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Big Time OAKs On The Way!!!

Warning, this is a teaser journal. I have just two invoices left now at CGC from last years cons and send offs! One has five issues and one has three. Some are raw purchases from Mile High. Some are crackings and re-gradings. The invoice with five issues on it went Shipped/Safe on Friday! Normally I get my shipments from CGC the very next day after shipment. It is nice to live so close to them! But being shipped on Friday means I have to wait until Monday to actually get them in my h
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Shooting For The Stars... sort of.

Only specific ones, actually. Normally, I would not collect any of the Marvel/Star Comics issues in graded form. But I AM wanting to put together a set of all of the Marvel issues from November of 1986 with the 25th Anniversary Border Covers! I requested the set to be created for these a while back and it is currently still waiting in line to be done by Gemma and Nicole. I think this is a neat idea, since they all have the same border, were released at the same time, and put a nice variety
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My Best Raw Ebay Purchase Ever!!!!

The sun is shining... never mind, its just Sunspot! I have purchased raw comics off of Ebay on occasion. I have learned that most sellers will either embellish the condition of the issues or simply dont know what they are talking about. Some know EXACTLY what they are doing and just dont care. I have even seen sellers who "guarantee" their grades for 14 days or so, knowing full well that CGC doesnt grade that fast. You have to be very discerning and very careful and selective about buying
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I AM DAZZLED!!

... and stunned!!! When I decided to start collecting CGC 9.8 copies of Dazzler four or so years ago, Hitman1099 was the top rank of the set. Heck, he was the top rank in a boatload of sets!! Two years later, I finally managed to pass Hitman1099 for the top spot in the Dazzler set. I can only surmise that this caused him to go ahead and try to sell off his issues to move on to other collecting interests, because it was not long after when he put all of his 9.8 Dazzlers up for sale on Ebay, i
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Up To The Task!

Acquiring the Taskmaster! Earlier this year, while Tnerb and I were at the Baltimore Comic Con, we had just finished off getting everything signed that we had brought to the show. In the closing hours, we traveled up and down the aisles looking for elusive goodies to line our collections with, whether that be actual comics or TPBs or figures or whatever struck our fancy. As we were perusing through one particular dealer there, I was looking over TPBs on his shelves when Tnerb called me aro
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What? No #1?

What the heck? I find all of the hard ones before the most plentiful one? I bought Nick Fury vs. S.H.I.EL.D. #2 off of WorldWide Comics a couple of years ago, mainly because of the Sienkiewicz cover. Also because it is the lowest print run of the mini series. Since #3 was also available on WW at the time, I went ahead and bought it as well. I figured I could just keep an eye out for the rest. They shouldn't cost too much since it's not a fanatically sought after series by any stretch of the
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Top O' The World, Ma!!!

NYCC issues are In hand! The ten issues that Tnerb did for me at the NYCC are now back in my hands. My last journal has the full listing of everything I currently have grades on from both Baltimore and NYCC. These ten did a number of things both FOR me and TO me. 1. Five of them were New Mutants issues that were signed and retained 9.8s, thereby adding 15 more points to my NM set. These were #19,20,24,36 and 74. 2. One was my New Mutants Annual #1 which, just as TNerbs copy did, fell t
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BIG HAUL!!

Baltimore and NYCC submissions are back! Almost all of my comics from the Baltimore Comic Con are now back in my hands!! The ten issues Tnerb did for me at NYCC are graded now as well!! I am still waiting on 10 issues that were economy tier, but otherwise everything is done and graded! I had to send one box back to CGC for a ridiculous mistake to be corrected. So I don't have those or the NYCC issues in hand yet, but I DO have the grades. Most of these were crackings, but some were raw iss
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You Win Some, You Lose Some!

Risky Business! Cracking CGC graded comics for signatures is a risky proposition. You are taking a big chance on the comic book in question. It might fall in grade, making it usually less valuable even with signatures. Of course, you are ultimately hoping it retains its original grade, thereby increasing its rarity and value. In a lot of cases, you may be creating an OAK with the upgrade to an SS copy. I have done this many, many times now. However, when the issue fails to retain the ori
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Gifts From My Brother!!!

Graphic Novels From Heaven. Well, from Tnerb anyway. This is a hobby that is near and dear to my heart. It holds eternal memories of me and my father collecting together. With his passing in 2001, I unfortunately sold off the vast majority of our collection. I regret it to this day, but with five years of CGC collecting under my belt now, I am happy to say that the true joy of comic collecting is alive and well in me again, and I now have something that brings my father closer to my mind and
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Status Changes And More Grading Experience!

You can learn from failure... I have had very little to no movement at all among my invoices over the last few weeks. In fact, I had two invoices sit in quality Control for two weeks until I called and got them in motion. But after all that time with almost nothing, today came along and... WHAM!!... status changes GALORE!!! In one day, I had the following changes... 7 invoices go from Verified to Scheduled For Grading 1 invoice go from Scheduled For Grading to Graded 1 invoice go fro
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More have come home! It is about time!

Should have called earlier. Two of my invoices at CGC entered Grading/Quality Control status two weeks ago. I was beginning to grow weary of waiting on them to move into Shipped/Safe status and considering calling CGC about them. Yesterday, Tnerb informed me that he had an invoice move from Graded to Quality Control to Shipped/Safe all in one day!! This convinced me to finally call. When I did, I found out that the reason for the delay was some sort of accounting issue. They immediately move
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Pics By Request!

You asked for it, you got it! SW3D commented on my last journal that he hoped. I would post a journal with pics from my recent SS acquirements so...... HERE YOU GO SW3D!!!! Just give me a few minutes to get them all on the replies. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.
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More Arrivals!!

Status changes and awesome deliveries! They are starting to trickle in, one invoice at a time. All of my issues at CGC that were signed in Baltimore are still a little way off. They are all currently sitting in Received status at CGC. I also currently have two invoices from Supercon that are in Quality Control. The two issues I sent to the NY masters signing have just reached CCS. But most importantly, four of the Supercon invoices and one from Tampa Bay CC are now back in my hot little hand
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The Journals are on FIRE!!!!!

Leave them up longer please!!!!! I'm very glad to see that after years of Tnerb and myself and a few others posting journals, that both the influx of newer members and many of the established CGC collectors have finally caught on to the joys of posting. With the 30 in 30s going on right now and the constant daily postings however, there has arisen one little issue that I have with the process. I'm sure you all have noticed that the three most recently posted journals are always on display
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Technological "Advancement"?

Stunting our humanity? The digitization of our world has been in progress now for well over 30 years, but in the last five or so, it has accelerated exponentially!! With the decline of department stores, video rental stores, bookstores and more, we are on a slippery slope to being completely devoid of almost ANY physical storefronts that aren't food oriented. When it comes to manufactured products, it is getting more and more common and efficient to just order the items we want online. Wi
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Trying To Cut Back!

Just Leave Her Be! Like Tnerb, I too am trying to putt finances up for the 3 cons I plan on attending next year. Saving up is getting hard, though with items constantly showing up that I want to try for on the different auctions out there. I have had to be more choosy and conservative, backing off and not even putting bids in on a lot of things that I would normally jump all over. There are few issues coming up over the next few weeks that I HAVE to try for no matter what! But it's felt li
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What a surprise!

Unexpected!!!! I sent three issues off to Desert Wind Comics a while back for signatures. Since they were submitted to CGC under their membership, the invoice was not listed on my submissions page. I had to call CGC with the invoice number to find out the status. When I last called them, Molly told me it was in Graded status!! Yay! Not too long to wait then. So I didnt worry about checking back on them. I figured I would just let them come whenever they came. Well, today I had an afterno
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Catching Magneto Off-Guard!!

My second New Mutants Original Art piece! While I plan on getting my copy of New Mutants #39 signed by Bill Sienkiewicz at Megacon and Art Adams at ECCC next year, I just managed to get my hands on an Original Art of one of the pages from that exact issue!! It's page #18 where Tom and Sharon are showing up at the mansion for help. Magneto has just gone for a dip in the pool and is in the middle of taking a shower when they arrive. Nothing like catching the Master of Magnetism in an embarra
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Yeah, What Are They Worth?

I was going to respond to TNerb's last journal, but instead decided to do a journal of my own. When it comes to filling out CGC forms, I have put any amount from $5 to $200 on the invoice for value of the issue, but I too have tried to value issues from the mindset of personal value and cost of creating them as they are or will be. The very rare sigs like Sal Buscema are far more valuable in my opinion. But even with the cost and readily available Stan Lee sigs, it comes down to what issue i
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I'm Singing Starship!!

We Built OAK City... We Built OAK City on Star-Starlogs!!!Ok, so I'm cheesy and goofy. That's just me!But why is this silly 80s song playing over and over in my head today? Well, because I just got back 2 packages from CGC today, one of which has 6 copies of Starlog Magazine that I submitted to CGC at the Florida Supercon in Miami back in July!No matter what grade these things get, they are all OAKs, since none have ever been graded before. In fact, I am the only person who is actually submitti
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The Suspense Is Killing Me!!!

But I'm gonna wait... There have been 3 Status changes to my invoices currently at CGC today! Two have gone from "Received" to "Verified" and one has finally gone from "Grading/Quality Control" to "Shipped/Safe"!!! The invoice that is on its way back to me is one I have really been waiting to see how the grades came out. They aren't comics. They are 6 raw, never graded, original collection, right-off-the-shelf copies of Starlog Magazine that are from 1989 and 1990! I went through my Sta
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Dazzling Signatures!!

The first ones in! I've got 3 cons worth of signed comics in process at CCS and CGC. But thanks to fast tracking one invoice, I have my first ones back now! I only fast tracked the invoice so I would at least get SOMETHING back to enjoy while waiting on everything else to muddle through the 5 to 6 month process of pressing and grading. There were only 4 comics on this invoice. They were signed in Tampa. Among these are the first 2 copies of Dazzler that I have had signed. I have 7 more in
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Humble Beginnings...

Reaching new heights of glory! So Tnerb is at the NYCC getting a bunch of comics signed for flipping purposes. He is also doing me the biggest favor in the world by getting ten of my comics signed as well. One of them is the very first comic book I ever owned. For Tnerb, his intro to the comic book world was New Mutants #15, of which his original 4.5 graded copy is a beauty to behold, having been signed by so many creators of the issue. For me, it was New Mutants #36, which I have had a
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Looking After I Leaped!!

What was that grade again? As most of you know, I have been steadily putting together a graded Marvel Graphic Novel set for some time now. When I first started getting them, the registry set was limited. It only had up to #38 and a few others that had been graded, but it had not been updated or listed completely. So when I got my hands on some that weren't numbered or listed, I requested them to be added and Gemma was gracious enough to do so. After that, I did some research and found that
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