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Championship Sunday Equals Deals On eBay I won these Fiction House CGC books on eBay today. I'm pretty sure if offered on C-Link they would each go for over $100, especially the Planet comic. But today I guess everyone was too occupied by football as I was the only bidder. Kind of makes up for my team getting knocked out 2 weeks ago. Well, not really.

Strangers in Paradise / Terry Moore Original Art Back in the early 2000s I was going to the San Diego Comic Con almost every year. My first year was 2000. My kids were old enough to leave with my wife by herself, and I finally got to the point in my career where I had some extra money to go to a con across the country. One of my favorite comics is Strangers in Paradise. So as soon as I got into the dealers room I went straight to the Abstract Studios table. I wanted to look at his original art offerings, and hoped to get a sketch. Back then, Terry Moore had more time to do sketches. So the line for sketches was never more than 10-15 people or so and Terry was very generously doing free sketches for his fans. At an earlier con (I don't remember which one), I bought this Katchoo sketch on a Gen 13 blank. At that SDCC 2000 con, I got Terry to sign and personalize it to me. Then, I asked him to sketch a Francine to go along with the Katchoo. I handed him another Gen 13 "do-it" blank (this started my somewhat obsession of getting sketches on these Gen 13 blanks). Here it is: All this happened before I was into CGC so I didn't even think about submitting it. That's okay, I obviously don't need the authenticity of CGC since Terry sketched it right in front of me. And, books look just as good in Mylar as the CGC holders. By the way, over the years at these SDCCs, I got some original art from Terry. I got more sketch covers too. I'll post more of what I got later. In the meantime, here's some SIP art I previously posted. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7287580&fpart=47 Thanks for reading.

Recent Golden Age GGA Pickups - Matt Baker Matt Baker prices are ridiculous nowadays, especially for his covers. (A great thread of his work is here http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=8844131&fpart=1) Just check out ebay. $200+ for beat up copies. Really amazing. Probably the best place to get his books is this board. I managed to pick up this one recently from a boardie. After he posted it I sent him a PM with an offer. But then I thought, "am I crazy?" It's a nice looking Baker at a reasonable price. No way it lasts long. So I immediately dropped a flag for his asking price. I got this classic GGA bondage cover from another boardie. Bonus, this book has a Senorita Rita story, who is a fun heroine.

Walking Dead Cast SS Book Mad-dogz had a major sale recently on the boards. I picked up an Elektra early on in his sale, signed and remarked by Sienkiewicz. I've been looking for a 9.6 or better copy for some time now, and with the Sienkiewicz sig and sketch I was more than happy to pay his asking price of $50. I was happy even after mad-dogz offered a sale on his remaining books (since I figured this one would have been scooped up by someone else at full price if I didn't act quickly like I did). I lost track of mad-dogz's sale for a while, then checked back in. That's when I found out he offered a Walking Dead book with 6 cast signatures: Danai Gurira (Michonne) Chandler Riggs (Carl) Michael Rooker (Meryl) Irone Singleton (T-Dog) Scott Wilson (Herschel) Laure Holden (Andrea) Mad-dogz's price was $300. That's a bargain with so many sigs. Also, some of these are hard to get, like Chandler Riggs. But it was listed as on-hold. Ugh! Mad-dogz put his remaining books on sale at 30% off. A boardie dropped a flag saying "I'll take the WD book at 30% if it comes off the hold." Well yeah that would be an incredible price if mad-dogz allowed it. But like I said, the full asking price of $300 was a bargain. If you think about what actors charge for sigs at Wizard World (at least $50 each), plus the hassle of getting CGC witnesses, waiting in line, etc., mad-dogz's full asking price was more than fair. So I PM'd mad-dogz and also dropped a flag and said I would take the book at full price if it goes off hold. I didn't expect to get it because I assumed the 1st buyer wouldn't let it get away. But soon after mad-dogz PM'd me and said it was mine. So this was my best Christmas present to myself of the year. And here is that Elektra book I also bought from mad-dogz. Thanks for reading.

Holy Cow! I Have This?!! I've mentioned I'm reducing the herd. I've gone from about 45000 comics to 25000. Now, I'm going through the rejects to see if there are any I want before I sell them wholesale. I'm thinking about contacting Mile High or Lone Star, or perhaps sell via Craig's List. I don't expect to get much. So today I was going through a Batman box of rejects. This box had my run of Batman Animated. I was flipping through the books when I found this, Batman Adventures 12 (1st Harley Quinn). Holy cow! I didn't think I had this issue! It's definitely going into my next CGC submission. It's my birthday in a week, so this is a great early b-day present. Thanks for reading.

Agreed. I remember Yvonne as much as Marta in Star Trek as Batgirl. Here's my only signature of Yvonne that I was lucky enough to win on eBay some time ago. Funny that CGC does not mention her ST appearance.

Great Gwen Stacy / Adam Hughes Buy Adam Hughes sketched Gwen on a bunch of Spider-Gwen blanks. They're all over the place. As with all Spider-Gwen comics, prices are softening and you can get good prices if you have some patience. I've been shopping for this comic for a few months now. Finally got this one via eBay buy-it-now. I've seen subtle differences between Adam's sketches, so I'm still looking for one of his sketches where he portrays Spider-Gwen (as opposed to just Gwen). Thanks for reading.

Batgirl Got a great Batgirl deal recently from StingerMcK here on the boards. The lot included these great Batgirl covers. The lot also included Detective 363 in CGC 4.5. I already have it in 9.0 so that'll be one I sell eventually. But, even if I never sell it, the price on the other 2 were good enough to make this a great deal. On top of these CGCs, the lot also included a few raw Batgirl books, including a couple I might submit to CGC, making the deal even better. Thanks StingerMcK!

My Action Figure Collection - Part 2 (Star Trek and Star Wars) Star Trek and Star Wars are the biggest part of my AF collection. I've had to focus my collections for storage reasons. My ST collection is mainly focused on the AFs produced by Playmates. There are alot of those, but my collection pretty much ends after the licensed passed from Playmates to other companies. As for Star Wars, I collect the original figures loose. I think I have most of them plus most of the original vehicles and playsets. The bulk of my collection though are the figures produced by Hasbro starting in the mid-90s. Once again I had to define a stopping place for storage reasons. So my collection pretty much ends with the The Original Trilogy Collection produced back in 2004 - 2005. I'm using the ceiling to display my ST and SW collections. Here are a few pictures. Sorry for the picture quality, my iPhone was competing with the can lights. Thanks for reading.

My Action Figure Collection - Part 1 I used to be really into action figures, even more so than comics. My goal used to be getting a complete collection of all Star Trek and Star Wars action figures, as well as all DC Directs. That goal seemed possible 15 years ago when there was limited production. But since then production has exploded with lots of new AFs released every month. With so many AFs hitting the stores my goal became financially impossible. Also, frankly, I lost interest because it gets to the point where if they produce too much it's no longer fun to collect (like when they put out too many variant covers). Anyway, although I've slowed down collecting AFs in recent years, I still have a ton. I've talked about how my wife and I are already downsizing our house to get ready for retirement (even though we still have about 10 years before retirement). As part of that, I'm moving my collection into my new comic book room in our retirement home. My new room is only about 1/3 the size of my old comic room (if that). A big challenge with the move is what to do with my action figure collection. There's simply no way to display everything. Just finding space for everything was enough of a challenge. I pared down some of my DC Direct collection although I'm keeping most of it. Most is not displayed. I stack the multi-figure packs on top of shelves or on the floor. Most of my DC Direct collection (the individual figures), though, is stacked on the floor behind comic boxes. Unfortunately I don't have a good picture of that. I also store other action figures on top of shelves. Luckily my new comic book room has a somewhat high ceiling so I can stack alot of stuff. Here are my Captain Action and ST/SW large figure collections:

Your journal is one of my favorites. Thanks for all your efforts with posting!

Modern GGA From My Latest Invoice Got these in my more recent CGC Invoice. The first 2 are Lisner. I like his non-Dawns more than his Dawns, but anyway it's a shame there's no Lisner Covers registry set. I'm thinking about asking Gemma to create one although first I'll have to find a list of the comics with his covers (not sure how easy/hard that will be). There's a DeBalfo set of course so the 2nd two will be easy to add to the registry.

When Your Grading Hopes Aren't Reality My latest Modern invoice just shipped. So as is my custom, I looked at the grades on the CGC website. When I get the books I'll enter them into my Registry to get the points. So this way I get to spread out the fun. But this one wasn't too much fun (and I won't be getting many points -- but then again, they're Modern so I wasn't going to get many anyway). There were 8 books in this invoice. I was hoping for all 9.8s but here is what I got: 9.8: 3 books 9.6: 3 books 9.4: 2 books Ugh! But I knew this was going to happen. Some of the books were a stretch to get 9.8. The books aren't rare in raw but you don't see graded on sale often (at least I haven't seen them). So I decided to submit the best copies that I had (in some cases I had a few copies; in others just 1). Oh well. At least this way I'll be able to study the front and back covers and better calibrate my grading skills. Thanks for reading.

Matt Baker Weekend A lot of Bakers are being offered on eBay lately. A bunch start out so high they're non-starters for me. But I managed to win 3 auctions. Still, there are no Baker bargains out there nowadays. Things have changed alot in just a year. I'm not certain the last 2 are Baker's. The seller listed them as Bakers, they have some familiar Baker elements to my eye, and the Grand Comic DB somewhat supports the idea that they are Bakers (at least 1 of the 2). I'm probably going to submit them to CGC so I'll see what they say.

Yeah, I saw those. I think it's fair to say that they are "fully priced"! Yeah, and the funny thing is...all of them are C-R-A-P! The day I pay those prices for garbage is the day you know I've become senile... Wow. I agree they are high priced. But ? Garbage? You must have high standards.

Anime USA A couple weeks ago I took my 16 yo daughter to Anime USA in Bethesda MD. She and her friends didn't actually want to pay to get in, so they just did a lobby con and hung out. It was just for the day so they had fun just cosplaying and talking with friends. I surfed the afternoon on my computer and watched college football so it was a fun day for me too. The costumes the kids made are amazing. This one was especially impressive so I had to take a picture.

CGC Submission Strategy For a while I was submitting a new CGC invoice every month. The idea being, once you get passed the initial time lag, I'd get graded comics back every month. Well, it didn't work out that way. Problem was, CGC's turn around times vary during the year. For me it started out fast, but then as convention season ramped up things slowed way down. So I wasn't getting comics back each month. Also, honestly, I was running out of comics to submit. So I haven't submitted any comics since the summer. My comics in the pipeline eventually got graded to the point I only have 1 invoice in the queue (current status: Graded/Quality Control). Well, you know what? One invoice in the queue is depressing. I don't mind delayed gratification, but I do enjoy the anticipation. So the last couple days I've submitted a Modern invoice and a Value invoice. So all is right in the world again. This process has taught me something. Or maybe it's because I've just been around the CGC grading block a few times now. Anyway, I'm completely cured of the Fast Track bug. Don't need immediate gratification anymore. I'm good with waiting. In fact, even on-site isn't that enticing to me anymore, not for the extra money. But we'll see. Not sure if I'll be disciplined enough when an on-site con is looming on the horizon. Anyway, with my latest CGC invoice, I got back a few Jen Broomall covers. I've gotten to the point I've asked Gemma to create a Broomall cover set. Unfortunately I don't have a complete list of her books. But I did my best based on some internet searches. (And Jen just helped me out by pointing me to a cover gallery: http://www.comicbookdb.com/creator_covergallery.php?ID=36897&offset=0 Here are my new Broomall books. I bought them raw from the BDI table at the DC Awesome con this summer. And here's a book I threw into my last invoice. Okay, it has no historical significance. But what the heck. Thanks for reading.

Major Walking Dead SS Win I won this on eBay this past Sunday. The auction actually closed while watching the latest Walking Dead episode. The blank cover has the following signatures: Andrew Lincoln (Rick Grimes) Emily Kinney (Beth Greene) Lawrence Gilliard (Bob Stookey) I'm not a big fan of a blank with just signatures. But all these actors were firsts for me as far as getting their autographs in a CGC SS comic. My winning bid was $122 which is probably less than the cost of Lincoln's sig alone, so very happy about this win.

Latest CGC Invoice This week I got back an invoice from CGC. 9 modern comics. 8 came back 9.8 (yah!). This one came back 9.2, but it's an upgrade for me. This comic is significant for me because, as I've written before, a piece from my (limited) OA collection is the preliminary art for this cover. In addition to 3 raw copies, I also have 2 other graded copies (below). Maybe with the 9.2 my quest is satisifed. But I still have Shadow 12 still bookmarked in my eBay searches. Or maybe for kicks I'll crack open the CBCS 9.4 copy and submit it to CGC to see what it gets. Luckily this issue makes the Modern category so it's only $18 bucks to grade (minus the CGC membership discount).

Quality Meats NYC and Spider-Gwen Update Whenever I travel for work I usually go to a steak restaurant and I think my favorite steak place in the world is Quality Meats in NYC. Here are a couple things I had this week: their lobster cocktail (almost an entire lobster for only $21, I think it's one of the best bargains in NYC) and their bone marrow appetizer. Prices on Spider-Gwen seem to be softening. Lower starting bids and often times little activity. I've managed to win a few recently where I was the only bidder (on eBay). Still, unless you have EVERY issue, you can't seriously compete in the registry set. For that, you need SS copies and 9.9s. But it's still fun trying to get a complete CGC run.

Another ComicLink Win My biggest win was this Bats 65 with the great classic Catwoman cover. The last time I really went after this was in Chicago 2 years ago but the price was too high (it was a raw copy). I saw this one and my Spidey sense started tingling when I saw it was restored with my favorite kind of restoration, a little glue (or color touch). My thinking is, the raw copy I saw in Chicago could have had glue too and I never would have noticed. So for me, glue or color touch isn't restoration; instead, it's a big flashing neon Vegas banner that says "BIG SALE!" So I checked GPA and looked at current offerings on eBay and entered my bid. When I got outbid I went up $10 then $20. The last one stuck and I won it (about half GPA and less for eBay). I have a few bids pending for next week, mostly original art. Some I'm really excited about ....

Latest CGC Invoice & Turnaround Times, and Peaking at CGC Grades One of my CGC invoices just shipped. Finally! From "Scheduled for Grading" to "Shipped Safe" seemed to take forever. This was a Modern submission and from received to shipped it took over 4 months. I submitted 9 books. Eight were recently published and they all got 9.8s. One was a copper book and got 9.2. I thought its ceiling was at best 9.4 so I'm good with 9.2. I'll provide more information and pictures once they arrive. There are some people here who don't look at the grades until the books arrive. I get that but at my age I'm not into delayed gratification. Also, I do it this way so I get 2 funs (not sure how else to phrase it). When CGC posts the grades, I look (Fun #1). Then when I get the books I entered them into my sets and get to see the points they earn (Fun #2). I like including pictures with my posts so I'll add this, a book I won yesterday in the current C-Link action. This is the first cover featuring Gwen Stacy, so it fits in my Gwen Stacy collection. Only 7.5 but it closed for a pretty good price.

Recently picked up these low grade but nice looking Bakers:

Recent Matt Baker Pickups The last couple weeks I picked up these Matt Baker covers on eBay. They were inexpensive and low grade, but they all have nice looking covers. Not CGC submission worthy so they'll be going into my notebook of Matt Baker covers.

ComicLink Silver Win & Steak and Eggs I'm behind on posting as just got back from vacation. Won't bore you with a slide show, but I got this great breakfast in Amsterdam -- over easy egg on top of a steak on top of fries. Great way to start the day! At last month's C-Link auction I also won this classic FF Silver Surfer comic. Since it's restored I got a nice looking copy at a pretty good discount. This is actually the first time I've seen a comic with the "cover re-glossed." This comic fills a hole in my Fantastic Four run so I'm glad to have it (just need 5 more issues to get a complete run).