Ryan.

Haven't we all.

Worth it.

Accurate summary.

I included lots of pics so people can quickly scroll through, like I usually do.

I wasn't even going to join the Holiday Raffle this year. That's where this story starts. I have been a part of the raffle every year for almost the entire time I've been a member of the boards. It's fun, it lets me connect with at least two boardies each year, and it gives me an opportunity to rotate pieces in and out of my collection without having to buy or sell anything. This year was different. I don't generally get too personal on the boards but my job was in a state of flux, with an unclear future, in the last quarter of 2021. On top of that I have two young children on whom I needed to focus on giving a great holiday while having to navigate all of our holiday parties being cancelled due to extended family members getting sick with Covid, as well as their schools be shut down seemingly weekly for the same reason. It was hectic, it was stressful, and the last thing I felt I could put energy into was something as trivial as a raffle. Yet, digging into my collection is often a welcome distraction and stress reliever and while doing so I managed to put together a stack of books that I figured would be a decent submittal for the raffle. So submit I did, and then largely forgot about the raffle altogether. When the names picking video was posted I sat with my 5 year old to watch the Elves pick the names, figuring that mine would get picked in its normal spot in the latter half of the list and my son would at least get a kick out of seeing the Elves. What I wasn't expecting was to see RYAN picked and announced right at the top. From that very moment I didn't even consider picking anything but the @greggymystery box. I exclaimed to my wife, who has no interest in comics whatsoever but nods along at my endless comics stories, "I got the first pick in the holiday raffle! I'm definitely picking Greggy's box!" To which she naturally replied, "Who is Greggy?" That answer would come soon. Greggy first asked me for my contact info and if I was married, had kids, what my collecting interests were, etc., while adding a secret cabal of specific board members to our PM. I said I was married and had two young boys. A week or two later this ridiculous Paw Patrol tower showed up on my doorstep. My kids made me put it together immediately so they could play with it. It's still in my living room and my kids play with it daily. Sometime soon thereafter this box of fancy chocolates, popcorn and jelly beans showed up. Okay, sure, my kids were happy and my wife was happy, but what about me?? This is where @GACollectibleswas pulled into the madness. We met up for lunch and I was handed a large cardboard box and a 12 pack of Boom Sauce. What could be in this box? TMNT! LB Cole! Pervo Archie! All of my favorite things! If this was everything that Greggy sent then it would have been more than enough. Way more, in fact. Greggy wasn't done. He asked me how my family liked the chocolates and I told him that they attacked that box of chocolates like a pack of ravenous animals so Greggy enlisted @skypinkbluto replenish the stock with yet another shipment of chocolates. I figured it was over, we were done, what else could possibly be forthcoming. Nope, not even close. Greggy alerted me that a massive 47.3 pound box was in the mail. Everything else was preamble. Today, this monster showed up, dumped in the snow by my postal driver, likely because she didn't want to slip on the ice and be crushed by Ninja Turtles books. A worthy death for me, sure, but not for the general public. I knew the books were packed well and secure because this lone piece of cardboard was floating atop an ocean of bubble wrap. It took me about twenty minutes to get everything unpacked, and an hour more to slowly reveal everything. Some insanely awesome stuff but nothing beats multiple copies of Micronauts 1 and 8. Ultimately Greggy impressively packed up 1.5 BCW boxes' worth of comics, and this is AFTER I removed them from the mylars they were sent in. Greggy's box is everything a boy like me could ever hope for but, if I'm being honest, the most fun was being sucked into Greggy's world, where our PM group chat has been running strong for weeks now. I expect to be given the opportunity to PM torture the next victim in 2022's raffle.

That homeowner should really clear the ice off their driveway so the postal driver doesn't dump packages onto the snow.

Disney doesn't throw away IP that easily.

The rancor was fun.

Don't make me regret selling my Elfquest 2 $1.00 cover last year.

Fantasy Quarterly 1, here we come.

Someone slabbing remaindered copies of non-keys probably isn't a guiding light in how to maximize consignment profit.

Consignment override. A consignor's best friend.

Same here.

Good rule of thumb there

Good question.

For sure. Just FYI that I'm on strict orders from Greggy to charge a 50% premium on all books from the Greggy's Closet of Junk Pedigree.

What am I supposed to do with 47 pounds worth of your undercopies?

Wow. Nice.

We do?

Just make your own.

So the money that was charged for shipping wasn't set aside to ship the books?

Any luck getting that shipped out?

Don't worry, I had to practically give them away so all is still right in the universe.

I have two packages delivered on 1/10 and still not entered into the system. Maybe I should start a thread.