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Some recent additions to the comic room ...

I don't often upgrade. Since I have a big want list, I prefer to get more comics than better comics. Having said that, I have a few under copies. Someday I'll try to sell them. I think you have to have the time to do that, what with having to ship stuff and deal with potentially unhappy customers. Maybe when I retire I'll get into it, and probably then it'll be fun to flip comics.

I couldn't believe how high this sold for (about a week ago on eBay). My max bid was $110 and I thought I had a pretty good chance at getting it, depending on who else was looking at the time. But it closed at $787! Holy cow.

Dastardly GGA Won this pulp on eBay last night. Let's see, pretty girl tied to the treads of a tank of Nazi-types, about to be crushed. Definitely dastardly good girl art!

Bill Ward Jest Magazine Recently I bought a copy of Jest from 1960 and it had a wealth of Bill Ward art. I have a few Ward collections, but there are a few here that I've never seen.

take Future Science-Fiction / Jul 50 / F/VF / $20 Thrilling Wonder Stories / Feb 1947 / F / $20 Astonishing Stories / June 1940 / F / $20

Very cool books! Looking forward to seeing more.

She lives close to LAX so she probably didn't have to evacuate but better safe than sorry. What is your favorite place to surf? Her boyfriend surfs every day but they just moved there, so he would probably appreciate recommendations.

My daughter who recently moved to LA opted to evacuate.

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Food Update I haven't posted any food pictures in a while, so here we go. Last weekend we went to Atlanta to visit my daughter who goes to Georgia Tech. When we visit my daughter always wants to go to the same restaurant, La Grotta. It's a nice Italian restaurant but what makes it special is black truffles. You can have them shaved onto any dish. We stumbled upon this place her freshman year and she fell in love with the taste and texture. Here are the black truffles all ready to be shaved onto delicious food. I don't know if you're like me, but I always carefully study the menu when I'm at a restaurant (as that's one of the fun parts of going out), but then usually I order the same thing. At this restaurant, every single time we've gone (I think 4 times now), I've gotten the veal chop with shaved black truffles. It is amazing! This week, I had to go to SF for work. One night for dinner, I went to Osso steakhouse. This restaurant is also known for its seafood, especially their version of San Francisco's ubiquitous hot dungeness crab in garlic sauce. This dish is really good; one of those dishes so good it should be its own food group. But I always end up getting the bone-in rib eye steak. As it turns out, Osso -- the name of the restaurant -- means bone-in, as in bone-in rib eye. The steak was huge and delicious. In this picture I should have put my fork, to show scale. It's really big, I could only eat half. I started the meal with a dry martini. Lately I've been into the James Bond martini -- 3 measures gin, 1 vodka, half part vermouth. Actually it's Lillet blanc apéritif which, if you're a fan of the Daniel Craig Bond movies like me, you know isn't really vermouth. Usually when I order this I just order a Vesper, which has become the name of this James Bond martini. But many bartenders don't know this, so then I just order a dry gin martini with a splash of vodka. I'm embarrassed to order it reciting the parts (3 measures gin, 1 vodka, etc.) as then I feel too much like a James Bond geek. And I've never found any bar stocked with Lillet.

I agree. I guess in a way CGC is trusting the other company's grade to a certain extent. Because they obviously cannot grade the insides at all while in the slab.

I think he's asking whether, after you tell CGC to proceed, if the same pre-grader person grades your book, or if it is graded by another grader who does not know about the pre-grade.

Interesting question. I am emailing back and forth with CGC on my crossover book, so I will ask. Although they may consider this part of their confidential grading process. I'll report back with what they tell me.

That's exactly my thinking. With the current crossover promotion, if the grade drops, the re-grading and putting in the CGC slab is only $10.

Update on CGC Crossover Service CGC has already gotten back to me on my crossover books that I sent in last week. They pre-grade the books in the other company's slabs, and they ask for each book if I want to move forward with the CGC grading. For example, here's a message they sent me: On most of them, CGC is predicting a lower grade. I expected that. I told CGC to proceed with their grading for all the comics I sent in, except for this one: I decided not to regrade this one. I think the EGS slab is cool, and I didn't want to risk the 9.9 grade dropping to 9.6. Interestingly, CGC also noted when a press would help, like this next message. Here, they predicted the grade rising by as much as a whole point with a press. For $60 bucks I decided to go with the press for Nellie 3. CGC also noted where restoration removal would help, like this message: To remove the restoration, CGC predicted a drop in grade from 7.0 (in its current restored state) to 6.0-6.5 (blue). And it would cost $60 for the removal. For me it was a no-brainer to remove the restoration.

Hard to answer as it will always depend on condition. I got my restored copy for $200. For an unrestored 6.0 and for a risque cover like this, it would go easily for $600, and probably on eBay you'd see it listed for $1000 or more.

You have Terry's con to look forward to. With my oldest daughter moving to LA, I'll definitely be going again this year.

We had like 5 kids come to our house. Problem is, our cul de sac is kinda old so no kids come here. We so have to move!

This is too freaky!

My Home Office And Collecting Equipment I have my home office in the comic room. It's shown as Desk 1 in the map. I like working at this desk because I'm surrounded by my collection. Under Desk 1 are some pull out shelves I rigged up. I'm kind of proud of them as I'm certainly not a handy man. It's amazing what you can do with stuff from Home Depot. I've finally gotten rid of the big HP legal size scanner. I used to scan CGC books with it. But it's too big and I haven't been satisfied with the quality. Nowadays for CGC books and larger items, I use my iPad, tripod, photo box and remote trigger to take pictures -- I've written about this before. For raw comics and mags (and small items), I use the Canon LiDE 220 scanner which is cheap and meets my quality standards, and it's small. Next to the scanner I've got a cutting board, which is critical for trimming mylar and acid free boards. Thanks for reading.

Thanks -- sometimes you can get good bargains with restored books.

Beautiful copy!

so much good stuff, I'm sorry I came late to the party. I'll take these at 30% off: Erotic Comics 2 - $20 SHIPPED Jaimie Hernandez Collectors Pack - $25 SHIPPED! Pastiches - French HC of Comic Strip Parodies - $20 SHIPPED