Bumble Kitty

I was expecting to win at over $ 300 myself, but I wrong too!

Thank you Terry for putting on this convention. For a collector, this show is a lot of fun. I am so looking forward to it!

I got back a few hours ago. Harley does have a booth -- Jason was running it. His set up is a corner booth -- about what he has at Terry's show. Jason said Harley is at Rose City, with a small corner booth. I dropped some books at CGC and checked Ed's stuff. Didn't find anything I wanted, but Harley (or is that Jason) had some decent stuff and I picked a few things. I am so glad I walked the entire floor, or I might have missed this buying opportunity. Parking for me was $ 6 (for 6 hours) at the parking garage. Lunch at Smokehouse Q -- and college football on most TV screens. My ticket cost $ 40, but I purchased it a month ago. Yes, this Con has dropped off from 5 years ago, but I was not expecting anything and I came away pleasantly surprised. Weather was not too hot either.

I started out buying some decent, cheap books. I read a couple and they were so funny! I wondered what else was out there, so I picked up a few more...and then the collecting bug for that genre hit me.

Yup, I sold Bob the romance books. I have a "few" romance books in my collection, and I knew I had some duplicates. I figured, maybe one box of raw and slabs, tops. I started to look through the collection and one box turned into two...turned into three...and finally into six. The thought of scanning, pricing and listing them all on the boards...and then packaging and mailing them was, well, not a pleasant thought. If I could sell them quickly in one deal, I would be open to it. Plus I had a lot of decent silver, bronze and modern age stuff I also wanted to move. Nothing spectacular, but decent. Whoever bought the romance books had to buy the other stuff too. I talked to one national dealer at Wondercon, and he expressed some interest. I told him to give me a month or two to finish the list. After looking over the completed list, national dealer number 1 politely passed, as he was not too keen on the silver, bronze and modern stuff (no real surprise to me). Then I thought who else has treated me fairly over the years? Bob and a couple of others came to mind (hint, they were all going to be at San Diego and Torpedo). Bob took a look at the list and an e-mail here and a phone call there, we came to an agreement. Very easy and fair to me and Bob. I was very happy and I think Bob was too. I still have some nicer duplicates. I didn't sell those, as I misplaced some 5 or 6 LB Cole's. They are in one of the many boxes in my collection. I also didn't sell some higher grade dups, as I couldn't decide which was the lower grade copy. So I kept both until later. I heard at SDCC that a dealer bought some (or most) of Bob's romance books. So what you see (or saw) is only part of the book deal he bought.

I wanted to be somewhat vague in my post because I do not have direct knowledge of the problem. But if you want more information, well, here is some more: Matt told me there are over 20 holder sizes available, not just two. I was rather surprised by this, as my untrained eye thought there was two, thin and thick. If (and this is an "if") a new person was assigned to select an outer holder size and that person was not given adequate training, then I can see that they default to a couple of sizes. Matt said part of the solution was to provide more training to that new operator.

I brought this up to Matt at CGC. I showed him a book I recently received and he told me they (meaning CGC) are aware of the problem. The problem is happening at Quality Control. Apparently, they have many different size holders and the operator is not choosing the correct size. He said the outer holder needs a little space to prevent the Newton "effect" from showing up. I told him the one book with the thickest holder does not have the Newton ring problem, which kind of confirms what he was telling me. He could not confirm that a change in personnel led to this problem, but he thought it could be the reason. Steps are being implemented to prevent this from happening with future books. He told me to submit my book (or books) for reholdering. I told him I plan to wait until Wondercon, as I did not have all of my "problem" books with me. Matt said CGC would honor the reholdering at that time. So it appears the Newton ring problem was possibly caused by someone who may not have been as experienced in choosing the correct outer holder size. If nothing else, nobody was charged extra for the "pretty" oily rings.

Yes. I will bring a few of the books and show it to them at San Diego. Very curious to what they say.

No. The books are very nice, plus I was kind of expecting to see the Newton rings (because of this thread).

These two just arrived. The thicker slab has no Newton rings.

I received a batch of books...with Newton rings. I didn't pay for the "rings", so I guess they were thrown in for free. Here are the worst three books:

I plan to attend and I might spend all of my "San Diego" money. I believe some (not all) of the out of town dealers will have a limited amount of books. Even so, it should be a lot of fun! I wonder how many cosplayers will be there.

I first met John and his wife back when they had a store in Covina, California. They eventually moved to the Alhambra location. He was a fixture at the SDCC and I loved going to his booth to look at the many cover scans of Gold and Silver age books. I could not afford 99% of them, but John was always respectful and friendly to me, and he treated me as if I spent a ton of money with him. I will miss him.

Great Lover Romances #18 VF/VF- $ 75 ......

With a "group" buy, I was able to get Thursday through Saturday for the wife and me. All that's left is a hotel and parking.

I had a blast and I saw lots of GA books that I wanted. As usual, I had to limit what I could buy. I also used the credit card for my last 3 purchases, which is something I really try to avoid doing. I will be back next year.

Sergio Aragones will be in the Exhibitor Tables section (I-07). If you look at the floor map, that section is located in the upper right hand area. Check out his schedule (at his table), as he might only be there a few hours each day. Good luck!

I agree. I may have different buying goals and tastes than 30 years ago, but I still enjoy it immensely. OK, let's look at my cost to attend SDCC. My wife and I are going, so the costs are for two people. We have tickets for Thursday through Saturday. We lucked out in the ticket lottery this year. I will assume you guys are smart enough to figure out how to increase your odds of getting a ticket. We are driving down Wednesday from the greater Los Angeles area. It should take 1.5 hours, but we allow 2 hours because of the traffic. We are staying at a 3.5 star hotel for $ 169 (plus tax) a night. If you book your hotel a few weeks before the Con, then yes, you will pay $ 500 a night for a dump. May be even a lot more. Our hotel is located about 20 to 25 minutes away from the convention center. This usually assures fanboys will not be in the room next to us partying to all hours of the night. Parking at the Hilton parking structure is $ 27.95 per day (for three days for me). Again, I was lucky this year in the parking lottery (which is not always the case). Breakfast at the hotel is included in the above mentioned price. We probably have to buy breakfast on Friday in the Gaslamp district, as we will be getting to the Con very early for Hall H line up. That will probably run $ 25 to $ 27 (for two), including tip. By eating breakfast early, we avoid the crowds. I want to avoid the big crowds at lunch, so I leave the convention about 11:30 AM, and head over to Horton Plaza. Lunch is about $10 to 12 for one person. My wife usually wants a nice dinner, so I expect to spend $50 to 80, depending on the place. We usually have dinner at 6 to 6:30 PM. That seems to be a good time to avoid the mad rush at dinner. There are lot's of places that are less expensive, if one chooses to go that route. I save throughout the year for SDCC to buy funny books. I always spend more than I had anticipated. So for me, there are plenty of books to buy. I get to buy books on Thursday, hang out with friends on Friday and buy more books on Saturday. So when I factor in the costs versus the enjoyment I receive, it really is a no brainer for me to attend. My two cents.

How come nobody complained about SDCC when Robert BeerBong stopped exhibiting?

Very nice selection of books!

Sad to see Mile High Comics leave, but to be honest, I never bought anything from him. I didn't even stop by his booth, but that doesn't mean he didn't make money. I just don't know how he did it. If you hate crowds, don't go to SDCC ... or to the market or to a department store or... Maybe it's best to stay home and play on the computer. SDCC is two weeks away and I am looking forward to it. Yes, there's a lot of people and yes you have a plan a little. But I always have fun. Maybe I will post of few pictures of the festivities when I get back.

I'm looking forward to this Con. It will be a different experience for me, as money is a little scarce this time around.

Our Love Story 33....