ibeforej1

....just a little teaser... I had my 2 yellow Qualifieds fixed AND had the rest of my collection graded. It was good. Pics and a review of the process to follow once my custom frames come in.

They knew about it within minutes of them being posted last year. I Pm'd with Litch and Pierson about it. They made it seem like it was being taken care of with all available speed. It apparently got forgotten. I never heard a peep from CGC- emailed them myself this week and confirmed that shipping and processing would be on their dime, so I'm sending them back. Honestly, I was just happy to have them finally graded, so like the PP stated, I just wasn't in a rush. Since I'm not selling them, the only person it's inconveniencing is me, since I now have to pack them up and ship them.

Yah, me too. They were all submitted together, but CGC screwed up.

Hey, guess what's not sitting in a stack on a shelf anymore... )) Frames by Frame it Again, Sam!- took about a month (longer than the 7-10 day estimate) but the end product is really nice. I originally had purple backing boards on "yellow" and yellow behind "black" and it looked ridiculous, so I just kept black for "yellow" and bought some silver for behind the "black". The effect is much better IMO. Oh, and what's that Maxx #2 cover over there on the left... just a little commission I had done by the fabulous Douglas Paszkiewicz of Arsenic Lullaby fame: http://www.facebook.com/douglas.illustrator Now to send my husband to San Diego Comic-con with my blues and reds- hope he can handle the stress, although it won't be nearly as bad as when I sent him to SDCC with my yellows and blacks.

Thanks guys! I ordered my new Animal and Angel keys at 12am the other day, so the Omega key won't look so lonely soon enough. LOVE the new animal key- cannot wait to see that one in person.

Finally settled on a key display that I actually like- better yet it's much more stable than my original idea (I had a couple of suicide keys on my canvas, before I finally came to the realization that it was a bad idea...) I took the following organizer: http://www.amazon.com/Lipper-International-Bamboo-Adjustable-Organizer/dp/B0049SPBQC/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1332812434&sr=8-3 ...painted it with flat black acrylic and then sanded it down for a bit of a distressed look. Less than $25 for the whole thing. I like that I have plenty of room for more keys (although the Giant and Chain keys might be a bit tough to squeeze in there...) and none of them are attached, so I can move them around at will. Also, the Whispering Iron sits really nice, which I couldn't pull off with a traditional frame display.

Anyone else hit up Skelton's site at 12:01 EST on New Year's? I was sitting at our backyard fire pit with iPhone in hand waiting for this thing to go live. http://www.skeltoncrewstudio.bigcartel.com/product/moon-key I'm so glad they made the moon key so quickly after that one-shot came out- one of my favorite L&K stories to date.

Whispering Iron and Legacy Edition Omega Key are available on Skelton's site, plus some signing news: http://www.skeltoncrewstudio.com/news.html

My first attempts at a key display- one is with the tags (most numbered and signed) but my husband suggested I take them off, so that's the 2nd pic. The board is just a cheap canvas and the background is my first attempt to paint it w/ my kids' washable black (which is more like a dark green) and then I went back over with latex black and while waiting for it to dry to put on another coat, I decided I sort of liked it.

Any display suggestions for the keys? I have a complete set of the current issued keys and I was going to pin them on a canvas board that I had painted. I'm concerned about them tarnishing in the long run though. I also considered a shadow box, but wanted to be a bit "different" with my display. Have you guys done anything unusual that looks good and protects the keys?

Love this! Do you have any display plans for the other keys or will they just kneel on the floor of your Ghost Key.

Oh my goodness! For some reason, I never even saw when the first key posted to that site, so thank you so much for posting this!! Snagging all 4 keys for $20 a pop is not a bad deal at all!! Edit: And, as of this morning, the Head Key is now sold out!!

I'm almost positive it was the UK eBay, but I found out after the auction was no longer searchable, so I'm not 100%.

Welcome to the forums Baslug! It's so cool to meet yet another person who is as excited about these books as we are. I knew they were rare when I bought them, but, for me, rare books are only fun if you can share them with other collectors. Needless to say, I was thrilled when I found this forum. Good luck on your search to find your missing issues- and don't forget to check the foreign eBay's, since they do pop up on there on occasion (like that black #3 that sold for a fraction of its value last year.)

Thanks guys! It does stink they screwed up, but those yellow labels sure are purty!

Well- I finally did it! My husband took my yellow and black ashcans to SDCC and I'm now the proud owner of 6 graded Maxx ashcans... 5 of which I'm very pleased with! And, of course, the crown jewel of my collection... Maxx #1 black got a lower grade (8.0) 'cause the pages are all misaligned (something I didn't notice until it was flattened in the CGC case.) The other 5 are all 9.0 and up though, so Jenny happy! Also, interesting to note that 2 of the books received a signature grade and 4 are qualified- not quite sure what the rational on that one was. BTW, I have no plans on selling these- I feel like I can finally enjoy them outside of a safe now that they're in "real" cases.

I've posted on The Outback Livejournal forum a few times, but it's been a long time since that forum was very active. Maybe there? Yah- you did get a great price on those books- you can't beat $60 for 60 ashcans! For me, even now, I'm a completist, so having a complete set was more important than quantity...although I definitely would have preferred to have only spent $12, rather than $300 (although that also included a lot of other Maxx items- I would say I probably spent $150 on the ashcans if you break down the cost of the lot.) At the time, I had a few Maxx ashcans already- the rarest being a yellow #2, so I quickly unloaded those- according to PayPal, I sold a red #2, yellow #1, and a yellow #2 for $155.00 in August 2002 (RMA- I wasn't the one you bought a Yellow #1 from for $50, was I?). I also sold my 2 extra blue #1 and maybe #2 that month for less than $60. Duh- didn't even think about PayPal?! Unfortunately, I just checked and it looks like this was a money order/check payment. Will do!

Thank you so much for this info. I'm assuming the on-site grading is more expensive, but are the results basically guaranteed to be the same? There's nothing on the label that says that it was an on-site grade?

I've received a few offers to buy in the past year and every time I consider it, but then I can't come around to actually going through with it. I felt like I wasn't enjoying them, since they've just been sitting in a safe, but I also have very few truly rare Maxx items left. The only thing I knew would make me feel good about a sale, would be if I used the money towards something I would really enjoy. During the last potential trade, I emailed Sam about doing a commissioned piece for me, but he doesn't do them anymore, so that's out the window. So, I am open to selling them at some point, but I would almost like to trade for something awesome- like a full page Kieth drawing of the Jungle Queen and the Maxx maybe... One can dream, right?!

Thank you, thank you. And I have to ask, what made you think it was a woman? I don't think I bought them from Sam- based on feedback I left, I'm 99% sure I bought them from this eBay user: "omo_1_10" back in July 2002. It was a whole set of goodies like I mentioned- he also had a Crow (James O'Barr) collection that I ended up buying from him a few weeks later. Both of the sets were full of rare and not so rare items. And, based on this thread, I can tell some of you like to know what was paid, so, while I don't know an exact number, I want to say it was around $300 for everything. And I don't remember anyone even attempting to snipe me. I was truly stunned, since I knew the ashcans were sort of the holy grail of Maxx comics. I only had a few scattered issues prior to this purchase (which I unloaded right after I received my new set) and I didn't think I would ever see some of them (especially the black issues) on eBay. Again, it was luck. What I wish I could remember was my maximum bid on this set- I know I had it in the $300's for that Maxx #5 foil card when I bought that in Feb 2006, so I'm sure this set was pretty high up there. (Thank goodness for feedback, so I can pull up these dates- I never thought I would care about this kind of info. but it's nice to have as a reference.) I know and I used to co-own a LCS, so you think I would know better. They've been in a safe for so long though, it would always slip my mind to upgrade the bags. I am actually thinking about having them CGC graded at SDCC this year- does anyone know how the on-site grading works? Do you get it back the same weekend or do they ship it back to you and you just save the cost of shipping it to them (and eliminate the risk of the comics being damaged en route)? My husband is going to be there with our friend Doug Paskiewicz, so I'm thinking about having him at least take the black issues (I will be home with a fairly new baby and our 3 year old son.)

Yah- those were put on there by the previous owner, so I can't take credit for them. He had them double bagged and boarded, so I just left them as-is, plus the print run was stickered on each issue, which was pretty helpful.

Hey that's my book! I'm new to this forum, but I'm so excited I found it. I had no idea there was still such an interest in these ashcans- I know I still liked having them, but haven't really had anyone to enjoy them with (my husband isn't much of a collector.) I have a full set of the Maxx ashcans (quick pic shown above) and I bought them in 2002 off of eBay. I still remember bidding on the auction at my old job- definitely not something I needed to be doing on company time, but I could not pass this deal up. It was a Maxx collector's set including the rare Audio Tape for Issues 1-3 w/ info sheet, a full run of The Maxx (which I already had of course! ), Gold Foil Maxx 1/2 issue, etc. The ashcans were definitely the prize of the bunch and I can't believe that no one outbid me. Here's my specs: #1- 389/4000, 344/1500, 365/500, and 13/50 #2- 249/800, 246/500, 27/150, and 8/50 #3- 246/500, 41/350, 17/100 and 7/50 I also have the famous #5 foil card featuring Mr Gone from the Maxx trading card set. I didn't even believe that card existed till I saw it pop up on eBay a few years ago. I have that set framed- I hotglued them to the frame backing.... just kidding! I did have them framed though in their proper positions- it's a neat picture when it's all finished.