I proceeded to get my other books done one at a time. Everybody I needed but George Perez and Laura Martin were there for the first day. Tom Palmer was not supposed to be there for the first day either, but he showed up around 4:30 and I was able to go ahead and get him done. Joe and Bob, witnesses for CGC, both helped me during this first day of mayhem. Our friend James was also at the show getting far more books done than my brother and I could dream of doing. Last year, we wound up forming what James called "pods", where whole groups of us would follow a witness around to creator after creator and get the majority of our books all done in one fell swoop. This year didn't work out that way. Having the show be onsite was partly to blame for this, but it was also just a whole lot busier than last year. I found out later from Molly that they did SDCC type numbers for this show, which is astonishing! One by one, I managed to acquire my signatures, a bunch of them while my brother was waiting on Starlin. I tried a few times to get Alan Davis on my Uncanny X-Men #213, but he always had a very long line, and I kept hearing stories from others about the very long wait to get him. I decided to take advantage of CGC offering to get his signature for $10 in order to avoid the excess wait time to acquire him. When it was all over for the day, the only things I had left to do for CGC as far as signatures went was to get George Perez and Laura Martin, which I did first thing the next day. As for the onsite grading, CGC had to shut it down only two hours into the first day! This threw a big, honking monkey wrench into my plans for getting some books done by the end of the show. They were absolutely swamped right out of the gate with onsite submissions. We were later informed by them that they graded 2000 books on just the first day! They said they would try to see if they could accept any more for a little bit on Saturday morning, but they weren't hopeful. In the end, I only got my onsite books done thanks to Bob putting in a word for me with Shaun. So how did my onsite books turn out? Unfortunately, three of them fell from 9.8 to 9.6, which was very disappointing, but I didn't press them, so I will CPR two of them at a later time to try and get them back up. Infinity Gauntlet #1 - SS 9.6 WP Howard the Duck #12 - SS 9.6 WP New Mutants #97 - SS 9.6 WP The rest - SS 9.8 WP!!! I was especially happy about the NM Annual #1 retaining. Tnerb and I have been trying to get our copies done as SS 9.8 and neither of us have had success with retainment until now. This is now the first SS 9.8 copy, with none graded higher, so for now, it is an OAK! Unfortunately, my attempt at getting a SS 9.8 copy of NM annual #4 fell just short at SS 9.6. But I also submitted two raw copies that James provided to us for Universal grading, so we'll see how those turn out later on. Thank you, James! Besides onsite, I also submitted some books for regular processing. I was originally planning on submitting these for onsite as well, but since these needed pressing, I didn't feel like "pressing" my luck with onsite CCS, since they had technically shut down onsite already. These books were: Marvel Fanfare #27 (Milgrom and Hempel) Booster Gold #22 (Jurgens) Ragnarok #1 (Simonso and Martin) Ragnarok #1 Subscription Variant (Simonson and Martin) Life with Archie #36 Francavilla Variant (Francavilla) 100th Anniversay: GOTG #1 (Marz) I also received my coupon for the four free Standard submissions from my first free year of premium membership from my registry awards. I decided to do some Silver Age issues: Daredevil #8, #9 and #10 Strange Tales #155 The Strange Tales should be 9.2 but the Daredevils, which are OCC, will be in the 6.0 to 7.5 range. In total, I submitted 26 books, including four books I found right there at the show, two of which my brother found for me while I was standing in line waiting for a signature. These four books were: Marvel Graphic Novel #30: A Sailor's Story (no sig) Star Wars #81 news-stand (Palmer) Fallen Angels #3 (Palmer) Fallen Angels #4 (Palmer) The two Fallen Angels issues will complete my full set in 9.8 if they reach it, plus they will be signed! Star Wars #81 is an issue I have always wanted a 9.8 copy of, but to be able to find a news-stand copy at a show and get it signed and reach 9.8 would be fantastic! The MGN #30 is simply a really tough issue to find in high grade and will add to that set for me. I also found a copy of the MGN She Hulk book, which has an all black cover and is also VERY tough to find in 9.8. So now the wait begins for the rest of these books that I didn't do onsite. It will be some time before I know how everything turned out, but I look forward to it. I also got Dan Jurgens to sign a couple of hardback TPBs of Booster Gold, and also Laura Martin to sign all six of my hardback TPBs of Stephen King's "The Stand", which I already had signed by Mike Perkins at Me To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Baltimore, Here I come! So I've been preparing for the Baltimore Comic con this weekend. I'm working on getting all of my books ready and having forms filled out for the most part to make things go quicker at the tables. Most of what I'm taking is raw this year, but if have had to be very selective about what I take, due to only having so much money to spend this time around. Last year I did over 80 books, most of which were crackings!! This year, I only have about 17 books that I cracked and the rest are raw, mostly for simple regular grading without getting sigs. I will be attempting to finally complete my New Mutants set after over six years of blood, sweat and yes, tears. I am also taking full advantage of seeing some creators that I have never met before, like Steve Leialoha and Tom Palmer. I have some Bronze Age books, some a Copper Age books, some "modern" books and even one Marvel Graphic Novel that I am taking on this trip. I even may have some creators sign some of my CGC registry rewards certificates of sets that they worked on. But I hope to have everything done by noon on the second day, that way I can take full advantage of the onsite grading and spend a day and a half perusing through dealer boxes with my big brother. We will be seeing an Orioles game at Camden Yards on Thursday, before the show, and hopefully we can have dinner with some of the CGC guys or even some of the other dealers at the show on Saturday or Sunday night. There is one panel that we will try to attend on Sunday, and we'll probably talk about it here on the boards later on. All in all, I am looking forward to the show this year with great joy and anticipation. See you there, big bro!!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

My dear Watson, As you are well aware, my cases as of late have been frightfully dull and uninspiring to a man of such intellect and deductive reasoning as I. I very much regret the death of my arch-nemesis, Professor Moriarty. Ever since his demise, it has become nearly impossible to truly engage my interest in a case. Missing people, lost kittens, illicit affairs and such are just not worthy of my abilities. However, as you know, my presence has been absent from our Baker Street offices as of late. I hope Mrs. Hudson has been seeing to everything while I have been otherwise engaged. That woman can be... well, maybe I should stay to the business at hand. I am writing to you now, my dearest friend, to inform you of the case I am currently invested in. I am sorry to have not asked for your help initially, but I felt that I would surely have no problem reasoning out the facts in this interesting conundrum. However, I have found myself in a quandary. Understanding how such eventualities as this case has mustered and deciphering how it has happened in the first place, has left me both flustered and quizzical. Forgive me, I prattle on when I should be explaining the facts that have led up to this point. It is simply this. How on earth does a Universally graded CGC 9.8 WP comic book go from the aforementioned 9.8 to a Signature Series 9.4 and back to 9.8 again? I know this must sound incredibly strange to you, my dear fellow, it did to me at first, but rest assured, it has occurred. I have seen the final results with my own eyes, and I cannot easily dismiss it out of hand. Not since the departed professor stole the Mona Lisa and attempted to pass off professionally rendered fakes have I been so utterly perplexed. Here are the facts, in sequence. The book was purchased from an online website called "Ebay". It was already Universally graded by a company known as CGC at 9.8 White Pages. Earlier this year, the owner of the encapsulated product cracked it open and prepared it for two signatures to be applied. It was sent to the owner's brother up north in Philadelphia, a city filled with both beauty and darkness. The locals have an affinity to the Eagle, a majestic bird in its own right, but I digress. His brother then took the said manuscript across the country to Seattle, Washington for the two signatures. They two have an affinity to birds. It is said, that just last year, their Seahawks were better than any other avian groupings. I feel that I might have to investigate further on these migratory species. I'm sorry, my dear Watson, let me continue. Once the book was signed, the brother turned it over to CGC for "re-grading", as it is referred to here. The item was taken from one side of the continent to the other. Pacific to Atlantic, North to South, but I need not tell you these trivial things. It was after an abysmally long time, the book finally made its way from the CGC offices down in Florida, back into the original owners hands, also in Florida. Unfortunately, it had unexpectedly dropped in grade from its original 9.8 status down to 9.4! Not only did the numerical importance change but so did the label. The formerly blue labeling was now yellow in hue, and adhered safely within the encapsulation, above the item in question. This drop in grade is both highly disconcerting to the owner as well as detrimental to the overall value of the book! Understandably, the owner wished to rectify the situation, and as such, he sent the book back to his brother again, who from my gathering, is as generous as they come. I dare say, my own brother, Mycroft, would be entirely to ensconced on his own affairs to do such a thing for me. This time, the owner planned on having "CPR" done to it. I had never heard this term before, but apparently it refers to "Cracking" the book open, "Pressing" the book in some sort of heated press, and "Re-grading" it afterwards to attempt to bring the item back to its former glory. My understanding is that this is a risky proposition at best, since performing "CPR" on it is no guarantee of success. In fact, it could very well result in dropping the grade further in some rare cases! Also, the owner has already spent money in procuring the item in its current state, and now must spend even more. This is extra financing that could be used in other recreational activities. Here's where things become incredulous, Watson! In the process of sending the book back to his brother, the owner realized that a third signature could be added to it at a gathering of like-minded individuals called "Comic Con", which it so happens his brother would be attending! The owner reasoned that if he was going to take the risk of trying to increase the grade of his book, he may as well add another signature to his cherished item. I must commend him on a brilliant bit of reasoning. This is something I myself might have discerned under the circumstances. His brother took the book to the convention, acquired the third signature, and resubmitted the book to CGC for this "CPR" process I mentioned earlier. Once again, after a long wait, a wait that makes a journey around the Earth seem trivial, the book finally arrived back into the owners hands, and this is where the problem was brought to my attention. The owner was at a complete loss to explain how the book could have gone from 9.8, dropped down to a 9.4, and then all the way back up to a 9.8 again! He had hope that it could happen, but never really expected such an end result to truly occur. It was simply the best thing that could have happened in this case, but we are still left with the ultimate question. Why? I was informed of this most interesting situation last week, when the owner sent me a message, informing me of both his confusion and desire to come to a full realization of the true facts in this case. I must say, my dear fellow, after speaking with everyone that I could up to this point, I too have been left quite at a loss to fully explain these events. I can imagine our very own Inspector Lestrade from Scotland Yard would likely attempt to explain this away with some of his outlandishly misguided, and totally erroneous suppositions. While I initially felt that I would not require your assistance in this matter, I must humbly ask if you could possibly disengage yourself from your practice temporarily, to take an airplane (infernal contraptions that they are) over here to America and give me your unique perspective. I'm sure with you at my side, we can come to a satisfactory conclusion in this case, as we always have in the past. Yours most truly, Sherlock Holmes P.S. I forgot to mention that the book in question is a New Mutants #33 and has been signed by three individuals. Steve Leialoha (most interesting name, I must say), Ann Nocenti and Chris Claremont. I have enclosed a picture of the book as it stands now, for you to examine before you arrive and see if you can find something that I have missed, though I'm not sure what that could be. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

And OCC copies as well! Up until now, the only Silver Age graded comics I've purchased have been Harvey books, and I've never submitted a Silver Age book from any publisher before..... until now. After four and a half long months, I finally have a couple of books back in my hands! These two OCC (original collection copy) books are very sentimental to me, because they are part of the collection that my father and I put together back in the 80s and 90s. Being that my father has passed on from this mortal coil, I have moved into CGC collecting as much in his memory as for my own interest. He would have had a blast collecting books as CGC or just submitting tons and tons of our OCC books over the years. We had over 11,000 raw comics, a good 70 percent of which would have been worth submitting to CGC. Alas, after my father passed, I was put in a position that required me to sell off the vast majority of our collection. I kept all of the duplicate issues we had and our entire run of Daredevil books, from #4 through #380! All in all, it was about 450 books. When I went to Megacon this past March with my brother, I decided to take a couple of the early copies of my DD collection with me for Stan Lee to sign, since he was attending the show and I had never actually met him before. The two books I ultimately decided on were #6 and #15. So it took them to the show, had Stan place his scrawl on them and turned them over to Desert Wind Comics to have them pressed and graded. Well, here it is, four and a half months later and they are finally back!! So without further ado, here's how they came out: Daredevil #6 - CGC SS 7.0 OW/W Daredevil #15 - CGC SS 7.5 OW/W These actually came out better than I thought they would. I had #6 at around a 6.0 and #15 at 6.5! Of course, that was before pressing. I've never pressed silver age books before, so I was unsure how much it might help them. Anyway, I am very happy with these! There are currently only 5 SS copies of #6 graded higher than mine and only 4 SS copies of #15 graded higher than mine. That's pretty cool!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Another Con Down!! I went to the Tampa Bay Comic Con on Saturday, and since my original help backed out on me, I dragged along my oldest godson (11) for his very first comic con! We had a great time, though he didn't much care for the couple of times when we had to stand in line for more than 20 minutes, or when I was at the CGC booth having to fill out all the forms, but these were few and far between moments. Otherwise, he had a great time and was actually helpful to me a few times in regards to my signature acquisitions. So I got 15 books signed, four books submitted for universal grading, and a photo op with John Rhys Davies! In between having all of these things done, my godson and I traversed aisle after aisle of various dealers offering a wide variety of wares. Unfortunately, there really wasn't much of a significant comic book dealer presence. At least not ones with a fair amount of higher grade raws worth considering for CGC anyway. I tried to find a good raw copy of Secret Wars #8 for a friend who wanted to get one with Zeck and Beatty signed on it at the show, but since this was the second day of the show and EVERYONE was apparently looking for copies of it to get the sigs, no one had a single copy left. Oh well, can't say I didn't try. I originally was going to bring a book for Steranko to sign, but instead I just found a nice print at his table, had him sign it and placed it in my poster tube! While I ultimately decided against cracking anything for Bernie Wrightson to sign, I still made a point to go over to his table while he wasn't busy, shake his hand, thank him for coming to the show under his recent circumstances and wished him well. All in all, I got sigs from Zeck, Beatty, Wilson, Wolfman, Pollard, Brunner and Tedesco, as well as John Rhys Davies! So I was able to accomplish enough to make the trip worth it. We'll see how everything comes out once it's all back in my hands. There we as one more aspect to the show that I took advantage of as well, but I will refrain from discussing it here. I will do up an article for my Facebook and other places for that discussion. Up next...... Baltimore Comic Con!!!!!! Anyway, below is a pic of the front entrance of the Tampa Convention Center. I will post more pics from the show in the replies! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Two shows instead of one. Ok, so those first two lines don't match with each other. But I'm not talking about cutting back on the number of shows I'm going to. I'm talking about cutting back on what I will take to each show. I'm having to trim down from everything I was initially planning to do in Tampa this Saturday because of my decision to also attend Baltimore a month later. I originally had about 40 books I was going to submit to CGC in Tampa, both for SS and for Universal labels. But since I am having to coordinate for two shows now, I have decided to cut back quite a bit. I have one book for Mike Zeck. I have three books for Zeck and John Beatty. I have two books for Ron Wilson. I have one book for Marv Wolfman. I have three books for Wolfman and Keith Pollard. I have one book for Wolfman and Frank Brunner. I have two books for Bernie Wrightson. I have two books for Julian Totino Tedesco. And I have four books for plain Universal grading. That's 19 books total. I was going to get eight more copies of Original Sin signed by Tedesco, but since I would be paying like $43 total apiece to get them done, I don't really think I can make much money off of them in resells, assuming they all got 9.8s anyway. So I'm not going to take all of them. Besides, I can get my copy of Original Sin #0 triple signed in Baltimore, so I'll do that one there. If anyone is planning on attending Tampa, maybe I'll see you there. As soon as I'm done with Tampa this weekend, I will be working on finalizing what I will take to Baltimore. Again, I won't be doing as much as last year. Last year, I got over 80 books signed in Baltimore!!!! No way I'm doing that many this year. Gonna try to keep it to 20 books or less. Besides, I want to be able to spend more time with my big brother perusing through the tons and tons of dealer boxes that will be there, looking for awesome books. The show was expanded to three days this year, so hopefully I will get everything signed on the first day and have the rest of the show to really dig into some boxes and thoroughly enjoy the rest of the show. I've gotten much more interested in doing that as of this year anyway. I will do another journal on my plans for Baltimore when the time is nearer. In the meantime...... IT'S TAMPA BAY TIIIIIIIIIME!!!!!!!!!!!!! Below is the back cover of one of the MGNs that I hope to have Bernie Wrightson immortalize in more ways than one. (Sketch?) To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Another con, another grading company. I went to Tampa Bay Comic Con last year and it was great! I drove down early in the morning on Saturday and returned home after the show that afternoon. This year, I initially planned to attend all three days of the show and make it be the last convention I go to for the year. But then CGC had to go and make Baltimore Comic Con an onsite show! So instead of all three days at Tampa, I'm doing the same as last year. I'm only doing Saturday at Tampa and all three days with my big brother in Baltimore! So Tampa is this coming weekend and I've been busy trying to decide what to take with me. I have a ton of stuff I can get graded, but I'm going to have to limit myself so that I can do both shows. I was going to get two of my Marvel Graphic Novels signed by Bernie Wrightson, but now I don't know if he will be there. He had a series of small strokes at the beginning of the month and while he is doing just fine, they haven't announced yet if he will be cancelling his appearance at Tampa. I may take them with me and decide while I am there. I have a Howard the Duck #1 for Marv Wolfman and Frank Brunner to sign and since Mike Zeck and John Beatty will be making a very rare combined appearance at the same show, I will be getting my Secret Wars #1 and #8 done as well as my Captain America Annual #8! I have some early Vigilante issues for Wolfman and Keith Pollard to both sign since they will both be there. I also have an original art page from New Mutants #39 that I will get Pollard to sign! The items I'm hee-hawing on are the new release issues that I've been picking up lately. I have a number of Original Sin issues that I can get Julian Totino Tedesco to sign and maybe put up for sale, but I don't know if I can really make much off of them to make it worth it or not. I'm not as big into owning the new release stuff as the 90s and earlier, so I would probably just want to flip them. Same goes for some other new stuff I've picked up lately, but again, I'm not sure if it's worth it or not. I'll decide before Wednesday. Anyway, the other big news for Tampa is that CBCS is finally open for business and accepting memberships and submissions in Tampa! I will be submitting 7 books to them for grade screening and hopefully grading, to get a feel for their process. One of the books will even be with a sig and sketch! So far, CBCS seems to have their act together. They offer pretty much everything that CGC does or will very soon. But they do have some pluses compared to CGC. Free membership for submission privileges! (completely free!) Guaranteed turnaround times of 15 days for modern at $15 each! Grade screening with no book minimum!! Free graders notes! Also, they will be starting up their registry soon, which is the biggest key to their success in my opinion. They also have a chat board on the way and will offer yearly awards just like CGC! For those of you who were wondering about their labels, they DID make a few subtle changes from their previous sample, one of which is putting the title and number in larger print in the center of the label like CGC does. They will even put a small star next to the grade if the book has considerable eye appeal for the grade, sort of like what CVA does, but it's actually presented on the label, and apparently very hard to acquire! They even give a percentage-off of your next submitted invoice if they don't meet their guaranteed turnaround times on your current one! It will be interesting to see how quickly they give CGC a run for their money. At the very least, maybe CGC will start altering some of their fees and online software to keep up. Competition benefits us collectors! It will be interesting to see how much people will pay for CBCS books compared to CGC books over time. So I will get my 7 books done through them (hopefully) and then do another journal about my experience with them to let everyone know how it is, especially how their casings are in comparison to CGC's. It's neat to get in on the ground level with a new company like this! Should be fun! Get well soon, Bernie!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Awards results. Ever since I became a registered member of CGC, I have hoped that one day, I would win one of the major registry awards, like the best presentation award or a Best-Set-in-Age award, whether it be for Silver, Bronze or Copper Age. Being that I'm more of a Copper Age collector, this Age was far more likely. I thought for sure that it would eventually be my New Mutants set, but so far, for some reason, that's never happened. While I've waited with great anticipation every year to see if one of my sets would be graced with the award, I've only ever had the one set that was really worthy of it. But now I have at least three more sets that could and should garner consideration at the very least. I still hope to have my New Mutants set eventually win one, but I know that I would be equally ecstatic to have either my Dazzler set, Booster Gold set or even my Mutant Massacre set take the prize this year. After being disappointed year after year, I haven't held out much hope anymore to see my goal come true. What do I have to do to get more attention anyway? I mean, I've steadily collected for six years now, always put pics and descriptions on my books, prayed long and hard, even performed a blood ritual. Ok, not that last one maybe, but everything else. What more can I do? Name my firstborn "CGC"? But after six years of CGC collecting, lo and behold, it has finally happened!! After finally finishing off my Mutant Massacre set earlier this year, along with almost all of them being signed, it has won the Best Copper Age set award!! That would have been enough for me, but oooooh no. They're apparently making up for the last six years, because they didn't stop there! My New Mutants set, the one set that both me and my brother have been hoping for me to get a major award on was given a Best Presentation award!! I don't believe it! I have always wanted a Best Presentation award, but never thought I would get one; and to get it AND a best Copper Age set award in the same year is beyond surprising. I'm literally in shock right now. Does anyone know if someone has won more than one major award in the same year before? And how does CGC treat it? Do I get 2 years of paid membership fees along with coupons for each one? I'll have to call and check on all of that. Also, congrats to Lee K for winning a Best Presentation Award for his fabulous DC Go-Go Check set! if you haven't "checked" his set out yet, do yourself a favor and give it a look. It's one of the more amazing CGC sets out there! I want to thank everyone who rooted me on. And I especially want to thank Tnerb, Ronnylama and Surfer99 for all of their support, generous gifts and help with my work on these sets. I wouldn't have achieved this without you guys. Congrats to everyone else who also won major awards this year and to all who have top ranked sets. This is an expensive but rewarding hobby that takes years of dedication to bring these beautiful sets to fruition. These awards are an acknowledgement of the time, money and dedication that goes into these sets. We have the best community of collectors ever in one place here on the registry! You guys ROCK! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

One of these days.... and other items as well. Well, tomorrow CGC releases the results of the Registry awards for this year! As usual, I am hoping and praying for one of the major awards. My brother, Tnerb has won one in the past (congrats, big bro) and I've been trying for one for six years now and have yet to get one. I don't care which one of my sets wins one, I just want to win one. Pleeeeeeease, CGC! Anyway, I just won an auction on Ebay yesterday and managed to buy an already graded book for the first time in a while. It was for a 9.8 Richie Rich Dollars & Cents #19. This is also the first book from this series that I have bought for at least a year and a half. They just aren't showing up in 9.8 grades lately. I also read Amazing Spider-Man #4 yesterday, as per Tnerb's suggestion and it's.... well, amazing! Below is the page of Spidey's Original Sin moment (spoiler warning). Oh, and just today, Angry Birds released a level in honor of SDCC. Very funny. I'll put a pic of it in the replies. Check out the banner and posters that are fashioned after the SDCC logo and say "ComPig con". To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

3 more SS books!! My brother and I are always on the lookout for a new signature to add to our New Mutants collections. When I started to get mine signed, I didn't really care about who signed it as long as they were involved with the book itself. Now, thanks to Tnerb, I keep an eye out for an unusual or new signature to add to my premiere collection. He was the first one to do this and now I too love to get a wider variety of sigs on them. So when he informed me that he would be attending the NYSE, I saw another opportunity for another creator to sign issues that I have never gotten a signature from before. Kevin Nowlan would be at the show and he did the covers for New Mutants #51 and #56. He also did a cover for another series that I am trying to get signatures on. Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D. was a cool six-issue mini-series in the late 80's that had the unusual feature of a different artist for each of the six covers, even though everything else in the issues was done by the same people. So I decided that I would like to try and get each of the six cover artists to sign their respective issue. I started at Megacon earlier this year with Bill Sienkiewicz, who signed my 9.8 copy of #2. Thankfully, it retained its grade. Now I had the chance for getting Nowlan on my 9.8 copy of #5! So I sent these three books still slabbed to my big brother to get them all signed by Kevin. I just had to hope that they all retained their grades, especially the New Mutants #51, since I didn't have a backup 9.8 copy to replace it if it fell. So Tnerb cracked my slabs and prepped them for signings. Then he went to NYSE, and had a devil of a time getting there, as he wrote about in a recent journal. I can't thank him enough for persevering through the frustration to attend the show under the unusual circumstances that endeavored to keep him away. He got these three books signed and a couple of other ones that I wanted Claremont's scrawling on and submitted them to CGC for me. I didn't have these pressed before regrading, because I felt that even if they did fall in grade, I could re-crack them at Baltimore for Louise Simonson to be added to, and then press before regrading to try and bump them back up. But I hoped that wouldn't be necessary. I'd be perfectly happy with just Nowlan on these copies. So after a month of waiting (yes, I fast tracked them), they are now back in my hands! I was scared to look once I saw that they were Shipped/Safe, but Tnerb forced my hand and my nerves nearly burned out as my eyes scanned over the grades. New Mutants #51 - SS 9.8 WP New Mutants #56 - SS 9.8 WP Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.E.L.D #5 - SS 9.8 WP Hallelujah!!!! They all retained! Thank you, big brother!! You are a master book handler! Now I have the chance to get my NF vs SHIELD #6 signed by Tom Palmer in Baltimore in a couple of months, but what I really want is to get #1 signed by Jim Steranko. He will be at Tampa Bay CC in a couple of weeks and I will be attending. The only problem is, #1 is the only issue of the six that I DONT have! I've been looking around and have yet to come across an already graded copy or a 9.8 worthy raw copy that I can take with me. So if anyone knows where I can get one, please let me know. As my brother always says, Thanks for reading To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Cool! With these statistics, I'm in the top 5% with over 106,000 points. Almost in the top 4%. I need to get busy if I want to make the top 1% though. Just need to quadruple my collection.

Another one bites the dust. Some of my first forays into comics were Harvey characters like Casper and Richie Rich, as well as Archie digests. This was back when I was like 7 to 10 years old. I knew, even back then, that Archie and his pals had been around for decades before I was ever on this planet. They made me laugh and sometimes they made me think. While Batman and Superman and Spiderman and many other comic characters showed the heroic side of super heroes, Archie showed children more of what to expect out of real life, or at least what we would HOPE to expect most of the time. Archie also helped to teach kids how to act right and take responsibility for their actions and always strive to do the right thing, even in face of those who would do wrong. On Wednesday, Archie finally does this in the most profound way possible in life... He dies. Yes, Archie Andrews will die in the latest installment of "Life with Archie", which comes out tomorrow. He gets shot while protecting his gay friend, senator Kevin Keller, from an assassination attempt. When a character dies in the Marvel or DC universes, it is usually known as the "death" of that character, always in quotes because there is always the chance that the character could come back someday. In many cases, this has actually occurred. But with Archie, I don't see how they could do this, since the stories are more grounded in reality than the super hero worlds. I mean, unless it all turns out to be one of his friend's dreams or something, he will almost certainly have to remain dead, at least in the adult Archie comic world anyway. This issue marks the end of the "Life with Archie" series, which has taken the Riverdale friends and put them in a more realistic adulthood, addressing more mature life circumstances. Archie as a teenager in the regular Archie series will continue to have him featured, of course, but I think it will be very interesting to see how people take this and what the responses will be. Let's all chip in here. What do you think of this and how do you think it matters in the grand scheme of comics? Below so a pic of one of the panels in the upcoming comic featuring Aechie getting shot. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Thanks to my big brother. I have had a lot of luck in finding 9.8 worthy raw copies of books on Ebay. Of course, I'm VERY picky about what I buy raw on Ebay, so that helps. I am in the process of slowly putting together a set of all 29 Marvel issues that came out on November of 1986 with the matching 25th Anniversary Border covers, since the set was created earlier this year at my request. Many of these are fairly easy to locate, but some are extremely difficult. The Marvel/Star issues alone are VERY tough. Try finding a 9.8 worthy copy of Care Bears #7 or Muppet Babies #10 or even Heathcliff #12. Yeah, good luck with that. I hope someday to be able to find all 29 of these in top graded form, but for now, it's a slow process. Just recently, however, I DID manage to find a copy of Cloak and Dagger #9 on Ebay that appeared to have a real chance at 9.8, and once I got it in my hands, I was sure of it! It had one MD on it, but that wouldn't affect the grade. So I sent it along with some other books to my brother, Tnerb for signings at ECCC 2014. Arthur Adams was my goal for this issue. Tnerb got everything done for me, including this one, and I just got it back from CGC a few days ago! This is also a very tough one to find for this set, because it isn't normally sought after for grading for the most part. So I am ecstatic to not only be able to find one raw on Ebay, but also to have it signed by the great Art Adams to boot!! Thank you, big brother!!!!!! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Or, what remains to be seen? ...................................Darkness..."There was darkness for more years than I can remember. Once, I was new and pristine; out in the world and available. I had the power to enthrall and the ability to help people lose themselves in a world of wonder.""Now, I sit. I sit and wait; for what, I don't know. I long to be out in the light again. I yearn to be useful and appreciated again. I pray that one day, someone will notice me, here in the darkness. Won't somebody take the time to see me for what I am? Can't someone pull me back into the light and allow me the chance to be a gateway of inspiration?"........................Have you ever wondered how many comics and magazines are in stores and collections, sitting around, not able to reach their full CGC glory?While the truth is all of the major, historic, pedigree-like collections of classic books have probably been unearthed and auctioned off, there still remains an unknown number of personal collections and dealer inventory that have remained untapped, even in this day and age.What treasures could be out there? What books are waiting to be discovered by a young enthusiast, an intrepid collector, or someone reading this right now? How long will comics with fantastic potential wait to become CGC'd? What OAKs remain unseen in boxes around the world?At times, I have felt like a comic book archaeologist, digging through musty old boxes in search of valuable and historic items of a lost, artistic civilization. I feel like freeing the books from their prisons and allowing them to be seen and appreciated for what they represent, without being chased or shot at.Recently, I visited a comic store in my city I had been wanting to check out. They had a varied selection of new releases, but I noticed there were no variant covers to be seen. When I asked the owner about it, he proceeded to "inform" me that variants were bad for the industry.I mentioned to him that I was in search of top grade copies for signings and grading. He then proceeded to "inform" me that CGC and those who collect them are also bad for the industry.After a conversation with him about these statements, he simply finished by saying, "Everyone has different views. Mine just happens to be right, and yours just happens to be wrong." Wow! Really? I almost walked out (and maybe I should have), leaving the five new issues I had gathered on his counter, but I DID want them for the Tampa convention coming up next month. I bought them and left. The archeologist in me will never have me going back to his store ever again, even knowing I might be able to free one of his relics. I don't know why a store owner would want to purposefully offend a potential repeat customer because his views on the shared industry are different. Yes, there are those who look to only make money from buying and selling CGC books. But there are also those who are in it for what these books represent. It's no different than true archaeology. There are those who use tools to find relics of the past from lost civilizations, for the education and betterment of humankind; to bring these historical pieces to life for all to see. Then there are those who only wish to profit off of their finds. I wonder which one the store owner cares about most?You can find people who want to capitalize monetarily off of practically any industry in this world (snow cones for example). This does not make the tools of those industries bad, nor the industries themselves or the people who wish to use those industries to further the betterment of its products. I don't see anything wrong with CGC or it's practices.They serve a purpose in our hobby. To protect and authenticate our historical and new items alike, giving everyone the chance to see, appreciate and yes, even own these treasures. A person's motives behind utilizing CGC is up to them.I was a collector, like my father before me, we searched year after year for the finest specimens. It was his passion that I learned from before he passed away. After he died, I sold off the majority of my collection (a story for another time). It was CGC that got me back into the industry. It is because of them and the community they helped to create, that I have an even deeper appreciation for these books and the creators from whom they spring. So how can they be "bad for the industry" when they can inspire those like me to collect again?I have sold graded books. But when I do, there is always this feeling of loss for me, like I'm letting go of something priceless. I usually do it to help fund my specific collecting interests in the hobby, rather than to turn a huge profit.When I search boxes looking for artistic relics from creators gone by, I am not doing so with the idea of making a profit off them. I am doing it for the chance to find that rare item; that book that has never been graded before, or reached a particular grade level before. I often do it with creators in mind, looking for copies that they could sign at future shows, allowing them to put a small piece of themselves back into a book that they helped create, and then preserve it for all time.Who knows what is out there waiting to be discovered by those like us? Who knows what glorious works of art are just sitting somewhere, trapped in limbo. We have the opportunity to unearth them and provide them with a chance to be something special to the whole world again.This is what makes this hobby so thrilling to me. This is what drives me to seek out these books. This is what collecting is all about.And as my big bro would say,Thanks for reading Below is an OCC (original collection copy) of mine, Daredevil #91. I believe it is a 9.6 and I plan on taking it to Baltimore for Tom Palmer to sign.To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.