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richard8158

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Journal Entries posted by richard8158

  1. richard8158

    My newest custom set

    By richard8158,


    Cover Artists
    I remember as a kid in the early 60’s reading all the old war comics. I read Superman, Batman and all the rest but somehow the war comics stuck. Joe Kubert quickly became a favorite with Sgt. Rocks tattered clothing along with the Haunted tank’s crew. 
       Originally  I asked Matt to create a Joe Kubert cover set but was told that I would have to supply the issue numbers and certification numbers as well. I had hoped to include the hundreds of covers that I don’t have plus I really have no idea how many there actually are. If it was only to be made up from what I already have, I just compiled all my Kubert covers into a custom set. Seemed like a bad idea to have to make an addition request for every new cover I bought. So if there are any Kubert fans out there, check out in custom sets> cover artists> Rich’s Joe Kubert cover set.
  3. richard8158
    We drove to Dover this morning to attend the comic con, about an hour each way. I live in Milton Delaware where we don't even have a LCS. Lots of costumes, food but not a lot of comics. Most were priced at $1 - $3, with very few silvers or golds. Lots of artists though and plenty of novelties. Harry potter wand booth, toys everywhere, costume contest and all kinds of neat crafts. The stay puft marshmallow man (turns out to be a woman) looks a bit deflated and smaller than I remember. It was a fun time!








  4. richard8158
    I had been eyeing some of these for a while so I finally put some of my extras on eBay to help fund the purchase. The first six were buys so I was able to negotiate a better price but the last two were auctions, so I paid dearly for them. There was someone who wanted them nearly as much as I did. All of them are the highest graded and five of them are the single highest graded. To view the set:
    https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/Comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=80699








  6. richard8158

    The Haunted Tank!

    By richard8158,

    GI Combat 152,This arrived yesterday! An upgrade for my set. Highest grade, 1 of 3.  Almost sounds like a Borg designation! Anyway picked this one up from eBay for a reasonable price. If anyone has something higher than what I have in my set, and you might consider selling it, let me know! Thanks!

  7. richard8158
    This one just came by UPS today. At this moment it is the single highest graded copy and the next closest grade is a 7.5. I bought it from eBay and I even thought the price was good. I have spent so much time on my GI Combat set, the Our Fighting Forces  set (among others) has been neglected. September - October 1961, I'm happy to be able to add this one!

  14. richard8158
    This has been a really great year for adding to and upgrading my GI Combat set. Possibly as many as 30 upgrades this year alone. The one pictured is the latest one. A really nice 1961 Kubert cover. The downside is that I have many very nice graded duplicates now and I'm really not sure what to do with them. Sure, I could sell them, but would much rather trade for someone else's extras. And I pretty much don't care what they are! As kids growing up in the 50s and 60s we read everything, but war comics were big. We read Superman, Batman and Hawkman too along with many others. Spidey came later. Can I be the only collector with duplicate graded copies? Here are some of my extras:
    https://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=92871
    Thanks for reading and looking!
    Rich

  16. richard8158

    September 1958

    By richard8158,

    Picked this one up from another member and it just got here today! Single highest graded (as of 6/2017). A very nice upgrade for my set as the other one was a 5.5. Always liked the Joe Kubert covers too.

  17. richard8158
    Maybe My Last New Holder
    I was on the chat boards the other evening, something I rarely do, and a nearly 800 page chat was going on about the new holders. So I read for several hours.
    Well I received my first comic today in the new holder. Pretty much everything that I read was true. The edges of the book look like they were dipped in diesel fuel and the top of the book has some waviness. There are those who suggested that the bowing of the book along the top was due to a bad pressing. This one was pressed by CCS, but I don't think that is the case. You can easily see the warp in the top center, but it travels down as well through the entire cover. I have a hard time believing that it left CCS that way, since it was flat when I mailed it in.
    I really didn't dislike the new label, but the last labels weren't bad either. I did like that the top sticker is inside. Very clear too, which I also appreciated.
    I would like to see what CGC plans to do about this. I know I will no longer be sending in any books until this is resolved. Has CGC even acknowledged there is a problem?

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  20. richard8158
    It's not CGC!
    I bought an 8.5 #119 today. The dark issues are always hard to find in good shape. It was certified by CBCS so it won't be on display with the others. I had never heard of CBCS before a couple of days ago. So I posted a question on the boards as to who they were and if anyone had any experience with them. I just didn't want to waste my money. To my shock, the post was removed IMMEDIATELY, without so much as a word. I thought the boards were there for free and open discussion about anything comics and related. So I did my research and found that I got this knee jerk reaction from them because of an ex-employee who started CBCS. Censorship worked against CGC since I probably wouldn't have bought the comic if they hadn't pulled my post.

  21. richard8158

    Pressing

    By richard8158,

    Is it good or bad?
    I have never had a comic pressed before so I decided to conduct an experiment. I took 4 comics that in my opinion were no higher than 4.0-5.5 (and ones that I didn't particularly care about either), had them pressed and graded. They all came back as 7.0s. I know that this is a sensitive subject for some collectors, but I don't really see a downside when it comes to pressing. I have had books stored for years in boxes and looked as though they had been pressed. I don't know much about the process but apparently if it is done right, you can't even tell that it was done. It seems to be gaining acceptance as well. The pictured comic was mailed to me in a soft mailer with no cardboard or support of any kind. It was bent all over but not creased and looked horrible. Thoughts?

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  22. richard8158
    What did it prove?
    Okay, just what we all needed, another comparison of grading companies. I had four previously graded books that I wanted to convert to CGC. Plus I wanted to find out for myself how they all compare.
    The first book was GI Combat #29 PGX 7.5 WP
    The second was GI Combat #35 PGX 8.0 OWW
    The third was GI Combat #118 CBCS 9.0 WP
    The fourth was GI Combat #119 CBCS 8.5 OWW
    Three were sent in one group and the #35 with another group.
    I skewed the test by having all four comics pressed before grading. I thought that the other companies could use the help since we all have seen other tests.
    The results from the group with the three came back with nice grades. The 7.5 PGX held the same grade after a press and page quality remained the same. The 8.5 CBCS 119 came back with a 9.0 and also kept it's white pages. The 9.0 CBCS returned with a nice 9.2 although page quality went from OWW to just OW.
    The #35 did not fare as well. The PGX 8.0 went to a 6.0 CGC with OWW pages. I must say that many in the last group seemed to receive some very harsh grades. I might be getting old and my eyes aren't the best, but that comic is way better than any 6.0. I'm not convinced that it rated the 8.0 either but 6.0? No way. It is a very clean nice book. I was going to convert all of my other companies to CGC but not as sure as I was. I always felt that CGC graded very strictly, even undergrading (which I appreciate - to a point), but to drop four grades? I'm not sure what to think....
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  24. richard8158
    Just arrived yesterday!  Picked this one up off of eBay. It replaces the 7.0 I had.
     
    http://comics.www.collectors-society.com/registry/comics/PeopleSetDetail.aspx?PeopleSetID=80699

  25. richard8158
    My niche collection
    I started this collection many years ago and am not sure when it will end. I can't say exactly when it started either but I bought a group of US GI Joes and included in the lot was a number 111. But it was named Comandos Em Acao. I found that it was printed in Brazil in portuguese. The thought that GI Joe was anything other than American had never occurred to me. So it began. Don't we all just love the "hunt"? So for at least the last 10 years I have scoured the globe for international copies of GI Joe. Some of the sets are still incomplete (only a couple) and the search will continue. They are printed in all shapes and sizes. Issues are bigger than ours, smaller, digest sized, black and white. Many are just translated issues but a few countries elected to create their own stories and some even added new characters. Some are heavily edited. I have amassed around 1100 different issues from 28 countries (including the USA) in 21 languages. The majority of the collection may be viewed on these two websites:
    www.gijoecomicsinternational.com
    www.gijoecomicsusa.com
    I have been growing weary of the IDW GI Joe comics. Too many different covers, many of lesser quality in my opinion, just there to sell more comics. I miss the old days where a variant cover was a rare thing and sought out. Now we have several variants every month, every issue. Really, how many sketch covers do we actually need? Anyway, enough of my whining, please check out my collection.

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