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About this journal

I have not written a journal since before the format change. I had the two password issue. I wish things were not changed but I will attempt to use it.  I quoted Ultron in my title as I finally completed my Voyage to The Bottom of the Sea set. I have been searching for years for a high grade copy of Four Color 1230 which was the movie comic and first issue of the title.  Metropolis had a 7.0 raw about five years ago but it looked like a 6.0 at best and I didn't buy it.  A few months back a 6.0 CGC came up and I really wanted to get the big 100% so I bought it.

It is the best I can do . The search will continue  and someday I might find a better copy. A 7.5 White Mountain copy is the best CGC copy out there and has been for years. I did pick up a somewhat scarce Buck Rogers in The 25 TH Century #8 CGC 9.0 recently which was distributed in multi-packs only.  My best find from the Gem City Comic Con in April was a raw Thor 126 which I got for $150.00.( It graded 8.0 off-white to white} I found it in the first five minutes of the early buyer part of the show and thought I'm off to a great start but everything was downhill from there.  Upgraded my Journey into Mystery 121 with a 9.4 recently.  The recent Comiclink auction had many books I wanted but my Arizona vacation and prior comic buying did not allow me to bid on only a few of them. I did win the Space Family Robinson #9 Double cover I wanted though.  Still waiting on them to be added to my set. Still hoping my old journals will show up soon , not sure what the status is on those. I hope they aren't lost in space.

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Entries in this journal

What do you think qualifies as slow shipping?

I wanted to get your thoughts on what do you consider to be slow shipping when you buy a comic online?  I did a" Buy It now" from Metropolis on May 25 of a Turok 56. Nice 9.6 , good price but ultra slow shipping.  I got an email from them on June 6 saying they were about to ship. That's 12 days after purchase. They then sent an email on June 13 saying it shipped. Seven more days. It arrived June 16 finally.  Now to be fair it does state that they take 2 to 3 weeks to ship but I've never bought a

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UPDATE! LOST COMIC RELOST, FOUND AGAIN!

THIS TIME I'VE ACTUALLY RECEIVED IT! Back towards the end of last year I wrote about Heritage Auctions finding a comic I won that they lost after the auction. The auction was January of 2014. However after they emailed me about it no one ever returned a call or email to me after contacting them many times. A couple of weeks ago I was contacted again that they found the comic. This time it was different. They responded to all emails and sent it to me quickly. So from January of 2014 here it is,

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UPDATE, LOST COMIC FOUND!

Now the hard part- buying it again. Back on November 11th I wrote a journal about Heritage losing a comic I purchased back in January of 14. On December 1st I received an email from them saying they found it. They asked if I still wanted it. Since then I have left them three messages saying I am interested in buying it. The latest being earlier today. So far they have not returned my call or emailed me again on it. So the hard part may be getting them to return my call to purchase it. I'll

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Twilight Zone 84

Have not seen this many listed at one time in years. There are six Twilight Zone 84's on Ebay right now. People hold on to this book normally. Only one CGC though. One of the 15 I have in for submission currently is an 84. Just a heads up. Might not happen again for a while. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

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TNERB HAS A NEW NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR.

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD! I just added my latest edition to my set and checked my ranking and noticed that Tnerb and I are virtual neighbors. It's really nice here in the mid 400's. Kinda like Beverly Hills or Park Place. Probably won't be here long but I'll enjoy it while I can. To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

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THIS YEARS FINAL FOUR.

Pedigrees or keys? I received this years Collectors Society coupon and as always spent a few days mulling over which comics to send in. With me it always comes down to high grade, pedigrees or keys.   I have a number of ungraded pedigrees. Mostly Bostons and Northlands and some others. Some key books mostly Silver and Bronze Marvels and some file copies mostly Gold Keys.   After putting together about 50 four book combinations I came up with a small group to choose from. This goup had

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This Years Final Four Part 2

The Grades are in. This years coupon submission posted today. The invoice date was 8/18/14. Two exceeded expectations and two slightly under expectations. My Strange Tales 110 which I thought would come in at 2.0 ended up at 3.5! I know you don't ususally use an exclamation for a 3.5 but it shocked me.   The big winner was the Voyage to The Bottom of The Sea 16 which clobbered the 8.5 in my set coming in at a lofty 9.4 with white pages. The two Boston pedigrees were somewhat disappointin

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THIS IS WHAT I'M BUYING WITH MY WIZARD WORLD MONEY.

Not going this year. I am not going to Wizard World Ohio this year. For the past 3 years the comic haul from a once great show has been pitiful. I used to bring home an average of 30 awesome comics from this show when it was Mid Ohio Con. Last year I got one raw comic and the Walking Dead hand out. Most of the dealers have fled to greener pastures and the ones I've talked to said they are'nt coming back.   It's $40.00 just to go to the Friday night opening. That paid for the Swamp Thing 1

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THIRTY DAYS TO VERIFICATION.

Business days that is. Verification occurred on Friday September 5th for my Modern submission. I did count the day CGC received them. 7/25/14.   My coupon submission is currently at 14 business days. It was verified on day two, but is still in verified status. Thirty days actually is less than some of the posts I've read in the past few months. Maybe CGC is starting to catch up? To see old comments for this Journal entry, click here. New comments can be added below.

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The Taj Mahal of Comic Shops

Last October on the way back from a mini vacation in Kentucky I stopped in four Cincinnati area comic shops. I'd been in two of the four before. One of them Up, Up and Away Comics said they had opened a new shop in the suburb of Blue Ash . It was on the way home and just off the interstate so I pulled off and proceeded to a really nice plaza. I saw the sign and walked in the door. To my surprise it looked like I walked into an upscale store of some kind.  A young lady walked up to me and as

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The postman always rings twice and forges once?

I wanted to mention something and get your opinion on it. Recently I purchased a CGC Fantastic Four 2 from a trusted seller. I thought I would get this book while I could still afford to buy it. It's a nice looking 3.5 off white to white paged copy.  I asked the seller to send FedEx with adult signature confirmation. Basically an adult 21 and over has to sign for it.  The seller did as I asked and I expected myself or my wife to be home to sign for it. The day it was due my wife had to leav

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THE LATEST ADDITION TO THE COLLECTION.

It's not a 9.6 but I'll take 9.4 all day. Just arrived today fresh from New York City. Thor 144 9.4 Twin Cities Pedigree. I've always dug this cover from the King and have been looking for a 9.6 copy for a while but the price has'nt been right. I found this Twin Cities 9.4 on Metropolis and the price was right. They had it on Ebay and their website. It was $34.00 more on Ebay with free shipping. I paid $14 for shipping on their site so it was still $20 bucks cheaper. Also today my Value su

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THE BIG ONE THAT GOT AWAY.

A YEAR OF WAITING BUT... In response to Surfer99's journal request I decided to write two in one night. Not long ago I wrote about finding a HULK 181 in a second hand store. However the find of my life escaped me. This is that story. Way back in April 1978 I quit Mcdonalds ( a good move) and started working at a Pest Control company. Hey, I increased my pay to 3 dollars an hour then. I worked on a two man termite crew. A few weeks after I started we went to do a job on a nice home in a nic

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Some Recent Additions To The Collection and 2016 goals.

A personal goal was hit. I have been busy lately trying to strengthen my collection. My first goal this past year was trying to get the top spot back on my Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery set. I set a goal of December 31st of 2015 to do that and did make it but only by days. It may not stay that way but I am working to complete this set by the end of 2017. I've worked more hours this year than I have in any year of my life so I have had more funds for comics. I also hit the 50,000 point

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Some Recent Additions To The Collection

Four are Worldwide Comics-How'd they do on Grading? I received two submissions back recently. The first lot was comics that I've put off having graded for various reasons. Such as a Hulk 181. Reason, Marvel Value stamp cut out. Avengers 57 reason, lower grade. Tales of Suspense 65 reason, had other books graded. Boris Karloff 51 reason, thought it would grade lower than what I bought it at. The second lot was all Don Rosa collection copies. Three more Boris Karloff, I'll start with all fou

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Recent returns and grading differences

Two weeks ago my latest submission arrived. Four books bought raw from two large dealers. One was from Lone Star Comics. It is a Boris Karloff Tales of Mystery 11 John G. Fantucchio pedigree. It was listed as such but came with no documentation that it was from that collection. I called Lone Star and asked for documentation. They said it did not have any because they bought a large number of mid to upper mid grades of that collection and those do not have any documentation like the high grade co

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Rockblazer in General

Recent grades, recent pickups and the "other " other guys.

I popped out a book from the "other " other guys to see if I was right. Thanks for the idea Tnerb. I recently renewed my membership and wanted to use my $150 credit. I always struggle to pick which books will make the cut. This year I decided to make a grading comparison. The owner of my favorite comic shop always makes it a point to let me know his grading is stricter than CGC's every single time I go there. Now in the past I have found he's normally 1/2 a grade above the CGC grade 90% of

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Recent additions and some random thoughts.

Recent auctions- when to hang it up and a pet peeve of mine. I was browsing the various sellers and auction sites Monday night July 25th and checked out Comiclink's focused auction which was starting to close over the next few days. I noticed that the number one Registry set of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea was up on the block for Wednesday night. I've had the number two set for a number of years now. This set has a number of Gary Dalberg's Twin Cities copies in it. Most are 9.8's with w

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Oops they did it again!

I am sure this has happened to most collectors out there. You win an auction or make a purchase of an awesome comic at a great price and the seller refunds your money the next day. I had this happen twice in the past few weeks. Once on Ebay and the other on a dealers website.  The first one was on Ebay and it was an auction for an Avengers 24 CGC 9.6 signed by Stan the Man himself. I won the auction with some stiff competition at the end. I could not wait to get this comic but the following day

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My 15 Issues Back From CGC At Last.

82 WORKING DAYS. Well my value submission made it back. They were a little behind their posted 75 days. Most of the comics 10 of 15 were high grade issues from Metropolis Comics. I purchased 8 of them as 9.6 and two were 9.4. The actual grades are as follows. Boris Karloff issues: 36- 9.2 42- 9.2 45- 9.2 46- 9.6 47- 8.0 49- 9.2 50- 9.6 53- 9.4 Twilight Zone: 44- 8.5 Ripley's Believe it or Not: 44- 9.2 The 8.0 and 8.5 were the 9.4's. A Twilight Zone 29 graded 9.0

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Marvel Multi-Pack set scoring.

I recently added a Thor 274 Multi-pack edition to my set. It's a nice 9.4 Universal. I noticed that I received 18 points for adding it. However, if it was just a Univeral copy I would have received 20 points for adding it. I looked at the different scores for issue 274, Universal and Multipack Universal. Some same grades had the identical point scores, but some did not.  It was really haphazard.  Does anyone know why some grades would get the same point total and others different for the same gr

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Rockblazer in Comic books

Making a List and Checking it Twice

Well tomorrow (3/24-3/25) in Dayton Ohio is the 2018 Gem City Comic Con. It's not a big show but it has grown over the years. It is a true Con not a celebrity sign fest where you can actually buy comic books! I am making my list for tomorrow and plan on being there by 8 am and will spent the extra 5 bucks to get in an hour early at 9.  Last year my best buy was in the first five minutes of the early entry hour. So if you are within a few hours of Dayton I would suggest stopping by if you can.  I

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LATEST ADDITIONS TO THE COLLECTION.

More 9.4's. I got a much needed day off today and the mail lady bought another new additon to the collection. Swamp Thing 3. ( Swamp Thing 2 came yesterday ) Both are 9.4's. I'm trying to complete the set within the 9.4 to 9.8 range. I've always loved the original run. I remember being shocked when the series stopped at only 24 issues. I also called CGC today to check on my current submission. It was graded on 2/9/15 and has been like that since. The man on the phone said they are running b

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It's good to get out. Real good.

Sunday I was able to attend Buckeye Comic Con in Columbus, Ohio. The one in November was cancelled per Governor's order. I noticed that there was a lot more early attendees than normal. They were afraid of having to wait as they were only letting in a fixed number of people at any one time. I got there very early and managed to be fifth in line and got one of 25 Ironman "Believe " hardcover books they gave away. Got some of the items on my list. Such as mid high grade copies of Thor 129 and 168.

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Rockblazer in General

I am Titanium and some new pickups

I am just getting back full force to collecting since my new neck parts were added back in September. Basically my spinal cord was being crushed in my neck either from old injuries or old age.  I had to have spinal fusion surgery on four vertebrae . I have two titanium rods and eight screws holding my neck together. Much less titanium than the Titanium man though. Normally they would use spacers but my body tried to fix the problem itself by growing new bone thus the rods. I was told I was very

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