lpersky's Journal

A journal by lpersky

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Good News, Bad News

really? aw man... I called CGC today to get an update on where the graders are with modern submissions since I am still awaiting my signature series invoice from Long Beach Comic Con, and the last time the website was updated was on 11/07/11. Per Nicole, they are on 11/01/11, not the 10/18/11 that is posted on the site. So most likely Monday/Tuesday I'll at least know the grades. The bad news... that means the books will ship sometime next week and I used the office address, which will be c
lpersky

lpersky

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Take A Deeper Look At the New 2012 Fees

it's not just a price hike people.... Since this is the new popular thread, here's my input. I understand a revision to the grading fees: $1, $2, and such to the grading teirs. that's understandable since it's been a while since they revised it and they probably need the additional funds to support operating fees and to hire additional staff (per the careers section of cgc's site they are currently hiring). However, the handling fee makes no sense. that's a slap in the face. its a charge
lpersky

lpersky

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I Just Saved $400 !!!

This week I've been contemplating about buying an Ultimate SpiderMan #1 (red) CGC 9.8 for $399 off of ebay (item #110353686787)... but yesterday my other 10 comics I sent in with the 3 Col Soc Coupon showed up as "Scheduled for Grading" online... so I figured I'd wait to see the grades online for these before I spend the $400, since I sent in one of my copies of Ultimate SpiderMan #1 (red) to get graded... and... ITS A 9.8 !!!!! I'm so stoked !!! HIGHEST GRADED COPY !!! it was the only 9.8 o
lpersky

lpersky

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What the *&$% Have I been Doing?

ok, I admit, I haven't been on top of my CGC game lately... first, I let my premium membership expire (in October) and have yet to renew it... second, I haven't submitted any new submissions since my last batch in August... third, I haven't purchased any new slabbed books in over 2 months... and four, I can't even remember when the last time was that I contributed a journal to the society... I admit, I have been a bad example of a memember haha... but, not all was done in vain... in that tim
lpersky

lpersky

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Collecting/buying 9.8s...

So I was a little perplexed the other day... when I spotted several ASM #301's commanding $750+... and it got me thinking. What is it about this book that would make it command such a premium for a 9.8? I mean, nothing that significant happens in the story, so there's gotta be more to it, right? being the nerd I am, I started doing some quick research and here's what I found... of the 433 graded, only 30 are certified 9.8s (with none grading higher). Statistically, it has a 6.93% top tier
lpersky

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Finally Broke 10K

just a small pebble in the pool, but at least i'm now in the water haha... my collector's society coupon invoice today appeared as shipped which meant i can now add the books to my registry sets. this time around, i went with the expensive books and tried to maximize the coupon's value to the fullest (I made a rookie mistake 3 years ago, and did better last year with my choices, see past journals for more on what was submitted in years prior). this year, i used my coupon to submit another c
lpersky

lpersky

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Modern Fast Track

Is it really worth it? Recently I sent in two books under the Modern Fast Track teir hoping that the extra $8 per book would get my books graded and returned to me sooner. The published turnaround time on this level of service is 10 business days, excluding show Fridays. Well CGC, today is the 10th business day and my books still show as "Recieved" and there is no comic line data for my books... What's the hold up? I would at least expect to see some progression over the 10 business days l
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lpersky

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Anaheim Comic Con Day 1

I really didn't know what to expect... it is my first time as an exhibitor at Anaheim, let alone a major show such as this. Don't get me wrong, i've done shows before, but none this large or heavily promoted. So I didn't know what to expect. Were my goals going to be too ambitious? What if it's a bust? Or, what if I didn't bring enough stuff? As it would soon play out, most of my questions were about to be answered. We got to the venue around noon and it took us well past the doors ope
lpersky

lpersky

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My Collector's Society Coupon pt 2

so i've decided... the three lucky books were the Hulk 181 that i recently aquired, my copy of Batman 232, and the Amazing Spider-Man 40. i'm thinking they'll grade out as: Hulk 181 - 9.0 - ACTUAL CGC GRADE = 8.5 Batman 232 - 8.0 - ACTUAL CGC GRADE = 8.0 Amazing Spider-Man - 6.0 - ACTUAL CGC GRADE = 5.0 not really the highest grades of these books but i think they'll be solid additions to the collection until i can afford to purchase upgrades given i'm not a multi-millionaire (yet, he
lpersky

lpersky

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Anaheim Comic Con Day 2

Today I had a list of things to do... When I got to the show today, I knew there were a few things on my to do list. First and foremost, I had to get my booth set up before the show opened. This took considerably less time than the day before thankfully because I already knew how it was to be set up. It was mostly restocking the shelves and what not, time consuming, but not too difficult. Once I was done with that, it was on to my next agenda item, which was to pay a visit to Mr. Liefeld.
lpersky

lpersky

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Modern Fast Track pt2

UPDATE: my 2 books submitted on the fast track have been graded. FYI, I submitted two copies of Wolverine (vol 4) #1 Campbell "Deadpool" variant... one is a 9.6 and the other a 9.8... overall I guess the fast track isn't so bad after all if it takes 10-11 days for the grades... still beats the 20 day expectancy under normal situations... the consumer in me still would like to see guarantees in the future though as a reassurance for my money spent... now hopefully the US Government comes to
lpersky

lpersky

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I haven't slept in days

300,000 comic books can do that to you yes you read that right, 300,000... three hundred thou-sand!!! I'm sooo excited... this is by far the biggest largest purchase i've been a part of (went 50/50 on the deal). I'm going on tuesday to have the books loaded and shipped. Two trucks its gonna take. so excited i haven't been able to sleep since we learned that we had the winning bid. And from the looks of things, I don't think i'll be able to get any sleep any time soon after tuesday. Its
lpersky

lpersky

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Best Month for Submissions?

Since my books still are in a verified status... I got to thinking about when is the best month to submit books to CGC? I always tried to avoid May and June since those months are just before convention season. Also, convention season (July and August) don't seem to be ideal either. I once submitted 26 books in February and the turnaround time was really quick, well short of the published 20 days for modern submission (I think it was close to 15 day turnaround not including return shipping
lpersky

lpersky

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CGC Increasing Grading Fees

it was bound to happen... so effective May 1st, CGC is raising the cost on the grading fees.. no big surprise. what sucks is that they are also chopping 5 years off of the modern service, by now defining modern books as 1980 and newer... which makes grading books 1975-1979 a little more expensive. so... i guess i'll be flooding CGC with a bunch of stuff before the new fees take effect May 1st... get your stuff postmarked by April 30th and you should be good.
lpersky

lpersky

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My Collector's Society Coupon

I must admit that... one of the main reasons i paid the membership was to get the coupon for 3 free gradings... the first time i used my coupon (last year) i don't think i used it too effectively and made a rookie mistake by submitting a modern tier book in the batch of three... this time, i won't make that mistake again. this time i have a new dilemma though... i have been amassing bronze and silver books all year to use my coupon on but i don't think that they'll acheive the "super high gr
lpersky

lpersky

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Picture Friendly Grading Site

I couldn't help but wonder... if there is a "picture friendly" website or blogpost out there on the 'net that will give hobbyist a better understanding on how the accurately grade comics and some of the commonly used terms when grading comics. for example, it would be helpful to a newbie if they could visit a site a see visuals of different bindery tears, or the different degrees of foxing, page whiteness, etc... just reading about it in the different grading qualifiers doesn't allow a collec
lpersky

lpersky

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Earlier Deadpool Appearances

what am i missing? i'm trying to piece together a "master" collection of all of deadpool's early and hard to find appearances. so far i know of: new mutants 98 x-force 2 x-force 10 x-force 11 nomad 4 silver sable 23 secret defenders 15 secret defenders 16 secret defenders 17 wolverine 88 x-force 15 x-force 23 avengers 366 gambit 17 gambit 18 heroes for hire 10 heroes for hire 11 wolverine 154 wolverine 155 wolverine annual 97 black panther 23 am i m
lpersky

lpersky

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Xmas Came Early this Year Kids

received 3 of my 7 invoices back in the mail today yup, 3 invoices down and 4 more to go... 28 books in all (signature series and universal moderns)... lots of 9.8s, highest graded copies and OAKs... heres a small sample: Walking Dead 1 signed by Kirkman CGC SS 9.6 Walking Dead 19 signed by Kirkman (x2) CGC SS 9.8, CGC SS 9.8 Walking Dead 94 Image Expo MVP sketch variant signed by Kirkman CGC SS 9.8 Darkness 1 signed by Silvestri (x2) CGC SS 9.8, CGC SS 9.8 *these are the highest gra
lpersky

lpersky

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Anaheim Comic Con Wrap Up

It's finally over... and even though it was a lot of work, it was well worth it and I had a good time doing it. Day three started just like the day before, with restocking and set up. We had decided to try and "blow out" our dollar books by dropping the price to 50 cents. That move was greeted with welcoming buyers trying to stock up on last day deals and bargins. I noticed that other dealers were also doing last day sales as well, but more on that in a minute. Also since it was the las
lpersky

lpersky

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Covers/Variants/Comic Ages...

I just read a few journals about comic variants and a new "variant" age... thought I'd share my thoughts as well... I love comics, a complete nerd when it comes to them... but when it comes to variant issues or covers, that to me is strictly about the dollars. The "core"/story of the book is no different, so why would I even buy the issue if I simply wanted the satisfaction of reading the story. Also, the retailer incentive issues don't sell for cover price when released, which I find outrig
lpersky

lpersky

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My Latest (and biggest) Purchase

I have a small group of people... that keep a look out for deals for me since I can't be everywhere 24/7. so this past monday my pops came through big time, as we were able to secure roughly 4000-4500 comics from another dealer that does not deal in comics, for an 'undisclosed' amount... i barely have gone through the lot, but its awesome with tons of CGC 9.6/9.8 potential and a good variety... its mostly copper age thru current... of what i have seen so far, there's complete runs of Fanta
lpersky

lpersky

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First Batch Shows as Graded Online...

So the three I used with the coupon show as graded through the online invoice... and I'm a little dissapointed to say the truth. The three with the coupon were a ASM #122, ASM #129, and ASM #300. I'm completely happy with the ASM #300, its coming back a 9.4 WHITE PAGES(yay!), but the ASM #122 and #129 are coming back 6.0's OW/W Pages... Based on my experience reading the Overstreet guidelines and dealing with a number of other books (slabbed and unslabbed), I figured that the ASM #122 would
lpersky

lpersky

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CGC Grader Notes

why should I pay for this again? while I think that making the grader notes available is a good service to the consumer, as many of us are curious to why a book received a particular grade, I believe paying for the service is a little obsurd when I see the fees. First, as someone who pays the $109 membership fee every year, I think it should be FREE with paid memberships. Otherwise, where is the bang for my buck? Yeah I get four free submissions but what else? Shouldn't CGC be looking int
lpersky

lpersky

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Thanks for Ruining My Weekend USPS

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! i finally had one of my CGC invoices mailed out on 03/05/12 and received the confirmation email from CGC with the invoice's tracking number. i checked the package's status today on USPS.com and to my horror, the status shows as "Missent" and the description that the package was misrouted. WTF!!! this is not at all what i wanted! so where is it? on a plane to kilamazoo? did the train it was on derail, thus incenerating the books? did space aliens co
lpersky

lpersky

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MY response to David Swan and clouded9

from the suppliers point of view... I could care less what people collect on their own dollar. If people, for whatever reason, want to collect issues of Youngblood #1, it's my duty to supply it. If you wanted to collect rocks, then I would have a bag full waiting for you. The key is how much are you willing to spend. The reason why there are so many issues of Amazing Spider-Man #252 and #300 graded is because the people have decided that they are willing to spend real money on those issue
lpersky

lpersky

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