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I'm not doing anything on this lazy Saturday, so I thought I'd post some comics (and one pulp) I've bought lately.

Egad! Over 7? Heresy!

Halloween was an exciting night for Millie the Model eBay auctions. For the last year or so I've been trying to collect Millie 1-10. Last night, I lost on 8 and 9 but I was okay with that, due to the writing on Millie's legs. I won though on the one I really wanted, Millie #7 with the classic GGA mirror cover! Even better, I got it at 70% of my max bid! Now I hope to get the book before CGC's crossover promotion ends.

Yes, it would be nice if CGC returned the original label.

I sent in my cross-over books today. Came to 22 comics. Normally I use the Value tier, but the on-line form made me use Standard. That was annoying, but with the 50% pricing, I just went with it rather than calling CGC to work it out. I'll be interested if this results in a faster turnaround (Standard versus Value is supposed to be 3 times faster.) I'm also excited to see the books back. Will they hold or go down in grade? Will some even go up? Will CGC catch more restoration? I'll report when I get the books back.

Continuing the tour of that bookcase, I've got a stack of books on the top shelf (labeled as 3) that are my larger size Dave Stevens' books. One thing I'm particularly proud of, I've got the top rated Dave Stevens CGC registry set (you can link to it from my signature). To the right of that bookshelf are some other shelves, and on top are most of my Stevens' CGC graded comics. I keep them in 2 stacks. I also have another shelf where I display some of my Stevens' books:

When you look at pictures of my comic room, probably you see an unorganized mess. But really it's organized and I know where everything is. Take for example this bookcase. In front you see two piles of stuff leaning against the the bookcase. I've labeled them 1 and 2. Let's start with #2 first. That's my collection of stuff by Philippe Berthet, the artist from Brussels. Here are a couple of examples: #1 is my collection of DC's Bombshell series. I'm also getting the corresponding statues. Here are the Supergirl comic and the corresponding Supergirl statue (shown with the white arrow). It's cool to have it in both 2D and 3D. Here are a couple more Bombshell statues from my collection (I don't have the comics yet). Thanks for reading.

And for $45 for 2 people it was a steal. We're still eating it. I'm planning to put the wagyu stew over white rice for lunch today just as the 1pm football games start.

Yes! They were delicious.

Take it! This issue completes one of my ongoing projects, which is to get every Legion of Super-Heroes comic before Superboy and the LSH #231. Thanks!

Gil Kane is one of my all time favorite artist. I'd love to have a comic with his autograph.

Looks like a great time, thanks for posting

I haven't posted food pics for a while so I'll show you Thursday night's dinner. This was at Our Harvest in Fenwick Beach, MD. During the off-season, the restaurants at the beach offer really good specials. They call this their Bull and Oyster feast. It starts with raw and baked oysters. Then cream of mushroom and oyster soup. And finally the entree, a half slab of slow cooked ribs and then a pot pie with wagyu brisket. All for $45! It was a ton of food. We took the leftovers home and we're still eating it.

Thanks for posting Jim. I love those Stevens autographed books. I've never seen a Stevens SS book. Dave died in 2008. I think CGC's signature series started after that. Does anyone know?

CGC's New Crossover Service I haven't seen much on the boards about CGC's new crossover service (where you can send in another company's slab, and CGC will regrade and slab it; if the grade stays the same or goes up, the cost is 50% of CGC's regular price; if the grade goes down, the cost is only $10). Part of me admires CGC for what can only be considered a cut throat move against CBCS. I can only imagine the jaw grinding going on over there. So another part of me feels sorry for CBCS. I don't want them to go out of business. I think competition is good for everyone, even for CGC. Also, CBCS offers one service that CGC doesn't -- verifying autographs. Because of them, I have Cheval Noir 7 signed by Dave Stevens, which is one of my most cherished comics. I wish CGC would team up with PSA or form their own group to verify autographs. But the biggest part of me is really excited about this service. Over the years I've picked up a pile of CBCS and PGX comics at auctions and cons. But CGC is the premier grading service and having comics in other company's slabs have always meant less to me. CGC slabs also carry a premium when selling. Okay, not for all comics, but in those cases where a slab will increase a comics value, CGC will provide more of a multiple than either CBCS or PGX. I know some people will disagree with me (especially as to CBCS), but for me at least, I'll pay a premium for CGC books but not for CBCS. So I'm collecting all of my CBCS and PGX comics to send into CGC. I'm not concerned about the grades going down. I'm expecting they will for the PGX books. The only book I'm hesitating on is this Spawn embossed German edition. It was graded by EGS (apparently a grading company in Europe) and they gave it a 9.9 grade. I hesitate because I don't want to lose the 9.9 grade, and it's kind of unique (it's the only EGS book I have in my collection; in fact I can't remember ever seeing another one on eBay). But in the end I decided to send it in. I figure it'll get at least 9.8, given the sturdiness of these embossed covers. And if it does come back 9.9, then its re-sale value will have gone up by a pretty good amount. On another topic, if you collect CGC comics, then you eventually get some that you don't like as much anymore. Maybe because your collecting interests change, or it was an impulse buy, there are a lot of reasons. So what do you do with them? I know some people try to sell them. We see those kind of sale threads all the time. But I don't like selling my comics, especially graded comics. Because, while I might not love them as much anymore, I still like them enough that I don't want to part with them. So what I do is put them on the floor in a stack. You can store tons of CGC slabs this way, as you're making full use of the volume of your storage area. Right now I have one stack, and it's about half the max height of the space (because there's a shelf above). At this rate, in my lifetime, I'll probably only need 2 or, at most, 3 stacks to store my "I don't love them but I don't want to get rid of them" graded books. Here's my stack, and in the next picture, it shows the stack after I've put other stuff around it.

Congrats! So did the message in your sig line help find it?

My story is the same. My wife got me to go, and I got converted very fast. I get what you say about the cost -- $100 per ticket per person per day (and I've got a family of 6). One year we went so much we got annual tickets. Nowadays we don't go as much as the kids are getting older. Our tradition is to go the weekend of the Presidential election -- because that's when you need Disney the most, right? But I'd like to go sometime before 2020.

Pirates is longer in DisneyLand? Wow, now I've got to go there!

Thanks. @szavisca mentioned the same thing to me about the Newton Rings. In the same box from CGC, I got these books that do not suffer from the same flaw. They are lower grade and, unlike the others, do not have glossy covers. So ironically, it seems this phenomenon impacts higher grade comics more than lower grade. Which I guess makes sense. The glossier covers reflect more light so they interact with the plastic of the slab.

I really love the Super Mystery in your sig line!

Latest CGC Invoice I got some books back from CGC the other day. I got Real Love 42 from Terry's Con earlier this year. I paid way too much for it -- if I had to do it again I would have passed -- but at least it came back in the grade I was expecting. I got Mazie 23 at the SDCC. What a great deal for $50! Kinda evens out the bad deal with Real Love 42. I picked up Romantic Secrets 31 from eBay -- or maybe from a boardie here, I can't remember. I have a thing now for photo covers, and this is one of my favorites. By the way, I'm disappointed with the CGC slabs on this order. It's like the plastic is pressing down on the comic, resulting in some distortion. You can see this in the Real Love comic, with bubbles on the girl's nose and forehead. You can see similar bubbles in the other 2 comics. These defects are due to the slabs, not the comics inside. I can only hope this resolves itself over time, or perhaps I'll take them in to CGC the next time I see them at a con.

This is one of my favorite journals. I've always thought about selling at cons, so thanks for sharing your experiences.

Sunday Heritage Results I picked up a few books a couple weeks ago on the Heritage Sunday auction. First I got a run of Henry Alrich for a great price. The best of the bunch (and one of my favorite GGA covers) was #13. My big win of the evening was Boots #9. Boots has great GGA, and #9 is way under-rated IMHO (similar to the way Junie 5 is under-rated).

Recently I picked up a Fantastic Adventures pulp (from 1951). It reminded me of one of my favorite Rangers comics, #21, so I bought it as soon as I saw it. I find the art interesting. The girl in Fantastic Adventures seems defeated, whereas the girl in Rangers 21 looks ready to fight. Of course, it helps to have a soldier with a gun on your side.

I didn't know about this comic (didn't have it on my Baker list). Is this an accepted Baker cover?