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Entries in this journal

Hulk 181

Hulk 181 Slab & Statue Combo

Two key “collecting milestones” for me were getting a hold of a copy of Hulk 181 (a 3.0 SS signed by Len Wein and Herb Trimpe), and later on, one of the Sideshow Collectibles diorama statues based on that iconic cover. Showed both here side by side with a graded 7.0 I’d acquired more recently, amidst a backdrop of 181 facsimiles and other slabs in my custom display cabinet/ drawer.
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Celebrity Signatures

Celebrity Signatures and Shots!

Haven’t posted a journal here in a loooong time, and have never attached a hyperlink to a journal post before (so not sure if this will work). Below is a link to a Custom Set I’ve been trying to update for the last several months.  Focus is on comic books signed by celebrities (actors/ actresses).  Another thing “unique” about it (I think!) is that I’ve also been trying to create photos to go with each slab showing the comic book along with a few of my other collectibles (statues, figures,
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Triskelion in Celebrity Signatures

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To Display or to Store - that is the Question!

Thank you Chris Faulkner I've always found storing and displaying comic book slabs very challenging. Always seems like a difficult trade-off, ie keep 'em stored away im boxes or frame and hang 'em, etc. When I saw Chris Faulkner's You Tube uploaded comic book glass drawer storage system, it suddenly dawned on me: "Yes, this is it, this is EXACTLY how I would like to both store & display my slabs." Had my buddy make this one for me, just recently completed. Display + storage rolled int
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Collecting Overseas

Painfully fun Been collecting slabs for the last 6 years or so and its been a pain (in the wallet!) being based overseas here in Asia. I'm sure those of you reading this from Singapore, Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand (all places which at one point in the past 10 years I've called 'home', and where I've had the pleasure of interacting with several fellow comic book fans) can relate to.       Fortunately I have a shipping address in California where I have my slabs purchased from US selle
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Dammit Jim I'm a comic book collector, not a hoarder!

Or am I? I really love spending time and reading through various journals, fantastic collections, awesome pictures & fascinating stories posted in this forum by you guys! And every now and then, I do get inspired to post and share my thoughts also. Here's my latest 'venting':       Being based and living in Southeast Asia, sustaining a comic book collecting & practically any other similar genre collectibles hobby can become annoyingly tricky. There's always the natural questio
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Controlling the craving

Beyond comics Every now and then I like taking a step back, evaluate priorities in life (including this hobby), and ask myself if I need stop what I'm doing, continue, or modify. Seems like I do this more often nowadays. I think its simply because I'm getting old. Hehe. Take comic books for instance. A little over 30 years ago, it was all about saving up to buy the next issue of my favorite series (back then, Avengers). Prior to this, it was about browsing through and reading (and unfo
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Reflections of a Die-Hard Collector

Reading, collecting, slabbing, & downloading It's been about 5 years since I started collecting slabbed CGC books, and almost 40 years since I began reading comic books. Over these years, I've amassed quite a large collection of books, slabs, TPB's/HC's, artwork, and figurines/statues. Now I'm having what will likely be my retirement home built. Quite large space I may say, and is being constructed with an eye towards preparing for an ideal environment for a collector (ie Low E windo
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Great SDCC 2011 Experience

Hectic weekend! Had a great time at this year's SDCC, despite having been able to attend only the Sunday last day events. Highlight for me was being able to bring my entire family along this time. Kids had a blast; my 12 year old son was able to get for himself a Simpsons convention edition TPB, with a personalized autograph and note from none other than Matt Groening (he's a big fan), and my other 10 year old son had a great time getting into the Back to the Future Delorean display (he also
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Completing, Upgrading & Expanding (aka CUE'ing)

A never-ending quest Seeing Amazing Saul's recent journal on upggrading inspired me write this up. Over the past several months, I've finally been able to complete my Turok Son of Stone set in the registry. Took several years to do this, and I'm sure many of you can relate to the feeling of fulfillment one gets when one is able to complete a favorite set. So what's next? On one hand I've been able to meet one of my primary collecting goals. On the other hand, there is that ever-present
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A peek into the future

What if? It's the year 2020. The live action "JLA/Avengers: Part III" is breaking all box-office records. Happy news for the now combined Walt Disney / Time-Warner Marvel - DC Comics conglomerate, as this follows the heels of its successful Marvel/DC Universe animated series. 'Walking Dead' is in its 10th season, still going strong. Now in HD3D interactive TV. Robert Kirkman is on the cover of Time magazine. Its the 3rd year anniversary of the successful merger between CGC and PGX, an
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Reflections

Comic book collecting in Asia - and why I can't wait for SDCC '11! Every time I log in and view recent journals from my esteemed fellow collectors (e.g. the recent posting of Doc Joe and others), I'm always inspired to jot down and share my thoughts (End of preamble) Over the last several years, I've been going around and living overseas, staying in places where as a child avidly reading and collecting Marvel and DC comic books in Manila I'd never dreamed of going. Right now I'm based in Si
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My Latest CGC Submission

Success...and waiting... I'd recently shipped 30 silver age Dell/Gold Key Turok Son of Stone books for CGC grading, and very happy to note that they're now in "Verified" status. Why the elation? 1. This was my first CGC submission for the year, with the last one being roughly a year ago. Part of my self-imposed 2010 new year's resolution to stop myself from overspending in the hobby (quite expensive as I ship from overseas), and set aside funds on a monthly basis to save up for a batch sub
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SDCC Registration

Crossing my fingers Is it just me, or are a lot of us irked at the unusual delay it is taking to open up general registration for SDCC '11? Being an overseas-based collector, until I attended the Con for the first time in 2009, SDCC had always been part of my bucket list for as long as I can remember. Extremely happy to have gone 2 years ago (and crossed this one out of my list, though that visit did ramp up my interest in CGC collecting, thereby creating new items in the list). Made a few
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No space!

How do we manage our growing CGC collections? Because of the nature of my work, over the last several of years my comic and CGC collecting activities have been constrained by an inability to have CGC's I purchase online delivered direct to my residence overseas (I have them shipped to my hometown address). So over the holidays, I went back home, eagerly anticipating opening, storing and registering CGC's I'd been processing and having graded over the last 12 months. Ended up sorting through
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Moving out and storing comics

Deciding on what to store, and what to keep Because of work, I'll be relocating in a couple of months' time, to another country. It's been my 3rd relocation, to different countries, in 6 years. One of the more difficult decisions I make, each time, is to determine which of my comic book collection to bring along with me, and which to leave back home. I have about 20+ short boxes of raw books and TPB's/hardcovers, and 150+ CGC slabbed, back home. In my current location, have managed to ac
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Quicker CGC Turnaround Time

Has CGC finally overcome their delays in the slabbing process? Can hardly believe it. I sent 2 batches of mixed silver/ copper/ modern books for slabbing (non-fast tracked Value tier), which CGC received March 22. Couple of weeks later, I'd sent a 3rd batch in, 30 books modern tier (also non- fast tracked), received April 7. As of today, all 3 batches, have now been marked as "Shipped/Safe", way ahead of the advertised 40 business day turnaround time, and way ahead of the previous 50-60
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My Top 10 Online Comic Book Sellers

Really cool online sellers Thought I'd share with all of you folks my own "personal favorites" list, of CGC sellers I had transacted with over the past few years (mostly in the last 12 months), since I got into this hobby. Covering nearly 400 slabs in all, different grades and various titles and ages which I'm chasing (Avengers, Avengers/Invaders, Turok Son of Stone, Infinite Crisis, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Locke & Key, etc). Really a random list, mixed bag of established brick and m
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Do CGC Registry Points indeed approximate actual Market Values?

Looking for the link between market prices, CGC Registry points, and personal value Since I started my personal collection of slabbed books, I'd been maintaining a detailed record of purchase price, dates acquired, sellers, cost and Registry Points. These would either be slabbed books I won bids for or purchase outright, or unslabbed issues I send over to CGC. This personal record really helps me keep track, as I'm not really a professional comic book dealer BUT I am interested in keeping t
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Life, Comics and Budgets

Where to spend money on? Ever since my elementary and high school years, I'd always envisioned a time, in the future, wherein I'd be able to raise a nice, happy family (1st priority) and get myself a job which will support my comic book and collectible hobby (2nd priority, yes!). Lo and behold, I have been ticking off these things in my "to do" list continuously. Have a happy wife (at least that what she tells me and two wonderful kids with whom I spend equal amounts of time working homewo
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Future Value

I wonder how much our CGC collections will be valued, 20 years from now and beyond The market has seen a reached a significant milestone recently, with the record setting private purchase of a CGC graded 8.0 Action Comics #1 issue for a cool $1 million To better appreciate the mainstream significance of this event: I am currently living in Bangkok Thailand, and the news of Metropolis Comics' sale of this issue in the US hit the front pages of the Bangkok Post! Upon reading that article, an
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Looking back at '09, moving on to '10 and beyond

What a blast! Well, 2009 sure went by quickly, in terms of my CGC collecting journey. While I've been reading and collecting over the last 30+ years, I'd just gotten into CGC a year or so ago, and ramped up collecting 2H of 2009 after I attended my first SDCC (and crossed it out of my bucket list!). Managed to breach the top 500 CGC Collector Society set mark a few days ago, thrilling stuff! Its has been challenging to do this from overseas (am based in Asia), as I find myself contending
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Finally...."Graded" status!

The long wait is over...kinda... Glad to see my 3 pending batch submissions, for silver/bronze age Turok Son of Stone comics, finally hitting "graded" status. 1st batch sent in early September, last batch mid October. Exceptionally pleased with how grade ratings for books I'd acquired over the years, through reputable dealers like Metropolis, neatstuffcollectibles and Mile High, turned out - definitely reliable sellers with obviously fair and objective unslabbed grading systems, from whom
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Comics and CGC Collecting Overseas

Painful, but worth it! Just read Tnerb's journal on CGC Collecting, inspired me to write this down (Thanks Tnerb!) Got into the hobby at an early age, reading through my dad's rather extensive hardbound and unbound Gold Key collection. Fascinated by the art, particularly the Turok, Tarzan, Korak, Lost In Space and Mighty Samson painted covers, to the point where I was tracing over them, reading over and over again and actually doodling on the pages/ cutting them up etc - regretting to this
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My First Submission

Worth the wait? Hmmmm. First time to actually send a batch of unslabbed comics to CGC for grading. Sent a batch of 7 books early September, followed by 2 30-item batches mid October. Now nearing end of November, still haven't gotten back my initial submission (which just moved to "Scheduled for Grading" a few days ago, while the other two are still in "Received/Verified" mode). Ugggh! Didn't realize it would take this long, though I've heard CGC's usually swamped at around this time. Never
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Lessons Learned in Packaging

Small box = big problem Received a note from CGC's Eric Dowtown last October 20, letting me know that my last submission received some damage during the course of being shipped to CGC. Turns out my packing had been too tight, with the box and support boards being too small/ too close to the size of the bagged/boarded books I'd sent (which hadnt been issues with my previous 2 submissions). Mental note: will place them in a large, fully padded plastic tupperware container next time. Heeheehe
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