Clouded9

Great Zombie Jesus!!! Damn Korvac, that JIM 83 snuck up on me and I think I blacked out for a sec! Beautiful book, it's a freak of nature man. sufunk, I guess your Avengers 1 is ok too... Seriously, it's an awesome book man. I also really dig the avengers pedigree run you are putting together. I've been following your updates on the thread you started in the SA forum... good stuff (thumbs u I guess I'll be the poor sap that has to follow up the 2 monster books above. At least mine is another first appearance/origin key to keep the theme rolling! This just arrived today as part of trade deal I worked out with another board member.

Picked up my Daredevil 1 6.5 from Adrian via a trade deal. Very pleased with the whole transaction and would do business with him again. Top City Comics is top notch in my book. (thumbs u

Very nice! I hope to get a quick sketch from him at the Dallas Comic-Con next month. Last year I noticed several people having artists sign the slabs instead of cracking out the books. Is this a trend anyone else has seen?

My last couple of pick ups have been yellow covers. I'm not sure why this trend is so prevalent in my purchases as of late, but I love these books! This one arrived on Friday.

Thanks Oak!

Thanks! Why wait for someday? There is a 9.6 on eBay right now...

Speaking of DD, I just paid for this beauty and it should arrive next week and take residence with my #1 and #7.

Welcome! Which New 52 titles are you reading?

Batman 200 CGC 9.6 White Pages Just picked it up this past Tuesday. The pic is in my registry.

28 years old and all my books are !

I completely agree with you that 99.9% of the time a SS book should not be worth multiples of a universal copy of the same book in the same grade. At most, I might pay around 10% more than i would for a Universal copy and only if I am extremely pleased with the book overall. I'm normally not a Sig Series kind of guy (I only own 5 of them), but i really liked the placement on these Batman books and the seller was pricing these two books to move. I was able to pick up both books for under their Universal GPA average prices so I just couldn't pass them up. (thumbs u

Yeah, it's odd. According to Overstreet, Tec 400 is the most valuable Adams Bat book out there. Even over 227 and Tec 395. Overstreet is just a guide after all and i take their estimated values fairly lightly. Using GPA for CGC comics I think it would show 227 to be the more valuable Adams bat book. I love GPA! That site has saved and made me money.

I know what you mean. Neal's signatures are usually done in unobtrusive spaces and sizes when I have come across his SS books. Tasteful signature size and placement are just more testaments to Neal's eye as a great artist. I have only one Stan Lee SS book (Spectacular Spider-Man #1 1968) and it has a well placed sig, but I had to practically guide him to the area I wanted it. If not for my intervention he probably would have signed over the head of Spidey!

and

I love this thread! For me, 232 is the top key book (as far as content) from the Adams Bat books (and one that still has eluded me at a reasonably priced 9.4 or better) followed by 234 with the re-introduction of two-face after not making a single appearance since the golden age. However, 227 is the top book as far as prices realized when sold. I've seen a 227 at a 9.0 go for around the same price as a 9.4-9.6 232 or 234 last year. The cover is iconic but I think the market value is a bit inflated for 227 which is too bad since I have been wanting to upgrade from my raw VF copy for a while now. Well, I guess I'll show off the most recent Neal Adams Batman books I have picked up.

It is that time of year again. The time the US government decides to cut me a check for the thousands of dollars that I have overpaid them in taxes over the past year. Now what in the heck should I do with it? I guess I could claim dependents throughout the year to lessen the tax blow on my monthly income, but I like to think of overpaying my taxes as using a clandestine savings account of sorts. The money is automatically taken out so it is hard to miss something you do not see directly deposited and then at the beginning of every year I get hit with a fat check! I do not take the tax refund into account when when I build my monthly and annual budget for the new year so it is mine to do with as I please as all necessities (mortgage, auto, etc are covered already). Normally the extra cash is allocated to 4 areas as equally as I can make them. Savings, Pay off credit cards from the previous year, a trip with the wife, and COLLECTABLES. My collectables consist of comics, comic art,sports memorabilia and cards, Star Wars stuff, and fire arms to name a few. Which brings me to the purpose of this journal... sharing my first tax refund book purchases of the year! A few have arrived recently and one more is currently on the way. Batman 234 CGC 9.4 Sig Series - Signed by Neal Adams. 1st appearance of Two-Face since the Golden Age. Robin backup story. Bondage cover. Classic Adams cover. Batman 237 CGC 9.4 Sig Series - Signed by Neal Adams. Based on a Bernie Wrightson idea with an assist from Harlan Ellison, genesis of story explained in Denny O'Neil letter. Skull cover. Reaper cover. Classic Adams cover. Marvel Super-Heroes 1 CGC 9.4 1966 Universal - 1st Marvel one-shot ever! Reprints Daredevil 1, Avengers 2, and a classic Sub-Mariner and Human Torch story from the Golden Age. I have some more Bronze and Silver keys on my radar that I will try to pick up courtesy of my clandestine savings account if they can be bought at prices and grades I am happy with. If not, I will just save the cash for the ComiCon in May. So, what did you get? Thanks for reading and good luck with your collection!

Mandatory teaser? No thanks, I'm no bully and I kinda like you people. So I have a batch of books I put in a December auction and the universe decided it was time for me to learn a lesson with the first 2 silver age books that just ended last night. Sub-Mariner 1 CGC 9.4 ended at $304.55 (which is almost $100 below the 12 month average for this book at this grade according to GPAnalysis) and Daredevil 7 CGC 7.0 ended at $194.50 ( almost $60 below the annual GPA average for this book at this grade) The lessons learned are: 1. Don't auction/consign books during the Holiday shopping season (I already had a feeling about this, but this was the last month of the NO SELLER FEES special that was being offered.) I guess the idea of focusing funds on buying gifts for others this time of year takes many potential bidders out the equation and less competition/bidders means less demand and equals lower realized prices on the books at auction. I saw this coming, but gambled anyway. 2. Maybe NO RESERVE auctions are not for me on my headlining books. Maybe my next batch of books I flip will have a reserve or a pre-set minimum bid for the bigger ticket items rather than starting at $1. I barely made anything on these "flips" (more like flops this time) to the tune of only about 14% profit on these 2 books. Here is to hoping the rest of my books in this auction do better and a big CONGRATULATIONS to the winners of these books that scored big time. To see a list of my books in auction that end tonight you can head over to the CGC Forum on the message boards and look at the last board "Comics Market - Sales Advertising - Ebay, Dealers, etc." and you can find my thread titled "NoReserve! CGC Bronze/Copper Age X-Men, TMNT, Daredevil, Spidey, & more END SOON" there is a link to the auction pages.(The link is was trying to use kept getting corrupted) Good luck and happy hunting! I'm going to work now.

In regards to people posting questions in their journals then asking others for answers, opinions, or explanations and not giving a quick option for them to respond. Miraclemet, I'm not picking on you or your last journal. You are just the most recent example.Please remember to select the box "Post Journal to Message Boards" so the abundance of fellow comic book junkies online (aka Boardies) that may have the answers, opinions, or explanations you want can post them for open discussion in a clean and organized thread that begins with your journal entry.It is 100% free to use the message/chat boards on here and it has a vast wealth of knowledge and interesting characters. I highly recommend it!Thanks!

Nope, not from the American Kennel Club... Although, I have spent a few nights in the dog house by the direct order of my wife! I have recently picked up my first comic from a recognized pedigree and it is now also the oldest book in my collection. The beautiful book I speak of is Supersnipe Comics vol 2 #7 from 1945 CGC'd at a phenomenal 9.6 with off-white pages. This scarce golden age book is noted on the CGC label as being from the Crowley collection and is the single highest graded copy on the census (only 1 in 9.6). This book also nets a very solid 2400 registry points which was an awesome surprise when I entered it on here. I picked it up from a local source here in Dallas, TX and was able to get it for a more than reasonable price (under $400) due to a substantial in-store credit I was given for some problems I experienced with them earlier in the year (they took good care of me and I am still a regular and happy customer to this day). I am completely amazed at how deep and rich the colors are on this cover for being 66 years old. Especially with the predominantly black background that can make even the slightest defect jump out and slap you in the face and lower the grade of the book. Wow, 66 years old, this book was already 39 years old when I was born in 1984. Very few Supersnipe books exist in 9.4 or better, but you can believe I will be trying to get more of them. Well, I'm calling it, no more big comic book purchases for me this year. The holidays are upon me and my gift list for my loved ones takes priority now. This golden age book was a great addition to cap my 2011 big ticket purchases (big for my budget anyway) that included some quality silver age books such as Sub-Mariner 1, Hulk 102, Daredevil 1 and 7, and a few others. Until February 2012 (Dallas Sci-Fi Expo) I'll only be spending money on my reading subscriptions... unless something hits the auction block that I just "can't" pass up. =) I hope everyone is having a productive and, most importantly, enjoyable collecting year. It's late and I wanted to share my excitement, but now I need sleep. Good night and happy hunting. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

Four months ago I purchased a 32 cubic foot AMSEC gun safe (750 lbs empty and bolted to my floor) with the intent of placing a my cameras, their lenses, a few guns, emergency cash, etc. and wondered if it would be a good idea to store my slabbed comics in it as well. The safe has the humidity (monitored digitally) kept in check via a electric de-humidifier and random descant packages thrown around on the inside. I also like the added theft and fire protection too, but can I store my books in there? I have heard, from a board member on here, that the fire-proofing materials in the safe may cause my comic books to deteriorate (mainly cause the staples to rust) much faster than normal. However, I have not been able to find any definitive proof for or against this claim online... no test results or even articles about this topic (If you know some, please reach out to me). My best source to date is my LCS owner who told me he can't think of a reason to not store my books in there if it is kept dark, temp controlled, and humidity controlled. He is an old school purist and doesn't like slabbing books, but he did tell me he stores his key books in a fire-proof filing cabinet he bought from a friend of his several years back. I am hoping that someone can direct me to some definitive answers about storing books in a fireproof safe, but would also like to see what the boards in general feel about this topic. Have you, or anyone you know, had any experiences, good or bad, with storing books in a fire-proof safe? I would like the added security and peace of mind of storing my books in my safe as opposed to having them boxed in my closet (especially when I travel for work), but I would rather not put them in there if there is any chance of speeding up their natural deterioration. Thanks in advance for any help or insight.

Does anyone else remember when journal entries used to be mostly about the actual books we collected or read? Lately it seems like every other journal is a vent, rant, or rave about turn around times. Do you think users venting on the message boards is really the way to incite change in CGCs operation? Personally, I don't think so. As a small private business owner myself I believe that the best way to gauge customer satisfaction is to monitor the rate of cash flow and gross profit (GP). One can kill themselves trying to please everyone, but if cash flow and GP is steadily increasing than at least one of two things is happening (both good): Customer base is growing and/or existing customer base is spending more. Unless cash flow and GP plateau or decline for an extended period of time then there is absolutely no reason for CGC to change their business practices from a business minded point of view. As with any company in the world there is one motto that always holds true... "money talks". I think if there is to be any real change then the consumers would have to band together to significantly damage CGCs bottom line. For example, a mass boycott that includes several heavy hitters the likes of major dealers, distributors, and major players in the collecting world. However, I don't think this is ever going to happen as, oddly enough, most of the people who post on here about being unhappy with the turn around times are still actively using the service. Income from a few dis-satisfied customers spends the same as the rest and I think it is a safe assumption that there are more happy customers than unhappy ones. In fact, I say someone needs to give CGC a trophy for figuring out how to get people who are not fully satisfied with their services to still hand over fists full of cash on a regular basis. CGC must have learned this at a class taught by my wireless phone service provider! I for one am a satisfied customer and will just continue to be patient for my slabs. Now onto what I miss most about the journals... COMIC BOOKS! I'm sure it's no secret anymore, but if you are looking for a great read and some beautiful art then you need to check out Lady Mechanika by Joe Benitez from publisher Aspen. Top notch stuff and I'm not just saying that because I've been a long time fan of Aspen comics and I dig the steam punk movement. Michael Turner's Fathom and Soulfire series are quality books too and the TPBs can be found pretty cheap online and at conventions. Thanks for reading! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I just broke into the top 500 in overall registry points! Currently ranked 467 with only 23 books. I'm still very much a small fish in a large pond, but I do enjoy watching my ranking increase with each book I add to my collection. The registry points don't effect what I choose to collect, but it is an added bonus that keeps the idea of collecting slabbed books interesting to me. My personal collection of slabbed and raw books is under 100 books total and actually getting smaller as I sell some books to turn my focus to building a refined investment set of books I enjoy. This "rank up" is due in large part to my latest acquisition of Daredevil #7 (1965) slabbed at a Universal 8.5 worth 2,546 points. This is the first appearance of Daredevil in his red costume which is, for the most part, as we are accustomed to seeing him today. I love the Wally Wood art and the deep blues of the underwater scene that depicts two of my top 10 Marvel characters locked in underwater combat. I already have this book at a Universal 7.0, but once I saw this book in a "no reserve" auction I could not resist the opportunity to upgrade. I picked it up cheaper on eBay than the last few Universal 8.5s that sold at Heritage auctions (it is usually the other way around as eBay tends to be overpriced compared to traditional auction galleries). Now, I guess I need to start looking at upgrading my Daredevil #1 as well... Well, I guess that's it... just wanted to share my excitement about my new book I received today. Happy hunting to all and good luck with your collections! Clouded9 To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

This is an expansion to an earlier post I made back in May of this year titled "Flipping Books for Better Books and Profits" which explained how through out the year I will purchase books not only for my personal collection but some I will pick up for the sole purpose of flipping them for profit (most of the time any way as some books I strike out on). Most of the books I flip are either lower grade duplicates from my collection as a result of upgrading or books I find below market value that I have no desire to collect, but i feel the market is willing to pay a fair amount for. Sometimes these additional funds will go right back into more comics and sometimes just right into my bank account. This is an important and exciting part of the hobby for me as not only do I get the thrill of the hunt for the books themselves, but watching my books in auctions is pretty exciting too. I keep a spreadsheet and track my performance and currently I average an overall gross profit percentage of about 53%(example: you buy a book for $100 and flip it for $150 = gross profit of $50 or 50%). So far this year I have spent about $950 on books to flip and sold them for about $2,016. I don't have the funds or time time to make a living doing this, but it is another way for me to enjoy comic collecting and it helps me justify some of my larger purchases to my wife. Which is great as I just purchased 2 silver age books for $767 total that are currently in transit to me (so no pictures yet) and have been on my want list for a while (Sub-Mariner #1 CGC 9.4 white pages and Iron Man and Sub-Mariner #1 CGC 9.4 off-white to white pages). I normally send 2-3 batches of books to auction a year. The batch I sent in May had 31 books (check my old journal for those results) and my second auction of the year that just recently ended had only 2 books in it. This is usually the slow time for me as far as convention visits go (my convention season starts with wizard world Austin in November and ends with the Dallas Comicon in May) and I kind of slacked off on my online hunting for the past few months as well. However, this was a huge auction for me as far as return of investment goes. I spent $162 total on these 2 books and sold them for a combined $537.50!!! This is nearly double my initial estimate of $285. The two books sold were Ultimate Spider-Man #1 CGC 9.2 Universal and Ultimate Spider-Man #104 1:100 white variant PGX 10.0 Platinum Mint. Guess which one brought in the big bids! I hope you all are having a successful and fun collecting year as well! Happy hunting (and flipping for some of you)! To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

David since you did not select the box to post your journal to the message boards I will place my reply here and leave it open on the chat boards for others to reply to as well. David, I understand your frustration and I am also from the school of thought that, in my opinion, there are many books out there that I can not justify being graded due to market value, intentional "low print runs" like variant covers, etc. However, I find this is true for silver and golden age books as well. Just because it is old does not always mean it is valuable. There are some golden and silver age series that are simply not desired by collectors and thus the market value is (regardless of what a price guide says - it is only a "guide" after all). Also keep in mind that books that have only been graded 6-8 times by CGC are not reflections of their scarcity or value. It could be that no one simply cares to get those books graded based on popularity or value. There are many Golden and Silver Age books that can not hold a candle, in regards to market value or popularity, to more recent books such as X-Men 94 1970s, Giant Size X-men 1 1970s, and the legendary Teenage Mutant Ninja turtle series from 1984 to name only a very, very few. Also, keep in mind that many people collect comics because they LOVE comics. Not everyone is looking for an alternative to the stock market for investing. Everyone wishes their books could be graded faster, but policing submissions based on perceived value or age and shutting out comic book lovers from submitting books they cherish because you don't care for them is borderline to becoming a comic book Nazi "No SLAB for you!" (I hope someone appreciates this Seinfeld reference) I know for a fact that Tnerb (everyone has surely read at least one of his posts on her) loves his New Mutants set from the 1980s (it is a great set) and they hold a personal value to him that is far more than any price guide can estimate. We would be doing a disservice to our great hobby by implying that his books are not worth slabbing because of age or "guide" value. I have no desire to collect the New Mutants series, but I appreciate and respect his passion for them. I appreciate your journal David as we are ALL entitled to our opinions. I hope no one sends you any hate messages or anything as it is completely uncalled for. I just wanted to provide an outlet for discussion on the topic you started with your journal. Thanks and good luck to all with your collections! Whatever the focus may be! James V. aka clouded9 To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I've been meaning to do this for a while and finally found the time. Everyone, please follow suit. At last, I have found the time to take photos of all of my slabbed books, re-size them, and post them on this site. To be honest, I love strolling through the registry and checking out other peoples collections, but I find that most people are not willing to take the time to post quality shots of their books. This is very disappointing as there are many golden and silver-age sets that I am not familiar with and would love to see some quality images of these collections. Everyone, I have a simple request. Everyone post pictures for at least 25% of your collection. Primarily key issues and anything older than 1965. If you do this for me you will win a prize!!! You will win ----> +1 INTERNETS delivered to you by the creator of the internet himself and first Emperor of the Moon, Al Gore!!!