Rockblazer

Surfer glad you see you back.

I was about to buy this comic this morning but saw the trimmed label and figured it could be an issue down the road when I retire from collecting. I too have some comics with mistakes on the CGC label. Most common for me is on Gold Key comics they sometimes get the wrong issue number as Gold Key used a date code on their covers . One of my last submissions they did it again until I had to email them when I saw the verified page with the incorrect info. Actually I had to email them twice as after a number of days it still was not corrected.

Sharp comic from 1956. One thing that stands out is the large size of the comics code logo. It takes up more space than most on the cover.

I see you have one of the last issues of Charlton's Dr. Graves. They bought the title back but it was already too late to save the company. However AC Comics has returned some Charlton characters and I hope they continue on. Bought many an issue of The Many Ghosts of Dr. Graves off the drug store spinner rack back in my younger days.

Yes, they are some amazing stories. I can't protest too much as the well known dealer has some other books I may buy in a day or two. Getting the free shipping will require me to email him when the book or books are in the "cart" as I am sure he's forgotten his offer already.

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.

Hey, A room is a room. I like the frames you used. I've got Corso's book and a Flying Saucers 1 myself. Please post the next set when they are changed.

Thank you all and yes I did buy other comics with the cash.

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.

Tnerb, it's good to have you back. As for helping on the new journals I am still getting use to them myself. I wish they would go back to the old format but you know they won't. I was hoping you would be back in time to do your 30 in 30 days. Hopefully you won't fade out. Since the new format most of the people I really enjoyed reading have faded away. I'm going to write a short journal tonight just to get a little more practice in. It's good to hear from you again.

Tomo glad things worked out. We have the Golden Buckeye card here in Ohio which they send you when you turn 60. My wife has one. Good mostly at Wendy's and pizza places. Doubtful for tickets.

Tomo, I hope things turn out for you. I took on the man back in May of 1999 after a bogus ticket. I was going to a mall and there was a detour on the main road so it routed me down a wide street through a housing edition. I was the last car of a group of four traveling at 35 mph . I thought the speed limit was 35 as it was not posted and it was a very large road. I had just come over the top of a hill and I saw a motorcycle cop get off his cycle walk in the street wave the three cars ahead of me to go on and point at me to pull in the side street where he was parked. I thought there must be a funeral procession coming. He said "Do you know why I pulled you over? I honestly said no. He said you were going 37 in a 25 mph zone. I said it is not posted. He said it is. To make a long story short I got a camera and started to look around the area for a sign. I found one only and it was completely covered by a tree and not visible. Moving the branches it did say 25 mph. Also that week in the paper it said the Columbus police caught over 230 speeders on that road that weekend as they said people complained from the neighborhood. So I went to court. They tried three times as I was waiting for me to just pay the fine and no points would go on my license. They offered it to everyone. Very high pressure. Some took it some did not. I didn't. The cop was there and told his story . I told mine and thought I was losing until I handed the judge the pictures of the covered sign. He said in light of the photographic evidence he was reducing it to a minor equipment violation and suspending it's $20 fine. Cass dismissed. The cop was so mad and I had to ride the 14 floors down the elevator with him glaring at me while I smirked. He then went outside and burned rubber his motorcycle so much it left smoke. I was the one that got away I guess in his mind but why did he only pull me over and also he could not even see me until I got over the hill. I never saw him shoot me with the radar gun nor did I even see a gun at all. I hope you have a positive outcome. At least you are fighting it most don't.

Tell CGC I said it's a 9.9! It really does look perfect. Colors are so bright I've got to wear shades.

No, I'm all for the free exchange of ideas. I was on a business trip to Detroit the last few days and actually got out early enough to visit two shops in the Detroit area . One quite large and one of average size and picked up a few goodies which I may write about later.

Most interesting Indeed!

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.

Some of the most striking covers I've come across are on war comics. Great artists who make you feel the action.

I stopped collecting for over 20 years at one point but came back strong in 2005 and am still at it. So take a break and when the time is right you'll know it. 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. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I've been reading Thor for a long time and The early Journey into Mystery stories are somewhat weak until Issue 112 on. I feel Lee and Kirby started to hit their stride about that time and they had a golden run for the most part until Jack left the series sixty some issues later. My favorite storylines are from these issues even more than Walt Simonson's run years later. So if you continue your Journey and Thor reviews I expect you will see more four and five out of five's in the coming issues.

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. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

I think I'd be stopping by the LCS quite often!

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. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

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. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

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. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.