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Matt Baker -- 1 out of 4 Recently I lost out on 3 Baker covers. The 2 on the left on C-Line and the one on the right on eBay. I got priced out of the Authentic Police Cases CGC 8.0 early on. It closed at $1006; no way I'm paying that. It's a cool cover that doesn't pop up often, but I'll wait for a lower grade copy. The other 2 hurt; APC CGC 6.5 went for $280 and Pictorial Romances for $284, especially the Pic Romances. Yes, I would have bought it for $284. But as we all know, if I bid $300 it might have gone higher than that; such is the way of auctions for rare golden age books. But I do have regret missing out. Then, after these loses, it was like the clouds parting and the sun coming out. Pictorial Romances #6. On eBay it had a BIN of $275. The seller was taking offers. What the heck, I offered $225. When I checked next my offer was accepted! A nice look copy too although the middle staple has me worried. So 1 out of 4 for Baker over a week. Actually, given how hot Matt Baker is right now, that's not too bad.

ComicLink Winners (March 2016) Actually I should call this C-Link losers as I've lost on everything so far except 1. Is it just me, or has bidding been usually aggressive on C-Link all this year? Or maybe this is the new normal. If it is that's a good thing as I head towards retirement in just over 10 years. My lone winner so far is Alpha Flight 6. This is one of my favorite covers in the John Byrne run. Another one is Alpha Flight 3. Both came up for auction last year (I think on C-Link but it could have been C-Connect, I can't remember and that's something I don't track in my database). In that earlier auction I won #3 for $38 but lost out on #6 (my high, losing bid was around $40). This time I won #6 for $26 so now I'm glad I lost out before. On a somewhat related note, I've made it to #281 on the overall CGC Registry list. I jumped a few positions lately, mostly fueled by my Batman Adventures #12 CGC 9.8 (worth 1200 points). I told the story of that one before, how I found it among the long boxes of books I'm planning to sell, and somehow it came back as 9.8. Talk about serendipity. (By the way, if anyone is interesting in buying about 25,000 comics + boxes of fanzines + lots of Star Trek and Star Wars toys for a really good price, just let me know.) As the listing shows, I have 733 CGC comics in the Registry (which is less than what I have in my collection as I have about 50 more CGC books that do not have a set). My average points per comic is only 95. That's not completely unusual, as jmuell2952 has 798 books at an average score of 90. Then on the opposite end of the spectrum is Ross Fischer with 15 books at an average of 4770 (having AF 15 in CGC 7.5 will do that). I think something that's different about my collection is the diversity, as I have 5 pages of sets. In contrast, most of jmuell2952's collection is in his Amazing Spiderman set with almost 400 high grade Spidey's. That's something I really like about the Registry (although I was slow to catch onto it). You can explore what other people collect. Even though what you collect might not be for me, I'm always interested (and often fascinated) by other people's collections. Something else the Registry has motivated me to do is scan in every CGC book I own. I'm kind of proud of having 100% of pictures in the Registry. But a big side benefit is I have all the scans on my computer. So when I'm traveling (which I do alot of for work), I can always browse my collection by flipping through the pictures. Thanks for reading.

Independent Key - 1st Appearance of William Tucci's Shi I like collecting keys. I bought this one from a boardie, the 1st appearance of Shi. I bought it raw for a good price and then sent it off to CGC. It came back 9.4 which is about what I expected. It's somewhat tough to get really high grade (i.e., 9.8) for books like this and I didn't want to spend a lot. I'm happy to be able to check this one off my list.

Jane Arden - Fiction House The quest for Matt Baker comics brought me to St. John and I find myself buying more and more St. John comics including those without Baker art. Jane Arden was a short run, only 2 issues. From Wiki: "Jane Arden was an internationally syndicated daily newspaper comic strip which ran from 1927 to 1968. The title character was the original "spunky girl reporter," actively seeking to infiltrate and expose criminal activity rather than just report on its consequences and served as a prototype for later characters such as Superman supporting character Lois Lane and fellow comic strip heroine, Brenda Starr. Jane Arden was only moderately successful in the United States, but it was highly popular in Canada and Australia. The strip was widely reprinted in comic books and was also adapted into both a film and a radio series." I'm not a St. John expert but I know there's at least 1 more Jane Arden comic, Pageant of Comics #2 (#1 was Mopsy). Below's my copy. Thanks for reading.

Golden Age Romance The raciness of Golden Age romance always amazes me. These 3 comics are from 1950-1952. I wonder how much of this would have made it through the Comics Code?

One More Gwen Speaking of Gwen Stacy, I recently got this commission from Richard Moore. The commission process (via these boards) was quick and painless (unlike so many other artists). The very helpful facilitator was James Meeley at Sequential Treasures. The drawing was based on Moore's cover from his Boneyard comic:

Another Addition to the Gwen Stacy Collection Just got this from CGC this week (normal track magazine turnaround time was a little over 2 months). I got this via the mail from the SDCC -- it was promoting the 2012 con. Or maybe I got it at the con. I can't remember. I wanted to submit my copy to CGC but I didn't think it would make 9.8. I bought a couple copies via eBay but they had more defects than my original copy. So I went ahead and submitted my original copy and crossed my fingers. And it got 9.8! (Although sometimes I wonder if CGC eases up its standards on promo pieces like this.) I actually went to the 2012 SDCC. Below are some pictures.

A Couple Additions to the Gwen Stacy Collection Here are a couple additions to my Gwen Stacy collection that I just got back from CGC. My Gwen collection includes GS key issues as well as covers featuring Gwen. As I've mentioned before, of all Peter's girlfriends Gwen is my favorite. Probably because I was in my early teens when their romance was happening. I still remember reading ASM 121 when Gwen died (as they say, like it was yesterday). This was back before the internet so I had no warning. Back then I delivered newspapers on my bike after school for comic book money. I just bought #121 off the rack at the convenience store and was reading it as I was cruising a smooth trail on my bike (this may sound dumb -- and it was dumb -- but it's the equivalent of texting while driving). When Gwen died I was so shocked I literally fell off the bike. So anyway, from my childhood, I kind of have the Peter / Gwen romance imprinted in my head. The 2 latest additions are fun ones because they're kind of different. The first is the Italian edition of ASM 600 (funny enough, this Italian edition fits in the regular ASM 600 slot of the registry). The second is the NY Comicon program with a Spider-Gwen cover by Adam Hughes. Thanks for reading.

I got this comic back from CGC last week. 9.8! I cannot believe it (I thought the slight imperfections in the upper and lower left corners would keep it at 9.6 at best.) Now I'm wondering whether to sell it to catch the wave before it crashes. Although I really like the 1200 registry points.

Below is the latest entry in my journal. Thanks for reading. Last week I got my most recent Value invoice back from CGC. The turnaround time for normal track was just under 3 months. I had a few Matt Baker's in this submission. It'd be nice to have a Baker registry set, if for no other reason that we'd then be able to leverage the expertise of the people on this board to identify and create a checklist of all the Baker covers in existence. If we ever have such a set, my goal would be to get a copy of each book rather than the top score since I'm a completist rather than a person going for high grades. The last book below, Wartime Romances 15, is a good example of this. There's a chunk missing from the last 5 pages of the book. The CGC notation says "affects story" but it is possible to read the story so in my mind the book is complete. So while the book only got a 0.5 grade, the cover's in good shape and I got it cheap for $45. If only more "incomplete" books were offered on eBay.

Newly Graded Matt Baker Last week I got my most recent Value invoice back from CGC. The turnaround time for normal track was just under 3 months. I had a few Matt Baker's in this submission. It'd be nice to have a Baker registry set, if for no other reason that we'd then be able to leverage the expertise of the people on this board to identify and create a checklist of all the Baker covers in existence. If we ever have such a set, my goal would be to get a copy of each book rather than the top score since I'm a completist rather than a person going for high grades. The last book below, Wartime Romances 15, is a good example of this. There's a chunk missing from the last 5 pages of the book. The CGC notation says "affects story" but it is possible to read the story so in my mind the book is complete. So while the book only got a 0.5 grade, the cover's in good shape and I got it cheap for $45. If only more "incomplete" books were offered on eBay.

Displaying CGC Books As we all know, it's a struggle to find room to display CGC books. In my comic room I've built shelves from 4" to 8" deep (depending on the location) where I can store stacks of CGC books. Periodically I rotate the stack to display different books at the front. Lately I've started also using these plastic magazine holders. They're big enough to hold CGC books 3-4 deep. Again, I periodically rotate to display different books at the front. These are good in tight spaces where I can't fit a shelf. You can also attach them to the front of shelves, to take advantage of dead spaces.

Thanks Brandon!

Good Burger / Some Golden Age GGA Wife and I are wine tasting in Sonoma this weekend. On the drive up from SFO we stopped in Sausalito for lunch. We went to the Napa Valley Burger Co and shared this burger. Wife doesn't like eggs or avocado on burgers so I got all of both for my half. Loved it! Back to comics, recently I won this Matt Baker cover on eBay. Baker's popularity is really up lately, and so are prices. I got a better than expected deal because the eBay listing didn't list the cover as by Baker. I'm envious of people here when they display their high grade golden age comics. But, this is a good example of the condition of books I go after. I guess when it comes to golden age I'd rather have more "decent looking" books than just a few "really amazing looking" books. Recently bought this from the marketplace here. I've always liked this Joe Doolin cover.

No SDCC For Me & Pics of My Comic Book Room Got this email from the good folks at the San Diego Comic Con: So tickets went on sale this past Saturday. I thought about trying for tickets. But even if I lucked out in that lottery, I'd then have to go through the hotel lottery. And I didn't win, I'd have to go through the parking lottery. On top of that I'd have to get a flight to San Diego (from the east coast where I live). And then I remembered the crowds, and overflowing panels, and over priced comics, etc. etc. Yeah, the big panels are exciting (Walking Dead, Game of Thrones). But they're all on youtube almost as soon as they happen live. So no. No SDCC for me in 2016. I didn't even try for it. I'm not sure if I'll ever go to this con again. So with that sad thought, to try to end on a happier note, here are some pictures of my comic book room. The first is the door into the room. You'll see I have a Star Trek transporter pad (which is really the rug of a ST shower set). So to get into my room you have to beam into it. To the left is a framed, signed and numbered print by the talented Jennifer Janesko. The next one are my large Star Wars playsets. Boy these boxes are big. As I moved into my new comic room I worried if I'd have room for these large playsets. I managed to fit them in by stacking them on top of each other. As I moved from my old comic room to my new one, I found some old vinyl records. I forgot I had them. I immediately got on Amazon and bought a portable record player. Since then I've picked up some 45s on this board and eBay. What a lot of fun! Finally, I made sure I made space for my dog to hang out while I'm in my comic book room. Funny thing, my dog (and cat too) often hang out in the room even when I'm not in there. My kids do too. I get a kick out of that. Thanks for reading.

More C-Link and C-Connect Despite what I said above about how expensive C-Link is, I have managed to pick up a few affordable books the last couple of months. Here's something I won for only $21 -- the 1st issue of Starlog! Only 6.0 but it brings back memories so I couldn't pass it up. (Only worth 1 point in the registry though.) I also got this comic to add to my Gwen Stacy collection: I picked up a few comics over at C-Connect too (I guess people still offer some CGCs over there). Love this J. Scott Campbell Vampirella:

CGC Turn-Around Times -- 2015 Report In 2015 I submitted 12 invoices. This is a report on CGC's response times. Two were fast track so I don't count those -- I can tell you though they were fast (under 2 months). One I haven't received back yet (I mailed it on 11/27/2015). So the sample size for this report is 9 invoices. 6 were Modern, 1 Value, 1 Magazine and 1 Playboy (it wasn't a Playboy -- not that there's anything wrong with that -- but it was Playboy sized). Bottom line, the average turn-around time for normal track was a little over 3 months. The fastest was a little under 2 months, the slowest a little over 4 months. At the moment, I have 5 invoices pending totaling 27 books. With a projected turn-around time of 3 months, I'll get 1 in February, 2 in April and 2 in May. I'm sure it won't play out exactly that way. But I find it's fun to regularly submit invoices so I have them to look forward to. In fact, I've gotten over my fast-track and on-site urges except for, in some cases, sketch covers. Anyway, here are a few from the Modern invoice I just got back. A couple Jae Lee covers, a Broomall and finally a Benitez.

C-Link and C-Connect Here are my thoughts on recent ComicLink and ComicConnect auctions. ComicLink -- Boy, are the big spenders out or what? ComicConnect - Boy, why so many CBCS books? For both I haven't been involved, since I'm priced out of C-Link and uninterested in C-Connect (not interested in CBCS -- not sure what the point is). Although, I did manage to pick up a few inexpensive modern GGA books from recent auctions. This last one is a nice bookend with this one I picked up a couple years ago:

Thought this might be of interest, the Valiant Index by Seaborn Adamson from back in 1993. Seaborn's letters from back then are in my journal, if you're interested. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=9157012&Number=9157012#Post9157012

A Rare Valiant Collectible (?) I was kind of bored with comics and my collection when Valiant arrived. I was busy with my new career and newly married, so going to cons to trudge through long boxes wasn't a big priority. Then Valiant happened and I got caught up in it. Not just the stories, which were great, but collecting every issue. I managed to get every regular issue. Getting the golds and platinums back then was hard but since then I've been able to get most of them. I was captivated by Valiant. It really re-energized my collecting energies. Then the main guys started leaving. Shooter, Layton, Barry .... It was like the Beatles breaking up ... or the cancellation of Star Trek The Next Generation. Why couldn't they just work it out, like Stan Lee and Kirby? Anyway, that broke the magic for me. I never got into Acclaim or what happened after. To this day my Valiant collection is limited to the original Valiant comics. Fortunately, once I got the collecting bug again it never left. I'm as active in comic collecting as ever (spurred on in large part by my interest in CGC and its registry). Back then of course the Comics Buyers Guide was running strong. There was an ad for the Valiant Index. I immediately sent off my check via snail mail (this was way before Internet ordering). Here it is: I found out this was a limited edition of only 12. Seaborn Adamson was the editor. He stopped production at 12 copies at the request of Valiant. Below are 2 letters Seaborn sent me, where he explains what happened. A little bit of comics history. Thanks for reading.

First Silver Surfer and Galactus This was my first major buy of the year, Fantastic Four 48 with the 1st appearances of Silver Surfer and Galactus. As I've written before in this journal, I'm trying to complete what I call my Original Marvels collection, which are the original titles of Amazing Spiderman, Avengers, Cap, Iron Man, Hulk, Daredevil and the Fantastic Four. These were my favorite titles as a kid. Not included are Thor and X-Men because they weren't favorites back then. Anyway, all the titles are complete except ASM and FF. I need ASM 2, 3, 14, 119 and 122 and FF 1, 5 and 12. So, I need just 8 more issues for my Original Marvels collection to be complete. It was 9 until a Heritage auction a couple weeks ago. That's when I saw this FF 48. Wow, CGC 7.5. And a nice looking 7.5. But the cover's detached. So I thought about it. This was my chance to get a 7.5 copy. The flaw made it possible because I would never pay the money for a blue 7.5 (which GPA has at over $700). So I decided to go for this copy. I paid more than I originally wanted. You can see my purchase on GPA at $382. I kind of got into the excitement of the real time bidding Heritage offers on its Sunday sales. But 2 weeks later I'm not feeling buyer's regret. In fact I'm very happy to have this book. To me, as a collector, the flaw is not a big deal because it's in the CGC case and will always stay there. The flaw impacts my ability to resell, but I don't plan to ever sell. I'm not saying I'll never sell any of my comics. I'm open to selling some comics when I get into retirement if I need the money. But if I'm going to cull the herd there's a lot I'd sell before this one. The bottom line is, as a collector, sometimes you have to compromise to get to your collecting goals. I've found restored and qualified books as good options to get nice looking comics at affordable prices. In fact, ironically, graded restored and qualified comics are sometimes less in price than the same book in ungraded form. Not sure why that is but I've seen it many times. Thanks for reading.

Strangers in Paradise / Terry Moore Original Art - Part 4 This is the last post in this set. Again I bought the first 2 SIP OA pieces from Terry Moore at a SDCC around 2005-2007. The first is a self portrait of Katchoo from SIP #66. Because it's small (less than 8 1/2 x 11) Terry priced it at only $65 (you can see the price in the upper right corner) -- it's no doubt my best deal on SIP OA! I don't actually remember where the 2nd is from -- a cover, or back cover? I don't have my collection with me at the moment and I can't remember off the top of my head. This one is also a small piece and I think it was priced around the same as the first (another great deal). The third piece is not actually Terry Moore but a recreation of Vol 2 Issue 10, one of my favorite SIP covers because it so perfectly captures Katchoo and Francine just hanging. The recreation is by Neil Vokes. For a while I had the ambition of having lots of artists do their version of this cover. But alas, Neil's was the only one I got (so far). Neil also did one of my favorite Gwen Stacy commissions. Thanks for reading.

Strangers in Paradise / Terry Moore Original Art - Part 3 At one SDCC back in the early 2000s, Terry offered for sale art from his sketchbook. During his panel he said he was about to toss out the sketchbook when his friends suggested he pull out the pages and offer them for sale. Luckily I was one of the first people at his table when the con opened. I got these sketches of Francine (and one of Katchoo at the bottom below). I think they were around $30-$45 each (on some you can see the price in the top right corner). Kind of wish now I had bought more, but I guess I must have picked out the ones I liked most. Thanks for reading.

I'd like to buy 2 bundles (10 boxes) of Magazine Box (Bundle of 5) $35.00 shipped thanks Mike

Strangers in Paradise / Terry Moore Original Art - Part 2 At another SDCC I asked Terry to sketch Francine at 16. I was so impressed with the sketch that, the next day, I asked him to sketch Katchoo at 16. I had a fleeting ambition to get 16 yo sketches of the entire cast but of course that wasn't possible. Here are the Francine and Katchoo "sweet 16" sketches. As you can see, both were on SDCC blanks. At other SDCCs, I got sketches from Terry of David and Casey. These were on the Gen13 "do-it" blanks. If I ever get the chance for more sketches from Terry, I'd go for (in order): Freddie, Darcie and Tambi. I have a few Gen13 blanks left so that's what I'd use.