Celestial Comics

Doug.. We do appreciate the hard work you put into maintaining this thread. You da man Doug!

HARD TRAVELING HEROES SCORES

Some artists seem to be at just about every show on the list. For fun, I thought I would keep score this year on a few of the most frequent. I'm not poking fun at anyone and I think that it is fantastic that such popular artists are so generous with their time and making themselves available to their fans.

 

Neal Adams.......ll.4

Michael GoldenNl6

Stan Lee ............ll.5

George Pérez....ll.5

Arthur Suydam..l.l5

Chandler & Sharon Rice..l.l8 (as of 4/30)

There!! Fixed that for ya.

Michael,

Thank you for a wonderful post. I think you have hit a home run with this post. If everyone would take the time to properly prep their own books it would go along way to helping the facilitators do a better job and make the process easier and smoother. The painters tape with a cover flap is the very best option. Being that we handle so many books for people I would like to add a few minor details that we come across alot.

1. Use the same size bag and board as the book. (i.e. use a current/modern bag and board for a modern age book.) The problem with using a silver age bag and board with a modern book is the book has room to move around in the bag and could potentially get damaged in the corners. The exception to the rule is when you have a book such as Amazing Spider-Man #700 which is 100 pages it will not properly fit in a current/modern bag so you have no choice but to use a silver age bag. When a facilitator has to carry hundreds of books on a plane and travel to and from the convention hall you want to minimize the amount of free movement the book has inside of the bag. And absolutely do NOT use self sealing bags.

2. In step 5 you have the book going into the bag from the bottom. That leaves too much of a chance that the book could accidentally slide out of the bag in the process of handing the book to the creator. If you are using the cover flap then pulling the book from an outer bag is no longer a problem. Also being that DWC is a no tape operation. With the exception of the painters tape used to make the windows, we remove all tape from bags to minimize the chance for any accidents. You can not imagine how many times we have seen a customer walk up to our booth at a show after getting their prized book signed by Stan Lee and while in the process of putting the book back into the bag they "TAPE" their own book. Tape is NOT your book's friend. So by placing the book into the bag from the top there is no need for tape to be used to close the flap. The flap can simply be tucked into the bag and it works just fine to stay closed.

3. You have on step 7 to mark a note on the back. Another thought would be to actually write that same information on the back of the board itself. The reason is the board should NEVER be separated from the book until CGC actually grades the book. If you put any kind of note on the bag or stick the note to the board there is a chance the note can get separated when the book and board to transferred to a "finish bag" before sending to CGC. For those that do not know, CGC requires that books are handed or shipped into to them in whole bags. They do not want bags with holes cut out in them arriving to them with a book inside. That makes an extra step for them to do when they receive the book. With that being said when DWC has a book in a customer supplied window bag and it has been signed, we must carefully remove the book from the window bag and place the book into a "finish" bag (whole bag) before we turn the book into CGC. It is too easy for a note to be lost in the process. Also there are times when the creator insists on removing the book from the signing bag (i.e. they want to sign the book along the edge of the book which is covered by the bag). Ultimately it is the creators choice where they want to sign a book. So again it is possible for the note to get lost in the process.

As a facilitator we, as well as the other CGC facilitators, do our very best to give you, the customer, what you want and the better preparation you can provide your book when it arrives in our facility, the better the chances are you will get what you asked for. Never allow a book to arrive to a facilitator without it being properly prepped and documented (filled out paperwork). Don't use shortcuts unless you don't care about your book because we facilitators know who cares and who does not. Again Michael, an excellent post and we thank you for the sharing of your experience and information.

Thank you Colin. We look forward to 2013.

Doug,

You are doing a great job.

Can you possibly add the Dallas show to the May Events please. Thank you.

Our pleasure Tim.

A big "THANK YOU!!!!" to Chandler & Sharon. DWC comes through for me again!

Our pleasure Tim. Will we see you at C2E2?

It is a pain to keep 20+ yearly conventions with 100s of artists + entertainment guest updated for everyone on the forums. Especially when the list changes daily.

To help out our fellow boardie Medicar, if he wants it that is; could we get people to PM him updates if needed. - Just a thought.

 

We do that, but you came and basicly mess on his thread. So now you can leave a perfectly unperfect thread about sighnings and see yourself out the door. He does a great job and gets little credit. See ya elsewhere baby nuts.

WOW

Please note the McFarlane submission deadline is November 4th not the 14th.

Your welcome guys. Look for a repeat opp coming up soon in the next couple of months.

if there is a comic i want to get signed by

Chris Hemsworth

Robert Downey Jr.

Chris Evans

 

is there someplace I can go for media type people ?.. Or anyone that does ops stuff like this ?

Look for DWC to start offering signature opps in cooperation with Celebrity Authentics. We did do a coop opportunity involving Chris Hemsworth last month. So look forward to future opps as well.

Our pleasure but I think CGC goofed on the label. I don't remember Brubaker being signed on 3/14/2011?? I think that should have been 3/14/2010.

Well I have not heard of any Larry Lieber Signature Series signing other then the Legends Tour last year. I know there are few few single book signings when Larry did appear at a show which was rare. But other then that can someone correct me about if there has been any other multiple book signing with Larry.

Our pleasure.

It has truly been our honor to have had the opportunity to help so many of you guys get books signed. We truly appreciate you guys and your faith you have in us. We look forward to an even better 2011 and hope that you all will once again allow us the opportunity to handle your books and get some really cool signatures for you.

 

With the most sincere thanks,

 

Chandler and Sharon

 

Happy New Year

 

save it for the kudos thread

Isn't Christmas over? You can return the Scrooge outfit you rented and put on for your nieghborhood holiday party. Happy New Year Bucko.

It has truly been our honor to have had the opportunity to help so many of you guys get books signed. We truly appreciate you guys and your faith you have in us. We look forward to an even better 2011 and hope that you all will once again allow us the opportunity to handle your books and get some really cool signatures for you.

With the most sincere thanks,

Chandler and Sharon

Happy New Year

It ia always a pleasure hearing from comix4fun.

 

 

Chandler can take a joke like no one else.

Goes both ways buddy.

It ia always a pleasure hearing from comix4fun.

Thanks for the feedback on the book, y'all. It was fun trying to find the perfect book for this signing. Thanks to Boyd (bcc) @ Black Cat Comics for selling me this Bats 200 last year, and to Mike Bray for being the first to give me the head's up about the cast signing in Anaheim.

 

The Dream Signature book for me would be something signed by all 4 original members of the rock band KISS. Is Chandler around? Doesn't he have a thread somewhere here asking for boardies to submit signature challenges to him?

There was athread back a few years but heck I haven't seen it for years. And hopefully it stays buried. BTW who got that nice Bat book signed for you?

It was our pleasure guys. Thanks for giving us the chance to get your books signed.

You guys are quite welcome. It has been our pleasure and honor to handle your books and get them signed for you. Let us know if we can be of help again in the future.

Your more then welcome. Let us know when we can help you again.

Chandler & Sharon Rice

Desert Wind Comics

Chandler & Sharon---aside from things in general at shows, there's a really special kudos/thank you/I owe you one to these two. I first met them in person briefly at SDCC 2009, and while they don't recall, I'm sure, Chandler was one of the last guys at a Joey Q signing, and I walked up with my one book---he tossed it up to Cos for me at the last second and got my sig. I got to spend more time with the both of them in Pittsburgh, but it's the following anecdote that really puts them on my :thumbsup: list---->

At the end of the Oct. NYC Comicon, I had forgotten a bag at the s/s witness booth. I left behind a bag with a variety of stuff in my haste to leave.

About 40 min later, I got a call from Chandler, who'd found my bag at the booth as he and Sharon were leaving. To wit, he didn't know at first it was mine, he called several of the witnesses trying to find out who left the bag.

And after describing to him what was in the bag, figuring out it belonged to me, he and Sharon took my stuff to Fed-X and shipped them out to me in MD.

That was above and beyond to me, and I owe you guys one for that simple kind gesture.

Wow I completely forgot about that. I will send you a bill for the shipping charges.

Your more than welcome Rich. It was great getting to know you this year and both Sharon and I look forward to spending more tiem with you in 2010.

Chandler & Sharon Rice

Desert Wind Comics

You are right Bill. Ultimately it is the decision of the owner of the book if they want to gamble or not. And ANYTIME you crack a book it is a gamble. No matter who the witness is Danny. I have seen a book cracked out of a slab right at the CGC booth using as much care as possible, then signed right there in the booth and then submitted right to CGC and then packed up and shipped out. And it lost a 1/2 grade.

Yes the witness has alot to do with it. But it also has to do with the graders at the time as well. Remember that the graders are human and humans are subjective. Yes there are guidelines for grading but what one grader sees as 9.4 another grader may see as a 9.2 or a 9.6. That is why there are three graders used in the grading process. If the book was previously graded 5 years ago, the chances are the same graders are not even grading the book the second time around 5 years later. I have had two cases where the owner of a High grade, High Dollar book took chances and it paid off. Both books were Incredible Hulk 181's. The first book was previously graded a 9.6 and we cracked it out and had Stan Lee sign it. It then got graded and came back a 9.8. The value went from $5,000 to $33,000. The second book was previously graded a 9.6 and we cracked it out and had it signed by Stan Lee, John Romita, Herb Trimpe and Len Wein. It then got graded a 9.6 but now it was quadriple signed. What the new value is, nobody knows at this time. So both of those clients won on that gamble. The same client who had the 9.8 also had a bunch of other books signed as well. 105 to be exact. We had some that went up in grade and a few of those dropped a grade. While on a conference call between the client, myself and CGC to discuss one book that dropped a grade, it was discovered that the notes from the first time being graded and the second time being graded after Stan signed the book were no different. The notes were exactly the same yet the grader thought it was a slightly lower grade.

IT IS ALL SUBJECTIVE!

So there is my input to this subject. And considering that we handled almost 3000 books this year and had less then 1% of those 3000 books drop in grade, I think I can say with confidence that we have learned a few things in our days as witnesses.

Chandler & Sharon Rice

Desert Wind Comics

So I am curious. Is this everyones way of trying to drum up votes? Putting boat loads of pictures up of books they handled? I just have not seen so many books all going up at the same time. Just wondering.

Chandler & Sharon Rice

Desert Wind Comics