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J. Morrow

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Journal Entries posted by J. Morrow

  1. J. Morrow
    If you buy CGC books, do you tell your partner how much you actually spend?
    My partner and I have been together for eight years. Financially, we have a joint checking account, but each of us have separate checking, savings and credit cards as well. No kids (unless you consider our pups) and good incomes, so we do have disposable income and can spend money on some pretty frivolous things. We both spend money on lots of concert tickets. He has to have the newest Apple products as soon as they are released. And lately, I like building my CGC collection. Me obtaining CGC issues is not the concern. He has seen me on my IPad waiting for an auction to end, seen me mail comics off to the CGC for grading, and seen various boxes being delivered to me with a comic inside. Anything I have purchased is from my own money and never any joint funds. However, I realize that I don't always want to share what I spend on certain comics. Which makes me wonder - Does anyone else out there try to hide any of their CGC spending from their significant other?
    I am not sure if its the dollar amount of an issue or what that makes me want to keep certain purchases to myself. My first CGC comic was an issue of Giant Size X-Men 1 that was an 8.5 grade and I purchased for $375 back in 2010. This was a comic I had always wanted and bought it for myself as a Birthday present. My partner knew all about it and was happy that I got it - though he could not believe someone would actually pay that much for a comic book. Within the last year, I have become more obsessed with collecting certain issues that I always wanted when I was younger, but could never afford on a $10/week allowance. My partner sees boxes being delivered to me and I normally share what I comic I got and why I wanted it - and he never asks me "How much was it?" So from a high level, he knows what I am doing. However, there have been a couple that I have hidden from his view.
    For example - a few months ago, a relative of mine passed away and I found myself with some extra money that I was not expecting. Most of the money is going towards a vacation and a new couch. But, I also decided to plop down some of this money and buy myself a comic that I never thought I would ever own - a Fantastic Four 1. Yes, it was a large purchase, Yes it was signed by Stan Lee, but in my defense it was only a 3.5. I have had this issue for a few months now and it has sat inside a box and I have not shown it to anybody. He may not know a lot about comics, but he does know that a Fantastic Four #1 costs a little more than what he has seen me spend on other comics. At some point in time, I will end up putting it in my display case and just wait till he notices it. When he does, I will probably say something like "oh that...I have had that for awhile now."
    So curious - Have you ever spent money on this hobby of ours and kept it to yourself?
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  2. J. Morrow
    Just me letting off some steam...
    In general, I am not much of a complainer (though on that new Facebook survey, I did rate as being 57% person_without_enough_empathyy). But going to use this as an outlet to complain about myself sending in a book to the CGC with a flaw that I somehow missed. I have seen various people comment on receiving a CGC grade that was lower than they originally expected - so I figured its my turn. Of the few raw comics that I have sent in, most of mine have come back with a grade in the ball park of what I expected - with the exception of one - my X-Men #99.
    I had actually purchased raw copies of X-Men 98 & 99 from a vendor a couple of years or so ago. In my opinion, both looked to be around 9.0's-9.4's. Back in April, I got both of these books back from CGC. As I expected, issue 98 came in with a grade of 9.4. However, issue 99 came back with a grade of 7.5 (What???)
    I then started asking myself, "What did I miss? What did they catch that I did not see?" So for the first time ever, I decided to buy the grader notes. I got the notes to see that the grade was due to one comment, "Small Hole Through Book". I did not remember a small hole in the book; although I did remember there being "gripper" holes through the pages. The only thing I can think of without opening the slab is that there were too many gripper holes in the book to give it a good grade. Or maybe there is a tiny hole in the pages of the book that I missed. C'est La Vie....
    Anybody else ever send something in to the CGC only to find out the comic had a flaw that you did not notice or that you missed when you submitted your comic?
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  3. J. Morrow
    Of the comics that were on sale this month 50 years ago, What would you (or did you) buy?
    The link below lists the various comics that were on sale in October 1964 (50 years ago). I thought it would be fun to look at the list and decide what 5 comics we would pick up at the newsstand, if we could go back 50 years. For some of us (like me), I was not born yet - but some of us here can probably tell us what they actually bought!
     
     
     
    http://www.dcindexes.com/features/timemachine.php?site=all&type=calendar&month=10&year=1964&sort=alpha
     
     
     
    My choices would be:
     
    1) Spider-Man #20
     
    2) Strange Tales $128 (cause of the Scarlet Witch)
     
    3) Sgt Fury #13 (great cover)
     
    4) Avengers #11
     
    5) Archie Christmas Stocking Magazine #31 (Assuming I would be a kid, I liked Archie and anything to do with Christmas!)
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