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take Action Comics 303 - 1.5 - $3 Action Comics 304 - 3.0 - $5 I love this thread!

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Earlier this week I smoked a big slab of prime rib for dinner. I used the leftovers in the crook pot, with some beans I soaked in water overnight. I love throwing stuff in the crock pot and seeing what happens after a few hours. That's probably why I love smoking meat so much. You go low and slow all day and then you see what happens.

Big football weekend! And it's raining outside so I have no excuse but to sit on the sofa and watch TV. I've got something good going in the crook pot so food is just steps away. And I've got a lot of auctions closing this weekend. On top of that, VCC is going on. So it'll be a couch potato weekend of football and comics. The weekend started out right when I won this on eBay a few minutes ago:

ComicLink November 2018 I really wanted this Spirit section last night. But it closed at $1827! Wow! My high bid was only $600 so I greatly undervalued this. This certainly shows you the multiplier effect of a high grade. I did have one win last night, Venus 3. I got it for $425. I was also bidding for Venus 8 CGC 7.0. It closed strong at $1100, more than double my max bid (again showing the power of a higher grade). I have no regrets over missing out on 8, though, as I like the cover of 3 better.

Do you mean Jugs? I assume you've seen the new Archie TV series?

Here are some other under-appreciated but great Betty and Veronica covers I've been looking for a nice copy of B&V 42 for a few years now. It's impossible to find a copy where Betty's back bow is all black; instead you always see it with the white sprinkles. I've always through B&V Annual 7 is similar to the B&V 41. Which, by the way, I like better than B&V 40 (40 certainly isn't under-appreciated, it's one of the Archie classics, but I include it here for comparison).

That's something I like about the cover. Betty's belt, the pearls, the edging along the collar. Also Archie's polka dot bow tie and the yellow stripes across Reggie's sweater. You've got the love triangle going on, with Veronica making eyes at Reggie, and Archie throwing shade at his rival. So much going on in this cover!

I'll take via pm: Supergirl #23...9.8 Supergirl #12...9.8

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Results of Latest CGC Invoice Yesterday I got my latest invoice back from CGC. Here's what I got. First up are a couple of Matt Baker books, Midget #1 and the Tiny Tales Cinderella book. I'm always debating with myself which Baker books to send in to grade. Lately, I've been focusing on (1) higher grade copies I've been able to buy, and (2) rarer comics. Both these comics fall into the latter category. Cinderella is rare; my copy is the only graded copy. Although recently @Ricksneatstuff offered a copy that I was tempted to buy to go along with my (now) graded copy. Midget isn't super rare. There are 7 graded copies and 1 restored copy. (In addition to my 3.5 blue, I own the graded copy too, shown below). So anyway -- I go back and forth whether it was worthwhile to send these comics in for grading. But whatever, I've got them now. I feel better about the other 3 comics I got back in this invoice. First is Jungle 86. This fits my "dastardly GGA" category and it's a pretty copy. I'm not crazy about the misprint right edge. For that reason, I recently saw another nice copy on eBay and I was tempted to buy it. But my want list is long and my budget limited. It doesn't make sense for me to upgrade when there are so many other comics I want to add to the collection. So I decided to just go with the copy I had, even with its (somewhat) unsightly right edge. I'm glad it came back at the relatively high 6.0. Next is Rangers 32. Rangers is probably my favorite Fiction House title, and #32 is in my top 10 of favorite Rangers covers. I'm really happy it came back 7.0. The last comic from this invoice is my favorite, Reggie #9. It's really amazing how many great golden age Betty and Veronica covers there are. And I'm not even talking about the classics, like Archie 50 or B&V 40. If you want to see some examples, see @Chuck Gower wonderful blog: http://undercoverarchie.blogspot.com/ Reggie 9 is a great, under-appreciated (IMHO) Veronica cover. No, it's not a classic GGA cover, like Torchy 5, Spirit 22 or Cindy 37. It's not a touch below classic, like Junie 5. It's not a "the price is going through the roof so get your copy now before it's too late" like Underworld Crime 7 or Ghost 6. Reggie 9 is below all of those. But still it's still a great cover. Thanks for reading. \

Jim! Holy cow, I feel like I've pulled you over to the dark side, or convinced you to take a red pill. But Lady Mechanika does kind of draw you in. As far as I know, Benitez has not released any hardcover collections. So far he's only released trades, and they are collector's items. Which makes no sense. He should release a low cost omnibus collection to draw in new readers. Anyway, here are the collections I've been able to get. I'm sure I've missed some. Let me know if you need any individual issues. You've given me so many great deals in the past, I've got a bunch of reading copies I'd be happy to send to you.

Since (in my secret identity) I'm a lawyer, I can see cut throat behavior, so I know exactly what CGC is doing through its crossover program -- they're going for CBCS's jugular! (I suspect you do too but you're being polite ) But you never know what's going on behind the scenes. Maybe CBCS is doing well so CGC needs to do this for market share. I kind of doubt this, though, because at cons I never see people at the CBCS booth. I'm a CGC loyalist and I don't have any personal ties at CBCS -- but in any case, I'm enjoying watching this play out.

Sorry about your situation. I'll take this one.

I agree with you. I have 9.8s in my collection where I see defects, usually along the spine. Then I've submitted books that look perfect that get 9.6 or lower. It's definitely subjective and also subject to evolving standards. For example, at the moment, I think CGC is tougher on modern books than they were a few years ago.

Yeah, the book I decided not to have graded and got returned was this 9.9, because CGC estimated it could drop to 9.6. But I think it depends on the company. If it was a PGX 9.8, I'd probably have it re-graded. CBCS, probably not. But I didn't have to grapple with that decision as none of the books I sent in under the crossover program were high grade (other than this Spawn).

That's too bad about Devil. If it started out PGX, then it was worth it. If CBCS, then that would have been a hard choice. Although it's hard to imagine CBCS and CGC would be that big a spread. I've found CGC to be offering great customer service with its crossover program. They sent me the email within a week of me sending in the books. One book I decided not to regrade, and they immediately shipped that back to me. Since I've sent my crossovers in, I've picked up this CBCS Millie. I wonder how long CGC will be running their current crossover promotion? As I'd like to send this book in but I want to send a few rather than just one.

Ha!

Lately I've been buying old humor mags with Ward strips. The price depends on the number of Ward panels in the mag. His art is truly amazing. Here's one I just got off eBay (with 11 Ward panels!).

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I wrote about how I lost out on True Life Secrets 3. My max bid was $110 and it closed at a stunning $787. The same seller had a couple of other high grade GA comics that closed today. The first was Broadway Romances 1. I upped my max bid to $220. Again I lost as it closed at $260. The final book was Untamed Love 1. The 3 best issues of this title are 1-3. I already had 2 and 3 and I've been looking for a #1. So I really wanted this book. I decided to up my max bid to $400. In my opinion, Untamed Love 1 is more valuable than True Life Secrets 3, but there's only so much I'm willing to spend, so it if went for $787 (like the True Life Secrets), then so be it. But as it turns out, I got Untamed for $330. In retrospect, I'm happy with what I paid to get Untamed Love. I wish I was a bit more aggressive with Broadway Romances. And I'll just have to keep my eyes open for another more reasonable copy of True Life Secrets 3. Thanks for reading.