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Rockblazer

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Journal Entries posted by Rockblazer

  1. Rockblazer

    Marvel Multi-Pack set scoring.

    By Rockblazer,


    Comic books
    I recently added a Thor 274 Multi-pack edition to my set. It's a nice 9.4 Universal. I noticed that I received 18 points for adding it. However, if it was just a Univeral copy I would have received 20 points for adding it. I looked at the different scores for issue 274, Universal and Multipack Universal. Some same grades had the identical point scores, but some did not.  It was really haphazard.  Does anyone know why some grades would get the same point total and others different for the same grade? Just wondering. I've got it and a Thor 228 Savannah shown that just got back from CGC.

  2. Rockblazer

    $37,200 vs $158

    By Rockblazer,


    General
    I recently watched the Mile High II CGC 10 copy of Thor 156 sell for a staggering $37,200 on Heritage Auctions. I had been looking to upgrade my 9.4 to at least a 9.6 for some time. Thor 156 is common in high grades similar to Thor 132. Not that hard to find. Seeing that copy, it lit a fire under me to finally get an upgrade. I managed to find a 9.6 on a dealer site for $210 but he had a promotion so I got it for $158. I'd love to have the 10 but for 99% of collectors it's not going to happen.. Now while common in high grades the 10 is one of only two from the 1930's to 1974. An 8 page promotional comic is the other 10. So I'm happy the CGC 10 came up as it motivated me to get my upgrade.

  3. Rockblazer
    Two weeks ago my latest submission arrived. Four books bought raw from two large dealers. One was from Lone Star Comics. It is a Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery 11 John G. Fantucchio pedigree. It was listed as such but came with no documentation that it was from that collection. I called Lone Star and asked for documentation. They said it did not have any because they bought a large number of mid to upper mid grades of that collection and those do not have any documentation like the high grade copies. I asked if they thought CGC would recognize it from that collection. They stated they did not know.  I did notice shortly after my phone call they changed their listings stating it had no documentation.
     I decided to submit it with a copy of the listing to see if it would help. It did come back with the Pedigree label. The other positive thing was they had it listed as 8.0 Very Fine. It came back 9.2  from CGC. WHICH BRINGS ME TO MY QUESTION TO MY FELLOW COLLECTORS- Whom have you had the most success with on grading from CGC when buying raw comics? Personally it's been Lone Star and Mile High Comics . The other three books which were Space Family Robinson's issues 36, 39 and 48 were from another dealer which all came back much lower than listed. The one closest to what it was listed was the 39 which they had at 9.2 to 9.4 came back 8.5.  I do know that dealer used to be spot on with their grading but not much in the past few years.  Just wondered about your experiences.

  4. Rockblazer
    Sunday I was able to attend Buckeye Comic Con in Columbus, Ohio. The one in November was cancelled per Governor's order. I noticed that there was a lot more early attendees than normal. They were afraid of having to wait as they were only letting in a fixed number of people at any one time. I got there very early and managed to be fifth in line and got one of 25 Ironman "Believe " hardcover books they gave away. Got some of the items on my list. Such as mid high grade copies of Thor 129 and 168. I was also looking for Whitman editions or what some call diamond direct editions of Marvel comics. It's somewhat confusing and won't get in to that but managed to get both versions of Battlestar Galactica 1. Not sure why the "Whitman" copies don't garner much attention as they are much rarer that the new stand editions. I pictured both side by side. They were side by side in the dealers box. The dealer acted surprised I wanted the diamond copy. They were $10 each.
    Also picked up issues not on my list that were very high grade. If I see a potential 9.6 to 9.8 for little money I buy it.  Those copies were Thor 233, Marvel Premiere 57 ( 1st Dr. Who), Fantastic Four annual 4 , We will see how they do at CGC. I saw more people buying stacks of books than I have seen for a long time. Listening to the collectors around me yesterday they were just happy to get out. 
     

  5. Rockblazer
    Just wanted to mention I received an email from Jeff Harper that the July 19th Buckeye Comic Con ( Columbus, Ohio) is still on. He did say bring a mask. He also mentioned that the Akron-Canton Con which is another of his shows on July 12th  is cancelled. I posted a picture of two recent pick ups. A Journey into Mystery 103 and a Thor 191.  The 103 completes my JIM CGC set . The Thor 191 was a recent online dealer purchase I have been watching for like a year. I decided to buy it after I saw a same graded copy sell for $308 from an actual live bidding auction online. The listed price was $175 on the site I had been watching.  Usually auctions are better but sometimes they are not.
     

  6. Rockblazer
    I just wanted to mention that Buckeye Comicon is just around the corner on March 1st. If you like celebrities then this smaller con is not for you. If you love comics ( like 99% of you do) then stop by if you are in the Columbus , Ohio area. You can look up the info on the web. I recently acquired two issues I have be wanting to add to my collection for a while. Thor 137 CGC 9.4 is a tough issue to get in high grade because of it's black cover. I also added an Fantastic Four CGC 5.5 with the green printing error. I have been tracking these for over a year and noticed prices are coming up. You only get one point in the registry for this issue but it's a major error which looks so cool in the collection. 

  7. Rockblazer
    I am just getting back full force to collecting since my new neck parts were added back in September. Basically my spinal cord was being crushed in my neck either from old injuries or old age.  I had to have spinal fusion surgery on four vertebrae . I have two titanium rods and eight screws holding my neck together. Much less titanium than the Titanium man though. Normally they would use spacers but my body tried to fix the problem itself by growing new bone thus the rods. I was told I was very fortunate to have had the surgery when I did. Half of my left hand is still numb but slowly improving.
      I am back to work and back to buying comics.  I did want to mention I did pickup a couple of Dark Horse archives of Turok and Eerie off Ebay which arrived today. The seller bought over 50,000 copies (according to his listing) and his pricing is far below other sellers. They were still sealed and well packaged. His shipping was fast for media mail too.  I feel very thankful the way things turned out for me and wanted to give back so I joined our town's Homeless advocate group. Our town is around 10,000 people but we do have a homeless population.
    In closing here are two recent pickups. A Turok 58 with a cool robot cover and a Thor 150 which has another great cover. Hopefully the picture won't flip on me this time like my last journal. 
     
     

  8. Rockblazer
    I just returned home from Buckeye Comic Con. It's a small show in a hotel. Just like back in the 70's when I attended my first cons.  I like it because it is dealers loaded with comics. There are some small press writers and artists in attendance.
     They say the attendance is 400 for the one day event and that looked a little low to me. Very busy. It is held every four months and I plan on being there in November for the next one. I picked up some high grade Swamp Thing , pristine Spawn 1to 7 ( $40 bucks for those).Wolverine 10 and a Spawn 9. The Thor 134 looked to be a 3.5 but it was cheap and finally a Spiderman 129 CGC 8.0. It wasn't cheap but a decent price.   I stopped going to Mid- Ohio Con a couple of years after it became a Wizard World. I would rather spend $4 to check out 20 dealers in a hotel than $50 to shop a few in a convention center. All and all quite pleased with this show.
  9. Rockblazer
    I wanted to mention something and get your opinion on it. Recently I purchased a CGC Fantastic Four 2 from a trusted seller. I thought I would get this book while I could still afford to buy it. It's a nice looking 3.5 off white to white paged copy.  I asked the seller to send FedEx with adult signature confirmation. Basically an adult 21 and over has to sign for it.
     The seller did as I asked and I expected myself or my wife to be home to sign for it. The day it was due my wife had to leave for a doctors appointment which had been scheduled before I bought the book.  She left at 2:30pm and the driver showed up at 2:53 pm. I got home from work at 3:15 pm and the package with the comic was sitting on my front porch.   I was kind of disturbed that it was left without a signature as a neighbor had a package stolen off the front porch around Christmas. I called Fedex and asked how could it be left without a signature. I gave her the tracking number and she said it was signed for. I asked who did and the response I got was it was signed by me! I said I was still 15 miles from home at 2:53. So the driver signed my name and left it.  He signed my first initial and last name . Not how I sign by the way.  Another funny thing was the Fedex rep no longer responded to my questions about the package. It was live chat. I talked for about 10 minutes more with no response and then hung up. I got a transcript of the live chat but it had most of my questions edited out and the times changed. Interesting.  What if the package had been stolen? It was signed for with my name but I wasn't there. Has this happened to anyone else?  It was a pricey comic, I just wanted to ensure it's safe delivery. 
    On to my next subject. I often get beat on Comiclink auctions . Often the runner up bidder. I have been bidding since July of 2009 on their site. You can look at your past auction bids on the site. I decided to see what my actual record was. I added it up and I had 34 wins and 51 lost.  I was feeling somewhat bad about that thinking if that were a baseball teams record I would be in last place. Then I started thinking as a player if I went 34 for 85. I figured it up and I'm batting .400. That would make me batting champ. Now I see my auction record in a different light.

  10. Rockblazer
    I haven't journaled in a while mostly because I have been busy working but today I have my first Thanksgiving off since 2011 and it feels good.
     Back in September My wife and I attended all three days of the Cincinnati Comic Expo. I wanted to share my thoughts on it.  It was a mid size show, good location and set up nicely but did not have as many comic dealers as I would have liked. Even though the number of comics bought was few I was happy with what I came home with.  I started Friday night right away finding an Air Pirates Funnies 1 that had never been on the rack for $75. The man said he bought out a store and he had some old comic stock he never set out.
    Another great buy was a Gold Key Yellow Submarine movie comic which still had the poster. It was detached but there. Just so happened that the artist for the book Jose Delbo was there at the show and so was CGC.  I had a long conversation with Mr. Delbo and his wife and both were a joy to talk too. She asked me where I had bought the comic and how much I paid for it. I said at the show and $225. She said they paid $260 for a low grade copy some time ago and thought that was a great buy. She said they would have bought it if they knew it was there.  It came back from CGC 7.0 white pages which of course I thought it would do better but not complaining. I also nabbed a Star Wars 1 CGC 9.6 for $360. The dealer did go down on price. The reason I mentioned that was the dealer next to him would not budge one dollar on an Avengers 2 I had my eye on.  I also picked up a few Turok, Ripley's and Boris Karloff file copies for a good price.
    I also ran into Collectors society member Rude Badger and his wife at the show or I should say they found me.  Always good to talk to follow collectors and talk shop.
    One last item to mention. About 5 weeks ago I got the urge to go to Ohio's Largest Antique mall which is less than a half hour from my house and look around. I found few comics but did find a print of Bill Wards cover for Overstreet's price guide number 8 signed  by him. I believe it to be legit as he dedicated it to Dragon's Lair comics which was a shop in Dayton Ohio which shut it's doors I think about 2004. It had been there about 30 years. I included a picture of the signature in case someone would know. It is a little different than how he signs his art as it is not printed cursive hand writing.
    Actually I got ahead of myself there is one more item. I travel in my job and was in Barrie Canada and stopped in at Big B comics in Barrie, Ontario which was only a couple of miles from my hotel. 
    It was not the best of weather and about 6 pm so the shop was slow. Not a large shop but it was packed with comics. Marc Sims the owner was there and drug out box after box of comics for me to look through. He was very helpful and so was the young woman working the counter. I always enjoy seeing young people with an interest and knowledge of comics.  It was a great shop. Unfortunately the day I stopped was the day Stan Lee passed. We swapped Stan Lee memories which made us feel a little better. I hope my pictures load if not I will try again. Happy Thanksgiving to all.
     



  11. Rockblazer
    I wanted to get your thoughts on what do you consider to be slow shipping when you buy a comic online?  I did a" Buy It now" from Metropolis on May 25 of a Turok 56. Nice 9.6 , good price but ultra slow shipping.  I got an email from them on June 6 saying they were about to ship. That's 12 days after purchase. They then sent an email on June 13 saying it shipped. Seven more days. It arrived June 16 finally.  Now to be fair it does state that they take 2 to 3 weeks to ship but I've never bought a comic from them that has taken more than 10 days to arrive. 
    On the same day at the same time I bought a Thor 131 9.4 from Worldwide Comics and had it 3 days later . I bought a Comic from Comiclink a few days after the Metropolis purchase and it beat the Turok here. So what do you think is slow? 
    On a brighter note I had a string of being second on online auctions come to an end with a win on Heritage the other night.  Recently on the 9.8 and 9.6's I would come up just short but finally broke through with 40 bucks to spare from my high bid.  Well today the images of those two books are not loading or any other picture or I would post them.  Sorry about that. TRYING to load again, Hope it works.

  12. Rockblazer

    Oops they did it again!

    By Rockblazer,

    I am sure this has happened to most collectors out there. You win an auction or make a purchase of an awesome comic at a great price and the seller refunds your money the next day. I had this happen twice in the past few weeks. Once on Ebay and the other on a dealers website.  The first one was on Ebay and it was an auction for an Avengers 24 CGC 9.6 signed by Stan the Man himself. I won the auction with some stiff competition at the end. I could not wait to get this comic but the following day the seller refunded my money with no explanation except the standard Ebay ( This item is no longer available.)
    I have had this happen before. The last guy said he spilled coffee on a book I bought. Another said he lost it and so forth. I asked the guy who spilled the coffee to send the book anyway  and he then said he threw it away.  This seller last month did respond to my email and said he had his house broken into and this book was stolen.  He said most of his other books were at his work and they were ok. He said only a few books at his house were taken and the police were not interested in the crime as it was only comic books taken. He did however say the next purchase I make from him would be free shipping.
    The other comic was a Journey Into Mystery 90 7.5 CGC on a well known dealers website.  I bought it on a Thursday as I saw his con schedule he was at a Wizard world con the next day and I thought maybe he would take it and sell it there.  He sent a refund on Saturday am and said( he had sold this book sometime before and it fell through the cracks). The funny thing was that the book disappeared right off his website instantly just like the one I had purchased a couple of weeks before did.  He also offered free shipping to me on my next purchase.  I can only hope the dealers stories are legit but really there is no way of knowing for sure.  On a brighter note a Journey Into Mystery 91 7.5  I bought recently did arrive as expected and it's picture is attached.  Well that's all for now.
     

  13. Rockblazer
    Well,
               earlier today the comic I most regretted selling has been restored to my collection. It is an Incredible Hulk 2.  The story on this begins in 2010. I saw a Hulk 2 raw listed on Ebay that looked seriously under graded  as a buy it now for $400 dollars. It looked to be 6.5 to 7.0 but was listed as a vg minus 3.5. I watched it thinking it was to good to be true . I waited and watched the seconds tick down to zero but did not buy it. No one did. A week later it was relisted as an auction starting at $400.  So the second time around I watched all week until the final 15 seconds and placed my bid. At the same time another bid came in. Fortunately for me the other person bid $400 even and I got it for a few bucks more.
     So I got it and it was sharp with white pages. Sent it to CGC and it came back 6.5 with white pages. I was selling comics on Ebay then to get money to buy other comics for my collection so I listed it right away with some others to make a quick profit. The seller did tell me he knew it was better than a vg minus but he always under graded on higher dollar comics so there would be no issues with the buyers.  I listed it with an $850 reserve and it slowly went up to about $800  in the last hour.  With a few seconds left a bid came in which met my reserve and it sold for the $850 price.  I had no problem selling it at the time as I saw a 6.5 and 7.0 sell at that time and thought I would pick up one later down the road with no problem.  However some time passed and I decided I needed to get a nice copy for myself but was shocked how much the book went up and not many mid grade copies.  I could have probably waited to December this year to get a 6.5 if I could find one as I get a bonus from my employer at that time but I saw this one on line for $1400 which for a 5.0 is a decent price at this time so I got it. Not as nice as the one I sold but the price was right and I'm happy with one a grade and a half less.  Regret over selling that book is the main reason I don't sell anymore.
    It's all buying for me now at least until I retire which is over five years away. Here it is.
     

  14. Rockblazer
    Last October on the way back from a mini vacation in Kentucky I stopped in four Cincinnati area comic shops. I'd been in two of the four before. One of them Up, Up and Away Comics said they had opened a new shop in the suburb of Blue Ash . It was on the way home and just off the interstate so I pulled off and proceeded to a really nice plaza. I saw the sign and walked in the door.
    To my surprise it looked like I walked into an upscale store of some kind.  A young lady walked up to me and asked if I need help and I said "Is this Up Up and Away Comics? I thought I went in the wrong door outside. She said it was and I said I have never saw a shop look like this one.  She explained that it was a former design center that went out of business.  So instead of the landlord remodeling the owner said why change something that looks so nice.  The Silver age comics were in a small well lit glass room near the center of the store. Very upscale.
    One feature which was unusual was a huge Lego bridge which was a scale version of an old bridge over the Ohio river. I have attached a picture of it and the main hallway of the shop.
    Not your average shop.


  15. Rockblazer
    Recent auctions- when to hang it up and a pet peeve of mine.
    I was browsing the various sellers and auction sites Monday night July 25th and checked out Comiclink's focused auction which was starting to close over the next few days.
    I noticed that the number one Registry set of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was up on the block for Wednesday night. I've had the number two set for a number of years now. This set has a number of Gary Dalberg's Twin Cities copies in it. Most are 9.8's with white pages. These of course were going off after 11:30 pm which is three hours past my bedtime. I get up for work at 3:45 am each day. I do better on Comiclink when I am present so I set my alarm for 11 pm to bid on them.
    I did a little better than I expected getting an issue 3 and three of the Twin Cities. Which were numbers 4,5, and 8.
    I have already received them ( which is quick for Comiclink ) and am waiting for CGC to approve them for my set.
    Which brings me to my pet peeve which is the naming of pedigree collections. I think the person who amassed such collections needs to have his name attached to the collection like Edgar Church or Gary Dalberg. What bothers me are collections which the person who built it is not mentioned in the title. I know some don't want their name attached or some collections we don't know who the collector was but we should honor that person by naming the collection after them.
    Let me know your thoughts on this. On when to stop collecting I had planned on when I retire probably at 66 years old. I'm 57 now but my wife had two health scares this year. (She's back healthy again) but I offered to give it up so she could reap the benefit of selling my collection but she does not want me to stop anytime soon so I'll keep plugging away. Below are my recent pickups.

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  16. Rockblazer
    I popped out a book from the "other " other guys to see if I was right. Thanks for the idea Tnerb.
    I recently renewed my membership and wanted to use my $150 credit. I always struggle to pick which books will make the cut. This year I decided to make a grading comparison. The owner of my favorite comic shop always makes it a point to let me know his grading is stricter than CGC's every single time I go there.
    Now in the past I have found he's normally 1/2 a grade above the CGC grade 90% of the time. This time I sent three raw copies from his shop and one copy I popped out of a CGC competitor. I'm stealing this from Tnerb but I call them the "other " other guys.
    They have been around for awhile so I think you know who they are.
    I tested them years ago against CGC and thought their grading was off and CGC won. I had a Silver Surfer 4 which I thought was undergraded and popped it out. Those guys had it at 7.0. I sent it to CGC this time and it came back at 8.5! I feel an error has been corrected.
    The three shop books sent in were a Conan 1 at 7.5. An Avengers 12 at 8.0 and a Marvel Premiere 15 at NM-.
    Well this time all three books came back at exactly the same grade from CGC as the shop owner. So I was happy with the results.
    He will still bring it up even though I try to avoid that conversation each time I am there. Some recent pickups are The Thing #16 9.4 from 1954 ( Charlton). I have thought of collecting this title for a few years but this copy was about half price from some others I have seen listed. So it was a good time to start on this title.
    I picked up a Turok 66 9.6 file copy for $60 which was a great price. I did get a Swamp Thing 7 9.6 ( Batman appearance). I also got a weekend off which makes me very happy as I don't see many of them each year. Thanks for reading.

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  17. Rockblazer
    A personal goal was hit.
    I have been busy lately trying to strengthen my collection. My first goal this past year was trying to get the top spot back on my Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery set.
    I set a goal of December 31st of 2015 to do that and did make it but only by days. It may not stay that way but I am working to complete this set by the end of 2017. I've worked more hours this year than I have in any year of my life so I have had more funds for comics.
    I also hit the 50,000 point mark and the 250 CGC book mark recently. I know some have single sets with more points but it's a lot for me. This year I want to focus on Journey Into Mystery,Silver Surfer and Swamp Thing sets. Long range I plan on collecting until I retire. Which looks to be around 2022 or 2023. Posted below are a few recent pickups. The Thor is a Pacific Coast which is one of my favorite pedigrees. I've already started on the Journeys and posted two of them. I hope the picture is sized correctly as I used my work phone and not my camera.

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  18. Rockblazer
    Four are Worldwide Comics-How'd they do on Grading?
    I received two submissions back recently. The first lot was comics that I've put off having graded for various reasons. Such as a Hulk 181. Reason, Marvel Value stamp cut out. Avengers 57 reason, lower grade. Tales of Suspense 65 reason, had other books graded. Boris Karloff 51 reason, thought it would grade lower than what I bought it at.
    The second lot was all Don Rosa collection copies. Three more Boris Karloff, I'll start with all four Boris Karloff's. All Don Rosa from Worldwide Comics. Worldwide did well on their grading. Two of four graded at the upper end of what they had it at. One just .2 lower.
    Grades are as follows. Issue 51 WWC grade 9.4- CGC grade 9.2. Issues 78,79 and 83 WWC had 9.2/9.4. 78 and 83 CGC graded 9.4. Issue 79 graded 9.2. Much better than what my last Metropolis batch graded.
    The Hulk 181 came back green label of course but at a respectable 7.5 vf-. The Tales of Suspense 65 came back at 9.0 which is what it was sold as. The Avengers 57 came back at 5.5 fn- which is slightly higher than expected. I will try and post a picture but Windows 10,my new camera and new computer haven't got in sync yet.

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  19. Rockblazer
    JUST NOT MY WAY.
    Tonight I had the opportunity to buy a 20,000 book plus collection before the big guns arrived. They were mostly very fine on average. A lot of nm also. A friend of mine said his friend was selling his 20,000+ book collection.
    I got over there and checked it out. It seemed he started collecting in the late 60"s into modern age. Half his basement was long boxes stuffed full. About 60% Marvel 30% DC and the rest a mix. I decided not to buy for one main reason. He had key books but not enough to recoup my investment in a short time. I saw some keys like Ironman 1 , Cap 100, Spidey 121 etc. but no heavy hitters. He had one offer so far and if I beat it I think he would have sold to me. While I was there one of the heavy hitters of our hobby called but the man just let me listen to his message while he left it. Another is due to stop by his house tomorrow. I won't say what he was offered or who the dealers were as I do not want affect the process in any way. Soon however someone will have a great collection to sell. It was great to see such a large well organized collection and talk comics with someone who grew up buying comics from the same places as me when we were young.
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  20. Rockblazer
    THIS TIME I'VE ACTUALLY RECEIVED IT!
    Back towards the end of last year I wrote about Heritage Auctions finding a comic I won that they lost after the auction. The auction was January of 2014. However after they emailed me about it no one ever returned a call or email to me after contacting them many times. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted again that they found the comic. This time it was different. They responded to all emails and sent it to me quickly. So from January of 2014 here it is, A Boris Karloff 47 9.6 and also a pic of my latest addition a Silver Surfer 5 9.4.
    Better late than never.

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  21. Rockblazer
    Plus a new pickup.
    I just returned from watching Avengers Age of Ultron. I personally liked it more than the Avengers. More action packed. Even my wife said it was excellent and she was glad she went. I went to a 10:30 am showing and at least 50 % of the seats were full. It's was on four out of the 16 screens. They had 3d running at the same time. I know it's gotten mixed reviews but if you love action movies you will not be disappointed.
    Also my latest pickup arrived. It's a Tales of Suspense 86. CGC 9.4 White pages. It is pictured below.

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  22. Rockblazer
    ANYONE REMEMBER KORG 70,000 BC?
    A few of my recent pickups. I got the Tales to Astonish 70 as I need it but it could become a hot book if we see Sub-Mariner on screen someday. Such as Thor 126 or Ironman 1 etc. Korg was a short lived series which I watched at the time. It was a lot better than "Bigfoot and Wild Boy" which was another short lived 70's Saturday show. Many live action shows then. I always felt shows like H.R. Puffenstuff were created while someone was puffing some stuff.

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  23. Rockblazer
    A YEAR OF WAITING BUT...
    In response to Surfer99's journal request I decided to write two in one night. Not long ago I wrote about finding a HULK 181 in a second hand store. However the find of my life escaped me. This is that story.
    Way back in April 1978 I quit Mcdonalds ( a good move) and started working at a Pest Control company. Hey, I increased my pay to 3 dollars an hour then. I worked on a two man termite crew. A few weeks after I started we went to do a job on a nice home in a nice neighborhood. One thing we did was drill holes in the concrete block and concrete slabs to inject the chemical. I went down in the basement to drill the block behind the front porch that could not be reached from outside. I went down the steps and saw stacks and stacks of comics neatly stored shelves in the basement. I saw one comic on top was a Spiderman 1. Looked to be about an 8.0. I looked though the others and every Marvel comic from the early 60's to the late 60's was there. Key after key. I asked the lady of the house if she owned them. She said her son owned the books. I asked if I could talk to him about buying them. She said he was in medical school but would be home in June for the summer. She said they have sat there for years and would like to see them gone. She said I could call and talk to him in June. I waited the long two months and called back. She said he was away visiting a friend but was not interested in selling them. I said I would pay good money for them but she said no he does not want to sell. NOT THE END OF THE STORY. A year later a noticed in the work orders for the day that we were going back to her house to do a carpenter ant job. Another guy had the work order but I traded him another easier job to stop back out. I stopped out and she remembered me from last year. I went down in the basement while working looked on the shelving with the comics and they were all gone! I asked her what happened to all the comics. She said her son had sold them last summer while home. Now in those days he had an estimated $30,000 dollars in comics. Nowadays far far more. I said I wished you had sold them to me. She said beaming to me " Do you know how much money he got for those old comics? I said I can imagine it was a lot. She said it sure was, " Do you believe he got 50 DOLLARS for those old comics!" I then told her he had tens of thousands of dollars in comics and someone got a bargain. I was willing to pay far more than 50 for sure. She went from smilimg to having a sick look on her face. She said she never thought for a second they were worth more than 10 dollars. I had saved almost two thousand back then and would have offered it for sure. It had every first issue and complete runs for years. I'll never forget that one ever. Below is a pic of two of my recently graded books I did'nt add recently.

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  24. Rockblazer
    I met a Badger there.
    As usual work has kept me very busy so I'm a little late on writing this journal. On March 28th I attended The Gem City Comicon. This show is not major but it is growing every year. This year was the 10th. One of my favorite dealers cancelled ( Motor City Comics). He was bringing some high grade Northland copies. He did tell me in advance that he could cancel this time. This was a downer but I did meet Collector's Society member Rude Badger. I found him not rude at all, actually a nice guy. He's quite the collector. Like many of us our raw collection drawfs their CGC collection. I know many of you get together with other members at the show but it was a first for me. My friend Chris ( A former co worker) was there also. Chris has a huge collection but only two CGC books. AF 15 and JIM 83. Not bad for your first two CGC comics. Chis is one of those guys who say they are only going to buy a few books and end up with a stack. The highlight of my purchases was a 4.0 raw Vampirella 1. 95 bucks not too bad. Below are a couple of recent pickups.First time taking photos with my new camera so the quality is'nt there yet.

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  25. Rockblazer
    82 WORKING DAYS.
    Well my value submission made it back. They were a little behind their posted 75 days. Most of the comics 10 of 15 were high grade issues from Metropolis Comics. I purchased 8 of them as 9.6 and two were 9.4. The actual grades are as follows.
    Boris Karloff issues:
    36- 9.2
    42- 9.2
    45- 9.2
    46- 9.6
    47- 8.0
    49- 9.2
    50- 9.6
    53- 9.4
    Twilight Zone:
    44- 8.5
    Ripley's Believe it or Not:
    44- 9.2
    The 8.0 and 8.5 were the 9.4's.
    A Twilight Zone 29 graded 9.0 from a local shop came back 9.2.
    A Fantastic Voyage nn from the bargin bin of Collectors Comics came back 9.2. ( They seem to like that number ).
    Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves 1 8.0 Ebay buy and a Ripley's True War Stories 1 6.0 Ebay buy.
    Not spectacular buy ok for the collection. It did however get me on the next page ( Web page that is )at number 399 on the registry. I won't stay there for long but that's ok too. It also pushed me over 200 CGC books though. So a couple of personal milestones.
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