miraclemet

6.0? "tape stain 9th page"

getting bit by the horror bug, must fight urges.... So far I have been able (largely thanks to my budget) to keep my collection to a relatively tight focus. Green Lantern (Original Hal era), Amazing Spider-Man (mostly 101-200 era), Star Wars and some Marvel Team-Ups constitute more than 75% of my newly forged collection. My raw to-be-submitted pile fall into the same categories, or my GA focus of Scifi (mostly Planet Comics). But for the last few days my eye has wandered. Over on the boards there are plenty of Super Hero, Golden Age, and Sci-Fi collectors, but there are also those sub-groups that have not interested me... most notably War and Horror comics... and it is these horror comics that pull me strongest. I am completely falling for the Lady in white; style covers from the DC 70s era. Now they are not all in white (and who knows if they are in fact ladies!) but they all have the same aesthetic appeal. They are not all in distress; though most are... Is this as far as my new found interest will spread into the horror genre? Will I find myself bidding crazy dollars on EC Tales from the Crypt this time next year? My wallet screams noooooooo! but who knows... Update: The dam has broken, and I've bought my first lady in white Gothic horror book. Lord have mercy on my soul... [disclaimer: the below images are not my books, just the images that are tempting me into buying them]

yeah its a low grader, but its slabbed and its one of my top 3 silver age GL covers (with GL #8 & #20, which I just missed on this weekend!) I just love that orange background!

there was a HA auction that closed last night? thought it was just the weekly sunday night auction this weekk...

I dont care if its low grade. Its one of my top 3 GL covers (behind #8 & #20) and it was super-cheap... I just love that orange background!

If its not on comicartfans.com then you may be out of luck. Some collectors are private about their collections and don't share them online (or they aren't online themselves). You could check with the artist. Depending on the contract agreement art can be divided up between the pencil-er and inker, and sometimes even the colorist! So your page may be for sale under the inkers name, or the inker may take it to cons to sell but not have it online. Once it gets sold, if the seller doesnt post it on CAF or somewhere then its lost to the ether until they (or their heirs) decide to sell it, in which case keep an eye on HA, ebay, CLink and other sites... I've been trying to collect all the pages from my first Green Lantern comic, so far I have 4 of the 5 pages that have come to market and three of them are from the backup (which were in the possession of the backup's inker up until 5 months ago when he needed the cash and sold a lot of 10 pages thru heritage). There's a 5th page that was on CAf and now posts to ebay from time to time, but the price has been to high so far, so I wait.... persistence, and dutifully checking the sites is the only way sometimes to find what you are looking for...

I think it was subbed 8 or 9 times... pressed twice... but I am glad there's a place for sales thread fallout to live on...

Anyone remember who was selling a low grade Fantastic Four #20 CGC 3.5 or maybe a 4.0? I cant find it... and Ive used the search tool... no luck...

and multiples of said glut. Seems there are a few online sellers that have taken to listing the same book 3 different ways (since there are no insertion fees) same book gets listed with a low price with a reserve, gets listed with a BIN, and gets listed with a regular auction (that has a price within a few dollars of the BIN auction). its ridiculous wading thru it all...

Deeck P. has accurately read my mind

do you think ebay's free listing opportunities are good or bad for the hobby? (I'd love to hear you answer this from both perspectives as both a buyer and a seller).

or... "How to Choose Your Favorite Child (for encapsulation)". First a thanks to clouded9 regarding the checkbox for having journals posted to the message boards. I too spend time on the message boards, and have responded in the Journal forum as well, and thought I had with each of my first two journal entries checked the "Post Journal to Message Boards" each time (in fact it appears to be defaulted to checked. I do even go so far as to log in with my board account. But alas my Journal entries have not made their way to the Journal sub-forum. I will make sure the box is checked this time and see if it appears... On to the Journaling! My plan is to submit 5 books of varying ages and grades and values in my first lot to CGC. 1. Planet Comics #61. Raw grade FN to FN+ This is my highest grade raw Planet Comics at the moment, and I'd like to see how close my grade is. 2. Planet Comics 27. Raw Grade VG. This was a cheap buy on ebay, and I want to slab it for collection registration, and if in the future I need to sell it, well encapsulation should make for an easier sale. 3 & 4. Amazing Spider-Man 119 & 120. Grades of 8.5 & 9.0 Bought on the cheap, and I love these Spidey vs Hulk covers. Have been putting together a 101-200 run, and the HG versions of these issues are steep, so Im submitting my own. 5. Final slot. I have been going back and forth on this. I could submit my last raw Planet comic (#57 sold to me as a VG+ but I think will grade closer to FN- range). Im also a big Green Lantern collector, and have thought about sending in one of my highest grade Lanterns (a VF+ #42), but I think I will wait on that one until some other raw lanterns come in for submission. Im leaning towards a HG Star Wars comic (also working on a run of that) KIts an early one (#14) and looks to be a 9.6 but might pass as a 9.8. So Im thinking to test my eye and see if this book really does come back as a 9.8. So final count: 2 Planet Comics, 2 Amazing Spider-Mans and a Star Wars. All books I already have slabbed collections started, all books that I intend to keep for a while. All bought cheep enough that a later sale should "break even" or close to cover the slabbing costs. As others have said. Your first submission is a learning experience. And the cost of your first slabbing is like the cost of tuition.

but to each his own... Everyone has their niche in the hobby. We cant all collect everything, so everyone picks their poison. Maybe its Silver age keys. Maybe its a high grade run of that favorite title from childhood. Maybe its a favorite character, artist, or publisher. I can appreciate many peoples specialties, but some I just cant seem to find a foothold for interest in. And when the market on those books is low I understand that its a small niche and the market is reacting accordingly (say Golden Age Jungle comics, not my thing, but they are for some, and relatively affordable). There are some collector titles, that have higher price points, but I just don't understand the love. Ever since returning to the hobby I've been befuddled by the high prices that 70s Silver Surfer comics command, and to a lesser degree Sub-Mariner. What is their pull? Is it the managable set size ( 36 issues of Silver age Silver Surfer) There are 178 sets started on CGC of Surfer and 103 Submariner sets. Both series started up in 1968, and ther e is even a special CGC set that includes them (Marvel 1968 Series Starters) along with other big hitter #1s like Iron Man and relaunches of Captain America (#100) Dr Strange (#169) and Incredible Hulk (#102). Are they collected beacuse of their easy price point? I cant imagine. Surger averages over $2300 in 9.4 NM condition while Submariener is a far more affordable $400 in 9.4. The surfer nets you 2000 point on your Collection score, while Mariner scores you 750. All I can point to is their availability (1600 on census of Surfer & 1085 for Sub-Mariner)and that they are #1s from an era of collectors who are probably empty nesters with well established incomes and some disposable cash by this point. If you bought Surfer #1 off the news stand in 1968 as an 8 year old you are 51 and probably have more disposable income than someone yonger, or someone older who has their eyes on retirement. Is someone can explain the Surfer & Subby love and their collectability especially their proximity to headliners like Iron Man, Thor and such I'd love to hear about it.

New to the HG and Golden Age collecting world I wanted to journal my slow descent into comic collecting madness. After a 15 year absence from comics (a child reader in the 80s) I dove back into the current slate of comics 5 years ago, but after event fatigue and moving from the weekly Wednesday grind to trade reading Ive refocused my collecting sights on Golden Age comics, High Grade slabbed comics, and anything else that I think is "cool". I've been on these boards for a few months, buying here, selling there, posting this, reading that... and Im nearing my first CGC submission. I have a small stack of slab-worthy books, mostly Golden Age Planet comics, and a few high grade Silvers that I love and want to preserve. Why CGC? Well partially cause I like the look of a nice slabbed book, also I like the certified grading. Part of me also knows that should I need to liquidate, a CGCed book will sell much easier than an uncertified book. Here on the eve of December 1 my CGC collection stands at 16 books. Only one high $$ book, a Planet Comics #36 CGC 7.5 from the Nick Cage collection that I bought on the boards at current GPA prices. All of my other slabs right now are lower $$ books, many costing less that the cost of slabbing that Ive pinched either from ebay or the board sales. Im trying to limit my buys to the following loose catagories: Golden Age Sci-Fi (Planet Comics mostly, but anything cool) Silver Age Sci-Fi (Adam Strange covers mostly if I can get a deal) Green Lantern any-all (avoiding the high $$ Adams/O'Neil run at the moment) Amazing Spider-Man 100-200 (again looking for deals on 9/6-9/.8 books) Star Wars complete run in 9.8 (only if there's a deal to be had) Of course sticking to my collections doesn't always work. I've ended up with a few Fantastic Fours that just had awesome covers, and a random Godzilla #8 slab (Godzilla vs Red Ronin). To close here's a shot of my Planet Comics #36 from the Nick Cage collection

Dang company scanning size restrictions! From the collection of Nicholas Cage:

moved!

Love all those Speed Carter Spaceman covers! My latest Planet Comics purchase arrived! Yep "From the Collection of Nicholas Cage"

Just bought from Peter-hearts-Gwen, great shipper, and fast too!

Started working on an ASM 101-200 collection this past week: ASM 155 CGC 9.6 ASM 181 CGC 9.6 Not related, but one of my favorite 70's era covers I've been keeping an eye out for a cheep 9.6 copy of this book on ebay, and finally got one.

ISF#33 is easily my favorite Wood cover, and when IDW's Wally Wood Artist Edition Reprint comes out with that on the cover its only gonna get tougher to find... and I was one of the underbidders on it on Clink!

My order of a large amount of bubble wrap arrived perfectly! Thanks for throwing in those two slabs to keep the bubble wrap nicely folded! Showed up fast, and well packaged.

CGC notes it as "UK Edition" dont know if that means there's a US edition as well. Bought it more as a curiosity than anything else. CGC had a few issues of the title listed with sales that looked way to affordable (>$50) so I bit just for the heck of it. I also like the super tiny missiles that the guy (Captain Valiant I assume) is thrown at it.

love that Ditko Space Adventures cover... one day it will be mine... Scratched my Sci-Fi itch on ebay last night on the cheep. From 1953, Space Comics #59.

Ok so Im new to the HG market, and Ive started a little GL collection... The CLink auction was very interesting though confusing... Of 66 Silver age Green Lantern books (the pre-Denny/Neal era) there were: 27 that sold for 20%+ under my GPA estimates (inflating for pedigree or adjusting for market changes since last sale). 25 that sold for significantly over my GPA estimates (by 50% or more) 16 sold for around what I estimated they would based on GPA and other factors. So I am either under, over or accurately estimating these books... and it looks like pretty evenly divided. So I looked deeper. Common traits of my underestimates: 21 of 25 were pedigree or collection copies 23 of 25 were ranked either 1 (12 of them) or 2 (11 of them) in the census 9 of 25 had already exceeded estimates before the last day of bidding Grade range was 4@9.8, 12@9.6, 5@9.4, 1@9.2 average price for over-performers $1452 So how do these traits stand up to the comics that came in under my estimate: Common traits on my overestimates/under performers: 10 of 25 were pedigree or collection copies 12 of 25 were ranked either 1 (3 of them) or 2 (9 of them) 7 of 25 books were at bids less than 50% of estimates 24 hrs before close. Grade range was 3@9.8, 6@9.6, 8@9.4, 1@9.2, 3@9.0, a 3.5 and a 3.0 average price for under-performers $1122 So at the end of the day I need to up my estimates for pedigree books, and #1 or #2 ranked census books regardless of price. though good deals could be found with the occasional pedigree and high census book: Best deals (to me) from last night: GL #11 for less than half estimate. #1 census. Same book sold for $5k 2 years ago, and not even $2500 this time. Ouch! Both GL #4s sold for ~60% of estimate. GL#40 top census bought for $6200 two years ago, sold for 25% less than the original price. GL#59s (first Guy) also showed a slight drop off with both copies. Biggest risers: GL#1 in 9.2 rose more than 60% vs last 9.2 sale despite not being pedigreed. #28,29,32,33,35,,36,& 37 all in a row showed sharp increases ranging from 60% to 300%. Finally #57 and 64 both showed 300%+ increases vs my GPA estimates based on last sales. fun night... wish one of them had ended up in my hands, but theres always December..

I recently saw an auction of Untamed Love and was struck by the *spoon*-y ness of the cover... a great book!