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Alawson453

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Journal Entries posted by Alawson453

  1. Alawson453
    What's your take on flipping comics?
    I thought this would be an interesting story to share with my New Registry Family About 7 years ago give or take a year, while on one of my regular visits to the local outdoor swapmeet I happened upon a box of comics from one of the regular vendor's.
    Now this guy was also one of my competitor's for buying storage units at auction. He was a well seasoned buyer and dealer to say the least. So when I searched through his box of comics on his table I never expected to find anything of tremendous value, but from time to time I find a gem.
    Well it's the middle of summer and if you know Vegas on a normal day it's well over 105 degree's so i'm ready to high tail it out of there. I start making my way towards the exit and make a stop by this guys table to see what he might have in this small box of about 40 comics on his table.
    Well at first glance I can see he has a few magazine sized comics near the back of the box but I take my time and go through the rest of the books first. When I get to the larger books I find that they are copies of TMNT #1. Ok I'm thinking that they are all 3rd prints since I already had a couple of copies and could tell the difference by looking at them. But there was another copy that looked slightly different. I ask Tony what he was getting for the books and he says 25 cents each.
    Ok, you don't have to be a genius to realize even if they are all 3rd printings you will still make a lot more than a quarter a piece. So I buy them all and the rest of the books in the box.
    Not paying much attention or mind for that matter I get the heck out of there and head home. I didn't research the books right away because I was late for taking the wife to breakfast so they had to wait. 2-3 hours later after we return home and settle down I finally get the chance to open up and check what print runs they are actually from.
    Holy ! One of the TMNT books is actually a first print and the other 2 copies are 3 prints. Well now I am really excited because I really didn't collect that title anyway and could see $$$$$$$ and a profit on my 25 cent investment.
    What follows next is documented somewhere within my many sales records on E-bay.
    I package up the book and ship it to CGC for express service so I can have it back in a week. They get the book and it comes out with a grade of 8.5. Ok now we are really talking some serious cash for the 25 cents I spent. It was well worth the $85 for the slabbing that I paid. I get the book back and list it with a starting price of $2250.00 knowing that I would get
    offers of much less I wanted to at least not under price this little gem.
    So offers start coming in, the first was $1400 (nice) I wait and another comes in $1100 considering my investment and total cost this was also a nice offer but it's the first day and I think there's more to come. The next offer is $100 yep that's right one hundred dollars. Never the less I inform the guy that I was blocking him form ever bidding on any of my items for making such a ridiculous offer. He apologized and I didn't block him. Later that evening I received what I thought was a great offer of $1700 and accepted the offer hoping the guy would honor and pay for it. And yes within 24 hours the sale was completed and the book was shipped.
    So within a little over a week I managed to flip a TMNT that I picked up at the local swap meet for 25 cents and pay the $85 for rush service at CGC and make a profit of well over $1600.
    The books are out there guys, but you do have to look under every rock to find them sometimes and it's true the early bird gets the worm. But in this case I was actually late and quite a number of people had already gone through the box of comics from what Tony told me. (I never told Tony about the flip)

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  2. Alawson453
    The treasures that await at your local swapmeet.
    Hey everyone I know I have hyped up how much fun it is and the great treasures you can find if you are persistent and hunt for comics at your local swap meet on a regular basis. Well today the worm was about the size of 300 misc comics, chaos comics Christmas ornaments, and an 8 ft. theater vinyl wall banner of the kingpin from the movie with Michael Clarke Duncan as the big man himself in mint condition.
    I also picked up a set of Evil Ernie Series 2 Chromium Cards for fun without
    checking the box before I left because the price was so great, once I made it home and had time to go through the set I found that at least 21 of the cards had been signed by Puludio (score!).
    The books I picked up were mostly modern about 90%.
    Here's a list of some of the stuff.:
    Darkness #1-5 with Platinum and bronze cover versions (multiple copies)
    Death Dealer #1 (2 copies)
    7 copies of Evil Ernie signed by Puludio
    5 copies of Fathom #1
    16 Danger Girl #1 ' (9 of them the tour variant) all of them signed
    with 4 signatures!
    Purgatory The Vampires Myth #1 Red foil cover
    Tomb of Dracula #58-64 all nm
    Sandman #3, 34 & 2 copies of Gallery of Dreams #1
    Neil Gaiman Stardust #1 & 3
    Dam #4
    Origin (Wolverine #1-3)
    Multiple early copies of Shi, Tomoe signed by Tuuci and others.
    Sailor Moon 1& 2
    Curse of the Spawn #1 with both the regular and bow edition.
    Curse of spawn 2-12 with 18 copies of issue #9, 7 copies of issue 10
    and 3 copies of issue 11 (9-11 all have Angela covers).
    Spawn regular series #9 (1st Angela) 3 copies, I already had 25 copies but couldn't pass on the price
    Spawn #21 (5 copies) this is one of my all time favorite Spawn covers.
    Spawn #24, 62 Angela Appearance (3 copies), #70 (4 copies) #74 (2 copies )
    #81, #100 McFarlane cover 2 copies, #100 Minoa cover and 2 of the other variants
    of issue 100 which is the death of Angela.
    Spawn the dark ages 1-3
    Spawn the undead #1-3
    Angela #1
    Angela comic 5 copies, I believe the issue is the one that came with the toy
    I will load a pic later. ( I FOUND OUT THESE ARE THE ANGELA SPECIAL
    COPIES ALL OF THEM HAVE THE PIRATE COVERS)
    X-files 1-5
    A great Magic the Gathering Hurloon Minotaur Statue by Randy Bowen.
    It took me 4 hours to fill up 2 sorry boxes.
    And I think I forgot to mention the run of Tips McFarlane Spideys from 306-322
    All in Super high grade! !!!!
    This was definitely my idea of a perfect day, and to complete my weekend
    I get to sew Captain America the Winter Soldier tomorrow with my Grandson
    Everyone have a great weekend!

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  3. Alawson453

    Phoenix Must Die!

    By Alawson453,

    How could they do that to one of the greatest characters ever created
    Ok so I picked up a group of books recently off E-bay. The books consisted of all X-men CGC's 9.4 all with White Pages.
    First was X-men #134 Titled "Heroes and Hellfire". In this issue Phoenix becomes dark Phoenix after being transformed into the Black Queen by the Hellfire Club. This is a classic with story by Chris Claremont, art by John Byrne and Terry Austin Cover.
    I so loved this story arc that began in issue #131 and remember purchasing multiple copies when it was originally released.
    Next is one of the greatest stories of all time in my opinion.
    X-men #137 "Phoenix Must Die". Seriously, is exactly what I said when I first picked up a copy of this book and saw the cover way back when (1980). No way they would actually really kill off one of the founding members of the X-men. No way they would actually kill one of the most powerful characters of the Marvel Universe. Well we all know what happened, yes they did whack Jean Grey aka Marvel Girl, aka Phoenix, aka Black Queen aka Dark Phoenix, R.I.P Jean.
    This is what kept me in this hobby for over 40 years. The possibility that every once and awhile a great story line might come along that totally captures my imagination and transports me into the actual storyline where I feel as if I am actually living and battling alongside my favorite heroes. This is where I realized that no matter how great I thought my heroes were and how strong the team, ultimately someone will die in the end.
    Lastly, X-men #140 which features the disbanding of Alpha Flight, an appearance by The Wendigo as well as a Blob Cameo appearance on the last page. Again great storytelling, great artwork and now part of my collection and X-men set. Hope you have enjoyed this little commentary See Pic!

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  4. Alawson453
    I'm just saying..............
    I think it would be great if CGC would add a feature that actually gives each individual that has books submitted to give an actual estimated ship date.
     
     
     
    I have had books that were submitted back in July and watched the turn times change different times, from 20 days, to 35 days to 45 days and now 55 days on modern tier and my books have been marked graded for over a week when the turn time was 45 days. Does that mean that I now have to wait an additional 10 days to get my books? It is very confusing and at times frustrating.
     
     
     
    I don't have a problem with the waiting, but I shouldn't have to wait if my books were already in the system when a specific turn time was quoted.
     
     
     
    I am holding all other submissions until they can get the turn times down to a reasonable level.
     
     
     
     
     
    Thanks for letting me rant..
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  5. Alawson453
    Just ended E-bay Auction for SS #15 maybe new record. Only (1) of (2) 9.8 copies sold for...............................
    I don't know about many of you but I have it bad watching ending comic book auctions on ebay and keeping a record of books that I feel sell for prices that are higher than I would expect for the particular book to sell for. Sparkle City just closed a bunch of auctions this evening and one of the books that sold was a perfect copy of SS#15 in CGC 9.8 condition. I started watching it earlier this evening and was astonished when the bidding went above the $1,000.00 mark.
    This book is definitely a rarity in that there have only been (2) copies to receive the grade of 9.8, so I was surprised but not totally shocked.
    Well the bidding ended and some lucky buyer will be adding that beautiful book to his/her collection (it could be a female
    Oh and the final gavel price was ....................
     
    $2,555.50
    I thought this was worthy information to share with the group especially those that may not sit and eyeball the computer for as many hours on end as I do.
    Happy Hunting/Collectiing
    P.S. It's the issue where the Surfer battles the Human Torch
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  6. Alawson453
    One of my most treasured moments as a collector!
    To all my fellow collector's that may not have had the chance to meet "The King" let me tell of my experience.
    The year is 1982 if my memory serves me correctly. The place is Friendly Neighborhood Comics which was owned and operated by a kindly gentleman by the name of Tom Heiner. This was the very first store in Las Vegas that was dedicated to nothing but comic books. I had made many a purchase at this store and seen many great books pass through its doors.
    When Mr. Heiner announced one day that Jack "The King" Kirby himself was going to be in the store for a day to sign autographs and talk comics, I almost lost my mind!
    What was I going to have signed (Jack was only signing 3 items per person). So here I had to make a decision on what I would take. Keep in mind that at that time I only collected mostly Silver Age Marvels so just about every title had been touched by
    Kirby in one way or another.
    Ok, so I settled on 3 books Tales of Suspense #40 awesome cover and 2nd appearance of Iron Man. X-men #3 Yeah, the cover with the team battling the Blob (most awesome) and for my final autograph candidate The Incredible Hulk #5 all of the books were high grade copies and I wished the limit would have been a little higher. Hey, I was happy just to have the opportunity to get them signed by the man that I had come to recognize as the single greatest icon the comic book world had!
    So the day comes, I get to the store wait in line (not very long). I make it to the front of the line and there he is.......
    the one who started it all, Jack Kirby! He was a very soft spoken man, not very tall (actually short) along with his wife Roz. I tell him how much I love his work and that I was trying to collect everything that he had ever done (did not accomplish that goal). He takes a look at my books and smiles, opens each one up and signs his name. I really like that in the old days artists and writers didn't sign on the covers of comics unless requested to do so. He asked me if I had any other books that I would like for him to sign? Ok, I was told the limit was 3?
    Had to think fast, Jack was actually at the store and making appearances to promote his new title that he was working on from Pacific Comics called Captain Victory and the Galactic Rangers which happened to be on the spinner rack in the store. I leap into action whipping out the cash for a copy and run back over to get one more signature before I head home.
    Mr. Kirby says thank you for supporting the book and the purchase, and I tell him thanks for all of the many great stories and artwork.
    Later Mr. Heiner the store owner told me that he and his wife spent the evening with the Kirby's at dinner and dancing.
    Wow, I got to meet and shake hands with Jack Kirby!
    I have sense sold all of the great silver age books Mr. Kirby signed for me (needed the cash at the time) but managed to hang on to the Captain Victory (see pic) and treasure it so much that I will never let it go.
    Sidenote: This event takes place nearly 10 years before "The Book Rack" purchase.
    Thanks for reading

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  7. Alawson453
    Or should I say to the moon
    So I'm sitting here watching an auction that's winding down on E-bay. For a copy of the aforementioned book. Bidding has been very fierce with the price currently $2,005.00 at the three minute mark. This is one of my favorite books not to mention I just received my copy back with a 9.0 and I have another copy that should also grade about the same maybe higher that I'm submitting.
    Anyway, the focus of this post is the potential for any copies found that may achieve
    super high grades. Since there is only one copy to date that had achieved the grade of 9.8, I think it reasonable to believe that a fair price for such a book would be between $8000 to $10000 without an SS destination.
    And now that the auction has ended with a final bid of $2374.00 I think that the sky truly is the limit!
    Thanks for reading
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  8. Alawson453
    Neal Adams Art with a Special Autograph!
    I happened to run across a couple of mags that I consider to be truly one of a kind.
    About 10 years ago i had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Bolo Young when he appeared
    at one of the Los Angeles Shrine shows. I didn't have a photo or magazine for him to sign, so I thought.
    Then I remembered I had brought along a group of magazines called Deadly hands of Kung Fu, you may have heard of them So I pulled 2 copies from a box, issue #3 and annual #1 issue #3 being a Neal Adams issue and proceed to take them over to Bolo to have them signed. I get up to the front of the line hand Bolo my books and he tells me "he's not in either of them" to which I replied I don't care, I'm a fan of his movies and wanted his auto on a martial arts magazine.
    Bolo being the great sport that he was signed both of my books which I have kept hidden away and now plan to have them stabbed even at the expense of getting the dreaded been label
    Bolo Yeung passed away a few years ago, but I still have a great memory and story to go along with my one of a kind signed books
    Thanks for reading

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  9. Alawson453
    That's right, found my modern age grail
    I'm firm believer that if you wait for something long enough it
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    will happen. I have been searching for a decently priced copy
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    of Harley ' s first appearance to no avail until today. Where else
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    but of all places my local swapmeet.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Yes boys and girls yours truly stumbled upon what may be one of
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    the nicest copies of Batman Adventures 12 in existence! The issue
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I found is bundled in a massive pre-pack with the aforementioned
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    book prominently showing on top in all its mint untouched glory!
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Surely the comic god's have smiled upon me today
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    My only dilemma is do I bust it out and submit it, or should I put it up
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    for auction as is with the rest of the pre-pack untouched?
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    I'm seriously leaning towards the latter.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    What would you do?

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  10. Alawson453
    One of the hardest graphic novels to receive a 9.8 grade on.
    I'm so excited, today was like Christmas for me. Even though I already
    knew alk of the grades my books had received, I still couldn't wait to get them
    and rip open the box!
    It was with great restraint that I was able to hold off writing this journal until I had
    the actual books in hand so I could include the photos, but alas the time has come
    7 Books total submitted under the magazine tier with the following results.
    Marvel Graphic Novel #1 The Death of Captain Marvel graded 9.2
    Marvel Graphic Novel #4 The New Mutants 2 copies received 9.4
    grades and one copy received a 9.6 grade
    Monster World #2 received a 9.2 grade
    Famous Monsters of filmland 1969 Yearbook received a grade of 9.8
    and the book I am just ecstatic about is my Batman Son of the Demon
    which received a grade of 9.8 and is only the 2nd copy to do so!
    While I am overall very happy with all of my grades, all of them falling pretty close to
    where I had pre graded them, the Batman is definitely one of If n not the hardest
    of all the graphic novels to get a high b grade because of the dark and very glossy cover.
    Take a look at the pics attached and thanks for reading

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  11. Alawson453
    What do I do with all these comics?
    Ok, so now that you have all hopefully read Part 1, let's move along. Now I have this store which was "The Oldest Used Bookstore In Las Vegas" at the time. But all I really wanted was the comics
    Now I had never really been in awe of much of anything in my life, but let me tell you guys I really didn't know what to do next.
    It worked out that after about 6 months I actually made enough money to totally pay myself back for the purchase price of the business.
    During that year I had to ask myself, what do I do with all of these comics. Keep in mind the year is 1991 and comic values are maybe about 10% of present day prices. So I was going to be lucky go get $150 for a near mint copy of Silver Surfer #1.
    My first order of business was to blowout all of my lower grade comics. So I started selling to some of the mail order dealers who were extremely excited to purchase large quantities of mid-grade 60's & 70's Marvel & DC. I would just pack a box up each month and ship them out to a couple of the ones I had built up a rapport with and they would send me a check lightning fast.
    This helped free up some space and get rid of books that I really didn't need to hold onto.
     
    Next, I decided to start selling at Los Angeles Science Fiction & Comic Book Convention. I packed up about 3000 nice books but not the best. I would start with my lowest graded books which were still nicer than a lot of the dealers in the room had access to.
    My first show was a huge success! I made a ton of money before the show was even half over and I also made one of my most important contacts ever in meeting Mr. Terry O'Neill owner of Terry's Comics. Terry made me an offer for everything I had left which was very generous. Keep in mind that I would be able to replace 80-90% of the books I sold that day with better copies and sell at the next show the following month
    This went on for the next 20 years believe it or not. And I still love doing that show when I have the chance, just to run into some of the guys that I have come to know and deal with over the years.
    On top of all of the comics there were also a ton of magazines that covered all genre's. There were runs of Creepy, Eerie, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Savage Sword, Savage Tales and Many more including a ton of the Eerie Publications Mags. All of the mags were in beautiful condition with multiples on many issues(80% of which I still have). I always thought the pricing on Mags were way to low so I held on to most of them.
    I was able to sell the FM #1 Fine condition to Steve Dolnick for what was a pretty good price back in 1991
    Ok, so as the years passed and prices started to increase. I started to make more money selling fewer comics. I didn't jump in right away as I should have with having books slabbed (big mistake). By this time though I had already sold most of the key books from the store purchase. Hey, they helped pay the bills and that was more important at the time.
    Think I will stop here for tonight and try and wrap this up tomorrow. I'm throwing in a few pics of a couple books I had handy and will try and load more later. Enjoy!

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  12. Alawson453
    A few goodies (Marvel Premiere 47) first Scott Lang in the Ant-man
    CostumeFirst Scott Lang in the Ant-man Costume. I got these back about a month agoand was very pleased with the grades they received. Also just got back 3 copies of issue 48 with decent grades.Enjoy!To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
  13. Alawson453
    The Ring!
    I'm going to start this part of the story off going back a few years to one of my first trips to The Book Rack. I was about 13 years old and thought I would sneak out of the house while my mom and dad were at work. Keep in mind It was about 5 miles and I had to walk during this trip (the lengths I would go to for a fix). I'm almost there and as i'm crossing the street in front of Jerry's Nugget Gambling Hall I see something shiny in the street. Lucky it was early morning and not many cars on the road. I pick up the shiny object hoping it might be a quarter (I could buy another book or two if it was. No such luck, it was a stupid ring still I put it in my pocket and forget about it.
    I make it to the book store and get back home safe mom and dad are none the wiser. Well I ended up getting into trouble later that day and mom makes me empty my pockets (busted). She see's the shiny stupid ring and gives me the third degree. Finally I fess up and tell her how I came by it. Don't know why but I didn't get grounded. She tells me a couple years later that the ring I found was a solid gold 1893 one dollar gold piece ring and that my dad had it fixed because it was bent from being run over in the street but still in excellent condition. Believe it or not she gave me the ring a couple years ago and I have it to this very day.
    I thought some of you might like this story (it's totally true) I have the ring in my safe. But funny how in my quest to find comics at the age of about 13, before a true golden age I find gold
    Now you would think after acquiring what I considered the deal/dream of a lifetime the story would end, well it doesn't!
    I come to find out that the old guy I purchased the book store from still had more comics stashed in some storage facility! Yeah, I was shocked as hell when he comes waltzing in with one of the trademark brown paper bags filled with books and ask if I might be interested. I figure what the heck I already have the store and everything I wanted and more. We open the bag and the stuff inside was absolute primo condition books all 12 cent cover price marvel and or dc. Now I am confused as hell, did this guy just play me (yep) I think so but still I really couldn't complain. I came to realize that the paper bags once completely filled to the top would hold about 200+ comics (normal size silver age).
    The best thing about the way he stored his comics was that they were always laying flat and the pressure kept them that way. This was crazy there were 5 copies of each book the entire doctor strange run starting with #170 up to 183 also runs on strange tales, tales to astonish and tales of suspense, remember all of these were primo nothing less than 9.0 I kid you not.
    I ask where did he get these and he told me he also had a store up in tonapah in the mid to late 60's and this all was in storage. We worked out a deal for the entire bag remember I was pricing at 1991 overstreet prices and didn't have to pay multiples of guide. I asked if he had any more and he told he had about twenty thousand. Now i'm double confused, why the hell didn't he have the stuff in the store trying to make money in the first place? Oh well I ended up buying a couple thousand more books and told him I would have to stop for a while I was seriously out of cash and couldn't move the books fast enough. That's when I decided to start doing the LA Shrine Show.
    I never saw the old man after that and had dreams for the longest time wondering just what else I missed out on. I did score a vg spider-man #1 out of the deal as well. Now everyone has gone back in time with me on one of the most amazing rides I could ever ask for, and even though I have bought many more collections since. None have and I doubt will ever compare to the deal I made when I bought "The Book Rack".
    Thanks 4 Reading
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  14. Alawson453
    I don't like signatures on my comics unless it is by the artist responsible for the actual cover art.
    Hi gang, this is a topic that I have struggled with for quite some time. I really do not like having signatures all over the covers of my comics especially if it is a really cool book/cover.
    The exception are photo covers where there is an actual person instead of a drawn image.
    Another example is having writers and others that contributed to the interior of a comic but had nothing to do with the actual cover.
    What's your view on this subject, I like to know if there are any others that share my opinion.
    I guess one of my pet peeves is seeing all of the covers that have Stan Lee scrawled all over them. I understand that he is responsible for the majority of the Marvel Universe but he didn't ink the covers so at best I would allow him to sign the interior page.
    Most of the comics I have purchased, I was drawn to because of the intensity of the art and the beauty of the colors. A black cover with high gloss, perfect spine and straight corners is a definite rarity and the last thing I want to do is ruin it.
    Give me a mint copy of Amazing Spider-man #28 free of signatures over an SS copy in the same grade any day
    Also not all artists will get a free pass to sign a cover even if they did work on it If I don't like their signature I can live without it.
    So in the end I won't have very many comics with multiple signatures in my registered sets unless it something I purchased off E-bay which I really do shy away from.
    I will leave you with a photo of Swamp Thing #4 that I recently picked up on E-bay free of signature, but I would have liked to had Berni Wrightson's sig on this one since he signs very nicely.

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  15. Alawson453
    Finally got my Avengers #28 and MSH#18 back!
    The wait is over and yes I peeked at my grades prior to receiving them
    First up is my Avengers #28 which features the very highly sought after first appearance of The Collector, who will have a large presence in upcoming Marvel Universe Movies.
    Graded copies of this book are almost impossible to find and I'm happy with the 8.5
    Grade that I received for this copy!
    Next up is another Marvel first Appearance of The Guardians of the Galaxy a book that seems to be on fire and gaining more momentum as we draw closer to the movie release date. This is not the same team that will appear in the movie, but I do believe the original team will be referenced at some point in time moving forward in one of the future movies if not this one. This copy received a 9.0 which is a nice grade for the square bound 1960's comics and especially with the dark blue cover.
    Check out photos below.
    I'm waiting for another shipment which has Marvel Graphic Novels, Famous Monsters of filmland and a surprise DC Graphic Novel. I received a couple 9.8's
    in that group one of which only had one other book Graded at 9.8. So stay tuned

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  16. Alawson453
    George Perez a tribute!
    I really got into George Perez in the early 80's when I started reading some of the New Teen Titans issues that he had done. I came across those issues by luck and picked up issues 12-15 all signed by both Perez and Len Wein (way before signature series).
    I thought to myself what detail this guy draws. Not just the cover but the entire book page after page of jaw dropping detail. Not to mention some of the greatest fight scenes ever drawn in comics to my knowledge were either Justice League of America, New Teen Titans, Wonder Woman and how can I leave out all of the great covers from Crisis on Infinite Earths!
    I know I'm leaving out a lot of material that George has done both prior to and after my short list. I just want say that I don't think there has been an artist since Kirby that has in my opinion produced as much, as frequently with such quality as George Perez.
    I saw a set of History of the DC Universe available both signed by George and had to have them. For anyone who has not had the opportunity to read these, I strongly suggest you add them to your collection even if you are not a DC fan. These two books actually redefine the DC Universe at the time of production and are beautifully done in squarebound format.
    Check out the pics below, I intend to keep these in my collection forever

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  17. Alawson453

    Double Vision

    By Alawson453,

    Avengers #57 with double covers from a recent lot purchase on E-bay!
    Every once and awhile you can get really great deals looking for deals on E-bay. A couple months ago I purchased a Silver Age Lot of about 40 really beat up comics. They were advertised as such and the pictures that were attached confirmed it! Out of the lot though I noticed a copy of Sub-mariner #1 and Avenger #57 (1st Vision App.). There were a couple of other nice books that for the price would be great to have as readers. So even though I had read most or still have high grade copies I just couldn't pass up bidding on the lot.
     
    Ok, I win the lot they arrive and I said to myself, that was a bad purchase Most of the books were even worst than the pictures showed in the listing but it's hard to tell sometime.
    I couldn't complain the price was still fair, however this past weekend while going though some of the books I noticed that the copy of the Avengers #57 felt a little thicker than it should have. Did I not check it out when I first got it? I think not, I was disappointed that it was actually in the shape as advertised and just tossed it into a box. Well this copy had received 2 covers during production, so even though the exterior cover was a complete mess, the interior cover was very nice. So nice that I now plan to send it to Matt Nelson for pressing and then get an autograph by Stan.
    I'm hoping it presses out to a 6.0 or better on the interior cover the exterior the best I can hope for is a 4.0 and I will keep everyone posted on the books journey through each process. See attached pic!

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  18. Alawson453
    I just started collecting Signature Series Books this year.
    So I find it a lot easier for sure to just purchase a book already signed and slabbed as well as it saves a heck of a lot of time I do enjoy the chase of tracking down my favorite artists to meet face to face and obtain an auto on one of my favorite works of theirs.
    But man thanks to E-bay I can actually just wait for some items to arrive via USPS.
    My most recent purchase and addition to the family is a CGC SS 9.8 copy of Crisis on Infinite Earths #1. This book represents what I believe was one of the most important books published by DC in the last 30 years. It totally re-defined the DC Universe
    as we know it today. Not to mention the series went on to produce multiple events that would completely alter the course of the future for the company and all of its characters.
    This along with a slew of others is the highest graded SS copy available at the time of purchase and as many of you know I am a huge George Perez fan.
    I may attempt to complete the entire set as SS otherwise I will simply send in one of the sets I have and have them slabbed just to show the completed set.
    Enjoy the pics

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  19. Alawson453
    Both Wein and Wrightson had a hand in signing these
    Just got these back from grading after having them signed way back in May. Original Swamp Thing issues #2, 3 & 9 all signed by both Len Wein and Berni Wrightson. They are by no means high grade copies, but I wanted them signed since I already had copies that I had Berni sign about 20 years ago that are higher grade but not slabbed.
     
     
     
    Enjoy

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  20. Alawson453
    3 Beautiful But Deadly Ladies.
    Some of you may remember my original normal entry from
    way back in October of last year. While digging through
    boxes of books from my own inventory I happened to
    find 3 Issues of Lady Death.
    While I'm not a collector of that title I do love great artwork
    when I see it. Fast forward to 2014 and ECCC. The great
    Ronnylama offered to get Brain Pulido to sign them and submit
    them on my behalf to CGC (Thanks Ronny).
    Well my 3 ladies are finally back with the following results.
    Lady Death Limited Series #1 ss 9.0
    Lady Death II: Between Heaven & Hell #1 SS 9.2
    Lady Death: The Crucible #1 SS 9.8
    Overall not bad for books I pulled from misc. boxes sitting around
    in the garage.
    Enjoy

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  21. Alawson453
    A few books I picked up at the LA Convention recently.
    During the 1960's and 70's Gold Key was one of the great comic book companies that was able to compete with Marvel and DC. Maybe not totally on the same level since they didn't have quite as many characters ad the "Big Two". Nonetheless they had great characters and great stories.
    What made it hard for collector's of the early issues was that most of their comic books were slightly wider and a little longer than the standard comic book so they didn't fit well in to comic bags. This I know first hand as a lot of the books I would just leave unbagged way back when.
    As the 70's came and went so did the popularity of the Gold Key Characters with Superhero comics now as strong as ever. A lot of the Gold Key books I believe were and still are undervalued to this day. With the re-introduction of some of the major characters like Magnus and Solar through the Valiant Comics many collectors have become familiar with the a few of the more popular titles of the 60's and 70's but there are many more that
    deserve a little investigation such as Dark Shadows, Bonanza, Mighty Samson, Korak: Son of Tarzan, M.A.R.S. Patrol and many other titles. This is also where Star Trek originated in comic form and was one of the best sellers.
    I am slowly trying to accumulate as many high grade copies as I can (Kinda Like Bagofleas) in an effort to take over the world or at least a registry position.
    At current I have completed the first 40 issues of Korak all super high grades which will easily allow me to accomplish that set (we are talking 9.4 - 9.8 on the first 30 issues here guys). I will post pics of some of those books under a different Journal Entry I intend to dedicate to Korak. So for this posting I am including a pic of a couple of books that I picked up at the show. The total war books have such cool covers I couldn't pass them up and the condition was pretty nice to boot.
    Thanks for Reading

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  22. Alawson453
    I'm starting to like the Signature Series Process
    Hi everyone, below is a list of (10) books I had signed at C2E2. I just checked grades and they are in shipped safe status at CGC.
    Although I'm not really big on collecting modern age comics I was very excited at the chance to get signatures on all of the books that I submitted.
    Special Thanks to Doug Peters who facilitated the signatures for all of these books and I really will be sending a monster pile of books to him to get signatures for me in San Diego coming up shortly.
    Also Doug was able to secure a full body sketch comic for SS on
    a blank done in black and white that I will post a pic of as soon as it is received.
    I do have another invoice that was submitted at the exact same time as this one but for some reason or another it seems to be lagging behind about a week That's fine by me they actually finished this invoice early well under the stated (36 days).
    I will post pics as soon as the books arrive.
    X-Factor 5 6/86 Marvel Comics Signature 9.6 WHITE SIGNED BY BOB LAYTON ON 4/25/14 Bob Layton story
    Jackson Guice & Joe Rubinstein art
    Ron Frenz & Joe Rubinstein cover 1st app. of Apocalypse in cameo on last
    page. 1st app. of Stinger & Timeshadow.
    Tower, Frenzy, Artie & Rusty appearance.
    Superman 75 1/93 D.C. Comics Signature 9.6 WHITE SIGNED BY DAN JURGENS ON 4/25/14 Dan Jurgens story
    Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding cover & art
    The ""Death"" of Superman.
     
    Superman: The Wedding Album 1 12/96 D.C. Comics Collector's Edition Signature 9.8 WHITE SIGNED BY DAN JURGENS ON 4/25/14 Jurgens, Michelinie & Stern story
    Byrne, Austin, Kane, Perez, Swan, Frenz,
    Rubinstein, Guice, Giordano & McLeod art Clark Kent marries Lois Lane.
    Embossed cover.
     
    Tomoe 0 3/96 Crusade Comics Commemorative Edition Signature 9.0 WHITE SIGNED BY BILLY TUCCI, AMANDA CONNER & JIMMY PALMIOTTI ON 4/25/14 William Tucci & Dan Mishkin story
    Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti art
    Amanda Conner & Jimmy Palmiotti cover ""Virgin"" cover.
     
    Cyblade/Shi: The Battle for Independents 1 1995 Crusade-Image Comics Variant Cover Signature 9.6 WHITE SIGNED BY BILLY TUCCI ON 4/25/14 Brian Haberlin & David Wohl story
    Marc Silvestri art
    William Tucci cover 1st appearance of Sara Pezzini
    (Witchblade).
     
    Superman 74 12/92 D.C. Comics Signature 9.8 WHITE SIGNED BY DAN JURGENS ON 4/25/14 Dan Jurgens story
    Dan Jurgens & Brett Breeding cover & art
    Justice League America
    & Doomsday appearance.
     
    Justice League 1 5/87 D.C. Comics Signature 9.8 WHITE SIGNED BY KEVIN MAGUIRE ON 4/25/14 Keith Giffen & J. M. DeMatteis story
    Kevin Maguire & Terry Austin cover & art
    1st app. of Maxwell Lord (Black King).
     
    Rai 0 11/92 Valiant Signature 9.2 WHITE SIGNED BY BOB LAYTON ON 4/25/14 Bob Layton story
    David Lapham & Tom Ryder art
    1st full appearance of Bloodshot.
    Origin & 1st appearance of new Rai.
    Harbinger & Solar appearance.
    Unity 1 10/92 Valiant Platinum Edition Signature 9.8 WHITE SIGNED BY BOB LAYTON ON 4/25/14 Jim Shooter story
    Barry Windsor-Smith & Bob Layton art
    Barry Windsor-Smith cover
     
    Unity 1 10/92 Valiant Gold Edition Signature 9.8 WHITE SIGNED BY BOB LAYTON ON 4/25/14 Jim Shooter story
    Barry Windsor-Smith & Bob Layton art
    Barry Windsor-Smith cover Solar, X-O Manowar, Harbinger, Magnus,
    Shadowman, Eternal Warrior, Archer,
    Armstrong & Mothergod appearance.
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  23. Alawson453
    What if all of a sudden you inherited every comic you ever dreamed of!
    guys for my 2nd Journal Entry I'm coming out swinging! This will give a little insight on part of my history in Comic Collecting.
    The year is 1990 and i'm visiting one of my favorite places to pick up back issue comics in North Las Vegas (The Book Rack). I had been a customer at this store for well over 12 years already since my early childhood. I would ride my bike over 5 miles down a steep hill while my Mom and Dad were at work just so I could spend hours sifting through the back issue bins of comics from the late 60's and 70's.
    It was commonplace in the mid to late 70's to find books like House of Secrets #92 (1st Swamp Thing) in high grade in the quarter box. I found a total of 6 copies one summer Part of the reason I always went back because you never knew what you might find.
    Now back to 1991, after talking with the owner one day he told me that he wanted to sell the store and I thought maybe he would blow out some of the leftover comics. Ok, keep in mind that this was first a used book store which specialized in trading paperback for a quarter. Well after talking with the owner he tells me that there are thousands of comics in the back room of the store that he had been just stockpiling. Ok i'm curious I take a look and could not believe what I was looking at. Over 20,000 books all stored in brown paper bags stacked up to the top of each bag with another bag over the top to make a perfect case, air conditioned for the last 20-25 years with 5-10 copies on most of all of the Marvel and DC Comics that had ever been published. Hell there were 8 copies of Silver Surfer #1 (1968) which ranged from vg to mint with 3 of the copies super high grade.
    Ok, I buy the store! I scraped and scratched every penny I could and pulled it off. The day I take the keys I go into the back room which was now mine! I had gone through each and every bag and stack of comics and magazines till I was just totally overwhelmed. I now had every book (just about) that I had ever wanted times five, but I also had the rest of the store as well and had to manage day to day operations as promised for one year so customers could use up their trade credits for paperbacks.
    I will pick up from this point in my next post. Hopefully this has been interesting (it's a true story).
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  24. Alawson453
    The Collector and Guardians! Nuff Said
    With new marvel movies on the horizon and the introduction of some great character for the first time to the mass/general public and movie going audiences. I give you the first appearance of The Collector as presented in Avengers #28, and The Guardians of the Galaxy as presented in Marvel Superheroes #18.
    These 2 books are on there way to Sarasota as soon as I complete this journal, and I hope the grading gods bid them safe passage
    I have been picking up high grade copies (as high as could find) of the Guardians first appearance for the last 20 + years knowing that someday their importance to the Marvel Universe would be recognized. The Avengers issue is a copy that I redirected from the Book Rack deal (see previous post/journal) of which I had several copies but alas now have only the copy you see remaining.
    So the next time you seed these, they along with a few others will have sparkling new cases and be assigned to b one of my registry sets.
    Happy Hunting and Good Luck

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  25. Alawson453
    Betty's Budior
    Don't know how many of you know of or possibly collect artwork, comics or anything else from the late Dave Steven's of Rocketeer Fame. I was hooked the very first time I picked up a copy of Pacific Presents and saw the smooth artwork and great female anatomy that Mr. Steven's was able to with almost no effort make come to life. I swear you would think these were real people you were looking at pictures of only doctored up a little (way before photoshop was invented). My Crown Jewel of my Dave Steven's collection is "Betty's Budior". Betty was the girl of every comic collector's dreams not to mention she was modeled after the famous Pin-up Queen Bettie Page. I saw the advertisement for the litho knew I had to have it no matter the cost (lucky it was only $150 at the time).
    I never had the chance to meet Mr. Stevens but did manage to get what I believe to be one of his greatest works of art.
    Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy the Pic!

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