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Pax East Boston, April 2014 This weekend I took my daughter and her 2 friends to Pax East in Boston. Pax is a big gaming convention. It shares some similarities with big comic conventions. For one, tickets sold out within a few hours of going on sale. For another, it was really crowded. Here's a couple of pictures: To be honest, I didn't have much to do. I'm not into gaming. And unlike anime/manga conventions, which my other daughter is into, there's not much overlap with gaming and comics. I enjoyed all the energy of the show, very similar to comic cons. But for the most part I just hung out and lived vicariously through my daughter who was having alot of fun. They did have 1 dealer selliing comics, here are some pictures of his set up.

Grail Comics When You’re Over Your Budget Lately a lot of great GA comics have been offered on the boards. So what do you do when one of your grails is offered for a good price and you’ve already blown through your budget? A couple high grade Wings were offered up by a boardie a few weeks ago. Both had classic Bob Lubbers covers. Wings #87 is one of my grail books. I’ve always liked #85 too. Both were nice looking CGC 8.5 (the scans don’t do them justice), higher grades than I ever thought I would have in my collection. The seller offered them for a reasonable price. I decided to dig deep and go for it. When would I ever get the chance again at these books in this grade, at such an affordable price? I made an offer. The buyer countered. I countered with a lower price of $25. Then I thought, what the heck was I doing? I’m going to risk losing these books for $25? I was certain another boardie was going to scoop these books up, I’d just been lucky to see the post pretty early on (by the way, do you ever root for more for sale posts to be added to take the for sale post you’re interested in off right side of the page?). So a few minutes later I told the seller I’d take his offer. So here they are (the scans do not do them justice).

DScott's Recent Sale So recently Doug Scott had a major sale. I discovered it late but just in time. To my surprise most of the books (and every one I wanted) were still available, and just that morning Doug offered 10% off anything that was left. http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7592277&fpart=1 I'd been watching this one for a while. I picked up a Dijana Granov sketch cover of Gwen and MJ a couple months back (see above if you want to see it). I think I got that one from Doug too. Anyway, after buying that one I searched eBay for other Granov covers and found this one. I liked it, but not enough to pull the trigger. With Doug's sale price and the extra 10% off (making it cost $158), it was too good to pass up. I've become a big Walking Dead fan of both the TV series and the comics. My collecting goal with WD is to buy the keys, some sketch covers, and covers signed by the actors but the covers have to have a good depiction of the character. I was shocked when I saw this one on sale. One of the best covers of Andrea, signed by Laurie Holden in a great spot. Okay only CGC 9.6 but still! With the 10% off it was $135. This is a fun cover by Anthony Castrillo. Two characters, color, CGC 9.8, only $225 after the 10% off. Really happy to pick this one up.

Game of Thrones -- Lena Headey (Cersei Lannister) Also recently got this CGC photo, a sexy pose of Lena Headey. I got it from another boardie (starting on eBay). This is the first CGC photo I've bought. I like the way the photo comes in a 3 ring binder format. I can't wait for the beginning of the next season of Game of Thrones!

Lily Renée Planet Comics I bought a couple of Planet Comics from a boardie recently, and not just any Planets. I got a couple of my grails, covers by Lily Renée! Here's some background on Lily from an article on the web: Renée, whose birth name is Lily Renée Wilhelm (now Philips), answered an ad for artists at Fiction House and got a job. Apparently she took to it very well, despite having never looked at a comic book. Her stories are as well illustrated and her storytelling as good as any by the male artists of Fiction House. She was raised to a star position, drawing features like "Señorita Rio" for Fight Comics and "Lost World" for Planet Comics. She was also given "the dog," as she put it, the feature no one wanted, "Werewolf Hunter," which she turned into a sumptuous strip full of her fine art influences. I really love this #33. A classic cover that shows way better than 3.5. There's so much going on in this cover! This #35 is going in my next CGC invoice. A beautiful book except for dings at the top and bottom left corners. I'm very interested to see how those dings will affect the grade.

ComicLink March 2014 Auction I won a few comics at this month's CLink auction. First is Logan's Run #1. This was one of my favorite movies growing up. I also found it disturbing, the whole idea of an age limit when you had to die. (It didn't hurt the lead actress Jenny Agutter was pretty hot to a teenage boy!) I won it for $71. Kinda cool to have a 1977 comic in 9.8 with white pages. I was surprised to win this one, New Mutants #1. I put in a low bid and won it for $35, not much higher than the cost of grading. A couple of fun GA GGA books, $54 and $67 respectively. I'm surprised by the 7.0 on the First Love 12 given the ding in the upper right corner. Sometimes I wonder if there are different standards for grading GA (or SA) versus modern. I ended up winning 7 CGC books. CLink is really fair, only $20 for all 7 for insured shipping.

More Gwen Stacy and Not Going to ECCC I picked this Aaron Lopresti sketch cover from a boardie this week, a really nice book to add to my Gwen Stacy collection. Okay, the artist included a spider-web (see my Tim Sale entry above for my pet peeve on this), but here it seems to work. It was a pleasure working with boardie modelmaker on this book. His original post actually required pickup at ECCC. I noticed that only the next morning, well after I dropped the flag. We PM'd each other and he very kindly agreed to ship it to me. I offered to pay extra for his trouble, but he wouldn't take it. On top of that, he offered to help me out if I need anything done at ECCC. What a great guy, thanks modelmaker! The reason modelmaker wanted pickup only is because he lives in Canada, and shipping is so incredibly expensive shipping from Canada. I don't get Canada on this. It seems like it really hurts Canadian businesses. But, modelmaker agreed to ship the book to me once he's in Seattle, saving me big on shipping. Again, thanks modelmaker! I've never been to ECCC. I definitely want to go. It sounds like a great con from all the posts I've read here, and I really like Seatte. Maybe next year ...

Carnegie Deli NYC I'm in NYC on business, and yesterday I had lunch at the famous Carnegie Deli just south of Central Park. I had to share some pictures. This is their Woody Allen, a sandwich piled high with corned beef and pastrami. Not realizing how big the sandwich was, I also ordered these onion rings. This is their regular order and they're big enough to feed my family! But I was there by myself so as you can imagine I did not come close to eating everything.

Gwen Stacy by Tim Sale So I'm really envious about all the posts on Megacon. Sounds like it was a great con. I went to 2 or 3 Megacons but that was a while ago. I thought about taking my 14 yo daughter to Megacon this year, as she's into anime and manga and Megacon from what I hear has a good mix of both comics and Japanese stuff. But couldn't do it this year, too many conflicts with school and kid activities. My convention schedule this year is probably 2: WW Philadelphia and SDCC. I'm really excited about Philly. I'm hoping to do a photo op with Lauren Cohan as I've become a big Walking Dead fan. I'm not sure what I'm doing about SDCC. I was lucky enough to get 4 day tickets (no preview night unfortunately) but I might only be able to go a couple days. Anyway, despite my con-challenged schedule, my comic quest continues! I picked up this original art this weekend, from a boardie who was offering it on eBay. I'm a big Gwen Stacy fan, and Tim Sale does a very elegant Gwen. Sale really captures the Stan Lee Gwen -- what Gwen would look like in her 20s if she'd survived the fall. So much better than all the busty Gwens on eBay, where the artists feel the need to add a spider web someplace in the drawing because, duh, otherwise it wouldn't be Gwen. Really? For Gwen all you need is the headband.

I first saw this book in WW Chicago back in the summer. I loved the cover but the raw price was $20-$25. I decided to wait and forgot about it. Then a couple of weeks ago I found this one on ebay. I put in a low bid and won it for $22, less than the raw price in Chicago. So the lesson is, you can get a lot more for the same money if you're patient. Easier said than done, but certainly something to strive to.

Latest CGC Invoice #6 - 1st Lana Lang As a keys collector I love 1st appearances. Serious key collections need the 1st apperances of major characters (i.e., the major keys). That can vary by the age you collect, genre, etc. Oftentimes, at least for me, it's the keys of supporting characters I like the most, like Tales of Suspense 45 that has Pepper and Happy. I'm really proud of this one, Superboy 10 with the 1st appearance of Lana Lang. Lana's not a major character like Lois, but alot of the Superboy/Superman mythos depends on Lana. So is this a major or minor key? There's no definitive list. I think most would call it a minor key, which is a good thing as that makes it possible to get it for a reasonable price. (On the other hand, TOS 45 is pretty expensive now because of Pepper's and Happy's major roles in the Iron Man movies.) I don't remember how much I bought this comic for. I got it a few years ago at the SDCC. Usually I'm pretty good at recording that information but I just checked my database AND I DIDN'T EVEN CHECK OFF I HAD IT!!! As an aside, I don't know what's going on with my scanner. I have the old HP legal size scanner, I bought it used off eBay last summer. Lately the exposure has been out of whack. I think I need to search around for better scanner software.

Latest CGC Invoice #5 - Amazing Spider-Man 300 I struggled over whether to submit this one. One reason was because I read somewhere it's the most CGC'd book. The census says there's 8423 graded copies at this moment. I also hesitated because of the condition. I bought it off the stands when it came out. Since then it's been stored in either a plastic bag or mylite, but with no board. There are some stress lines along the spine (non color breaking) and I was concerned about getting a grade in the low 9s. But I needed another comic to make the 15 comic minimum for the Value tier, so I went ahead and graded it. I was very happy and surprised wihen it came back 9.6! There are 1742 copies in this grade so definitely not rare. Still, it's cool to have a high grade copy. Also, the price difference on this book between 9.6 and, say, 9.2 can be hundreds of dollars. GPA shows 9.6 at around $350 and 9.2 at $180. But a check on the web shows 9.6s being offered for more, over $500. I haven't been watching this book (since I already had it) so I don't know the actual FMV. Anyway, it's always fun to see your books worth something, even if you have no intention to ever sell.

Latest CGC Invoice #4 - First Black Canary cover I also got this one from Comic Connect in November, Flash 92. I'm a collector of keys. This is the first cover and solo story of Black Canary. (Also on my list are All Star 38 and 41, her first appearance and when she joins JSA.) This is one of those books that if I'm ever gonna get it, it'd have to be a low grade book -- otherwise it'd be too expensive and I'm not so into the book I'd be willing to spend serious FF#1 type money. I decided to go for this one, because it shows pretty well and with the restoration and low grade I'd a chance at getting it for what I was willing to pay. The bidding was pretty active. I was hoping to get it for around $400. When the bidding went higher -- and I have a love/hate relationship with CConnect's extra time feature (where they add time to the auction if bids come in late) -- I had to decide whether to go over my budget. I finally decided to go for it, because I didn't know when I'd see a low grade nice looking copy again. I finally won it for $595. Ouch! Sometimes when I look back at a purchase and I think about whether I paid too much, I ask myself if I would've paid that much if I'd found the book at a con. Here, I think I would have. I paid alot, but if I saw this on Harley's wall at SDCC or Chicago (or wherever) I probably would have been willing to go $595. About C-Connect's grade. They advertised it at 6.0 with the following restoration note: "Taken from a bound volume, moderate resoration, spine and staple replacement, color touch f/c" You can tell just by looking at the cover this is no 6.0! So I'm not sure what C-Connect was thinking. Still, I'm okay with the grade. I was hoping it'd come in a little higher than 1.8, but honestly this book's been though alot. Good- seems fair. At most I'd give it GD+ (2.5). Whatever, I'm okay with the grade.

Latest CGC Invoice #3: Flash "jitterbug" cover Received my CGC shipment today. It always seems to take forever to get graded, and then things happen fast. I submitted 15 comics and of the group this is my favorite, All Flash Quarterly 25. I won this on ComicConnect in the September 2013 auction. It was one of those comics that as soon as I saw it I had to have it. I ended up paying $440; more than I wanted, but I'm very happy to have it. Comic Connect advertised it as no restoration and VF 8.0. It came back at 7.5 (no restoration) so I'm really happy with both the comic and ComicConnect.

Latest CGC Invoice #2: More buyer's remorse So I haven't received the books from my latest CGC shipment yet, but I've looked at the grades. The grade on this one reminded me of how bad a deal I made on this book. I like the book but I paid way too much. CGC gave this one 5.5 SA, with the note: Restoration includes: small amount of color touch on cover. (ALL 3 EDGES TRIMMED.) I few points on this: * The amount of restoration didn't surprise me, the seller gave me notice. What surprised me is the SA rating. I'm surprised with some much restoration (especially the trimmed pages) you can still get a "slight" rating. * I was hoping for at least 7.0 but I based that solely on the nice looking cover. I didn't study the inside. Also, there are stress marks on the spine that don't show up well in the picture. So I'm not too surprised by the 5.5. * I paid way too much at $435. With grading, the total cost was about $460. GPA has this in 5.5 (no restoration) at $550. There's a 5.5 (SA - trimming) at $213. The only way this would have been a good buy if it had graded higher. At 7.0 I would have broken even. Above 7.0 I would have come out ahead. Of course, there are other metrics I can use to make myself feel better. I like the comic, it's more than good enough to check this issue off my want list. But I'll regret this buy for a while.

Latest CGC Invoice #1 Almost 2 months later the status finally changed to Shipped! (Yeah, I get it, 2 months is nothing, but I'm old and delayed gratification is so 1990s.) How were the grades? Some winners and losers and lessons learned. Ah well. I'll post details once I get them. On a related topic, c-connect never got my paypal payment for last month. We worked it out, but now it'll take longer to get the comics, which means my next CGC invoice will be delayed. Ah well ... 1st world problems ... Anyway, in one bit of good news, I won this one on eBay last night -- for only $18! For a Matt Baker cover from 1962! At the moment I'm eating sushi and watching Frozen with my wife and kids, AND I'm posting here. How's that for multi-tasking?

Won one more last night on eBay, this Mopsy. I've been slowly buying this St. John GGA humor title. The prices are all over the place, sometimes the hammer prices are really high (although high for this title is over $100, not thousands). I got this one for $56, a little less than my max of $60. The comic I really wanted was Richie Rich #1 PGX 3.5. I hoped to steal it since it was PGX. I had $375 on Bidnapper but it finished at around $550. Probably still a good buy for the winner. I had planned to send it to CGC, from the front cover it looked to be at least 3.5.

Thanks Hibou. Also, gotta say that Action in your signature truly has a great cover.

One win on this Sunday, this Manhunt #1 that I bought today from a boardie for a fair price. I ALWAYS check out the Marketplace on the left side of the screen. I've gotten so many good buys from there. What a great cover! Can't wait to read it. Then it's off to CGC in my next invoice. I have a few eBay and Heritage auctions going on tonight but don't expect to win any of them (although there's one book in particular I'd love to win). Sunday's a great night! Good for auctions, and Walking Dead in an hour!

I won 2 SS sketch covers recently on eBay. Having shopped for a while, I know there's a minimum on these graded sketch covers. After all, you’ve got to add the artist’s fee, the cost of grading, the faciliator’s fee and the seller’s profit. And the minimum is around $150 IMHO. I got these books for about $80 each, and I’ve gotten others for well under $150. I think that shows that it’s tough to make money on the SS sketch covers, except for well-known and high demand artists. That’s not to say it’s not worth it to get commissions for your own collection (especially if the artist is flexible with what you’re looking for), but the resale market is tough. As a seller I think you’re lucky to get your money back Having said all of that, I think I got lucky on these 2 books. These are nice looking renditions of Emma Frost. My favorite is Bill Dinh’s, but Fleecs’s is really nice too. I think they should have gone for at least $100-$125. Sometimes it’s a matter of you’re shopping on eBay when others aren’t . On another topic, I’m dying to get the grades of my last CGC invoice! It seems like the Status has been stuck on Graded forever (it’s been about 2 weeks). Maybe Monday …

Olivia De Berardinis One of my favorite pin-up artists is Olivia De Berardinis. Here's a bio from the internet: Recognized as the most famous living female pin-up artist, Olivia De Berardinis has been celebrated as the greatest since Alberto Vargas. De Berardinis — or “Olivia,” as fans call her — modestly describes herself as a “painter of women” in her biography. But she’s been creating art for decades, from her early-’70s life as a New York City loft-dwelling waitress/artist to her current post as Playboy’s artist in residence. Olivia has captured some of pop culture’s notable (and at times controversial) muses, including burlesque performer Dita Von Teese, comedian Margaret Cho, and rocker Courtney Love. However, her most iconic covergirl is ‘50s pin-up icon Bettie Page, who Olivia transformed into a sensual teacher, French maid, and mermaid, among others. Olivia continues to publish books and calendars, all paying tribute to the legions of women inspiring her. A few years ago I met Oliva at the SDCC and was lucky enough to pick up a few pieces. This one is by far my favorite, a period piece Olivia painted based on a photograph taken at the time. A little risque but not too over the top, it's the first thing you see when you walk into my comic book room.

Dave Stevens (and why did I do that?) I picked up a couple of comics with Dave Stevens covers recently on eBay. This one, Shadow and Doc Savage #1, I already had in 9.6 that I got on eBay about a year ago for $35. It's a classic Stevens cover, but why I bought this 9.8 I don't know. The seller had it for $100 BIN, which is about the going price I think. I put in a best offer of $65, thinking he would counter. But he accepted! That's when I started thinking, why did I do this? I felt a little better when I shopped the seller's other offerings. He had this Crossfire Dave Stevens cover on sale. I wanted this because I've always loved the Marilyn Monroe cover and didn't have it even in raw. We finally agreed on $41. So the average price of the 2 comics is about $50 and that makes me feel better about the pair. Still not sure what I'm going to do with the 9.6 Shadow comic. (And I won't be upgrading the Crossfire 9.6 ... I think ...)

Meshuggah, I agree above copper and older, I'm not so concerned with grades. I prefer 6.0 but I'll go lower if the cover has good eye appeal.

My Alfred Trujillo cover commission is done and on its way to CGC! This was my first try at a sketch opp, and unlike others I've read about over in the Signature Room, this one went really smoothly. It was also a very reasonable $160 all-in (including blank, grading and shipping). Kudos to TheMightyJohn for putting this together, and thanks to Alfred for such a great cover! More sketches from this opp are here: http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=7059652&fpart=1 Here it is, a risque Black Canary pulling up her boots: The sketch is a homage to this Batgirl cover:

I won this on eBay a couple of weeks ago, the Adi Granov variant of Uncanny Avengers #1. I'm a fan of Granov's cover art. I'm also a fan of the Scarlet Witch, and this is one of the best SW covers. This is reflected in prices, although they're variable. Right now they range from $30 to $100 on eBay, all raw. The raw price doesn't seem to drop below $30. I'm pretty anal about modern CGCs, and typically won't go below 9.8, which an exception of 9.6 here and there. This one at 9.4 is the lowest graded CGC modern in my collection. But it was on eBay for a starting bid of $24.99. With FREE shipping. There were no bids. So I put in a bid of $25 to see what would happen. I figured I could always crack it out, so it would be like picking up the book raw on the cheap. If I bought it raw, I could just as easily end up with the same 9.4 grade or lower (by the way, it's easy to see why this got a 9.4, as there's a slight non-color breaking bend on the right side of the cover -- it could be fixed with pressing but I don't think it's worth the trouble and cost). I won it for $25! I've decided not to crack it open, because I like how comics look in the CGC holder.