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Best2u

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Journal Entries posted by Best2u

  1. Best2u
    Here it is. My favorite cover that I own.
    Check out my past journals to see my other top covers. From E.C. Comics in Jan. of 1953 comes Frontline Comics #10. This cover grabed me from the min. I saw it in the CGD gallery of covers for Frontline Combat. I do go there a lot to look at covers I'm missing from series I collect. Some of the finest artists in the comic kingdom worked on this cover. J. Severin did the pencils, B. Elder did the inks with M. Severin on colors and B. Oda on lettering. Now I've never read this comic due to the fact I can't find a cheap reading copy but the first story in the book is titled "Baby" so I'm hoping it's about the cover. I love the colors on it. Everything come out clear as a bell due to the great color mix. I love the little bit of yellow used on the smoke to show there's a fire some where close with out really showing the fire. The little kid crying as the focal point is great. I also love the detail of the ruins laying about the child. Well, I'm glad I got that out of my system. Next week I'd like to talk about collecting Pedigree comics. Oh ya, mine is a CGC-7.5 off-white pages from eBay in May of 02. Cost was a nice $95. To bad theres that writing along the top edge. Don't know what it means but it says- 5-9-10.

  2. Best2u
    A few weeks ago I promised my favorite cover. Here they, I mean, it is, well, take a look.
    In one of my journals I'd said I was going to show my favorite cover of a comic that I owned. Now, there are at least 100 covers that I like better than the ones shown below but I know that I'll never own them. Just to expensive or hard to find. Anyway, below are my four favorite comic covers that I own. Now I know what you're going to say, their so small, the titles aren't shown. That's all part of my plan. Over the next four of my journals I'll tell you why their my favorties and show you which comics they are. I wonder how many of you can figure out what the titles are before I tell you each week. So until next week, when I tell you my forth favorite title, have a Merry Christmas. Best2u

  3. Best2u
    Blue dealer stamp on a blue cover
    I have a Boy Commandos #30, CGC-7.5, that has a dealer stamp in blue ink that is almost the same color blue as the cover. The stamp has 3 lines and the top one says "Brownies Smoke Shop" but I can't make out the other lines. Just wondering if anyone knows anything about the stamp or has the same stamp on one of thier comics. I would like to know what the other lines say also. Thanks and let me know if you know anything about it. Best2u

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  4. Best2u
    When something comes along that's to good to pass up do you bend your rules a bit.
    When I start to collect a series of comics I plan it out and set a bunch of rules to keep me from getting carried away. You know, rules like- only CGC slabs, only grades between this and that, off-white pages or better, issues 1 thru whatever, and on and on it could go. An example would be my collection of "Ghosts". Rule #1 was issues #1-15, rule #2 is well centered copies with no elements cut off, rule #3 was CGC copies only 8.0 or better with C/OW pages or better. Bingo, I'm within all my rules for years, and then, Dingo, I went and broke them. Quality Comix had a nice auction going on and I spotted a great copy of Showcase #20, first Rip Hunter, that would have been a nice upgrade for my set. Wouldn't you know it, there were also some high grade Ghosts issues that didn't fit my rules, not within issues #1-15. I kept telling myself no but I ended up telling myself I'd bid on then and if I won I wouldn't put them in my set on the Registry. That's a little bend of the rules but now that I won them I just had to put them in my Registry set. So I broke all the rules, big deal, I'm happy and it did move me ahead of one other collector in the Registry. I do hope I don't feel the need to now go after the whole set as then I'd have to make a whole bunch of new rules. You know what they say "The more rules you set the more rules you get to break".

  5. Best2u
    Is there a bottom grade that you never go below with your CGC slabs?
    I recently decided to start collecting more of the GHOSTS series other than the first 15 which have a different design to thier covers than the ones after issue #15. Now, its a long series with 112 issues and a few specials listed in other series. I decided to collect the first 15 issue because they are so hard to find well centered. After issue 15 they becomes a bit easier to find well centered. I've decided to still only buy well centered issues with no design elements cut off, but where as on the first 15 issues grade wasn't that important, on the next 97 issues I had to set some kind of rule as to how low a grade I would buy. I decide on the following. Issues 16 to 49 would have to be CGC's 9.4 with OW/W pages or better and issues 50 to 112 would have to be 9.6 with white pages or better. I'd love to have gone with 9.8 but the price gets to high at that grade, around $90 compared to $35 for 9.6's.
    Where is this long rant going? What's the bottom grade that you accept? GHOSTS is a 1970s-80s series so there seem to be plenty of copies out there in high grade, with I'm sure, many more to be graded. Should low grades be lowered as the issues get older? Series from the 60's are around in high grade but not that often placed in the marketplace. Do you lower you grade so that you can own one soon or just wait till a high grade comes along? I've kind of set my low grade for silver age stuff at 8.0. That all leads to the golden age. Some of these issues just never come up for sale so do you just buy them no matter what the grade is? I do. They still have to be good looking for the grade and come at a price that the grade dictates but if you don't think you're ever going to see one again, I buy it. Would you? Let me know what you concider the lowest grade you would buy for a modern, silver, and golden age comic. (See one of my lower graded comics below. I have one graded lower but can't find the picture of it. It's a SHOWCASE #20 in CGC-4.0)

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  6. Best2u
    Just got done with putting a custom set together in my Registry of all my “Aurora Comic Scenes” collection doubles and realized I have more copies than any normal collector should. I mean, who needs 5 copies of the Lone Ranger issue. Oh wait, that’s not the worst of it, how about 9 copies of the Batman issue. I seem to justify the Batman issue by thinking he’s a very popular character and people will always want one of these issue as time goes by. Don’t think that’s really going to happen and some day I’ll probably just sell them at a loss. Good thing they’re pretty inexpensive. Anybody else have way to many copies of a single issue that isn’t really justified other than just a inner need to own then.



  7. Best2u
    What were they thinking?
    Not even asking how we felt about this change, or at least posting something about it a month or so ahead, so we had time to comment would have been nice. I do like the look of the new format but they could have at least kept the larger pictures when you went to enlarge the tumbnail pictures. I feel sorry for Tom who had the best Star Trek pictures in the Registry. Let's hope CGC learns to get some input from the people who use the Registry for viewing other peoples comics and those that like to share thier comic cover with others. Below is a nice book now at CGC for grading. Hoping to get a 7.5 but would settle for a 7.0.

  8. Best2u
    I won a auction lot, then why do I feel like a loser?
    After to going through all the lots in the latest Comiclink auction I had picked out all the Thrilling Comics lots to bid on. I was going to win one of those lots if it was the last thing I did. It's been a long time since I had added a comic to my set on the Registry and here was a good chance to do that. My main goal was to get either the #43 or #71 as they were the highest grade of the lots. Things started going bad as soon as the first Thrilling Comics lot sold. It went about $30 higher than I was thinking. After a couple more, that went higher than I was willing to pay, I knew I'd have to put a pretty good bid in to win the #43 issue. I had set my limit in the mid $200 range but now knew that won't do it. Okay, so it was, kill the budget time. I put a bid of a bit over $300 on the lot with about a min. to the end. I was halfway hoping to get out-bid as it seemed way to high to pay for a mid-grade Thrilling Comics. In fact, I was hoping to get outbid when there were a few seconds remaining. , I won the lot. I'm now the proud owner of a #43 Thrilling Comics that I feel I overpaid for. I'm happy I get to add something to my Thrilling Comics Registry set after a long dry spell. I'm happy to have seen so many Thrilling Comics come on the market, as I rarly see more than one or two a year that I can actully afford. But still, somehow, I feel as if I was a loser instead of a winner at this auction. Oh, and here's the bad news. I still have about 10 other comics I know I'm going to want to overbid on in the next few sections of the auction. Wish me luck or beter yet, don't.

  9. Best2u
    Must be nice to go to ebay and find the series you're collecting/looking for in CGC holders.
    Yeah, that's right, I'm feeling kind of jealous right now. Of who you ask. I'll tell you. All you people that collect all the popular series of comic books. Yeah, you know who you are. All you who collect Amazing Spider Man, Batman, X-Men, Fantastic Four, and on and on I could go. Must be nice to do your eBay CGC search and see hundreds of hits for your series there in front of you, what excitment you must get seeing that. Thinking you could find that issue you need or maybe just a up-grade of a issue you already have. Sure, you may not find one but at least there was the feeling that you could out of the hundreds to look at. What would you people do, if say, you ran a search for X-Men CGC and you got no hits. You'd be floored. You'd check your search box to make sure you typed in X-Men CGC right. If that was right, then you'd check to see that youe computer was not frozen. If that wasn't it you'd redo it all over again thinking there could've been a ghost in the machine. Still no hits and you'd start praying. Well, welcome to my world. Every day I'll run a CGC ebay search for the 8 or 9 series I collect and chances are I won't get more than 2 or 3 new hits. Go ahead, try running a search for "Headline Comics CGC", see how many hits you get. Now hold on, it's not that I'm mad at you guys, I'm just jealous of your excitment. Think of it like this, you collect Amazing Spider Man and you need a copy of #1, there are 1,631 grade (CGC) issues, you know every time you look for it at ebay there's a good chance some body has listed one in the last several days. How about #129, ready, 3,320 graded CGC slabs out there, my guess is that a new one gets listed on ebay every other day. I can go weeks with out getting a new hit for some of my collected series. Okay, why don't I collect some series that gets listed all the time. I've tried. I started to collect Batman from issue #200 on. Lost interest in a month or so. Just don't like the Super/Action hero type of comic. I did latch onto the Gold Key Star Trek series, but they only come up every few weeks or so. So, I guess what I'm saying is, I wish I got the feeling you guys must get when you look on ebay everyday and see all the choices you have for comics you need. Some times I see issues so seldom that I have to buy them raw and send them to CGC myself as I did with the copy below which came back as a 8.5 with white pages. Good luck to all in finding what you need, even if it's some what easy to do.

  10. Best2u
    LEADING COMIC AUCTION HOUSES NEED TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE!
    First posted on 4/2013 by me.-I think it's time for the leading comic auctions, Heritage, ComicLink, and others, to start posting both the front and back covers on their auction pages.
    There is no reason that this can't be done for every comic auctioned. I've noticed that they do it for their top of the line rare books with high value. Every book I bid on from them is just as important to me, even if it's value may only be a couple of hundred bucks, as those thousand dollar comics are to the super rich and the dealers.
    I know from buying many comics that if the comic I'm bidding on has a front picture that looks like a 9.4 grade but is only graded 8.0 that most likely there's something on the back cover that brought the grade down. Sure it could be something on the inside that lowered the grade but by seeing both covers I'd know that.
    I don't know what would happen if I called and asked for a scan of the back. I know that if we all started calling for a back cover scan the auctions houses would start putting them on their auction pages so they wouldn't have to deal with all the phone calls.
    I'm not the type of person to start a movemnet to get the ball rolling on forcing the companies to do so. Hopefully a bunch of collectors reading this can jump in and put a little pressure on the big auctions to do so. I think it's time for full disclosure.
    Thanks.
    Well, now that it's 2017 I think the above is even more important then before seeing that both of the major grading services put notes on the reverse of the slabs. I'm sure they would say it's takes to much time or computer space, but come on, it's 2017.
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  11. Best2u
    LEADING COMIC AUCTION HOUSES NEED TO ADDRESS THIS ISSUE!
    I think it's time for the leading comic auctions, Heritage, ComicLink, and others, to start posting both the front and back covers on their auction pages.
    There is no reason that this can't be done for every comic auctioned. I've noticed that they do it for their top of the line rare books with high value. Every book I bid on from them is just as important to me, even if it's value may only be a couple of hundred bucks, as those thousand dollar comics are to the super rich and the dealers.
    I know from buying many comics that if the comic I'm bidding on has a front picture that looks like a 9.4 grade but is only graded 8.0 that most likely there's something on the back cover that brought the grade down. Sure it could be something on the inside that lowered the grade but by seeing both covers I'd know that.
    I don't know what would happen if I called and asked for a scan of the back. I know that if we all started calling for a back cover scan the auctions houses would start putting them on their auction pages so they wouldn't have to deal with all the phone calls.
    I'm not the type of person to start a movemnet to get the ball rolling on forcing the companies to do so. Hopefully a bunch of collectors reading this can jump in and put a little pressure on the big auctions to do so. I think it's time for full disclosure.
    Thanks, Best2u
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  12. Best2u
    Come on people, write.
    I love checking my CGC sets every day to see if anythings changed, my rankings, or to add a tid-bit of info to some set. Before I even start to do that I look at the 3 most recent Collectors Journals that have been posted, which are listed on the left hand side of the screen. Over the last month or so I notice a hugh lack of new journals. Sometimes the same journals will stay as the most recent for 3 or 4 days.
    Come on people write more in your journals so I have something to read. It could be about anything to do with comics, new buys, new info on a series, anything.
    Okay, okay, I've only written 1 journal myself if you checked. That will change as of 11/15/09. Starting the week of the 15th I'll write one new journal a week and include a picture of something related to that weeks journal. It may just be a cool comic I saw listed at some auction house or some issue I just picked up myself. It could be a ? I have about some comic related issue or I may just put in some cool info I came across.
    Well, thanks for letting me vent a little and I hope some of you will hop on the wagon and add a journal.
    Thanks and Best2u.
    P.S. - Can anyone tell me what comic book cover this is from. Hey, there's no prize here, just knowing that you knew should be enough.

  13. Best2u
    Thanks guys. Now what can we do for you?
    Here we start with the countdown of my 4 favorite comic covers that I own. Here we have, as number four, a great Alex Schomburg cover from Thrilling Comics #50 done in Oct. of 1945. This cover is as American as apple pie. Let's start by checking out the bottom right corner to see the band welcoming home the boys back from WWII. Center bottom, above the DO NOT PASS sign, you get to see the proud parents who seem to have a look of relief on thier faces just seeing thier son made it back alive. There's also a couple of lovely looking wives mixed in the crowd waiting to see their husbands. Alex has thrown in 5 flags and a total of 10 planes, in formation, to help with the welcome. Next up is the main character, Doc Strange, giving a manly a handshake as there is. Keeping with Doc, Schomburgs real smarts shows with what Doc has in his hand. Several pamplets he's waiting to give the G.I. as thanks for what they've done. The G.I. gets his job, Home Loans, and even more, we just can't see what they are. Now on to the G.I. himself. Check out how he gets to carry his gun off the ship. Looks great but I don't know that they were aloud to do that. I think Schomburg liked to place swastikas when ever he could, as we see one on the nazi helmet the G.I. has tied to his backpack. I like how he put a dagar sticking into the helmet. We even get the little BUY WAR BONDS... flag on the cover. The scene looks like it takes place in New York. Let's hope all the present day G.I. get the same treatment. My copy is a nice CGC-6.5 C/OW pages from the "D" copy pedigree. Check out my other journals to see my lead in for this one and look in next week for my 3rd favorite cover.

  14. Best2u
    Two things that kind of make me mad.
    This will be short and sweet, and nobody get made at me, it's just the way I feel.
    The first is. People who use the Registry and sign up for ever series of comic listed in the Registry. Not only that but then they never list a issue in thier set. What's up with that, make you feel good that you've got the highest graded set when you don't even have a comic listed in it. I'm thinking CGC should delist any set that doesn't have a comic in it within one month after it's been created. That goes for sets that have all thier issue taken out and are now empty. Good Knight, if you aren't going to put something in you set, take it down.
    The second is. The Registry needs to creat a catch-all set listing for all the comics that will never have thier series listed in the Registry. Example, Doctor Graves #73-75. This three issue series is a reboot of The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves some three years after it finished its run. I don't think CGC needs to list this set in the Registry, as it's only three issues from the mid 80's and only one has been graded, and why the hell didn't the Registry add them to the end of the Many Ghosts of... set, anyway, I'd love to show off my Dr. Graves #73 in a catch-all set in the Registry.
    There you go. My first weekly journal. I could have gone on a lot more on these two subjects but maybe later. Hopefully this little venting will make you think about how to make the Registry better. I think next week I'll show my favorite cover that I own.
    Thanks and best2u.
    PS- keep on writing in the Journals
    PSS- photos of Many Ghosts... #1 and Dr. Graves #73

  15. Best2u
    I've always wanted my own room to display my comics in and now I have one. True, I do have to share it with other family members, but when I'm in there by myself it's my own little comic cave. The view's great whether sitting or standing or just digging some meds out of the pantry. Thanks to the family for letting me put up any comics I want. I've been changing comics every 2 or 3 weeks. The comics now on display are Summer Love #46 and 47 with Beatles covers due to the fact it is summer still and Flying Saucers #1 and 2 because I'm reading a book by Corso and Birnes titled 'The Day after Roswell'. Hey everyone, enjoy what's left of summer and I'll post my next selection when they get changed.



  16. Best2u
    A few journals ago I gave my predictions, let's see how I did.
    Following is a copy of my journal when I predicted what the grades would be, I'll let you know what they came back as after that journal. I just shipped off 6 comics to CGC and as always I write down what I think the comics will grade at when they come home. I'd like to share my predictions with fellow journal watchers. When they come back we'll see how good a grader I am. So without futher words here they are. 1.- Midnight Tales #5, Mass. Copy, super hi-grade inside but the cover has a small scuff which shows up a bit on the black cover. My guess-9.2. 2.- Space War #12, Circle 8, nice copy but for a little edge wear and a slight bend to one corner. My prediction-8.0. 3.- Space War #13, Circle 8 pedigree, really nice insides and front cover, back cover a bit faded. My inkling-9.0. 4. Space War #14, Circle 8, a touch of spine roll and some scuff around staples but real faint. I'm thinking-8.5. 5. Space War #32, I've been looking for a gradeable issue for 3 years now and this is the best I've seen so far. Feeling I'll get- 8.5. 6. The Return of Gorgo #2, Vintage Collectables had this as a 7.5 in thier auction and could well be as there are spine breaks. I always buy raw auction comics thinking it's at least a grade lower than stated. I'm going with- 7.0. That's it. When they come back, could be 2 months, I'll repost this and the returned grades and we'll see how bad a grader I am. Best2u, Ed
    Okay, so here is what they came back as, 1. Midnight Tales #5 Mass. Copy, I predicted a 9.2 it's back as a 9.8, guess I was a little off on that one, but I did say it had a super high grade inside. I guess the little scuff wasn't that bad. 2, Space War #12 I predicted a 8.0 and it's back as a 6.5, Wow, that hurts a bit. That little bent corner must have been bigger than I saw it. 3. Space War #13 I perdicted 9.0 and that's what it came back as. I knew it. That's right, I'm the MAN. 4. Space War #14 I guessed a 8.5 and once again I'm the MAN. It's CGC-8.5. 5. Space War #32 I predicted a 8.5 and do you believe it, it's a 8.5, Who's the Man, I'm the MAN. 6. Return of Gorgo #2 I said a 7.0 and it's back as a 8.0. Okay, so I'm not the Man but at least I was wrong on the low side. Not so bad on my grading I'd say. I had 3 right on the nose, 2 that I undergraded, which is always better than overgrading. I was really only off on 1 book and only off by a 1.5 points. Ya, guess I should have spotted that. I'll give myself a B+. See ya in the Journals, Best2u.

  17. Best2u
    Black cover and orange lettering should be plenty to start getting you scared.
    Very rarely do I buy a comic that isn't in one of the series that I collect. With my limited budget I need all he money I have just to try and finish the series I collect. Every once in a while I see a cover that makes me want to read the comic inside the cover. This comic is one of them. "It's Midnight... The Witching Hour" #84 has a great cover by Luis Dominguez one of the best cover artists of the 1970's if not of all time. He's a very under rated guy considering all the covers he put out. I don't know if he was involed with the color choices on this cover but thier outstanding. Some how the cover made me try to think how nobody knows about the skull and witch on Mt. Rushmore. I mean, it's got to be there, right. It's just really well hidden and this poor mountain climber stumbles right into it. Check out the eyes of the witch. You just know she's looking right at you. I've never seen the inside to this book and have never read any of the stories. That's fine by me, it keeps the scaryness of the book alive.
    My copy is a nice CGC-9.2 with white pages picked up on eBay for a whopping $8.50 plus $10 S+H. There is a little scuffing on the top right corner but other than that, nothing. The picture shown is not my CGC copy. I can never get a good scan thru the slab.

  18. Best2u
    It was time to change the comics being shown in the cave. The first 2 are in honor of  Halloween. The next 3 are up because I was in a wedding. The flower for my lapel is made of a comic book page.




  19. Best2u
    Also, where are all the people posting journals?
    I have the number one set of Headline Comics but I felt that it really wasn't worth having unless I had #1 and #37. Well, I've had #1 for some time but last night I added #37 from the ComicLink auction. Grade didn't really matter as I couldn't afford anything in a higher grade than the 5.0 that this comic is.
    As a little side rant. I look every day for new posts to the journals but as of late it's been dead. I know it's summer and Comic-Con is going on but it seems like every since Tnerb left the single life the journals have died a slow death. His posts used to bring so many other people to comment on thing. I'm not much of a writer but I sure would like to see more posts from you people.

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  20. Best2u
    What the heck is a sock story
    Got this little honey off from ComicLink but haven't gotten it yet due to the need for a new slab. Anyway, I was giving it a look over online and saw the it says there are 4 Sock Stories inside. Do you think, like me, that that is a mistake and should have been Shock Stories. And, if not, what is a Sock Story?

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  21. Best2u
    After writting about pedigree comics in a past journal it was time to submit these comics to CGC
    I just shipped off 6 comics to CGC and as always I write down what I think the comics will grade at when they come home. I'd like to share my predictions with fellow journal watchers. When they come back we'll see how good a grader I am. So without futher words here they are. 1.- Midnight Tales #5, Mass. Copy, super hi-grade inside but the cover has a small scuff which shows up a bit on the black cover. My guess-9.2. 2.- Space War #12, Circle 8, nice copy but for a little edge wear and a slight bend to one corner. My prediction-8.0. 3.- Space War #13, Circle 8 pedigree, really nice insides and front cover, back cover a bit faded. My inkling-9.0. 4. Space War #14, Circle 8, a touch of spine roll and some scuff around staples but real faint. I'm thinking-8.5. 5. Space War #32, I've been looking for a gradeable issue for 3 years now and this is the best I've seen so far. Feeling I'll get- 8.5. 6. The Return of Gorgo #2, Vintage Collectables had this as a 7.5 in thier auction and could well be as there are spine breaks. I always buy raw auction comics thinking it's at least a grade lower than stated. I'm going with- 7.0. That's it. When they come back, could be 2 months, I'll repost this and the returned grades and we'll see how bad a grader I am. Best2u, Ed

  22. Best2u
    Could I have just discovered a new variety for a Batman comic?
    Well, it took me awhile to find this, it's been sitting in the collection for a year or two, but take a look at the picture below. When the Aurora Comic Scenes hoard started coming to the market I decided to get one copy of each. After getting 5 of the 10 issues I notice that the other five were not coming up for sale very often. I did a CGC pop. check and found that the Batman(15 graded), Tarzan, Tonto, Spider-Man, and Lone Ranger had very few graded copies. I kept trying to get all of the issues and ended up with all but the Tarzn, still trying, and even started to buy more than one copy of the low pop. issues.
    Just recently I started to update all my collection on the Registry. The Aurora Comic Scenes came first and as I was scaning pictures to upload, I notice the new variety, if that's what it is. When I look at both of then side to side it sure looks like it's an entirely different book. It doesn't look like they ran out of ink during the printing. I don't think it was a mixup in ink because both copies have the person with the yellow shirt toward the right. Both of the front covers on my issues are exactly alike as is everything else but for the tree colors on the back. I may put this up on the Chat Boards just to see what other people think.
    I know it doesn't seem right but I would like to name the two different varieties Yellow Batman and Green Batman. I guess that sounds kind of lame, lets just forget the naming for now.