Can I Compete With the Best GA Collections?

[David Swan]

My goal is to one day win Golden Age set of the year and I thoroughly intend to meet that goal even if it takes me a decade or more but the fun is in the journey. So with the 2015 Registry Awards posted I thought I'd look through this year's winners and see if I could possibly be competitive using my Captain Marvel Adventures collection. I'll go through them on by one.

 

1. BarristerBaker, Golden Age Flash, Flash Comics. One of the few Golden Age winners in recent years with a registry point total I could conceivably reach. This is a set that definitely focusses on quantity. It has a fantastic 94% of the 104 issues but most of them are middling grades. There are 0 images or descriptions. My set lags behind all these winners with a measly 31% completion but besides that I could see myself being competitive with this set.

 

2. cheetah, Wings!, Wings Comics, A set that definitely deserves its spot. With over 145K registry points and 100% completion this is a set I could never compete with. Those stats would have been enough but cheetah went all out including images on nearly 100% of the comics including front AND backs.

 

3. RareHighGrade, RareHighGrade Pre-Bat Tecs, Detective Comics, Despite not featuring Batman and having a lot off middle to mid-high grades it still manages to ring up over a half million registry points. The HIGHEST registry point copy of a Captain Marvel Adventure comic that I know of is a 9.6 copy of issue #3 at 18000 registry points. Detective Comics #1 graded 6.5 is 150000 points. Not only am I constrained moneywise in approaching this sets point total I literally don't think it's possible to even come close to 500K even if I owned every single highest grade CMA in existence. This set has a very impressive 84% completion but 0 images or summary. I would have LOVED to see the comics. Every comic in this set was added on the 31st of May. I know I can never compete on registry points and likely will never reach its completion percentage.

 

For me the best of the three was Wings Comics with easily the best presentation. Last year's GA winners were dominated by registry points in lieu of presentation and I was glad to see a set with a more reasonable registry point total. My goal is to reach about 36K registry points in the next 7 years which is still over 10K lower than the lowest set among the winners. I'm still of the belief that Best of Age winners should put in at least some effort into presentation.

 

Last Year I wrote a separate journal on my chances at winning best presentation but I'm going to combine my two journals this year because comparing my set to the winners is apples and oranges. The winners this year are all recent comics with relatively low registry points and very high percentages. I will admit I saw some presentations that inspired me and learned some new techniques. I think it would have been neat to see more of a mixture of ages rather than all modern comics.

 

See more journals by David Swan

[Hutch88]

Great journal, I too love golden age books. Check out GAM's presentation for the S.O.T.I., its outstanding and deserves a nod. After seeing it, I was inspired to start my own. Hutch

[surfer99]

Congrats to the winners, for sure. I didn't make it for my set this year either...hoping for Best Bronze Set for my X-men the Missing Years...so I feel your pain. There's always next year!

 

 

[David Swan]

I didn't expect to win anything. I was just guaging the distance between myself and the winners.

[Rockblazer]

David,

you said it. It may take a decade but you can do it. I know on my sets I look at best available books. I can always upgrade later when the set is more complete. Good Luck.

[adamstrange]

Good luck on your quest!

 

RareHighGrade, RareHighGrade Pre-Bat Tecs, Detective Comics, Despite not featuring Batman and having a lot off middle to mid-high grades it still manages to ring up over a half million registry points. The HIGHEST registry point copy of a Captain Marvel Adventure comic that I know of is a 9.6 copy of issue #3 at 18000 registry points. Detective Comics #1 graded 6.5 is 150000 points. Not only am I constrained moneywise in approaching this sets point total I literally don't think it's possible to even come close to 500K even if I owned every single highest grade CMA in existence. This set has a very impressive 84% completion but 0 images or summary. I would have LOVED to see the comics. Every comic in this set was added on the 31st of May.

 

RareHighGrade's set is complete, but not all of the books are slabbed. You can see big scans of all of the books in this thread, which also provides some background information to help understand the scarcity/rarity of many of these issues. I've known RHG for over 20 years and it was an extraordinary effort to assemble this run.

 

http://boards.collectors-society.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=6584985&fpart=1

 

18 of the books are pedigrees, 11 of these are Church copies.

17 of the books are in vf- or better grade.

22 of the 26 are CGC graded. Of those, 14 are top of the census.

 

[BarristerBaker]

My Flash set is certainly "best-able." It hasn't been cheap to assemble, but the point totals aren't wild.

 

When I first started entering serial numbers, I expected there to be more folk working on sets. There weren't. I know of a few boardies who have complete runs, but only a handful.

 

With Flash Comics, there are many issues that are really tough to nab - probably a dozen or more with less than 10 census copies. Pretty low numbers for a mainstream character. I continuously upgrade, when I can and when it makes sense in my little head. Having everything in ultra-high-grade would be nice, but that's not my focus.

 

I certainly didn't set out to win a Registry award. I just like comic books, and the chase has been fun. I can look at the books when I like, so scans haven't been important to me. I'll add images, if folk would find that interesting.

 

Best of luck to you on your quest. GA runs are a treat.